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Sketches from the Life of Paul
holy lives. The Gentiles were assured that the men who had urged
circumcision upon them were not authorized to do so by the apostles.
Paul and Barnabas were recommended to them as men who had
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hazarded their lives for the Lord. Judas and Silas were sent with these
apostles to declare to the Gentiles, by word of mouth, the decision
of the council: “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to
lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye
abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things
strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye
shall do well.” The four servants of God were sent to Antioch with the
epistle and message, which put an end to all controversy; for it was
the voice of the highest authority upon earth.
The council which decided this case was composed of the founders
of the Jewish and Gentile Christian churches. Elders from Jerusalem,
and deputies from Antioch, were present; and the most influential
churches were represented. The council did not claim infallibility
in their deliberations, but moved from the dictates of enlightened
judgment, and with the dignity of a church established by the divine
will. They saw that God himself had decided this question by favoring
the Gentiles with the Holy Ghost; and it was left for them to follow
the guidance of the Spirit.
The entire body of Christians were not called to vote upon the
question. The apostles and elders—men of influence and judgment—
framed and issued the decree, which was thereupon generally accepted
by the Christian churches. All were not pleased, however, with this
decision; there was a faction of false brethren who assumed to engage
in a work on their own responsibility. They indulged in murmuring
and fault-finding, proposing new plans, and seeking to pull down the
work of the experienced men whom God had ordained to teach the
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doctrine of Christ. The church has had such obstacles to meet from
the first, and will ever have them to the close of time.
Jerusalem was the metropolis of the Jews, and there were found
the greatest exclusiveness and bigotry. The Jewish Christians who
lived in sight of the temple would naturally allow their minds to revert
to the peculiar privileges of the Jews as a nation. As they saw Chris-
tianity departing from the ceremonies and traditions of Judaism, and
perceived that the peculiar sacredness with which the Jewish customs
had been invested would soon be lost sight of in the light of the new