The Circumcision Debate

Last night in our study the infant church was faced with a serious issue — whether or not Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to be saved.  The idea was actually brought up by saved Jews, but not the disciples or apostles.  It first came up in Antioch, where some Jews came in and told the believers there they had to be circumcised.  Paul and Barnabas argued strenuously against it, but the debate was so serious they were sent to Jerusalem to get the “official word” from the apostles.

Even in Jerusalem it caused quite a debate.  The Jewish believers who had been Pharisees argued strongly for it.  However, Peter and Paul both had worked with Gentiles and seen them receive the Holy Spirit without having to be circumcised, so what was the point in having them be circumcised after the fact?

When you get right down to it, circumcision was a sign of the old covenant — the covenant of the Law.  For the Gentiles to have been circumcised it would have in some effect placed them under the Law, which Christ had fulfilled.  In essence, it would have been denying the grace that had brought them to salvation in the first place.

Likewise, we have to be careful not to place burdens on new believers that Christ has set them free from.

The Church in Acts

We are currently doing a Bible study at our local community center on the book of Acts.  It is the second part of a study we are doing on the Biblical History of the Church.  As we look around, we see churches that are nearly empty, very weak, anemic and apathetic.  Our country is drifting farther and farther from God.  Everyone is screaming tolerance, but that message is directed to the Christians whom are not being tolerated.  Each day it seems like we are losing more constitutional rights as far as free speech goes because of “intolerance” while muslims, buddhists and pagans are welcomed with open arms.  All we seem to do, though, is sit back and grumble about the intolerance shown toward us, but we don’t do anything about.  Our apathy got us into this situation — it started decades ago with the challenge on prayer in school.  We let that go through, and we’ve been on a slippery slope ever since.

We asked ourselves, why is the church weak?  Why are we not seeing revival?  We decided that the Bible would have the answer, and acting on some excellent advice (start at the very beginning, a very good place to start) we went to Luke and Acts.  Luke shows us the teaching Christ did to prepare his disciples for what would come before them.  They had to be grounded in order to lead the church.  From there we went to Acts, which Luke also wrote.

The thing that stands out in Acts is that the Christians pulled together and shared everything in common.  No one’s possessions were considered to be their’s exclusively.  When there was a need, someone sold something and gave the money to the church to meet the need, or gave what was needed.  These Christians were meeting DAILY in the temple to worship and then going to someone’s home to celebrate communion and fellowhship with each other.  We do good to show up to church once or twice a week!

The picture of the church we get as we read through Acts is very different from what we have in America today.  One thing the structure is different, the order of worship is very different.  The attitudes are extremely different.  Is this why we are so weak?  Is this where our problem lies?  That we have let tradition dictate our form and function instead of the Word of God?

I challenge you to read through the book of Acts and jot down all you see about how the church looked and worked.