DISCERNING BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN, HOLY AND PROFANE, SOUL AND SPIRIT, and GOOD AND EVIL (TRUTH AND LIES)
Jews and a few Christians make a big deal out of obeying dietary laws. They believe that, by obeying the literal commandments in the Bible about clean and unclean food, they achieve a measure of righteousness. This practice is an excellent example of righteousness gained by works of the flesh (i.e. something done with the physical body), and ignores what God has said about all natural foods being clean.

Religious people who subscribe to these practices do not understand that, spiritually speaking, truly clean food only comes directly from the mouth of God. Their only message is that people should stop listening to false prophets and return to listening to God for themselves.

Religious people do not understand that unclean food comes from human mediators (i.e. religious leaders/false prophets) who presume to speak on God’s behalf and who are accepted as authorities about God and spiritual matters. They do not understand any of the Biblical symbolism regarding clean and unclean food. All they know is food in its literal sense which they wrongly apply to their interpretations of the Bible.

When applying literal interpretations of food to Bible study, religious people fail to understand that all of God’s biblical warnings about clean and unclean food are his way of teaching his people to listen to and obey his spoken voice only, and  not to listen to the teachings of false prophets. This is the essence of discerning between good and evil, holy and profane, and the clean and unclean animals and things which are defined as follows:

Following these definitions, we can say that food created by religion for consumption by religious people is unclean, evil and profane. Such food is Religion for the following  reasons:

In God’s view, religious works are like food in the sense that they make  people feel good and satisfied. Religion has a way of making people feel as though they are alive, but but they are really spiritually dead because it is only their fleshly, soulish senses that are activated through religious activity.

One reason that religion continues to thrive is that people do not understand the difference between soul and spirit. In fact, religious teaching tends to use the two terms interchangeably even though the Bible clearly says that they are different. Here is the essence of those differences:

Readers who may not be satisfied with this simple summary of the differences between soul and spirit may choose to investigate the original Hebrew and Greek languages definitions of these very important words:

Most readers who bother to check out these definitions will find that the differences are very subtle and confusing.  Nevertheless, the following conclusions can be made:

The real issue is this: What nurtures the life? Does the voice of God produce an inner, invisible life, or does religion produce an outward, visible life of religious activity?

The questions that must be considered are these:

These questions are important for the following reasons:

If soul and spirit were the same, there would be no need for the word of God to differentiate between them. But, since God differentiates between soul and spirit, people who imagine themselves to be Godly should do the same. God teaches us how to know the difference in scriptures about clean and unclean things where we learn the following:

New Covenant disciples do not make religion out of scriptures about clean and unclean foods or about unclean people because they know how to interpret the Bible symbolically. Furthermore, they teach others how to interpret and apply the symbolism in their own lives so they also will not use the literal Bible to create religion. This contrasts with Old/First Covenant religionists who fail to make any distinctions between clean and unclean food or people and do not teach others to know the difference. Instead they interpret scriptures about clean and unclean things literally and create religious rules, doctrines and traditions out of those interpretations.

God warns about adopting religious rules, doctrines and traditions in many ways. Prohibitions against personal pleasures, sensuality and lust are among those warnings. These prohibitions are commonly interpreted to include sex, greed and various kinds of immorality which religious people include in their religious laws. But God uses these terms symbolically to describe the fleshly excitement of mind and emotions that repetitive religious activities, both private and communal, arouse when religious people gather for what they call worship. It is worship only in their eyes. In God’s eyes is flesh in motion.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of how God uses the imagery of sex to represent spiritual intimacy.

See the following links for more about the psychology of religion:

Religious activity (e.g. speech, behavior, practicing traditions, etc.) satisfies (i.e. feeds) the fleshly cravings of an evil, impure heart. Religion is nothing more than a collection of religious language and rituals and traditions that people repeat over and over again. Religious people who practice these traditions, sing the songs, repeat the rhetoric and listen to the music do it because it stirs their emotions. It gives them a sense of security and belonging when they do these things with others whom they consider to be spiritual. They think they also are being spiritual when they do these things, but they are really only exercising their souls through meaningless repetitions of words and traditions. They think that what they do pleases God. but actually he hates it all.

Music, singing and dancing are, perhaps, the best examples of soulish religion. If the benefits of religious practices could be measured, we might find that these common activities are even more important than religious teaching and fellowship to religious people. The reason they are so important is found in the intoxicating effects that any kind of music can have on people.

STUDY TIP: See Music, Singing and Dancing for more about soulish religious activity.

Religious people call the many things they do worship because they are convinced that their religious activities and behaviors please God. They will be surprised to learn that only they and their religious companions are pleased with their religious worship. God actually hates all religious assemblies, offerings, prayer and so-called sacrifices of worship. He even calls religion an abomination, and considers it to be sin. And while religion is attractive to people who share a particular religious tradition, we only need to look at all the religious strife in the world to see that religion is actually offensive to other people who do not subscribe to a religious person’s particular brand of religion.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is the Enemy, Gods at War and Sibling Conflict for more about religious strife.

The reason God hates religion is that religion is a fleshly, soulish activity that anyone can do regardless of the condition of their heart. Even people who have evil, impure hearts can dress up and look good doing religion. Religious worship, which is marketed as a unique religious activity, is exercised with the soul (i.e. mind, emotions and will) and physical body (i.e. flesh) does not happen in clean, pure hearts. People who have clean, pure hearts have no need to prove anything to God through religious activity because they trust that God knows the condition of their heart and that he does not look at what they do with their physical bodies.

Worship, as it exists in all religions, is unclean food that feeds the soul because it can be seen, heard, and otherwise experienced with the physical body. It is not a matter of spiritual worship which happens exclusively in the heart that only God can see. Spiritual worship, on the other hand, is clean food that feeds the spirit because it is purely a matter of faith which does not require any external, physical activity that can be seen or heard.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is not Faith for more about the differences between soulish worship and spiritual worship.

With these understandings of what God means by clean and unclean food, we can see that the state of uncleanness is what comes out of people (i.e. words and behaviors) — not in what they eat physically. With these understandings we learn to recognize evil food and personal uncleanness through fleshly, soulish cravings that people have for evil, religious food as the food served by Old/First Covenant religions.