PhariseeChurch.com

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say,

‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets.Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

(Matthew 23. 29-31, 34-38)

THE PHARISEE CHURCH

• Pharisaism was the dominant religious denomination of Jesus' day. Pharisees were deeply religious people, committed to trying to please God and to live righteous lives.
• Sounds good?
• It does, except that the Pharisees hated Jesus, and Jesus had scarcely a good word to say about them!
• This is the paradox that we will exploring as this (very new) website takes shape over the coming weeks and months.

THE PHARISEE PRINCIPLE

Simply this, that pharisaism was not a one-off, confined to the first century AD when Jesus lived. It is an ongoing principle that started with Cain and Abel and runs through the whole of history and is alive and active in the present day.