Fellow Christians: Have you ever met a Pharisaical Christian?

Question

You know, a Legalist.

Are you one?

Who here thinks that other people are worse sinners than you are?

Lone Ranger,
You and I have been at it before. I am a Christian with plenty of experience and confidence. I believe that there is no one on Y!A more Pharisaical than you.

Answer 1

Before answering the question, I'd want you to define your terms. Most Christians who ask questions about the law and legalism are using a definition of those words that is not Biblical, is not from Hebrew (the language most of the Bible was written in), and was potentially translated with the intention of isolating readers away from the Jews that they hated. The result is people debating words they don't know the meaning of.

I have never been in a church that did not define "Torah" as "law." Torah is an ancient Hebrew word, but no one wants to know what the Hebrew-speaking people think it means in English. It is not "law."

Before you can have a "legalist," you must have a law. I'm not here to teach anyone, as I'm a lifetime student of the Word myself, but I do know that a better translation of Torah would be "instruction." There are others, but never "law."

For Christians who are interested in what the people who wrote the Bible words meant by them, I'll attach a link that is useful, but a bare beginning into studying the subject.

Before going down this "legalist" path, I would recommend the short readings:

"Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel: a Message for Christians," by David H. Stern, Master of Divinity, PhD Princeton;

"Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus," by David Bivin 7 Roy Blizzard, Jr.;

"New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus, Insights from His Jewish Context," by David Bivin;

"They Loved the Torah, What Yeshua's First Followers Really Thought About the Law," by David Friedman, PhD.

These battles are completely without fruit, if the parties don't have the same or correct vocabulary. Unless you drop the definitions you learned in church, remember that Yeshua is a Jew, the apostles were Jews, their congregation was Jewish, and the authors of the books of the Bible were Hebrew-speaking Jews, you will be arguing without speaking the same language.

The Bible is one book, not two. There is not a single writer in the New Testament that does not constantly talk about the Old, and not one of them says, "Throw it alway. It's useless now." They say the exact opposite over and over.

One last question we all need to ask ourselves? When Yeshua (Jesus) walked the Earth, what book did He use as Holy Scripture? There were no Gospels, no letters from Paul. He used what we call the Old Testament in Hebrew, and He said he upheld every word of it. Does anybody really think that on the cross, he meant to say: "Everything I've done in my life is now nailed to the cross. Please ignore it."

Answer 2

well, I do know that there is a long history of countries that are Christian majority persecuting Jews.Jews have also been persecuted by Islamic countries and secular countries. As far as personally, have I ever met a Christian who hates Jews? Hate is a strong word, I have never met a Christian who actually hated Jews, I have met a few who buy into some of the stereo types so much that it leads to an overall negative view of Jews.Most Christian respect Jews, and agree to disagree on most theological points, but the respect remains.

Answer 3

How long will you continue your judgemental God rejecting way of life?
Do you accept the Bible as the word of God? Given some of your past Q&A's you really need to think about your current question.

Ecclesasties 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Sounds like God inspired "leagalism" to be taught here doesn't it?

1Corinthians 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

Hmm, those pesky commandments again.....

1John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments...

****This next verse is the biggie!!***

4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Hmm, more legalism commanded.... how do YOU measure up? Is this verse going to give Christ the grounds to label you a LIAR?

Just so you know, I do not consider my sins any better or worse than anyone else's sin. All of us have different things to overcome, doesn't make any of us any better or worse than the rest of us. The penalty for all sin not repented of and forgiven is the same: Romans 6:23.

However, antinomianism is a rejection of grace. If you are an antinomian then there is no reason FOR you to have grace because you will have no sin. Hence, you have no need for a Savior.

Edit: Tuberoot, we have answered some of the same questions and you have answered some of mine. We have not, to my knowledge, "Been at it".
What you have concieved in your own warped mind, is not my problem. However, in attempting to label me, you are showing your true colors and are no Christain at all. The bottom line of the whole Bible is that we either obey God or die. Seems like you have chosen death. Let me give you one more scripture to consider, not that I think you even read or understand the scriptures, but it absolutely leaves you with no excuse when it is your time to stand before the Almighty.

Matthew 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Answer 4

I've met Pharisaical Christians all too many times...sad thing is, I've played the part myself on many occasions. Here's a little gem which has helped me:

Don't follow the sheep. Follow the Shepherd.

Answer 5

No one is a worse sinner than another, but there are some who think that it's ok to KEEP SINNING even though they are supposed to repent and NOT REPEAT the sin! There IS a difference!

People who know what their sins are as they are doing them, but totally disregard the fact that the sins they commit are against God....and then NOT REPENT of them is not right.

I am a sinner...openly and honestly, but I don't KEEP REPEATING the same sin over and over again! I repent of my sins...because I know that it is displeasing to God.

As Christians, that is how we ALL should live, HE died for us...why not live entirely for HIM, or at least give it all we've got to do so?

Answer 6

None of us are perfect. Hopefully with the help of the Holy Spirit showing us our own imperfections as we stand piously pointing out others theirs we learn from our mistakes. Here is the problem. There are others who claim to have the Holy Spirit but have allot of bible knowledge. These are dangerous people because they are the ones who lead others astray or just hurt them badly enough to not want anything to do with Christianity.

A Christian with the Holy Spirit is always learning, repenting, and growing. A person without the Holy Spirit is a fanatic who just has a religion and sees himself as better than everyone else. Always pointing out others imperfections to make themselves look even more perfect.

Answer 7

My cousins were oneness pentecoastal "Paulists"

ya know the drill, no cutting hair, no wearing pants, no makeup, tv, etc

The youngest, she was 3 at the time; I was 15 told me I was going to hell for wearing lipstick..oy vey! It was a rough decade; they slowly got away from the legalism moving toward AOG first, then unfortunately fallen away; every single one of them. Found out my wife's cousin had been addicted to prescription drugs and was cheating on him with 2 deacons at the church, etc etc etc their entire marriage. They finally divorced and she last count was selling sex for heroin. It was sad because they were so impassioned, really seemed to walk their walk; knew their bible backwards and forwards; but in retrospect, I believe they were fed a false gospel if you ask me. This is worse than no gospel in my opinion. Sad story. I forgot how much I hate to think about what happened to them.

Answer 8

We never think we are one!

I have met some that simply will not engage in debate or discussion. I don't mind someone who has an opinion on something, but someone who won't engage anyone on that topic or issue seems to be beyond communication in any relevant way.

Ath

Answer 9

So what should we do? Run rampant, sinning, disobeying God's laws, all while claiming to be his children?

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his nae, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God" John 1:12

"No one who is born of God will continue to sin" 1st John 3:9

Are you born of God? I'm not. I sin, and I will not use the grace of God to try to hide my sins. God knows who I am, saying I am a Christian will not fool him. I will have to stand accountable for all my sins. Merely hiding, calling myself a Christian, saying God loves me anyway will not fool him into thinking I have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit. We need sanctification by the Holy Spirit; we need to be set apart from sin to be children of God. Christ forgives people of sins, but it is all for nothing if you continue sinning. We do not have a license to commit sins. The grace of God does not give us permission to be immoral. To the contrary the grace of God obliges us to strive for perfection, to flee from all sin.

Answer 10

Yes. I find that funamentalist Christians(most of them Protestant, but, a few Catholic, also)are Pharisaical.