Have Faith In

GOD

                     (based on conversations I have had with professing christians)

-part One-

  

WHAT FAITH Is:

(or so they say)

 

¹.Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ².For by it the elders obtained a good report. ³.Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. ⁴.By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. ⁵.By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. ⁶.But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:1-6)

There are many voices within The Church, each of them sharing their own particular brand of the word of faith message, tailored & fashioned with a personal touch to suit themselves & their audiences alike. Every minister teaching on this provocative & dynamic subject is busy dipping into the same seemingly inexhaustible source of [what they refer to as] revelation knowledge, but coming up with something only slightly different to those who have gone before. This is nothing more or less than Dynamic Obsolescence. No marvel, I suppose one has to carve one’s own niche, as well as sell books in an already over saturated market. When I first began to learn about the word of faith as prescribed by the main proponents of Charismatic theology in the 1980s, I was astounded. Within the Pentecostal fundamentalism that I was a part of, faith had been a very basic & simple trust in God, in Christ & in His Word.

We were told that we need faith in order to be saved (Ephesians 2:8). We are justified by faith (Romans 5:1). We, having been justified, are to live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4, Galatians 2:20 & Hebrews 10:38). We are given faith in a measure (Romans 12:3). Our faith can grow & also be strengthened (2^nd Corinthians 10:15, 2^nd Thessalonians 1:3 & Acts 16:5). We must have faith in God (Mark 11:22). Without faith we cannot please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is a gift (1^st Corinthians 12:9). We must fight the good fight of faith (1^st Timothy 6:12). We overcome the world by faith (1^st John 5:4). Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). By faith we stand (2^nd Corinthians 1:24). We walk by faith, not by sight (2^nd Corinthians 5:17). Faith is our shield (Ephesians 6:16). 

Faith is a Bible subject. Because of this, it isn’t alien to us when someone teaches on the topic. The problem however, lies in what is taught about it. The subject of faith ought always to be overshadowed & underlined by its intended object; The Lord. He then, instructs us thus: have faith in GOD (Mark 11:22). Grab yourself a pot of tea & some custard creams. You’re gonna need ‘em.

Modern word of faith teaching is a complicated system of hoops through which you have to carefully manoeuvre. It is a set of delicate steps that you have to successfully negotiate in order to obtain whatever God wants you to have. The faith of the Charismatic movement is a robust & tangible force. It is a spiritual law & one that has to be engaged & enhanced. It is often compared to the law of gravity. As its practitioners unfold their particular slant on The Scriptures, using their own unique & particular method of biblical interpretation, some believers will be steadily drawn in, just as I once was. Their forensic teaching seems to make sense. However, as I have said before & will doubtless say again, just because an argument is logically sound does not necessarily mean that it’s theo-logically sound. It isn’t enough for a teaching to make sense. It has to be true. It has to be so (Acts 17:11).

The Charismatic approach to the subject of faith is often blatantly flawed at best & fundamentally heretical at worst. In order to construct their teaching, word of faith apologists have to de-construct something first. Any attempt to oppose or expose their doctrine is decried as head knowledge or a religious spirit. If you ever sit & watch word of faith proponents in action, or listen to them, they follow the same initial pattern. After you’re given their chosen text, you’re then given their chosen context. This will usually take the form of an anecdote, a personal word-from-The-Lord received while they were praying, or perhaps a wayward misappropriation of Hebrew or Greek, as it suits them. Their experience sets you up. Their revelation wows you. Their knowledge bowls you over. The listener is then left to make their own logical assumptions & conclude that the particular verse or verses of Scripture in question mean whatever their teacher says it or they mean, based on their interaction with it. Finally, once this is established, you’re led through whatever verses seem to support the case presented, as co-text & the rest, as they say, is history.

While learning the fundamentals of the word of faith message, the stated passage from Hebrews chapter eleven will more often than not be primary among several proof texts, because of the first three words given to us in verse one; Now Faith Is. So, there you are on the edge of your seat, about to hear something that you’ve never heard before. You will not be disappointed. Beyond a carefully crafted & exciting title, there will be the eagerly anticipated ‘how to’, ‘steps to’, ‘keys to’ & ‘secrets to’. This is nothing more or less than New Age Gnosticism., but we will come to this later. 

It would not be unreasonable to point out that fundamental Pentecostal traditions had failed its adherents miserably in these respects. We were encouraged to read The Bible, to believe The Bible & to obey & apply The Bible. However, we were never shown exactly how this was to be done or told how this was to be practically accomplished. There was plenty of dancing & singing & shouting & chandelier swinging, but none of these things equipped us to rightly divide The Scriptures, or keep us safe from error. Therefore, the ill-informed & the ill-prepared were equally susceptible to the attractive propositions offered by word of faith mythology. Faith teaching filled the vacuum created by our ignorance. With little or nothing in the way of strong, biblical theology to compare it to or combat it with, many of us blindly followed the instructions given to us on the tin of Charismatic goodies. Now. Faith. Is. 

What is faith? Or at least what do some say that faith is? This is where we must pay close attention theologically. If our word of faith brethren are correct concerning the importance of faith as they teach it, isn’t it equally important to know what faith is not? Follow carefully, because you’ll be taken quite quickly to whatever conclusion your word of faith guru wants you to reach, by whatever means necessary & so it begins. 1^st Faith is the substance of things. 2^nd Anything that has substance must be perceptible & therefore faith must be tangible. 3^rd Faith gives substance, or tangibility, to things hoped for. 4^th Faith takes the place of the thing hoped for, until such time as the said hoped for thing becomes a tangible reality. 5^th Faith is our evidence that the things hoped for, which are unseen, to which our faith gives substance, are ours in the present, even though we do not see them. 6^th God possesses & uses faith. He is [referred to as] a faith God. Are you following? Are you confused yet? Sip some tea. Have a biscuit. Catch your breath. There’s more to come. 

Remember that to the untrained ear all of this sounds deeply informative & revelatory. However, all of these conclusions are reached using logic & what have we said about that? Just because an argument is logically sound, does not necessarily mean that said argument is theo-logically sound. This is certainly true of these verses from Hebrews chapter eleven & in an effort to emboss the importance of faith onto the minds of their listeners, word of faith teachers may jump from verse one to verse six. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Without this spiritual force or dynamic law, it is impossible to please God. Without their instruction, set out as they prescribe it, it is impossible to please God. Therefore faith must be the most important subject in The Bible. Right? Believe me, this has been said. Using their logical manipulation of Scripture you could conclude this quite easily. In the word of faith teacher’s playbook, salvation, healing, deliverance & prosperity are all appropriated by faith, as it is taught by them. They will declare that faith is a muscle that must be exercised & that action will cause it to grow & develop. 

It’s right here, at this particular juncture, that the individual should begin to ask themselves several important internal questions. If faith is a spiritual force, how does it work? If faith is a spiritual law, what governs it? If faith is spiritual principle, where does it come from? Depending upon the answers, the believer must decide to either embrace or abandon the word of faith message. As I said earlier, you’ll be taken very quickly through these primary steps because you’re about to make a series of massive dogmatic leaps, so you’ll need to build up some necessary momentum. Remember, we’re using their word of faith logic. 

Now, I have a question to ask. Before we try & delve into the depths of faith as defined by word of faith promoters, surely, we also need a definition of hope. If faith is the substance of things hoped for, we also need to know what hope is. Right? Hope, which is indirectly & somewhat unfairly denigrated as inferior, is all too often passed over in favour of faith, but this is typical. Even if we stick to the confines of the book of Hebrews, we cannot help but consider the perspective we may have inadvertently but erroneously taken. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, so we have to establish what the things hoped for actually are. Let’s just stick with the instances in this Epistle, all of which lead up to our given proof text. 

⁵ And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; ⁶ but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end (Hebrews 3:5-6). What are the things hoped for here? 

¹⁰ For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. ¹¹ And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: (Hebrews 6:10-11). What are the things hoped for here? 

¹⁷ Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: ¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: ¹⁹ which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; ²⁰ whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:17-20). What are the things hoped for here? 

¹⁹ For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God (Hebrews 7:19). What are the things hoped for here? 

It follows then that in the word of faith universe, hope has to precede faith, otherwise faith has nothing to give substance to. Right? Using the same logic, it would also have to follow that the things unseen have to exist somewhere or the other in order for faith to be their evidence. Is faith a spiritual force or a divine law, akin to the law of Gravity as defined by the word of faith system of belief? We’ve been told that it is. However, gravity is ever present in all circumstances & works regardless of anyone’s hope, belief or disbelief in its existence or operation. We’re not dealt a measure of Gravity. Gravity doesn’t come by hearing, neither can we increase it or have little Gravity. Gravity does not give substance to things or take the place of things as our evidence until said things arrive from the spirit world. Gravity doesn’t have to be exercised. The faith we’re being taught about is actually nothing like Gravity at all, but in order to give credence & bulk to the word of faith message, it’s often stated by way of comparison, that the force of faith works just like the force of Gravity, which is a substantial & formidable power in the natural world. The reason for this comparison is obvious; make faith appear to be a considerable & formidable spiritual force. 

What were the elders hoping for? What was Abel hoping for? What was Enoch hoping for? What was God, the creator hoping for? These objections & others like it easily poke holes in word of faith rhetoric, so why aren’t more people asking the relevant questions? Their logic doesn’t stand up to careful scrutiny, neither does it hold water when pitted against simple objective intellectual honesty. Sit back for a second & allow me to give you some information that you can verify for yourself, in your own time. The comparison made between the law or force of faith & Gravity isn’t found in Scripture, but it is found in metaphysics. 

‘Metaphysics has two main strands: that which holds that what exists lies beyond experience (as argued by Plato), and that which holds that objects of experience constitute the only reality (as argued by Kant, the logical positivists, and Hume). Metaphysics has also concerned itself with a discussion of whether what exists is made of one substance or many, and whether what exists is inevitable or driven by chance’. It continues, ‘the title came to denote the branch of study treated in the books, later interpreted as meaning ‘the science of things transcending what is physical or natural’. The Oxford Online Dictionary 

Metaphysics deals with that which is based on abstract reasoning & things transcending physical matter or the laws of nature. 

“Hold on a minute.” I hear you say, “What we encounter as believers does indeed lie beyond experience, beyond the physical senses. God is the source & object of our experience therefore He constitutes our reality. faith is the substance of all that exists. Our faith does transcend what is physical or natural. Therefore, the faith message is not metaphysical at all.”. “Furthermore”, I hear you object, “The Bible is replete with miraculous instances that defy both science & nature?” Drink some tea & have a biscuit. How can the faith message be considered metaphysical, when Scripture so clearly demonstrates it? The answer is a simple one. The Scriptures are being used to teach these principles, having been twisted out of all reasonable context. This means that the faith message itself is metaphysical, not The Bible. Not Christianity. What is being taught as faith is simply metaphysics, yet the real faith is far removed from such things. Instances in Scripture that record miraculous events, in both Testaments, are a demonstration of the awesome power of a sovereign God. When we lower The Almighty’s actions to a set of principles that we can learn to manipulate & emulate, we are in serious error. 

As we have seen, faith is not akin to Gravity in any way, shape or form. It is not a faith force. There is no faith law. The faith message clearly resembles metaphysics because that’s exactly what it is. Finally, you may say, “You cannot use a dictionary definition to accurately describe Bible Doctrine.” & I agree with you wholeheartedly. You can however use a dictionary definition to accurately describe metaphysics. Modern word of faith teaching is not a bonafide Bible Doctrine. It is simple metaphysics 1-0-1. I’m sticking my tongue out, with my thumb to my nose while I wiggling my fingers. 

I’m not a scientist, but the last time I checked, Gravity had a one-hundred-percent success rate here on Earth. Anything comprised of mass is subject to it & affected by it. What goes up, must come down et cetera. Not so with faith teaching however. I couldn’t begin to try & calculate the failure rate among those who lay claim to the word of faith system of belief. For every individual who shouts ‘it works’, there are hundreds, thousands & perhaps even millions for whom it has not worked at all. Whose fault is that? The devil’s? The Lord’s? No, you’ll be told that it’s your fault. you haven’t worked it correctly. You give your money, but no blessing comes back to supply your need. your fault! You tithe faithfully, but you’re passed over for a promotion & pay rise. your fault! You name your seed, you confess God’s Word & you take authority in The Name of Jesus, yet no healing comes for you or for anyone else. You guessed it; it’s your fault! Yet, if the law of faith works just like the law of Gravity, there should be no failure rate whatsoever. It ought to work automatically. So why doesn’t it? Simply because faith is not a law or a force. Consequently, it does not work in the same way & there are no refunds. In other cases, I have known individuals personally, who claimed their promises from God, made their positive confession & ‘acted in faith’, only to lose their possessions, their homes & in two cases their lives. 

A minister sits at his desk & tells a family that it was their fault they had lost their home. A minister tells a mother & father it was their fault their child was not healed & had consequently died. A minister tells newlyweds that it was their fault they’d lost their possessions, which they’d started making payments on, by faith. Who’s really to blame here? If the premise of faith teaching is false, which I contend it is, then its conclusion will be false also. Remember, this particular line of reasoning is bad enough, but where it leads is far worse. In order for us to arrive at a proper biblical conclusion, we first have to know what the things hoped for are. Not a dictionary description; a bible one. This has to be done with faith also. As we move through this volume, we will see this quite clearly from The Scriptures. It’s one thing to conclude that faith is one of the forces that comes out of the spirit of the man or woman who is born-again. It’s altogether something else to then describe Almighty God in metaphysical terms. Doing this denigrates The Lord & is the first step for many in their erroneous faith journey. 

It has been said, ‘The Bible is so simple that one would have to hire someone in order to help one misunderstand it’. Yet those who make this declaration, demonstrate unrelentingly, a stark ignorance of Scripture, the God Who inspired it & The Christ it reveals. Their faith message is a caricature of the real faith; the faith that is truly in God. What then are we to ask of our brethren who present these beliefs as the truth & how are we to answer the questions these issues raise? We have to begin with Scripture. We have to stick with Scripture. We have to draw our conclusions from Scripture. If we revisit the text & treat it with the respect it deserves & commands, I cannot see how any of the conclusions reached by word of faith proponents are biblically tenable, unless the teachers of these things admit that they are handling The Word of God deceitfully (2^nd Corinthians 4:1-6). 

If what we are being told about faith is a truly biblical representation of God, Christ & His Word, we are in deep trouble. The resemblance of word of faith teaching to New Thought Metaphysics, The Law of Attraction, New Age Gnosticism & Mind Science is disturbing to say the least. Yet these things are taught regardless of their dangerous proximity to damnable heresy. Let few of you be teachers. You will incur a more severe judgement. The God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob has revealed whatever He has chosen to reveal of Himself, in Scripture. This is done from Genesis to Malachi, which we call The Old Covenant. With the coming of The Lord Jesus Christ & the initiation of The New Covenant we have a further revelation of Him. This is enough, or at least it ought to be. 

The canon of Scripture that we now have was given first to The Jews, not The Gentiles & yet The Gentiles have taken it upon themselves to read, study & interpret God’s Word as a western book, ignoring its Hebraic context & system of construal. Well, that’s hellenisation for you. When we look at the way in which Jesus handled Scripture, the way in which Paul & The Apostles taught God’s Word & the manner in which The Bible engages itself in a specific form, the ignorance, biblical illiteracy & unfamiliarity of The Gentile Church with Holy Writ is embarrassingly obvious. As we move through this volume, we will see that this fact is more than apparent. This is dangerous. The word of faith movement is like a person on thin ice who has little or no ability to skate properly. 

So, we have seen some of what the promoters of word of faith lore say faith is. But just how do we set about obtaining it? Conveniently, we are given the answer to our question by our Charismatic brethren, as we will see. This is what they say faith is, but their faith is the substance of things hyped for; the edifice of things obscene. Now, go & enjoy the rest of your pot of tea!

 

 

End of Part One

 

 

 

copyright © by David Samuel Parkins mmxxv all rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is presented & without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

 

dogs in the manger

removing leaven from the children’s bread

Part Four

During the writing of these articles, I have enjoyed re-reading The Gospel accounts of the life of Christ. I love seeing The Saviour in action. The most striking thing to me is the fact that God’s timing is ab-so-lute-ly perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ appears at a point in Israel’s history that was planned for & prophesied about for centuries. We see Him in The Law, The Prophets & The Writings. He is there in type & shadow. He is represented in biblical figures such as Abel, Isaac, Joseph, Moses & David. He is Prophet, Priest & King. He is Noah’s Ark. He is The Temple furniture. He is The High Priest. He is the sacrifices & offerings. He is the city of refuge. He is Messiah The Son of Joseph & Messiah The Son of David. He is God Himself in human flesh. Quite a thing. With these things in view & considering all that Jesus said & did, why was His ministry met with such vigorous opposition from the religious leadership of his day?

Lean in reader. Lean in & listen to me for just a second. When you have lost sight of Christ, you have lost sight of everything. The leadership of Christ’s day had created their own form of Judaism. For four hundred years there had been Divine silence. Where was God during those years of persecution, oppression & fighting? Where was He when the Temple & the altar were desecrated & when Gentiles entered The Most Holy Place? Who had maintained The Scriptures, preserved The Law, saved The Faith & rescued the Jewish People from themselves? The Scribes, Pharisees & Sadducees (no doubt) saw themselves as the saviours of Judaism. Having worked so hard to cultivate the position of power that they had come to enjoy, they weren’t going to give it up without a fight.

I am convinced that the religious leaders knew that Jesus was The Messiah, but He was not the Christ that they wanted. He was not a political Saviour or military leader, that would rid them of the Romans & restore Israel. He came first as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, Messiah the Son of Joseph. They were wilfully blind to this. The Lord told Philip, “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” (John 14:11). Which works was The Lord referring to? Were they the miracles that only The Messiah could perform? Distinguishing phenomena, peculiar to Christ alone? The Messianic miracles were the cleansing of leprosy, the casting out of a dumb spirit & the healing of blindness from birth. Surely, if Jesus performed these miracles they would confirm His identity without a doubt, but as we’ve seen, this was not necessarily the case.

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, a Messianic believer & a formidable Jewish scholar, states the following. “Some time prior to the coming of Yeshua (Jesus), the ancient rabbis separated miracles into two categories. First were those miracles anyone would be able to perform if they were empowered by the Spirit of God to do so. The second category of miracles were called "messianic miracles," which were miracles only the Messiah would be able to perform. Yeshua did miracles in both categories: general miracles and also messianic miracles. So because of the rabbinic teaching that certain miracles would be reserved only for the Messiah to do, whenever He performed a messianic miracle, it created a different type of reaction than when He performed other types of miracles”. He continues, “According to Sanhedrin law, if there was any kind of messianic movement, the Sanhedrin had to investigate the situation in two stages. The first stage was called the "stage of observation." A delegation was formed to investigate only by way of observation. They had to observe: what was being said; what was being done; and what was being taught. They were not permitted to ask any questions or raise any objections. After a period of observation, they were to return to Jerusalem, report to the Sanhedrin and give a verdict: was the movement significant or was the movement insignificant? If the movement was decreed to be insignificant, the matter would be dropped. But if the movement was declared to be significant, there would then be a second stage of investigation called the "stage of interrogation." In this stage, they would interrogate the individual or members of the movement. This time they would ask questions and raise objections to discover whether the claims should be accepted or rejected…...Yeshua had been investigated by the leadership of Israel. He was interrogated and questioned everywhere He went. The leadership learned several things. The crucial thing they realized was that Jesus was simply not going along with Pharisaic Judaism. He was not accepting Pharisaic authority. He was teaching things which contradicted the Pharisaic interpretation of the Mosaic Law. In the Sermon on the Mount, He had repudiated Pharisaism on two counts: First, as a proper interpretation of the righteousness, which the Law of Moses demanded; and second, as the kind of righteousness necessary for entering the Kingdom.”.

Christology: The Doctrine Of Messiah by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum. ‘The Three Messianic Miracles’ copyright © Ariel Ministries.

In this, the leadership had a foolproof litmus test. There was no take-it-or-leave-it. There was no escape clause. There was no toss of a coin. However, despite Jesus meeting their criteria, He was rejected by those who held the reins of power. They had also managed to shoot themselves quite squarely in the foot. Even after they had followed the protocols of observation, examination & interrogation, their hearts were still hardened. It’s no wonder that they lit the touchpaper of The Son of God’s temper & were duly given both barrels by Him with Divine precision. They were told in no uncertain terms what they were & what He thought of them.

This was beyond the Scribes & Pharisees attempting to identify Who Jesus was. The bar had been set historically & The Lord had cleared it spectacularly. So Messiah also sets a bar. “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:28-31). Only an impertinent madman or someone who was right, would dare say such things to leadership. Well, Jesus wasn’t a maniac & He may very well say the same thing of some in His Church today.

The Lord was just warming up. “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,” (Matthew 23:1). He picked a specific audience for this particular piece of business. He speaks to them deliberately & directly. Notice that The Lord does not bother with the Sadducees here. He had shut them up a long time ago. Neither does He address the Zealots, or the Essenes or the Sicarii. He completely ignores them, although there were probably members of these sects listening to Him as He spoke. He did not waste His time with them & He will not waste His time now. Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart (Hebrews 3:15-17).

Brethren do not be content to remain one of a multitude, move closer & become a disciple. Why be one of the many when He is inviting you to be one of the few? Draw ever closer to your Lord & Saviour. This is a more sure way of avoiding the leaven of dogs in the manger.

Jesus continues, “saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:” (vs. 2) His focus is now the Scribes & the Pharisees. Of all of the competing sects, they were the ones who were closest to the truth in their doctrine. They prided themselves on their knowledge of The Scriptures. They worshipped The Law. They loved Moses so much. Yet they publicly rejected their Messiah. The Lord told them, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me….Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:39 & 45-47). Ouch.

¹ Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; ² who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. ³ For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. ⁴ For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. ⁵ And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; (Hebrews 3:1-5).

They sat in the seat of Moses, the place of speaking commandingly & yet when Jesus spoke, “…he taught them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes.” (Matthew 7:29). Whether there was an actual physical seat in The Temple or in The Synagogue is a subject for debate, nevertheless they wielded a certain ecclesiastical power over God’s people, from a position they had insinuated themselves into. If only YHWH had spoken to them mouth to mouth & face to face in friendship, as He had with Moses, in whom they trusted (Exodus 33:11). If only the Pharisees had been as meek as Moses, whom they revered. (Numbers 12:3). If only they had recognised the One like unto Moses, but greater than him, in their midst (Deuteronomy 18:15-18).

The Lord goes further, turning up the temperature. “all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” (vs. 3). At first glance this doesn’t make immediate sense. Do what they say you’re to do, but don’t do what they say. They do not practise what they preach. How did He know this? Because He had seen it for Himself. Every day. Every week. Every month. Every feast. Every festival. Their manifest greed. Their flagrant hypocrisy. Their deliberate legalism. Their obvious leaven. All of this was at the expense of the common people. They were the meat in the bagel. Christ’s yoke is easy. His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). His commandments are not grievous (1^st John 5:3). Jesus had already refuted their doctrine of salvation & shown it to be flagrantly false. It was leaven. Messiah also exhorted his followers, telling them that their righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes & Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). If they had heeded His words to them previously, the truth of what Jesus was saying would have been apparent. “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63 b). Paul told the saints in Corinth, “And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. ” (2^nd Corinthians 3:4-6). Read the entire chapter & you will see that Paul was a believing Messianic Pharisee who understood exactly what Jesus was talking about. Paul was no dog in the manger.

They couldn’t hold a candle to Moshe Rabbenu, yet these peddlers of leaven had the audacity to sit in his seat. Bare faced cheek. I can just imagine them quickly scoffing bacon sandwiches that they’d haggled an unsuspecting Goy out of, behind the Synagogue! Dogs in the manger. They still exist, but let’s not name any names yet, eh. Obey The Torah portion, but realise that everything else the Scribes & Pharisees stood for was window dressing. Jesus knew what they were. He knew what was in Man (John 2:25). On the mount of transfiguration, The Lord probably said to Moses, “…mate, you’re not gonna believe what these jokers are doing in your name!”

Jesus goes further, saying, “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.” (vss. 4-7). This is arrogance of the highest order. This drew The Lord’s ire. Look at me. Look at what I wear. Look at what I drive. Look at where I live. Look at what I earn. I’m getting another Jet. Make sure you give your best seed, “just like that po' widduh put her mites into The Temple trejreh, hallelujah”. (Mark 12:41-44). Well, those guys are probably the best dressed people in hell. Brethren, heed the words of Christ. They wanted to be seen of men. They had their reward. But Jesus wasn’t finished. What he says next is a quintessential masterclass in the castigation & rebuke of a cynical, contemptuous & cruel culture. What they had done with The Law & subsequently to God’s people brought judgement to their doorstep. However, before I proceed any further, let me encourage us all to err on the side of caution.

I remember staying with one of my Aunts when I was a child. My mother had flown to The West Indies to see my grandmother & had left me & my older brother in London. She was just as strict as my mum & one afternoon one of my cousins had done something bad enough to warrant a punishment. My Aunt’s husband gave my cousin such a sound thrashing that afterwards there was complete silence. I’m sure that pins were nervous about being dropped! The fear in the atmosphere was tangible because rest of us all knew that if we put a foot wrong, we would suffer the same fate. We made double sure that we didn’t put a foot wrong.

Hebrews tells us, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (Hebrews 12:9-11). The judgement of God should inspire a godly fear.

The Lord will judge without favouritism or partiality. Proverbs tells us “…he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” & “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.” (Proverbs 17:5 b & 24:17-18). The same thing can & will happen to you or me, if we commit the same or other sins.

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 (Matthew 23:13). 

The Lord shifts from addressing the multitude & His disciples. The Scribes & the Pharisees are now in His crosshairs. Jesus identifies them here as dogs in the manger. They have no place in The Kingdom & stand in the way of others who want to enter it, but they had no ability or real authority to do this. In essence, they are inadvertently usurping the place of Messiah. This is antichrist. The term does not only mean against Christ. It also means in the place of Christ. Paul tells us this, speaking of the coming pseudo messiah, “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2^nd Thessalonians 2:4). Jesus tells The Church in Philadelphia, “…These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it:…” (Revelation 3:7). Only The Messiah can do this. These men had clearly forgotten their history. A history that birthed their fraternity. Antiochus Epiphanes’ prohibitions & desecrations meant that God’s people could not worship YHWH. He had Torah scrolls burned. Erected an idol in The Temple. Slaughtered a pig on the altar. Although the Scribes & Pharisees didn’t commit the same acts, they stood in the way of God’s people with the same arrogant impunity as if they had the power to dictate & control access to the things of God.

The Apostle John encountered this problem. “ I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.” (3^rd John 9-10). The Pharisees were fond of the threat to put people out of the Synagogue, from their uppermost position. They too loved the preeminence of their chief seats. But they were not the door of the sheep; Messiah was. There are those today who believe that they can arbitrate the salvation of others, but they too are dogs in the manger. They shut up entrance to The Kingdom for others, but they are not going in themselves.

¹⁴ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation (Matthew 23:14). 

“Jesus used these statements to criticize the negative attitude of the scribes against widows. Moreover, scribes received payment for legal aid to widows, even though such payment was forbidden. Additionally, scribes collected large sums of money from credulous old women as a reward from prolonged prayer that they professed to make on women’s behalf.”

“Widowhood Care and Empowerment.” Millicent Yeboah Asuamah

When we consider the multiplied admonitions concerning widows, orphans, strangers & the oppressed in The Scriptures, how was it possible that the Scribes & Pharisees took it upon themselves not only to commit these heinous sins, but then they also sought to justify them with feigned piety? I’ll tell you how; because “…they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.” (Isaiah 56:11). It takes an unconscionable lack of conscience, an unimaginable degree of cynicism & untold quantities of leaven to do this. Jesus condemns them to hell for it. These vulnerable women trusted  these men with everything they had.

“To make matters worse, some of them had their houses devoured. Barnes Commentary says the term houses in Bible Times, referred to any property or possession of any kind. Therefore, to devour widows’ houses meant ‘property grabbing’ from widows using trickery. Scribes and Pharisees swindled widows in two ways. First, they “pretended to promote extraordinary justice toward the poor, friendship for the distressed, and willingness to aid those who were in embarrassed circumstances. They thus induced widows and poor people to commit the management of their property to them as guardians and executors, and then took advantage of them and defrauded them.” Second, “they put on the appearance of great sanctity and induced many honest but naive women to give them much, under the pretence of devoting it to religious purposes” (Barnes Commentary). Matthew’s Poole’s Commentary adds that by “virtue of their ecclesiastical power or influence, Scribes and Pharisees persuaded silly women to give them their estates, or at least to give them a great part of them, to the service of the tabernacle, that they might pray for their souls.”

“Taking advantage of the poor in the name of God for financial gain”. Dr. Kennedy Musonda, Ph.D

Does any of this sound familiar? I have seen it with my own eyes & heard it with my own ears. Give & it shall be given unto you. Leaven. Give sacrificially. Leaven. Give until it hurts. Leaven. Give into The Kingdom & God will pour you out a blessing. Leaven. They are willing to take the shirt off your back. Leaven. Jesus illustrates this in His commentary on the Widow giving into The Temple treasury. “for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” (Luke 21:4). They knew she was poor. They knew it was all she had. They knew they had ripped her off. But they still took the very last pennies she had. This is disgusting.

The Lord wasn’t endorsing their system. He was condemning it, not commending it. There, there, God bless you as you give & hurry up, we need to get to the Mercedes showroom before they close. In order to accomplish this they had wriggled around The Law & no marvel, because a snake never moves in a straight line. Straight to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200.00 from your local widow.

¹⁵ 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 (Matthew 23:15).

This is an illustration of what plagues much of The Church in modern times. False conversions. Jesus spoke of making disciples, not converts. There is a stark difference between the two. Discipleship to Christ embraces the One to whom we are discipled. Conversion embraces a system, principle or methodology. Discipleship to Christ involves salvation. Conversion involves slavery. Discipleship to Christ accepts what He has done & enables a transformed life. Conversion bows under the yoke of doing & produces a distorted religiosity.

Albert Barnes writes in his commentary [that] “Among the Jews there were two kinds of proselytes: 1. “Proselytes of righteousness,” or those who wholly and fully embraced the Jewish religion, who were baptized, who were circumcised, and who conformed to all the rites of the Mosaic institutions. 2. “Proselytes of the gate,” or those who approved of the Jewish religion, renounced the pagan superstitions, and conformed to some of the rites of the Jews, but were not circumcised or baptized. Barnes continues. ‘Twofold more the child of hell’ – That is, twice as bad. To be a child of hell was a Hebrew phrase, signifying to be deserving of hell, to be awfully wicked. The Jewish writers themselves say that the proselytes were “scabs of Israel,” and “hindered the coming of the Messiah” by their great wickedness. The Pharisees gained them either to swell their own numbers, or to make gain by extorting their money under various pretences; and when they had accomplished that, they took no pains to instruct them or to restrain them. They had renounced their superstition which had before somewhat restrained them, but the Pharisees had given them no religion in its place to restrain them, and they were consequently left to the full indulgence of their vices.”

Albert Barnes Notes on the Bible.

Conversion per se, requires no conviction of sin. Remember the words of Gershom Bader concerning the Pharisees in his work ‘The Jewish Spiritual Heroes’, where he states [that] “Any person could join if he promised, in the presence of three members, to observe the rules of the organization which concentrated on cleanliness and ablutions.”. So it remains. Raise a hand. Walk to the front. Repeat a simple prayer. Go your way. Live in any manner you like. Eat up the false doctrine you’re fed, which is laced with leaven. As long as you obey their rules, you’re one of them & if they are destined for hell, you are in mortal danger of incurring the same penalty. Paul told Corinth & us by extension [to] “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: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

¹⁶ Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! ¹⁷ Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? ¹⁸ And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. ¹⁹ Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? ²⁰ Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. ²¹ And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. ²² And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. (Matthew 23:16-22).

The Pharisees in their wheeling & dealing had developed a system of circumnavigating the binding nature of oaths. If you swore by The Temple, it wasn’t binding. It’s just a building. However, if you swore by the gold of The Temple, that was a different matter & you were obligated. They used the same principle with regards to The Altar & the sacrifices placed on it. Their logic dictated that the closer the oath was to YHWH, the more legitimate the obligation. Lesser vows could be broken without consequence. Messiah obliterates them.

During His sermon on the mount He instructs His followers [to] “…Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” (Matthew 5:34-37).

It's obvious that The Pharisees chose to ignore the words of Solomon, where he gives a poignant warning saying, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-6).

Matthew Henry says the following. “They distinguished between an oath in the temple and an oath by the gold of the temple; an oath by the altar and an oath by the gift upon the altar, making the latter binding, but not the former. Here was a double wickedness. First, That there were some oaths which they dispensed with, and made light of, and reckoned a man was not bound by to assert the truth, or perform a promise. They ought not to have sworn by the temple or the altar, but when they had so sworn, they were taken in the words of their mouth. That doctrine cannot be of God of truth which gives countenance to the breach of faith in any case whatsoever. Oaths are edge-tools and are not to be jested with. Secondly, That they preferred the gold before the temple, and the gift before the altar, to encourage people to bring gifts to the altar, and gold to the treasures of the temple, which they hoped to be gainers by.”

Matthew Henry. Commentary on the whole Bible.

They were dictating what was holy & what was not. Leaven. False doctrine. These men were dogs in the manger.

²³ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. ²⁴ Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel ²⁵ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. ²⁶ Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.  ²⁷ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. ²⁹ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. ³¹ Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. ³² Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. ³³ Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? (Matthew 23:23-33).

To exercise righteous judgement & justice, to show mercy & be faithful are more important than tithing meticulously. Yet the Pharisees emphasised the minor details of weighing their herbs & spices over & above their obligations to their fellow man, which is more substantial. It’s interesting to note that both Gnats & Camels were unclean to Jews. These men were willing to attend to certain unclean things in order to maintain their image, while they completely ignored & refused to address larger matters that defile. As long at the small outward appearance is being kept up, it was ok to allow larger issues that were not kosher. Leaven. “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”. (Matthew 15:9). The tombs looked gorgeous when they were white-washed & decorated, yet inside each one was a dead body. A decomposing corpse. Rotting flesh. Jesus likens the Pharisees & their doctrine to this.

The Lord holds them guilty of spilling the blood of righteous men who had come to Israel historically, because they identify with the murderers, calling them ‘..our fathers..’. Fine. They can bear the same judgement as those they align themselves with. Jesus names Abel as the 1^st martyr & 1^st type of Christ through to Zacheriah (vs. 35). That’s a lot of bloodshed. How shall they escape the damnation of hell? They didn’t. Messiah said so. They bar entry to The Kingdom for others & they were not entering themselves. Dogs in the manger.

I began this series knowing full well that I would have to admit some uncomfortable truths before I had finished. Well, Scripture tells me “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world”. (1^st Corinthians 11:31-32). I have had to judge myself in these matters. As I sit here in the comfort of my home with a cuppa & some custard creams, it’s easy for me to say, “I would never have been like any of those guys that Jesus came down so hard on”, but if I’m honest with you, I know that isn’t true.

I wouldn’t have been a Sadducee, because the supernatural is evidenced throughout The Pentateuch, as are angels. I wholeheartedly believe in these things. They did not. Their particular brand of leaven would not have appealed to me. Perhaps the Zealots would have been a more attractive proposition, apart from the fact that planning the violent overthrow of the government has consequences that I shy away from. What about the Essenes? Well, my flesh likes its creature comforts. I wouldn’t last very long out in the wilderness, without Yorkshire Tea or WiFi.

There is also the case of the Sicarii, Israel’s self-appointed assassins. Murder isn’t something that I could bring myself to commit, even though my profession involved knives & I have often been angry with others without just cause. This leaves the Pharisees. Am I zealous? I like to think so. Do I love God’s Word? Yes, I do. Am I legalistic? I am with myself, but I try not to be with others. Have I ever been condescending, judgemental, superior, hypocritical, sanctimonious, self-righteous, smug, pious, unloving, yadah, yadah, yadah? To my shame I have to admit that I have & that on more than one occasion The Lord has pulled me up about these qualities & more besides. As much as I would like to think that I wouldn’t have been called out by Christ, the truth is that He would have. However, He knows two things about me. First, He knows my weaknesses & failings, my sinfulness & stupidity. Second, He knows that I know He is my Messiah, Lord & Saviour. The only hope of these tendencies being removed from my character, is a constant fellowship with Him. There is no point in attempting to justify my position. I have to repent. As I have often said before, will say now & will doubtless say again in future; it is better for us to say, ‘woe is me’, than it is to have Him say, ‘woe to you’.

 

End of Part Four

 

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