JOHN PEARRELL: The primitive church was built on a spectacular event | Faith

If you grew up in the church, you may remember singing the children's song: "Every promise in the Book is mine, every chapter every verse, every line is divine blessing, every promise in the book belongs to me. Cute words, dangerous theology. All promises in the Book are not yours, any more than all orders.

One of the major problems of the early church is found in Acts 15, a church-wide council that took place in Jerusalem about 20 years after the resurrection of the Jesus. The first church was definitely Jewish in nature. Not surprising since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, all of his early followers were Jewish by birth or Jewish by conversion. As a result, these early followers have had centuries of following the Law of Moses in their religious DNA.

Then, in Antioch, a large number of non-Jews – Gentiles – began to turn to faith in Jesus. They heard about the resurrection of Jesus by eyewitnesses who actually saw the event and who began to share it for the first time with people who did not share their common Jewish background. The result is exactly what you expect: the controversy.

Understand that this early church did not have a Bible to refer to. They did not come to faith in Christ "because the Bible says." There was no Bible. In fact, none of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) had been written or had not yet been distributed, and none of Paul's letters (with perhaps the 39, except for Galatians' letter) was written or distributed. They had no Bible to appeal to and the Bible was not the basis of their faith! The basis of their faith was an event and not a book. Look at the first messages of the church. None of them talks about what Jesus taught, they all basically say the same thing: Jesus was condemned, crucified, died (no one lived through a Roman crucifixion), so he was alive again ! They saw it! The faith of the early church was not based on sacred writings but on a spectacular event.

When this message pbaded the synagogue (Jewish places of worship), the Gentiles identified with it and began to join the group. first followers. That's where the problem happened. Some false teachers known as Judaizers taught that before a person could be saved, they had to first convert to Judaism and keep all the Jewish rules. Today, anyone who puts a ceremonial act such as to be saved must first be baptized, is a false teacher with a false message.

This is the problem of this false teaching that resulted in the meeting recorded for us in Acts 15. There was also a second group in Acts 15: the sect of the Pharisees. They were believers with luggage. Now, you probably remember that the Pharisees were central figures in opposition to Christ and His message, as well as key players in the crucifixion of Jesus. How is it that now they are in the church? It was not because of what Jesus taught or what Paul taught. That's because they saw Jesus die, that they had an empty tomb that had been heavily guarded (30 Roman guards and 1,000 temple guards according to the Jewish historian Josephus) and credible stories of his resurrection. The only way to explain their conversion is the resurrection. They opposed what Jesus taught. they bought what Jesus did.

The fact is, these men wanted a mix of faith. A little Moses, a little Jesus. They did not believe that keeping the Law of Moses was a prerequisite for salvation, but they believed that keeping the Law of Moses was a necessary answer to salvation. You do not have to observe the Fa to be saved, they taught, but you need to keep the Fa to be obedient.

There are many people in the church today who still hold this point of view. Is this a correct view? Unfortunately, there is no more room, so I'll have to take the Citizen next week to get my point of view on this important issue.

Dr. John Pearrell is pastor of Gateway Community Church in Covington. For more information, visit www.gatewaycommunity.org or send an email to [email protected]