The Jews, the Gentiles, and the Noahchide Laws
But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying,
"It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the Law
of Moses." Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this
matter.
(Acts 15:5-6,
NKJV)
By
Kenneth E. Lamb
© 2002 by Kenneth E. Lamb
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The
Christian world was in crisis. It had been nearly 20 years since Jesus was
crucified and 10 since the first Gentile received the Holy Ghost at Caesara and
was baptized in Jesus’ Name. God was fulfilling his promise that Amos
pronounced, and James repeated in Acts 15:16-17, “After this I will return and
will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its
ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all
these things.”
While
the Church rejoiced at another fulfilled prophecy, conflict raged between
Christian Pharisees. Some thought baptized Gentiles left their Gentile identity
buried beneath the water along with their sins; now full-fledged Jews, they
must keep all 613 commandments (in Hebrew, mitzvahs)
found in the first five books of the Bible known as the Torah. Other Pharisees,
including the apostle Paul, said in effect, “No;” the 613 mitzvahs apply only
to the Jews, a different set of mitzvahs apply to the Gentiles.
Authority
to settle the dispute rested with apostles and elders in Jerusalem. Only God
could give them the answer: “What is the Law for Gentile Believers?”
We
know what the Holy Spirit told them. Speaking through James in Acts 15:19-20,
“Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who
are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted
by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.”
Why
did the Apostles and elders of the church immediately accept one set of laws
for Jews and another for Gentiles? Is there any other Scripture that proves
they clearly meant to define each group differently? And if so, what are those
laws and how do they affect us as Gentile Believers?
Since
the beginning of time, Judaism has asserted it is a “universal “ religion, that
is, it’s theological concepts of right and wrong are applicable to believers
and non-believers alike. To cite every verse that explicitly says God will
judge all humanity -- and not just those who make themselves acceptable to Him
-- by the standards of His revealed Word would take nearly a complete
reproduction of the Bible. But Judaism also asserts there is a difference
between Gentile and Jew. Beyond their status as bondservants to the Lord, this
difference is spelled out by the concept that Jews have 613 commandments to
follow; the Gentiles have 7. These 7 are called “The Noahchide (no-ah-khide)
Laws.”
How
can we say that the Apostles taught that Jews should keep one set of laws, and
Gentiles another? We look to God’s Word -- of course! Step back in time; it is
now 30 years after the crucifixion. Paul reenters Jerusalem where the elders
tell him he has to destroy false rumors that he is teaching against the Mosaic
Law.
Turning
to Acts 21:20-21, they first tell Paul, “You see, brother, how many myriads of
Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.” Note
that the tens of thousands of Jewish Believers in Jerusalem have not turned
away from the law, but are zealous for it! Since it has been at least 3 decades
since Pentecost, we must conclude Apostolic teaching is that the Law is still
valid for Jews -- why else would the Jewish Believers be “zealous” for it? It’s
tough to argue those “zealous for the law” have been taught to reject it!
But
the Jewish non-Christians say of Paul, “that you teach all the Jews who are
among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise
their children nor to walk according to the customs.”
The
Jerusalem elders need to set the city straight about what Paul teaches. They
devise a plan to publicly show the world their doctrine.
In
Acts 21:23-24 they instruct Paul, “Therefore do what we tell you: We have four
men who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them, and pay their
expenses so that they may shave their heads . . .”
Why?
So “. . . that all may know that those things of which they were informed
concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep
the law.”
Just
like other Jews, Paul is expected to -- and does -- keep the Mosaic Law. And
not just keep it, but practice it publicly. We know he did everything the Jerusalem
elders instructed him to do, in accordance with the Mosaic Law.
But
Paul’s public practice of Mosaic Law causes all sorts of problems for those who
teach the Law died at Calvary. He’s publicly practicing a doctrine they say
Paul says no longer exists! If they are right, then Paul is an incredible
hypocrite.
But
Paul is not a hypocrite. It is the Trinitarians who are missing the mark. Just
as they don’t understand the true nature of God, they don’t understand the
Noahchide Laws for Gentiles. The Noahchide Laws lead the elders to say in Acts
21:25 the Gentiles are exempt from the Mosaic Law: "But concerning the
Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no
such thing . . .” Thus we can conclude the rules for Jews and Gentiles are
different, “that they” -- the
Gentiles -- “should observe no such thing” -- the Mosaic Law Paul is observing
in the rites of cleansing before entering the Temple. Taken from the Noahchide
Laws, Luke repeats in Acts 21 from Acts 15 concerning Gentiles, “. . . except
that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from
things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”
Unlike
the explicitly stated Ten Commandments, the Noahchide Laws were deduced from
the Torah, specifically from Genesis,
hundreds of years before the time of Jesus. They were an accepted part of
Jewish theology by the first century. Judaism saw the world in terms of B’nai
Israel, the Children of Israel, obligated to follow the 613 commandments, and
B’nai Noah, the Children of Noah, or the Gentiles, obligated to follow the
Noahchide Laws. The Laws, followed with a short Scriptural reference, prohibit:
1) Idolatry: Idolatry is more than
bowing to graven images; it is trusting anything other than God for salvation.
In Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel shows what happens when we make ourselves
“god” and try to ascend to heaven on our own.
2) Blasphemy: Incorrectly thought of as
heresy, it is in fact the misuse of God’s name. Genesis 4:26 shows us, “Then
men began to call on the name of the LORD.” They did so correctly in prayer, worship,
and supplication; other uses are blasphemy.
3) Sexual Immorality: Genesis 2:24
defines marriage. Only the joining of man and woman into “one flesh” with God’s
blessing is allowed. Any other physical union is a perversion of God’s plan.
4) Theft: In Genesis 3, the “crime”
Adam and Eve committed when eating of the tree was not only disobedience, but
theft. They stole God’s property that He hadn’t given them.
5) Eating Blood: Genesis 9:3-4, “Every
moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things,
even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is,
its blood.”
6) Homicide: Genesis 9:6, “Whoever
sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God he
made man.”
Unlike
the other negative prohibitions, this is a positive instruction:
7)
To set up courts of justice to enforce the laws: From Genesis 9:5, “Surely
for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I
will require it, and from the hand of man.”
How
can the Noahchide Laws strengthen our witness against ungodly living? Mockers
and scoffers often try to rationalize homosexuality, adultery, and fornication
by asking if we Gentile Christians are expected to also keep the rest of the
Levitical Code, for example laws about the mixing of fibers in the cloth we
wear. This demonstrates their ignorance, not our incorrectness, in proclaiming
sexual immorality in these areas. Gentiles, under the Noahchide Laws, were
never expected to be concerned with the fibers in cloth. And the proclamation
of the Jerusalem elders proves it. The scoffers’ argument is intellectual
darkness.
In fact, once this differentiation is
understood, it explains many things about Christianity. It explains why Peter
understood the lowering of the cloth to represent that Gentiles were now
acceptable to God for salvation through Jesus; it had nothing to do with food.
Under the Noahchide Laws, Gentiles were from the beginning of time exempt from
keeping kosher. It explains why Paul, as a missionary to the Gentiles, could
teach they had no need to keep the 613 commandments the Jews had to keep; as an
educated Pharisee, he understood the Noahchide Laws exempted the Gentiles from
those commandments. It explains why we keep ourselves holy, but as Gentiles,
not as Jews.
Today,
the Noahchide Laws are fast becoming the focus of study for scholars seeking to
understand the Bible from its first century origins. Orthodox Jews have blessed
the Noahchide Movement, teaching the Torah applies to Jews and Gentiles alike.
The Noahchide Laws are accepted as valid by anyone who goes back to first
century Jerusalem.
For
Trinitarians, the Noahchide Laws are more nails in the coffin of their false
theology. Jews will never accept the
idea that “the LORD is One” really means three. They won’t accept it today, and
they would not have accepted it 2,000 years ago when, in Jerusalem alone, there
were tens of thousands of Jewish Believers “zealous for the law.” The
Trinitarian concept of the nature of God, and the Law, are both invalid.
But
for Apostolic Pentecostals, the Noahchide Laws prove that our belief that “Acts
is Alive” is now more justified than ever before. The One-God view is totally
compatible with Judaism; the concept that Gentiles were never expected to keep
the 613 commandments given the Jews is also compatible with Judaism.
This
shows again that it is Apostolic theology that correctly defines the Bible. In
this end time, Apostolic Pentecostalism is proving itself the bridge between
Gentiles and Jews. This bridge is “The Way” that will bring about God’s promise
in Jeremiah 3:17, that in the end time, “At that time they shall call Jerusalem
the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the
name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the
imagination of their evil heart.”
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30 -
Kenneth E. Lamb writes
the monthly World News article for The Pentecostal Herald. In addition, he
also writes for the New York Times,
the Miami Herald, the Jewish
Information Network and hosts the weekly news-interview show Sunday Morning with Kenneth E. Lamb,
syndicated by the ACTS Publishing and Communications Radio Network. He attends
First Pentecostal Church in Pensacola, FL: Senior Pastor, the Rev. Paul H.
Welch; Pastor, the Rev. Brian Kinsey. All Bible quotations are from the New
King James Version, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by
permission; all rights reserved.
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