Vegetarians: Pieper's lesson from Luther – God, the butcher (Lehre und Wehre 1887)

[Today is Ash Wednesday, a day when Roman Catholics are forbidden from eating meat.]

 

"Animals are not ours to… eat"

    The following short lesson by Dr. Pieper caught my eye when processing the volumes of Lehre und Wehre. It is certainly a "hot topic" today in the agricultural world, as farmers and ranchers are being attacked from all sides over the eating of meat. Multiple reasons are formulated in an effort to ultimately eliminate the meat produced from farm animals — beef, pork, and poultry, although I have not heard of an attack on seafood. Cruelty to animals, climate change, and moral reasons are advanced in an effort to gain public support for their cause. The organization called "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" or PETA, is brazenly advancing their cause on "ethical" grounds. Cattle farmers now face formidable political forces that could get the vegetarian legislation passed in America.

     In my youth, I finished feeder pigs to market weight, and a family member had a small farrowing house. My father had cattle when I was very young. So it was with amazement when I first heard of these claims against the eating of meat, against cattle because of their supposed effect on climate. It was an indication of how crazy the world has become.

      But is there any merit to the vegetarian cause? Should Christians be drawn into their "ethical" arguments? We get true Christian counsel, which is Biblically based, from Dr. Franz Pieper's short blurb that utilizes the pertinent writings of Martin Luther and Holy Scripture. In the process, we find out that the "vegetarian" cause has been ongoing for centuries. — From Lehre und Wehre, vol. 33 (June, 1887), pp. 170-171 [EN]: 

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Luther and the Vegetarians. As we can see from German newspapers, the warnings of the vegetarians also make an impression on some Christians. If Christians are not used to letting their conscience be determined by God's Word alone, they are easily led astray by even the most enthusiastic fanatics. Here we are reminded of something Luther said about eating meat. Luther admits that in connection with meat-eating, gluttony has increased and people's lives have become shorter. (Cf. Luther's interpretation of Genesis 11:10, St. Louis edition I, 712 [AE 2, 231]) But the same Luther also writes on Genesis 9:2-3 (op. cit. p. 590 ff. [AE 2, 133-134]): 

“Therefore this word orders the butchershop and puts rabbits, chickens and geese on the spit and decorates and fills the table with all kinds of dishes. And necessity makes people clever and skillful, so that they not only hunt the wild animals, but also at home raise other livestock with diligent care, which they use for food. In this passage, therefore, God makes himself, as it were, a butcher, for by His Word He slaughters and strangles the animals that are used for food. That He thus, as it were, repays the great affliction that pious Noah had in the flood because of sin, and rewards him with rich consolation; for that is why He intends to care for him all the better from now on. — 

For this reason we should not consider it as if it were done by chance, as the pagans think, that the custom of slaughtering livestock was always there; but it is ordained, or rather permitted, by the Word of God. For no animal could have been slain without sin unless God had clearly permitted it in his Word. Therefore it is a great freedom that a man may freely and with impunity strangle all kinds of animals that are useful for food and can be eaten. And if only one kind of animal were ordered to such <page 171> use, it would still be a great good deed. How much greater a gift is it, then, that all animals that are useful for food are generally permitted to man! 

The wicked and the heathen do not understand this, and the philosophers know nothing about it. For they hold that this custom has always existed. But we are to truly put such things on high, and honor them, to make our consciences sure and free about this use of creatures, created and permitted by God, namely, that there is no law forbidding to eat of it. Therefore there can be no sin in their use, just as the shameful popes have blasphemously burdened the Church in these matters. — 

Thus with these words man's dominion is increased and the senseless animals are subjected to man's service until death. That is why they are afraid and flee from man for the sake of this new and previously unusual order in the world. For it would have been an abomination for Adam to strangle a bird for food. But now that the Word is added, we understand that it is a special good deed of God that God has thus fed and ordered the kitchen with all kinds of meat. He will also order the cellar afterward, when He will show man how to cultivate and make wine.”  F. P. [Franz Pieper]

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      Luther points out the Antichrist's, that is the Pope's, blasphemy with his rules of fasting and abstinence from meat. What is the Roman Catholic rule on this for today? According to the current USCCB website (WB), it is the following, for Fridays during Lent, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday:

“The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards.”

But now Christian consciences can rest on the only source of certainty, God's Word. And farmers and ranchers should answer the vegetarians, and the Pope, with the simple phrase 

“But God has permitted it!”