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Continuing our discussion from part three, as I point out in articles such as "Dead to the Law: God's Laws Written on Our Hearts", this problem regarding Jewish legalism infiltrating the Lord's Church became so great, that the Apostle Paul was finally forced to travel to Jerusalem in order to come to an agreement with the Church Elders there. In other words, Paul was seeking for both clarification and confirmation of the Gospel which he preached to the Gentiles. As we know from reading the four Gospels, Jesus personally appointed Peter, James and John as His inner circle of leaders. Thus, they are also the central leadership in Jerusalem in the Book of Acts. Following are a few verses which confirm this point:

"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,"


"And he [Jesus] suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James."


"And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them."


"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,"


"And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;"


"And when he [Jesus] came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden."


"And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray."


"And when James, Cephas [Peter], and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision."


As you will see by the Scriptures below, the leadership in Jerusalem clearly agreed with Paul that circumcision -- and other aspects of Jewish law, traditions and customs -- were not applicable to the Gentile converts. In other words, such things were not necessary in order for the Gentile converts to obtain Salvation. Furthermore, it is in fact Peter and James who voice their opinions in the following verses. Let me mention here that for the sake of brevity, I have only included the key verses below. I encourage you to read the entire chapter, as your time permits. It is quite an interesting read:

"And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren . . . 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? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they."


"And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me . . . Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood."


"And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment . . . 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. Fare ye well."


Before fully discussing the previous group of verses, let me interject one thing. Please notice that Peter says ". . . why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" This is in fact a reference to what the Lord said in Matthew chapter eleven, John chapter eight, and elsewhere in the Gospels. For a full explanation of the following verses, please refer to my three-part series called "What Does 'The Truth Shall Make You Free' Really Mean?":

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."


"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free . . . If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."


Now, allow me to call your attention to a few things in the previous group of verses which describe the Church meeting that was held in Jerusalem. First of all, notice that Peter says "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved." My friends, you cannot get much clearer than that. By saying "through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ", Peter is plainly stating that no other laws, customs, traditions or conditions are required -- just Jesus -- which is exactly what Paul was preaching as well. Stated another way, despite the legalism which had begun to creep into the Church in Jerusalem, the core leadership there still embraced a Gospel based on God's Grace alone, and NOT on self-righteous works.

After that, you will notice that the Apostle James continues by outlining only four restrictions -- and not hundreds of difficult-to-keep statutes of the Mosaic Law -- from which the Gentile converts should abstain themselves. Those four restrictions were idolatry, food which contains blood, meat from animals that are strangled, and fornication. These four things -- and only these four things -- were included in the letters which they sent to the Gentile brethren.

Furthermore, the core leadership of the Church in Jerusalem made it clear that they personally never issued any kind of order stating that Gentile Believers had to be circumcised. They wrote "we gave no such commandment". But that isn't all. Notice what else their short letter stated. Not only do the Apostles clear their own name by stating that they never gave an order for Gentile converts to be circumcised, but we also see that they gave no commandment to "keep the law". Wow! My friends, it is right there in black and white. What law are Peter, James and John referring to? Obviously the Mosaic Law. They are clearly writing that they never gave any order for Gentile Believers to keep the Laws of Moses. They in fact refused to place such a heavy burden on the Gentile converts, exactly as Peter clearly stated above. Now isn't that just amazing?

Yet tragically, as we have already amply discussed, today we have legalists and Apostle Paul haters who are endeavoring to do that very thing. They are working their hardest to place modern-day Christian Believers back under the bondage of the Mosaic Law, and other Jewish laws, customs and traditions. In a sense, they are trying to convert New Testament Christians into Old Testament law-observing Jews! By so doing, they are in fact contradicting the very pattern which was established by the First Century Church regarding Gentile Believers. It is the same legalistic attack as two thousand years ago! I hope that just my saying this will wake up some of you folks to the legalistic folly in which you are currently engaged.

As I said earlier, these misguided, legalistic deceivers are the modern-day version of the Scribes and the Pharisees who placed the very same heavy burden on the people in the four Gospels. There is no difference. They are just as proud, and just as argumentative. If you don't agree with them, some of them will even go so far as to accuse you of not even being a real Christian. That is how blind and how deceived they are. Trust me, I have read enough of their comments to know. That is why I ignore them like the plague. I do NOT engage them.

Now, in addition to the six hundred plus commandments which form a part of Jewish law, do you notice anything important that is missing from the Apostles' letter to the Gentiles? It is in fact something that's quite heavily promoted by so many Christian legalists and Judaizers today. If not, as I mention in the article entitled "Are Christians Obligated to Keep the Sabbath?", it is the Sabbath observance. If you are heavily engaged in the social networks, then you will probably know that every week without fail, many Christians will post on their pages how they are keeping the Sabbath, and they will wish their friends a happy Sabbath. Personally, I just sigh.

Returning to Acts 15, so that we have zero doubts regarding exactly what was said to the Gentile Believers, those four abstentions are mentioned twice in the previous verses, and not once is observing the Sabbath mentioned among them. The three individuals who Jesus appointed as His inner circle, and who became the leaders of His First Century Church, did not enforce Sabbath observance on the First Century Gentile converts. Thus, we are forced to ask ourselves where this modern-day legalistic requirement came from. Certainly not from Jesus or the Apostles.

Let me add that sometimes, Christian Judaizers will inform me that one reason why they like to observe the Sabbath and other Jewish feast days, follow kosher laws, and do all of the other things that they do, is not because they believe that it really saves them, or because they believe that it helps God to save them, but because they are convinced that they are pleasing God by obeying Him. However, in my view, if the Early Church never required such things of Gentile converts, then how can doing such things really be pleasing to the Lord? As I pointed out a minute ago, we are NOT Old Testament Jews. We are New Testament Christians. As such, we should follow the pattern which was established by the First Century Church. That pattern never included forcing any of the Gentile converts to do such things.

Now, while this will probably offend some of my readers who may be of that persuasion, let me say this: Quite frankly, my personal impression is that the real reason why some of them so readily bow to so much Jewish legalism, is because they are actually trying to improve, or perhaps prove, how Jewish they are -- even though they are really Gentiles in the flesh -- and show exactly how much they love and support the state of Israel. In a word, they have been duped by and blinded by Zionist propaganda. If you doubt that this is so, simply visit some of the modern churches where Zionism has taken a very strong hold. You may begin to wonder if you are in a Christian church, or in a Jewish synagogue.

As I have mentioned before, in the USA at least, the problem with Jewish legalism and Zionism encroaching on our faith has become so great -- due to a number of popular preachers and pastors who promote this particular point of view, such as John Hagee and Christians United for Israel -- that certain Christians now embrace the misguided notion that if someone doesn't support Israel in her war against the Muslim nations, he is really not even a true Christian. In short, they have politicized our faith, which is something which Jesus never intended in the least.

In fact, to prove my point, as I write this current series, the Israeli military is still fully engaged in its terrible, destructive war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following the supposedly surprise incursion of Hamas into Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in over 1,200 Israelis being killed, and several hundred hostages being taken into Gaza. As I recently mentioned in another new series, it surprises and shocks me how many of my Christian brethren are outright calling for and rooting for the utter destruction of Hamas. It is all over Facebook, for example.

My question to you misguided people is this: Since when are we Christians supposed to take a side in secular wars, much less root for the destruction of a particular side? I can assure you that you certainly won't find any such teaching in the New Testament. As I have stated before, our faith is supposed to be based on faith in Jesus Christ alone, and NOT on some secular, political or military agenda. After all, as I have clearly explained so many times before, our Kingdom is not of this present world. Therefore, as the Apostle Paul clearly writes, we are not supposed to engage ourselves in the affairs of this life any more than what is absolutely necessary. We are in fact supposed to remain God's "called out ones". That is to say, His "ekklesia". Here are a few verses for your consideration:

"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."


"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."


"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."


"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."


"I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."


"Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence."


"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,"


"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."


Now, for those legalists who may have been offended by some of my previous words, let me just say the following: Look, if you feel the need to keep the Sabbath, to eat only kosher foods, to observe Jewish feast days, to blow the shofar, to strive to keep the Mosaic Law, to take a Jewish name, to call God the Father and Jesus by certain Hebrew names, or whatever you like to do, then by all means do it if it makes you feel better about yourself. However, at the same time, instead of condemning those of us who do not see the need to do such things, please have the decency to respect our position as well. If you need help with doing that, then as I mentioned earlier, please read Romans 14 where the Apostle Paul talks about some of these same issues. In fact, before moving on, let me share the key verses from that chapter with you:

"Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him . . . One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. LET EVERY MAN BE FULLY PERSUADED IN HIS OWN MIND. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks . . . I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost . . . For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me."


To continue, despite the important decisions which were made at the Jerusalem meeting in Acts chapter fifteen concerning the Gentile converts, there is sufficient evidence to prove that the clash between the Jewish legalists and the Jewish Christians endured for many decades. As we've already seen, the legalistic Jewish brethren really despised the Gentile converts, and wanted to place them in bondage to the harsh mandates of Mosaic Law, just like themselves. This included demanding that the Gentiles be circumcised. But on the other hand, the Jewish Christians believed that we are saved by God's Grace alone without the works of the Law. Furthermore, they embraced the Gentile converts as brethren.

Something else which is made perfectly clear in the Bible is the fact that the legalistic, Law-bound Jews were a constant thorn in the Apostle Paul's side. The Book of Acts informs us that some of them were such vicious, vile, wicked devils, that they would even follow Paul around from city to city, and purposely stir up trouble in whatever place he chose to preach. One of the final clashes between the Apostle Paul and these hateful legalists occurred in the temple itself in Jerusalem, and is found in the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Acts, as we read in the following group of verses:

"And when the seven days [of purification] were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him [Paul] in the temple [in Jerusalem], stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.) And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him."


In thinking about these evil, unbelieving Jews who constantly harassed the Apostle Paul wherever he went, and who did their utmost to prevent him from preaching the Gospel, I'm reminded of something which Paul wrote in the following verses which are found in his first Epistle to the Thessalonian brethren. It is very interesting to note that the accusation which Paul makes against the Jews regarding "Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved", is in fact the very same accusation that Jesus made against the Scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew chapter twenty-three. Was this just a mere coincidence? I think not. Consider the following set of verses:

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! FOR YE SHUT UP THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AGAINST MEN: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."


"For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: FORBIDDING US TO SPEAK TO THE GENTILES THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."


While the clash in the temple compound may have appeared to be a negative turn of events, let us not forget that in the very next chapter of the Book of Acts, Paul recited how the Lord had told him "Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." Furthermore, we are informed in Acts chapter twenty-three that the Lord stood by Paul and told him the following:

"And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome."


As it turned out, the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for about two years, after which time he was given the opportunity at different times to witness to Ananias the high priest, to governor Felix, to governor Festus, to king Herod Agrippa II and his sister Bernice, and ultimately to Emperor Nero in Rome itself, exactly as the Lord had told him would occur. All of these events are described in considerable detail in the final five chapters of the Book of Acts, as well as in a few of the footnotes which appear at the end of several of the Epistles.

As we discussed earlier, despite the evidence I have provided in this series to prove otherwise, some of these modern-day Apostle Paul idolizers seem to believe that the Gospel which Paul preached was somehow different from the Gospel which was preached by Jesus and the Apostles in the Gospels, as well as in the Book of Acts. They argue that Paul preached the Gospel of Grace, while the Lord and the Apostles preached what the Scriptures refer to as the Gospel of the Kingdom. On three different occasions in two of his Epistles, Paul refers to the message he preached as "my gospel", as we can determine by the following three verses:

"In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL."


"Now to him that is of power to stablish you ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,"


"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL:"


So the question which arises is why the Apostle Paul would use that particular phraseology in his Epistles. Was it to show that the message he preached was different from what Jesus and the Apostles preached? My response would be "no", because Paul preached the same three-point Gospel as they did, as we discussed earlier in this series. Let me share those three points from 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 with you one more time to refresh your memory:

1. Christ died for our sins
2. He was buried
3. He rose again the third day

For example, while in Athens, Luke describes the following interaction which the Apostle Paul had with the incredulous Epicurean and Stoick philosophers, some of whom found his discussion of the resurrection from the dead a bit hard to swallow:

"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: BECAUSE HE PREACHED UNTO THEM JESUS, AND THE RESURRECTION. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? . . . AND WHEN THEY HEARD OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter."


As you can plainly see, Paul preached Christ crucified and resurrected, exactly as we see in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

Please go to part five for the continuation of this series.

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