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Dare to Do the Daniel Diet
Out of/the Horse's Mouth ^ | 1 June 2012 | Michael Horton

Posted on 06/01/2012 2:57:32 PM PDT by Gamecock

The “Daniel Diet” launched by Pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Community Church has a lot of people talking. About a month ago, a national paper asked me to comment on this latest plan from a passionately creative Christian leader. It was the health editor. Never talked to a health editor before, ever. I rarely talk to a health provider. So besides unwillingness to criticize a brother in public over a totally unimportant issue, about which I knew nothing except for what the editor told me, I declined in short order.

Yet now here TIME magazine spotlights the “Daniel Diet”-and does such a good job with it, I thought, that something larger is worth bringing to the table (no pun intended). In a land where almost anything with the word “diet” in it sells, “spirituality” isn’t far down the list either. Together, the world’s their oyster. Now, if we can get sex, spirituality, and diet in the same program, I’m guessing we’d see that one at the airport.

What intrigued me about the TIME article was the author’s keen exegetical skills. I’ll explain in a minute.

When I was growing up, the Old Testament was a quarry from which to sculpt heroic examples to emulate. “Dare to Be a Daniel” meant something like “Man up-don’t be afraid of lions.” You do your part, and God will watch your back.

Still in that genre, the “Daniel Diet” focuses predictably on what obsesses most Americans today: obesity. Understandably. To badly paraphrase Isaiah, I am out of shape and dwell among an out-of-shape people. I have lost a few pounds, am back in the gym, but my wife keeps telling me that it’s not about fad diets but about daily decisions. “Just think about what you’re doing,” she tells me. The point is, I don’t need Daniel-or the Bible-to tell me I need to get fit. And a diet of seeds and water that Daniel and his Jewish compadres endured may not even be healthy.

It all goes back to the human-centered way of reading the Bible, as if God were a supporting actor in our drama, rather our being cast as beneficiaries of his bounty in Christ. We appeal to statistics to convince people that prayer makes us happier, healthier, and more fulfilled than non-prayers. Leviticus is relevant only if we can explain how the dietary laws somehow reveal secret principles of universal health, when that wasn’t the point of these laws at all. Their purpose was to separate Israel from the nations: the “clean/unclean” separation, keeping a pure line leading to the Messiah. That distinction was dissolved with Christ’s advent, as Peter was told by God in the dream in Acts 10:9-19. Pork is as acceptable as chicken now, just as in Christ believing Gentiles are co-heirs with Jews.

The problem with the moralizing interpretations familiar to us is not only that they focus the story on us rather than on God and his work in history, centering on Christ; it’s that precisely in making it about us, we trivialize the greatest story ever told. No wonder so many people assume that the Bible is simply a collection of tips for life.

Elizabeth Dias, the author of the TIME article puts his finger on the right issue: “But the historical context of the Book of Daniel suggests that the text in fact has very little to do with diet or health.” (Read more here.)

Appealing to Choon-Leong Seow, an Old Testament professor at Princeton Seminary, Dias notes, that “Daniel is less a story of resisting rich food than a story of resisting a foreign king.” “Daniel and his friends resisted the king’s table, Seow says, as a tangible expression of their reliance on God’s power instead of the king’s.” “If the text were actually about diet, Seow argues, there would be evidence that the king’s table violated Jewish food laws. A Jewish diet would have meant no pork, Seow notes, but most other meats, slaughtered properly, are O.K. Wine too is permissible. Nor does the text give any indication that the king’s food had been offered to idols, which is another thing that would have made it off-limits to the young Jews.”

Dias, who studied with Seow, points out, “It’s no surprise many people don’t realize this, since English translations sometimes miss the original emphasis the Bible places on contrasting what the king could give Daniel (earthly pleasures) and what God could give him (something much greater). ‘The point is not the triumph of vegetarianism or even the triumph of piety or the triumph of wisdom,’ Seow concludes, ‘but the triumph of God.’”

Wow! Talk about getting the point! Just then, though, Dias drifts toward another form of moralizing the story. Daniel’s actions were mainly about solidarity with his oppressed fellow-Jews. “There’s a lesson or two here for a modern culture in which the income and opportunity gap grows wider every day.” The Book of Daniel may not be about a diet plan. “Still, it’s the call for restraint, for choosing not to get drunk on excess, that may be the Book of Daniel’s most powerful message. Not only does this benefit the privileged, but also the needy, who may then have a chance to enjoy the choicest portions too, as opposed just society’s leftovers. That’s a message Daniel himself would probably celebrate and support.”

Predictably, evangelicals often use Daniel for personal well-being and moral uplift, while mainliners go for the social justice angle. In both cases, the story is about us and what we can use from it for our self-crafting and world-crafting projects. Yet something more wonderful is lying there in Daniel waiting to be discovered! Even in exile, God is faithful to his covenant people. The most powerful king in the region of that day is not Lord, as it turns out. Yahweh is. (That’s what the actions of Daniel and his friends, the fiery furnace, and the visions are all about.) With the vision of the four beasts (or kingdoms) in chapter 7, the message becomes crystal-clear: The Ancient of Days takes his throne in the courtroom and the “Son of Man” appears. All of the empires are shaken, but this kingdom that will arise has no end. “But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever’” (Dan 7:18). The prophecies go on to relate in apocalyptic imagery the triumph of the Son of Man over the earthly empires. God has the last word in the book: “‘But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of days’” (Dan 12:13).

It’s this prophecy that Hebrews announces as having been fulfilled with Christ’s coming: Everything that can be shaken will be, “in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe” (Heb 12:26-28). In this version, God has the starring role. He is building his kingdom, installing his Messiah on his holy hill, and we’re recipients of the victory he has won-for us and for the whole world. Now that’s a headline story!


TOPICS: Current Events; General Discusssion
KEYWORDS: ybpdln
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1 posted on 06/01/2012 2:57:43 PM PDT by Gamecock
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To: drstevej; OrthodoxPresbyterian; CCWoody; Wrigley; Gamecock; Jean Chauvin; jboot; AZhardliner; ...
GRPL Ping


2 posted on 06/01/2012 3:00:03 PM PDT by Gamecock
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To: DocRock; del4hope; Alex Murphy; Gamecock; Dr. Eckleburg; jude24; Ottofire; fishtank; ...
YBPDLN PL Ping

The YBPDLNPL is generally published infrequently, but based on the exploits of the megachurch pastors posts can spike for a period of time. If you would like on or off of this list please FReepmail me.


3 posted on 06/01/2012 3:02:58 PM PDT by Gamecock
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To: Gamecock
The Daniel Diet has been done before.






4 posted on 06/01/2012 4:11:37 PM PDT by crosshairs
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To: crosshairs

Nothing new under the Sun.


5 posted on 06/01/2012 4:44:01 PM PDT by Gamecock
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To: Gamecock

Anyone trying to tie something they are selling in with the Bible is automatically suspect as a con artist in my book. If you really think you have discovered some great principle from the Bible that you want to share with the world, and you are good-intentioned, you’ll usually tell everyone who will listen, free of charge.


6 posted on 06/01/2012 5:07:11 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Gamecock

Announcing the Irishtenor 40 Days in the Desert diet.
If it was good enough for Jesus, it must be good enough for me.


7 posted on 06/01/2012 5:12:05 PM PDT by irishtenor (Everything in moderation, however, too much whiskey is just enough... Mark Twain)
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To: Gamecock

Announcing the Irishtenor 40 Years in the Desert diet, commonly known as Manna From Heaven...
If it was good enough for Moses, it must be good enough for me.


8 posted on 06/01/2012 5:14:09 PM PDT by irishtenor (Everything in moderation, however, too much whiskey is just enough... Mark Twain)
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To: irishtenor

I’m on the John the Baptist diet...locusts and honey on a silver platter.


9 posted on 06/01/2012 5:15:01 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Gamecock
And when you're tired of the Daniel 1 Diet, you can always go for Ezekiel 4:9 bread for a little variety:

Though I do wonder whether they've cooked it over real dung for that biblical authenticity . . .

10 posted on 06/01/2012 5:16:08 PM PDT by RansomOttawa (tm)
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To: Gamecock
I am so tired of new diet books.

As annoying and boring as it is, weight loss and maintenance is fairly uncomplicated.

Vegetables, lean meats and proteins, fruits, whole grains and beans, nuts, et cetera ..... balanced and in reasonable amounts. Plus exercise.

Eating healthy and burning more calories than you're eating. That's it.

11 posted on 06/01/2012 5:36:30 PM PDT by Lizavetta (You get what you tolerate)
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To: Gamecock

I prefer the Moses diet. Although I’ve only been able to make it halfway through the first day but I am trying.


12 posted on 06/01/2012 5:44:06 PM PDT by thatjoeguy ( Hulk... SMASH!!)
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To: Gamecock

One can be healthy on vegetables and water (and some olive oil), and Rick Warren could certainly use it.

But let’s get real. Although gluttony is a vice, no “food plan” is more Christian than any other. Food can be a false god even if you’re thin and healthy. After all, the Greeks worshipped the ideal human body.


13 posted on 06/01/2012 6:02:45 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Make sure you notice that I'm being subtly ironic!)
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To: irishtenor

Oddly enough, that is the first time I have seen that diet hawked on the Internet!
Wonder why? ;-)


14 posted on 06/01/2012 6:08:21 PM PDT by Gamecock
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To: Gamecock
Diet schmiet...you eat...you're gonna get thirsty.
Here, you should wash it down with this...



Go on...have a nosh and a beer or two...it'll do ya good...eat...drink...live!
15 posted on 06/01/2012 6:28:29 PM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum)
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To: Tainan; Anoreth

Maybe we can find this at Total Wine, next time Anoreth visits, since the case of Mexican beer didn’t go over that well.

We like Israel!


16 posted on 06/01/2012 7:02:27 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Make sure you notice that I'm being subtly ironic!)
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To: Tax-chick
You might also ask/look for Goldstar or Maccabee beer...goooooood beer.


17 posted on 06/01/2012 7:09:36 PM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum)
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To: Tainan

One never knows what will turn up at Total Wine. Anoreth and her dad like unexpected varieties of beer.

I wish I liked beer, because there are so many interesting choices, and it’s cheaper than wine!


18 posted on 06/01/2012 7:11:44 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Make sure you notice that I'm being subtly ironic!)
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To: Tax-chick
I wish I liked beer,...

Ahhh...I've heard this many times.
My advice, since you're not asking ;), is to start slow. Buy a bottle at a time of different types.
Don't drink them when they are "too" cold. Use a small glass. Pour into the middle of the glass until its half-full...then stop. Let the head rise...then subside a bit.
Sip first. Then drink a mouth full. Learn about the after taste...the 'mouth' of the beer.
Then try another type.

Experimenting is the fun part.

19 posted on 06/01/2012 7:28:27 PM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum)
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To: Tainan

I love ice cold beer, just above freezing is the best temperature for me.


20 posted on 06/01/2012 7:44:17 PM PDT by Sawdring
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