My name is Lindsey. I am 16 and a fairly new christian. My parents are not religious in any way, and my Aunt bought me my first bible for my 16th birthday. So I was reading Genisis 17, and it says that God made Abraham promise to get all the men of his house circumsized. Does this mean that god wants all men to be circumsized? That part confused me, and my aunt said to ask if I have any questions. Thanks!

Jesushelper76

The old testament. It was a mark, a sign of God to have a boy circumcised within 8 days of birth.

Now with Jesus and the New Testament we are taught that God excepts us whether we are circumcised or not. We are taught that the love of God is more important then a circumcision.

Jewish requires circumcision. Christianity not really.
Now medically speaking it is not considered a necessary procedure.

My own personal opinion is that God the father, he created us in a certain way why would he have men change that? It was more tradition and culture that influenced that decision.

Hope this helps and does not confuse you more. I am sure more people will answer this question soon.

Tj3

Circumcision, like many of the rituals of ancient Judaism was prophetic. When we look in the New Testament, we find that rather than performing a ritual act, that Circumcision was intended to represent the circumcision of the heart, or in other words, baring the innermost, most intimate parts of our being to God, and allowing Him to do His work on us, to strip away that which He wishes to make us what He wants us to be.

Circumcision therefore was a prophetic sign of the coming of Christ, of the fact that the circumcised person was identifying with the the true God and the coming Messiah, and prophetic of the work that Jesus would accomplish by dying on the cross. That work resulted in all those who are saved being indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

This changed things because rather than following the letter of the law, we now have the Holy Spirit guiding us in following the spirit or the intent of the law (See also Matthew 5 and Galatians 3).

KrystalLea

God does everything for a reason, and todays technology says it is healthier for a boy to be circumsized. Its cleaner - less chance of infection. . . .
However there are a lot of Christian races that do not get there children circumsized.
I think it is more of a personal thing and what you want for your child.
God will love them either way.

kp2171

im not trying to start a debate here... but the cleanliness/infection/etc issues commonly thrown about are often overplayed and ill informed.

the American Medical Association's (The AMA) statement says while there is a statistically higher uti rate with uncircumcised infants, basically youd need to do 100-200 circumcisions to prevent 1 uti... meaning the rate is low even in this population, and that this rate of occurance is not high enough to warrant performing the procedure.

likewise for the penile cancer angle. its a rare disease and the AMA does not suggest circumcision to prevent this. suggesting this would be akin to performing automatic mastectomies on women to avoid the chance of getting breast cancer, or removing the appendix when young just because it might burst with an infection someday.

and the AMA's position on std's and circumcision says that sexual practices such as no protection and many partners or unknown sexual histories is primarily what dictates contraction of sexually transmitted diseases.

so both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association do not recommend circumcision as essential to a child's well-being, it is non-therapeutic, and that it is an elective procedure that should not be forced onto the parents by the medical provider. thats the AMA's position, not my spin.

plus, there are people who believe that the skin cut is well innervated, meaning potentially a heightened sexual experience if left intact... and also those who claim more skin naturally covering the glans is a lot like the clitoral hood... keeping a very sensitive area softer, moister, and again, more sensitive. but there are no studies i know of that can confirm this... seems that men just arent willing to line up for the procedure to see if the sexual experience is worse after circumcision... so thats all just guessing and talk.

this has NOTHING to do with the religious question of the OP, but the "cleanliness" statement above didn't either.

Fr_Chuck

I will agree, please if you don't know much about the bible, start with the New Testement, and wait till you understand it to go to the old.

s_cianci

In the Old Testament circumcision was the norm. However, in the New Testament circumcision was replaced by baptism. Today, in order to be a member of a christian denomination, one must be baptized in accordance with the rules of the denomination one wishes to join.

Wangdoodle

I will add too, to start with The New Testament. I would encourage you to read Galatians chapter 5. And Romans chapters 2-4. This may be a good start in understanding how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

savedsinner7

I recommend the Book of John, then Romans, then Ephesians. Reading Psalms and Proverbs (1 a day) is always a good choice.

N0help4u

Much of the Old Testament laws were written for the spiritual reasons as Jesushelper has stated is that in the Old Testament times they did not have modern means to keep things sanitary. They didn't even understand about infections and diseases and so forth so besides the spiritual reasons God knew he had to tell them what was safe and what they could get 'ill' from. Back then many people didn't even have a way of getting baths and when they did they could spread disease to others bathing in the same water. Now we have ways to store pork and prepare foods that were unsafe at one time and we have cleanly precautions, but some things are still better if we steer clear of or do them as God intended.

I think circumcision is good, but not required unless you are Jewish.