Great verse and a great reminder....
Now lets take a look at some other scriptures.....
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ 17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ 19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
History suggest that the Catholic Church is no different than the scribes and Pharisees....In the very same way that these brood of vipers were controlling the people around them by doing such things like the threat of ex communication from the synagogues, taking away peoples salvation, selling indulgences, their words and interpretations of the scriptures meant more than the words of God....They believed in works in a very legalistic way the same as the CC...So much so that they needed a their own commentary called the Talmud to interpret the Mishna that they also wrote...Sound Familiar?......
A careful examination of the Pharisees will reveal the Catholic church re-packaged, but the same product....
Fnerb....It is against my personal nature to come and be confrontational and I can put up with allot of things....There is much about the CC that I believe is right....But I also believe there are heresis being taught that are harmful to the body of Christ, while most Christians would choose to sit on the fence, ....Jesus never did...In fact none of the apostles sat on the fence....
Simply because the devil has managed to keep the catholic church around for all these years inspight of their history should say allot and this does not make it the right Church....The true Church of Jesus Christ is anyplace that two or more are gathered in ''his'' name....
Think about the corruption of the CC that is still around today....The CC is around today, because the Devil needs it...Praise God that there have indeed been Catholic Christians who as individuals have done great things for God inspight of the fact that they have their own Catholic Church against them....
One such example is Martin Luther......He understood it and he got it!!!!!!
What I have written so far may sound mean and sarcastic and offensive to some, but I have not said anything that has not been taught by the catholics here....Perhaps they uses fancy words and such and write with very pretty speech and perfect grammar....Something I am admittingly not smart enough to do....It is hard enough for me to write in English as it is...Thank God for spell checkers...even though I forget to use it most of the time...
: The only problem is that heaven isn't where the catholics are going...that is, if one believes Jesus. ;-)
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