New Testament and Food Laws

First things first, I may be a bit biased in this. I am a vegetarian and believe in doing what I can to try to keep the Old Testament (dietary) laws. (Granted I don’t think any of the dietary laws don’t apply to vegetarians.) All that being said I want to jump into the topic up there.
I have heard a lot of people say that the New Testament does away with the dietary or food laws of the Old Testament. To me, this makes little to no sense. It sounds like a huge contradiction. They were valid back then but not now? Why, what changed? Did G-d change? Did His law change? Could someone do more than just make the statement but take the time to explain what has changed about G-d or His commands where we no longer need to follow them? As much as I’d like to point to the food laws in the Old Testament, I am going to try to avoid that. Instead, I’d like to work backwards if you will. Are there verses in the New Testament (some that people claim nullify the Food Laws) that actually support eating Kosher? I think there are a few so please humor me for a few moments.
I want to look first at a quote from Christ in Mark 7. This whole conversation starts off with some Pharisees challenging Christ, Christ answering, and then Christ explaining what He says/means to this disciples. The quote I am using or gets used by people to abolish the food laws comes from verses 18 and 19.
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
I want you to notice something. The line about Jesus declaring all foods clean, is in parenthesis. People who study the Bible will tell you that when something is in parenthesis like that, means it probably isn’t in the earliest texts but added later. So Jesus declaring all foods clean, isn’t in the earliest texts of Mark we have. But lets consider that was Christ’s intention. Jesus was a Jew. The Pharisees were Jews. The Disciples, you guessed it, were Jews. So everyone involved in this passage, are Jews. Tell me, would the Jews consider “all things” food or would they consider what the Mosaic Law to be food as food?
Again, lets say that this bit of the passage was original to the text. We move on to Peters Vision in Acts 10. When Peter sees the clean and unclean animals, and is told by Christ to arise, kill and eat, what is his reply?
“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:14)
Kinda funny response, don’t you think? If Christ did make all food clean, I imagine with his impulsive attitude, Peter would have been the first to BBQ a pig. But that’s not what he said. Years later, by his own admission, Peter is still keeping the dietary laws. Why would he do that if Jesus declared all foods clean? Could the majority of us be wrong on what is meant by all foods being clean? Just a thought. I know people say that this is one of the passages that prove we can eat whatever we want, but if you look at the context. Peter’s own interpretation of the vision, doesn’t even imply what we are implying it means.
I am going to stay in Acts for a moment and take a look at the infamous Jerusalem Council. James ruling on the matter of gentile believers coming to the faith is as follows:
“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” (Acts 15:19–20)
Notice 3 of the 4 things have to do with what people ate. Also notice, that they do line up with the Kosher diet or food laws. There is a theory that these rulings just have to do with table fellowship so Jews and Gentiles could sit down and eat at the same table. So obviously it is going to deal a lot with food. But please, take note as well, of the following verse:
“For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” (Acts 15:21)
So the Law of Moses (including the dietary laws) was still being preached at churches everywhere, every week. Do you think new believes would hear these laws and think, maybe I should start doing this? Probably. Paul does confirm not eating things polluted by idols in 1 Corinthians 10.
We need to understand the context of the verses we use. Don’t just cherry pick verses to fit your personal theology. No, try to look and see how it fits in the bigger picture of the chapter, the book, and the entire bible. If we believe the Bible has no contradictions then don’t create any with your personal theology and then try to reconcile the contradictions you created with things that aren’t in the Bible, or by adding to it. Its kind of funny, cause earlier in Mark 7, Jesus said to the Pharisees “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” Are we not doing the same today with the dietary laws? Or should we think that if they were valid for Israel, or the Jewish people, and G-d or His commands don’t change, and we are grafted into Israel, then they should be equally valid for us.