Should I Eat Halal Meat?

00:00:00.000 | It's always great to hear from our international listeners and we have a follow-up to the recent

00:00:07.000 | Burger King episode and it comes from Grant who lives and ministers in North Africa. He

00:00:12.640 | asks, "Pastor John, I'm a Christian worker in a Muslim country and a few nights ago I

00:00:17.200 | was catching up on APJ episodes while cooking my dinner. I found myself affirming everything

00:00:21.720 | you said in episode 394 on Burger King until I looked into my frying pan with horror. All

00:00:27.800 | the meat here is halal, prepared according to Muslim law, whether purchased at a grocery

00:00:32.520 | store, from a butcher, or eaten in a local home. All available meat is slaughtered by

00:00:37.220 | praying Allah's name while the animals face towards Mecca. Often there is even a stamp

00:00:42.380 | on the food verifying it as halal. I have pondered over this and am baffled, knowing

00:00:47.300 | that both the Muslim Allah is a misconception of God and that sharing meals with locals

00:00:51.800 | is a key part of missionary work. What might be a wise course of action both here in a

00:00:56.800 | Muslim context and in the homes of Muslim friends stateside?"

00:01:03.800 | "To my knowledge, the halal preparation of meat by Muslims only makes it permissible

00:01:17.060 | to eat. It doesn't make the eating of it an act of worship. Haram means meat is forbidden,

00:01:30.040 | work is forbidden, but halal simply means this has been duly and properly slaughtered

00:01:38.720 | and the blood has been handled correctly and it is permissible to eat. When we apply the

00:01:44.760 | Bible's teaching about meat offered to idols, it seems to me there are two ways that the

00:01:51.480 | Christian is free to eat halal meat. I better defer to others who know the situation better

00:01:59.240 | than I do, but let me give my sense of how this is permitted. So first, here's the

00:02:07.440 | key passage. Let me just read through it and make some comments as we go. So this is 1

00:02:10.840 | Corinthians 10, 18-28. "Consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices

00:02:17.960 | participants in the altar?" So here's a real sacrifice, a real sacrificial ceremony,

00:02:24.720 | including priests and offerers who bring the sacrifice. They eat together. This is real

00:02:30.480 | worship being described here. Verse 19, "What do I imply then? That food offered to idols

00:02:36.920 | is anything or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer

00:02:44.200 | to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot

00:02:51.160 | drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and

00:02:56.280 | the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"

00:03:01.600 | So up till now, it seems to me, he's saying there is a situation when eating what pagan

00:03:09.840 | sacrifice would be participating with demons, sharing the table of demons, sharing the drink

00:03:16.560 | of demons. And now the question is, what situation is that? And how can we avoid it? Verse 23,

00:03:23.160 | "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not

00:03:27.360 | all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." So there's

00:03:32.800 | the principle. Now here's the specific case. He says, verse 25, "Eat whatever is sold in

00:03:39.240 | the market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is

00:03:45.680 | the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and

00:03:51.320 | you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on

00:03:59.200 | the ground of conscience." So this is my comment now. Our default position is that all things

00:04:08.040 | are lawful for us to eat, and even if they were offered in sacrifice to demons, we may

00:04:14.520 | eat since neither they, our hosts, nor we are turning this supper into a participation

00:04:24.080 | in the worship. It's not the meat that defiles, it's the heart intention to affirm and idol.

00:04:31.240 | Then verse 28, "But if someone says to you, 'This has been offered in sacrifice,' then

00:04:39.000 | do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience."

00:04:46.080 | In other words, if your guest turns the supper that you're now going to share with him into

00:04:52.760 | a worship service, expecting you to participate in the meaning that he is now attaching to

00:05:01.240 | the meat that was offered, then you politely decline. So it seems to me that there are

00:05:07.960 | two reasons that halal preparation does not rule out halal meat for Christians to eat.

00:05:18.760 | Number one, the slaughter does not seem to be a formal worship event which turns the

00:05:25.320 | eating of the meat into a participation in worship. Now if I'm wrong about that, then

00:05:32.160 | those who know better would apply the principle appropriately, but that's what it seems to

00:05:36.280 | me. It's more of a ritual obedience to the letter of the law that makes the meats permissible,

00:05:44.400 | slaughtered in a certain way. So the slaughter is not making the eating of the meat into

00:05:49.920 | an act of worship. It keeps it from being a sin as far as a Muslim is concerned. So

00:05:56.280 | joining with a Muslim in eating halal foods is not joining in an act of worship to Allah.

00:06:01.440 | Here's the second reason for being free to eat halal foods, is that even if they were

00:06:11.360 | offered in an act of worship to Allah, this would only be a hindrance to Christians eating

00:06:20.040 | it if the Muslim hosts at the supper said, made clear, that the sharing in this food

00:06:28.440 | is a sharing in the worship of Allah. And I think that is wrong, joining a Muslim in

00:06:35.220 | worshipping Allah, because what a Muslim means by Allah and what a Muslim does in worship

00:06:42.080 | is radically different from what a Christian does in approaching God through Jesus Christ.

00:06:49.600 | So my counsel to Grant is, you're free. You're free to eat halal foods at home and you're

00:06:56.240 | free to have Muslims over and serve it and you're free to go to their house and eat it,

00:07:02.480 | because I think Paul has addressed a situation incredibly similar to yours and solved it

00:07:08.760 | that way.

00:07:09.760 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you, Grant, for the question. It's always great to hear

00:07:13.960 | the concerns of our international listeners, and you can send your questions to us via

00:07:17.280 | email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. This episode was built off an earlier episode on

00:07:23.040 | Burger King, that was podcast episode number 394, and you can find that episode and about

00:07:28.240 | 450 others in the free Ask Pastor John podcast app for your iPhone or Android. Look for it

00:07:33.520 | in the App Store. Well, tomorrow we hear from another podcast listener who is in a dating

00:07:38.160 | relationship and who is asking, "Why do Christians save sex for marriage?" I'm your host Tony

00:07:44.000 | Rehnke, we'll see you tomorrow.

00:07:44.840 | [End of Audio]

00:07:45.360 | Page PAGE of NUMPAGES www.verbalink.com Page PAGE of NUMPAGES

00:07:46.360 | www.verbalink.com Page PAGE of NUMPAGES

00:07:47.360 | www.verbalink.com Page PAGE of NUMPAGES

00:07:48.360 | www.verbalink.com Page PAGE of NUMPAGES

00:07:49.360 | www.verbalink.com Page PAGE of NUMPAGES

00:07:50.360 | www.verbalink.com Page PAGE of NUMPAGES

00:07:50.360 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Should I Eat Halal Meat?

Chapters