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Particulars of Christianity:
305 Liberty in Christ


Liberty and Meat Sacrificed to Idols

Liberty in Christ: Extended Introduction
Liberty in Christ: Introduction
Definitions and New Testament Survey
Synonyms for Liberty in Christ
Liberty and Death
Liberty, the Law, and the 10 Commandments
Origin of the Law of Liberty
Liberty and Yet Prohibition
Incorporating Pagan Practices in the Old Testament
"Christianizing" Pagan Practices
What is Observing Times?
Liberty, Bondage, and Righteousness
Liberty and Meat Sacrificed to Idols
Liberty and 1 Corinthians 8
Liberty, 1 Corinthians 10, and Idolatry
Liberty, 1 Corinthians 10, and Your Neighbor
Summary and Practical Applications
Addendum: Romans 14, the Conscience, and Morality



We will now move on to an examination of 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 with regard to Paul's mention of liberty in the context of the issue of meat sacrificed to idols.

As we get into the text of 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, we should first do some review.

Number 1, we know that AFTER having heard Jesus declare all foods clean in Matthew 15:11,17-20 and Mark 7:15-20 and AFTER Jesus three times told Peter in a vision about food, "What God has cleansed, do NOT call unclean," in Acts 15:5-6,19-20,23,29 and 21:25 the apostles including Peter ruled that Christians could NOT eat meat sacrificed to idols. So, we know at least for the duration of Acts that the eating of meat sacrificed to idols was prohibited by the apostles.

Number 2, in Revelation 2, Jesus himself condemns the churches at Smyrna and Thyatira for tolerating teachers who taught Christians to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

Revelation 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Just as in Acts 15 and 21, we see eating meat sacrificed to idols listed side by side with fornication. These quotes from Jesus in Revelation 2 would seem to indicate that the ban placed on eating meat sacrificed to idols in Acts 15 and 21 was still in effect when Revelation was written in the mid-90's AD.

Number 3, we know that as late as 202 AD, eating meat sacrificed to idols was considered sinful by Irenaeus, an orthodox early Christian writer who lived more than a century before the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, and who had himself been trained by Polycarp who was a disciples of the Apostle John. Irenaeus lived from 120-202 AD. Here are some excerpts from Irenaeus' famous work Against Heresies.

AGAINST HERESIES
BOOK I
CHAP. VI.--THE THREEFOLD KIND OF MAN FEIGNED BY THESE HERETICS: GOOD WORKS NEEDLESS FOR THEM, THOUGH NECESSARY TO OTHERS: THEIR ABANDONED MORALS.
3. Wherefore also it comes to pass, that the "most perfect" among them addict themselves without fear to all those kinds of forbidden deeds of which the Scriptures assure us that "they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."(5) For instance, they make no scruple about eating meats offered in sacrifice to idols, imagining that they can in this way contract no defilement. Then, again, at every heathen festival celebrated in honour of the idols, these men are the first to assemble.

CHAP. XXIV. -- DOCTRINES OF SATURNINUS AND BASILIDES.
5. Salvation belongs to the soul alone, for the body is by nature subject to corruption. He declares, too, that the prophecies were derived from those powers who were the makers of the world, but the law was specially given by their chief, who led the people out of the land of Egypt. He attaches no importance to [the question regarding] meats offered in sacrifice to idols, thinks them of no consequence, and makes use of them without any hesitation; he holds also the use of other things, and the practice of every kind of lust, a matter of perfect indifference.

CHAP. XXVIII.--DOCTRINES OF TATIAN, THE ENCRATITES, AND OTHERS.
2. Others, again, following upon Basilides and Carpocrates, have introduced promiscuous intercourse and a plurality of wives, and are indifferent about eating meats sacrificed to idols, maintaining that God does not greatly regard such matters. But why continue? For it is an impracticable attempt to mention all those who, in one way or another, have fallen away from the truth.

BOOK II
CHAP. XIV.-- VALENTINUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS DERIVED THE PRINCIPLES OF THEIR SYSTEM FROM THE HEATHEN; THE NAMES ONLY ARE CHANGED.
5. Again, their opinion as to the indifference of [eating of] meats and other actions, and as to their thinking that, from the nobility of their nature, they can in no degree at all contract pollution, whatever they eat or perform, they have derived it from the Cynics, since they do in fact belong to the same society as do these [philosophers]. They also strive to transfer to [the treatment of matters of] faith that hairsplitting and subtle mode of handling questions which is, in fact, a copying of Aristotle.

It clear that Irenaeus believed the ban placed on eating meat sacrificed to idols in Acts 15 and 21 was still in effect in his day.

So, given that Peter, James, the other apostles who went along with the Acts 15 ruling, and Irenaeus (the disciple of John's disciple Polycarp) all upheld the ban on eating meat sacrificed to idols and the fact that Jesus himself twice condemned those who taught Christians to eat meat sacrificed to idols (Revelation 2:14,20), is it likely that in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, Paul himself advocated that we have a "liberty" to eat meat sacrificed to idols?

The obvious answer is "no." We believe this gives us quite a mandate to start out our examination of 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 with the presumption that Paul did NOT teach eating meat sacrificed to idols was "a liberty" in Christ. Nevertheless, we will proceed with our step-by-step analysis of 1 Corinthians 8 and 10.