Small question, relevant answers only:
Why have millions of Christians insisted on practicing the tradition circumcision for hundreds of years even though the Apostle Paul spent a good chunk of Acts (Correct me if I am thinking of the wrong book) having a nasty argument over Mandatory Circumcision for the Gentiles with Apostle Peter?
The Christians that you are referencing are mostly from the West (America). No one is practicing circumcision as in the Bible. Instead it has become more of a health and cosmetic issue than a biblical one. This has absolutely nothing to with the Law overall.
Here, no one I know emphasizes it as a criteria for salvation of the soul.
No one.
We do it because of the health benefits we hear form medical practitioners concerning it.
Contemporary American circumcision is a cultural rather than religious practice. It originally came about because Protestant anti-masturbation campaigners encouraged infant circumcision as a way to stop boys from masturbating.
It endures today because of tradition and some shaky medical science suggesting it might be healthier
I think that this is a USA thing. It is not in UK culture.
The book you are referring to sounds like Galatians
Circumcision is not practiced from a religious point of view by Christians here in America. It is more or less determined by personal health choice. There is no moral or cultural distinction made between circumcised or uncircumcised.
Regarding the book where Paul speaks regarding the topic:
For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
Romans 2:25-29 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/rom.2.25-29.NKJV
For them at that time it was a legal thing. It happened at 8 days old. It is interesting that many of the things that God instituted through law are actually very good for your health, like this and not eating certain foods, like pork. People wouldn’t eat that if they really knew how disgusting pigs were. But I digress. Today as stayed here already, we perform the topic for health reasons. It has nothing to do at all with salvation as do none of the laws.
It wasn’t the book of Acts. Paul wasn’t saying not to be circumcised. He was saying not to do it to prove your allegiance to God. Just like water baptism doesn’t prove a heart for God, circumcision of the flesh could be done for wrong reasons. We are to have a spiritual circumcision of the heart.
Its purely just practice. It would not be a sin to not be circumcised and it would not be a sin too if you are circumcised.
Its just cultural heresy.
Doesnt matter.
Paul was writing to correct the erroneous idea that Gentile believers have to be circumcised. For Israel amongst other things it was a Health issue. Adult males can have problems and Women can aviod popential problems too. ‘A systematic review published 9 October 2017 in The Lancet GlobalHealth found highly consistent published evidence that male circumcision is associated with protection from multiple serious diseases for women: cervical cancer and its precursor cervical dysplasia, herpes simplex virus type 2 (the main cause of genital …Oct 9, 2017
The cutting of the foreskin of a male is the choice of parents, today many do it mainly for hygienic purposes moreso than religious purposes.
You are wrong about Paul and Peter differences – It had nothing to do with circumcision Rafael Macapagal – Peter ,James etc where part of the decision makers in Jerusalem who decided that circumcision was not necessary for the gentiles. James was the one who made the pronouncement after Barnabas and Paul came to Jerusalem for a decision.
My kids have all been circumsised for hygienic reasons and not because of beliefs.
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