Israelites, Pharisees & Sadducees In The 21st Century Church

When it comes to God’s family, there is no place for erecting walls of isolation and
narrowing the borders of who is in and who is out. In this regard, Pharisaism replaces
the divine dream with a human nightmare.
Alas, the heavens are darkened by our refusal to love each other.
May God be merciful to us all.
________
What Does a Modern Day Pharisee Look Like?
David Dickson
David Dickson (c.1583–1662) was a Professor of Theology at the University of Glasgow
and Edinburgh who wrote commentaries on many different books of Scripture. He
opposed the unbiblical worship and church government foisted on the Church in Scotland
by Charles II and this cost him his position.
10 Nov, 2017
No one wants to be a Pharisee. It’s the ultimate religious insult. No doubt we have
our own idea of what a modern-day Pharisee looks like. It’s probably the type of
Christian with whom we strongly disagree, their standards and convictions are
far removed from ours. It’s easy to apply the Pharisee label without thinking
much about it. We ought to be careful, however, before identifying others with the
enemies of Christ. What was it about the Pharisees that Christ Himself opposed?
This will tell us what we need to know about where the term applies today.
Perhaps modern Christianity isn’t as immune as we might think from strains of
the Pharisee virus.
It’s possible for any type of professing Christian to place undue weight on outward
activities and things that identify us as religious. Sometimes these are things we may
scarcely think about or question but they have been given considerable importance.
They could be what is considered trendy just as much as what is considered traditional.
It is highly important to identify the spirit of the Pharisees today. The Lord Jesus Christ
has such solemn things to say about them that we need to ensure that we avoid their
characteristics. The general stereotype is that Pharisees were obsessed with being
ultra-holy. True, they were interested in outward conformity to their own man-made
regulations but they weren’t interested in heart holiness and entire conformity to God’s
law. Christ actually says that they weren’t strict enough when it came to righteousness.
What is more He says that we must be “exceed” the Pharisees when it comes to
righteousness or we will not “enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
The Pharisees and scribes took great effort in making great outward profession of
holiness of life. The truth is, however, that they only made conscience of outward
obedience only (Matthew 5:21) and even then, only in relation to certain
commandments (Matthew 15:3). There is a tendency to try to get around obeying God’s
Page 69 of 176