Circumcism of the heart?

Question

Apostle paul states that they are not all jews that are outward in the flesh, but that circumcism that is of the heart?
by this statement, once we accept Him we are Jewish by circumcism of the heart and not of the flesh.
comments?

Answer 1

Literal Jewish circumcision was established to seperate the nation of Isreal from the nations and show them as God's covenant people..

When he(Paul)spoke of circumcision of the heart, it was after the special covenant God had w/the Jewish nation was removed. They were no longer a favored people.This curcumcision was an inward sign that those who accepted this new faith where God's chosen people taken from all nation not just one. Thus it was visible to God and not to man.

Answer 2

Ms. Fireball was very correct.

Christians follow the example of the Jews. The Jews were marked in their flesh as "different" and set-apart from the rest of the world. This was a way to remind the leaders of the Jews EVERY DAY that they were different, and needed to act that way.

With the Christian Church, we no longer need reminders. We have all we need to be God's people right before us in the Bible. The entire world is now eligible to be Christian. But, still, as Christians, we must remember, in our hearts, that we are different from the rest of the world. Our behavior should be exemplary, after all, we have been called the light of the world. We are supposed to be showing unchurched folks the right way.

Answer 3

You're not Jewish unless you convert to Judaism (which requires that you no longer accept Jesus as the Messiah) or you were born Jewish.

Answer 4

Spiritually, yes. His subpoint is that the heart is more important than genealogy.

Answer 5

means we must repent and be born again and we are special

Answer 6

Two Good Q's. in a row, good job! Hope U Enjoy! John

DOCTRINE OF CIRCUMCISION

A. Definition.
1. Circumcision consists in cutting away the foreskin of the male
phallus.
2. A flint knife was used for the operation, Ex 4:25; Josh 5:2.
3. The ritual was related to Abraham's supergrace sexual prosperity
and represented his adjustment to the justice of God.
4. He was 99 years old and sexually dead. Heb 11:11-12; Rom 4:17-19.
It signified his advance to spiritual maturity.
5. Circumcision not only revived his sexual ability, but was the
moment when God established the new race of the Jew. Circumcision was to be
the ritual to commemorate the establishment of the new racial species.
6. Before circumcision, Abraham was Semitic, an Akkadian.
7. Circumcision therefore represents the ultimate expression of
spiritual self-esteem from metabolized doctrine in the advance to spiritual
maturity. Hence, it memorialized greater blessings in escrow conveyed at
spiritual maturity and the subsequent glorification of God in their
distribution.
8. Therefore, every time a circumcised Jew would urinate, it was a
reminder of the importance of salvation by grace, of spirituality by grace,
and of the dynamics of Bible doctrine in every dispensation and generation
of history.
9. Circumcision memorializes the new race on earth, the perfect plan,
and the glory of God. It was the ritual sign that Abraham had passed
momentum testing and had now become a winner. As a result he was given a
physical election.
10. There is no spiritual merit in circumcision. It was the expression
of Abraham's metabolized doctrine at the point of maturity. But it is
related to the genetic creation of the new racial species. As a ritual,
circumcision has no meaning to the Jew who rejects Christ as Savior, for
ritual without reality is meaningless. The Jewish race was initially
perpetuated down to the fourth generation through regeneration.

B. The Origin and Significance of Circumcision. Gen 17:1-14.
1. In Gen 17, Abraham has recovered from the evil of Gen 16, and has
reached the highest point of maturity under the faith-rest plan of God.
2. In Gen 17:5-6, he has been promised sexual prosperity as a part of
his escrow blessings.
3. But the problem is that he has qualified for blessing, but is
sexually dead, Rom 4:17-21; Heb 11:11-12.
4. Moreover, he has adjusted to the justice of God in time completely,
therefore, divine justice is free to call on any other characteristic of
God's essence and provide what is needed to revive his sexual capabilities.
A miracle is no problem when justice is free to operate.
5. Justice fulfills justice and at the point of his circumcision
Abraham became a new race with the power of procreation for the perpetuation
of that new race. He has a new set of genes for Isaac.
6. Ishmael's circumcision had no significance in relation to the
covenant, Gen 17:25. This was a case of ritual without reality.
7. The reality of the ritual of circumcision is a picture of Abraham's
dynamic faith function, the doctrinal rationale of the mature believer, Rom
4:16-21. He demonstrated the dynamics of maturity under the faith-rest plan
of God and spiritual self-esteem.
8. This adjustment to the justice of God fulfilled the principle that
justice demands justice. Therefore, justice fulfills justice as impotence
becomes sexual power and a member of the semitic race becomes a Jew.
9. Abraham is the father of the Jewish race, while Moses is the father
of the Jewish nation. Circumcision does not pertain to the Jews' national
origin but to their racial origin. Circumcision became the ritual sign not
of a spiritual thing, but of a physical thing: the new racial species. The
Mosaic Law became the sign of the first client nation in history.
10. Therefore, there is a relationship between the ritual of
circumcision and the Mosaic Law. Circumcision is racial origin and the
Mosaic Law is national origin. Circumcision is the ultimate expression of
positive volition to Bible doctrine producing spiritual momentum leading to
maturity and blessing from the justice of God. Grace blessing is always
related to Bible doctrine in the soul.
11. So to mature Abraham, the Word of God provided a far greater
reality than the discouraging status quo of being sexually dead.
12. The conclusion from the origin of circumcision is found in Gen
17:9-11. Circumcision is the memorial sign between God and Jews. Only with
Bible doctrine in the soul is circumcision meaningful.

C. Historical Circumcision.
1. Circumcision was practiced among many ancient peoples, such as the
Egyptians, Africans, natives of the South Seas, North Americans, and
Arabians. It was used to fulfill one or more of the following purposes:
a. As a sanitary function for the Egyptians.
b. As a tribal mark for the Africans.
c. As a rite to celebrate the "coming of age."
d. As a substitute for human sacrifice by removing a portion of
the anatomy as a vicarious sacrifice.
e. As a sacramental offering to idols to gain the help of the
gods in the perpetuation of a tribe, family, or race.
2. These were used to obscure the true meaning of circumcision.

D. Circumcision and the Law, Rom 2:25. "So on the one hand, circumcision
is beneficial if you accomplish the purpose of the Law, but if, on the other
hand, you are a rejecter [transgressor] of the Law, your circumcision has
become uncircumcision."
1. Circumcision is related to the Mosaic Law in two ways:
a. In an establishment sense, it is a dedication of the male's
phallus to his right woman. It emphasizes the fact that national stability
is founded on the principle of the right man/right woman relationship.
b. As a spiritual principle, circumcision portrays the function
of adjustment to the justice of God, so that the justice of God is free to
bless.
2. The ritual of circumcision connotes man's relationship with God as
well as with his right woman. The ritual indicated that Abraham had maximum
Bible doctrine in the soul, and was therefore qualified for blessing.
Circumcision is the sign of Bible doctrine in the soul. The Law provided
happiness for people who live by establishment principles, but the meaning
of circumcision is significant only to the believer.
3. The Jew who failed to fulfill the client nation principle,
beginning with faith in Christ, spirituality, missionary activity; this
Jew's circumcision was really uncircumcision. The Jewish unbeliever was a
new racial species without regeneration. Therefore, he distorted
circumcision into a system of arrogance, from which came racial prejudice.
4. Rom 2:28-29, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly
[circumcision], neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh
[the ritual]; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly [ritual with reality] and
circumcision is that which is of the heart by means of the Spirit [Holy
Spirit] not the Law, and his praise is not from men but from God [reality of
escrow blessings]."

E. Messages Regarding Lack of True Circumcision and Uncircumcision.
1. The meaning of circumcision is maximum Bible doctrine in the soul.
The fifth cycle of discipline means no Bible doctrine in the soul, therefore
lack of circumcision of the soul. This becomes ritual without reality.
This is the tragedy of being the physical seed of Abraham without being the
spiritual seed of Abraham.
2. Jer 6:10, "To whom shall I communicate doctrine? To whom shall I
give a warning that they will listen? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised.
They will not listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to
them. They have no delight in it."
3. Jeremiah warned the people of the coming of the fifth cycle of
discipline from the Chaldeans. But the people's ears were "uncircumcised";
that is, they would not listen to Bible teaching. Doctrine in the soul
makes you alert to coming national disaster. The people had no delight in
Bible doctrine. They had the ritual but no Bible doctrine to provide the
reality. Reality is more important than ritual.
4. Jer 9:25, "`Behold, the days are coming,'" decrees the Lord, `that
I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised.'"
5. The Jews failed to recognize the two seeds of Abraham.
a. With his physical seed and the new racial species came the
fantastic opportunity of client nation Israel under four Jewish nations.
But being a new racial species, with circumcision as the sign, is absolutely
meaningless without regeneration.
b. They were not following the pattern of the spiritual seed of
Abraham: "Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was credited to his account
for righteousness."
c. Abraham is the pattern for Old Testament salvation, Gen 15:6;
Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6.
d. Throughout their history, the Jews failed, because while they
were given physical superiority in the Old Testament through the new racial
species, they had no advantages from it because they rejected Jesus Christ
as the God of Israel: ADONAI ELOHENU, ADONAI ECHAD.
6. Deut 10:16, "Moses said, `Therefore circumcise your right lobe and
resist no more.'" You circumcise your right lobe by the daily perception
and metabolization of Bible doctrine.
7. Moses was the greatest public speaker who ever lived (just as Paul
was the greatest Bible teacher who ever lived). Moses was an eloquent,
public speaking genius. In spite of all his areas of genius, beauty,
strength, and all his doctrine, the Jews in his generation were bored by
doctrine! So Moses cries out, "Resist no more!" Negative volition toward
doctrine is ritual without reality.
8. Paul as Saul of Tarsus was watching Stephen being stoned to death.
As the rocks began to crush him, Stephen shouted in Acts 7:51, "You men!
You are stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart and ears! And you are
always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers
[ancestors] did."
a. So in every generation there was someone who caught on to the
idea that being a new racial species was meaningless. It only fed arrogance
unless there was the countermeasure in the soul, that of Bible doctrine to
produce enforced and genuine humility leading to virtue-love.
b. So what does it mean to "resist the Holy Spirit?" Under the
law of volitional responsibility, whatever you sow to the flesh you're going
to reap from the flesh (Gal 6:7). Whenever you make bad decisions from a
position of weakness; when your priorities are wrong; when your lusts
supersede your love for the Lord, you will suffer.
c. So the Jews resisted the ministry of the Holy Spirit; first,
at the point of common and efficacious grace, and secondly, at the point of
the communication of doctrine; both the demonstration of God's fantastic
grace. All you can do is listen and believe; God the Holy Spirit must do
all the rest.
c. Stephen looked back on the entire history of Israel's failure
when he said "just as your fathers did." For 2000 years, the Jews had the
greatest opportunities in the Old Testament and they blew it!
9. Jer 4:4, "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the
foreskins of your heart [right lobe], you men of Judah and inhabitants of
Jerusalem, lest My wrath go forth like a fire and burn with none to quench
it, because of the evil of your deeds."
a. In other words, Jeremiah said, "Don't go negative toward
doctrine, because if you do, you will have a soul full of foreskins!"
Although the earth will never be destroyed by nuclear weapons, parts of it
can be through the fault of negative believers.
10. Deut 30:6, "Moses said, `Moreover, the Lord your God will
circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, in order that you may live [survive
as a client nation to God].'"
a. Moses guaranteed, as a part of the Word of God, that there
would be doctrine for every Jewish generation.
b. "Your seed" referred to the new racial species; yet always
there was the need to become regenerate. To survive as a client nation
requires a pivot, which in the Old Testament required both the ritual and
the reality of circumcision through the advance to spiritual maturity.
11. To avoid racial prejudice and the arrogance it feeds, the Jew of
the Old Testament had to be circumcised in his heart, which included
salvation through faith in Christ and spiritual growth through metabolized
doctrine, resulting in both the giant step to spiritual self-esteem and the
victory step to spiritual maturity under the ritual plan of God.
12. This is why it says in Rom 9:6, "All Israel is not Israel." "All
Israel" is the Jew who is a part of the new racial species. But all Israel
is "not Israel," because you're not true Israel until your heart is
circumcised, i.e., regenerated.
13. There's no advantage to being the new racial species apart from
regeneration. Therefore, in Old Testament times, a regenerate Gentile was
far better off than a Jewish unbeliever as new racial species. Therefore,
the importance of the circumcision of the heart.

F. Circumcision and the Near Death of Moses, Ex 4:24-26.
Moses was on his way to Egypt and Jehovah (Jesus Christ appearing as a
man) attacked Moses to attempt to kill him. Moses told his wife to
circumcise his youngest son and God didn't want him to be sloppy with regard
to the ritual. His wife circumcised his son before the Theophany could kill
Moses, and this saved his life.
1. Moses is about to enter Egypt without the circumcision of his
youngest son. This meant a failure to fulfill Gen 17:11. You can't serve
the Lord without obedience, this had put him under the sin unto death.
2. In the case of Moses it was a failure to perpetuate the true
concept of circumcision; to perpetuate the relationship between the new race
of the Jews and the new nation about to be born. A new nation couldn't be
born where there is rejection of the rite of circumcision. This was
important because there had to be circumcision to observe the Passover which
was coming.
3. Moses had failed to adjust to the justice of God, which would free
the Jews from slavery and form a nation from a race.
4. Failure to adjust to the justice of God in the matter of
circumcision caused the supreme court judge, Jesus Christ, to bring justice
to Moses in the form of the sin unto death.
5. Moses was delivered from death by his wife's circumcision of his
youngest son.
6. However, to save the life of her husband, she circumcised the
youngest son and threw the bloody foreskin at the feet of the dying Moses
with comment that he was a bloody groom, that is, she had redeemed the life
of her husband as a new groom through blood.
7. She had to purchase the life of her husband by the shedding of the
blood of her son in the rite of circumcision. Therefore, as far as she was
concerned, he was a new groom. She rejected him as being her husband any
longer. She despised circumcision.
8. Just as Sarah received a new groom by the circumcision of Abraham,
so Moses' wife received Moses. [And promptly rejected him.]
9. Moses' wife understood the meaning of circumcision, but rejected
the doctrine. She resisted the doctrine and this resulted in Moses being
put under the sin unto death. Moses was responsible, because he did what
his wife wanted instead of what God wanted. Moses lost his wife (she left
him), but she wasn't his right woman. His wife is an illustration of Acts
7:51 "uncircumcised in heart and ears" means reversionism. Moses was saved
by her instant action, but lost her and later God provided his right woman.

G. The National Concept of Circumcision.
1. Circumcision was a memorial token to the adjustment to the justice
of God in the nation of Israel, just as in the race of the Jews.
2. This is why no Jew could partake of the Passover without first
being circumcised. Ex 12:48.
3. The nation of Israel was placed under the fifth cycle of discipline
for lack of circumcision of soul, but not the ritual, the reality. Jer
6:10, 9:25-26.
4. Circumcision was used to designate both racial and national Jews.
Gal 2:8; Col 4:11; Eph 2:11; Tit 1:10.

H. The Doctrinal Principles of Circumcision.
1. Circumcision is the ritual for the adjustment to the justice of God
through maximum Bible doctrine resident in the soul.
2. Abraham's circumcision was the maturity adjustment to the justice
of God, freeing God's justice to bless him.
3. There are three adjustments to the justice of God involved in the
reality of circumcision; this is true of both Jews and Gentiles (which is
why Paul told the Galatians to remain uncircumcised).
a. Salvation through faith in Christ.
b. Rebound to stay in fellowship.
c. Maturity adjustment to the Justice of God through the victory
step.
4. The ritual of circumcision then portrays the reality of the Jew's
relationship with God. Therefore, circumcision might be compared to a
dollar sign ("$") - which is not real money, but stands for real money.
5. Moses' deliverance from death by the circumcision of his youngest
son was a rebound adjustment to the justice of God.
6. No Jew was permitted to partake of the Passover without being
circumcised, Ex 12:48. This portrays the salvation adjustment to the
justice of God. So circumcision is used for all three adjustments to the
justice of God.
7. The Passover was a memorial of salvation and the beginning of the
new nation for the believer's only.
8. Therefore, the requirement of the ritual of salvation adjustment to
the justice of God is circumcision (portrayed in the Passover). Race begins
with circumcision. Nation begins with the Passover. Both are rituals and
are combined when you get to the nation.
9. Jews are under three different plans of God in human history:
a. In the age of the Patriarchs, from Abraham to Moses, they were
under the faith-rest plan of God.
b. In the dispensation of Israel, Moses to Christ, they were
under the ritual plan of God.
c. In the Church Age, Pentecost to Rapture, we are under the
protocol plan of God.
In all these three eras, circumcision means nothing without salvation,
without fulfilling the pertinent plan of God.
10. Therefore, the lack of circumcision was failure to adjust to the
justice of God.
11. This is why we have "the uncircumcised Philistine." 1 Sam 14:6,
17:26, 36, 31:4. They illustrate failure of the Jews to adjustment to the
justice of God at salvation.

I. Circumcision during the Church Age.
1. Circumcision as a ritual is no longer an issue in the Church Age,
because client nation Israel no longer exists.
2. Because the protocol plan of God has replaced the ritual plan of
God, to which circumcision belongs, circumcision is not even a spiritual
issue of any kind. It is simply a physiological option.
3. Because circumcision is now practiced throughout the world,
basically as a sanitary function, or as a tribal mark, or as a substitute
for human sacrifice by removing a portion of the human anatomy as a
vicarious sacrifice, or as a religious requirement of Jews, Arabs, and
others - this is all circumcision means today.
4. The only issue today in this dispensation: Will the believer
fulfill the protocol plan of God? 1 Cor 7:19, "Circumcision is nothing and
uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the mandates of God [is
everything]."
5. Circumcision is not only non-beneficial spiritually, but is a
source of legalism and a means of distracting the believer from the
execution of the protocol plan of God; this is the subject of the entire
book of Galatians. The Judaizers followed after Paul and persuaded his
converts that you can't be saved by faith in Christ alone, but you must add
circumcision. This is analogous to those who today believe in baptismal
regeneration - there is no such thing.
Gal 5:2-4, "Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you receive
circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you [you have lost out in the
protocol plan of God]. And I testify again to every man who receives
circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the entire Law [in the
wrong dispensation]. You have been severed from Christ [not in the protocol
plan of God], you, who would be justified by the Law, you have drifted off
course from grace."
6. So during the Church Age, circumcision has been distorted into a
system of legalism and apostasy.
a. Some Jews taught salvation by circumcision, as in Acts 15:1,
"And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the believers, `Unless
you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.'"
b. Gal 6:12-15, "Those who desire to make a good showing in the
flesh [exhibitionists with circumcised phalluses] try to compel you to be
circumcised, simply that they may avoid persecution because of the cross of
Christ. For those who have been circumcised do not even keep the Law
themselves. But they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in
your flesh. But may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and
I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new species."
c. When believers get so involved in ritual for salvation or for
spirituality, both being false, they are inevitably inconsistent ("do not
even keep the Law themselves"), and their lives are a mess!
7. The protocol plan of God replaced all ritual of the dispensation of
Israel, including circumcision. Gal 5:6-9, "For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but doctrine working through
virtue-love. You were running well; who cut in on you so that you did not
obey the doctrine? This persuasion [false persuasion regarding
circumcision], did it come from Him [God the Father] who elected you? A
little leaven [circumcision distorted into a system of legalism] leavens the
whole lump." Paul was nasty here, calling them "just one big circumcised
Gaul! You didn't just circumcise your phallus; you're circumcised all over,
dummy!"
8. The baptism of the Spirit at salvation and the resultant positional
sanctification is the only circumcision of the Church Age. Col 2:11-14,
"And in Him [positional sanctification] you were circumcised with a
circumcision made without hands, by the renunciation of the essence of the
body [old sin nature] by the circumcision of Christ [retroactive positional
truth], having been buried with Him by means of the baptism [of the Spirit],
by which also you were raised up with Christ [current positional truth]
through faith in the operational power of God who raised Him from the dead.
And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, He made you alive together with Him [positional sanctification],
having forgiven you all of your transgressions, having cancelled out the
I.O.U. [note of indebtedness] consisting of decrees against us which was
hostile to us. He has removed it permanently; He nailed it to His cross."
In other words, circumcision was the sign of the new racial species. But
now, being entered into union with Christ, is the sign of the new spiritual
species, "circumcision made without hands."
9. Therefore, circumcision has to be redefined for the Church Age, as
it is in Phil 3:3, "For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the
Spirit of God and glory in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence in the
flesh."
10. Circumcision as a ritual in the ritual plan of God for the
dispensation of Israel no longer exists. But for the sake of the Jews who
understood, circumcision is now redefined in terms of the protocol plan of
God: "who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Jesus Christ, and put
no confidence in the flesh." This is a beautiful way of describing
spiritual self-esteem.