What is forbidden?

Jesus did not abrogate Torah. Everyone knows that, right? Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill (Matt 5:17). Also, in Matt 23:1-3, we find Jesus [speaking] to the crowds and to His disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them." Here, we find Jesus agreeing with the Pharisees on the matters of beliefs (though He criticizes them of being blind to their own hypocrisy). Now, some speculations arise as to how Jesus might have done away with the Mosaic laws, and these concern divorce laws (Matt 19) and His confilcts with Jewish leadership over the issue of Sabbath observance, which are seen throughout the canonical gospels. In any case, we can see that "the laws written on the hearts" that the prophet Jeremiah spoke of, was the essence of Jesus' teaching. We now turn to the early churches.

After Jesus' ascension, the first conflict that arose in the early church can be seen in Acts 15. This dispute concerned whether the Gentile Christians must be circumcised or not. The Pharisaic Christians advocated that the circumcision was a necessary mandate to enter into the covenant. Peter, Paul -- who had received God's revelation concerning the salvation of the Gentiles (Acts 9-11) -- and Barnabas argue for the other side.

After the council, James makes the final verdict. This is what he says:

"Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.

"With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written,

'AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,' SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.

"Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath." - Acts 15:13-21

Then indeed, the Gentiles were allowed into the covenant. The only requirements for entering are thus: abstinence from idolatry, fornication, and eating of the strangled meat and blood. For the last mandate we might ask, why blood? This goes back to Noah's covenant in Genesis 9, where God forbids the eating of the blood. The covenant indeed, is universal, for from Noah all the descendants of the earth originated. God will never again curse the ground because of man.

What happened to the essence of the new covenant in the modern Christianity? It is true that after Constantine, Christianity emerged as a prominently-Gentile religion, and thus it remains today. Many still hold the view that the gospel is for the Gentiles but not for the Jews. Interesting how in actuality, "Salvation was of the Jews" (John 4:22). As a response to our original query, one might say that as Jews and Christians slowly grew antagonistic toward each other, and as the Christian church became more and more Gentile-oriented, the Church lost such Judaic essence in their tradition. Hence the idolatry. Hence the sexual immorality. Hence... eating of the blood?

The question I ask, then, is this: is there a rightful, Scriptural justification for falling away from the Judaic elements of early Christianity?

(What I find difficult about this is that Paul was in this council himself. Someone enlighten me.)