Dear Brother, you are confusing the history of redemption with the application of it.
Thank you so much,
@Eyedoc84 , for the correction. I know you are right. And I know you, too,
@MW are right.
I even knew I was incorrect in the absolute sense, even as I wrote. I shouldn't forget you either,
@TylerRay . You three and anybody else I neglected to mention were forthright, clear, and kind in everything you said. I loved the work of Dr. Jones so much that I have a soft spot in my heart for Him. My mistake was letting it into my head as well. As I wrote, I knew I was trying to squeeze honey from a stone, but I did it anyway.
I offer no excuse except to say that I have such a burden for this sad time of the Church that seems often so shallow no matter how deep the knowledge of God is in our heads. I also know that to swerve at all from what is written–"have[ing] heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21), I would soon lose the joy of knowing Him too. My
adagio is, "Knowledge
about God if it does not lead to
knowing God, is in vain." The twofold danger, on the one hand, is, at best, a shallow, unsatisfying Christian experience. At worst, it can turn you into what Michael Reeves calls an
Evangelical Pharisee.
So, back to me for a moment.
I was wrong in what I said, and I repent and thank you, my faithful brothers, for a much-needed correction.
–Psalm 141:5 KJV
~~~~~~~
Following is part of a post on mine from last September when I first read Dr. Reeves's book.
I think Jesus showed us how sinister and dark self-righteousness is when he said to the disciples something he said about no other group in the world. He told them not even to be afraid of those that kill the body. But of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, he said,
Matthew 16:6-12 KJV
[6] Then Jesus said unto them,
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
[7] And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
[8] Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
[9] Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
[10] Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
[11] 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?
[12]
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.
As God is my judge, there is no name or a face on my mind in what I say next. However, it seems that Jesus considered nothing more dangerous than self-righteousness in religion. And nothing more addictive. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be nice to them, either. They are hypocrites and don't even know it themselves.
These super Christians we all admire often are not even believers themselves -- they are themselves dead and deadly.
There's a great book by Welsh Theologian pastor and lover of Jesus named Michael Reeves entitled,
These are the opening sentences of the book:
Beware of the Leaven What is the most urgent need of the church today? Better leadership? Better training? Healthier giving? Orthodoxy? Moral integrity? Each of these is undoubtedly needed, but underneath them all lies something even more vital: gospel integrity. In Luke 12, when thousands had gathered together to hear Jesus, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (v. 1). That might have been unsurprising had he been warning the people as a whole, but he said it to his disciples first, to those who had already left all and followed him. Clearly, hypocrisy—a lack of integrity in both head and heart—was a danger even for them. Matthew records Jesus saying to his disciples, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matt. 16:6). Seeing this, J. C. Ryle commented that Christ “foresaw that the two great plagues of His Church upon earth would always be the doctrine of the Pharisees and the doctrine of the Sadducees.”1 So it is not that Pharisaism was the only threat to the church that Jesus foresaw, but it was perhaps the primary one. Pharisaism, after all, is the sort of heartless formal religion that marks the first subtle step in the spiritual decline of a church before it ever slides into outright apostasy. It is the perpetual internal menace we can overlook as we dissect and bemoan the failure of others.