The Circumcision of The Messiah

As Moses described the final redemption to come, he told Israel that God will circumcise their hearts. He said, “God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).

The metaphoric circumcision of the heart will enable us to completely fulfill the commandment of loving God. It will grant us life—even eternal life.

In the Scriptures, a circumcised heart refers to having a repentant heart, suppliant to the will of God. For example, in Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses commanded the people, “Circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.”

The Prophet Jeremiah tells Israel to repent from evil deeds, saying, “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart” (Jeremiah 4:4). The Apostle Paul contrasts a circumcised proselyte who does not keep the commandments against an uncircumcised Gentile who does keep the commandments. He says that the latter demonstrates a circumcision “which is of the heart, by the Spirit” (Romans 2:29).
Jewish eschatology teaches that when Messiah comes, God will circumcise our hearts by removing the evil inclination. Messiah is the circumciser of hearts. Nachmanides explains as follows:

From creation, man has had the free choice to do righteousness or evil according to his will … In the Messianic Era, man’s natural inclination will be to choose the good, and the heart will not lust for that which is not appropriate. He will not have any desire for the forbidden whatsoever. And this is what is meant by the “circumcision” spoken of here, for lust (and material desires) are like foreskin for the heart. The circumcision of the heart is that the heart shall not lust [after the forbidden] and shall not desire [the forbidden]. At that time, human beings will return to the spiritual state they possessed before the sin of Adam when he would by nature do that which is proper to do …

This is what the scripture means in Jeremiah 31:33, “… I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it.” This refers to the abolition of the evil inclination and the hearts doing by nature that which is proper to do … similarly, Ezekiel states, “I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). The “new heart” refers to its new nature … (Nachmanides on Deuteronomy 30:6)

The prophecy from Ezekiel echoes the prophecies in Deuteronomy 30:1-6. Ezekiel describes how God will gather Israel together from the nations, purify them, circumcise their hearts, and enable them to keep the Torah:

For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land …I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers. (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

The result of this circumcision of heart is obedience to God. Moses says that when God finally circumcises the heart of His people, they will “again obey the LORD, and observe all His commandments” (Deuteronomy 30:8). In other words, God is going to enable us to keep His Torah. He is going to set us free from sin and cause us to walk in righteousness. Keeping Torah is one of the promises of the Messianic Age.

Paul explains that we who have become partakers of Messiah have already begun to enter the new covenant and the circumcision of the heart. He calls it the “circumcision of Messiah” when he says, “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah” (Colossians 2:11).

The Gentile Church Fathers led the Church Astray

The reason why the Jewish leaders in the 1st Century rejected Jesus as the Messiah was because he didn’t fulfil the Messianic role of ruling in Jerusalem. This is one of the roles of the Messiah. The following are what the Messiah will do:

Before the time of the Messiah, there shall be war and suffering (Ezekiel 38:16)

The Messiah will bring about the political and spiritual redemption of the Jewish people by bringing us back to Israel and restoring Jerusalem (Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 23:8; 30:3; Hosea 3:4-5).

He will establish a government in Israel that will be the center of all world government, both for Jews and gentiles (Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:10; 42:1).

He will rebuild the Temple and re-establish its worship (Jeremiah 33:18).

He will restore the religious court system of Israel and establish Jewish law as the law of the land (Jeremiah 33:15).

All these were scriptural prophesies concerning the Messiah and the followers of Jesus believed this will be fulfilled at his return. They taught a literal fulfilment and regarded the ‘the kingdom at hand’ to the Messianic Era and the World to Come.

However, the gentile church fathers sees this as nonsense and persistent suppress this teaching and introduced the replacement theology of ‘The Church is the New Israel’ and that the ‘Kingdom at hand’ was inaugurated at Pentecost.

This is why the focus of the church moved away from Jesus fulfilling the Messianic roles as prophesied in the Tanach (Old Testament) and centred on Christians going to heaven. In essence, the Church is helping fuel the belief of the Jews that Jesus can never be the Messiah.

The following are statements of the Church Fathers that helped to suppress the physical restoration of Israel teaching by Jewish followers of Jesus.

Origen
Such are the views of those who, while believing in Christ, understand the divine scriptures is a sort of Jewish sense, drawing from them nothing worthy of the divine promises. (De Principilis 2.11.1-2)

Both Judea and Jerusalem were the shadow and figure of the pure land, goodly and large, in the pure region of heaven, in which is the heavenly Jerusalem. And it is in reference to this Jerusalem that the apostle spoke, as one who, “being risen with Christ, and seeking those things which are above,” had found a truth which formed no part of the Jewish mythology. (Against Celsius 7. 28-29)

Moreover there are many prophecies spoken of (the people of) Israel and Judah, which relate what is going to happen to them. And when we think of the extraordinary promises recorded about these people, promises so far as literary style goes are poor and distinguished by no elevation or character that is worthy of a promise of God, is it not clear that they demand a mystical interpretation? (De Principilis 4.3.6)

Gaius
“(The author of the Book of Revelation) by means of revelations which he pretended were written by a great apostle, also falsely invented wondrous things, as if they had been shown to him by angels, asserting that after the resurrection there would be an earthly and physical kingdom of Christ in which men, again inhabiting Jerusalem, will experience physical desires and pleasures. Being also an enemy to the divine Scriptures, intending to deceive men, he said that there would be a space of a thousand years for celebrating wedding banquets.” (Ecclesiastical History 3:28)

Dionysius
“(The author of the Book of Revelation) intentionally affixed the name of John to his own forgery. For one of the doctrines that he taught was that Christ would have an earthly kingdom. And he was an hedonist, and altogether sensual, for he conjectured that the kingdom would consist in those things that he craved for gratifying his own appetite and lust: namely that there would be eating, drinking and marrying, and he spoke of such things as he supposed these sensual pleasures might be presented in more decent terms: festivals, sacrifices, and slaying of animal sacrifices.” (Ecclesiastical History 3:28)

Jerome
If one of the Christians…reckons that the prophecy is not yet completed, let him known that he falsely bears the name of Christ and that he has a Jewish soul, lacking only circumcision of the body. (Commentary to Zephaniah 3:14-18)

Anyone who takes the kingdom literally follow Jewish madness, since they seek to satisfy their gluttony, lust for marriage, and longing for circumcision, sacrifices, and the Sabbath. (Commentary to Isaiah 54:1-14)

Those who claim that by the stock of faithful Israel in the Church of Christ (i.e. Jewish Christians) should observe the ceremonies of the Old Law (Torah) also anticipate a golden Jerusalem which will stand for a thousand years, where they will offer sacrifices and be circumcised, that they may sit on the Sabbath, sleep, become sated, drunk, and rise to frolic. Their (Sabbatarian) amusement is offensive to God. (Commentary to Isaiah 53:12)

Reformation Time
John Calvin
Believe in a literal thousand year reign of Christ is a fiction too childish.

Heinrich Bullinger
We also reject the Jewish dream of a millennium, or golden age on earth, before the last judgement. (Second Helvetic Confession)

The Church Fathers rejected the Scriptural Prophecies that Jesus will reign physically for a thousand year in Jerusalem. This has become the official teaching of the church since the 4th Century in the days of Saint Augustine. Other part of this teaching include that the Church is the Kingdom and it started at Pentecost.

There is a great need for everyone who believes that the Scripture is the Word of Yahweh to reject the teaching of the church that there won’t be a physical millennium reign of Jesus from Jerusalem.

Yeshua and the Gentiles

Many people who are not knowledgeable about the Tanach, called the Old Testament, will believe that there is no place for non-jews in the plan of Yahweh for Israel. That is why they so strongly believe that Yeshua came to open up a new way for gentiles to have eternal access to the Almighty instead of that for Israel.

There are many instances in the Tanach where non-jews became part of the worship system of the Jews to worship Yahweh. Aside these instances, there are also prophecies about gentiles joining Jews to worship Yahweh. This is in line with the Priesthood role of Israel and it’s duty to lead the world to righteousness in the messianic era.

When one considers the words of Yeshua during the cleansing of the temple after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, you will see that he quoted from the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 56 vs 7
I will bring THESE to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Who are the “these” Yahweh was referring to? They are foreigners and eunuchs who will step up to join themselves to Yahweh, holding on unto His covenant and keeping His Sabbaths (Isaiah 56:3-4).

This prophecy of the temple accommodating Gentiles (for gentiles are not allowed to worship in the temple then) was for a future time and had been partially fulfilled in the days of Yeshua because Herod in 19 B.C.E. doubled the size of the Temple Mount. He added large areas to the north, west, and south of the pre-Herodian complex. Above the southern wall of the Temple Mount, he built a huge colonnaded structure called the Royal Stoa. When compared with others in the Roman Empire, it is clear that this edifice served as a sacred marketplace. Normally the changing of money and buying of sacrificial animals took place in this building.

The Herodian additions were constructed around the Temple Mount that was originally built by King Hezekiah. That mount was a square of 500 cubits (861 feet, 262.50 m) on each side. Although this area henceforth became a court inside the expanded Herodian complex, only this square area was considered the Temple Mount by the priests of that time. A tractate called “Measurements” in the Mishnah Middot 2.1, an authoritative collection of Jewish oral laws that was compiled at the end of the second century C.E., calls only that earlier square mount har habbayit, or Temple Mount. The same source indicates that the outer part of this square mount was called the Court of the Gentiles, which was separated from the centrally located sacred precincts by a balustrade, or soreg.

It was this Court of the Gentiles that Yeshua cleared those trading signifying that soon gentiles will have access to the place to worship Yahweh.

Definitely, from the beginning, Yahweh have the gentiles in mind in his dealings with Abraham and his descendants. Does it not now look awkward that gentiles will seek to create a plan for salvation for themselves outside that which Yahweh has in mind? Did Yeshua not say, “Salvation is of the Jews”? (John 4:22).

The Apostles had initial hitch in bringing gentiles into the fold but that was settled in Acts 15 and letter sent to all places where there were gentile converts. Paul submitted to the authority of James and other Apostles in Jerusalem and stayed bound to their decision concerning gentiles who ‘are turning to Yahweh’. Why then did the gentiles of the second century snatched authority from the Jewish leaders of the movement and changed the message of Yeshua?

Yeshua stayed glued to Yahweh’s plan for the gentiles to bring them into His house but the gentiles under the influence of Rome built a new ‘temple’ for themselves and excluded the Jews.