PETA’s “Vegan Bible” Misses the Whole Point

What Is Genesis About?

According to PETA, a group that certainly is not considered an expert on the Bible or faithful, biblical theology,

The message in Genesis is that God created every sentient being, He saw that they were good, and He gave them greens for sustenance.

Yes, the Bible teaches that God created everything (not just sentient beings), that he made everything good (again, not just sentient beings) and gave people and animals a vegetarian diet. But that “very good” creation is not the world we live in today!

Mankind’s sin broke creation and brought death and suffering into it.

Mankind’s sin broke creation and brought death and suffering into it. Death is the penalty for sin—something Genesis makes abundantly clear (Genesis 2:17, 3:19). God’s creation was no longer “very good” but groaning from sin. And after the flood, God gave mankind permission to eat the animals (Genesis 9:3).

The “message in Genesis” is that God is Creator, and that he made everything “very good,” but we ruined it; however God would send a Savior through the Seed of the woman (and later the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) to crush the serpent’s head and save mankind (Genesis 3:15).

Clothes from Hemp and Bamboo?

So, what kind of changes did AI make for this “vegan Bible”? Well, consider this change noted in the Christian Post article:

Among the changes made by PETA to the Word of God includes referring to animals as “beings” rather than “beasts” or “creatures.” Another deviation is the use of plant fibers like hemp and bamboo as clothing rather than animal skins, a significant change from the narrative in Genesis 3 in which God made “garments of [an unidentified animal] skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).

First, let’s address the change from animals as “beasts” or “creatures” to “beings.” This is an attempt to elevate animals, making them equal with humans. But Genesis does not support this. Animals are not made in God’s image—only people are (Genesis 1:27)—and mankind was given dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:28). This, of course, is not a greedy, overreaching rule that cares nothing for what God has made. Rather it’s a godly dominion that sees us as stewards of what God has made and entrusted to us. But in order for us to be godly stewards, we must maintain the distinction between humans, made in God’s image, and animals.

And what about Adam and Eve’s clothing? Well, after Adam and Eve sinned, they realized their nakedness and made for themselves clothing from fig leaves.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:7)

These sacrifices were a picture of the ultimate sacrifice, when the God-man, Jesus Christ, would willingly go to the cross, suffering and dying once for all, shedding his blood in the place of sinful man, so we could be reconciled to God.

But that clothing wasn’t good enough. Fig leaves couldn’t cover Adam and Eve’s sin because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Death is the penalty for sin, so a blood sacrifice was required to cover sin. So, God himself killed the first animal(s) and used the skins to cover Adam and Eve. This marks the first sacrifice. Blood sacrifices would continue throughout the book of Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament, but “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

These sacrifices were a picture of the ultimate sacrifice, when the God-man, Jesus Christ, would willingly go to the cross, suffering and dying once for all, shedding his blood in the place of sinful man, so we could be reconciled to God. What a glorious gift!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

So no, God wouldn’t have given Adam and Eve clothes of hemp and bamboo. That would in no way picture the cost of their sin and the salvation that was to come through the blood of Christ.

Abraham and Sarah and . . . Herbie the Rescue Dog?

A key event in the book of Genesis is God’s covenant with Abraham where God promises,

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:2–3)

Abraham and his wife Sarah are old and childless, but God promises they will have a son, Isaac, and through this son, God will keep his covenant promise to Abraham to bless all the families of the earth (a clear reference to salvation through the Messiah). Of course, this is exactly what happens.

But PETA isn’t happy with childless couples just having a baby. Instead, PETA’s AI version of Genesis also has them “add to their growing family by adopting a dog named Herbie.”

As they walked with Herbie, Sarah and Abraham thought of the importance of adopting dogs from shelters and rescue organizations rather than purchasing them from breeders.

They spoke of how buying a dog or cat from a breeder or a pet shop contributes to the companion animal overpopulation crisis, as countless dogs and cats in shelters await loving homes while breeders continue to produce more puppies and kittens for profit.

Again, this misses the entire point of the account of Abraham and Sarah—it was to Abraham that God made a covenant that would lead to the establishing of the nation of Israel and eventually the birth of the Messiah. This account is about God choosing Abraham and his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, and his great-grandson Judah and continuing the line of the Messiah through them despite their sin, their doubt, and their failures. It’s the account of God’s great love and faithfulness—not a reminder to adopt a dog!

Abraham Befriends a Lamb?

And it just gets worse. Instead of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise, on Mount Moriah, here’s what PETA has Abraham doing instead:

Abraham travels to the land of Moriah and befriends a gentle lamb to show his reverence and respect for God’s creation, rather than slaughtering a ram to demonstrate his faith — much as human sacrifice, once a reality, is now outlawed all over the world.

I’m repeating myself, but again, this totally misses (actually corrupts) the entire point! The entire account of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 is

1. A demonstration of Abraham’s faith (Genesis 22:15–18; Hebrews 11:17–19).
2. A picture of Christ. As Abraham and Isaac (who was a young man, by the way, not a child) head up the mountain, Isaac asks, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” To which Abraham replies, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:7–8). And God does just that—just as Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, the angel of the Lord stops him, and Abraham sees a ram caught in a thicket, and he offers that ram instead. This is a picture of Christ, the Lamb of God who was offered up in place of us! Each of us deserves to die for our sin, but Jesus was sacrificed in our place so we could be washed clean of our sin by his blood and given new and eternal life through his resurrection from the grave.

It's All About Jesus!

To strip away references to death and sacrifice is to try to erase both the consequences of sin and the only remedy for sin.

Yes, Genesis (like all of the Old Testament) is about God’s faithfulness to make and keep his covenant and promise of the Messiah, despite humanity’s failures. To strip away references to death and sacrifice is to try to erase both the consequences of sin and the only remedy for sin: the blood sacrifice of the perfect Man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

So instead of downloading this, quite frankly, blasphemous and powerless “vegan leather” perversion of Genesis, I encourage you to read the actual book of Genesis and discover for yourself the wonderful promises of the faithful and loving God who has made it possible, at the cost of his own Son, for sinful people like you and me to be reconciled to him.

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed Tuesday on Answers News with cohosts Dr. Tim Chaffey, Roger Patterson, and Patricia Engler. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:

• Homeless in Canada? 1 in 3 Canadians say you should be allowed assisted suicide.
• What did the earliest animals look like?
• Babies born from the DNA of three people?
• And more!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.