Question
Dear Gramps,
Will we eat meat and other animal by-products in the millennium, or will we all be vegan?
Wondering
Answer
Dear Wondering,
I suspect you know the answer. But yes, barring any Star Trek-style food replicators, we will be vegetarian (I can’t say for certain if we will consume milk or eggs . . . ). The scriptures clearly state that there will be no death in the millennium. At least death as we currently know it:
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie had this to say:
“Isaiah gives us these poetically phrased particulars about animal life during the Millennium. ‘The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,’ he says, ‘and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock.’ Implicit in this pronouncement is the fact that man and all forms of life will be vegetarians in the coming day; the eating of meat will cease, because, for one thing, death as we know it ceases. There will be no shedding of blood, because man and beast are changed (quickened) and blood no longer flows in their veins.” (658)
For those who find the idea troubling, imagine how cats feel. Cats are obligate carnivores (meaning they ONLY eat meat, unlike other carnivores like bears that eat meat and plants). And yet Isaiah specifically mentioned the lion and the leopard. So no meat. If the cats can do it, we can.
Grandma says the real question we must ask is ‘will there be chocolate?’
Gramps
