Killing animals for fun

We don’t have the right to kill animals just for the fun of killing them or seeing them suffer, but we can kill animals to feed on them.

Wisdom says: “The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Proverbs 12:10 - NKJV), but the tender mercies of the just are not cruel nor should they become cruel for they love God’s creation and they use it within the limits set by God. That’s why hunting or fishing just to pass the time and to throw away the wild fowl or the fish is an unrighteousness. We must never forget that the tender mercies of God “are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9 - NKJV), that is to say, over all the beasts of the earth, the birds of the air and the fish in the seas, lakes and rivers, for God gives them their food in due season. And since we must be imitators of God, our tender mercies must be over all the beasts, the birds and the fish created by God, so we must not molest them, nor ill-treat them, nor behave unjustly towards them, nor kill them without a good reason.

On the other hand, even the law of God contains some precepts in favour of animals. For instance, the law says: “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together” (Deuteronomy 22:10 – NKJV), and again: “If a bird’s nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days” (Deuteronomy 22:6-7 – NKJV).

I would like to make it clear that this must be done to respect the works of God, but also that this respect has some precise limits and that must not turn into a fight against those who destroy the environment or the animals, lest we waste money and time and fall into one of the traps of the devil. Why do I call it a trap of the devil? Because the devil would like us to spend our time fighting on behalf of the plants and animals rather than fighting against him and all his demons to snatch as many souls as possible out of their hands. Our fight must be only one: that on behalf of the faith and the Gospel, so that sinners may hear the Gospel and believe and believers may stand firm in the faith till the end to inherit the crown of life. Bear in mind these things continually, brothers.

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