Food for Thought – History
Did the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 Abolish the Sabbath?
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Argument: "Acts 15 proves that the Old Testament law was abolished for Christians." It’s commonly argued that the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15 abolished not just circumcision for gentiles, but the entire Old Testament law. Advocates of this position will cite Acts 15:5, which mentions what some of the Pharisees who became Christians said concerning having the gentiles circumcised:
"It is necessary to circumcise them, and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."
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When the Council decided to set aside circumcision, it’s said that it also set aside the entire Old Testament law code. Does anyone plausibly think that the conference in Acts 15 eliminated the laws against murder, adultery, coveting, idolatry, or theft? Were the two Great Commandments, which Jesus quoted with approval, trashed as well? If the entire Law of Moses was obliterated, why are these four laws from the Old Testament singled out as being in force?
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"It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well" (Acts 15:28-29).
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If Jesus’ death annihilated the entire "Law of Moses" or the entire "Old Covenant," then why are these four laws retained? The mere fact that they still exist proves that the Old Testament law wasn’t completely abolished! Furthermore, when the apostle James announces the final decision of the Council, if he meant to nullify the authority of Moses, why does he say (Acts 15:21):
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"For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath"?
Why cite Moses as an authority when you've just destroyed his authority? If the Law was now evil in the New Covenant, like the Church teaches now, why did the early Church still value and uphold it, like they did here?
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Alternatives should be considered. The conference in Acts 15 was really about what could be called "justification," or the initial stage of the salvation process. What set off the entire debate was this assertion:
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"Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved" (v. 1).
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The real dispute was over what gives salvation. It’s especially important now to realize that the Jews considered circumcision as an initiation rite analogous to what Christians consider baptism’s role in Christianity: You can’t be a (male) Jew without being circumcised. This worked fine for those born Jews, but what about adult male converts to Judaism?
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These four laws were the same ones that the non-Pharisaical community of what the law imposed on gentile converts so they could become full members of the covenant community of Israel. The Pharisees believed circumcision had to be added to this list of four requirements (which originates in Leviticus 17-18), but their opponents in Judaism felt otherwise.
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All the church did in Acts 15 was to choose the competing interpretation among Jews that denied that gentiles had to be circumcised to become converts to the faith. So, when Peter calls some aspect of the law a "yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear," it shouldn't be assumed that this was the entire law of Moses. Since the issue in debate concerned circumcision and the initial stage of the salvation process as Judaism had considered it, it’s wrong to assume that the Acts 15 Council abolished the entire Old Testament law.
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The Sabbath in Early History
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1st Century A.D. Jesus.
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"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16
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Jesus. "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matthew 24:20
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Paul. "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 17:2-3
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Paul and Gentiles. "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God." Acts 13:42,44
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• 2nd Century. Early Christians.
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"The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to that purpose." Dialogue on the Lord's Day, p.189. London: 1701. By Dr. T.H. Morer (Church of England).
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• 3rd and 4th Centuries. Orient and Most of the World.
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"The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the seventh day. . .. All the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival. . .. Athanasius likewise tells us that they held religious assemblies on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath; Epiphanius says the same." Antiquities of the Christian Church, Vol. II. Book XX, chap 3, Sec. 1 66.1137, 1138.
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Council of Laodicea. "From the apostles' time until the council of Laodicea, which was about the year 364, the holy observation of the Jews' Sabbath continued, as may be proved out of many authors; yea, notwithstanding the decree of the council against it." Sunday a Sabbath, John Ley, p. 163. London:1640.
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• 5th Century. Constantinople.
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"The people of Constantinople and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria." Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, Book 7, chap. 19.
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• 6th Century. Rome.
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"About 590, Pope Gregory, in a letter to the Roman people, denounced as the prophets of Antichrist those who maintained that work ought not to be done on the seventh day." James T. Ringgold, The Law of Sunday, p. 267.
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• 7th Century. Scotland and Ireland.
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"It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week." Professor James C. Moffatt, D.D., Professor of Church History at Princeton, The Church in Scotland, p. 140.
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• 8th Century. India, China, Persia.
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"Widespread and enduring was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath among the believers of the Church of the East and the St. Thomas Christians of India, who never were connected with Rome. It also was maintained among those bodies which broke off from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon namely, the Abyssinians, the Jacobites, the Maronites, and the Armenians." Schaff-Herzog, The New Encylopaedia of Religious Knowledge, art. Nestorians; also, Realencyclopaedie fur Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, art Nestorianer.
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• Dwight L. Moody
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D.L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting (Fleming H. Revell Co.: New York), pp. 47, 48. "The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?"
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Bishop Seymour, Why We Keep Sunday.
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"We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy Catholic Church."
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Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975), Chicago, Illinois.
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"Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:
"1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.
"2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws.
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"It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible."