Denouncing Pharisees by Carol Wolman

Denouncing Pharisees by Carol Wolman

John 17   ⁴I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.

 

Jesus lived at a time similar to ours.  An empire was oppressing the people, and their governing representatives, the Pharisees, pretended to a hollow piety, which they imposed on the people as a theocracy. 

 

Much of the work Jesus did consisted of denouncing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  Like the radical religious right today, they turned people off to religion altogether.

 

Matthew 23:13  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.

 

He warned people about their false doctrines.

 

Matthew 16:11-12  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.

 

It was because of these constant challenges to their spiritual authority that He was crucified.

 

Matthew 12:14  Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.

 

Many of us today have similar work.  Denouncing the hypocritical piety of the rulers of today is just as important as denouncing their political lies and their violations of international law.  They represent the corporate empire of arms makers (the beast), while pretending that they have a divine right to rule.  They seek to derive their authority from God, just as the Pharisees did.  In so doing, they have turned many  decent people away from God altogether.

 

Their preachers teach the false doctrine of the rapture, which, by fixating the eyes of the people on some mythical heaven, distracts them from the evil deeds of the rulers here on earth.

For an excellent discussion of this mechanism, see:

 

America's Religious Right - Saints or Subversives?
    By Steve Weissman     t r u t h o u t | Investigation    Part IV: Pie in the Sky

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050905A.shtml

 

Progressives value religious tolerance, and are reluctant to denounce anyone else's beliefs.  Yet the beliefs of the radical religious right would subject us all to religious tyranny.  Taken a step further, the rapture cult condemns us all to a fiery hell on earth, except, of course, for the true believers.  This dangerous, pernicious doctrine must be denounced, along with the false prophets who uphold it, and the Pharisees who profit by it.

 

If it means following Jesus to the cross, let our love for our descendants guide us, as His love for us guided Him.

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace,  Carol Wolman