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The Leaven of the Pharisees and The Lack of Spoon Feeding By the New Testament
Posted : 22 Aug, 2012 11:09 AM
The Leaven of the Pharisees and The Lack of Spoon Feeding By the New Testament
In more than one New Testament text Christ warned about the leaven of the Pharisees. Yet before the first summit meeting between Paul and his crew and the leaders of the Jerusalem
Christians (Acts 15), the Judiazers were trying to bring the ceremonial law of the Old Covenant into New Covenant Christianity. Acts 15: 1 says "And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved."
The men who came "down" from Judaea were the Judiazers
who promoted a return to circumcision among Paul's Gentile Christians. In Scripture coming "down" meant coming
"down" from Jerusalem. Most likely, the Judiazers were
coming down from Jerusalem to Paul's headquarters in
Antioch, Syria. The Judiazers also went into Galacia to
tell Paul's Gentile Christians there that they must be
circumcised as implied in Galatians 6: 12-13.
But Paul and Barnabas "...had no small dissension and
disputation with them..." Acts 15: 2.
Luke does not explain to those who do not easily understand the significance of what the Judiazers were doing in teaching that Gentile Christians must be circumcised to be saved and must keep the law of Moses (Acts 15: 5). But this was a major threat to the Gospel at this point in time, which
was early in the history of Christianity.
And the threat shown in Acts 15 was not the only time when the leaven of the Pharisees was introduced into Christian doctrine. This is a big part of the leavening of the churches that Luke 13:21 warns was coming.
As early as II Thessalonians 2: 7 Paul tells us that "...the mystery of iniquity doth already work..."
I John 2: 19, in the verse immediately following the statement about many antichrists existing at that time, says "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us..."
Here are some New Testament texts on the leaven of the Pharisees:
Mark 8: 15: "And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod."
Matthew 16: 6, 11-12: "Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees...How is it
that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that ye should 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."
Luke 12: 1: "..... beware ye of
the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."
But the leaven of the Pharisees is not equal to hypocrisy. That is,
the leaven of the Pharisees is not just that they
are hypocrites. It is their doctrines, as Matthew 16: 11-12 says,
which are the leaven that will destroy the truth of
Christ's doctrines.
I Corinthians 5: 6-7; "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old
leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even
Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: "
Over time, a small amount of false doctrine, a "little leaven," will
leaven the entire Gospel, that is, replace it with
another Gospel (Galatians 1: 8-9).
The Jerusalem Christians under the leadership of James, after the
summit meeting that Luke records in Acts 15, did not thoroughly purge
out the leaven of the Pharisees. And so by the time Paul went back to Jerusalem in Acts 21: 17-31. The leaven of the Pharisees had by then become so strong that James, the leader of the Jerusalem Christians, told Paul that thousands of Jews became believers, and in
Acts 21: 20 James said "and they are all zealous of the law."
Here in Acts 21 is an example of how the Scriptures do not spoon feed
believers. Even though James goes on to say in verse 21 that the Jews
were aware Paul and his followers
were teaching the Gentile Christians to forsake Moses and not to
engage in circumcision, nor to walk after the Jewish
customs, many do not understand the significance of what
James is saying.
James was at that time following the leaven of the Pharisees. The leaven of the Pharisees was not limited
to the circumcision problem Paul faced when he wrote
Galatians. The leaven of the Pharisees is the entire
ceremonial law written in the five books of Moses and
the additional laws created by the Pharisees.
To bring circumcision back after the Cross would be
only one part of the leaven of the pharisees. In fact, Acts
15: 5 says "But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees
which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to
command them to keep the law of Moses."
Luke is recording that at the time of the first summit meeting in Acts
15, the Pharisees who had joined the Jerusalem
Christians were calling for all Christians to keep the
ceremonial as well as the moral law of Moses.
The law of Moses would be the entire ceremonial law, plus the moral
law, of theTorah, the five books written by Moses, which are
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
Acts 21: 17-31 shows that the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem had
become leavened by the doctrines of the Pharisees who had joined their
ranks. This leavening happened after the first Jerusalem summit of
Acts 15 when
James refused to impose circumcision on the Gentile
Christians, but did not totally purge out the leaven of the Pharisees
from the Jerusalem group.
The New Testament does not mention the destruction of the Temple and
the fall of Jerusalem under the Romans in 70 A.D. But - following
God's use of the Assyrians to judge Israel, the northern kingdom in
about 740 B.C., and of the fall of Judah to the Babylonians in about
587 B.C, it is no stretch of the imagination to believe that God used
the Romans in 70 A.D. to judge Jerusalem again.
And the New Testament does not tell us about when and how the leaders
of the Jerusalem Christians, James, Peter, John and some others like
Jude began to come out of the
leaven of the Pharisees to the Gospel taught by Paul.
But Peter in II Peter 3: 15-16 says "And account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother
Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in
which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures,
unto their own destruction."
Peter is saying that Paul was given wisdom by the Lord, and that
although some of Paul's writings are hard to understand
by the "unlearned and unstable," they wrestle with Paul's texts to
their own destruction. In not understanding Paul and in not
believing what he writes, they are destroyed.
Then John in Revelation 2: 9 and Revelation 3: 9, agrees with Paul's
doctrine in Romans 2: 28-29, and, in agreement with this text, also
Romans 9: 6-8 and Galatians 4: 25-26. Romans 2: 28-29 says those who are outward Jews in the flesh are not Jews, but those who are real Jews who are inward Jews in the Spirit.
Revelation 2: 9 says "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty,
(but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they
are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."
Those who say they are Jews but are not, are not people
who claim to be real Jews, but do not have the bloodline
from Abraham. The Khazar theory, promoted by the Christian Identity
people, is an example of the belief that
the Israelites or Jews remain the chosen people because of their genetics, but that the Khazars, who do not have the right genetics, only pretend to be Jews In this view the Jews who say they are Jews but are not, are those who are not descendants of Abraham. This is all fable.
What is the problem with the leaven of the Pharisees, and in bringing
back parts of the Old Covenant, especially some of the shadows (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 17),which are part of the ceremonial law?
Hebrews 10: 9 says "He taketh away the first, that he
may establish the second." This brief statement is supported by
Hebrews 8: 6-7, "But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry,
by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second."
These statements are not spoon feeding the Baby Christians, but the
implication is clear enough that Christ, in his transforming of
physical Israel into that spiritual house of
I Peter 2: 5-9, did away with the Old Covenant with its shadows pointing to the
substance which was Christ. To go back to
parts of the Old Covenant - was which not as good as the New Covenant - that
Christ died to perfect, is of the spirit of anti-Christ (I John 2:
18-19, I John 4: 3). It is the leaven of the Pharisees to go back to the shadows of the ceremonial law.
Christ says in Matthew 5: 20 "For I say unto you, That except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
In John 3: 3-6 Christ tells Nicodemus, a Pharisee, that "Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can
he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
The Pharisees were not born again by the Holy Spirit, and did not have the mind of Christ nor
the righteousness of Christ attributed to them, nor did they practice
righteousness, but were hypocrites, pretending to follow the moral
law when, in fact, they did not do so. And, their doctrines were not
those of Jesus Christ, but of man leaning to his own understanding.
"Proverbs 3: 5-6 says "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and
lean not unto thine own understanding.
6.In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths"
I John 2: 15-17 says "Love not the world, neither the things that are
in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not
in him.
16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of
the world.
17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that
doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
The leaven of the Pharisees pretends to be spiritual and to be the truth from God, but it is leaning to man's own
understanding and is of the pride of life, of the flesh. It is a part of the Jewish fables Paul warns about in Titus 1: 14.
And the leaven of the Pharisees is the Jews' religion of Galatians 1:
13-14. Paul confesses that when he was following the Jews' religion,
he persecuted Christians, and wasted them. Paul, as Saul the
Pharisee, caused Christians to be put in prison.
In Matthew 23: 33 he says to the Pharisees "Ye serpents, ye generation
of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
In John chapter 8 Christ has more to to say to the
Pharisees. In John 8: 44-45 he says to them "Ye are of your father
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he
is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth,
ye believe me not."
Present day Talmudic Judaism comes from the religion of the
Pharisees.
On http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/chapt01.html
they say "the missing link in Christian understanding on the subject
of "Pharisees" is best supplied by the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia
(1943): The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent,
without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees. 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.
Concerning the Pharisees, the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia says: With
the destruction of the Temple (70 A.D.) the Sadducees disappeared
altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands
of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the
Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the
Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin
of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly
tradition (Abot 1:1). Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and
the life and thought of the Jew for all the future."
"Rabbi Louis Finklestein was chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas (Jewish
communities) of the World as one of the top 120 Jews best representing
"a lamp of Judaism" to the World...In his two-volume work "The
Pharisees." Rabbi Finklestein writes: Pharasaism became Talmudism �
But the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the
Jew � studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used
in the Palestinian academies. From Palestine to Babylonia; from
Babylonia to North Africa, Italy. Spain, France and Germany; from
these to Poland. Russia and Eastern Europe generally, ancient
Pharasaism has wandered."
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