Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 73

Acts 16:1, 3, "Paul, going to Derbe and Lystra, met Timothy, the son of a certain woman who was a Jewess, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those quarters." From this quotation and the records of history, it is evident that original Christianity did not dispense with the circumcision of Jews received within its pale. Is it not then sinful to attempt to persuade Jews to abandon those rites which the founders and first propagators of the Christian religion actually confirmed by their own acts?

My short answer: YES. It is sinful for Christians to demand that Jews abandon circumcision.

The longer answer: Many Christians get these verses wrong. They think that the church had forbidden circumcision based on what Paul wrote in Galatians, and the early church did eventually ban Jewish practices such as circumcision and celebration of the Jewish holidays. For those who wonder how the church lost its Jewish identity within a few hundred years. There is a large part of your answer.

Troki may be making an implicit reference to Galatians:

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

One might think that this is an injunction against circumcision, yet the context of Galatians and the details in Acts provide a very different picture.

The Jerusalem Council But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1)

This was not really about circumcision but about the conditions of salvation. If circumcision, or following the Law of Moses, were really the culprit here, Paul and Timothy would not have been so observant of the Jewish Law as they were in Acts. The problem was depending on the Law for the sake of salvation i.e. to go to heaven after you die.

Paul's response in Galatians is swift. He does not argue that the Galatian church is accepting the wrong set of observances in order to go to heaven. He is arguing that salvation comes by faith and by the denial that one goes to heaven by anything more. All who depend on observances of any kind to go to heaven, will not go to heaven after they die.

James White gives a good discussion on the issue here: