Halal and the dilemma
THE DILEMMA OF HALAL AND THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT SUPPORTING IT.
The Word of God to His people is self-explanatory, when we read from Genesis to Revelation it is one message. The Word of God is riddled with warnings and examples NOT TO EAT IDOL OFFERINGS!
However, the dilemma of halal comes to the fore in conversations with people, specifically believers and spiritual leaders who are supposed to guide believers in the truth of the Word of God. The argument is used that the blood of Jesus covers us and therefore we can eat food offered to idols because it has no power over us. This is true, of course, but it does not address the dilemma of disobeying the Word of God.
But Paul exhorts us precisely in 1 Corinthians 10:21 not to eat food sacrificed to idols, because it is contrary to the cup of the Lord: ” You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.”
Paul addresses these elements in 1 Corinthians 8:7-13, where he believes that the freedom we have received in Christ should not become an obstacle to those who are weak. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:7 “However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.” Paul is speaking here of believers who come out of idolatry, as well as those who are still in the process of coming out of idolatry, so he says in verse 13, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
By acknowledging the idol in that we place the mark on all our food products or allow them to be placed on them, we make the task we have received from our LORD and Savior more difficult by polluting or tripping those who are described as weak since he cannot break free from what he has been clinging too, the idol.
If we read the above together with what Jesus said in Revelation 2:14 and 20, we better understand the command to abstain from food offered to an idol, as contained in Acts 15:23-29. “with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. !(Notice that the reference to brethren here refers specifically to “from the Gentiles”- as Paul said that he will not eat meat if it causes his brother to stumble) Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
In Revelation 2:14, Jesus says, “But I have some things against you: that you have people there who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, namely, to eat and fornicate sacrifices to idols.” Here Jesus is saying that we are sharing in the sin of Balaam by saying it is acceptable to eat idol offerings. In verse 20 “But I have some things against you; that you allow the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat sacrifices to idols.” In this it is made even clearer by Jesus referring to the teaching from the church’s ranks to eat idols sacrifices and thus seduce His servants.
Now there will be arguments that say, we don’t teach anyone to eat halal, but what do we teach by approving it? Isn’t it the same.
Also, we need to realise that the money raised through the Halal certification, which, based on a 2018 document, amounts to R45 billion, is further instrumental, contributing to the growth of Islam as the fastest growing “false” faith in the world. We, who according to statistics are 85% Christians country, have made a R45 billion contribution to a faith wê do not support. It is time for us to reflect on the command we received in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age. Amen.”
When we rethink Matthew 28:19-20, we come up against this command. Instead of leading people to Jesus and making money available for evangelism, we put funds in the hands of the very people we are called to evangelize.
There is still much to say, but for me it is enough to know that as Christians, we recognize our Heavenly Father as the only true Living God and Father of Jesus Christ as the Creator of Heaven and earth. We have been commissioned to preach the gospel, in Spirit and in Truth. It has become time for us as Christians to rethink our neutral approach to halal, as it is an obstacle to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.