Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Religious Leaders in Jesus' day versus today


They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”
John 7:52

"no Prophet has arisen out of Galilee: Actually, the prophets Jonah, Hosea, Nahum, and perhaps Elijah, Elisha, and Amos were from Galillee or close to it." Nelson Study Bible; note on the same verse.

We were struck watching Son of God at the scriptural ignorance of the Pharisees.  It's one thing to get so proud that your heart isn't right with the Lord.  It's another thing for alleged religious teachers to miss things that are clearly described in the Old Testament.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus chides the Pharisees: "Have you not heard?!?", "Is it not written?!?", "Have you not read?!?"  In each instance, obvious Old Testament prophecies were occurring in front of them.  They were clueless.

Today's pastors, by contrast, sometimes seem like they can't talk about anything else.  When analyzing events in the middle east, Benjamin Netanyahu can't sneeze without 10,000 pastors screaming "End Times!!!"  The difference is fascinating.

Make no mistake, we believe Old Testament Prophecy is essential to understand today's Middle East.  Our personal salvation came from an End Times sermon.  Still, reading prophecy into everything gets taken to unhealthy extremes.

The difference in understanding Old Testament prophecy is a strange distinction between today's pastors and the Pharisees of Jesus' time; we're not sure what to make of it.

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