Here in the United States, 56.1% of all males born were circumcised in the year 2006. I don’t know who was the 0.1%, but I wouldn’t want to be him. That’s a little over half of the male children born in America. Have you ever wondered why we would choose to cut off that small piece of skin on their most vulnerable part? Let’s start with the first reason:
Sign of the Covenant
And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. Genesis 17:9-14 KJV
This operation performed on over half of all the little boys born in the US started with a covenant that God made with Abraham. To the Western mind, this bloody ritual is entirely unnecessary and gruesome; however, the truth is that every great covenant must be cut with blood. Blood is the sign of the covenant made between two or more persons. It is not the covenant itself, yet it is a symbol wherein we know that the covenant has been sealed.
Think about it. God makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. When Abraham asks God how he could know that the covenant was legitimate, God responds by telling him to divide a heifer, a goat and a ram into two pieces. There was blood everywhere. Then, at night God passed between the pieces of the animals sacrificed as a sign of the covenant He had made with the Hebrew. The blood was a symbol of the covenant.
Weddings are wondrous occasions of great joy, but if the newlyweds are virgins, they are in for a rough night. There will probably be blood. this blood is the sign of the covenant, showing to the husband that the promise of virtue is true.
Yes, it is bloody. Yes, it is harsh. But it is essential; that all may know that there is a covenant and it is legitimate and true. There is another covenant of which I wish to allude. The God-man, Jesus the Messiah, died on a roman cross two thousand years ago as a sign of the new covenant cut with His own blood. Little did Abraham know that as he spilt the blood of his son that God would also spill the blood His only Son. And just like the Abrahamic covenant remains, the new covenant in Christ’s blood endures. The blood of Messiah will continue to show the world just how much God loves us all.
Christianity teaches that circumcision is unnecessary now.
St. Peter dismissed circumcision as unnecessary and disadvantageous in Acts 15:10, “And now are you going to correct God by burdening the Gentiles with a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?”
St. Paul often condemned circumcising the flesh, as seen in the following passages:
Galatians 5:2-6: “Pay close attention to me, Paul, when I tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no use to you. I point out once more to all who receive circumcision that they are bound to the law in its entirety. Any of you who seek your justification in the law have severed yourselves from Christ and fallen from God’s favor! It is in the spirit that we eagerly await the justification we hope for, and only faith can yield it. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor the lack of it counts for anything; only faith, which expresses itself through love.”
Philippians 3:2-3: “Beware of unbelieving dogs. Watch out for workers of evil. Be on guard against those who mutilate. It is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus rather than putting our trust in the flesh.”
1 Corinthians 7:18-19: “Was someone called after he had been circumcised? He should not hide his circumcision. Did the call come to another who had never been circumcised? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision counts for nothing, and its lack makes no difference either. What matters is keeping God’s commandments.”
1 Corinthians 12: 18: “As it is, God has set each member of the body in the place he wanted it to be.”
To learn more, see:
http://www.acts15.org/
http://www.catholicsagainstcircumcision.org/
You are correct. I did not write this post with the intent to promote circumcision as a sacrament or even an essential rite in the faith of a Christian; I merely pointed out the fact that over a half of American males were circumcised in 2006 and the reason for that is our Judeo-Christian heritage. After reading the post again, I feel as though I did not make this point clear enough. Also, this post is the first in a series that I am writing, and I believe that my purpose and thesis will be clear by the end.
Thanks for keeping me on my toes! By the way, I didn’t know that there were catholics against circumcision. A group whose sole purpose is to be against circumcision. Interesting.
We Christians are not supposed to circumcise. Only Jewish were required to do so since they don’t follow the NT.
Though I would agree that we Christians are not obligated to circumcise ourselves, I would disagree that we are not supposed to circumcise, as if the obligation were the reverse.
Christians are not obligated to circumcise and Paul makes a very strong case for reasons they should not circumcise in Galatians. I also thought it could be beneficial to circumcise until I read that in Bible times (the way Abraham and Jesus) were circumcised was completely different! It was painful and bloody, but it didn’t left much of the foreskin intact, offering protection. The Jewish word for this is ‘Milah.’ It wasn’t until 140 AD that the circumcision was changed to be more radical, stripping back the entire foreskin, called ‘periah’. This was not by God’s command. It was a form of legalism, punishing all Jews because some of them were trying to grow their foreskins back and appear as uncircumcised. I believe, to circumcise in this way is harmful and wrong.
You are absolutely right that we are not obligated to circumcise our youngsters. I don’t believe that I postulated that it was a necessary observance among Christians to physically circumcise themselves, but I believe that Paul wanted us all to spiritually circumcise ourselves. This was honestly the point I was trying to make. I apologize for any misunderstanding.