A Letter from Philip McPherson Rudisill to select recipients on his e-mail list, and Concerning the Reconciliation of Jewish and Gentile Christians

[A Gentile Christian is one who seeks solely to conform to the Golden rule in all his practical dealings with other people, while a Jewish Christian, who likewise seeks to honor the Golden rule, is one who is also self-bound by other regulations which cannot be derived from the Golden Rule but which are rendered through revelation, and does this in order (heshe thinks) to be thoroughly pleasing to God. The terms are technical and have nothing to do with racial or cultural matters, but rather with a certain mind set and attitude.]

The Gentile Christian has little problem in accepting the Jewish Christian, but does have to be concerned about not offending the latter by public displays of his liberation from externally given law, e.g., eating blood sausages. Romans 14 is an important and excellent guide in this regard.

My concern now is with the Jewish Christian and how it is that heshe will be able to accept the Gentile Christian who engages in practices which the former thinks to be a violation of a revealed prohibition, e.g., homosexual behavior or consuming blood.

I will try to put myself in the place of a Jewish Christian who takes Acts 15 as binding on me, and utilize the object of blood sausages which are a delicacy of the Gentile Christian in Germany. I muse now in that frame of mind.

"These Gentile Christians seek earnestly to comply with the Golden rule and are one with me in that regard. But they simply don't seem able to realize that there are additional things which are pleasing to God and which God has undertaken to reveal to us. When I try to talk to them about God's opinion of blood sausages, for example, they make a straightforward appeal to Matthew 7:12 and Romans 13:8-10 and seem honestly to believe that that is all that is required to be thoroughly pleasing to God.* When I press my case, their eyes begin to glaze over and they glance furtively at their watches and seek to change the subject. Now what am I to do about this?

[* "Some of the philosophically inclined among the Gentile Christians point out that Kant has established that the only universally valid basis for right and wrong is the moral law (which is pretty much the same thing as the Golden rule, at least for humans); and they feel certain that this is the meaning of Genesis 3:22; and so they don't think they need any revelation about right and wrong beyond the Golden Rule. In short: they just don't get it!]

"There is a difference, I believe, between a person who is conscious of having done something which heshe knows is prohibited, e.g., myself if I were to eat blood sausages, and someone who is conscious of having done the same thing, but without any recognition that it is wrong (perhaps because heshe thinks of it as merely another food, or because heshe thinks it is medicinal). And so, therefore, since the Gentile Christian honestly seeks to comply with the Golden rule and since heshe seems to have a modern and adult understanding of what is medicinal and what is poison,* and since the blood regulations cannot be derived from the Golden rule, and so since therefore the Gentile Christian who eats blood sausages has a conscience which is as clear as my own, I will treat him as a little child or as a savage who has not yet come to know the full extent of the revealed law and so therefore needs enlightenment; but I will ask him not to eat blood sausages in my presence or to talk about doing so. Romans 14 should guide him in restricting his perceived liberty to that extent."

[* "If the practice of the Gentile Christian were a violation of the Golden Rule according to my own understanding, e.g., abusive and exploitative, then I would have to ask him for an explanation, and for a derivation of his behavior from the rule.]

I think this frame of mind on the part of the Jewish Christian is productive and helps avoid a clean break with the Gentile Christian and leaves open the possibility of eventually convincing the Gentile Christian of the error of his ways. It should hold for any action which the Jewish Christian "knows" to be prohibited and where the required action cannot be derived from the Golden rule. It cannot hold where there is a consciousness of sin, i.e., where a Christian openly engages in some behavior which heshe knows violates the Golden rule.

Observation: how wise was our Lord in giving us such a simple rule to guide our behavior, and how wise it was of Paul to realize that in order for diverse Christians to get along they must respect the progress that each has made on the journey toward perfect liberation, i.e., some have cast off more of the Old Testament rules and regulations than others.

I have spoken here in terms of eating blood, but the important matter for today is, of course, homosexual behavior.