Why is circumcision important to god

This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring.

Specifically, the questioners want to know why God would create human males—and other mammals—with a foreskin on their penises only to then instruct them to remove it. Today we know that circumcision offers demonstrable medical benefits. It seems like God could have come up with a better plan. Circumcision Is a Ceremonial Practice In response to this understandable challenge, it is important to keep in mind that the practice of circumcision, first and foremost, signified the covenantal relationship between Yahweh the God of Israel and Abraham and his descendants.

God instituted the practice as a reminder to Israel that they owed their very existence to Yahweh. God promised Abraham a son well after Sarah was of childbearing age. And that son, Isaac, gave rise to the nation of Israel.

In other words, because circumcision is a religious ritual with covenantal significance, this practice does not require a medical or biological rationale. Neither does the practice necessarily mean that the foreskin is a flawed design.

The Medical Accuracy of the Covenant of Circumcision This caveat aside, the instructions Yahweh gave to Abraham display remarkable medical insight. In the classic work, None of These Diseases , physician S. McMillen discusses the uncanny medical accuracy of the biblically prescribed practice of circumcision.

Specifically, God commanded Abraham to perform circumcisions on the eighth day after birth Genesis And circumcision was no longer a sign of their covenant relationship with God.

While circumcision remained a contentious issue for many Jewish believers, the church, as a whole, no longer recognized it as a distinctive, or requirement, of the faith. In the Bible, circumcision almost always refers to a physical act.

But in at least three passages he alludes to a circumcision of the heart, a spiritual circumcision. In Romans , Philippians and Colossians he discusses this spiritual circumcision. This circumcision, rather than cutting off a small part of the flesh, is a cutting off of the fleshly nature.

Colossians especially illustrates this circumcision. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ.

And it is not just males. All believers have experienced this circumcision of the heart by Christ. Circumcision means different things to different peoples.

To some it was, and still is, a rite of passage into adulthood. To others it is merely a simple medical procedure. Yet to Christians, physical circumcision has no spiritual or religious value. For us, the closest comparable thing we have to physical circumcision would be baptism. And some do view baptism in exactly that way, as a sign of our covenant relationship with God.

He has been a Bible teacher for over 40 years and regularly blogs at A Clay Jar. You can also follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Ed is married, the father of two, and grandfather of three. He is retired and currently enjoys his gardens and backpacking. Plus Toggle navigation. Password Assistance. Email address. Ed Jarrett. Editor's note: The following article contains descriptions of a medical process.

Share Tweet Save. Clarence L. According to the American Pregnancy Association the Jewish circumcision procedure is "usually performed on or shortly after the 8th day from birth when clotting factors in the babies blood are at their highest levels. The award-winning Giving Birth Naturally also supports the case. If you choose to circumcise before the 8th day, it is well advised to administer vitamin K to prevent bleeding complications from the surgery.

Whatever you conclude about the findings, the fact remains that Chris was absolutely right. I found this to be a very persuasive point. World famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, accuses the God of the Old Testament of being an ethnic cleanser. Can we really be expected to believe that Israel would endanger their own bloodline by wiping out hundreds, if not thousands of their own children?

And for what? To find out how soon they could cut their foreskin off without killing them? What would be the point of that?

Why would they even pursue this if their newborns were constantly bleeding to death? God originally commanded him to circumcise all the male children in his house. Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. So if Abraham made this up, he would have only had two babies, not hundreds or thousands to slaughter through trial and error! The odds seem stacked in favour of divine revelation. I was interested to see how the skeptics would respond to the argument and the research.

My rebuttals are presented below:. Skeptic: ' There were many different cultures before The Jews started doing circumcision. They mostly ripped it off from others.

The Bible isn't evidence of your claim at all. My Response: According to Wikipedia, anthropologists don't even know for sure when circumcision started. While male circumcision exists in other cultures, only the Israelite culture got it spot on in terms of the ideal moment to circumcise.

Ancient African circumcision for example varies greatly from the Jewish practice. It would usually occur in young warrior initiation schools or as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, requiring a display of courage under the knife. In South Africa it is performed most of the time on teenage boys or 18 years and older. There is no evidence however, of eighth day circumcision pre-dating The Bible. This shows this wasn't simply a result of trial and error. Otherwise you would expect to see these other ancient cultures getting to the same result.

McMillen, M. Newborns, on the other hand, are extremely resilient. So the most humane time is to circumcise in the first month of life. Thus the safest day for circumcision in a baby's life is day eight.

The fact that the Bible records the exact and earliest "cut off" point for a newborn reveals a divine fingerprint.