Posted on 12/25/2001 10:35:40 AM PST by Wiley Sr
Why Watch Pharisees By C. E. Carlson
What better time than the birthday of Jesus Christ to examine the Pharisees, as He did. Jesus had much to say about this sect that had established control over spiritual life in Judea and was even able to manipulated the leaders of the occupying Roman Legion. The noun Pharisee occurs at least 87 times in the New Testament. They are invariably in conflict with Jesus. However, any use of this word has mostly been eliminated from the teaching of seminaries and pulpits of America's churches and the professing Christian media .
What is a Pharisee and WHY don't we hear about them any more? Webster defines Pharisee: "One of the members of a school or party among the ancient Jews noted for the strict formal observance of the rites and validity of traditions of the elders. Pharisee interpretation provided the standard of observation and belief for the great majority of the Jews from the 1st century A.D. Pharisaic: Hypocritical, self righteous and censorious of others" -- Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd edition, 1950.
Jesus confronted the Pharisees daily, as we believe all true followers of Christ should do. No longer an exclusive Jewish term, the pharisaic influence can be found in every church and synagogue in America, busily reshaping Christianity into its own image.
Every mention of "Pharisees" occurs in the New Testament, forming the center of conflict swirling around Jesus, His disciples and followers. The Pharisees stalked and persecuted them throughout their missions. Along with the 78 verses where they are mentioned by name, the Pharisees are also named by the pronouns "they" or "them" in many more verses. They are the object of Jesus' debates in several complete chapters of Matthew, John and Luke which provide accounts of the ongoing conflict and plot against his life.
The name Pharisee occurs 54 more times than the infamous name of Judas, and twenty times more often than the name of Pontius Pilot. It is without a doubt the most infamous name in the New Testament, second only to Satan. Jesus consistently denounced them as associates of Satan and his lies.
Yet the word "Pharisee" has been pointedly ignored and all but forgotten in modern Christendom. It may be the most avoided word found in the Bible. Many church pastors and most televangelists are capable of preaching the year through without ever mentioning the word Pharisee, except in passing over it like an extinct and irrelevant species. Bible study courses rarely mention who the Pharisees were, and why Jesus pronounced upon them so harshly. Could it be that any celebrity Christian who wants keep his TV contract knows that he must never suggest that the Pharisee's war on Jesus has anything at all to do with us, or that this anti-Christ sect may have survived to this day ?
The word "Pharisee" has not yet been removed from any Bibles we know of. Though we believe this too might soon be attempted. Most Bible commentaries and concordances avoid any serious treatment of who the Pharisees are and what they believe. One example is the concordance in the new, very popular Thompson Study Bible which is supposedly designed to help readers understand the scriptures. Amazingly it contains only one of the 78 sites about Pharisees found in Strongs, the accepted standard. The 1962 edition contained four of the 78. It appears that the publisher is progressively phasing the wordout of our Christian vocabulary.
Jesus denounced this most powerful and destructive faction of anti-Christianity as damned, calling them a "generation of vipers" and "sons of Satan." However, most study Bibles and courses omit all but a casual mention of the Pharisees.
The purpose of Pharisee Watch is to bring to light the ongoing influence of the Pharisees on our modern society and how they continue the attempt to control our lives. Jesus clearly shows us how they controlled Judea during His time. Needless to say we do not think Pharisees have gone away or they would not still be tampering with The Faith. Webster's definition spotlights Pharisaism as modern Judaism. This is proudly echoed by many rabbinical sources, who are quite arrogant of their station. They would move heaven and earth to discourage thousands of pastors and televangelists from teaching what Jesus has told us so clearly.
The granddaddy of all the Pharisee censors is the powerfully promoted Scofield study Bible, first printed in England in 1908, but sold in America. It contains hundred of notes about the "rapture in the last days" and the return of the ancient tribe of Israelites to the Holy land. The latest version of Scofield has even advanced "anti-Semitism" to the status of a "sin." Each of the four successive editions have further advanced the claim of the self-proclaimed Jews to the real estate known today as the State of Israel. However, Scofield hardly contains a note about the hundreds of verses recording Jesus' daily conflict and the plotof his death by the Pharisees.
The first mention of Pharisees occurs in Matthew 3:7 when they appear in number at the Jordan River where John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of the Messiah. John's encounter is vividly recorded in Mt. 3:7: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" 3:8, "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." King James Edition online: (http://www.genesis.net.au/~bible/kjv/matthew/) Genesis Network
One early exchange between Christ and the Pharisees occurred in Matthew 12 where Jesus called them "an evil and adulterous generation"in a powerful exchange that fills most of the chapter.
Matthew 23 primarily highlights Jesus' condemnation of the Pharisees. Verses 31-34 read: "Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city" (King James version).
How can such a discourse be ignored during the entire careers of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jack Van Empe and dozens more like them? They have made a career of promoting Israel, regardless of the moral cost.
Luke 21 and John 8 contain more of the incessant confrontations of Jesus with the evil ant-Christ sect. We suggest every skeptical reader look up and read each of the 78 situations in Strongs containing the word "Pharisee." Ask your own pastor when he last preached on what Jesus meant. Every follower of Christ should ask himself, "Why is almost all mention of the most powerful and evil cult to appear in the New Testament avoided and shunned by Christian leaders today?"
If you agree with us, we ask you to help to give every follower of Christ an opportunity to learn about Pharisee Watch. (http://www.whtt.org/pharisee.htm) Toward the strait gate (Mth. 12:7) C. E. Carlson Directors and Advisors, We Hold These Truths
Listen to WHTT Internet Radio conference, anytime on our site. Learn why many professing Christians support war, repression and torture without even knowing why they do it. Read SHERRY'S WAR, free on our site, hard copies are available from WHTT. (http://www.whtt.org/pharisee.htm), a must for all pastors.
If you agree with us do not wait, volunteer to be a Cloudseeder. You can help from wherever you are with no cost but your time. We Hold These Truths (www.whtt.org) 4839 E. Greenway Road, #151 Scottsdale, AZ 85254 480 947 3329
Yes, the Pharisees are still amoung us, they preach hatred and bigotry, they have a discernment problem....never knowing where to draw the line they force their opinions upon others. They are either too strict or too liberal, never seeming to find the middle ground that will allow a soul to florish. They are the ones spoken of in Mathew 23:
Woe to you, Pharisees and you other religious leaders. Hypocrites! For you won't let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and you won't go in yourselves. And you pretend to be holy, with all your long, public prayers in the streets, while you are evicting widows from their homes. Hyprcrites! Yes, woe upon you hypocrites. For you go to all lengths to make one convert and then turn him into twice the son of hell you are yourselves.
Interesting, isn't it?
Good summary. Jesus said of them: Mt 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
They were hypocrites, but the Lord said to do. If there is a major error in today's religious leaders, it is that they promote false doctrines of easy believism and have stretched Grace like saranwrap over all sin and disobedience and people have been deceived into not obeying God. There is a whole generation or two that has as a mainstay doctrine, "You can't tell me what to do!" like spoiled teenagers who never grew up.
Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Both are noted for hypocrisy. That they are hypocrites does not mean that everything they preach is wrong. Some of what they preach is true. But their actions betray the truth. And thus the other half of what they preach is to spin a fog around their hypocrisy. Need examples?
My Roman Catholic church opposes abortion. The local church leaders focus on "peace, justice and non-violence". They claim to speak for the powerless who cannot speak for themselves. They denounce capital punishment for known guilty serial murderers. They denounce Bush and push Gore from the pulpit.
Yet these local church leaders never mention abortion, which is violence and injustice to the least powerful, most innocent members of our society. Roe v Wade did not say abortion was peaceful non-violence. Roe v Wade said that it was "justifiable homicide"...that the woman had a right to choose to commit this act of violence in the same way that people (used to) have the right to self-defense when self-defense is admittedly violent.
Lest pro-lifers be too comfortable in this exposure of the hypocrisy of "liberals", let it be known that many pro-lifers are just a hypocritical...albeit about some other inconsistent facet of their lives.
I believe YOU are correct. They worshiped the law and not the giver! This is not about Israel.
Was it not the Sadducees that were mostly responsible for Christ's death? They were significant as part of the ruling Sanhedrin authority at the time and the major influence in the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas, the chief priest of the Sanhedrin was a Sadduccee.
"The polemical utterances in the Gospels...created the image of the Pharisees as religious hypocrites--an image from which only modern research has freed them." Encylopaedia Brittanica. So who do we believe in this matter?
They expected everyone to follow all of the minutiae instead of trying to know or understand God.
Good analysis. They couldn't get God into their lives so why should anyone else?
So much out of context with the time and place and ongoing conversations and perceptions...
Pick and choose to form a picture out of line and out of character.
The Pharisees were leaders and authorities of the organized religion that claimed the Bible (Old Testament only at that time) as its authority. The pharisees today are the leaders and authorities of those orgaized religions and denominations that claim the Bible is their authority generally known as Christian. Today, the religious leaders and authorities do not call themselves Pharisees, they call themselves priests, pastors, ministers, bishops, theologians, etc.
It was organized religion that demanded adherence to the traditions and teaching of earlier authorities, just as it does today. It was always the Pharisees that quoted scripture to back up their man-made laws, rituals, and practices, just as it is today. The Pharisees always claim they are God's authority on earth. If Christ should be born today, to live and walk among men, our organized religions would seek to kill him, just as it did before.
Ask any of these religious leaders why Jesus came. He may bable something about saving men, or saving men from sin. If they really know the Bible they may quote Paul, (1 Tim. 1:15) "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."
None will quote what Jesus Himself said His purpose for being born in the world was: John 18:37 "...Jesus answered, ... to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."
Most today confuse the voice of some donominational authority, church leader, or the Pope for the voice of Jesus Christ.
Jesus never came to form an organized religion, which is always the enemy of truth.
Hank
Luke 12
Matthew 18
The following comments are from Rabbi Lipman on the Web, from 5/6/01Speaking of the Saducees, Pharisees, and Essenes in Judea “as early as 151 BCE” Lipman writes, “The Sadducees ... came primarily from ... priestly families ... involved in the sacrificial cult of the Second Temple. ... The Sadducees recognized the authority of the written Torah ... The Pharisees represented a NEW stream of Jewish thought. They maintained that, in ADDITION to the written Torah, God had handed down an ORAL Tradition ... They challenged the priests and maintained that the priests didn't know the correct laws because they DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION. ... THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE ORAL TORAH. ... The Essenes viewed both the Sadducees and the Pharisees as corruptors of Jewish law.”
I would just like to draw attention to the Pharisee claim of an “oral law” being “a new stream” of thought, circa 151 BCE, and that the priests of Israel “DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION” of the Pharisees, “THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE ORAL TORAH” of the Pharisees.
The Jewish historian Josephus says the same thing as Lipman. Josephus wrote in AD 77 “What I would now explain is this: the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many rituals by succession from their fathers which are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason the Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to accept those rituals to be obligatory which are in THE WRITTEN WORD, but are NOT TO OBSERVE what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.” Josephus, Antiquities 13:10
The people of Israel, indeed even the PRIESTS of GOD'S Temple, were objecting 2,100 years ago to the "NEW" idea being pushed by the Pharisees, that the ORAL traditions of the Pharisee's and their own teachers, be elevated in rank and be made as binding as the WRITTEN WORD OF GOD. The idea was denounced as preposterous. Josephus well spoke the mind of the priests, that the people of Israel were to hold only those things "obligatory which are in THE WRITTEN WORD, but are NOT TO OBSERVE" these later commentaries by the Pharisees and the teachers they were sitting under and following. And Rabbi Lipman well notes that the priests of Israel “DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION” of the Pharisees, “THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE" so-called "ORAL TORAH” of the Pharisees.
That is not some new outcry of modern times, but a voice that has been crying out to Jews for twenty or twenty-three centuries!
But this Website is not actually calling for that. This is not a forum calling for the rejection of the Talmud, the so-called "Oral" Torah. We point out these issues not for their own sake, but only to lend weight to our own suggestion, which is far more moderate. Our plea here is not for REJECTION of the Talmud, but simply for the appropriate SUBORDINATION of it. It does not belong on an equal level with THE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD, THE HEBREW BIBLE. One should not judge SCRIPTURE by the Talmud. The Word of GOD is not to be judged by the word of MAN. The Talmud is to be always judged by the SCRIPTURE.
That is the main point of this particular page. The Scriptures are superior to the Talmud, or any so-called "oral" tradition.
Jesus said, Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. So obedience is involved in one's will (choice) and is because of LOVE not HATE. I don't force my beliefs on anyone, rather I point them to Him and His Word which says to obey Him or take the consequences. Those who do love HIM, obey Him. Those who don't, won't and generally hate everyone else and try to crucify His messengers.
Pharisees don't have a discernment problem because they don't have discernment, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. He only gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him and not to those who don't.
Ac 5:32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
>>>never knowing where to draw the line they force their opinions upon others. They are either too strict or too liberal, never seeming to find the middle ground that will allow a soul to florish.
The middle ground is that territory called "spewed out" or "sinking sand." All through the Bible God calls people to be for him or against Him, hot or cold.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.