Our response to a man who argues in favor of circumcision for today as a necessary sign of salvation:
Norman,
Paul circumcised Timothy not because he believed it was the requirement of God, not because he did not wish to offend Jews who might then lose their conviction for circumcision and therefore not get circumcised, but because “to those under the law, he became as those under the law, that he might win them.” Circumcision was not a requisite of obedience to God except in the laying down of the life for the sakes of unbelievers who might stumble. “Because of the Jews” it says:
“Now he arrived at Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek, who had a good testimony by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium. Paul desired this Timothy to go forth with him, and taking him, he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was Greek" (Acts 16:1-3 EMTV).
Consider, if you can overcome pride in your spiritual commitment to your error: If it says “because of the Jews,” do you think he was a manpleaser? Do you think that if he truly believed that one ought to be circumcised, that he would not have done so, whether there were Jews involved or not? Is it not obvious to you that the phrase “because of the Jews” gives the reason why he circumcised Timothy, because otherwise he would have done it without any explanation or other motivation other than that it was the right thing to do, in and of itself? You contradict yourself, Norm.
You write:
“It may be that, just a there are two resurrections of the dead, there are two general classes of Israelites; those who are circumcised just in heart, and those who are circumcised both in heart and in flesh. We don’t know, and it is not given to us to determine who will be saved, and who is not saved. However, it is given to us to determine who can perform the Passover to Yahuah, and who is permitted to enter His Millennial Temple:
[9] Thus said the [Master] [YHUH] Elohim, “Any estranged person (Ephraim) of uncircumcised heart or uncircumcised flesh shall not enter My Sanctuary – any estranged person among the Children of Israel.” [Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 44:9, Artscroll Mesorah]“
You seem to suggest that those who are circumcised “JUST” in heart are inferior to those who are circumcised both ways. There is only one reason why you could speak the way you do, not only in this instant, but also in your whole paper. It is because, while you have been circumcised in the flesh (an assumption), you have never been circumcised in heart.
I am a gentile by my first birth, and a Jew by a second. I have been circumcised in the heart. For 32 years now, God has led me, taught me, spoken to me, chastened me, taken me out of the nations and out of their practices. He also sent me to speak to a circumcised Jew, in Israel, that he might be delivered from his sin. You can read my testimony: Our Testimonies. I say these things also to tell you that though I have not been circumcised in the flesh, God has performed the Passover in me. Therefore, I have kept and do keep it. In Him, I AM the Passover. Furthermore, there is no man that can ever attain unto Pentecost or Tabernacles without “knowing” or keeping the Passover. That is like saying that a car can be driven without a motor, chassis, fuel or tires. It is like saying that one can be born and grow to maturity before he is conceived. I have been fulfilled in Christ because I have entered the Passover, keeping it by His grace, and Shavu’ot, and Sukkhot…all three – repentance, receiving the Holy Spirit, and entering into His Rest. All this He did for me without physical circumcision.
Explain if you can, Norman, but you can’t, because you have yet to experience Passover, how much more the other two feasts! As for Ezekiel’s passage, those who are physical Jews and who will “attend the earthly tabernacle” must be physically circumcised during the days of physical circumcision, but those who will “attend the heavenly tabernacle” must of necessity, be circumcised of heart. Indeed, those circumcised of heart become the heavenly tabernacle. It is impossible to attend without the new nature, with the Law written in the inward parts. I am born of God, by Him I keep the Law, not the shadows and ordinances, but the Law which is the substance of His Nature, as expressed in the Torah and in Jesus Christ, the incarnation of the Torah. I am there, and you are not. I can see you, but you cannot see me. You are of the earth, earthy, but all sons of God, born again, are of heaven, heavenly, that is, spiritual. As it is written:
"But as it is written, ‘Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him?’ But we have Messiah’s mind" (1 Corinthians 2:9-16 HNV).
Norman, you presume to be a teacher under Yahshuah, but you have yet to meet Him. There is only one way for that, and that is if He does it, and not you yourself. You will eventually find your works of righteousness not only vain, but shameful. While any man can circumcise himself in the flesh, only the Messiah can circumcise you in the heart. That nullifies your righteousness, according to Isaiah. For now, you truly oppose and scatter, presumptuous in all your ways, void of understanding His will because you do not know Him, which is what it is all about.
Victor