If there is one group that everyone can agree upon as being bad - it would be the Pharisees. After all, Jesus' greatest conflicts all involve this religious order. They were self-righteous hypocrites. They loved to display their superiority to others. They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
If asked to point to the greatest example of Pharisees in our day, most people would point to some fundamentalist, conservative, religious group. While there are no doubt Pharisees in some of these groups, I believe that the preponderance of Pharisees to day have packed up and gone to Hollywood. There are also an enormous number who have settled comfortably among the faculty at universities and college across our lands.
There has been a transition from the day of Christ. In his day, Pharisees were conservative. Today they are liberal.
"But wait a minute," you might say. "By definition Pharisees are conservative." Really?
1. Pharisees are self-righteous.
Pharisees are convinced of their won righteousness. Everyone else falls short, but not them. Do we not hear the same thing from today's liberal Pharisees. They are the only ones who treat women, minorities, the planet, etc., correctly. I think I will actually be physically sick if one more liberal tells me that they are on "the right side of history" on whatever issue of the day. They are so convinced of their own righteousness that they will not even allow the alternate argument to be heard. Hoards of them will gather to shout down the voice of anyone foolish enough to disagree with them. Rather than engage in debate with their opponents they will call them vile names and relegate them to outcasts in society.
2. Pharisees are hypocrites.
One of the classic examples of this in Canadian culture is our present anti-bullying agenda. I'm against bullying anyone, but the tactics that the liberal Pharisees are bullying the bullies. That's the definition of hypocrisy. Or how about the Hollywood celebrities bullying us about climate change, while they fly in private jets that spew more pollutants in one trip than the average person does in one year. Or how about Al Gore the high priest of global warming, whose mansion uses more energy per month than the average Joe uses in a year.
3. Pharisees like the applause of men.
If asked to point to the greatest example of Pharisees in our day, most people would point to some fundamentalist, conservative, religious group. While there are no doubt Pharisees in some of these groups, I believe that the preponderance of Pharisees to day have packed up and gone to Hollywood. There are also an enormous number who have settled comfortably among the faculty at universities and college across our lands.
There has been a transition from the day of Christ. In his day, Pharisees were conservative. Today they are liberal.
"But wait a minute," you might say. "By definition Pharisees are conservative." Really?
1. Pharisees are self-righteous.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' (Luk 18:11-12 ESV)
Pharisees are convinced of their won righteousness. Everyone else falls short, but not them. Do we not hear the same thing from today's liberal Pharisees. They are the only ones who treat women, minorities, the planet, etc., correctly. I think I will actually be physically sick if one more liberal tells me that they are on "the right side of history" on whatever issue of the day. They are so convinced of their own righteousness that they will not even allow the alternate argument to be heard. Hoards of them will gather to shout down the voice of anyone foolish enough to disagree with them. Rather than engage in debate with their opponents they will call them vile names and relegate them to outcasts in society.
2. Pharisees are hypocrites.
"The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
(Mat 23:2-4 ESV)One of the classic examples of this in Canadian culture is our present anti-bullying agenda. I'm against bullying anyone, but the tactics that the liberal Pharisees are bullying the bullies. That's the definition of hypocrisy. Or how about the Hollywood celebrities bullying us about climate change, while they fly in private jets that spew more pollutants in one trip than the average person does in one year. Or how about Al Gore the high priest of global warming, whose mansion uses more energy per month than the average Joe uses in a year.
3. Pharisees like the applause of men.
They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. (Mat 23:5-7 ESV)
Is there any more self-congratulatory group in the world than today's liberals? There are award ceremonies for everything. I think back to President Obama's great quotation: "We are the ones we've been waiting for." Everything is going to be great, because we're here now. Wow. What unbridled arrogance. What amazing self-congratulation.
To borrow a rather worn cliché: If it walks like a Pharisee, if it talks like a Pharisee - it must be a Pharisee.
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