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The Jerusalem Conference
What
was the Jerusalem conference?
BibleStudy.org
“People of different nations could accept Jesus as Savior and
Messiah without becoming Jewish or an Israelite.”
When and why was it
convened? Who attended it? What hotly debated doctrine did it settle?
The Jerusalem Conference,
discussed in Acts 15, was convened in order to settle a hotly debated but
crucial teaching within the early New Testament
church.
Occurring in the fall
of 49 A.D., the outcome of this gathering (possibly the last of its kind) of
apostles, other church leadership, and brethren in Jerusalem would affect the
course of Christianity to the present day.
The catalyst for
organizing the Jerusalem Conference occurred in the city of Syrian Antioch.
A sect of the Jews
known as the Pharisees,
who had become believers in Jesus Christ, began to openly teach (especially to
gentiles) that salvation could not be achieved unless a person was circumcised.
The main thrust of
the argument is found in the first verse of Acts 15 and is reiterated in
Jerusalem (verse 5) when the church gathered to discuss it.
The Bible states, "Now certain men who had come down from
Judea (to Antioch) were teaching the brethren, saying, 'Unless you are
circumcised after the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved'" (Acts 15:1, HBFV
throughout).
The debate regarding
this contentious issue, which involved Paul, Barnabas and Pharisees from Judea,
became so hot that the church sent the two apostles, along with others, to
Jerusalem (Acts 15:2) in order to resolve the issue in consultation with the original
apostles and church members.
It is important to
note that the issue which caused the gathering to be convened centered strictly
around circumcision and its role in salvation, and NOT whether the entirety of
God's Old Testament laws were binding or not on gentiles. It concerned how
people were accepted by God (known as justification).
Jews in general,
especially the zealous Pharisees from Jerusalem, looked upon circumcision as
what brought them into a relationship with God.
For the Jew this rite
was the equivalent of a Christian baptism.
At the conference,
Peter testifies that God has given uncircumcised but repentant gentiles the
Holy Spirit (which makes them a Christian).
The Apostles Paul and
Barnabas also report before brethren in Jerusalem how the Eternal wrought
many miracles through
them as they preached the gospel to those who were not Jewish (Acts 15:12).
The evidence
presented supports Peter's conclusion that it makes no sense, and in fact adds
an unnecessary burden, to require already converted gentiles (let alone those
seeking to have a relationship with God) to become circumcised.
And God, Who knows
the heart, bore witness to them (gentiles - verse 7) by giving them the Holy Spirit, even
as He did to us . . .
“Now therefore, why do you (the Pharisees and those who believed
circumcision was required in order to receive salvation) tempt God by putting a
yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear?" (Acts 15:8, 10-11)
The "yoke"
Peter discusses in verse 10, from its immediate context, is not the content of
God's law but the FALSE approach that had grown up in Jewish (especially
Pharisaical) tradition regarding how a person was justified and saved.
The Consensus Decision
"Therefore,
my judgment (the Apostle James) is that we do not trouble those of the Gentiles
who have turned to God; But that we write to them to abstain from pollutions of
idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled and from
blood" (Acts 15:19-20, see also verses 28-29).
The primary
conclusion arrived at by those in Jerusalem was that salvation was freely
available to both Jew and gentiles without the prerequisite of having to be
circumcised.
Race and ethnicity
were not important in the process of saving individuals.
People of different
nations could accept Jesus as Savior and Messiah without becoming Jewish or an
Israelite.
The Jerusalem
Conference did not pluck the four prohibitions listed in verse 20 (and again in
verse 29) arbitrarily out of thin air.
These restrictions,
based upon Leviticus 17 and 18, were the same four prohibitions that the
competing non-Pharisaical interpretation of the law had said should be imposed
on the gentiles who wished to convert to Judaism.
These prohibitions
actually reinforces the fact that God's law were still IN FORCE for New
Testament believers.
Before their
conversion to Christianity, gentiles who worshipped false gods were notorious
for practicing what is listed in Acts 15:20.
This part of the decision
made by the conference merely reminds them that their former behavior was wrong
and encourages them to continue their rejection of how they formerly lived and
worshipped.
An Incorrect Interpretation
The decision of the conference held in Jerusalem was written down
and sent to the churches (Acts
15:22-23).
It began with the following words that acknowledged the reason why
a decision was needed.
“Inasmuch as we have heard that certain ones among us (i.e. former
Pharisees) who went to you have troubled your souls with words, saying, 'You
are obligated to be circumcised and to keep the law' (to whom we gave no such
command)” (Acts 15:24)
An antinomian
(anti-law) interpretation of Acts 15:24 claims that circumcision and "the
Law" (found in the Old Testament) are basically separate entities,
with the former just one law out of the latter, and that the conference
abolished both, excepting the still binding regulations found in verse 20 (reiterated in verse
29).
The gaping hole with
this logic is that if this interpretation were true then ONLY the four
restrictions listed in verse 20 would still be in force while other Old Testament restrictions
such as not to murder, steal, commit incest and so on would not!
Such logic would
abolish the two great commandments of loving God above all and your neighbor as
yourself (Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18).
As the Bible states,
the only issue under discussion at the Jerusalem meeting was whether gentiles
needed to be circumcised or not in order to receive salvation.
The Result
The outcome of the
conference in Jerusalem was not a ruling that stated that Christians no longer
were obliged to keep the bulk of God's Old Testament law.
The decision arrived
at was that gentiles were not required to be circumcised before they could
enter into a covenant relationship with God.
This opened the door
for a greater number of gentiles to enter into the saved community of
Christians, which had been made, up to this time, mostly of converted Jews.
The ultimate
influence of the Jerusalem Conference was that it led to a separation between
Christianity and Judaism as world religions, and encouraged gentiles to
become Christians.
Because of its
openness in accepting anyone who repents of their sins and accepts Jesus as
their Savior, Christianity since the first century A.D. has grown tremendously
larger than the Jewish religion.
The conference held
in Jerusalem stands as one of the greatest events in the New Testament!
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