Biblical Separation Defended - Far Eastern Bible College

and Pharisees]” (Matt. 21:13), indicate that Christ saw in this groupneedy sinners who could, and often did, repent, believe, and becomesaved. For this cause the Lord went among them, saying, when thePharisees accused Him of eating with Publicans and sinners, “They thatbe whole need not a physician but they that are sick” (Matt. 9: 12). Helooked upon them as sick with sin, and His relation to them was that of aphysician who cured all who would yield to His treatment. He nevercooperated with the Publicans, harlots, or other sinners in the work ofthe proclamation of God’s tidings, except as in the case of Matthew,after they had been converted and had left the class of “sinners” andentered the realm of “disciples.”As has been seen in the previous sections of this thesis, Christ’sconduct with unconverted Pharisees and religious authorities was thevery opposite of cooperative. Between them and Christ there was onlycontinual rebuke, growing conflict, acrimonious public debate, andfinally, the leaders of Israel desired nothing less than Christ’s death(Matt. 12:14) . To them, their false leading of the people, and their selfrighteousnessthe Lord declared, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, andwhen he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell thanyourselves” (Matt. 23:15) . His opinion of the chances of the selfrighteousleaders being converted as compared to the chances of theimmoral sinners, is summed up in his words to the leaders, saying,“Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and harlots go into thekingdom of God before you” (Matt. 21:31).As for Dr. Ferm’s comparisons, the conservative cooperativeevangelist likewise deals with two primary groups of sinners germane tothe present discussion, the lost who sit in the pews and the unbelieverswho sit on the platform. 4 The sinners in the pews should be mostproperly compared to the Publicans and sinners to whom Christ went asa physician to the sick. These pew inhabitants are acknowledged by theevangelist as sick and he does not ask them to help in the spreading ofthe Gospel until they are well. The liberal unbelievers on the platform asthe false religious leaders and the self-righteous who reject the Christ ofthe Scriptures, should be compared with the Pharisees who also werefalse self-righteous religious authorities who rejected Christ. Although48