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-35-
God Hath Spoken
Circumcision
In Genesis chapter 17, note verses 12 and 13: "And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant."
Circumcision was to be performed on the 8th day. The practice is particularly interesting in light of the fact that cervical cancer is almost nonexistent in Jewish women. This has been directly attributed to the practice of circumcising all male children.
Prothrombin is the blood clotting element in our body. It is not found in sufficient quantity to safely perform circumcision until the fifth to the seventh day; so the first day when it is safe to be performed is the eighth day—the day God commanded that it be performed.
On the eighth day there is more prothrombin in our body than on any other day in our life. There is only one way Moses could know this: God had to reveal it to him.
Why, then, do physicians circumcise our sons on the first or second day after birth? Because they must get to the golf course. God said the eighth day is the proper day, for then excessive bleeding can be avoided, and the danger of infection is minimal.
In Colossians chapter 3, let us begin reading at verse 5. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth [i.e. put them to death]; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence [or, shameful curiosity], and coveteousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
"But now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all" (vs. 5-11).
Note that in this passage, the Apostle Paul speaks of putting off all these sins, for the circumcision that God demands is the circumcision of the heart, not the circumcision in the flesh. They who practice circumcision in the flesh are wise in this world; yet those who have experienced spiritual circumcision, whose hearts the Lord has circumcised, are wise in this world and in the world to come.
Fornication
Read I Corinthians chapter 6, verses 15-18. "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."
Fornication injures our own body. This is the reason the Lord forbids it. Gonorrhea used to be the most common cause of lifelong blindness in children. Not long ago, 90 percent of all blindness was due to gonorrhea. Just in case either of the parents has been promiscuous, silver nitrate is now put into the eyes of newborns. This is an insult to godly people.
Syphilis is a primary cause that many infants are born dead. It is also a major reason for children being born mentally or physically handicapped. It can cause squints, heart disease, blindness and deafness. Syphilis can lay dormant for twenty years before it springs to life. He that commits fornication sins against his own body.
Solomon wrote in Proverbs chapter 5, "My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman [i.e. a fallen woman] drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
"Hear me now therefore, o ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!" (Prov. 5:1-13).
Note I Thessalonians chapter 4. "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit" ( vs. 3-8).
Let us return to the book of Proverbs, chapter 22, verse 14. Reader, contemplate the seriousness of this verse: "The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein." People who are given to whoredom, i.e. to fornication, are hated of the Lord! He that is "abhorred of the Lord" shall fall into the mouth of strange women. And, immorality is one reason for insanity, caustic goiters and arthritis, although it does not explain the reason for every case of arthritis, goiter or insanity.
The medical knowledge that Moses records in Scripture gives strong evidence the Scriptures are of divine origin; and the knowledge of astronomy that we find in the Bible also testifies that the Bible is given to us by God.