The First Council Of Churches

A day is coming when all men agree
That Jesus is God and not another;
No one questions how worship is to be,
Or that its order ought be some other!
But the world has never seen such as yet;
No man is content in another’s wake,
Until his way has been proved unworthy set---
Adam’s sin of pride did ours stronger make!
Christian’s love for all’s easy to proclaim,
But human nature must abolish pride;
The Holy Spirit within has that aim:
To teach us to love like Jesus inside!
Ev’ry human’s nature is selfish at birth;
And’ll stay that way till Jesus is put first!

Pride in each human’s nature is the greatest sin-maker of all. In an ideal world, a world without Satan, men and women of all races would be truly repentant for their sins committed, sincere in belief in Jesus as Lord, and would be constantly at work changing their birth-natures into the new ones taught by Jesus during His ministry on earth. Pride-in-self would be abolished; love would keep relationships with all others harmonious and cooperative; there would be no disputes over how things are best done, and no need for councils of churches, or more than one church denomination. This world is not ideal.

The Judaizers’ persistent insistence on requiring Gentile believers to be circumsized in first century Christianity caused Antioch church to send a delegation, including Paul and Barnabas, to the church in Jerusalem for an authoritative ruling on the matter, The 12 apostles were members of the Jerusalem church, which made it the most reliable source of divine answer for such a vital question as to what is specifically required for salvation. So the First Council of Churches was held at Jerusalem in about 40 A. D. In the years following, there have been several such councils convened for Important decisions to be made. Not every church participated in every council, and not every church followed all the decisions made by such councils. But this practice marked the beginning of denominations. The Catholic (catholic means universal) Church began as the largest network of cooperating churches affiliated themselves together and committed to following the same doctrines and practices emanating from the earliest councils; other churches who did not accept the decisions of the various councils eventually led to different denomunations with slightly, someimes radically, different doctrines or beliefs.

The decision made at the Jerusalem church was that Gentiles were not required to be circumcized or to keep the Mosaic Law in order to become Christian or be saved. Peter made the most convincing speech to the council.

“Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcized and required to keep the law of Moses.’ … After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them. ‘Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a shoice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, but he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.’ “ (Acts 15:5-11)

This was a wonderful decision for us and all the world, for it guaranteed that non-Jews (which number infinitely more than Jews) are not burdened under an impossibly large number of ticky-tacky rules and laws to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith; believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!