Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 72

Acts 15:20, 29. The apostles enjoin on their followers the frequently-repeated commands to abstain from sacrifices to idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." How the Christians respect these prohibitions we have already adverted to in Chapter 49 and 50 in the First Part of this work. 

In this chapter, Troki complains that modern Christians fail to follow the command set out by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. The Germans loved their blood sausage, and would not give it up. I don't see why a decree for the Jerusalem church should automatically apply for all gentiles at all times and all places. Many of the instructions in Paul's pastoral epistles feature specific instructions for specific problems experienced by specific churches. There is no good reason to think why these instructions should be applied universally.

The Apologetics Press has a pretty decent argument for why these prohibitions. They quote an article from Richard C.H. Lenski.

Is the act of eating or drinking animals’ blood sinful for Christians today? Lenski argues that it is not. He suggests that the prohibition from the council was made so that the Gentiles would not offend their Jewish Christian brethren. He states that the Jewish Christians were horrified at the thought of eating or drinking blood and that the “Gentile Christians were asked to respect this feeling and thus from motives of brotherly love, and from these alone, to refrain from eating blood and meat that still had its blood” (1961, p. 616).

As you can see, the application of this command is controversial among Gentile Christians and arguments can be advanced in both directions. If it is forbidden, then Christians who break this command are sinning. Of course, the fact that one sins does not mean that the person is fundamentally wrong about everything. Christians often fornicate in violation of the New Testament, bu that does not mean that Christianity is wrong or that there is anything wrong with this command.