The general principle behind the list of clean and unclean animals/birds/fish is this: Use discernment to identify whether Bible teachers are serving good, clean spiritual food or evil, soulish food.

To make his point about what foods (i.e. teachings) can be eaten (i.e. absorbed into the mind and heart), God uses the natural characteristics of natural animals/birds/fish to teach about spiritual truth. It is an example of the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle.

With this principle in mind, God forbids the consumption of animals with the following natural characteristics:

• • Scavengers and carrion eaters (e.g eagles, vultures, hawks, etc.) that eat other animals.
  • Animals such as pigs, bears, vultures and raptors that eat decaying flesh.
  • Predators (e.g. wolves, lions, leopards, cheetahs, etc.) that prey on weak and/or diseased herd animals.
  • Bottom dwelling sea animals (e.g. lobsters and crabs) that scavenge for dead animals on the sea floor. Shellfish (e.g. oysters, clams and mussels) that consume decaying organic matter, including sewage, that sinks to the sea floor.

These creatures are identified as “unclean” food because they all eat dead things. Symbolically,  the command to not eat these foods means that religious people should not feed their hearts and minds on the teachings of religious leaders because religious leaders are Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil who serve evil, soulish food/fruit (i.e. false teachings) to spiritually dead religious people who focus on the natural words of the Bible. From God’s perspective, the situation looks like this: spiritually dead religious leaders feed on the praise and finances of spiritually dead religious followers, and the religious followers feed on the words of the religious leaders. There is no life in these relationships because God’s spoken word is not part of the equation.

God’s message in his command to not eat unclean animals/birds/fish is not about eating the natural animals/birds/fish. The command is that his people should not listen to the teachings of the religious leaders who feed on death and serve words of death to others. This command is nothing more or less than his command in Genesis to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The religious leaders are symbolically represented as trees of knowledge of good and evil. Their teachings (i.e. their spoken and written words) are evil, soulish fruit.

Part of the injustice of this relationship is that religious leaders prosper themselves financially and emotionally through their relationship with religious followers. They are the beneficiaries of the commercial religion system that is financed by religious people who ignorantly pay financial tithes and offerings to the religious leaders and the ministries they lead. In Bible language, religious leaders feed (i.e. live, support, sustain themselves in terms of pride and income) on the ignorance of followers who are deceived into thinking that giving money to them is the Biblically correct thing to do. They do this because they do not understand the truth about tithes and offerings.

• Spirit that God has sown into people who will mature into grain/wheat that can be harvested, threshed, winnowed, kneaded and baked into tasty spiritual bread for God and others.
• Sons of the Kingdom of God (i.e. New Covenant disciples).

• People in whom spiritual seed has been sown, mature into God’s image, and have been harvested so that they will provide spiritual food for God and others.
• Note: God is spirit, and he is nourished by spiritual food just like people who are flesh are nourished by physical food.

• • Sacrifices made by New Covenant disciples who offer themselves wholly to God as a spiritual sacrifice.
  • Disciples whom spiritually mature people offer to God as a sacrifice.
  • See Sacrifices, Tithes and Offerings.

• Religion: A grain that looks like wheat but is black.
• Tares are the fruit of Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that appears to be the fruit of Trees of Life.
• Tares are religious food that looks like it is good spiritual food but is actually evil, soulish food.
• Sons of the evil one sown by the devil.
• Old/First Covenant religionists.

• A higher form of offering made from grain/wheat.
• It is more mature than harvested wheat because it has been winnowed, ground into flour, kneaded and baked in a refining process that yields a tasty spiritual food for God and for the people who eat God’s words spoken by them.

• Spiritual words: God’s voice to man’s heart.
• Spoken by God directly or through messengers (i.e. true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, warriors) he sends to speak for him.

• Evil, soulish food served by religious leaders.
• Religion

• Spiritual sluggishness, laziness (i.e. produces no good spiritual fruit) that is found in religion.
• Religion

• New Covenant disciples.
• People who have been harvested, threshed, and processed into unleavened (i.e. sin-free) bread so that they provide good spiritual food for God and others.
• Bread (i.e. good spiritual food) that comes directly from the mouth of God or through true prophets he sends to speak for him.
• Fruit of the tree of life.

• Religious teaching and rituals contaminated with the leavening of the pharisees.
• Fleshly teaching served to Old/First Covenant religionists by False Prophets (i.e. Kings, Queens and Princes, Pharisees and Scribes, Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits, Anti-Christs, foolish, worthless, stupid shepherds).
• Evil, soulish food.
• Religion

• Spiritual words spoken by God and his agents (i.e.  true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors) is clean food for man’s heart,  OR,
• Religious laws and false teachings (i.e. unclean food) based on the literal words of the Bible spoken by false prophets to Old/First Covenant religionists.

• Spiritual produce — whether for good (i.e. from New Covenant disciples) or evil (i.e. from Old/First Covenant religionists) that grows from spiritual seed.
• Words. God’s spoken words are good fruit. Words spoken by false prophets are bad fruit.

STUDY TIP: See TREES ARE PEOPLE for understanding about good fruit and bad fruit.

• Fruit (i.e. words) that grows from the spiritual seed that comes from God’s spoken word.
• Good, spiritual food.
• Spiritual fruit that is produced by New Covenant disciples (i.e. True Prophets,  angels, messiahs, high priests, warriors) who make disciples after their own kind (i.e. in God’s image).
• Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
• Hidden manna.
• It tastes sweet like honey.

• • Fruit (i.e. words) that comes from spiritual seed that does not proceed from the mouth of God but from the mouths and writings of religious leaders (e.g. False Prophets, Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Priests, Pastors, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists,  Satans and Antichrists.)
  • Evil, soulish food.
  • Unrighteousness/sin.
  • Deeds of the flesh: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
  • Injustice, Slavery, Oppression and Affliction
  • Murder
  • Religion in all of its many forms.
  • Defiled religion.
  • Old/First Covenant religion.