“What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

Until all this, I had never even heard of chick-fil-A, but now I want to eat there, because that pile of cholesterol looks delicious.  BTW, are those newelywed muffins gay?

@LKJSlain - could you cite that passage, please?

@LKJSlain - Yeah, seems like the different interpretations of it in the different variations of the Bible vary pretty significantly.

@musterion99 - Interesting: any commandment that appears in the Old Testament that a Christian doesn't like, he can find a passage in the New Testament that nullifies it.  Did God really have that much trouble deciding what he wanted or are there 2 different Gods - the One who appears in the Old Testament and the One that appears in the New Testament?

@DEISENBERG - It's called the New Testament. If you're interested, do a study on it.

@LKJSlain - I guess that water was treated and sewage properly disposed of in the First Century, but not before.  It's amazing that refrigeration for food was developed in the First century.  I am confused about some things: (1) what advances in cleanliness made swine and shellfish OK to eat?  (20 What advances in cleanliness made it OK to wear clothes woven from a wool and flax mix?  (3) What were these big advances in cleanliness?. 

@brown_buffalo - I frankly hate philosophy, and prefer to stick to the sciences. That being said, while a few of the Levitical laws that we can laugh at now can be canceled out by a god that changed his mind centuries later (for whatever reason) for some reason do not hint at other Levitial laws that can and should be canceled out by NT doctrine.

@GodlessLiberal - It's not all things that I know 100percent about admittedly ^_^ I had a class on the whole thing one time, but it was like seven or eight years ago now. boooo

i'm happy i've never seen one of these places where i live and don't have to weigh in personally...not that i would go there anyway. 

@GodlessLiberal - It only shows they are two different religions. One hijacked by the other. 

@GodlessLiberal - Through Leviticus, God sets up a manner in which the Israelite people specifically would come to know God. The Israelites were at this time God's chosen people, which meant that he made a promise with them that he would give them a land of their own, and that the world's redeemer would come through their line (Isaiah 52..Also, the whole story of Abraham). 

Because God's relationship with mankind was still rent from the Fall (in Genesis, when Adam and Eve sinned, it says that they "died". They died spiritually, not physically, which meant that they were separated from God because he can have nothing to do with sin). This "rending", or "death", had not been dealt with entirely--and it would not be dealt with until Christ, the redeemer, came. God in the meantime gave them instructions for how they would have fellowship with him, even though the ultimate spiritually healing had not yet come--they would offer sacrifices for their personal and societal sin periodically, to show that they themselves cannot atone for their sins but an innocent, sinless being must take it for them (alluding to Christ's sacrifice), and with this general commandment went many strictly cultural, strictly Israelite-tailored commandments that would set them apart from the world, just as Christians would one day spiritually be set apart from the world. 

You listed some of the laws--you can't eat things that aren't, as we know it now, "kosher"; you can't have sex with a woman on her period, or touch a man who has leprosy. If you committed adultery, you would be stoned. 

Basically--all of the laws that were brought to the Israelites in that time that weren't in place before (between the time of Adam and Eve and Leviticus..even Abraham, as circumucision was started with him), all of the laws that were more about outward, everyday practices, were done away with after Christ's death and resurrection, because they were no longer needed. Christ had "fulfilled the law". No longer would men have to be outwardly circumcised, because now, his heart would be "circumcised"--that is, set apart, made new, made clearly a part of God's people. No longer would men have to stay away from un-kosher "animals"--nothing was unclean now, because Christ has made men's spirits clean (those who believe in him). No longer would men have to stay away from lepers, heathens, or women on their period-- as we see, all humans of all health, station, sex, and culture are now called into a universal union with Christ. Actually, it was beautifully illustrated in the gospels--at the moment of Christ's death, the veil that separated the temple from the Holy of Holies, an aspect of the Levitical tabernacle, was split in two top to bottom. This was a 15-foot high, three-foot thick "veil"! What did this represent? That the tabernacle, the separation, the veil, the culture, the distinction from the rest of cultures and the "world" was no longer needed--no longer were people saved through following rites. Christ had brought the ultimate healing, so it was no longer needed.

There were laws in place before Levitical law came about, however. Or, should I say, design. It is inherent in God's creation of man and woman, the first marriage, and their complete representation of Christ and the church, as well as the unity in the Godhead, that that is God's design for sexual unity. He wipes away Sodom and Gommorah for sins of homosexuality and adultery before Levitical law was put into place, showing his permanent stance on the matter of design. And there are sins that were similarly universal, and not tied at all to Levitical law, that similarly endured recognition into the New Testament. 

But the wonderful part? Sin is no longer the issue. Even the sins that "endured", if you will. Christ has brought the ultimate healing. The ultimate forgiveness. Yes, there is sin to be forgiven--but it's not a stop to Christ's love, and his overflowing forgiveness. We no longer need the "law" (what it meant to them at the time, the Levitical law)--we need Christ. 

Also, Paul says that the law was largely meant to be a mirror--a way of showing that we cannot live up to God's holy standards. But Christ has overcome our inability--we can be given his holiness, because he died to pay the sin for our unholiness.
..I hope that explains some of the seeming discrepancies.