I believe they were Spirit led to write what they wrote in Scripture. I do not believe James' decree was Spirit led, but it was Spirit approved. The fact that initially came from a man makes it a dogma. In this case, a good dogma.
Here's something to think about when men speak the decrees of God what word is used?
Yeshua said that it was Moses who allowed them to divorce and yet Moses only gave commands that YHVH had given to him to decree to the people.
Mat 19:7 They say to him, `Why then did Moses command to give a roll of divorce, and to put her away?'
Mat 19:8 He saith to them--`Moses for your stiffness of heart did suffer [allow] you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it hath not been so. [ ] my addition of the definition
Deu 24:1 `When a man doth take a wife, and hath married her, and it hath been, if she doth not find grace in his eyes (for he hath found in her
nakedness of anything), and he hath written for her a writing of divorce, and given it into her hand, and sent her out of his house,
Deu 23:14 for Jehovah thy God is walking up and down in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give thine enemies before thee, and thy camp hath been holy, and He doth not see
in thee the nakedness of anything, and hath turned back from after thee.
Strong's H6172
עֶרְוַת דָּבָר
nakedness of a thing, i.e. probably
indecency, improper behaviour
Deuteronomy 23:15;
Deuteronomy 24:1 (see Dr).
http://biblehub.com/hebrew/6172.htm
Paul was not giving a decree/dogma in 1Tim 2:12. He was upholding what Torah says in Gen 3:16 that the man has the rule.
1Ti 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Sorry I should have quoted the scripture as to what I was intending. "I (Paul) do not allow a woman to teach men."
I don't know anywhere in the Law of Moses where it says that women are not allowed to teach men and in Judaism women are allowed to teach men. Genesis never says anything about women teaching men, neither does the OT by God's choice show that all women are deceived. God chose Deborah to be the Judge over all Israel and for her to lead them in war, Barak refused to go without her.
But the point is, were Paul's instructions dogma in the sense that it was just his opinion or did he receive that instruction from the Lord just as Moses received the Law of Moses from the Lord?
I don't know what you are referring to. If you are referring to the four decrees of Acts 15, then they were not adding to or deleting from the Law. They were upholding four laws of Moses, knowing full well that the Gentile converts would learn the rest of Moses in due time as they heard him read every Sabbath (Acts 15:21).
If gentiles converts to Christ were suppose to be learning the Law of Moses in the synagogues they would have been instructed to do that but they never were. They assembled in people's homes.
Sorry the gentile were not accepted in the synagogues unless they were there to convert to Judaism. Jesus and Paul both were accepted by some and thrown out by others.
"The opposition that Paul encounters in certain synagogues is consistent with Jesus' warnings that synagogues will be places of persecution. Jesus tells his disciples that they will be delivered to synagogue authorities (
Luke 12:11 ;
21:12 ), flogged in synagogues (
Matt 10:17 ;
23:34 ;
Mark 13:9 ), and even put out of synagogues (
John 16:2 ). The pre-Christian Paul himself travels from synagogue to synagogue in his relentless zeal to imprison, beat, and otherwise punish Christians (
Acts 9:2 ;
22:19 ;
26:11 )."
http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/synagogue.html
If I were a gentile convert to Christ during that time, I certainly would not want to put myself in the hands of the one's at the synagogues. I would ask those in my assembly who were Jews whatever I wanted to know.
How could they be telling them to sin by telling them to obey those four laws of Moses?
By telling them they didn't have to be circumcised or obey the kosher food laws. You said that it was a sin if those in Christ did not do these things.
Titus could no longer obey the Law of Moses concerning circumcision because his eighth day of life was past. Provision was made for Gentile converts in such cases. They were, however, to circumcise their own children on the eighth day, not so they could be justified, but because Yahweh commands it.
If that is true why could Timothy be circumcised as an adult? And why could adult gentiles who converted to Judaism be circumcised? As a matter of fact, if they didn't get circumcised they couldn't partake (eat) the Passover feast and were not considered full members of the nation of Israel. These were the 'righteous proselytes' not the 'proselytes of the gate'.
Exo 12:48 `And when a sojourner sojourneth with thee, and hath made a passover to Yehovah, every male of his is to be circumcised, and then he doth come near to keep it, and he hath been as a native of the land, but any uncircumcised one doth not eat of it;
Exo 12:49 one law is to a native, and to a sojourner who is sojourning in your midst.'
So you see that wall that you say was just the physical wall built in the temple that kept the gentiles out was just symbolic of the Law of Moses. If a gentile agreed to be circumcised and follow all the Law of Moses that wall did not stand in his way. He became a full member of the nation of Israel and then he could offer sacrifices at the altar to atone for his sin. There is an example in the OT of a man and his men being circumcised and partaking of the Passover but I can find it or remember where.
Man's original diet was vegetarian. Yahweh allowed clean animal meat after the flood because there was no vegetation for the most part. That is why He had Moses bring 7 pairs of clean animals onto the ark, but only one pair of unclean animals. More clean animals were brought for sacrifices as well.
You are probably referring to Gen 9:3 in believing man could eat "all meats."
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Yahweh was speaking to Noah and his sons (vs. 1). Noah knew the difference between clean and unclean animals (Gen 7:2). Therefore, when Yahweh said, "Every moving thing," Noah knew that He meant every moving thing that was clean to eat. In Gen 9:3, Yahweh said, "even as the green herb ...". Noah could not eat every green herb because some herbs are poisonous to man. In the same way ("even as") Noah could not eat every animal either. Had Noah and company eaten one unclean animal, the species would have become extinct since they could no longer reproduce.
In Gen 8:21, Yahweh said, " . . .neither will I again smite any more
every thing living as I have done." Are we to understand this literally? Did Yahweh smite those in the ark or aquatic life? No. Therefore,
this verse needs to be qualified by understanding it to mean, "every thing living on the ground" as is revealed in Gen 7:22; " And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." In the same way, Gen 9:3 needs to be qualified by understanding it to mean "every moving thing that is clean to eat shall be meat for you."
I believe the scripture is very clear as it reads, 'every moving thing'. Noah would have had to know unclean and clean because he offered sacrifices for atonement. Even the Jews don't believe that Noah ate kosher.
"According to traditional Judaism,
G-d gave Noah and his family seven commandments to observe when he saved them from the flood. These commandments, referred to as the Noahic or Noahide commandments, are inferred from Genesis Ch. 9, and are as follows: 1) to establish courts of justice; 2) not to commit blasphemy; 3) not to commit idolatry; 4) not to commit incest and adultery; 5) not to commit bloodshed; 6) not to commit robbery; and 7) not to eat flesh cut from a living animal. These commandments are fairly simple and straightforward, and most of them are recognized by most of the world as sound moral principles. Any non-Jew who follows these laws has a place in the
world to come."
http://www.jewfaq.org/gentiles.htm#Noah[/QUOTE]
2
