“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat [making up the Sanhedrin or counsel of the elders]. 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. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. – Jesus condemns them “with full strokes against their reigning sins, and clears His soul of the blood of men, who, after the resurrection of Lazarus, had agreed to take away His life. Oh blind guides, perverting the law to professional interests, you could not foresee that your lives, and those of your children, must go for his life. Those blind guides neither entered the kingdom of heaven themselves, nor allowed the people to do so. Yet for gain they sent out emissaries to persuade the gentiles to be circumcised, and to send offerings to the temple. The papists at the reformation acted the same wily part, employing every art and every terror to obstruct the conversion of sinners to God. How blind, to say that an oath by the temple was nothing, while an oath by the gold of the temple made a man a debtor to pay his vows.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
Click link to the next study in my sequential chapter study through the Gospel of Matthew. https://www.mymorningmanna.com/post/matthew-24
In Matthew 23:13-33, Jesus blast the religious leaders. “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! HE ends. How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
“A ‘woe’ is not necessarily a curse or imprecation, as often thought, but can be a lament in view of impending tragedy.” (Edward Fudge)
“If the number of woes applied to them is the standard of judging who gets the ‘worst enemy status’ then the Pharisees and scribes win that title. Jesus pronounces seven woes against them in Matthew 23.[Matt. 23:13,15,16, 23, 25, 27, 29.] From what Jesus said about them, it is clear that what made them kingdom enemy #1 is their hypocritical attempt to replace God’s kingdom with one that looked righteous on the outside, but was corrupt within.” (An Advent Christian Systematic Theology by Jefferson Vann) And there are two Gehenna texts as a double witness: “The reference is to a proselyte made by the Pharisees; a child of hell means one destined to go there. (Matt. 23:15)… The Lord is addressing the scribes and Pharisees. To escape the damnation of hell means to escape being condemned to hell-fire. The obstinate self-righteousness of the Pharisees kept them from repenting and believing in Jesus.” (Matt. 23:33).” (Basil F. C. Atkinson)
“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, 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. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” (34-36) Then Jesus ends: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate,’ that is utterly destroyed. “One day after work, George [a conditionalist) and I were discussing the new heaven and new earth. George quoted Revelation 21:4, ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ George…. said something that I had never heard before. With a depth of compassion, I’ve rarely encountered, he added, ‘God alone will bear that sorrow.’ His words stopped me in my tracks. In the evangelical world, the prevalent understanding is that God’s wrath toward unbelievers is eternal, yet George spoke of God mourning the loss of those who had rejected Him. ‘Your house is left desolate.’ The picture was consistent with God’s heart as revealed in Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem.” (Rescue from Death By Robert Taylor) “They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat.” (Isaiah 65:21-22)— “for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (37-39) “This is the promise of His Second Coming, and when He comes He will find a believing remnant of that very people, welcoming Him with the messianic greeting of the 118th Psalm...” (Arno Gaebelein), even the Gentiles.“He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly.” (Rom 2:29a)
Mainstream Christianity makes Jerusalem the focus for end-time events. “Another emphasis in Jesus traditions that contradicts established rabbinic [and even modern Christian] theology is that ordinary Jews can go to hell. A quick way to get a measure of this emphasis is to look at all the places where the Gospels mention Hades or Gehenna. Only a third of these texts refer to sinners going to hell, and two thirds refer to ordinary unrepentant Jews…. The Jews who are destined for hell, according to these passages, even include the better classes of society, like religious teachers and the rich (Matt 23:15, 33).” (David Instone-Brewer) “In this too Paul had the mind of Christ. He wrote of the ‘great sorrow and unceasing anguish’ he felt in his heart for his own race, the people of Israel. His ‘heart’s desire and prayer to God’ was for their salvation. He was willing even, like Moses before him, to be himself ‘cursed and cut off from Christ’ if only thereby his people might be saved (Rom 9:1-4; 10:1; cf. Exod. 32:32). He had the same deep feelings for the Gentiles. For three whole years in Ephesus, as he reminded the church elders of that city, ‘I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears’ (Acts 20:31; cf. 20:19; Phil 3:18).” (Judgment and Hell by John R. W. Stott published in Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism)
Moreover, in context of the latter days. “It is not certain whether ‘the beast and the false prophet’ are abstract symbols of the ‘Fourth Kingdom upon earth,’ in its double form of Church and State; or symbols denoting particular classes of persons, whether satanic spirits who inspired that fourth system of government, or human kings and priests who received and acted on such inspiration. It is possible, but not probable, that they represent individual wicked rulers and teachers who will receive a ‘greater damnation’ (μεῖζον κρῖμα, Jas. 3:1; περισσότερον κρῖμα, Matt. 23:14).” (Future Punishment: As Expressed In The New Testament by Edward White)
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