119 Ministries put out a video on this topic (link below) and asked their viewers to test their teaching. So I did. I have a feeling that some folks will not be happy with what I found.
Acts 15:1-29 is where we read about the Jerusalem Council. Paul, James, and the apostles and elders convened in Jerusalem around AD 50 to discuss what should be required of the new Gentile believers. Were the Gentiles instructed to keep the Law of Moses as a matter of salvation? Were they instructed to keep the Law as a matter of obedience? Or something else?
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119 Ministries video: Acts 15: Obedience or Legalism?
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NOTES
I wanted to keep my video on point, so I left out a few other issues where I disagree with this 119 Ministries video:
1.) Acts 15:1 says, "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.'" 119 Ministries teaches these men were from the Circumcision Party. I agree with that assumption. However, 119 goes a step further and describes these men as "unbelievers." That doesn't make sense for a couple reasons: (a.) That would mean that non-believing Jews were teaching believing Gentiles they need to be circumcised. Which would only make sense if those non-believing Jews were trying to get Gentiles to denounce Yeshua and convert to Judaism. But there is nothing in this chapter that suggests that was the case. In fact, the context of Acts 15 is entirely inconsistent with that scenario. (b.) The other passages in the NT where the Circumcision Party is mentioned—Acts 11:2, Gal 2:12, Titus 1;10—indicate they were a sect of Jewish Believers in Yeshua who taught that circumcision was required. (c.) In Acts 15:24, those who were teaching that circumcision is required are referred to as people who "have gone out from us"—"us" referring to the church in Jerusalem—indicating that they were, in fact, believers.
2.) The letter written by the council says, "Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions" (Acts 15:24). This is further evidence that the Jerusalem Council was not hearing a debate between "two different groups with two different doctrines," as the 119 Ministries video claims. The letter refers only to one group of people troubling the Gentiles with their words.
3.) In Acts 15:10, Peter says, "Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" What yoke is Peter talking about? It was the burden of the Law's rigorous demands, something sinful humanity was unable to keep. The entire Old Testament is a case study in how poorly God's people had done up to that point in keeping His Law.
