Author	Thread: Paul's Teaching On the Religion of the Pharisees
Admin	Paul's Teaching On the Religion of the Pharisees Posted : 21 Jul, 2011 01:24 PM Paul's Teaching On the Religion of the Pharisees In Philippians 3: 2-9 Paul tells us that "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. 3. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: 5. Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:" I quoted more than verse 5-8, where Paul says he was a Pharisee but he counts this as garbage, though he uses a more explicit word for his attitude toward being a Pharisee - following his dramatic conversion in his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Domascus. He teaches a lot more in these verses than that he counts his being a Pharisee as manure. Christ says directly to the Pharisees in John 8: 44 "Ye are of your father the devil..." The dispensationalists, some groups in Messianic Judaism, the Hebrew Roots people and the Sacred Namers may say they believe this scripture or other New testament texts that do not support their beliefs, but then they will not apply it and other New Testament texts to their own doctrines. They may be double minded (James 1:8) But the religion of the Pharisees didn't end at the Cross. It has continued on to the present time. On http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/chapt01.html they say "the missing link in Christian understanding on the subject of "Pharisees" is best supplied by the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943): The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single piece of that literature � and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism. Concerning the Pharisees, the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia says: With the destruction of the Temple (70 A.D.) the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition (Abot 1:1). Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future." "Rabbi Louis Finklestein was chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas (Jewish communities) of the World as one of the top 120 Jews best representing "a lamp of Judaism" to the World...In his two-volume work "The Pharisees." Rabbi Finklestein writes: Pharasaism became Talmudism � But the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the Jew � studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies. From Palestine to Babylonia; from Babylonia to North Africa, Italy. Spain, France and Germany; from these to Poland. Russia and Eastern Europe generally, ancient Pharasaism has wandered." "In Rabbi Finklestein's history of the Jews, he states: The Talmud derives its authority from the position held by the ancient academies. (i.e. Pharisee) The teachers of those academies, both of Babylonia and of Palestine. were considered the rightful successors of the older Sanhedrin . . . At the present time, the Jewish people have no living central authority comparable in status to the ancient Sanhedrins or the later academies. Therefore, any decision regarding the Jewish religion must be based on the Talmud as the final resum� of the teaching of those authorities when they existed. [page 2] (The Jews � Their History, Culture, and Religion , Vol. 4, p. 1332, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1949). " "Note the Foreword to the first English translation of the Babylonian Talmud by the late Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, J.H. Hertz, who, like Rabbi Finklestein, was one of the 120 Jews chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas of the World as best holding up the "lamp of Judaism:" The beginnings of Talmudic literature date back to the time of the Babylonian Exile in the Sixth pre-Christian Century � When a thousand years later, the Babylonian Talmud assumed final codified form in the year 500 after the Christian era, the Roman Western Empire had ceased to be." In Christ's time the Pharisees were the leaders of most of the Jews. There were a small number of Jews who were faithful to the Lord, such as the two mentioned in Luke 2: 25 and 2: 36, Simeon and Anna, and others. In modern times, as the sources quoted above say, Talmudic Judaism is derived from the religion of the Pharisees of the First Century. The religion of Judaism presents the Old Covenant moral and ceremonial laws as its own - but sees these through its theology derived from the Babylonian Talmud. Talmudic Judaism is fundamentally based upon the bloodline. This is an interpretation of Genesis 13: 16, Exodus 32: 13, and Numbers 23: 10. Genesis 17 presents the promises of God to Abraham that he and Sarah will have a child, Isaac, even though she was too old to have children. "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." Paul says in Romans 9:8 "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Now wait a minute Paul, I thought God promised Abraham he would be the God of all of Abraham's seed. Yes God did promise he would be a God to the seed of Abraham. Paul is subtle in explaining that Abraham's seed became his spiritual seed after the Cross. Paul says in Galatians 4; 28-29, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." We, born again Christians are the spiritual children of the promise to Abraham, and as Paul says the physical seed of Abraham, those born after the flesh, persecute the spiritual seed. That happened in the First Century when the persecution of Christians was first carried out by physical Israelites, before the secular authorities began to persecute Christians. In Galatians 3: 28-29 Paul teaches "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Those who are in Christ Jesus, Jew or Gentile, are Abraham's seed, though after the Cross being a physical descendant of Abraham no longer made a person a child of God. One had to be reborn again, whether Jew of Gentile (John 3: 3), to become a child of God. Nicodemus was a physical descendant of Abraham, a physical Israelite, yet Christ told him he had to be born again (of the Spirit) to enter the kingdom of God (John 3: 5). Even Pope Pius X is said to have told Theodore Herzl, the father of Zionism, that "As the head of the Church, I cannot answer you otherwise: the Jews have not recognized the Lord; therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people." (Sergio I.Minerbi, The Vatican and Zionism, 1990, p.100). Christians recognize the Jewish people as people who have a right to the same things as non-Jews; but Christians do not recognize them as the chosen people of God. It is false to equate Talmudic Judaism with that Old Testament Israel who were faithful to God, and it is very wrong for contemporary movements like some groups in Messianic Judaism, Hebrew Roots, and Sacred Name theology to try to teach Christians to embrace aspects of the Old Covenant in order to please God. In fact, Matthew 15: 1-2, 9 says "Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread....But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Many of the "commandments of men" came out of the Babylonian Talmud, which was oral tradition at the time of Christ, though the tradition was written down later. In John 5: 46-47 Jesus tells the Pharisees who claimed to sit in the seat of Moses, and that their Talmudic oral traditions came from Moses, that "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?" Post Reply
View Profile History	Paul's Teaching On the Religion of the Pharisees Posted : 21 Jul, 2011 08:29 PM Dude, you love to write - lol I will say this, there are folks who have committed the unforgivable sin...they are very, very bad people and the "the thief" runs their lives...you know. Look sometime at Cher's life, Picasso's life, hey, even "the Pope", whats up with that guy.... michael Post Reply
shalom716 View Profile History	Paul's Teaching On the Religion of the Pharisees Posted : 22 Jul, 2011 04:07 AM IMPRESSIVE! :applause: What about Ten Commandments? Post Reply
shalom716 View Profile History	Paul's Teaching On the Religion of the Pharisees Posted : 22 Jul, 2011 05:39 AM Christians insist that "Jesus abolished the law" and that all one has to do today is to "believe in Jesus." Hardly any of them realize that, what Yeshua attempted to "do away with" was not the Father's divine instructions, but the rabbinical, man-made "stuff". Even Paul verified this when he said: Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (Romans 3:31). You will find Yahweh's original commandments sprinkled throughout Torah in places like Genesis 26:2-5; Exodus 15:25-27, 16, 20:6; Leviticus 22, 26, 27; Numbers 15 and 36; and Deuteronomy 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31. God said His Torah would stand FOREVER (2 Chronicles 7:14-22), and that's why we are to do our best to try to discern His "do's" and "don't's" because they are all for good reason. Most Christians seem to think Torah was abolished, which is a major misunderstanding because Torah is God's blueprint for moral behavior! Why would that have been abolished on the cross? Matthew 5: 17 Don't think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. 18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah - not until everything that must happen has happened. 19 So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot (words/commands) and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P'rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Has everything happened that must happen? Have heaven and earth passed away yet? Yeshua even said He didn't come to abolish but to complete/fulfill. That did not mean "put an end to"... Rev. 12:17 - "The dragon was infuriated over the woman and went off to fight the rest of her children, those who obey God's commands and bear witness to Yeshua.":bow: Rev. 14:12 - "This is when perseverance is needed on the part of God's people, those who observe his commands and exercise Yeshua's faithfulness.":bow: Some versions use "saint" as opposed to "God's people." But who exactly is a "saint"? Certainly not someone who refuses to be Torah observant! Without Torah we have no blueprint for moral, godly behavior (as is amply evident in our fallen world, including throughout the various churches.) Who are those who obey God's commandments? They are the Jews and Messianic believers. Who are those who hold to the testimony of Jesus and remain faithful to Him? The Messianic Believers! Jews don't believe in Yeshua and Christians don't believe in being Torah observant, and therefore don't adhere to the commandments/Torah. Both Jews and Christians are missing "the rest of the story"... http://www.therefinersfire.org/torah_rules1.htm Post Reply
View Profile History	Paul's Teaching On the Religion of the Pharisees Posted : 22 Jul, 2011 07:34 AM The dialectic sidesteps the main points made by someone, that is, the thesis. It then tries to compromise the thesis by coming into it from the side, often somewhat misrepresenting the thesis, or badly misrepresenting it. Don't do the dialectic. Its a way of debating that the Pharisees tried to use on Christ. But he stuck to the didactic. "It is written." The dialectic was brought into Western culture, first in the universities as part of philosophy and Marxist theory, and later into the broader culture as part of the system which says that since there is no God, everything is permitted. Under the dialectic system, there are is no absolute truth and no absolute morality. This system was brought in by Hegel, Marx and in a way also by Freud. Then in the forties and fifties the dialectic was used in the group dynamics movement. After that, in the sixties and seventies it became a deceptive attitude change procedure in the encounter group movement, which popularized it. Now almost all political, intellectual, religious, and other communication or debate is dialectic in nature. Very few Christians ever claimed that Christ abolished morality in the Old Testament. Morality may not now be taught very much in the churches, but their basic theology does not say that Christ abolished the righteousness of God given to man to live by. Christ on the Cross fulfilled and did away with the teaching that a person becomes a child of God by being part of the bloodline from Abraham. The claim that those who have the blood of Abraham are a special people of God became false, and a part of legalism, after the Cross. The belief that one is saved by obeying the moral law was done away with. The system of animal sacrifice was abolished. Circumcision was abolished. The physical Temple as a literal building was done away with. The righteousness of God given to man as a way of life was not done away with but fulfilled in Christ by his giving of the Holy Spirit, who was not fully revealed in the Old Testament, though there are references to him, as in Zechariah 4:6. In one who is born again, the Holy Spirit enters into his mind and heart and inspires him to want to know the truth to want to obey Christ in his moral commandments, and when he messes up, Christ's blood forgives him. This did away with legalism. Since the righteousness of God was not done away with, what Exodus says against abortion (Exodus 21: 22) and usury (Exodus 22: 25) , for example, apply to Christians, though it is probably a rare event to hear a preacher preach against usury, because that goes against his boss, the IRS of the feds, under whom his church corporation is incorporated. The first beast of Revelation 13, the government can be seen as including the money power which maintains itsself by usury. Usury is making money on interest from loans. I have never heard a Christian authority of any kind say the Ten Commandments were abolished under the New Covenant. Post Reply