#34 What it means to be a Christian: Acts 15:5-6?

What would have happened had the Jerusalem council had reached a different conclusion as they considered the issue of Acts 15:5-6? What implication does that have for us? 

Circumcision was the issue at had in Acts 15, the choices they made have allowed the gospel message to change the world. Circumcision wouldn’t have been a big deal if it was easy. But this was not the only issue at hand, the larger issue they were discussing was whether or not someone who was not Jewish could become a Christian. The argument went something like this, if you can’t become a Jew without becoming Jewish than why would that change when Jesus who was a Jew changed what it meant to be a Jew? Paul had argued that since Jesus came that now all of us could receive him. Paul said that if someone had received the holy spirit they were saved so since Paul had brought Cornelius to Christ by the order of God that gentiles could be saved.  

If the church leaders in Jerusalem had ignored Paul, then I doubt that would have stopped Paul from continuing his gospel message with the church in Antioch. The Christianity known today would be drastically different though because without the unity of the other church fathers the bible that we have today would be very sparse and easily disregarded. I think without unity Paul’s ministry would have flourished while that of Peter and the other disciples would have after a time become a now lost defunct group like the Pharisees and Sadducees.  

For myself at least, I know that having to live my life under the mosaic law would be very hard and seem so senseless that I don’t think I would be a Christian; it would just be to hard. Almost every morning I have bacon with breakfast. While the laws about traveling on Sunday would be utterly ridiculous for us to follow in a age where we can drive a mile in less then a minute. At home, my church is only 1 mile away