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JULY 8
Therefore do not associate with one who their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do
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flatters with his lips. you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of
the disciples which neither our fathers nor we
20 Whoever curses his father or his 11
mother, were able to bear? But we believe that
His lamp will be put out in deep through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we
shall be saved in the same manner as they.”
darkness.
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Then all the multitude kept silent and lis-
21 An inheritance gained hastily at the tened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how
beginning many miracles and wonders God had worked
Will not be blessed at the end. through them among the Gentiles. And after
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they had become silent, James answered, say-
ing, “Men and brethren, listen to me: Simon
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has declared how God at the first visited the
Gentiles to take out of them a people for His
20:21 gained hastily. This implies an unjust
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method in gaining the inheritance, so that it name. And with this the words of the
will be lost by the same unjust ways or by pun- prophets agree, just as it is written:
ishment. 16
‘After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of
David, which has fallen down;
Acts 15:1–21 I will rebuild its ruins,
And certain men came down from Judea And I will set it up;
15 and taught the brethren, “Unless you are 17 So that the rest of mankind may seek
circumcised according to the custom of the LORD,
Moses, you cannot be saved.” Therefore, Even all the Gentiles who are called by
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when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissen- My name,
sion and dispute with them, they determined Says the LORD who does all these
that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of things.’
them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apos-
tles and elders, about this question.
3 So, being sent on their way by the church,
they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, 15:19 we should not trouble. The Greek
describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and word for “trouble”means “to throw something
they caused great joy to all the brethren. And in the path of someone to annoy them.” The
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when they had come to Jerusalem, they were decision of the Jerusalem Council, after con-
received by the church and the apostles and sidering all the evidence,was that keeping the
the elders; and they reported all things that law and observing rituals were not require-
God had done with them. But some of the sect ments for salvation.The Judaizers were to cease
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troubling and annoying the Gentiles.
of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying,
“It is necessary to circumcise them, and to
command them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 Now the apostles and elders came together 18 “Known to God from eternity are all His
to consider this matter. And when there had works. Therefore I judge that we should not
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been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to trouble those from among the Gentiles who
them: “Men and brethren, you know that a are turning to God, but that we write to them
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good while ago God chose among us, that by to abstain from things polluted by idols, from
my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word sexual immorality, from things strangled, and
of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows from blood. For Moses has had throughout
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the heart, acknowledged them by giving them many generations those who preach him in
the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made every city, being read in the synagogues
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no distinction between us and them, purifying every Sabbath.”
DAY 8:Why is the first church council in Acts 15 the most important ever held?
Throughout its history,the church’s leaders have met to settle doctrinal issues.Historians point
to 7 ecumenical councils in the church’s early history,especially the Councils of Nicea (A.D. 325) and
Chalcedon (A.D. 451). Yet the most important council was the first one—the Jerusalem Council—
because it established the answer to the most vital doctrinal question of all:“What must a person
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