Saturday, October 18, 2014

License to sin: Did Paul do away with Circumcision to make Christianity easy Greeks and Romans?

Muslim: Paul, who invented Christianity, took away the requirement for circumcision to make Christianity more appealing to Greeks and Romans.

You:  The doctrine that circumcision was not necessary did not come from Paul, but from Peter and  James, who was head of the church in Jerusalem.

In Acts 15 Peter who advocated against requiring circumcision starting with verse 6, and James agreed starting with verse 12.

Peter:
But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.
--Acts 15:11

James:
Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God.
--Acts 15:19

In fact, circumcision was really symbolic of  the condition of the heart:

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
--Deuteronomy 10:16

Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem
--Jeremiah 4:4

Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?  I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?  Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain?  He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you, and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?  Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”
Galatians 3:1-6

Let me finally point out that Peter did not believe that circumcision was needed because of what he saw the holy spirit do among the gentiles, and Paul also makes the same argument, and the Galatians agreed.  In his letter to the Galatians Paul says they received the holy spirit without works of the law, and even that there were miracles among them.  If these had  not been true assertions or convincing arguments, the Galatians would have simply thrown away this letter from Paul.

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