The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 has gotten a lot of attention of late. Those who want to change The United Methodist Church’s position on same-sex practices cite it frequently. Last November, in an open letter to the Northern Illinois Conference, Bishop Sally Dyck announced “open gatherings” in her conference to discuss our current crisis by framing the conversations based on Acts 15 (read it here). She opined that the Jerusalem Council “found itself in a conflict over the law as well as accepted and deeply held assumptions and traditions about who people are (circumcised or uncircumcised).” She went further by saying the Jerusalem Council “found a way to be together that seemed to work.”
Recently Rev. Adam Hamilton proposed here that we should imagine three “buckets” into which Scripture can be divided, and said the following. “The Apostles, in Acts 15, determined that most of the laws like these [pertaining to circumcision, animal sacrifice, dietary kosher laws, etc.] were no longer binding upon Christians.” (See my response to the “buckets” here.)
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