Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 85

1 Corinthians 7:18-20, "Is any man called being circumcised, let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision, let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." In the Epistle to the Galatians, chapter 5:3, he also says, "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law." These words ought to be kept in constant remembrance by those Christians who urge us to abandon our holy faith and adopt their religious observances. 

 Galatians was a letter written by Paul to the people of Galatia, which is in modern Turkey. These were non-Jews who were battling a party who said that these Gentiles must follow the observances of the Mosaic Law in order to be true Christians. They demanded circumcision of non-Jews in order that one might have salvation. As Luke states in Acts 15:

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)

Paul's response to this is decisive. Anyone who holds to a theology of "faith plus something else equals salvation" does not have faith at all, and therefore does not have salvation at all. This applies not only to the Mosaic Law but to all other observances as well. Anyone who thinks that one has to undergo baptism in order to go to heaven, will himself not go to heaven.

This is why Paul argues in Galatians that one needs faith, rather than stating that the Circumcision Party demands the wrong set of observances. Asher Meza himself argues that Rabbinic Tradition is not concerned with going to heaven after you die.

Even according to the rabbis, a Jew does not have to be circumcised to go to heaven, because the Mosaic Law has nothing to do with whether someone goes to heaven!

A. Lukyn Williams writes "Gentile believers had already found full liberty in Christ, and to yield to these persuasions would involve much more than the bare act of circumcision, even bondage under the whole Law of Moses. For a believer in Christ to be circumcised would imply that he had made up his mind to be saved by the works of the Law, instead of by Christ, that he had in fact fallen away from Christ altogether."

Paul was by his own writings a very strictly observant Jew.

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:3-6)

These are not things one can be honestly mistaken about. If Paul was not a Pharisee and not a persecutor of the church, then he was a flat out liar. Paul had nothing to gain by lying about any of this (even Shabir Ally admits this), and underwent great loss and persecution for his beliefs. He could have recanted and ended the persecution, but he was to committed to what he believed was the truth.


Williams concludes:

We believe in religious liberty, more sincerely perhaps than do Jews. For indeed we fear, that in places where they have much power, as in Palestine, New York, and even in the East of London, they employ no little pressure and unfair compulsion to prevent members of their race from listening to the words of the Gospel. We Christians acknowledge with shame that Jews have suffered much from persecution in the past. But we cannot help seeing signs that they themselves are beginning to persecute Christians (only Jewish Christians, so far) in the present. We sometimes wonder whether Jews, notwithstanding the terrible lessons they have received, have even yet learned the elements of toleration in the modern and Christian sense. It is easy for the few and the down-trodden to be tolerant; the test comes when they are many and strong. Then is seen the presence, or the absence, of humble and sincere faith in the God of righteousness and love.

 I can attest to this. Orthodox Jews exercise great control over their members in ways that Fundamentalist Christians do not. Chosen People Ministries has apartments set aside for Jews who get kicked out and lose their livelihoods for their belief in Jesus. The reverse is not true. Christians who become Orthodox Jews are generally accepted by their families and friends. They are not kicked out, and are still accepted and have connections to their livelihoods.