Thanks for the comments.
Whether Acts 15 was written before or after 1 Corinthians, a person reading Acts 15 and 1 Corinthians 8 & 10 for the first time and taking the scriptures at face value would note that:
- Acts 15:28, 29:
The Holy Spirit required that Gentile Christians abstain from foods sacrificed to idols.
- 1 Corinthians 8 & 10:
Paul told Gentile Christians the opposite: it did not matter if food offered to idols was eaten.
Reading these scriptures at face value, a person would conclude that Paul went against the Holy Spirit's requirement and in so doing went against Jesus and God since Jesus declared:
John 16:7,13 - 15:
"But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
But when he, the Spirit of TRUTH, comes, he will guide you into all the TRUTH. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because IT IS FROM ME THAT HE WILL RECEIVE WHAT HE WILL MAKE KNOWN TO YOU. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said THE SPIRIT WILL RECEIVE FROM ME WHAT HE WILL MAKE KNOWN TO YOU."
It certainly doesn't seem that the Holy Spirit & Jesus led the Jerusalem elders to the truth as far as Paul was concerned.
Why didn't the Holy Spirit just instruct the Jerusalem elders to give the same instructions to the Gentile Christians as Paul did ?
The conflicting statements reveal that there was conflict between the Jerusalem elders and Paul. It’s patently not clear direction from any God, but men,
different factions of early Christianity contending for their own way.