Chapter VI. - Jew and Gentile.
The next day after the stoning of Paul, the apostles left the
city, according to the direction of Christ: "When they persecute you in this
city, flee ye into another." They departed for Derbe, where their labours were
blessed, and many souls were led to embrace the truth. But both Paul and
Barnabas returned again to visit Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the fields of
labour where they had met such opposition and persecution. In all those places
were many that believed the truth; and the apostles felt it their duty to
strengthen and encourage their brethren who were exposed to reproach and bitter
opposition. They were determined to securely bind off the
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work which they had done, that it might not ravel out.
Churches were organized in the places mentioned, elders appointed in each
church, and the proper order established there. {LP 62.2}
Paul and Barnabas soon after returned to Antioch in Syria,
where they again laboured for some time; and many Gentiles there embraced the
doctrine of Christ. But certain Jews from Judea raised a general consternation
among the believing Gentiles by agitating the question of circumcision. They
asserted with great assurance, that none could be saved without being
circumcised and keeping the entire ceremonial law. {LP 63.1}
This was an important question, and one which affected the
church in a very great degree. Paul and Barnabas met it with promptness, and
opposed introducing the subject to the Gentiles. They were opposed in this by
the believing Jews of Antioch, who favoured the position of those from Judea.
The matter resulted in much discussion and want of harmony in the church, until
finally the church of Antioch, apprehending that a division among them would
occur from any further discussion of the question, decided to send Paul and
Barnabas, together with some responsible men of Antioch, to Jerusalem, to lay
the matter before the apostles and elders. There they were to meet delegates
from the different churches, and those who had come to attend the approaching
annual festivals. Meanwhile all controversy was to cease until a final decision
should be made by the responsible men of the church. This decision was then to
be universally accepted by the various churches throughout the country. {LP
63.2}
The apostles, in making their way to
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Jerusalem, called upon the brethren of the cities through
which they passed, and encouraged them by relating their experience in the work
of God, and the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith. Upon arriving at
Jerusalem, the delegates from Antioch related before the assembly of the
churches the success that had attended the ministry with them, and the confusion
that had resulted from the fact that certain converted Pharisees declared that
the Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to
be saved. {LP 63.3}
The Jews were not generally prepared to move as fast as the
providence of God opened the way. It was evident to them from the result of the
apostles' labours among the Gentiles, that the converts among the latter people
would far exceed the Jewish converts; and that if the restrictions and
ceremonies of the Jewish law were not made obligatory upon their accepting the
faith of Christ, the national peculiarities of the Jews, which kept them
distinct from all other people, would finally disappear from among those who
embraced the gospel truths. {LP 64.1}
The Jews had prided themselves upon their divinely appointed
services; and they concluded that as God once specified the Hebrew manner of
worship, it was impossible that he should ever authorize a change in any of its
specifications. They decided that Christianity must connect itself with the
Jewish laws and ceremonies. They were slow to discern to the end of that which
had been abolished by the death of Christ, and to perceive that all their
sacrificial offerings had but prefigured the death of the Son of God, in which
type had met its antitype rendering
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valueless the divinely appointed ceremonies and sacrifices of
the Jewish religion. {LP 64.2}
Paul had prided himself upon his Pharisaical strictness; but
after the revelation of Christ to him on the road to Damascus, the mission of
the Saviour, and his own work in the conversion of the Gentiles, were plain to
his mind; and he fully comprehended the difference between a living faith and a
dead formalism. Paul still claimed to be one of the children of Abraham, and
kept the ten commandments in letter and in spirit as faithfully as he had ever
done before his conversion to Christianity. But he knew that the typical
ceremonies must soon altogether cease, since that which they had shadowed forth
had come to pass, and the light of the gospel was shedding its glory upon the
Jewish religion, giving a new significance to its ancient rites. {LP 65.1}
The question of circumcision was warmly discussed in the
assembly. The Gentile converts lived in a community of idolaters. Sacrifices and
offerings were made to senseless idols, by these ignorant and superstitious
people. The priests of these gods carried on an extensive merchandise with the
offerings brought to them; and the Jews feared that the Gentile converts would
bring Christianity into disrepute by purchasing those things which had been
offered to idols, and thereby sanctioning, in some measure, an idolatrous
worship. {LP 65.2}
Also, the Gentiles were accustomed to eat the flesh of
animals that had been strangled; while the Jews had been divinely instructed
with regard to the food they should use. They were particular, in killing
beasts, that the blood should flow from the body, else it was not regarded as
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healthful meat. God had given these injunctions to the Jews
for the purpose of preserving their health and strength. The Jews considered it
sinful to use blood as an article of diet. They considered that the blood was
the life; and that the shedding of blood was in consequence of sin. {LP 65.3}
The Gentiles, on the contrary, practised catching the blood
which flowed from the victim of sacrifice, and drinking it, or using it in the
preparation of their food. The Jews could not change the customs which they had
so long observed, and which they had adopted under the special direction of God.
Therefore, as things then stood, if Jew and Gentile came to eat at the same
table, the former would be shocked and outraged by the habits and manners of the
latter. {LP 66.1}
The Gentiles, and especially the Greeks, were extremely
licentious; and many, in accepting Christianity, had united the truth to their
unsanctified natures, and continued to practice fornication. The Jewish
Christians could not tolerate such immorality, which was not even regarded as
criminal by the Greeks. The Jews, therefore, held it highly proper that
circumcision, and the observance of the ceremonial law, should be brought to the
Gentile converts as a test of their sincerity and devotion. This they believed
would prevent the accession to the church of those who were carried away by mere
feeling, or who adopted the faith without a true conversion of heart, and who
might afterward disgrace the cause by immorality and excesses. {LP 66.2}
The questions thus brought under the consideration of the
council seemed to present insurmountable difficulties, viewed in whatever light.
But the Holy Ghost had, in reality, already settled
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this problem, upon the decision of which depended the
prosperity, and even the existence, of the Christian church. Grace, wisdom, and
sanctified judgment were given to the apostles to decide the vexed question. {LP
66.3}
Peter reasoned that the Holy Ghost had decided the matter by
descending with equal power upon the uncircumcised Gentiles and the circumcised
Jews. He recounted his vision, in which God had presented before him a sheet
filled with all manner of four-footed beasts, and had bidden him kill and eat;
that when he had refused, affirming that he had never eaten that which was
common or unclean, God had said, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou
common." {LP 67.1}
He related the plain interpretation of these words, which was
given to him almost immediately in his summons to go to the Gentile centurion,
and instruct him in the faith of Christ. This message showed that God was no
respecter of persons, but accepted and acknowledged those who feared him, and
worked righteousness. Peter told of his astonishment, when, in speaking the
words of truth to the Gentiles, he witnessed the Holy Spirit take possession of
his hearers, both Jews and Gentiles. The same light and glory that was reflected
upon the circumcised Jews, shone also upon the countenances of the uncircumcised
Gentiles. This was the warning of God that he should not regard the one as
inferior to the other; for the blood of Jesus Christ could cleanse from all
uncleanness. {LP 67.2}
Peter had reasoned once before, in like manner, with his
brethren, concerning the conversion of Cornelius and his friends, and his
fellowship with them. On that occasion he had related how
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the Holy Ghost fell on them, and had said, "Forasmuch then as
God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, what was I that I could withstand God?" Now, with equal fervour and
force, he said, "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and
them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye God, to put
a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear?" {LP 67.3}
This yoke was not the law of ten commandments, as those who
oppose the binding claim of the law assert; but Peter referred to the law of
ceremonies, which was made null and void by the crucifixion of Christ. This
address of Peter brought the assembly to a point where they could listen with
reason to Paul and Barnabas, who related their experience in working among the
Gentiles. "Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas
and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles
by them." {LP 68.1}
James bore his testimony with decision--that God designed to
bring in the Gentiles to enjoy all the privileges of the Jews. The Holy Ghost
saw good not to impose the ceremonial law on the Gentile converts; and the
apostles and elders, after careful investigation of the subject, saw the matter
in the same light, and their mind was as the mind of the Spirit of God. James
presided at the council, and his final decision was, "Wherefore my sentence is,
that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God."
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{LP 68.2}
This ended the discussion. In this instance we have a
refutation of the doctrine held by the Roman Catholic Church--that Peter was the
head of the church. Those who, as popes, have claimed to be his successors, have
no foundation for their pretensions. Nothing in the life of Peter gives sanction
to those pretended claims. If the professed successors of Peter had imitated his
example, they would have taken no authoritative position, but one on an equality
with that of their brethren. {LP 69.1}
James, in this instance, seems to have been chosen to decide
the matter which was brought before the council. It was his sentence that the
ceremonial law, and especially the ordinance of circumcision, be not in any wise
urged upon the Gentiles, or even recommended to them. James sought to impress
the fact upon his brethren that the Gentiles, in turning to God from idolatry,
made a great change in their faith; and that much caution should be used not to
trouble their minds with perplexing and doubtful questions, lest they be
discouraged in following Christ. {LP 69.2}
The Gentiles, however, were to take no course which should
materially conflict with the views of their Jewish brethren, or which would
create prejudice in their minds against them. The apostles and elders therefore
agreed to instruct the Gentiles by letter to abstain from meats offered to
idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood. They were
required to keep the commandments, and to lead holy lives. The Gentiles were
assured that the men who had urged circumcision upon them were not authorized to
do so by the apostles. {LP 69.3}
Paul and Barnabas were recommended to them
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as men who had hazarded their lives for the Lord. Judas and
Silas were sent with these apostles to declare to the Gentiles, by word of
mouth, the decision of the council: "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and
to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye
abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled,
and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well." The
four servants of God were sent to Antioch with the epistle and message, which
put an end to all controversy; for it was the voice of the highest authority
upon earth. {LP 69.4}
The council which decided this case was composed of the
founders of the Jewish and Gentile Christian churches. Elders from Jerusalem,
and deputies from Antioch, were present; and the most influential churches were
represented. The council did not claim infallibility in their deliberations, but
moved from the dictates of enlightened judgment, and with the dignity of a
church established by the divine will. They saw that God himself had decided
this question by favourings the Gentiles with the Holy Ghost; and it was left
for them to follow the guidance of the Spirit. {LP 70.1}
The entire body of Christians were not called to vote upon
the question. The apostles and elders--men of influence and judgment--framed and
issued the decree, which was thereupon generally accepted by the Christian
churches. All were not pleased, however, with this decision; there was a faction
of false brethren who assumed to engage in a work on their own responsibility.
They indulged in murmuring and fault-finding, proposing new plans, and seeking
to pull down the work of the experienced
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men whom God had ordained to teach the doctrine of Christ.
The church has had such obstacles to meet from the first, and will ever have
them to the close of time. {LP 70.2}
Jerusalem was the metropolis of the Jews, and there were
found the greatest exclusiveness and bigotry. The Jewish Christians who lived in
sight of the temple would naturally allow their minds to revert to the peculiar
privileges of the Jews as a nation. As they saw Christianity departing from the
ceremonies and traditions of Judaism, and perceived that the peculiar sacredness
with which the Jewish customs had been invested would soon be lost sight of in
the light of the new faith, many grew indignant against Paul, as one who had, in
a great measure, caused this change. Even the disciples were not all prepared to
willingly accept the decision of the council. Some were zealous for the
ceremonial law, and regarded Paul with jealousy, because they thought his
principles were lax in regard to the obligation of the Jewish law. {LP 71.1}
When Peter, at a later date, visited Antioch, he acted in
accordance with the light given him from Heaven, and the decision of the
council. He overcame his natural prejudice so far as to sit at table with the
Gentile converts. But when certain Jews who were most zealous for the ceremonial
law came from Jerusalem, he changed his deportment toward the converts from
paganism in so marked a degree that it left a most painful impression upon their
minds. Quite a number followed Peter's example. Even Barnabas was influenced by
the injudicious course of the apostle; and a division was threatened in the
church. But Paul, who saw the wrong done the church
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through the double part acted by Peter, openly rebuked him
for thus disguising his true sentiments. {LP 71.2}
Peter saw the error into which he had fallen, and immediately
set about repairing it as far as possible. God, who knoweth the end from the
beginning, permitted Peter to exhibit this weakness of character, in order that
he might see that there was nothing in himself whereof he might boast. God also
saw that in time to come some would be so deluded as to claim for Peter and his
pretended successors, exalted prerogatives which belong only to God; and this
history of the apostle's weakness was to remain as a proof of his human
fallibility, and of the fact that he stood in no way above the level of the
other apostles. {LP 72.1}