Soyeong
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- Mar 10, 2015
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I did not say that Gentiles should become Jews, but that Gentiles should obey the Torah. Christ spend his ministry teaching His followers how to obey the Torah by word and by example, so Gentiles can choose whether or not to follow him, but Gentiles can't follow him by refusing to follow what he taught, and Acts 15:24 should not be interpreted as ruling that Gentiles should not follow Christ.Acts 15:24 should not be misinterpreted in a way that requires Gentiles to become torah observant Jews, which the quoted post seems to be suggesting. After referring to circumcision and keeping the law as a yoke that even Jewish ancestors could not bear Paul was certainly not telling former pagan gentiles to start going to synagogues where they most certainly would be required to become torah observant.
Acts 15:10-11 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? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
The above verses make it clear that they did not refer to circumcision and keeping the Torah as being a yoke that no one could bear, but rather they were referring to circumcision and keeping the Torah as a means of resulting in our salvation as being a yoke that no one could bear, which was proposed in Acts 15:1, as opposed to salvation by grace. Earning our justification as the result of obeying the Torah has always been a fundamental misunderstanding of the reasons why we should obey it, so while they were opposed to Gentiles obeying the Torah for incorrect reasons they still expected Gentiles to learn over time how to obey it (Acts 15:21).
Either those passages contain an exhaustive list of everything that would ever be required of mature Gentile believers or they do not, so if you treat them as containing an non-exhaustive list by saying that there are obviously other requirements, such as the greatest two commandments, the Ten Commandments, and things spoken against in verses like 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21, and Titus 3:1-3, then you can't also treat it as being an exhaustive list to limit which laws Gentiles should follow. It was not intended as exhaustive lists for mature Gentle believer, but as stated in Acts 15:19-21, it was a list intended to not make things too difficult for new believers, which they excused by saying that they would continue to learn about how to be Torah observant by hearing Moses taught each Sabbath in the synagogues. It was the perfect place for everyone to get on the same page about which things should be taught first to new believers in over to avoid overwhelming them, not a ruling against Gentiles following Christ.There were 4 only requirements for former pagan gentile Christians, repeated 3 times
Acts 15:20
(20) But that we write unto them, that they [1] abstain from pollutions of idols, and from [2] fornication, and from [3] things strangled, and [4] from blood. Acts 15:29 Acts 21:25Right here would have been the perfect place for Paul to tell gentiles all they were required to do.
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