Is One Religious Group as Good as Another?
At first glance, this might seem like the same question asked in the article on page one. To be sure, they overlap, but the perspective in this article does not deal so much with style and approach to worship but content and authority. In other words, what would Jesus have said if someone asked Him, "Isn't one religious group about the same as another?"
He would have answered, "No." Lest someone think we are being presumptuous in answering for the Lord, we hasten to point out that He Himself commented on the Jewish sects of His day. Primarily, there were three, plus the scribes who copied the Law of Moses. Below will be a description of each group, followed by some comments that Jesus made about each one.
The Pharisees
In contrast to the Sadducees, the Pharisees were mostly middle-class businessmen, and therefore were in contact with the common man. The Pharisees were held in much higher esteem by the common man than the Sadducees. Though they were a minority in the Sanhedrin and held a minority number of positions as priests, they seemed to control the decision making of the Sanhedrin far more than the Sadducees did, again because they had the support of the people.
Religiously, they accepted the written Word as inspired by God. At the time of Christ's earthly ministry, this would have been what is now our Old Testament. But they also gave equal authority to oral tradition and attempted to defend this position by saying it went all the way back to Moses.
This assessment is provided by www.gotquestions.org; so far as we know it is accurate. It only needs to be added that many regarded the Pharisees as the very spiritual. But what did Jesus say of this group?
Matthew 15:1-14. The Pharisees asked Jesus why His disciples failed to keep a certain tradition of the fathers (washing their hands before they ate). Jesus, in turn, asked why they did not keep an actual commandment from God? Traditions can be all right, but they are not laws that come from God. Disregarding a tradition only ignores a custom invented by men; violating one of God's commandments is a serious matter.
Jesus called them, "Hypocrites!" He further quoted the prophet Isaiah as writing the following words of them: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (15:8-9).
The Lord used strong language against the most spiritual of the people in His day. They insisted on keeping manmade traditions but transgressed laws given by the authority of God Himself! Worse yet, they did not even see that as a problem. Many people today do not, either. They fail to distinguish between manmade traditions and commandments of God; furthermore, they may not even care. But Jesus did.
His disciples reported that the Pharisees were offended because of what He had said. Did Jesus rush back to apologize for hurting their feelings? No. Instead He spoke the following words to His disciples:
"Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch" (Matt. 15:13-14).
In other words, the Pharisees would be lost, and those who followed them would be, also. How would we feel if someone spoke about a religious group in this manner today—especially about one so popular? But Jesus was not done with them. In Matthew 16:5-12, He said to beware of their teaching. What do you think He might say about various things being taught today? Jesus did not pull any punches: if something did not come from God or the Scriptures, it was not to be followed.
In Matthew 23:2-3, Jesus said: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do." Imagine Jesus saying these words of the highly respected Pharisees! He just accused them of being hypocrites again. When someone teaches one thing and practices another, that's what he is—a hypocrite.
But Jesus went way beyond a mere inference. Seven times in the same chapter He utters these words: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" (Matt. 23:13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29). Whew! Jesus did not mildly criticize them. He also said: "Woe to you, blind guides…" (v. 16); "Fools and blind!" (verses 17 and 19); "Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!" (v. 24), "Blind Pharisee" (v. 26); and "Serpents, brood of vipers!" (v. 33).
How many religious leaders today, if they heard such words directed at them would say, "Please, let us have a little civility. Let us act in love one toward another." Jesus knows more about love—genuine love—than anyone who would protest His tactics. Sometimes the only way to help someone is to show plainly and starkly what they are advocating and why they are wrong. This means telling people the truth, which is precisely what Jesus did.
Jesus would have been unkind and unloving to pretend the Pharisees were all right with God. Then they would have been lost and on the Day of Judgment pointed an accusing finger at the Lord: "You never told us we were wrong." No one can do that. Jesus loved them enough to suffer intensely and die for their (and our) sins. By His speech and actions (which we must conclude were loving) He warned us that one religious group is not necessarily as good as another.
The Sadducees
The Sadducees…were aristocrats. They tended to be wealthy and held powerful positions, including that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin. They worked hard to keep the peace by agreeing with the decisions of Rome (Israel at this time was under Roman control), and they seemed to be more concerned with politics than religion. Because they were accommodating to Rome and were the wealthy upper class, they did not relate well to the common man, nor did the common man hold them in high opinion….
Religiously, the Sadducees were more conservative in one main area of doctrine. The Pharisees gave oral tradition equal authority to the written Word of God, while the Sadducees considered only the written Word to be from God… (www.gotquestions.org).
However, they mostly held to the inspiration of the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy—not necessarily the rest of the Old Testament. Jesus warned His disciples against their teaching (Matt. 16:6-12). He did not say, "One religious group is as good as another."
The major conflict between Jesus and the Sadducees—not counting their trial of Him (as members of the Sanhedrin), which led to His crucifixion—is reported in Matthew 22:23-33. Matthew records that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection (verse 23). In order to show the difficulty involved in believing in the resurrection, they presented a conundrum to Jesus. A woman had married seven brothers successively after each previous one died. They wanted to know whose wife would she be in the resurrection. Jesus answered in the following way:
"You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,
'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. 22:29-32).
If they had known the Scriptures as well as they thought they did, they would have known that God's use of the present tense concerning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob more than 200 years after their deaths implied that they were still living—not their physical bodies but their spirits. Our bodies are more than just flesh. Furthermore, God has the power to resurrect people from the dead. However, all are raised with a spiritual body. Eating, drinking, and sexual intimacy belong to this world—not the next.
Imagine Jesus telling a prominent religious group that they did not understand the Scriptures! But He was correct! They did not understand them. Is it possible that many religious denominations today do not understand the Scriptures? Jesus condemned the two most prominent religious groups of His day—and showed why they were in error. Today, we too can know what is right and wrong—if we understand the Word.
The Essenes
This group is not mentioned in the New Testament, but they are well-known to historians and archaeologists who have uncovered their encampments (and a wealth of scrolls) where they lived in private, cut off from the rest of the world. Gotquestions.org says:
The Essenes were a Jewish mystical sect somewhat resembling the Pharisees. They lived lives of ritual purity and separation. They originated about 100 B.C., and disappeared from history after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Although it is tempting to want to separate ourselves from the corruptions and pollutions of the world, such a practice would make it difficult to be evangelistic, which Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20. Furthermore, He spoke about light not being hidden and charged His followers: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Christians are also characterized as the salt of the earth. But salt can have no effect unless it comes in contact with others (Matt. 5:13-16).
Then What?
Of the three major religious groups of Jews who claimed to be following God, Jesus endorsed none of them and clearly showed the fallacies of each. Then what were the people supposed to do? They were to follow Him and His teachings.
"But isn't it different today? Aren't all those who call themselves Christians right?" It is no different than it was for all of those who called themselves faithful Jews. Like the Pharisees, many today substitute manmade traditions in place of Jesus' teachings. Like the Sadducees, many do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God. Jesus taught that the majority of people choose to be lost (Matt. 7:13-14). To come to God through Jesus, one must know what the Scriptures actually teach. Are you willing to make the effort?