Friday; June 3
When the early Christian church opened its doors to those with a Gentile (non-Jewish) background, some problems developed. Many of the first Christians had come out of Judaism, so Christianity didn’t create much of a lifestyle change; however, that wasn’t the case with many of the Gentiles. These folks had been pagans, had lived under the Greek and/or Roman cultures and were having to get used to the concept of monotheism. In and of itself, this blending of cultures created some issues; but one of the most challenging was whose needs were going to take precedence. Most Jews merely moved on with a deeper understanding of godliness, but a lot of the Gentiles started at Square One. I am sure that the Jewish Christians advocated their “right” to do what they felt comfortable doing, while the Gentile Christians needed to go slow and learn a paradigm for God-centered religion. Eventually, this would lead to a question of who would get their way – those whose faith is firmly establishe