Freeing the Church from Pharisee Influence

Jayson D. Bradley

The Pharisees meant well—they truly did. And yet, they struggled against Christ at nearly every step.

And while there were Pharisees, like Nicodemus, who sincerely desired to understand Jesus, he still publicly called them out over their practices and blind spots.

The warning he gave to us was to be on our guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Saducees. Because:

• Their behavior is an occupational hazard for any child of God
• Like leaven, it only takes a little bit to affect an entire loaf of bread

Here are some areas we need to be on guard against:

The Pharisees separated themselves from disreputable people.
Jesus intentionally sought them out.

For the Pharisees, purity was about separating yourself from impure things like non kosher food and notorious people. When Jesus’ feet are being washed by the immodest women in Luke 7, Simon suggests that Jesus isn’t really a prophet. If he…

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Remnants of Genesis: Day 6

Here is the final piece of our walk through the days of creation.   Day 6:  The day in which God creates man and animals. Here is another place where Christians can infer the evolutionary process into the creation account: “And God said, ‘Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds’” (1:24). But the …

Remnants of Genesis: Part 6

  Day 5: God decides to begin His population of the earth with fish and birds. Again, this is not very mythic. It would seem likely, if written by man, that God would begin with the creation of man first, then the animals. Here, evolutionary Christians would note the implication of Genesis 1:20-21, which reads …