Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: math1h3@jetson.uh.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Message-ID: Date: 9 Mar 91 06:13:05 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Houston Lines: 55 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , John_Graves@cellbio.duke.edu (John Graves) writes: > My reading of Acts 15 describing the Council of Jerusalem is quite of a > different import than that quoted above. It is my understanding that this > section opened up Christianity to Gentiles and not only Jews. However > they must still remain Kosher: > > But we should write to them [gentiles] to abstain only from things > polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been > strangled and from blood. (Acts 15:20) > > This then repeated to the people at Antioch through Judas and Silas in > Acts 15:29. It seems clear that the council did not fully agree with > Peter's more radical postion and took a bit of a compromise position. > Only the sexual and dietary parts of the law were required to be kept. > > It would appear that most of us are not following the Council's decision > and are in apostasy if we eat meat that is strangled or in which the blood > has not been drained. But if we are of Jewish origin and became a follower of Jesus there does not seem to be any relaxation of the Jewish law. Actually the intent of the council was not to put the Gentiles under the Law in any way, but to advise them not to give offense to the Jewish christians, "For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagagues on every Sabbath." Acts 15:21. That this is advisory is made clear in the letter from the council, which concludes with the words "You will do well to avoid these things." This interpretation of the Council's actions is consistent with Paul's words in Romans 14, particularly v. 15: "If your brother is destressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died." But he makes it very clear in Galatians that the Christian is not to put himself under the Law. Jesus himself showed that there is no moral principle regarding 'clean' and 'unclean' food for Christians, when he said: "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body. (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods 'clean') "He went on: 'What comes out of a man is what makes him "unclean." For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean'." --Mark 7:18:23. I admit that the decision of the council seems confusing. It had me confused too, when I first read it. David H. Wagner a confessional Lutheran. My opinions and beliefs on this matter are disclaimed by The University of Houston.