Council of Jerusalem

Around AD 49 or 50, the first major doctrinal crisis of the church came to a head. Paul and Barnabas had just returned to Syrian Antioch from their first missionary journey, during which they had planted churches of largely Gentile converts in Cyprus and southern Galatia. "Some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved'" (Acts 15:1). Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them. The church at Antioch sent Paul, Barnabas, and certain others up to Jerusalem to consult the apostles and elders about this question. There the issue was openly debated. Some believers from the party of the Pharisees insisted that the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses. After much discussion Peter rose and reminded the assembly that God had already given the Holy Spirit to the Gentile household of Cornelius (Acts 10) on the same terms as to Jewish believers: "He made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith… we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will" (15:9, 11). Paul and Barnabas then recounted the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. James, the brother of the Lord and now leader of the Jerusalem church, summed up: the prophets had foretold that God would visit the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name; therefore "we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God." To preserve fellowship at the common table, however, Gentile believers were asked to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. The council sent the decision in a letter, carried back to Antioch by Judas Barsabbas and Silas. Acts 15 is the charter of the Gentile mission and the New Testament's clearest statement that salvation is by grace through faith alone, apart from the works of the law. Paul refers to the same meeting in Galatians 2:1–10.