Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Before we popped over to the book of Jacob slash James, Paul and Barnabas had just

arrived back from their first missionary journey and the church at Antioch was

celebrating with him. They've been there for a while and today some guys from Jerusalem show up for a teaching trip.

And guess what they're teaching? Circumcision.

They start all the drama back up again, saying people have to convert to Judaism in order to convert to

Christianity. Paul and Barnabas pushed back. They've already been down this road

about a decade earlier. They make a trip back to Jerusalem in hopes of dealing with it

once and for all. When they arrive, we find out who is behind this circumcision requirement,

the Pharisees.

These are believers who are Pharisees, though, according to 15-5,

people who have the Holy Spirit. Isn't it his job to teach us and help us reach

unity? Yes, he totally does that. But like with most things, change happens slowly, not immediately. It's often whom we look back over the course of years that we see the fruit.

By the way, Paul is a Pharisee too, but he obviously disagrees with this Pharisee in Jerusalem.

While they're debating this, Peter says, hey, remember when this all started?

Remember how God used a Jew like me to preach to the Gentiles? Remember how those

uncircumsized people receive the Holy Spirit in a way that was so obvious

and evident that none of us could deny it?

It's clear that God doesn't make a distinction between Jew and Gentile.

He knows all hearts and he cleans the Gentile's hearts too. By saying he

requires them to be circumcised you're doing two very foolish things. You're

heaping a burden on them that none of us have been able to bear anyway and you're

...