Silvertusk wrote:PaulSacramento wrote:The whole circumcision thing is, well, interesting to say the least.
How does the cutting the skin of the penis of a infant ( or adult male in some cases) make a person part of the convent with God?
Why would God require such a barbaric act?
Why make us with foreskin if we are not to have it?
No one had to do it before Abe, so why was it ok for them?
Etc, etc, etc...
These are all very good questions Paul. I would love to get some answers to.
I am sure that some well be able to answer them, you just may not agree with the answers.
As it happens when many difficult things in the bible, there may be an answer, we just may not like it.
I am sure God created Adam with a foreskin, unless of course the foreskin is a sign of the fall !!
EEEKKK !!!
On a serious note though, Paul's statement on circumcision is clear, so is the Jerusalem Council in ACTS:
Acts 15:7-10
New International Version (NIV)
7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?
Acts 15:19-21
New International Version (NIV)
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
Romans 2:25-29
New International Version (NIV)
25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26 So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God