**** THE GARDEN OF EDEN ****
It should be clear that the "tree of life" that Eve ate of was an animal, not an apple (please note that this stunned Me as well, and I am still not a vegetarian but nevertheless, this is the translation).
The Book of Genesis defines the word "life" or "living" as moving animals and man; not as plants, fruits and vegetables, which is defined as an herb and tree that "yields" (which means: to give away) seeds and fruits [Gen 1:11,12]:
[Gen 1:20] "Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, ...'"
[Gen 1:21] "So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that 'moves,' ..."
[Gen 1:24] "Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature ...'"
[Gen 1:28] "... have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that 'moves' on the earth"
[Gen 2:7] "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
[Gen 2:19] "... every beast of the field and every bird of the air, ... each living creature, ..."
And some parts are more direct:
[Gen 1:29] "And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food'"
[Gen 1:30] "Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food'; and it was so."
The definition of the word "tree": [Gen 2:9] "And out of the ground the Lord made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." A "tree" is a basis for a variety of foods. At this point in the Bible, a "tree" is a basis for a variety of foods, which is used to communicate anything that gives off nourishment, instead of having to include all the modern day definitions of all the sources of food. Therefore, a "tree" was defined as anything that gives off nourishment, which includes vegetables and animals.—[Mark 8:23-25]: ".... And he (a blind man beginning to see) looked up and said, 'I see men like trees, walking (moving!).' Then He put His hands on his eyes again and make him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly."—Jesus "paused" this metaphoric "miracle" to make a point. [Gen 3:2,3] "...'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is ...'"—Where's the vegetables, etc.?
The tree of "the knowledge of good and evil" is that animals and humans are not "naturally" aware that animals can bring forth nourishment until we actually see an animal being killed and then we eat of it. Then we know what God knows—that animals can be eaten. If you have never hunted, when you look at an animal, your subconscious does not think "food." If you have actually hunted down an animal, killed it, slaughtered it, and ate of it; from then on, when you look at an animal your subconscious thinks "food." And the selfishly caused pain, sorrow, and end of life for an animal is not good, it is evil:
[Gen 2:9] "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
[Gen 2:16,17] "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'"
[Gen 3:5-7] "'For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, ..."
[Gen 3:22] "Then the Lord God said, 'behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever'"
After Adam and Eve ate the animal immediately both of them knew that they where also food ("naked"). So they covered themselves so to not look so appetizing to others. To more easily see this, adjust the translation of the double meaning "naked" to "food."
[Gen 2:25] "And they were both naked [food], the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
[Gen 3:7] "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked [food]; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings."
[Gen 3:8] "... Adam and his wife hid themselves ..." [Gen 3:10] "'... I was afraid because I was naked [food] ; and I hid myself.'"
[Gen 3:11] "... 'who told you that you were naked [food]? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?'"
In reference to [Gen 2:17] "... you shall surely die," means that people will never become immortal and free from disease, if we keep eating animals. Why our living physical bodies die is simply because all living cells is an intelligence of God that takes (eats) from the earth's natural resources. Then, in animals, separates it and purges the rest. Separating of the good from the bad is not quit perfected and therefore eventually enough of the bad will kill us of old age. Animals were designed to purge less of the bad stuff by eating fruits and vegetables only. There is a lot less "bad" stuff for animals in the fruits and vegetables. When we eat animal meat, we get a lot of the same "bad" stuff that our bodies are trying to rid themselves of, to progress (evolve) to a much longer life with less disease (less cells dying from the same bad stuff). Therefore, people that consume meat and people who have recent ancestors that consumed meat, will all keep dying younger. We are literally poisoning our evolutionary progression of staying alive longer and longer when we eat meat—and we pass our bodies poisons on to our kids. It would take many generations of vegetarians to progress to a longer life and maybe eventually to immortality if we all could help God out by not eating so much poison—meat. God's evolutionary programming of the DNA is being fought against by peoples' selfish desire to eat other animals. It would be nice to say that if "right now" you became a vegetarian, that you would never die, but that would not be true. But, if you and all your kids', kids', kids'... were all vegetarians, then eventually they would slowly evolve to live longer, longer, longer,... because everything moves "slow" (from our short lived point of view) in the evolution enhanced by God and humans.
It is documented that early Christians would cause so much disruption to the businesses that sold meat and animals that it caused large economic problems in certain communities. Another reason for the Roman persecutions of the Christians. [ref. The Octavius of Minucius Felix, circa 230 A.D.].
[Acts 10:10-15] This can be explained as the Devil (not Jesus) trying to trick a "hungry" Peter to "kill and eat" meat, which Peter says he never eats animals, because it is "unclean." Thinking that this vision was Jesus, Peter reminded Jesus that He firmly taught him to not eat meat ("Not so, Lord!") [Acts 10:14; 11:8]. Then the Devil tries to say that Jesus got approval from God [Acts 10:15; 11:9]; but Peter remains very confused and doubtful [Acts 10:17]; even after "three" attempts [Acts 10:16; 11:10]. This story is mixed with the words "common" and "unclean," which relates to the righteous teachings of Jesus' unbiased associations with the Gentiles.—So beware, the Devil will say many established righteous things to better sneak in his trick(s).
[1 Cor 8] Paul argues against eating meat, as "weak" minded people are "encouraged" into eating meat, by thinking that they are eating meat to praise God, but are really just eating it as a deceitful (trick) offering to/for a false idol; which causes a "sin against Christ" [8:12]; not so much because false idols are not God, but because Christ did not want anybody to eat meat! Paul expresses his true obedience to Christ: "Therefore, if food (meat only) makes my brother stumble (against Christ), I will never again eat (any) meat (from any source), lest I make my brother stumble [8:13]."—the word "food" in NKJ was "meat" in the "original" King James Bible.—Also, [8:8]: But food (meat only) does not commend us to God; ...." [Seeing these obvious differences, on these "most important" issues, proves that the Antichrist is still trying to change these meanings to lean things toward his/her "selfish" ways.] [I still use the NKJ, though, because it is a lot easier for Me to read; and it is "usually" correct.] Why do these people encourage others to eat meat?—It's like how the tobacco companies purposely put more nicotine in their cigarettes to make cigarettes more addictive.
[Rom 14:21] "It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles (against Christ)...."
If you believe that God would approve of you eating animals, then that means that God would approve of an animal (Lion, Tiger, etc.) eating you.
Please note that other/later writings contradict vegetarianism, as there is contradicting writings for just about everything; nevertheless, according to God, the original sin of eating animals is by far the worst sin of all—even worse than war. It has something to do with God and the Spirit World can only exist in truth, and cannot deny (or shut out) the pain and suffering of any animal (like the living can)—regardless if it is for the livings' profit, revenge or over-correction. God and the Spirit World (the former living animals and humans) is constantly burdened with animals' screams, cries and blame to God. It is not "wonderful." The living should take heed to this sin, because their spirits will become part of the "Light-of-Truth" after death, and not be able to deny it (or shut it out) either. God and the Spirit World have the truthful knowledge of the entire universe, and marvels in its "wonder," as well as suffers in its unnecessary selfish destruction. [Heavy stuff].
Technically, in the eyes of God, animals are our "brethren" also. I tell you that in the future, all people will be sickened of the thought of the earlier humans (you and Me) eating animal flesh; just as you might now be sickened about the thought of eating a dog, a spider, a snake, etc. How would everybody like it if space invaders came to earth, nullified our weapons, then sliced our throats, dropped us alive in boiling water, laid us on fires, etc. so to eat us and to make sacrifices to their false Gods? Would we consider this as a sin; or would we be an extreme republican and say that "survival/pleasures of the fittest" is just"?
Since God's development of manipulating matter (in nucleic acid [C5H4N4,C4H4N2,C1H2O1,& H3PO4]) to follow the placement and arrangement of (and the "evolutionary" testing of) "points" (position of nucleotides on the DNA, for example), to create "genetic information" or "DNA codes" (that allows and changes the cells—plant and animal life), God and the Devil both are fighting for control of each species, via the modifications of the DNA codes, through evolution. Sometimes God comes out ahead—the flowers, mushrooms, etc.; and the herbivorous.—And, sometimes the Devil comes out ahead—the sticker bush, toadstools, etc.; and the carnivorous (including the omnivorous). God's success brings more "wonder" to everything and everybody, as a whole; and the Devil brings "wonder" only for the "individual" (the selfishness of each species and the individual within that species). And the Devil has very successfully taken over control (over 50%) of the most advanced animal—the human. And the Devil knows that as long as we humans desire "wonder" just for our "individual" selfishness (over 50% of the time), then the Devil will maintain prominent control. The only way that we, as an individual, can "beat" the Devil, is to somehow "block out" our individual selfish desires—even if just for a short moment; so to "hear" and understand the true God, in the Bible.—Our modern day Bible definitely has mixed messages that are "tricks" of the Devil's earthly controller—Satan (mostly for the benefit of the rich and powerful; so that the Bible would be an accepted "compromise" for everybody, so it could be allowed to be released, with nobody getting their head cut off [for trying to translate the original Scriptures {like during The Renaissance}]).
Points, lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, atoms, molecules, gravity, galaxies, stars, planets, moons, plants, and some animals are all "working together" for God. So why can't all humans "work together" for God, instead of "working against each other" so much? Humans were also created to eventually correct all the animals into "working together."
Signs in the Old Testament tell Me that God, once, attempted to direct a prophet to have the humans destroy (to make extinct) all the carnivorous (meat eating) animals; so to rid the world of all this evil. But, I tell you that the time is near, where human technology will be able to just change all the carnivores into vegetarians.—This will be the most monumental task ever; because fear in the wild, will be eliminated; that will open up a lot of Godly "cans of worms."
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