P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

CONNIE: Is church an exclusive club, just for people with saintly personalities? Or is it a place for everyone to get to know Jesus? Join us today as we take another look at the Gospel that’s God’s gift to everyone!

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko.

LONNIE: Connie, your opening question is a pertinent one—because it’s easy for churches to fall into a sort of “country club” mode if they’re not careful. A place where only members feel welcome. But the church is supposed to be a place where everyone is welcome wasn’t always that way, though, was it?

Back in the early days of Christianity, quite a dispute arose among church leaders on this very point. And that’s the topic of our program today, as we continue our journey with the apostle Paul. We’re looking at the question, “Whose Gospel Is This, Anyhow?” Because there was a time when some people thought church was supposed to be an exclusive club.

CONNIE: We’ve invited New Testament scholar Robert Johnston to join us today, as we look at this topic. He spoke with Ken Wade. Let’s listen in.

KEN: I want to welcome Dr. Robert Johnston here today to our program. Dr. Johnston is professor emeriti’s of the New Testament and Christian origins at Andrews University, welcome to our broadcast.

ROBERT: Glad to be here, thank you.

KEN: Christian origins is really what we are talking about here as we talk about the topic of whose gospel is this anyhow, because there was a time when there was a question about whether the Christian church was going to be another branch of Judaism, wasn’t there?

ROBERT: That’s right.

KEN: There was quite a bit of a dispute and of course the earliest Christians were all Jews, but that began to change during an experience Peter had with a Roman Centurion, didn’t it?

ROBERT: Yes. The household of Cornelius. The Lord told Peter to go and preach to this household of Gentiles, which had never been done before.

KEN: And the amazing thing about that story was that God had to send a special vision to Peter first of all to get him to even do it, didn’t He?

ROBERT: That’s right; Peter was reluctant to do this.

KEN: Yet, when Peter went and did it, the Holy Spirit placed its seal upon ministry to non Jewish people.

ROBERT: By pouring out the Holy Spirit before they were baptized, because Peter would not have baptized them otherwise.

KEN: Now when Peter got back to Jerusalem, he was in a bit of hot water, wasn’t he?

ROBERT: He was attacked for doing that.

KEN: And yet the evidence that had been given by God Himself through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, how could they argue with that.

ROBERT: That was Peter’s point.

KEN: Yeah, but that sort of conflict sort of moves up to Antioch a little bit later, doesn’t it?

ROBERT: It does, the Gentile mission is very successful, and it’s growing faster than the Jewish mission, and the conservative Jewish brethren down in Jerusalem, Jewish Christians, were worried that the Christian standards were going to be diluted by these large numbers of Gentiles coming into the church.

KEN: What had happened of course was that Paul and Barnabas had been sent on a mission and had baptized many Jewish people, but now those more legalistic, law- oriented Jews in Jerusalem were concerned about this, and there was a dispute that we read bout in Galatians between Peter and Paul.

ROBERT: Yes. According to Jewish customs you didn’t have table fellowship with uncircumsized Gentiles if you were a Jew, and it would even extend to the Lord’s Supper, and that was what the dispute was about.

KEN: So, the dispute then was brought down to Jerusalem where we have what I guess is the Jerusalem Council, about 49, 50, and 51 A.D.

ROBERT: That’s right.

KEN: I guess you have on one side James, and on the other side Paul, but both sides were given a hearing, weren’t they?

ROBERT: Yes, there were many Christians who belonged to the Pharisees party, and they insisted that you couldn’t be saved if you weren’t circumcised, and they had their say. Paul and Barnabus had they’re say. Peter got up and gave a very important speech because he was a man of great standing in the early church. The conservatives were looking to James maybe to take their side, this would be James the Lord’s brother, but James gets up and supports the side of Paul, Barnabas, and Peter.

KEN: Now that’s an amazing thing, because it was actually people acting on at least what they thought was on James’ authority who stirred up some of the trouble in Antioch about the Gentiles, wasn’t it? So it’s kind of like a reversal here when James stands up…what actually is the decision of the council there and how has it impacted Christian missions in the years since?

ROBERT: The bottom line is that Christianity is not going to be any more simply one of several Jewish denominations, it’s a religion in its own right, and it’s a universal religion for all people. Every nation, not just the Jewish nation alone.

KEN: So from that point on Christianity becomes a religion of its own, and Paul and Barnaubus go out on their next mission trip, actually two mission trips from there and begin to spread the gospel even more widely, don’t they? So what we’re talking about here is no flash in the pan decision, this was the premier meeting where it was worked out, hashed out I guess you could say.

ROBERT: It had very broad implications, but that didn’t mean that God was through with the Jews, Paul remained a Jew, and he circumcised Timothy because he had a Jewish mother.

KEN: But the wonderful good news is that salvation is freely given to all through Jesus Christ. May God bless you in your service?
ROBERT: Thank you very much.

“He Is Our Peace”, Heritage Singers, from He Is Our Peace CD.

CONNIE: Amen! That’s our message today—Jesus Christ is our peace—the One who broke down the walls that separate people from each other.

LONNIE: That’s right, Connie. As we ask the question, “Whose Gospel Is This, Anyhow?” the obvious answer is that the good news about Jesus is for everyone. There are no barriers to keep anyone out of the kingdom.

CONNIE: We want to thank the Heritage Singers for that song—and just a reminder: if you enjoy the music you hear on our broadcast, stop by our web page at VOP.COM, where you can learn about the artists and how to purchase their CDs.

LONNIE: Today as we look at the plan of salvation, and how God made sure it was available to everyone, we’d like you to have a copy of the book Simply Salvation. And just like salvation itself, the book is free for the asking!

CONNIE: You can request a free copy of the little book Simply Salvation by making a free call—to our toll-free number that is: 1-800-872-0055. And after Lonnie shares today’s message, we’ll share our mailing address as well, in case you’d like to write in to request your copy of Simply Salvation. Right now though, let’s listen as Lonnie brings us his message, “Whose Gospel Is This, Anyhow?”

Whose Gospel Is This, Anyhow?

The good news is Salvation is free for the asking.

The question is, for whom?

Can just anyone and everyone come to Jesus and asked to be saved? Or are there special qualifications? Special requirements to be fulfilled before you can join the ranks of the redeemed?

Now, you might think the answer to that question is pretty obvious. But 2,000 years ago, as the good news of Jesus’ sacrifice for the whole world was just beginning to spread beyond the confines of its Jewish roots, major questions had to be answered.

What were the apostles in Jerusalem supposed to think when they heard that men like Paul and Barnabas had been going out and offering the gift of salvation through Jesus to Greeks and other Gentiles? Wasn’t salvation something that was supposed to be just for Jews? Wasn’t it the God of the Jews who had sent Jesus to earth?

Did people really think they could be saved without accepting the terms of God’s covenant with the Jews?

The apostles knew that Jesus Himself had ministered to a few people outside the realm Judaism, but usually He had made it clear t the Jews had special privileges in relation to salvation because of their long history of a covenant relationship with God. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, he said “‘You [Samaritans] worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews’ ” (John 4:22, NKJV). And when a Canaanite woman came to Him, pleading for Him to cast the demons out of her daughter, Jesus’ immediate response was, “ ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ ” (Matthew 15:24, NKJV). When the woman persisted in pleading for help, He tried again to put her off, using terminology that was common among His people when they referred to people of other races: “ ‘It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs’ ” (Matthew 15:26, NKJV).

So, if the apostles believed that salvation through Jesus was something reserved especially for Jews, it wasn’t without justification. But they should have remembered that in the end, Jesus did help the woman—His words had been intended only to test her faith and persistence.

And the apostles should also have remembered the great commission that Jesus had given them: “‘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’ ” (Matthew 28:19, NKJV).

But apparently at first the apostles assumed that when Jesus commanded them to evangelize all the nations (the word for nations is the same word usually translated Gentiles), He meant for them to go out and invite people of other ethnic backgrounds to essentially become Jews so that they could be saved.

That’s why a debate arose in Antioch after Paul and Barnabas returned from their highly successful missionary journey to Cyprus and Asia Minor. Here’s how the book of Acts describes what happened: “Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ And. . . Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them,” (Acts 15:1-2, NRSV).

What the people from Judea were saying, basically, is: Sure, salvation is available to everybody through Jesus. But those who accept Jesus must also accept Judaism as their religion. They need to follow all the rules and regulations good Jews follow.

This was a natural response. These people from Judea could look back on a long history of God’s special relationship with the Jews, and a long history of prophets teaching God’s people that they needed to be more faithful to the laws and customs of Judaism if they wanted to receive God’s blessings.

How could it be true that God was suddenly accepting people into His kingdom without expecting them to do the things that Jews ever since Abraham had considered central aspects of their special relationship to God?

Apparently the debate waxed long and eloquent in Antioch—with Paul and Barnabas on one side and the people from Judea on the other. Finally it was decided that this was an issue that needed to be resolved down in Jerusalem in the counsel of the elders and apostles. So Paul and Barnabas and others from Antioch made the long journey south.

The conference that convened in Jerusalem sometime in the middle of the first century A. D.—probably about AD 49 or 50—was called specifically to sort out the details of God’s plan of salvation for the whole world. And the central issue was whether people had to become Jews in order to be saved. The counsel and its discussions and resolutions are reported in Acts 15, right in the middle of the book of Acts, and they are still central to our understanding of the plan of salvation 2,000 years later. What happened in Jerusalem at that time literally changed the world.

When Paul and Barnabas arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church. The council convened, and the two faithful missionaries brought a report of how God had led and blessed them in their endeavors.

No doubt it was exciting for the Christian leaders to hear about how God had worked among the Gentiles. But then, Acts 15:5 reports, “some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses’ ” (NRSV).

Now the issue had been joined. The central question had been raised: Was it all right to offer salvation to Gentiles without requiring them to accept one of the central tenets of God’s covenant with Israel: Circumcision.

How could they relax one of the requirements that God Himself had given to their forefather Abraham? Wouldn’t that be going against the will of God?

As the debate raged back and forth, the apostle Peter stood to speak, and what he said opened the counsel’s eyes to the way God would answer that question.

Peter reminded them that in the very early days of the church—shortly after the ascension of Jesus—God had given him a vision calling him to undertake a special mission to a Gentile family living in Caesarea—the family of the Roman Centurion Cornelius. Peter recalled that he had hesitated at first, but that in the vision, God had taught him not to call the Gentiles “unclean” or “dogs.” Then Peter reminded the assembled counsel that “ ‘God, who knows the human heart, testified to [the Gentiles] by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us’ ” (Acts 15:8, 9, NRSV).

What were the elders to think of this—God had indeed given the Holy Spirit to Cornelius and his whole household without their having to be circumcised. Was that just an anomaly? Or was it a sign of God’s plans for the future?

Next to speak were Paul and Barnabas. Acts 15:12 tells us that “The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles” (NRSV).

How could the church leadership argue with the work of the Holy Spirit? Miracles had happened. Lives had been changed. People had received the blessings of God without having to be circumcised first!

It was obviously time for a sea-change in the Christian leaders’ understanding of God’s plan for reaching the whole world with the plan of salvation.

And then James stood up to speak.

James had been a central figure in the controversy. In fact, it was people acting on the authority of James who had stirred up the question up in Antioch in the first place, according to Galatians 2:12. They were the ones who had urged that Jewish Christians needed to remain separate from Gentile Christians, essentially making the Gentiles second-class citizens in the Kingdom. James was the brother of Jesus, and one of the most pious men in Jerusalem, and people watching his example had gone out to try to enforce his standards of piety on everyone who accepted Jesus.

But now James could see that it was wrong to make a separation between Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus. Quoting a passage from the Old Testament prophet Amos, he added this to the evidence Peter and Paul and Barnabas had presented, and came to the conclusion that God Himself had opened the kingdom to Gentiles—and that the Gentiles didn’t have to submit to circumcision in order to be fully accepted as part of the church.

The assembly voted a resolution and sent a letter to the church in Antioch and the surrounding regions affirming that “‘It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell’ ” (Acts 15:28, 29, NRSV).

And so it was decided. The Holy Spirit had led the church to realize that God had opened the doors of the kingdom to all who would come in. Yes, the way of salvation had been made known through Abraham and his descendants. But it was not a gift that was to be kept inside the family. It was to be shared with the whole world. A person did not have to become Jewish to be a son or daughter of God.

The message of salvation is for the whole world.

Jesus died for the sins of each and every soul who will accept His sacrifice in place of their own death.

That’s good news, isn’t it?

Good news for all who will accept it. Good news that was worked out on the cross of Calvary when Jesus suffered and died for all of the world’s sins. And good news that became practical and attainable because of the ministry and determination of a man named Paul, whom God had chosen as His ambassador to all the people of the world.

And it gets better yet. As Paul expressed it to the church at Corinth: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. . . . So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us;” (2 Corinthians 5:18, 20, NRSV).

Oh, friend, Jesus came to earth to save all who will come to Him. Paul was His ambassador to reach out to people of all races. And now we have the privilege of being heaven’s ambassadors! Won’t you take a little bit of heaven with you everywhere you go today—because people everywhere need to meet Jesus?