rsv Acts:15:6-21 SEEK
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The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter .
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And after there had been much debate ,
Peter rose and said to them , "
Brethren ,
you know that in the early days God made choice among you ,
that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe .
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And God who knows the heart bore witness to them ,
giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us ;
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and he made no distinction between us and them ,
but cleansed their hearts by faith .
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Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear ?
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But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus ,
just as they will ."
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And all the assembly kept silence ;
and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles .
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After they finished speaking ,
James replied , "
Brethren ,
listen to me .
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Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles ,
to take out of them a people for his name .
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And with this the words of the prophets agree ,
as it is written ,
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After this I will return ,
and I will rebuild the dwelling of David ,
which has fallen ;
I will rebuild its ruins ,
and I will set it up ,
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that the rest of men may seek the Lord ,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name ,
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says the Lord ,
who has made these things known from of old .'
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Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God ,
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but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood .
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For from early generations Moses has had in every city those who preach him ,
for he is read every sabbath in the synagogues ."