Bible Studies

---

During the years following Jesus’ resurrection, the Church was growing wildly and was receiving converts from all backgrounds. At the same time, within the church leadership, two groups were emerging:

One group believed that Christianity should be a sect of Judaism:
“And certain men who came down form Judea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1)

This raised several issues:
• They were arguing that circumcision was a sacrament…it was necessary for salvation.
• That the circumcision had to be “after the manner of Moses”. Other cultures practiced circumcision* so it wasn’t enough to be circumcised, you had to become a Jew (with all that represented), before you could become a Christian.
* According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: “Circumcision-the removal of the foreskin is a custom that has prevailed, and prevails, among many races in different parts of the world-…It was in vogue among the western Semites-Hebrews, Arabians, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Egyptians…”

The other group believed that salvation came by faith in Christ alone.

These two groups were at odds and a council was called to decide the issues. This meeting has become known as the Jerusalem Council. It was commissioned by the Church of Antioch (Acts 15:2) with a deputation consisting of Paul and Barnabas who supported the salvation alone position and was convened in AD 49 or 50. There were a series of meetings, some public and some only with the church leadership.

During the meetings Paul and Barabas testified about their work among the gentiles (Acts 15:4). The Judaizers stood against Paul and Barnabas and advocated for circumcision and the keeping of the law of Moses (Acts 15:5). After much arguing (Acts 15:7) Peter supported the Antioch delegation’s position and James announced the decision to the assemblage citing Amos 9:11-12 as evidence of God’s plan to evangelize the gentiles. The decision was to advocate salvation by faith alone but that believers should also abstain: from pollutions of idols, from fornications, from things strangled, and from blood.

The implications for today’s church are many:
• Had the Council sided with the Judaizers, no gentile could be saved since they would first have to become Jews.
• The Church of Jesus Christ would have been corrupted as the saving power of Jesus’ death for our sins would have been despised in favor of keeping of the law.
• There would be no new testament (covenant). In the sense that the old covenant was represented by the circumcision of the flesh (Genesis 17:11), the new testament (covenant) is represented by the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29).
• On a positive note, the Council represents how disputes should be settled; submit them to the church leadership and abide by the decision. Today, the church would just split or form a new denomination.
A few ironic things:
• while circumcision was the initial cause of the dispute with Moses being held up as the great law giver, Moses did not circumcised his son until God was going to kill him (Moses) (Exodus 4:24-26). I wonder how many of the Jewish converts at the time of the Jerusalem Council had not been circumcised.
• circumcision today is prevalent among Christians, but dietary restrictions are rare.
• I leave it to the reader to judge for himself/herself how prevalent fornication and idolatry are in today's churches.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE