CHARLO, New Brunswick, November 19, 2023 – Lots of people claiming to be this or that these days with very little but their own insistence to back them up. Men claiming to be women, women claiming to be cats, Whites claiming to be Aboriginal. In every case, there’s something to be gained from the claim or it wouldn’t be made. Usually, what’s to be gained is money or a competitive edge. For kids, claiming to be the opposite sex gets them lots of attention. Kids love attention. It’s like emotional candy.

Paul talks about true Jews being those who are circumcised of the heart. Circumcision used to be a big deal in Old Testament days; if you wanted to join one of the 12 tribes, you had to submit to getting a part of your privates chopped off (if you were male). Sometimes, a part of the privates of other cultural adherents was also chopped off, as booty. David chopped off the foreskins of 200 Philistines to win the hand of King Saul’s daughter. I guess people were generally less skittish in those days about chopping things off.

But if true Jews are now those who are circumcised of the heart, then the chopping or non-chopping of this or that body part bears no relevance anymore. This has been the case for nearly 2000 years, ever since the coming of Jesus.

So what exactly is circumcision of the heart? It’s a spiritual state of full repentance and humbling before God. A breaking of the ego, if you will, exposing the soft underbelly of the soul. A circumcised heart enables God’s Holy Spirit to enter into that individual through the process of spiritual rebirth. A soul that is inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit is in a state of grace and has the capacity to know God personally, which means that soul is able to know and speak God’s Truth.

Since the time of Jesus’ resurrection, the spiritual lineage of the children of Israel has come through Jesus. In other words, the true Jews are born-again followers of Jesus and have been for the past 2000 years. Born-again followers of Jesus are the inheritors of the promise made by God to the children of Abraham, as the prophesied promised land is a spiritual realm, not a geopolitical one.

Spiritual rebirth confers circumcision of the heart, which Paul says is what makes a Jew a Jew. Circumcision of the private parts alone no longer makes a Jew a Jew, any more than genetics or a passport does. Yet, as I mentioned, lots of people are claiming to be this or that these days based on little more than their insistence that it be so. If true Jews are those who are circumcised of the heart, then true Jews are born-again followers of Jesus.

Scripture tells us that the children of the promise will inherit a spiritual realm where they’ll be safe from their enemies. This realm was established by Jesus – the deliverer of God’s promise – and goes by the name of Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, and Mount Zion. It is peopled only by those with circumcised hearts. The world offers a poor facsimile of this realm – a Promised Land™ that is more a mockery than a mimic. The tiny tatter of blood-soaked real estate ripped from the body of Arabia is not the land of the promise, though it is the spoils of war, won fair and square through blood sacrifice and negotiations.

Let whoever wants to fight over it, fight over it. What spiritual value is there in the future throne of the anti-Christ? Do you think that, in Heaven, Jesus is fondly remembering Golgotha, or that Mary and Joseph are nostalgic about the land they had to flee from to save their firstborn? Do you think that God is waxing poetic over a temple desecrated by those claiming to be his own people? That land has no spiritual value, not in a positive sense. It’s been a stronghold of Satan for millennia, with God’s permission. Those who are circumcised of heart well know it.

Let whoever will fight over it. We, the circumcised, shake its dust from our feet, having followed Jesus to a far greater place.