I fully agree with you:
Sin is the transgression if any applicable law. Absolutely.
Were those four laws only for new converts as you claim? Once again. Years later the church leaders RECONFIRMED to Paul their decision to ONLY ask gentiles to observe FOUR Jewish laws(Acts21:25). So it is incorrect to state they were only for new believers. Acts ch21:25 proves the church leaders had no intention of asking gentiles to observe anymore than the four laws decided on in Acts ch15.
Secondly. Gods laws are NOT arbitrary. You cannot pick and choose which appicable laws you follow and which you don't. And no credible church minister could preach such a thing. Once again, if you are correct the leaders of the Christian church, many of whom had been Christ's disciples gave gentile converts a licence to sin for the whole of their lives, Bearing in mind Acts21:25
Such a notion is nonsensical.
Either you are right, or the Jerusalem Church was right. You cannot both be right. I will stick with the Bible( no offence meant)
I believe the way I do, because of Paul's writings. He speaks to gentiles, and writes to them as follows:
Colossians 2:16 -
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days:
He's writing to gentiles here, why would gentiles - those who eat all animals, regardless of them being clean or not - judge these gentile converts, regarding meat? Unless they were NOT eating certain things, that gentiles love. Bacon for instance.
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Let no man therefore judge you in meat,
or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days:
He says in drink, gentiles get, and got drunk with nearly every single feast or celebration that they had. Look at what Christmas is derived from. The feast of Saturnalia. When I looked into the origins of this feast, all they did, for 12 days, was get insanely drunk, have orgies, and do severe harm to others, and much more but that doesn't serve any point to our discussion. Gentiles wouldn't be judged, amongst other gentiles for drinking, unless they were abstaining from drunkeness.
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Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink,
or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days:
There are no holy days that man makes. Only God can make a day holy. In fact, He gave us several holy days to observe, all of which point to Jesus. No gentile would have been in danger of being judged for observing a holy day, unless they were observing the holy days of our Father, as opposed to the holidays of the gentiles.
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Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday,
or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days:
New moons have importance to Israel, because the cycles of the moon, are how the new months are figured. With each new moon, a new month starts. Gentiles however, don't observe anything having to do with the moon, therefore gentile converts being judged for a new moon, would only make sense if they were observing them.
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Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon,
or of the sabbath days:
This only makes sense, considering he's talking to gentiles, all of whom have no sabbath days, if the gentile converts were to be observing sabbath days. He's writing to gentile converts, and telling them not to worry about being judged in their sabbath days. Gentiles don't have sabbath days. In fact, it was customary that all men worked 7 days a week back then, Jews were seen as lazy, because they rested on the 7th day, so for gentiles to do such a thing, there would most definitely have been judgements being thrown their way.
This is just one verse, that convicted me to become Torah observant. Not only that, but Paul just a couple verses before the one in acts you linked, was shown to have been keeping the law. There are also, no gentiles, no jews in Jesus. Meaning, that there is no difference between them. That was the difference in their messages of the doctrine. Jews at that time, felt that gentiles had to keep everything immediately, which, coming from a Torah observant gentile for less than a year, trust me, there's a lot of things to learn, and it is a process. It's not something God expects me to have down pat, right away. There's many, many things to know about Him, and about the importance of things, and the symbolism of things, and the intention of things, etc. There's so much to take in, but He only cares that I desire to learn it, and that I'm growing in my faith, and that I'm getting closer and closer, more observant every day. Will I be able to fulfill all of the law one day? Obviously not, but I desire to rely on His judgement, and not my own. I know I can't judge anything, only He can, and He's given me a standard to live by, and I desire to live by it, I just have to have faith that He will guide me into the ability and continued desire to do so. It's a journey, and cannot be done all at once, and this is where the disciples disputed with the Jews that taught that new gentile converts were to keep everything all at once. It'd be akin to going to a tribe in Papa New Guinea, pfft, obviously you're not gonna know every custom they have at first. You're going to step on some toes along the way, but so long as you try, and sincerely desire to conform to their ways, you will.
