“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7)
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” (Matt. 23:13)
John the Baptist was not fond of the religious leaders of the day in Israel to say the least, neither was Christ, Peter and at least some of the other apostles made that quite clear to them also, and although John 10:18 is quite clear, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” all of them and more were killed by those who had taken over the religious system of their day for themselves.
Saul, whose name was changed to Paul was on his way to Damascus to do the same to those who followed the way when the Lord Jesus Christ chose him as a vessel for His use, but not toward his tribe, not toward his nation. Gentiles, all those who were not of the seed of the flesh of Abraham were not concerned with being cast out of the Temple, they were not raised to be concerned with or follow the Laws given to Moses, the Sabbath was not for them, the Ten Commandments were not placed upon them, but for some strange reason today far too many who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have decided that by following that which was never set before them, the Law, they are pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, but you will have difficulty finding many who will stand against the Pharisees of today.
Any religious organization that claims that the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was not sufficient for the salvation of a man’s soul, that faith in Him alone and His sacrifice was not enough, that we must do something, must add something to it is an antichrist organization. People have died for this truth.
“As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:9) A stern enough message that it was repeated twice in the Scriptures, but not only have the Gentiles decided to attempt to follow laws never given to them, but they have made up a myriad of new ones they are told to and believe they must follow to prove their salvation. But today it is as if there is no fire in the belly of those who have been saved by the grace of God, that those who have been born again have no fervent desire to say to those false religious leaders, “You generation of vipers!”
The Roman Catholic cult, Mormonism, those who follow Muhamad, church sponsored religions in China, the thousands of gods of India, the thousands of different religious organizations across the planet, stand up to them with the truths of the Scriptures and persecution will come your way.
Consider this, if you believe that a pacifistic way is the way to reach them, those that are in the highest positions of authority in these cults, why did not the Lord do so? Why, if He called those leaders hypocrites, why if He told them that they were as dead men’s bones inside whited sepulchers do you not do the same? I thought you wanted to be Christlike. Where is your righteous indignation towards them that are leading millions to hell, as many who profess they desire to be conformed into the image of the Son of God watch and do nothing.
No, we wouldn’t want to be rude, would we, we would not want to call undo attention to ourselves, that might be detrimental to our well-being.
“Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” (Psalm 94:16)
