Circumcision Today

There is nothing in the Bible that says Christians should still circumcise their baby boys. In fact, the New Testament makes circumcision counter-productive. In the Old Testament, circumcision was a sign and seal of God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants. As such, it also functioned as an outward means of distinguishing the Jews as God's people. By the time of the New Testament, however, it had become closely associated with the keeping of the Mosaic Law and with the Jews as a separate and distinct people. The problem with this was that in the new administration of the covenant under Christ (as opposed to under Abraham or Moses, for example) God's law had come to be expressed differently than it had been in the Mosaic Law. Also, one of the great emphases of the New Testament is that the distinction between Jew and Gentile no longer matter in Christ. Therefore, circumcision perpetuated a distinction that was no longer valid. For these reasons, circumcision was strictly opposed as a necessary rite, although it was allowed as a voluntary practice, especially for those who evangelized the Jews (so as not to give offense to them and bias them against the gospel).