Part (a) I am going to assume here that Deedat is referring to the fact that the Old Testament forbids the use of pigs and yet Christians are happy to eat pork and bacon. There are, of course, other animals that the Jews were forbidden to eat such as shellfish which Christians may also eat. The reason for this is that God gave the Israelites a number of requirements which fall under the main structure of the ceremonial law. The Mosaic law had two facets to it – the legalistic law and the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law was about keeping oneself separate from anything unclean that could contaminate the Jews. It was about being pure and holy to the Lord but it also did have the benefit of protecting the Jews from illness. Jesus kept the whole law as required of him as a Jew which is why He said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).

After the birth of the church this has all changed. The reason for this is that as Paul said in Romans 7:4 “So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” Not that this means we can just go out and do what we want because we have a new law ruling in our lives, namely the Holy Spirit – as verse 6 (Romans 7:6) says “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” This not to say that the law was bad - the law had a number of purposes as we see in Romans 3:20b “rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” So we see through the law we become aware of how sinful we are. For Christians we have been freed from the law and are led by the Holy Spirit. This also does not mean that the law no longer has a part to play in our lives; The law teaches us about the heart of God and helps instruct us in our walk with God.

 

Part (b) Nice to hear that Deedat cares about the fate of pigs now. The fact is Jesus would kill all pigs if that is what it took to save one man. Having said that, Jesus didn’t kill any pigs – that was the demons that entered them.