Moralism of Circumcision

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Historical-Bibliological Background/ Origin of Moralism II

Moralism of Circumcision

And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcized according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, …” Acts 15:1-2

In the last discussion, we talked about the Biblical origins of the Pharisaic Moralism Theology. A very similar theology is that which would be considered today. I urge you to read the whole chapter of Acts 15, the entire book of Galatians and Philippians 3 for a proper understanding of the discourse.

The Moralism of Circumcision is very difficult to define and the distinguishing factor between it is very narrow. This makes Christians to easily fall for it and be deceived by it’s claws.

In Acts 6:7 after the seven deacons; among whom are Stephen and Philip had been chosen, a great thing happened. Some priests became obedient to the faith. It could be presumed that many of these priests were Pharisees. It was a great breakthrough and breaking ground for the church until their presence began to spell doom when the church began to have a wider hemisphere of Gentile Christians.

The genesis started as we see from Acts 15:1 that some brethren from Judea (Jewish Christians) began to teach the believers that except they are circumcized according to the custom of Moses, they cannot be saved. Paul and Barnabas did not take it lightly with these false teachers. He disagreed with them sharply that the argument became an uproar in the church of Antioch. They had to send Paul and Barnabas who took a stand and some from the Jewish teachers who took a different stand to go to the council in Jerusalem to resolve the issue. When they got there and presented the case, some Pharisees who had become believers insisted that the Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised and enforce them to keep to the Mosaic law. Then Peter made his case and said something in verse 10-11;

Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will

Peter made some theological points clear, that all men are in bondage to sin and man on his own could not keep the law. Thus, it is solely by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved and justified both Jew and Gentile alike. After James had quoted a Scripture, the matter was resolved that no additional burden be laid on the believers.

The tension died down for a while but it wasn’t long that the issue surface again. Some Jewish teachers went to the Christians in Galatia and began to teach them that they needed to be circumcised and keep the Mosaic law in addition to their faith in Christ Jesus in order to be made perfect and saved. More so, they discredited Paul’s message of grace alone, by faith alone and in Christ alone. In order to successfully cast a doubt on the people, they needed to discredit his apostleship that Paul was an impostor and not an apostle because he was not a witness of the life, ministry and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreso, his information of the gospel was stolen from the apostles which he added his own version and coined his own. Paul also faced this same criticism in Corinth, which showed that this was not peculiar to Galatia alone. In response he told the Corinthians that those who propagated such heresies were false apostles, behaving like Satan their master who also transforms himself to an agent of light… To be continued

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