Q1. Judaizers

[Krissi]

For the past three months, I've been tentatively associating with a Christian group that uses the Jewish calendar and celebrates Jewish holidays -- First Fruits, etc. I must admit they make me increasingly uncomfortable and am now wondering if they are contemporary Judaizers! We are free in Christ from the old law ... are we free from the old culture as well? The pastors of these churches walk a fine line between accepting Christ's salvation by grace alone and re-inserting Christian faith into old Jewish practices. The phrase, "new wine in old wineskins" seems apt.

In the book of acts, the Judaizers wanted to circumcise the men according to Jewish custom and law. This would have submitted Christianity to Judaism; Christian converts would then be Jewish converts. 

This sounds a bit like Peter's dream about eating meat that was considered unclean. God told him that meat was clean, just as God told the Judaizers in Acts 15 that circumcision wasn't necessary for salvation and sanctification.

There must be a human tendency to revert to rules and regulations rather than accept the unbounded grace of God and the responsibility grace entails). When Luther broke away from the Roman Church in the 1500s, the church had essentially institutionalized certain rituals and behaviors, much like the Judaizers of Acts 15.  It's not just a Jewish thing, then, but a human desire to regulate and control, and dictate and demand compliance -- this could be a result of pride as well as the desire to dominate and control others. It is sin, in other words.

 

[George L]

Q1. (Acts 15:1,5)

1. What is the essential demand of the Judaizers? Adherence to the Talmudic gentility conversion to hebrew faith including circumcision.
2. How does that contradict the idea of salvation by grace? Law became a set of works to be performed rather than a living relationship with the most high God.
3. What is the danger of excessive legalism in our Christian congregations? It replaces grace and mercy with works.

[George L]

4-Q1. (Acts 15:1,5)

1. What is the essential demand of the Judaizers? Adherence to the Talmudic gentile conversion to hebrew faith including circumcision.
2. How does that contradict the idea of salvation by grace? Law became a set of works to be performed rather than a living relationship with the most high God.
3. What is the danger of excessive legalism in our Christian congregations? It replaces grace and mercy with works.

[Tom in Washington]

Faith is love.

Religion is control. 
God wants to love us and be loved by us. He does not want to control us, or he wouldn’t have given us free will. How much greater is our relationship with God when we choose it, not do it from a fear of punishment.