Beware Of The Teachings Of The Pharisees
by Crossfire
“Then
Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
of the Sadducees. . . . Then understood they how that he bade
them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees.” Matthew 16: 6 & 12
Today’s church is not even AWARE, let
alone heeding the warning to BEWARE of the doctrine / teachings of the
Pharisees. Today’s “Christianity” has a
lot of the teachings of the Pharisees and they do not seem to realize it. One reason that they do not realize it, is
because they do not think there are still any Pharisees. They believe that was just in Bible times. They are just following the doctrines of
their elders and forefathers.
They do not recognize the modern day Pharisees
because the Pharisees have changed their name.
They may have changed their name, but their teachings are still the
same. Yahshua (the one many call Jesus)
warned His disciples to beware of the teachings of the Pharisees and as
disciples / or followers of Christ, we should also beware of those teachings /
doctrines. In Matthew 15: 1,2,3,7,8,9
“Then came to Jesus
(Yahshua) scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy
disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands
when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? . . . Ye hypocrites, well
did Esaias (Isaiah) prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their
heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines
the commandments of men.” (verses 4
through 6 give an example).
Yahshua was quoting from Isaiah 29:13
“Wherefore the Lord said,
Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do
honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me
is taught by the precept of men:”
The New American Standard NAS renders “precept
of men” as “consist of tradition learned” and the New King James NJKV, renders
it as “commandments of men”. Different
words, same meaning, but I have listed it here for better understanding.
Isaiah went on to say that Yahweh (“the
LORD” in the KJV) would take away the wisdom of their wise men and that they
would lose understanding. The modern day
Pharisee is wise in his own eyes and will try to get others to believe ho3w
wise he is (even setting themselves up as experts on what God had to say, in
the scriptures), but Yahweh has removed wisdom and understanding from them.
In
John 14:15, Yahweh told us: “If ye love me, keep my commandments”
And
in Luke 6:46: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
In Matthew 23:16-24, Yahshua exposes the
lack of wisdom and understanding in the teachings of the Pharisees. Also in the 23rd Chapter of
Matthew, Yahshua describes the Pharisees, stating that:
• They seat themselves in the seat of Moses
(they set themselves up as the authority on what God says).
• They make heavy burdens for others to bare,
but not for
themselves.
(their religion has many rules and requirements and hold that the requirements
in Christianity do not apply to them, for they have their own covenant).
• What works they do is only so as to be seen
of men (The news and talk shows dare not say anything but praise for them and
they are given credit for all that is good).
• They love the uppermost rooms at feast and
the chief seats in the synagogues (they want places of honor and to be honored,
no only by their own people but by our churches and pastors).
• They love greeting in the market place (they
must be acknowledged and reckoned with in business) and to be called of men,
Rabbi.
In Matthew 12:24, Yahshua told the
Pharisees: “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for
out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
After
Christ had, in Matthew 15:1-11, told them that they transgressed the
commandments of God and that they were hypocrites, we read on in Matthew
15:12-14:
“Then came his disciples,
and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they
heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly
Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind
leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the
ditch.”
Many today are more concerned, or afraid,
that the Jews will be offended then they are of offending God. So they follow the followers of Judaism into
the ditch of darkness and false doctrine.
Matthew 23: 13
“But woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men:
for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go
in.”
The teachings of the Pharisees can keep
you out of heaven. Example: If you are
taught a false plan of salvation (like one based on works) you will not be
saved. These modern day Pharisees are
not going to heaven and are trying to keep others from going.
In Mathew 23:15 Christ called them sons of
hell.
“Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and
when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”
Much of the teaching of Christ was
contrary and against the teachings and doctrine of the Pharisees. It should be clear by now that Yahshua was
against the religious teachings of the Pharisees and that He warned His
disciples to beware of them.
Some may say, “Ok, Ok, I get the point, so
do we have Pharisees today?” the answer
is YES and it can be proven from their own writings, for example: Rabbi Louis Finkelstein stated in volume 1 of
his publication “The Pharisees, The Sociological Background of Their Faith”,
page XXI of the Foreword:
“Judaism . . . Pharisaism became
Talmudism, Tulmudism became Medieval Rabbinism, and Medieval Rabbinism became
Modern Rabbinism. But throughout these
changes of name,. . . the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survies unaltered.”
Ok, how about a different Jewish source.
From the
Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943) as quoted on page 1 of Elizabeth Dilling’s
book, “The Jewish Religion and it’s Influence”.
“The Jewish religion as it is today traces
its decent, without break, through all centuries, from the Pharisee. Their leading ideas and methods found
expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is
still in existence. The TALMUD is the
largest and most important single piece of that literature . . . and the study
of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism.”
Judaism is the teachings of the Pharisees,
that Christ condemned in scripture and is alive and well today under its new
name, Judaism, the religion if the people who today call themselves Jews. The Babylonian Talmud is the Bible of
Judaism.
From an article entitled “What Is A Jew”,
published as a feature article in “Look Magazine”, June 17, 1952 issue. The article was written by Rabbi Morris N.
Kertzer, Director of Interreligious Activities of the North American Jewish
Committee and President of the Jewish Chaplains Association of the Armed Forces
of the United States. Rabbi Kertzer was
the official spokeman for the American Jewish Committee (the Vatican of Judaism).
“the Talmud consist of 63 books of legal,
ethical and historical writings of the ancient rabbis. It was edited five centuries after the birth
of Jesus. It is a compendium of law and
lore. It is the legal code which
forms the basis of Jewish religious law and it is the textbook used in the
training of Rabbis” (Underline
added).
Ok, Ok, so what’s wrong with the bible of
Judaism, the Talmud? I’ll let the
Jewish author of the book “Facts Are Facts”, Benjamin H. Freedman, tell you. On page 28, paragraph 2 of his book, we
quote:
“From the birth of Jesus until this day, there have never been recorded more vicious and vile libelous blasphemies of Jesus, of Christians, and the Christian faith by anyone, anywhere or anytime than you will find between the covers of the infamous ’63 books’ which are ‘the legal code which forms the basis of Jewish religious law’ as well as ‘the textbook used in the training of Rabbis”.”
I could list some examples of the
teachings of the Talmud, as they pertain to Yahshua, Christians, and the
Christian faith, but prefer not to in as much as it is very filthy and not
appropriate for publication.
So, what has that to do with today’s
“Christian” church? It has a lot to do
with what you hear each Sunday morning.
Ther are many good preachers out there who are sincerely preaching what
they have been taught and believe, without realizing that they have been
deceived. They love God and say that
they love truth, but most have never taken the time to check things out for
themselves. Christianity has been
Judaized, in fact what used to be know as Christianity is now called
Judeo-Christianity. The religious
teachings of Christianity, as proclaimed by Christ, and the religious teachings
of Judaism, as proclaimed by their Talmud are opposites.
From
page 71, paragraph 2 of the book “Facts Are Facts”, bu Benjamin H. Freedman:
“Another word is creating more problems among
Christians. I refer to ‘Judeo-Christian’
. . . In view of what we know today, how can there be ‘Judeo-Christian’
anything? Based upon what is now known
‘Judeo-Christian’ is as unrealistic as it would be to say anything is ‘hot-cold’,
or ‘old-young’, or ‘heavy-light’, or that a person was ‘healthy-sick’, or
‘poor-rich’, or ‘dumb-smart’, or ‘ignorant-educated’, or ‘happy-sad’. These words are antonyms, not synonyms. ‘Judeo-Christian’ in light of incontestable
facts are also antonyms, not synonyms. . .”
Yet, when a preacher or Christian layman
is asked why their church or religion is called “Judeo-Christian”, you will
often be told that it is because Christianity came out of Judaism. They have been deceived because that is a lie
straight out of hell, itself. Christianity
began with Christ, who is not only our savior but the creator (I don’t think I
need to list all the scriptures that prove Christ is savior and creator). On the other hand, Judaism, formally known as
Pharisaism, began when a remnant of Israel, those of the House of Juda (the
remainder of the tribes of Benjamin, Judah, & Levi) that were in the city
of Jerusalem, were taken into captivity by Babylon. It was there that Pharisaism began with the
mixing of the false religious teachings of the Babylonians, this wi where the
“Synagogue” began. It is only Judaism
that has synagogues, the worship of God was at the Temple and should not be
confused with the Synagogue.
From page 13 of “Judaism In Theory and
Practice” by Berl D. Cohon; published 1958 by Bloch Publishing Co., New York
(“the Jewish Book Concern”):
“The central
institution in Judaism is the synagogue.
Its origin and early history are hidden in obscurity. The conjecture among scholars is that it
originated in the informal meetings of the Hebrew exiles in Babylon. Thus, the synagogue was born in Babylon.”
Again, from the book “Judaism In Theory
and Practice” on page 15, speaking of the synagogue, we see:
“Originating
in the informal, obscure meetings of the people, it gradually developed into an
institution in contrast to the temple.”
If Christianity would have came out of
Judaism, then Yahshua would have preached Judaism / Pharisaism and the
Pharisees would have loved him. The
Bible tells us differently. Now tell me,
why are we calling Christianity, Judeo-Christianity? Perhaps it is because that is exactly what it
has become!
Christianity has become Judaized with many
false teachings of Judaism / Pharisaism.
We are told that we owe our religion to the Jews (propionates of
Judaism) and that is NOT true. We are
told that we can gain insight into early Christianity by learning from Jewish
scholars, it is just NOT true. I heard a
Jewish Rabbi, on a late night radio talk show, state that Christians did not
correctly understand God’s word because it had been given to the Jews and it
meant what the Jews said it meant. How
arrogant, and how untrue.
If the pulpits, today, are teaching that
Christianity is the religion of the Jews and that we are just adopted and / or
grafted in, how can the teachings of the Bible make any sense. First of all Christianity is not a religion,
it is a way of life. False teachings,
from the pulpit and/or Sunday School teachers, are reinforced by other false
teachings like: Abraham, John the
Baptist, and Paul were Jews. It is just
not true and can be easily checked out if a person would just open their Bible
and read it. Even if they mean the term
Jew to mean a descendant of the tribe of Judah (and not a follower of Judaism)
then it is impossible for these people to have been Jews, for the following
reasons:
• For Abraham to have been a Jew (a descendant
of the tribe of Judah) he would have had to have been a descendant of his great
grandson. Kind of hard to dod!
• Both parent of John the Baptist were Levites
and therefore John the Baptist was a descendant of the Tribe of Levi and was
NOT a Jew.
• Paul was from the Tribe of Benjamin and
therefore a Benjamite and not a Jew.
Another false teaching, that goes right along
with the other false teachings is calling all Israel “Jews”.
It is like calling everyone that is from the United States, Texans. Calling all Israel “Jews” or interchanging
the terms confuses any serious Bible study, in as much as some prophets were
sent to the sinning House of Israel (ten northern tribes) that was taken into
the Assyrian captivity. Other prophets
were sent to the sinning House of Judah (remnant of the tribes of Benjamin and
Judah). How can a person understand what
the Bible says if he doesn’t understand who the scriptures is referring to? Everyone who lived in the Judea area, during
the Biblical time of Christ, were not from the tribe of Judah, but were still
called Judeans and in the English translations of the Bible, were, incorrectly,
called “Jews”.
From page 15-16 of the book “Facts are
Facts” by Benjamin H. Freedman, he states:
“It is an
incontestable fact that the word “Jew” did not come into existence until the
year 1775. Prior to 1775 the word “Jew”
did not exist in any language.”
As for
the modern day propionates of Judaism, called Jews, let us look at the 1980
Jewish Almanac, first sentence of the first paragraph of the first Chapter,
entitled “Identity Crisis” with the subheading entitled “A Brief History of the
Terms for Jew”:
“Strictly
speaking it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a “Jew” or a contemporary
Jew an “Israelite” or a “Hebrew”.
Again,
from page 9, paragraph 2 of the Book “Facts Are Facts”:
“The
confusion in the minds of Christians concerning Fundamentals of the Christian
Faith is unwarranted and unjustified. It
need not exist. It would not exist if
the Christian clergy did not aid and abet the deceptions responsible for
it. The Christian clergy may be shocked
to learn that they have been aiding and abetting the dedicated enemies of the
Christian Faith.”
Brothers and sisters, much more could be
said on this subject (and should be) but let this little bit be the opening of
the eyes for those reading this.
The purpose of this writing was not to
throw stones at anyone nor was it written in hate of anyone, but was written to
point the way back to truth and away from error. Let us remove the teachings of the Pharisees / Judaism from our
pulpits and churches. Encourage our
pastors, preachers, clergy to proclaim the truth, without fear of the Jews.
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