HHMI - Paul's Life and Letters ~ Pt 8 ~ Circumcision of the heart v/s Circumcision of the flesh

What is circumcision? It is a code word. The question being discussed and debated (in Acts 15) was this: how to accept and receive into the family of God the non-Jews that were coming to faith in Messiah. The Pharisees wanted them to go through the conversion process to Judaism and the last step in that conversion process is to get circumcised. How do we see this connection? So, being circumcised and following the Torah (as taught and interpreted by the Rabbis = being converted to Judaism. Paul was adamantly opposed to this. Why? Paul wanted to see the new believers in Yeshua follow the written Torah of Yeshua, not the Oral Torah of the Rabbis. The conflict between Paul and the Pharisees came up around the issue of circumcision. Paul advocated that the weightier matter was that the new believers in Yeshua had a circumcised heart and the Torah was now being written upon their heart. The Pharisees wanted to see them convert to Judaism, and as a final step in that process, be circumcised in the flesh. The Torah requires that people be circumcised in their heart: And now, Israel, what does the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul… Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. Deuteronomy 10: 12, 16 For more of Eddie Chumney teachings and to listen to beautiful Messianic worship music, visit us at our internet streaming radio station, http://www.hebrootsradio.com/. Please visit our home page at: http://hebroots.org/