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When hearing Christian or Messianic Jewish ministers use Acts 15 as justification for Gentiles (non-ethnic Jews, Christians) to keep only four commandments as a requirement for salvation, it is an astonishing blasphemous teaching of lawlessness.
Ministers have often tickled the ears of their congregants, preaching easy salvation messages, not wanting to offend any of them in order to not lose a tithe-paying cash cow. Even so, teaching people that Gentiles are only required to obey four commandments for salvation is alarming and such teachers need to be openly rebuked.
In a book titled, Growing to Maturity – A Messianic Jewish Discipleship Guide, Messianic Jewish author Daniel C. Juster writes the following…
page 152:
There are two new movements with some overlap that can fuel disunity. One claims that Gentile believers are called to apply Torah just as Jews and hence are to live the same pattern of Torah life. This approach leads to replacement theology where there is no longer a distinction of Jewish and Gentile callings in life. This view fails to recognize the clear implications of Acts 15, where Gentiles are freed from the Jewish dimensions of the Torah.
It also does not credit such passages as Colossians 2:14 and Galatians 5 that clearly show that Gentiles do not have obligations to Jewish life patterns. The general consensus of the Messianic Jewish movement worldwide is to reject this error. The largest associations of Messianic Jewish congregations have rejected this view as well. Oftentimes those holding to this view bash the churches as compromised with paganism because they celebrate the biblical holidays on the wrong dates.
It takes a doctor of theology to write the psychobabble that was just read. Torah-obedient,
law-keeping Gentile believers, do not replace or attempt to replace the Jews via replacement theology by obeying God’s laws. A Hebrew is one who has given up pagan ways and traditions in favor of God’s ways. The Catholic Church has historically and incorrectly proclaimed that they have replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people. Catholic teachings are opposed to God’s Torah (laws). Obeying God’s commandments is not a sin!
Daniel Juster wrote that the implications of Acts 15 free Gentiles (non-ethnic Jews, Christians) from the dimensions of the Torah, God’s laws. Exactly what dimensions of God’s laws are Gentiles free to disregard? The Catholic, Protestant, and mainstream Christian churches, aka Mystery Babylon (confused religion, Revelation 17), do not only get dates wrong, but they also do not observe biblical holidays at all, with perhaps the exception of the renaming of Passover to Easter in honor of the pagan goddess Ishtar. Messiah (Christ) is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), He is not our Easter. No twisted teaching of Colossians 2:14 or Galatians 5 should make any believer think that with God, there is one set of laws for Jews and another set of laws for non-Jews.
One should not be so naïve as to not understand the nefarious reasons some Messianic Jews teach that Torah (the law) is for Jews, while four commands, Noahide laws, lawlessness, and paganism are ok for Gentiles. The reason some Messianic Jews teach such things as the Four Commands of Acts 15 and the Noahide laws for Gentiles is ethnocentrically self-serving.
Some Jews want to remain the apple of God’s eye and retain the most-favored people status with Almighty God. What better way to do that than to teach Gentiles to keep some of God’s laws, but not all of them? Then when Gentiles enter the kingdom of God, that is the ones who make it in, they can then serve the Jews as lower-status second-class citizens of the kingdom.
Daniel Juster continues, page 193:
With regard to non-Jewish believers, Acts 15 settled several issues: They were to be given freedom from converting to Judaism and taking upon themselves the totality of Jewish lifestyle (including what was understood as that part of Torah which was the responsibility of the Jewish people).
More psychobabble vagueness from Daniel Juster. Exactly what part of Torah, God’s laws, was to be observed exclusively by Jewish people?
DOES FOLLOWING TORAH (GOD’S LAWS), GOD’S FEASTS, THE SABBATH, THE DIETARY COMMANDS, ETC., MAKE A PERSON JEWISH?
While it might be currently common for people to ask non-Jewish Torah-observant believers, “Are you Jewish?,” such spiritually ignorant persons do not understand that observing God’s laws does not make a person Jewish while simultaneously not realizing that by not observing God’s laws it makes them and their practices pagan. God’s laws are not exclusively for Jews practicing Judaism, they are for all people of all nations.
The Acts 15 discussion did settle a few issues, but it did not grant non-Jews freedom from observing God’s laws. The issues settled by Acts 15 will be revealed after hearing from a couple of other ministers who use Acts 15 to promote lawlessness for Gentiles.
CHUCK MISSLER
Chuck Missler, author, and evangelical Christian teacher said, “Many people who study Acts 15 know that they are arguing about ‘What does a Gentile have to do to be saved?’ … The Gentiles don’t have to observe the Sabbath. They don’t have to, you know, they avoid adultery and a few things, but they are saved by grace and not by the law. That’s the point.”
Wrong point Chuck Missler! Jews and Gentiles are BOTH saved by grace and not the law.
ACTS 15:11 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
But we [JEWS] believe that through the grace of the Lord Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) we [JEWS] shall be saved in the same manner as they [THE GENTILES].” -The Apostle Peter
If the Jews will be saved in the same manner as the Gentiles and the law cannot save the Jews, why then do Messianic Jews and Jews practicing Judaism observe the law? The Jews observe God’s laws for righteousness so that they will not be regarded as lawless and sinful by God.
The law does not save, Yeshua (Jesus) does (John 14:6), but disobeying the law can condemn a person, Jew or Gentile, as lawless. Messianic Jews believe in Yeshua (Jesus) and obey God’s laws for righteousness. Gentiles should do the same.
JOHN 4:22 (NKJV):
“You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”
Many Christians do not know that they are worshiping God in the wrong manner and they are not obeying God’s laws as the Jews are. For while the law cannot save us, being willfully disobedient to the law will condemn the sinner, whether Jew or Gentile.
HEBREWS 10:26 (NKJV):
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries [OF GOD].
The Acts 15 discussions were about circumcision and other issues that Gentiles had to first adhere to before entering a synagogue and having fellowship with Jews on the Sabbath.
ACTS 15:19-21 (NKJV):
“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. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
Acts 15:21 confirms that people preached Moses, the Torah (law), in synagogues every Sabbath and people came to learn about the Torah (law). Acts 15, therefore, upheld the Sabbath.
The 2 Timothy 3:7 lifetime dishonor poster boy award goes to the late evangelical Christian minister Chuck Missler, as I think he has rightly earned it…
2 TIMOTHY 3:7 (NKJV):
Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
KENT HOVIND
Kent Hovind, author, Christian fundamentalist Baptist minister, and founder of Creation Science Evangelism teaches that belief in Jesus and observing the Four Commandments of Acts 15 are all that is required for Gentiles to obtain salvation.
Kent Hovind, and I quote, “There are many churches trying to add ‘God’s laws’ to the belief.”
Note that Hovind didn’t say that people were trying to add Talmudic, Pharisaic, or other man-made laws to someone’s belief, but were attempting to add God’s own laws to belief!
What Hovind was saying is that people were attempting to add God’s own laws as a requirement of faith. Observing God’s laws is a requirement for faith and salvation. Simply saying the sinner’s prayer and living in lawlessness is dead faith and it will not be sufficient for salvation. Faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26).
1 JOHN 2:3-6 (NKJV):
Now by this we know that we know Messiah (Christ), if we keep His commandments.
He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.
By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL
There was no formal meeting known as The Jerusalem Council. Church historians have dubbed a simple weekly Sabbath meeting of apostles and elders, who came together to discuss a matter of circumcision, as “The Jerusalem Council” for self-empowerment reasons. Naming this meeting between the apostles and elders “The Jerusalem Council” would serve as a precedent that would manifest later on in the First Vatican Council, subsequent Vatican councils, and other such councils held by various Christian Churches worldwide.
Church councils do not have the authority to establish doctrines, abolish or nullify any of Elohim’s (God’s) eternal laws, nor declare which ethnicities of human beings must obey His laws (Daniel 7;25). God’s laws were issued to all of mankind, for all to observe them. All of mankind is related, as we were all created from one blood (Acts 17:26).
The apostles of “The Jerusalem Council” had no authority to make rulings on God’s laws that they were unsure of. It is clear by a reading of Acts 15:28 that the Holy Spirit was upon them and guided them in ruling that adult male Gentile converts did not need to be circumcised, but to only adhere to minimal commands, initially, when joining a congregation.
Yeshua (Jesus) instructed His disciples in the following manner…
MATTHEW 28:18-20 (NKJV):
And Yeshua (Jesus) came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of ALL THE NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Yeshua (Jesus) commanded His disciples to teach all the nations what He taught His own disciples. Did Yeshua (Jesus) teach His disciples to go to church on Sunday and change the Seventh Day Sabbath? Did Yeshua (Jesus) command His disciples to teach the other nations pagan holidays such as Christmas and Easter and forget His holy feast days? Did Yeshua (Jesus) command His disciples to teach the other nations that it was ok for them to eat unclean creatures?
The Acts 15 chapter is primarily about two topics: whether or not circumcision was a requirement for salvation and the minimal standards for converts to adhere to before entering a fellowship congregation.
ACTS 15:1-2 (NKJV):
And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.
Were the men from Judea altogether wrong about their concern that the Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to be saved? No. Not entirely.
THE COVENANT OF THE CIRCUMCISION
GENESIS 17:9-14 (NKJV):
And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
The men of Judea who contended with Paul and Barnabas, saying to them that Gentile converts needed to be circumcised believed that if a man was not circumcised, then that male believer should be cut off from being among God’s people according to Genesis 17:14.
The following reasons are why the men of Judea were incorrect about requiring Gentiles to be circumcised.
1. The command of circumcision was a covenant given specifically to Abraham and his descendants. New Gentile converts were not the descendants of Abraham and were unaware of the practice of circumcision for male children on the eighth day (Genesis 17:9).
2. The men of Judea were teaching that adult male converts needed to be circumcised, but the requirement for males to be circumcised was specifically on their eighth day (Genesis 17:12; Leviticus 12:3).
3. Yeshua (Jesus) paid the penalty for sin, so the penalty of uncircumcised males “being cut off” (Genesis 17:14) was covered and paid for by Yeshua (Jesus) on the cross (Hosea 2:23).
ACTS 15:6-10 (NKJV):
Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
The heart of the matter of the Acts 15 discussion, is the question of what the yoke is on the neck of Gentile disciples. Was this yoke God’s law, the Torah, or the idea of obeying God’s laws for salvation?
Many, who understand most of Acts 15, do not quite understand what the unbearable yoke for uncircumcised Gentiles was. Obeying God’s laws (Torah) is not an unbearable yoke. Obeying God’s commandments for salvation is not the unbearable yoke either, since salvation through the law is an impossible task for anyone to achieve.
Jews practicing Judaism, who believe that they do not need a Savior to die and atone for their sins may incorrectly believe salvation is through the law, but people who believe in Yeshua (Jesus) and obey the law are not obeying the law for salvation, but for righteousness. Saints in times past have never obeyed God’s commandments for salvation. Torah-obedient persons of today do not obey God’s commandments for salvation. People rightly obey God’s commandments for righteousness, to be acceptable to Elohim (God).
EXODUS 12:49 (NKJV):
“One law (Torah) shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.”
LEVITICUS 24:22 (NKJV):
“You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am YHWH (the Lord) your God.’ ”
DEUTERONOMY 30:11-14 (NIV):
“Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”
MATTHEW 11:30 (NKJV):
“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Any Gentile Torah-observant believer can testify that keeping God’s laws is not an unbearable yoke that is extremely difficult to comply with. Is it unbearable to follow God’s true feast days and give up pagan holidays, observe the seventh day Sabbath and not observe the Sunday Sabbath, and change one’s diet from eating all things to eating only clean healthy creatures?
GENESIS 6:8-9 (NKJV):
Noah found grace in the eyes of YHWH (the Lord). … Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.
Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years, then he died. Noah was not saved through commandment-keeping. Noah found grace and was considered righteous through commandment-keeping. Yeshua (Jesus) came generations after Noah to be Noah’s salvation.
There are countless other examples of God working with the righteous, people who revered and obeyed His commandments,
PSALM 11:7 (NASB):
For YHWH (the Lord) is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.
There are some who say that if you obey God’s laws, Jesus’s work on the cross is insufficient for you. They miss the point. Yeshua’s (Jesus’) work on the cross is only for the salvation of the righteous. His blood does not cover unrepentant sinners practicing lawlessness.
MATTHEW 7:21-23 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will [OBEYS THE COMMANDMENTS] of My Father in heaven. Many [CHRISTIANS] will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we [CHRISTIANS] not prophesied in Your [JESUS’] name, cast out demons in Your [JESUS’] name, and done many wonders in Your [JESUS’] name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you [CHRISTIANS]; depart from Me, you [CHRISTIANS] who practice lawlessness!’”
If the Torah (law) is not the unbearable yoke, what then is the unbearable yoke that Peter spoke of in Acts 15? The unbearable yoke was adult circumcision.
The human male body was engineered by God to be able to best bear circumcision on the eighth day and only on the eighth day. The level of vitamin K in the male body is highest on this day, which supports the coagulation of blood and stops bleeding. Many new male adult converts could not bear the thought of circumcision. Furthermore, two thousand years ago there was no anesthesia, so the procedure was not only mentally disturbing, but also extremely physically painful. Today, if an uncircumcised adult male wishes to be circumcised, modern medicine can render him unconscious with anesthesia and the male would wake up and the procedure would be over. Yet even with general anesthesia the pain to the penis area of adult circumcised men, after the procedure, will be mild to moderate, and recovery time will take about a month. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that anesthesia was discovered and administered to patients, making modern pain-free surgery possible. This was not the case 2,000 years ago at the time of Acts 15. Any adult male circumcised at that time was circumcised without general anesthesia in a very painful procedure. This was an unbearable yoke for many new adult male Gentile converts to bear.
The Apostle Paul also spoke against the Jews troubling the Gentiles with a requirement of circumcision as a prerequisite before hearing and learning the truth of the gospel.
GALATIANS 5:1-7,11-12 (RSV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
For freedom Messiah (Christ) has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Messiah (Christ) will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Messiah (Christ), you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? …
But if I, brethren, still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the stumbling block of the cross [CIRCUMCISION] has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves!
Paul wrote of the yoke, the stumbling block, being male circumcision that some of the Jews were using against new adult male Gentile converts to keep them from the gospel. The yoke of slavery is to be obedient to God’s laws, including circumcision, in a legalistic manner. Many Christians misinterpret Paul’s writings in Galatians 5 to proclaim that the Torah, God’s laws, are bondage. The Gentiles were not to be cut off from being God’s people, because of uncircumcision. Messiah (Christ) did not free us from His laws, but He did free us from the penalty for breaking His laws or not having walked perfectly in them. In our run or walk, as believers, we learn about God’s feasts and His laws and work to apply them to our lives as we live out our lives. Some Jews were using circumcision to hinder uncircumcised Gentile males from hearing and obeying the truth of the gospel.
FOUR COMMON PRACTICES THAT GENTILES WERE ADVISED TO ABSTAIN FROM
ACTS 15:18-21 (NKJV):
“Known to God from eternity are all His works. 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. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
The four abstinence requirements of Acts 15 for Gentiles are not the only four commandments Gentiles are required to obey for salvation. These four things the apostles wrote concerning the Gentiles were minimal entry requirements for Gentiles who were turning to God and were entering synagogues on the Sabbath!
That is, the apostles wrote that before Gentiles enter a synagogue, on the Sabbath day, they should first repent of sexual immorality, have nothing to do with idols, eat meat that has been properly slaughtered, and refrain from eating blood.
Sexual immorality, idolatry, and improperly slaughtered meats in the marketplace were common practices engaged in by Gentiles of the Roman, Greek, and Babylonian cultures.
IDOLATRY AND SEXUAL IMMORALITY DEFILE A CONGREGATION
Paul addressed idolatry and sexual immorality, among other sins, which were sins not to be tolerated within a congregational fellowship in his first letter to the Corinthians…
1 CORINTHIANS 5:1-13 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ), when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ), deliver such a one to Satan [KICK THIS MAN OUT OF THE CONGREGATION] for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua (Jesus).
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Messiah (Christ), our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the [PASSOVER] feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company [SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP] with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
But now I have written to you not to keep company [SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP] with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
It is clear from a comprehensive reading of Scripture that congregations proclaiming the gospel message are to have minimal moral standards for persons entering the assembly. The moral standards set for those who are turning to God and entering a congregation are to abstain from idolatry in all its forms, from sexual immorality, from strangled animals, and from blood.
Someone may ask, “What if I am turning to God, but am struggling with sexual immorality?” The person in such a situation may have a sexual addiction and a congregational fellowship may indeed help a believer overcome such an addiction. In such a scenario, the person enters a congregation, but does not flaunt his or her sexual immorality, but humbly prays and leaves it at the door. The man who was kicked out of the congregation in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 was obviously not hiding the fact, nor repenting for having sexual relations with his father’s wife (presumably not his own mother).
A person today turning to God and wanting to enter a congregation should abstain from sexual immorality and idolatry (such as is common in the Catholic faith). Most meat today is properly slaughtered, but a person turning to God should choose to abstain from halal meat, which is properly slaughtered, but according to Muslim regulations is slaughtered in the name of their god Allah and his messenger Muhammad.
THE FOUR COMMANDMENTS FOR GENTILES?
ACTS 15:23-29 (NKJV):
They wrote this letter by them:
The apostles, the elders, and the brethren,
To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:
Greetings.
Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words,
unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment— it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ). We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than THESE NECESSARY THINGS: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
Farewell.
Letters written by the apostles do not have the authority to establish or abolish God’s laws.
These necessary things written in Acts 15 are not necessary things for salvation, but rather these are necessary things for a person who is turning to God to do before entering a congregation and having fellowship with believers. People turning to God are not required to be circumcised, nor is it required that they obey God’s laws perfectly before entering a congregation. One of the reasons to enter a congregation and have fellowship with true believers, after all, is to learn about God’s laws and apply them to one’s life.
MATTHEW 5:18 & LUKE 16:17 (NKJV):
“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” … “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.”
People who ask if they need to obey God’s Old Testament laws are asking the wrong question.
Believers should be asking themselves if they are doing everything that they can do to make themselves acceptable and presentable to Almighty God, instead of doing the minimal requirements of Acts 15 and remaining in lawlessness and pagan practices.
PSALM 1:1-2 (NKJV):
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of YHWH (the Lord), and in His law he meditates day and night.
ROMANS 6:13 (NKJV):
Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
The absurdity of using Acts 15 as “Four Commandments for Gentiles,” which is taught by some Messianic Jewish teachers to keep Gentiles in a low status with God, and by law-is-done-away-with Christian ministers is self-evident and is easily refuted.
MATTHEW 19:16-19; MARK 10:17-19; LUKE 18:18-20 (NKJV) [CONDENSED]:
Now behold, a wealthy man came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
So Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Yeshua (Jesus) said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
If Gentiles are only required to abstain from idols, keep themselves from sexually immorality, and refrain from eating strangled animals and blood, this would mean that Gentiles could freely covet, dishonor father and mother, lie, murder, and steal, among other sins.
COLOSSIANS 2:18 & REVELATION 3:11 (NKJV) [WITH COMMENTARY]:
Let no one cheat you of your reward… [FROM THE AGE THAT IS TO COME].
Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-10 (NKJV):
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
REVELATION 22:14-15 (NKJV):
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
SHOULD UNCIRCUMCISED ADULT MALES GET CIRCUMCISED TODAY?
1 CORINTHIANS 7:19 (NKJV):
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.
Circumcision is a commandment of God, but it is a command specifically to parents who know the law of circumcision, for them to circumcise their male child on his eighth day. Being uncircumcised is not a sin. Yeshua (Jesus) paid the penalty for all sinners, and for sins or acts of omission, so an uncircumcised male believer will not be cut off from God’s people if he doesn’t get circumcised in adulthood.
LUKE 2:21 (NKJV):
And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Yeshua (Jesus), the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.
Yeshua (Jesus) was circumcised on His eighth day, so it is proper and good for people of all nations to circumcise their male children on their eighth day.
ACTS 16:1-3 (NKJV):
And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek.
Even after all the discussions of not needing to circumcise uncircumcised adult male believers in Acts 15 and the subsequent things Paul would write condemning requiring adult males to be circumcised, he circumcised Timothy in adulthood in Acts 16:3.
Adult uncircumcised men may wish to get circumcised for cosmetic, hygienic, and or spiritual reasons, and that is an optional personal decision. Today, with modern medicine using general anesthesia, uncircumcised adult men who decide to undergo circumcision surgery have a much easier burden to bear than the first-century uncircumcised adult male converts did, if they decided to get circumcised without anesthesia.