The Ultimate Litmus Test for Any Bible Verse. Dr. Chapman Chen

Every translation is an interpretation, per the German philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer (Gadamer 1960). And no original copies of the Bible exist. The prime directive for telling whether a Bible verse reflects divine inspiration or human distortion is to measure it against the two commandments Jesus gave to us: ‘Love the Lord your God … and love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22:37–40), per US animal rights advocate and autodidactic theologian Norm Phelps’s The Dominion of Love (Phelps 2002, 35-37). As God has everything and does not need anything from us, the only way we can practically love God is to love His creation. By reason of their proximity to us, animals are our neighbours. By reason of the commonality of possessing a living soul (nephesh chayah) (Gen. 1:21, 24, 30), animals are our siblings to be loved by us (cf. Farians 2009).   

Likewise, I think that the ultimate litmus test for any biblical passage that seemingly condones animal flesh eating or animal abuse is whether it aligns with the core of the Christian faith, namely, “God is love” (1 John 4:8 NIV); God loves the world (John 3:16), including ALL His creation (Ps. 145:9); and Christ embodies compassion (Matt. 9:13, 12:7). Any Bible verse that goes against these precepts must be a product of “the lying pen of the scribes” (Jer. 8:8) and priests, who nullify the word of God by the tradition they have handed down (Mark 7:13). Salient examples include: God gave Noah and his offspring permission to eat animals (Gen. 9:3); Jesus ate fish after resurrection (Luke 24:42–43; John 21:9–13); God commands Peter to kill and eat a sheet of animals (Acts 10:13), etc. #VeganChrist #VeganGod #VeganTheology #VeganChurch

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