From Trials to Triumph

The First General Church Council

At Jerusalem the delegates from Antioch related the success that had attended their ministry among the Gentiles. They then gave a clear outline of the confusion that had resulted because certain converted Pharisees had declared that the Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. TT 101.2

This question was warmly discussed in the assembly, also the problem of meats offered to idols. Many Gentile converts were living among superstitious people who made frequent sacrifices and offerings to idols. The Jews feared that Gentile converts would bring Christianity into disrepute by purchasing that which had been offered to idols, thereby sanctioning idolatrous customs. TT 101.3

Again, the Gentiles were accustomed to eat the flesh of animals that had been strangled; the Jews had been divinely instructed that when beasts were killed for food, the blood should flow from the body. God had given these injunctions for preserving health. The Jews regarded it as sinful to use blood as an article of diet. The Gentiles, on the contrary, practiced catching the blood from the sacrificial victim and using it in the preparation of food. Therefore, if Jew and Gentile should eat at the same table, the former would be shocked and outraged by the latter. TT 101.4

The Gentiles, especially Greeks, were licentious, and there was danger that some would make a profession of faith without renouncing their evil practices. The Jewish Christians could not tolerate the immorality that was not even regarded as criminal by the heathen. The Jews therefore held that circumcision and the observance of the ceremonial law should be enjoined on Gentile converts as a test of their sincerity. This, they believed, would prevent the addition to the church of those who afterward might bring reproach on the cause by immorality. TT 102.1

The various points involved seemed to present before the council insurmountable difficulties. “After there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, ‘Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.’” He reasoned that the Holy Spirit had decided the matter under dispute by descending with equal power on Gentiles and Jews. He recounted his vision and related his summons to go to the centurion and instruct him in the faith of Christ. This message showed that God accepted all who feared Him. Peter told of his astonishment when he witnessed the Holy Spirit taking possession of Gentiles as well as Jews. Light and glory shone also on the faces of the uncircumcised Gentiles. This was God's warning that Peter was not to regard one as inferior to the other, for the blood of Christ could cleanse from all uncleanness. TT 102.2

Once before, Peter had related how the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles. He declared: “If then God gave the same gift to them as He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” Acts 11:17, RSV. Now, with equal force, he said: “God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” This yoke was not the Ten Commandments. Peter here referred to the law of ceremonies, which was made void by the crucifixion of Christ. TT 102.3

“All the assembly kept silence; and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.” TT 103.1