Soyeong

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The apostles don't redefine sin. Everything that is sin in the NT is also sin in the OT. THe difference however is that not everything that was sin in the OT is sin in the NT. For example, look at food purity laws in the OT, those no longer define sin. Perhaps it could be said that the difference is that Israel was a theocracy living in an ancient pagan world, and the kingdom of Christ is not a theocracy at all, but its actually the complete opposite of a theocracy. It may go a lot deeper than that but that may be a good starting point for understanding i guess.

Perhaps Israel was the "natural" version of what God intended, which is "spiritual".

Sin is an affront to God's character, which has not changed between testaments, so everything that is a sin in the NT is a sin in the OT and vice versa. Violating God's dietary laws is also an affront to His character and is just as much a sin today as it was a sin back then. God has given instructions in His law for how to live rightly, and if we have faith in Him, then we will obey them. Jesus gave no indication that was he was in disagreement with the Father about which laws we should follow, but rather he said he came only to do the Father's will (John 6:38) and that his teachings were not his own, but that of the Father (John 7:16), so there is no difference between the law of Christ, the law of the Father, and the law of the Spirit. Jesus taught nothing that was brand new or took away from the OT, but only taught how to correctly understand and follow the God's law. Jesus said nothing about editing God's law or teaching a brand new law, but rather he said that not the least part of the law would disappear and warned those (like you) who would relax the least command or teach others to do the same (Matthew 5:17-19).
 
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Extraneous

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Sin is an affront to God's character, which has not changed between testaments, so everything that is a sin in the NT is a sin in the OT and vice versa. Violating God's dietary laws is also an affront to His character and is just as much a sin today as it was a sin back then. God has given instructions in His law for how to live rightly, and if we have faith in Him, then we will obey them. Jesus gave no indication that was he was in disagreement with the Father about which laws we should follow, but rather he said he came only to do the Father's will (John 6:38) and that his teachings were not his own, but that of the Father (John 7:16), so there is no difference between the law of Christ, the law of the Father, and the law of the Spirit. Jesus taught nothing that was brand new or took away from the OT, but only taught how to correctly understand and follow the God's law. Jesus said nothing about editing God's law or teaching a brand new law, but rather he said that not the least part of the law would disappear and warned those (like you) who would relax the least command or teach others to do the same (Matthew 5:17-19).

You misunderstand what Christ means when he says that His word belongs to God. Christ is not telling us that hes commanding us to live under OC law. Israel broke Gods covenant and he made anew one, which includes Gentiles as well. Look at Mathew 5-7, which you cited. You wont see Sabbath mentioned anywhere, nor any dietary laws. Christ actually says that its not what goes in the mouth which defiles but what comes out that defiles, because that comes from mans heart.

In my recent studies of scripture, i have uncovered a great deal of scripture that teaches about how we use our words. This seems to be a huge part of the meat in the word. I could probably find many more as well. I see this in Isaiah when God says that we should refrain from using our words, from speaking wickedness, i see it in all of Paul writings where he teaches us to put away our wicked speech and speak in love. Its not what goes in our mouth which defiles, but what comes out. This is why Paul says that all things are pure, referring to food.



Mathew 15:11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man

Isaiah 58:“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speakingwickedness,

Isaiah 58: Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words,

2 Peter 1:22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Galtians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.



1 Co 13:8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whetherthere are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
 
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Extraneous

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Like food, we devour each other with our words. I can see why God gave food purity laws, perhaps they have a spiritual meaning of some kind.

Look at Christ as well, we consume his flesh. Surely there is a deep spiritual truth here, it seems.

Galatians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
 
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Soyeong

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You misunderstand what Christ means when he says that His word belongs to God. Christ is not telling us that hes commanding us to live under OC law. Israel broke Gods covenant and he made anew one, which includes Gentiles as well. Look at Mathew 5-7, which you cited. You wont see Sabbath mentioned anywhere, nor any dietary laws.

God has always been holy, righteous, and good, so He always has such a conduct, and His law is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12) because it is a reflection of God's character and it is His instructions for how to have such a conduct. So the way to act in line with God's holy, righteous, and good character existed from the beginning, exists independently of any covenant, and did not change between any of God's covenants. Even if God had made no covenants with us, it would still be to our advantage to have such a conduct, but as part of the New Covenant, we are also told to have a holy, righteous, and good conduct (1 Peter 1:14-16, 1 John 3:10, Ephesians 2:10), which means we are to still follow God's instructions in His law for how to do that.

The problem wasn't with God's holy, righteous, and good laws, but with the fact that His people didn't obey them, so God made a New Covenant where His people would obey Him. He did this by sending His Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty of our lawless actions and to set us free from slavery to lawlessness so that we could be free to become obedient slaves (Romans 6:16). God also sent His Spirit to lead us in obedience to His law (Ezekiel 36:26-27) so that we might meet its righteous requirement (Romans 8:3-4). The goal of the Gospel is for us to be made to be like Christ into someone who also always does what is holy, righteous, and good and refrains from lawlessness.

Jesus taught to obey God's law both by word and by example, and we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22), to obey his commands and walk as he walked (1 John 2:4-6), and to imitate him (1 Corinthians 11:1). There are many other laws that Jesus didn't mention in Matthew 5-7, such as not sacrificing children to Molech, but I see no good reason to think that Jesus was ok with doing that because he didn't mention it, especially when he made it explicitly clear that not the least part of the law would disappear until heaven and earth pass away and all is accomplished, which are either idioms for lasting forever, or are referring to end times.

Christ actually says that its not what goes in the mouth which defiles but what comes out that defiles, because that comes from mans heart.

Matthew 15:20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Jesus was having a conversation about a man-made ritual purity law that said that you could ritually unclean by eating with unwashed hands and his statement at the end of the conversation in Matthew 15:20 shows that he never jumped topics to God's dietary laws. He simply brought up a parable to counter their ritual purity law by showing that their concern for ritual purity was out of balance with their concern for moral purity. The topic of God's dietary laws was never even brought up.

In my recent studies of scripture, i have uncovered a great deal of scripture that teaches about how we use our words. This seems to be a huge part of the meat in the word. I could probably find many more as well. I see this in Isaiah when God says that we should refrain from using our words, from speaking wickedness, i see it in all of Paul writings where he teaches us to put away our wicked speech and speak in love. Its not what goes in our mouth which defiles, but what comes out. This is why Paul says that all things are pure, referring to food.

I agree with the importance of not speaking wickedness.

Galtians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

All of this is in accordance with God's law and essentially taken from it.

Like food, we devour each other with our words. I can see why God gave food purity laws, perhaps they have a spiritual meaning of some kind.

Look at Christ as well, we consume his flesh. Surely there is a deep spiritual truth here, it seems.

Galatians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

Paul said that the law is spiritual (Romans 7:7), so all of it is intended to teach us spiritual teachings, but that doesn't mean that we should no longer obey God once we understand what He was teaching. Far from it, that was the mistake of the Corinthians being puffed up by their knowledge. According to the law against adultery, someone could think lustfully about a married woman without violating it, but when we understand the spiritual meaning of adultery, then we won't even do that. However, meeting a higher spiritual standard inherently also involves meeting the lower standard, just as not thinking lustfully about someone inherently involves not committing adultery with them.

Also look at Peters vision. God tells him to eat unclean food, but this refers to eating with Gentiles, or fellowship with them perhaps.

No, God never told Peter to eat unclean food. There were also kinds of animals let down in his vision, so he could have obeyed God's command by simply killing and eating one of the clean animals. There reason why he did was that there was a man-made ritual purity laws that said that something clean that comes into contact with something unclean becomes ritually unclean/defiled/common. They were all bundled in the sheet together, so all of the clean animals there had become common and by refusing to kill and eat one of them, Peter was disobeying God to obey man. Note that God did not rebuke Peter for saying that something clean was unclean, but rather for saying that something clean was common, so God was only speaking about the status of clean animals. Note also that Peter gave the interpretation of his vision three times and not once did he say anything about the status of unclean food. We must obey God rather than man, so we should likewise be careful not to misinterpret something that is against obeying man as being against obeying God.
 
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Extraneous

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God has always been holy, righteous, and good, so He always has such a conduct, and His law is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12) because it is a reflection of God's character and it is His instructions for how to have such a conduct. So the way to act in line with God's holy, righteous, and good character existed from the beginning, exists independently of any covenant, and did not change between any of God's covenants. Even if God had made no covenants with us, it would still be to our advantage to have such a conduct, but as part of the New Covenant, we are also told to have a holy, righteous, and good conduct (1 Peter 1:14-16, 1 John 3:10, Ephesians 2:10), which means we are to still follow God's instructions in His law for how to do that.

The problem wasn't with God's holy, righteous, and good laws, but with the fact that His people didn't obey them, so God made a New Covenant where His people would obey Him. He did this by sending His Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty of our lawless actions and to set us free from slavery to lawlessness so that we could be free to become obedient slaves (Romans 6:16). God also sent His Spirit to lead us in obedience to His law (Ezekiel 36:26-27) so that we might meet its righteous requirement (Romans 8:3-4). The goal of the Gospel is for us to be made to be like Christ into someone who also always does what is holy, righteous, and good and refrains from lawlessness.

Jesus taught to obey God's law both by word and by example, and we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22), to obey his commands and walk as he walked (1 John 2:4-6), and to imitate him (1 Corinthians 11:1). There are many other laws that Jesus didn't mention in Matthew 5-7, such as not sacrificing children to Molech, but I see no good reason to think that Jesus was ok with doing that because he didn't mention it, especially when he made it explicitly clear that not the least part of the law would disappear until heaven and earth pass away and all is accomplished, which are either idioms for lasting forever, or are referring to end times.



Matthew 15:20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Jesus was having a conversation about a man-made ritual purity law that said that you could ritually unclean by eating with unwashed hands and his statement at the end of the conversation in Matthew 15:20 shows that he never jumped topics to God's dietary laws. He simply brought up a parable to counter their ritual purity law by showing that their concern for ritual purity was out of balance with their concern for moral purity. The topic of God's dietary laws was never even brought up.



I agree with the importance of not speaking wickedness.



All of this is in accordance with God's law and essentially taken from it.



Paul said that the law is spiritual (Romans 7:7), so all of it is intended to teach us spiritual teachings, but that doesn't mean that we should no longer obey God once we understand what He was teaching. Far from it, that was the mistake of the Corinthians being puffed up by their knowledge. According to the law against adultery, someone could think lustfully about a married woman without violating it, but when we understand the spiritual meaning of adultery, then we won't even do that. However, meeting a higher spiritual standard inherently also involves meeting the lower standard, just as not thinking lustfully about someone inherently involves not committing adultery with them.



No, God never told Peter to eat unclean food. There were also kinds of animals let down in his vision, so he could have obeyed God's command by simply killing and eating one of the clean animals. There reason why he did was that there was a man-made ritual purity laws that said that something clean that comes into contact with something unclean becomes ritually unclean/defiled/common. They were all bundled in the sheet together, so all of the clean animals there had become common and by refusing to kill and eat one of them, Peter was disobeying God to obey man. Note that God did not rebuke Peter for saying that something clean was unclean, but rather for saying that something clean was common, so God was only speaking about the status of clean animals. Note also that Peter gave the interpretation of his vision three times and not once did he say anything about the status of unclean food. We must obey God rather than man, so we should likewise be careful not to misinterpret something that is against obeying man as being against obeying God.

You failed to see my point about peters vision. Also, you are wrong about God commanding us to observe OT law. I wont debate it brother, have a nice day.
 
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redleghunter

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Tell me why or why not you believe it.

Torah covers a lot. Are you including the purity rites, civil edicts, circumcision and various offerings?

Or are you specifically addressing days of observance and festivals?
 
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redleghunter

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The law is what gives us knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20), without the law we wouldn't even know what sin is (Romans 7:7), and sin is defined as lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Everything that the NT says about sin is in perfect accordance with everything that the OT says about sin. Christ commissioned them not to go redefine "sin", but to go make disciples, or in other words, people whose goal it is to learn how to think and act like him by following his example.

Is circumcision required of male Gentile disciples of Jesus Christ? If not why?
 
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redleghunter

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Like food, we devour each other with our words. I can see why God gave food purity laws, perhaps they have a spiritual meaning of some kind.

Look at Christ as well, we consume his flesh. Surely there is a deep spiritual truth here, it seems.

Galatians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

A very interesting study you present. Thank you for posting.

On the dietary restrictions for the Mosaic covenant, when we look at it within historical context God was keeping Israel from getting sick. No good could come from eating shellfish taken from the basin of the Mediterranean where the Nile dumps volumes of silt. Same with pork and the various diseases that come from it. So God was keeping them from food borne diseases. Same with the purity rites of constantly cleaning in clear clean water. Keeps the people well.

Now shellfish from the Northern Atlantic, no problem with health concerns usually. Same with areas that can keep various meats preserved and well cooked. Some of the later ancient 'technologies' or techniques discovered to preserve food products.
 
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Hillsage

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The 'elders' of Jerusalem did not hold the Gentiles to 'the law', 'the ordinances' or 'the customs' of it.

ACT 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

The "no such things" spoken of above, which Gentile believers were not to observe, were "the customs" (verse 21) and "the law" (verse 24). Both of which were things the Jewish Christians believed in.

The only reason the elders still agreed to hold the Jewish Christian believers under that Yoke of the law, was because they feared the "thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:" (vs20). Even as, in Galatia, where Peter also "feared those of the circumcision party." (Gal 2:12).

The Jewish 'Christians' clung to the law just like they clung to the 'golden calf' idols of Egypt in the midst of their Exodus from that bondage also.
 
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Torah covers a lot. Are you including the purity rites, civil edicts, circumcision and various offerings?

Or are you specifically addressing days of observance and festivals?
All of it. But remember, not all is possible due to the destruction of the Temple and the ultimate sacrifice of Yeshua.
 
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Wgw

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The Torah is a revelation of God's holy, righteous, and good character, so obeying it about identifying with God, not about identifying with Jews. We must obey God rather than man, so if God said to do something and the Jerusalem Council said not to obey God, then we should obey God instead, but it doesn't come down to that because the Jerusalem Council never tried to countermand God when Acts 15 is correctly understood. The Bible does not use the categories of moral or ceremonial laws, but rather disobedience to any of God's laws was considered a sin and immoral.

Acts 15 specifically outlines the restrictions on gentiles. It exempts us from circumcision, but enjoins on us something like the Noachide Law.

Which Jews themselves say is binding for non-Jews.
 
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Soyeong

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Is circumcision required of male Gentile disciples of Jesus Christ? If not why?

No, because the Torah does not require all Gentiles to become circumcised, so they were upholding the Torah by rejecting those who were wanting to make that a requirement. On the other hand, we must obey God rather than man, so if God had commanded in His Torah that all Gentiles to were to become circumcised, but the Jerusalem Council said that they were not to become circumcised, then we should obey God instead of the Jerusalem Council, but that is not what God commanded. The Jerusalem Council had no authority to countermand God, to tell Gentiles not to obey God, or to add to or subtract from God's law (Deuteronomy 4:2), but they only had the authority to to interpret what God's law requires, and that's all they did.
 
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Wgw

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"Judaizers" was a term first coined and used by the heretic Marcion.

Not true, St. Paul uses it in the verb "Judaize" in the original Greek of Galatians 2:14. Ιουδαϊζω

Also, in Galatians 1:8 he tells us to anathematize anyone, even an angel, preaching a false Gospel. This includes Marcion, who literally rewrote the Gospel of Luke to promote the Gnostic-dualist idea that YHWH was an evil demiurge opposed to the father of Jesus, and it includes those who Ιουδαϊζω, like the Ebionites and modern day Adventists and some Messianic Jews.

Most rabinnical Jews agree with the Church that to Ιουδαϊζω gentiles is to err. because gentiles are bound only by the Noachide Law.
 
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Acts 15 specifically outlines the restrictions on gentiles. It exempts us from circumcision, but enjoins on us something like the Noachide Law.

Which Jews themselves say is binding for non-Jews.

We must obey God rather than man, so if God commanded something and the Jerusalem Council told Gentiles not to obey what God commanded, then we should obey God and ignore the Jerusalem Council, but it doesn't come down to that because the Jerusalem Council never tried to countermand God. The Torah does not require all Gentiles to become circumcised, so the Jerusalem Council upheld God's law by rejecting those who were wanting to make that a requirement.

The second part of Acts 15 deals with how to integrate new believers who were coming to faith. When an employer hires a new employee, they don't start by teaching them everything they will ever need to know about how to do their job up front, but rather they start with the basics with the understanding that they will learn how to do the rest on the job. In the same way, they were not wanting to make things too difficult for new believers, so they started with the basics that would allow Gentiles to have table fellowship with other Jewish believers with the understanding that they would continue to learn about Moses every Sabbath in the synagogues (Acts 15:19-21). This was not intended to be an exhaustive list for mature believers especially as that would exclude all the commands of Jesus as well as all the other commands given to Gentiles in the NT. At no point did anyone tell Gentiles not to obey God and Gentiles should reject anyone who tries to tell them that. God's law is a delight (Romans 7:22, Psalms 1:1-2) and is the good way that brings rest to our souls (Jeremiah 6:16-19, Matthew 11:28-30) and Gentiles should not let anyone rob them of that divine privilege.
 
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Extraneous

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A very interesting study you present. Thank you for posting.

On the dietary restrictions for the Mosaic covenant, when we look at it within historical context God was keeping Israel from getting sick. No good could come from eating shellfish taken from the basin of the Mediterranean where the Nile dumps volumes of silt. Same with pork and the various diseases that come from it. So God was keeping them from food borne diseases. Same with the purity rites of constantly cleaning in clear clean water. Keeps the people well.

Now shellfish from the Northern Atlantic, no problem with health concerns usually. Same with areas that can keep various meats preserved and well cooked. Some of the later ancient 'technologies' or techniques discovered to preserve food products.

It is interesting, and it pretty new to me as well. I just now discovered this hidden gem of knowledge myself, in the past few days. I feel greatly blessed by it and was happy to share it. If we think in spiritual terms, and we are supposed to be spiritual rather than natural, then we might consider spiritual disease that comes from impure spiritual food, perhaps. I don't know, i'm still learning myself.
 
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redleghunter

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No, because the Torah does not require all Gentiles to become circumcised, so they were upholding the Torah by rejecting those who were wanting to make that a requirement. On the other hand, we must obey God rather than man, so if God had commanded in His Torah that all Gentiles to were to become circumcised, but the Jerusalem Council said that they were not to become circumcised, then we should obey God instead of the Jerusalem Council, but that is not what God commanded. The Jerusalem Council had no authority to countermand God, to tell Gentiles not to obey God, or to add to or subtract from God's law (Deuteronomy 4:2), but they only had the authority to to interpret what God's law requires, and that's all they did.

There were two opposing vectors in your comments below. The OP quoted that all of the Law must be kept except those things tied to the Temple and those offerings which Jesus Christ fulfilled.

By the OP's assessment this includes circumcision for Gentile disciples of Jesus Christ.

You gentlemen should find a good mohel with a steady hand.
 
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redleghunter

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We must obey God rather than man, so if God commanded something and the Jerusalem Council told Gentiles not to obey what God commanded, then we should obey God and ignore the Jerusalem Council, but it doesn't come down to that because the Jerusalem Council never tried to countermand God. The Torah does not require all Gentiles to become circumcised, so the Jerusalem Council upheld God's law by rejecting those who were wanting to make that a requirement.

No, the Jerusalem Council did not countermand what God proclaimed. In fact, the decree that went out invokes the Holy Spirit in their decision:

Acts 15:

24 Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law” —to whom we gave no such commandment— 25 it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
 
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redleghunter

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Yes, it is required after salvation, not before.

Please show where new Christians were circumcised and mentioned as such in the NT writings.

This is how circumcision is mentioned:

1 Corinthians 7:19 - Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

Galatians 5:2-11 - Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. (Read More...)

Jeremiah 4:4 - Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench [it], because of the evil of your doings.

Romans 2:25-29 - 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

Galatians 2:3 - But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

Galatians 6:15 - For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Romans 4:11 - And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which [he had yet] being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

Ephesians 2:11 - Wherefore remember, that ye [being] in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

Philippians 3:3 - For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
 
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