Examination of Acts 15.
By D. M. Canright
Acts 15 is always appealed to as teaching the abolition of the ten commandments, so we will examine it: "And certain men which came down from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When, therefore, Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem, unto the apostles and elders about this question." Verses 1, 2. It is plainly stated what the question was, viz.: circumcision. Notice that Paul and Barnabas go up to this council on purpose to have this question settled. In his letter to the Galatians he refers to this. Chap. 2: 1-23. "But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses." Verse 5. Is this the decalogue? No, indeed. It is expressly said to be the law of Moses relating to circumcision. A great council of all the apostles and leading brethren was called at Jerusalem to consider this question. Verses 1-6. After much discussion Peter arose and said, "Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" Verse 10. The ceremonial law with its innumerable rites, its washings, its distinctions of clean and unclean, and its sacrifices, was indeed a difficult law to observe. It might well be termed "a yoke." Of it the Lord had said, "I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live." Eze. 20: 25. To this law Peter refers. Are the ten commandments a yoke grievous to be borne? Look at them. 1. Have no gods but the Lord. Is this a yoke of bondage? Who, dare affirm it? 2. Do not worship an image. Did the disciples find it grievous to obey this? Did they want liberty to disobey it? 3. Do not profane God's name. Was this a yoke hard to bear? Skip the Sabbath. 5. Honor your parents. Is this the galling yoke? 6. Don't kill. 7. Nor commit adultery. 8. Nor steal. 9. Nor lie. 10. Nor covet. Where do we find a hard yoke, in any of these, which ought to be thrown off? No, it is not there. Then it must be the Sabbath, if in the decalogue at all. But is it a hard thing to rest upon God's sacred day and give him one day out of seven? But that was not the subject about which they were troubled. It was circumcision, concerning which there is not one word in the whole decalogue. After thoroughly discussing this question, the apostles wrote to the Gentiles thus: "Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment. * 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." Acts 15: 24-29. There, says one, the apostles have enumerated and brought over into the gospel all that it was necessary to keep of the old law. But they do not mention the Sabbath; therefore it is not binding. Profound conclusion! Look again. They do not say a word about swearing, lying, stealing, murdering, or coveting. Therefore these are not to be obeyed any longer! Indeed, not one of the ten commandments is mentioned at all. Every item enumerated is found in either the ceremonial or the civil law. The meats offered to idols was food set before an idol and then removed, to be eaten by men. Blood, and things, strangled were forbidden by the Levitical, law. Lev. 17: 13-16. Fornication was, no doubt, one of the minor branches embraced in the seventh commandment; but there was a civil law directly mentioning and prohibiting it. Lev. 19: 29; Deut. 23: 17. Notice that this was not done away, but retained because it had a bearing upon the moral law. Notice this important fact: The great question before the apostles was whether or not a certain law was still to be kept by Christians. Verses 5-24. They decide that it is not, with the exception of four points which they enumerate. So much of that law, which they here select out should still be observed. All the rest is to be disregarded. If, therefore, the ten commandments and the moral precepts of the Old Testament are included in "the law" here under discussion, then Christians can lie, steal, covet, &c. Yea, and the commands to love God and your neighbor are also abolished with all the moral precepts of the Old Testament! This conclusion cannot be evaded, for the apostles distinctly say that excepting the four items mentioned, no part of "the law" under consideration is to be observed by Christians. If, therefore, there was only one law in the Old Testament, if "the law" covers all the precepts of the Old Testament, then the great commandments to love God with all your heart, Deut. 6: 5, and the second, to love your neighbor as yourself, Lev. 19-18, are abolished! What a blasphemous conclusion! What do our opponents do with this dilemma? What do they say about it? Just nothing at all. They are speechless. And yet they will doggedly cling to their position and bring it up again and again with all these absurdities staring them in the face. But all is plain and consistent when we understand that the reference is, not to the moral law and its innumerable precepts and explanations throughout all the Old Testament, but to the ceremonial and civil law given through Moses and peculiar only to the Jews. This is further evident from the fact that the decree of the apostles related only to the Gentiles. Says James, My sentence is, that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God." Verse 19. This law has no bearing upon them, hence they need not keep it. But none can deny that the Gentiles were under as much obligation to keep the moral law as were the Jews, which shows that the decalogue was not the law under consideration.