The Jerusalem Council & Binding Universal Decisions

An anti-Catholic critic of the Catholic Church, who goes by "excatholic4christ" wrote: "Nowhere in the Bible do we see anything resembling a dictatorial teaching office as we see with the Vatican hierarchy."

"Dictatorial" isn’t our view, of course. The Church is our Mother and Guide to the faith. We’re not forced to submit to it; we willingly do so, with the belief that God guides His Church and protects her from error. We do indeed see authoritative Church teaching in the Jerusalem council, which even appealed to the Holy Spirit:

Acts 15:28-29 (RSV) For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: [29] that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

This was not merely a local church scuffle. The apostles Paul, Peter, and James were all there. The authoritative, binding letter was sent to “the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.” Damascus, Syria was 155 miles from Jerusalem. That was a very long distance in those days. Antioch was a city in the middle (from an east-west perspective) of present-day Turkey, on its southern border (right next to present-day Syria). Antakya is the current Turkish city in the region. It’s 453 miles from Jerusalem. Yet here was the church in Jerusalem sending it binding instructions, claimed to be agreed with by the Holy Spirit. Cilicia was the region of southern Turkey extending quite a ways west from Antioch. So it was at least 453 miles from Jerusalem, and most of it many more miles away.

Moreover, Paul and Timothy “went on their way through the cities,” and “they delivered to them for observance the decisions which had been reached by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4). What cities or areas were these? Well, in the immediate context, Phrygia, Galatia, Bithynia, Troas, and Macedonia are mentioned as places that were visited by Paul and Timothy, and where they delivered the letter decided at Jerusalem by “apostles and elders” (Acts 16:6-10). Now let’s do some more ancient geography, to see how far these places were from Jerusalem:

Phrygia was in west and central Turkey (then known as Anatolia or Asia Minor). At the western end of Phrygia was the town of Aizanoi (modern Çavdarhisar).  That’s 991 miles away. But it wasn’t too far for the church in Jerusalem to send it binding decrees. Galatia was just northeast of Phrygia, and thus almost as far as that location. Bithynia was north and a little west of Phrygia, and so even further from Jerusalem (more than a thousand miles away). Troas (also known as “The Troad”) was in the western part of Anatolia, and so further than any area mentioned yet. Lastly, Macedonia shortly after apostolic times was north of current-day Greece in the area of the former Yugoslavia (now again called the Republic of Macedonia). But it was larger than that and extended quite a bit into what is now Greece. It included the city of Thessaloniki (Paul wrote two letters to the Christians there), which still exists, and is, by land, no less than 1501 miles from Jerusalem.

Clearly, the Jerusalem council regarded itself as authoritative over Gentile Christians everywhere (and they were, of course, the vast majority of the rapidly accumulating body of Christians). The cities that Paul delivered this letter to (Acts 16:4) ranged from 991 to 1500 miles, as just shown. If that is not very much like the Vatican and Catholicism issuing doctrines that are binding in very large geographical areas, I don’t know what is. And it’s right in inspired Scripture.