My 6th Letter to Ted R. Weiland.

From: John Hurt
1857 Brindley Hollow Rd
Buffalo Valley, TN 38548

To: Ted R. Weiland
Mission to Israel
PO Box 248
Scottsbluff, NE 69363

Hello Ted,

I have listened to your 1st Timothy part 19 – Dietary ordinances, where you are justifying Paul’s statements in 1st Timothy 4:3-4 where he said we can eat every creature, “if it be received with thanksgiving”.

Then you quote from Genesis 9:3 that “proves” that you can eat “every creature”, as “every” means what it says.

What you did not say in your message, is that in Genesis 7:2, the clean animals were placed on the ark by sevens, while the unclean animals by twos.

Genesis 8 is the flood account, and then Genesis 9 opens with Noah and his sons leaving the ark. All of the “creatures” on the earth and not on the ark have been wiped out by the flood. Only the creatures that Noah brought with him could be eaten, with the life in them in Genesis 9:3

If Noah and his sons were to eat the unclean creatures that were on the ark by twos, - even just one of them, then they would have destroyed the species and the reason they were on the Ark in the first place. That’s ridiculous. Noah and his sons could only eat some of the seven clean animals, because having seven of each type of clean animal allowed them to eat just the clean animals.

So your logic is not correct. Genesis 9:3 does not say that you can eat unclean animals, based on story-line. Only if you take this verse “by itself” and out of context, can you make it “seem” that eating unclean animals is acceptable. You are doing your listeners a great disservice, and it looks like you are being disingenuous.

Also, in Genesis 1:29-30, you have tried to make it seem that men could eat all animals, yet it clearly states that men could only eat the herbs of the field (verse 29), just like the beasts could only eat the herbs of the field (verse 30).

(29) And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

(30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

God created man and beast as vegetarians. Where is it that men can eat unclean animals in this passage? How did you come up with that one? You have quite an imagination!

In Acts 15, you forgot to include verse 21:

(20) But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

(21) For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

Yes, the Gentiles had learned from Moses not to eat unclean animals, every sabbath day.

Here are the “Biblical Interdictions” against eating unclean animals in the New Testament:

1 Peter 1:16 is a quotation from Leviticus 11:44, indicating that we should be holy and not eat unclean food in our daily living.

Christ in Matthew 23:27 condemns all uncleanness.

Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrews 8:10 said that the Torah has been written on our heart as a condition of the New Covenant, which would include Leviticus 11.

Even though we are under a “new Covenant”, we have the same Torah, or Law.

And the “final blow” to your lesson, especially Part 20, which was totally anti-Nomian, and based solely on Paul and Hebrews, is what Christ said about God’s Law:

Matthew 5:(17) Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

(18) For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

(19) Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

(20) For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Ted, the dietary law is more than just “jot or tittle”. And last I looked, heaven was above my head, the earth below my feet, so both are still here, just like the dietary law is still here. I don’t want to be “the least in the kingdom of heaven”. I want to follow Christ, not Paul, not Barnabas, and not Ted R. Weiland.

This one statement by Christ – it totally destroys your logic on the dietary law.

Ted, if you would just teach Christ, and not Paul or Barnabas who wrote Hebrews, you would attract a lot more people to Christ. People are attracted to the words of Christ, and repulsed by the words of Paul.

That is why your ministry is so small. It is that you have put Paul above Christ.

Now, everyone thinks you are “wishy washy”, and supposedly you uphold the Law, but not the parts of it that Paul doesn’t like. How are you different from a regular anti-nomian “Church of Christ” preacher?

If you would just teach Christ, you would not have to “apologize” for Paul.

I hope you find the truth, and soon.

John Hurt

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My 7th and Final Letter to Ted R. Weiland: August 3rd, 2023