JOSEPH W. TKACH
PASTOR GENERAL

May 1987

Dear Friend:

Thank you for your recent inquiry. We are happy to have this opportunity to help you with your study of the Bible.

Many wonder when they read Genesis 17:10 whether circumcision is necessary: "Every man child among you shall be circumcised." The ordinance of circumcision was an outward, physical sign of one's willingness to obey God and be one of God's chosen people.

Under the new covenant, God is calling a spiritual nation composed of individuals converted and begotten by His Holy Spirit. God's people now are all to be "circumcised" spiritually. Physical circumcision is no longer necessary for religious purposes. It was only a forerunner or type of what God really wanted -- circumcision of the heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4). Notice Romans 2:28-29: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly: neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter."

Spiritual circumcision is a process of conversion. That Christ circumcises us spiritually is made plain in Colossians 2:10-11: "Ye are complete in him [Christ], which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

That is why the assembled apostles and elders of the New Testament Church declared circumcision to be one of the physical requirements of the Old Testament which is not necessary for Christians (Acts 15:24, 28).

It is for entirely nonreligious reasons that many physicians recommend physical circumcision by a competent surgeon. It is to promote cleanliness and health.

PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE DEPARTMENT