Posted on 09/30/2007 5:52:31 PM PDT by Terriergal
Sept. 28, 2007—
The spry, slender 73-year-old man sprints up to the stage, pumps the air with his fist, and shouts out a robust, "Hallelujah!"
The Rev. George Malkmus surveys the crowd of nearly 400 packed into a former college auditorium and finds that people have come from all over the country -- and even from Nigeria -- to hear him preach the Gospel. But it's not his approach to scripture that draws this crowd. It's his diet: "the Hallelujah Diet."
Malkmus, a Gospel minister who takes the Bible literally, said that -- long before South Beach or Jenny Craig -- God laid out his own diet plan in the book of Genesis.
Malkmus pounds the pulpit: "What did God tell man in Genesis 1:29? That your food shall be all of those plants that are in that garden. You will not find anything of animal origin in the garden diet. You will not find Twinkies either!"
The garden he refers to, of course, is the Garden of Eden. Indeed, the Hallelujah Diet answers the question: "What would Adam and Eve eat?"
The program consists almost entirely of raw fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts. Under the Hallelujah plan, only 15 percent of the vegetables are supposed to be cooked.
Malkmus said he has never wavered from the strict vegan diet since he took it up at age 42 after being told he had colon cancer: "Within a year, my baseball size tumor had totally disappeared as had all of the other physical problems I was experiencing." Malkmus acknowledges that he never had a biopsy, but insists, "I had a tumor that was self-evident. I was bleeding from the rectum."
At his seminar, Malkmus is clearly preaching to the choir. Some of his disciples credit the Hallelujah Diet with clearing up a host of health problems, including acid reflux, arthritis, body odor, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome and cancer.
Such anecdotal claims are difficult to verify, of course, and Malkmus himself is careful not to promise miracles. "I don't believe the Hallelujah Diet can cure anybody of anything."
Nonetheless, Malkmus does not attempt to dissuade his followers if they believe the diet helps rid them of assorted ailments, including serious diseases.
Even nutritionists who endorse eating more fruits and vegetables are wary of the Hallelujah Diet. A recent study at the University of California at San Diego found that breast cancer patients who ate extra heaping portions of fruits and vegetables did not enjoy better outcomes than others.
Dr. Cheryl Rock, who co-authored the study, finds the Hallelujah Diet too extreme, difficult to maintain and lacking in protein. "It would be very risky in terms of meeting all our nutritional needs."
To answer such criticisms, including the lack of protein, Malkmus proudly displays his own biceps and insists that he is still building muscle at age 73.
The founder of the Hallelujah Diet is just as feisty in defending its biblical foundation. For example, later in Genesis 9:3, the Bible reads, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you." Asked if that is God's endorsement of eating meat, Malkmus insists that section of Genesis refers only to the time of the great flood, when those aboard Noah's ark had to eat animal flesh.
In other words, Malkmus believes, God gave man a onetime pass to stray from the vegan diet of the Garden of Eden. In fact, Malkmus preaches, according to Genesis, that man lived, on average, for more than 900 years.
For all its critics, the Hallelujah Diet appears to have struck a chord among many diet-conscious Christians. Malkmus has expanded his family-run operation to a former college campus in Shelby, N.C.
Telephone operators field hundreds of calls each day, selling such Hallelujah Diet products as barley juice and vitamin supplements. Malkmus and his son, Paul, who runs the business operation, have ambitious plans for building Hallelujah Acres, a residential and commercial complex complete with a 72-room hotel, condominiums and homes.
That is the ultimate dream of Malkmus: a Christian community of likeminded disciples eating just like Adam and Eve.
Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures
If he did that, he’d have to change the nature of his product package to the gullible.
The last time I checked, there was already a “Biblical Diet” - read Leviticus.
It is clear that Adam told his sons the proper way to make an offering to God. Abel did it the correct way, Cain did not.
Cain’s offering was not accepted because it was an offering that HE grew himself - it was an offering of HIS OWN efforts to merit God’s approval. Abel gave the proper offering, the sacrifice of an innocent life for another’s transgressions (symbolic of Christ). The “way of Cain” is trying to earn salvation on your own terms, not the way God tells us we can freely have it.
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"Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
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The founder of the Hallelujah Diet is just as feisty in defending its biblical foundation. For example, later in Genesis 9:3, the Bible reads, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you." Asked if that is God's endorsement of eating meat, Malkmus insists that section of Genesis refers only to the time of the great flood, when those aboard Noah's ark had to eat animal flesh.
He'd have more credibility if he got his Scripture straight. Eating of flesh was given to man AFTER they got off the ark. Also, man was only eating fruit in the Garden. Vegetables came after they got kicked out, too.
I can't believe this diet is still around. I know people who were doing it about 8 years ago. They were supplementing with Barley Green. EEEEWWWW!!!!
I always figured that a Garden of Eden diet worked well in the Garden of Eden. Since I don't have a Garden of Eden body nor do we grow Garden of Eden fruit, it ain't going to work.
Yes, and later Paul tells others to ‘eat whatever is put in front of you’ as not to offend or give someone a stumbling block about the legalism of certain foods.
That said, God had good reasons for the Levitical instructions (pre-refrigeration times, not eat bottom feeding animals, etc).
We agree. I did not include Paul’s words because they were not a “dietary system” per se.
As an aside, there have been times that I have kept Kosher and, dang, I *gained* weight. It was all that grain...
God tells Peter in Acts 10 to “kill and eat” - in essence negating the food restrictions of the Old Covenant. Why do Christians continue to insist that they are wiser than God? Why do they oppose Paul, and seek to return to Judaism and to put themselves under the Law?
That was before the Flood...never after the Flood.
Amen. “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.”
(((sigh)))Too many I am afraid. I know one woman who is "Christian" but also insists that it is important to keep kosher. No amount of quoting scriptures would convince her otherwise.
Traitor!
Very well stated.
And yet this pastor is arguing for it and promoting it??? What for?
Read Genesis 9:3 in context (vv 1-7)
It makes even less sense when you consider that the permission to eat meat was given AFTER the flood had already subsided and they had left the ark (Gen 8:13-19).
Gen 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Gen 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
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I guess I should add that Cain’s vegetarian offering was REJECTED by God.
Gen 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Gen 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
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Why did Abel raise sheep? Certainly not to eat, as this was not permitted until after the flood.
Why was Abel's offering accepted while Cain's was not? Is was not because Cain's was "vegetarian". As you quoted, Abel brought the "firstlings of his flock"; but Cain's offering is described differently: He only brought "some of the fruits of the soil" (Gen 4:3). It seems to me that Abel offered to God the "first portions" of his work, while Cain kept the "first portions" of his work for himself.
Since God gave none of those reasons in Scripture, I assume you are able to read God's mind to discern these "good reasons".
Because they think they can be holier than God.
Make that ....."who takes some parts of the Bible literally......."
Anyone got a good recipe for Manna? ;)
I wonder how the good reverend knows what plants were actually growing in the garden of Eden, and where we can find them today.
Some folks are just plain gullible.
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