Question and Answer Session Answers From the Word — William MacDonald

John MacDonald, you made a reference to a difference between the church and the kingdom of God. If I am a member of his church, what is my relationship to the kingdom of God?". Two aspects of the kingdom of God in the New Testament, and I like to picture it by two concentric circles.

The Outward and Inward Aspects of the Kingdom

There's the outward aspect of the kingdom of God, and that includes all professions. You get that in the parables in Matthew chapter 13. Everyone who professes to be a subject of God as King is in the kingdom of God.

For instance, you have the weak and the cares. The cares aren't real, but they're part of the kingdom. This is the kingdom of God in its outward aspect. But then you also have the kingdom of God in its inner reality.

Except a man be born again, he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. So you have those two aspects of the kingdom. Now, at the present time, the kingdom in its inner reality is the same as the church.

From Pentecost to the rapture, the kingdom in its inner reality is identical to the church, but the church is not identical with the kingdom in its outward aspect, that sphere of profession which is so clearly brought before us in Matthew chapter 13.

The Charismatic Movement and the Authority of Scripture

This is for Bill Conard, and the reason it's directed to a missionary is, you'll see I've combined two questions here. Please comment on the charismatic movement today. No criticism, please. Give us Scripture references, but the emphasis I'm asking Bill Conard to take is on the latter part of the question.

What is the effect of the charismatic movement among the Catholic, in the Catholic Church in South America, and how has this affected evangelistic work? I think the charismatic movement is one of the phenomena of this day that is definitely a sign of God's moving in our period.

There have been several waves of religious emotion that swept across the United States and swept around the world, and these give us fantastic opportunity to present the truth of the gospel. The charismatic movement shows the lack of faith and a lack of reality with God that most people are feeling.

Now, there's a very high emotional pitch in much of the charismatic movement. This is something that we have to work on because people can go high on emotion for a certain period, but then they need the reality of the word of God.

And this is where I believe that we as evangelical Bible-believing and practicing Christians can have a real witness and an impact upon the charismatic community with those who are willing to listen.

Much of the division that has been caused by charismatics in this country and other places has been because either the charismatics or those who oppose them took a very hard position. We remember that the scripture says that love covers the multitude of sins, and I think that probably a lot of things could have been avoided if both sides had actually practiced the love of the Holy Spirit instead of just talking about Him.

The only criticism that I would have out of personal contact was the situation which we came to in Peru. This was a mainline Pentecostal movement, and I read 1 Corinthians. This was when I was just learning Spanish.

I read 1 Corinthians 11 and 12 especially with these people, and afterwards the president of the church stood up and said, we don't care what the scripture says. We're going to go ahead and practice what we believe, which I thought was a very dangerous precedent in which we have to warn people against.

But we've had fantastic opportunities in Latin America to draw upon benefits of the charismatic movement. In our own city, there was a group of Canadian men who were very interested in experiencing the baptism of the Holy Spirit as they referred to it.

They didn't know how to study the scriptures, and so they invited another missionary and myself to meet with them. Out of that, a very good Catholic Bible study began. Our interest, of course, was not in experiencing ecstatic baptism of the Holy Spirit, but in filling them with the word of God.

And we began doing that. We've seen at least four people make a firm conversion to our Lord Jesus Christ, and as they have studied the scriptures, they've become more discontent with some of the, I would say, non-Christ honoring doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and are coming to a clearer understanding.

I really don't think there's time this morning, Tom, to get into a lot of scriptures on this, but some of the Hebrew is seen on it. Thank you very much. Ken Fleming, and this is related to Romans 8. Some of the older brethren taught that our old man was crucified with Christ, and we no longer have the old man.

He's dead. Thoughts on this? The term old man, as it's used in Romans and in Ephesians, refers to all that we were in Adam. And federally or judicially, it is quite true that the old man is crucified with Christ.

However, all believers still have within themselves their flesh, and we are constantly being tempted and tried because of this. So that if you can draw a distinction between the old man and the flesh that is within us, I think this may be helpful along this line.

Women's Head Coverings and Headship in the Assembly

For David Nelson, because this is a worldwide principle and one which he met in Africa as well as over in this country, and it also came in more than once, is it scriptural for a woman to have her head covered in assembly gatherings?

Yes. Why are more women coming to meetings without wearing a head covering? It is clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 11 that it is a necessity for women to wear a covering. I might read verse 10, 1 Corinthians 11, 10,.

Therefore ought the woman to have authority on her head on account of the angels. Now, J. N. Darby has a marginal note on that, and he says a woman ought to have a token of the authority under which she stands.

This goes into the subject of headship. Headship is not taught in many of our assemblies today. There is a lack of scriptural teaching on the subject. Perhaps there is also a lack of submission on the part of our sisters.

And I believe that older sisters can be of help to the younger sisters in this matter. And I believe that husbands have a responsibility to teach their wives and to tell their wives what they expect of them.

And so if there are women that say, Well, I don't get it. I don't understand it. Well, anyway, they could do it for the sake of their husbands and to please them. On the mission field, there are times when women come in with their heads uncovered.

But if it's a meeting, for example, for the remembrance of the Lord, some of the sisters will have a supply of head coverings, and they will offer these to uncovered women and ask them if they would cover their heads.

And they only have to do this usually once. The ones that will continue to come will understand that it is a general accepted practice, and they will observe it. ...of the Lord's day. Shouldn't every day be the Lord's day?

The Lord's Day as a Special Privilege

Why should one day be above any other? A similar question, and I'll read part of this one also. It's on the same subject. Mr. MacDonald has decried the fact that the lives of some are different on Sunday than they are the rest of the week.

But his own teaching contributes to the mistaken idea that Sunday is for the Lord and the rest of the week is ours. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was set apart as a day of obligation. People were not to do any servile work on the Sabbath day.

Those people were living under law, not under grace. But in the dispensation in which we live, we are under grace, and the Lord's day is not differentiated in that sense as a day of obligation. But I believe it is set apart in the New Testament in a special way.

For instance, the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. The day of Pentecost was on the first day of the week. The apostles and disciples gathered together to break bread on the first day of the week.

1 Corinthians 16, 1 and 2. The saints were told to lay by them in store as the Lord had fostered them on the first day of the week. There is a distinction made in the New Testament with regard to the first day of the week.

However, it is not a day of obligation. It is a day of special privilege when, released from our regular duties which we commonly think of as our secular occupations, we are enabled to set this day aside for the glory of God in worship, praise, and service to Him.

Remember that. Not a day of obligation, but a day of special privilege. And it really involves a Christian testimony as well. For instance, I could take you to parts of the United States and other parts of the world, too.

In many places, for instance in Grand Rapids, you go out and paint your house on the Lord's Day and don't go around and tell the people about your Christianity because they won't be interested. It comes home rather close to me because my mother came from such a background.

She came to this country and she saw some of the brethren working on their car on the Lord's Day. She never was in the testimony of the assembly. In that sense, we had a divided family. Is it worth it, stumbling somebody like that?

I do believe that the Lord's Day is set aside in a special way as a day of privilege in the New Testament, and I've given you the scriptures for it. How and when does one know to step out in full-time work for the Lord?

Discerning a Call to Full-Time Christian Service

I think there is an inner work of the Holy Spirit in each young man. I speak of my own experience. And the inner pushing goes in accord with people who are surrounding you, the elders in your local assembly, your closest friends.

So it's not something that you just feel and you do. There is an inner push that comes from the Holy Spirit, and there is an outer coincidence in this same direction. That's why you have the right hand of fellowship of those who are going to be behind you in the work.

At least that was my experience, and I think that goes along with the scriptural principles. Now, Mr. MacDonald. Mr. MacDonald defined the ideal citizen with several scriptures. 1 James 2 .5 says, God has chosen the poor of this world, etc.

Since I am rich compared to the greater percentage of this world, could I ever be an ideal citizen? Mark 10 .21, should this command be taken literally by all those who would follow Christ today? Remember, Mark 10 .21 was the answer of our Lord to the rich man, Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor.

Wealth, Discipleship, and the Call to Forsake All

If we would take this literally for today, should we be concerned with who gets our savings? With so many groups crying to the Lord's people for support, how does one decide where to give? In today's typical middle-class assembly, how can we know who is poor and or how to find poor people?

If we are to keep only what is needed to meet our current needs, how is current defined? I believe what the New Testament teaches is that we as Christians should work hard for the supply of our current needs and the needs of our families, put everything above that in the work of the Lord, and trust God for the future.

That's where the life of faith comes in. There are moral problems connected with being rich in a world where 7 ,000 people die daily of starvation, and over half the world has never heard of man's only hope.

The Lord Jesus says, So therefore, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. The Lord Jesus said that. I didn't say it. He said it. And it was a quarrel. The quarrel was with Him.

I cannot tell anyone else what it's going to mean for him to forsake all. I believe every Christian should get down before the Lord and say, Lord, what is Luke 14, 33 going to mean in my life? How am I going to obey that precept of the scriptures?

I believe if we do that, and if we're really, if we really mean business with the Lord, He will show us how to invest our money for eternity, how to make friends to ourselves with a mammoth of unrighteousness, that when it fails, they may receive us into everlasting habitation.

I am always deeply impressed with what Denny said. He said, The only perfect life that has ever been on this earth, he owns nothing and left nothing but the clothes that he wore. But I believe that there are real spiritual principles involved here.

He said to the disciples when he sent them forth in Luke chapter 6, blessed be ye poor. He didn't say poor in spirit in Luke 6, he said, blessed be ye poor. It would have given a very wrong view of Christianity for the disciples to go forth in luxury, comfort, and ease.

It would have been a very imperfect representation of the Lord Jesus, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich, spiritually rich. If the disciples had gone forth rich, they could have got all kinds of people to flock to the banner.

We have millions in India alone for the hope of the meal, but they didn't do that, and it's very doubtful that they could have accomplished for God what they did accomplish if they had gone forward as rich men.

Now, the most sensitive part of modern man's anatomy is his pocketbook, and one of the works of the Spirit of God has to do with some of the nerve between our brains and our wallets. But I just take the scriptures literally.

I believe the Lord Jesus meant exactly what he said. I refuse to sit here this morning and try to water down the plain meaning of his words, and I don't believe the world will be evangelized in any other way.

The Lord's Supper: Bread, Wine, and Christian Conscience

Questioner 2. Thank you. I have a general question here which bothers many people I know sometime during their lives. It's related to the emblems that we use at the breaking of bread at our communion service.

Why do we use leavened bread in our remembrance feasts when the Jews could not have it in their houses at the Passover time? Leavening is a type of sin, and in him was no sin, right? The same question is asked about the grape juice and wine, and some ways insist on one and some on the other.

Maybe Brother Bill would give us a word on this. There's no question in my mind that when the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper, that the bread on the table was unleavened bread and the wine was fermented wine, which kind of is the opposite, isn't it?

The fermented wine would be the very opposite of the unleavened bread, but that's what they had. They had it at the Passover. It was there on the table, and he used it, and he instituted the Lord's Supper.

Now, Paul, writing to the Corinthians, gives the typical teaching. He said, Let us keep the feast, and of course the feast there is broader than the Lord's Supper. I think it's the whole Christian life, is it not?

Not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And so, it really isn't a question so much of the leaven in the bread as it is the leaven in our lives, and we're to put away that leaven from our lives.

Now, I think there is, I personally feel, many of you won't agree with me, but I personally feel that there's a different principle involved in the wine. Why do we use fermented wine? First of all, I think it's foolish to argue that they used grape juice.

They didn't have Welch's grape juice in those days. In fact, grape juice didn't come along until pasture, you know, until the pasteurization process was invented. But there is a scripture I think that we might take more seriously than we do in Romans chapter 14, and verse 21, and there it says, It's good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or a defendant are as may be.

And there are many dear Christian people today who perhaps had an alcoholic father, and who have very strong feelings about alcoholic beverages, and who will not sit at the Lord's Supper and partake of wine, whereas they would if, say, if it was grape juice.

And I wonder if we're right in keeping those people away. It says, It's good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended. Of course, we want to get beyond the symbols ourselves to see the Lord, and His body given for us, and His blood poured out.

And yet in doing it, we don't want to stumble or offend others. Maybe some others would have something to add. I'm going to address this to Bill Conard. If an unsaved father forbids a Christian mother to teach her child her fundamental beliefs, should she go against his wishes and fulfill her responsibility to God?

A Christian Mother's Witness and Responsibility

Our basic responsibility to God, we have to be very careful how we carry out that responsibility. I think a Christian mother, by her example, many times teaches more than she does by her words. I certainly remember things about my own mother, seeing her pray.

I've read this about many other people and heard them say that during very rebellious years, the example of a godly mother was worth far more than her words. I would say, yes, she should do what she can to teach her children without doing it in front of her husband and showing a spirit of rebellion directly to him.

But she has an obligation to God to lead her children in the way of the Lord. James, Chapter 5. The question is, would you please comment on James, Chapter 5, verses 13 and 14. Is any among you afflicted?

Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and even if they have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Sin, Confession, Sickness, and Healing in James 5

I think it's good to see the gem in its setting. Otherwise, we might come to some very erroneous conclusions. A lot of people come to these verses and they take it as a blanket promise that when somebody is sick and you call the elders and they come and anoint him with oil and pray over him, that he will be healed.

That is not true. If you see these verses in their setting, I believe you'll see that there's a very consistent progression here. You have sin, confession, and I personally believe that this refers especially to a person who has sinned, and perhaps of a public nature that has brought disrepute in the name of the Lord and the Assembly, and as a result of that sin, he has been taken down with illness.

It's a promise from the word of God that if he calls the elders, he confesses, they anoint him with oil and pray with him, that God will raise him up. Now, let's look at the passage and see this connection between sin, confession, forgiveness, healing, prayer and healing.

It says in verse 15 at the end of the verse, It doesn't say he has, it says if he has committed sin, they shall be forgiven. It says in verse 16, notice the connection between confession and healing. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that he may be healed.

Confession, healing. Elijah is mentioned in verse 17. There was sin in Israel. Elijah prayed to God and the drought came. Elijah prayed to God and the rain comes. Another illustration of the same thing.

There was a moral connection here between sin, confession, healing. And then finally it says in verse 19 and 20, Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, there it is again, sin, do err from the truth, and want to convert him, let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.

So I believe in the passage you have a very recurring connection between sin, sickness, confession, prayer, and healing. And I take it that this refers especially to a man who has sinned, and God lays him low, and he realizes why he's laid low.

Nobody else might know it, but he knows why. And in that condition, he calls for the elders, they come, they pray, they anoint him with oil, and it's a promise from the word of God that he will be raised up.

It's a judgmental sickness that has come upon him. Now, supposing somebody is in the fellowship and they're sick, and maybe they don't see the passage this way, and they call the elders to come and pray over them and anoint them with oil.

Well, if I were an elder, I would do it. I would do it. But I would do it on the understanding that that not being the case, that perhaps this sickness not being the result of sin, it is like I would pray and commit them to the Lord, but I certainly wouldn't demand healing from God as many do today.

Being Filled With the Holy Spirit and Witnessing

Ken Fleming. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? If we do something in the Spirit, witnessing, for instance, does it become easy and free of frustration? How can you make sure you are witnessing in the Spirit and not in the flesh?

Sort of a two-barrel question for you. Actually, three barrels if I heard it right. According to Ephesians 4, we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, and this, therefore, is not something that is voluntary or we do it if we please, but it is obligatory on all Christians that we should be full of the Spirit.

In other words, the Spirit of God should have the control of our lives and that the whole general tenor of our lives should be toward not only knowing more about God and His Word and serving God in terms of a local assembly and reaching out in terms of evangelism, but in the conscious presence of God within us.

And the fullness of the Spirit has mostly to do with that very thing. The second part of the question, Tom? If we do something in the Spirit, because we are commanded to witness in the Word of God, I have a little difficulty sometimes with the overuse of the term doing something in the Spirit.

Ephesians 6 talks about praying in the Spirit. I don't recall a verse that suggests witnessing in the Spirit in such, but there certainly is the concept in the Word of God of being conscious that God is leading us to witness, and He commands us to witness as well.

How can we be free of frustration? It has to do with the whole character of our Christian life and our rest in Him. We were singing yesterday, Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art, and if I am happy that I am obeying my Lord and that the Spirit of God is leading me to witness of Him, then I certainly will be free of frustration.

We have a young fellow at Emmaus, or did last year, his name is Angelo, and Angelo was very keen about witnessing. I have never seen anybody with quite the zeal for witnessing he had, but so keen on witnessing that he broke school rules to witness.

He didn't come in in time of the evening. He didn't bother going to classes. He didn't bother studying his lessons. He said that God had told him to witness and that he was witnessing in the Spirit, and that kind of talk makes me be very careful that we live a balanced life and a life that is pleasing to God.

Christians, Politics, War, and the Public Sphere

I have several questions directed to Mr. McDonald regarding Christians in politics, war, art, and culture, joining of organizations, political organizations such as John Birch, voting, and the most concise one is, Mr. McDonald, are you sure those aren't our bombers?

That last question goes back to an incident I told about a young fellow who was taking keen delight during the war and our bombers going over Germany and dropping bombs on innocent women and children, and he went up to a servant of the Lord and he said, I hear our bombers were over Germany last night, and this servant of the Lord said, I didn't know that the Church of God had bombers.

And the question is, are you sure those aren't our bombers? Well, if that means are you sure that they aren't the Church of God's bombers, the answer is yes, I'm sure. The Church of God doesn't have bombers.

It has dynamite in the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, there's power in prayer, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Is there any place in politics for a Christian?

My answer is a flat no. Jesus said concerning his disciples, they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. He said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?

Politics is by its very nature corruption. You might not get that by reading the paper day by day, but it is, and it's a system of compromising. As I mentioned the first day here of our conference, the Christian is in an adversary relationship to the world.

You see it very clearly in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the New Testament is devoid of any encouragement to me to think that I should engage in politics. The general aim of politics is to make the world a better place to live in, but that's not my calling in life.

God's purpose for this present age, as we mentioned, is to take out of the Gentiles a people for his name, and the aim of politics and the aim of the Christian, well, they're quite different aims, and they're achieved by quite different methods as well.

I believe that we as Christians have the answer, and the answer is the Lord Jesus Christ. I really believe he's the answer to the problems of the world. There is no other answer, and I'm not going to drop my sword to pick up a fake weapon.

There are some things even in life that are good, but remember that good is often the enemy of the best, and I think that in the Christian warfare we have what is best, and we should not step aside, go off on some other tangent.

It was mentioned in the question here. Well, it's all the same lump of wax as far as I'm concerned. I see no place for voting. I don't condemn anybody else to vote. If you feel free that you can vote, you go ahead and do it, but I see no place for it really in the life of the child of God.

What about the military further on in that question? I think that's a very good question, too. Although I myself served in the armed forces, I think that I have had other thoughts about it since then.

On the other hand, I don't go around in a judgmental condition, looking down my supercilious nose at those who are in the forces. I know that God is using many of them today, but the whole idea of taking human life seems so foreign to the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ that it certainly raises very grave moral problems.

And when we get to heaven, I won't be at all surprised to find that those who've adopted that position were on the right side of the line. I'll just let any of our panel that would like to speak to the question.

Christian Gifts, Cultural Engagement, and Being Salt and Light

That's right in keeping with our messages that we've had and our general conference theme. I believe that God created us in His image and gave us many different gifts that we're to use for His glory. Many different expressions.

And I think that one of the beautiful things that we can do as Christians is take all the areas that God sets before us and seek to use them as vehicles for expressing His truth. This means that there are tremendous challenges, intellectual, practical, challenges in society open to the believer today.

And I do not believe that it's right for us as Christians to permit the devil to be the main spokesman in many areas of our life. We complain about some of the decadence that is taking place in our nation today.

What are we doing practically to go against that? What are we doing practically in our society, in our school district, to turn around the things that are being taught in our school? I believe that we as Christians have a distinct responsibility.

I believe that the Lord taught us in Matthew chapter 5, you are the salt of the earth. The salt that is kept in a receptacle will do no good. The salt has to be worked into the meat. It has to be given into the whole society so that we can do all that God has given to us to do.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. And it's my understanding that a person can lay before God his talents, the things that God has given to him. I believe that both natural and spiritual gifts are given by God and are to be used in his service.

And if we have artistic ability, we use that in every way possible to express the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we have leadership ability, we use that in the assembly, and we use it in our society to express the truth of God's word.

It's risky. There are dangers. But I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, instead of staying in some isolated place, mixed himself with the multitudes also to give his teachings and to reach out. I do not believe that any of us should be deluded into thinking that by our contribution, we will change the general direction of society.

I don't think that's true. I believe that the world is headed for perdition. But I believe that it's also my responsibility as a Christian and as salt in the society to preserve my society as long as God gives me breath.

Missionary Neutrality and the Dangers of Political Power

I would say as a missionary that when you go to a foreign field, to a foreign country, you have to be very careful that you avoid politics completely. If there are elections, if there are various political parties, that you stay out of it completely.

You can't get involved in politics in a foreign country without having trouble, and you might even be removed from the field. It would bring disgrace upon the name of the Lord. And among the Africans that I have seen, we've had some bright young men that have got a good education, comparatively good education.

Those that have gone into politics have not maintained their Christian testimony, and they have not been a benefit to the assembly because no man can serve two masters. Some of them have been corrupted by political power and the opportunity to get wealth.

And so I would just say from my own experience that I believe, for the majority of us anyway, it's not our calling to enter the political field or to encourage others to do so. Does what I say mean that the Christian camp have a home, an automobile?

Possessions, Contentment, and the Kingdom of Christ

What were some of the other things? A business. A business. It says here, verse 6, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment, let us be there with contentment. Some of these verses might just as well not be in the Bible. Isn't that right, students? Having food and raiment, let us be there with contentment.

Now, that word raiment, the word really means covering, and it refers just as much to the roof over your head as to the clothes that you wear. So what the verses say, having a house to live in, clothes to wear, and food to eat, let us be there with contentment.

Of course, of course. I can see where it's better discipleship in many cases for a family to be buying a house, to own a house, than it is to rent. Because when you rent it, then you have at the end of the year, as I do in my particular case, you have a handful of rent receipts.

Whereas when you're buying a house, you're building up an equity in that house, and you can use that house like the home at Bethany where Lazarus and Mary and Martha lived. You can use it for the Lord.

David Livingston said something that has been very helpful to me in sorting this out in my own life. He said, I am determined to hold or possess nothing except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. And I really think if we would follow that rule, it would answer a lot of these questions.

You say, well, what about you, McDonald, you hypocrite? I say, you have a Chevrolet out there. Well, that's true, I do. If I could possibly get along without it, I'd be delighted. I'd be delirious. But I seek to use it for the kingdom of Christ.

I have a typewriter. I have books. I have these things. I seek to use them for the kingdom of Christ. But I think that's helpful, and I commend it to you, the words of David Livingston. I am determined to hold or possess nothing except in relation to the kingdom of Christ.

Spiritual Circumcision and Mortification of the Flesh

I would like to go on to one other question. This is somewhat of a plaintive question. I don't know who wrote it. I don't know if it's a man or a woman, a brother or a sister. But listen to it. For years, literally, I have put questions in the box.

At no time have I ever had them answered. That's an introduction. Now, here's the question. Maybe the panel could explain the spiritual significance of circumcision as it is contained in the Scripture.

Please, with three exclamation marks. I'm going to ask Brother Fleming, since this is one of the teachings of Romans, if he would answer the question. Circumcision, in the Old Testament, as first given in the book of Exodus to the Israelites, was a mark of their covenant relationship with their covenant God.

God set apart His people and demanded it by a type or a symbol that was a cutting of the flesh, that this is spiritualized in the New Testament to mark just the sort of thing that we saw briefly in Romans 8, verse 13, where we are to mortify the deeds of the body.