Under the heading, “ ‘The Embarrassment For Christians’ Answered,” author R. Dawson Barlow writes in his 2005 book The Apostasy of the Christian Church, “A common misunderstanding of our Lord’s words in the Sermon on the Mount is that He was refuting Moses or true Judaism and was, in turn, establishing a new ‘religion’ called Christianity.

“Christ was not refuting Moses, He was refuting those religious leaders whose foundation of faith was the Talmud, and the erroneous doctrines which evolved from the basic error (i.e., false Judaism, i.e. the ‘Jews Religion’ Gal. 1:14). His words were not ‘You have read in the Law of Moses,’ but rather, ‘You have heard it said by them of old.’ ”

At the time of Christ, the Jews had turned the religion God gave Israel into the ‘Jews religion’ based on the thoughts, traditions and philosophies of men rather than the Word of God.

Jesus came on the scene and told Israel’s religious leaders the truth about this and for doing so they hated Him, realizing that the people would naturally believe Jesus (His miracles and what He said) and they’d lose their political positions and power.

This reality is made clear in John 11: 47-48, which reports, “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.”

Jordan explains, “You see what they’re interested in? They’re interested in their place at the head of the nation. You know why the religious leaders hated Christ? It’s the same reason religion hates Him all along. All He did was tell them the truth. He says,

‘You know what you are? You’re a bunch of whited sepulchres.’ That’s kind of tough language, but it’s the truth. He’s saying, ‘You’ve got this external religion; you got it all cleaned up and whitewashed, but inside you’re just dead. Your religion doesn’t mean anything. It’s of no value.’

“The law said ‘thou shalt not kill’ but they reasoned, ‘It’d be better Christ died than we lose our place,’ and that’s religion! You gotta remember, folks, when you think about religion it’s what crucified Christ.

“The physical abuse, the evil treatment, the mockery—it’s coming from the religious crowd. Herod and Pilate had to be forced to do what they did by the religious crowd. Pilate jumped over six ways backward to let Christ go, calling Him innocent. He said, ‘I find no fault with this innocent man. His blood isn’t on me.’

“You see, this hatred is religiously driven. And again it’s because He tells them the truth. In Luke 22, it says, ‘And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him.
And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him.’

“You just have to read that slowly because here’s the God-man; the one who never had a thought contrary to anybody suffering that stuff all by Himself. He looks around for a little sympathy. None.”

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In Mark 7, the Pharisees and scribes ask Christ, “Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?” and He answers, “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.”

Jordan explains, “The ‘tradition of the elders’ were the rules and regulations the elders had added onto Moses’ law to help people be sure they obeyed Moses’ law. You know, it’s, ‘Moses didn’t say it clear enough; we’re going to add to it.’

“Jesus says to them, ‘You talk real good but your heart isn’t there. Howbeit in vain do they worship me.’ Their worship was empty, worthless activity. Why? They were teaching doctrines of men, laying aside the commandment of God.

“Jesus says, ‘Moses was real clear about what he said; you added to it and your traditions make God’s Word of no effect.’ You see, they mistook their traditions for the Word of God. You have to be careful about your own personal convictions. Lot of times people think they’re contending for God’s Word when all their doing is contending for their own personal convictions. That’s all these guys were doing.

“Jesus answers them with, ‘Have ye not read?’ meaning, ‘You know what the issue is guys? Have you ever read the Bible? Could we bring the Bible into this discussion?’ It’s a rebuke of their tradition.”

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As Barlow summarizes, “Their ‘lip service’ was, ‘We trust Moses.’ Their apostasy was, ‘You believe not his words, but what others have said about Moses’ . . .

“It will be argued that the religious leaders in the days of our Lord did indeed believe the Old Testament Scriptures. Yes, as we said, they did give ‘lip service’ to that effect, but, in reality, they had placed their faith in that which had been added to God’s Word.

“Through our limited study of the pseudo Christian cults within Christendom, in general, we have discovered a common denominator to them all. They have all included supplemental, added ‘revelations’ (either written, or verbal, such as church traditions, or church or Papal pronouncements, announcements from angels, or writings of charismatic personalities, who have received personal (which means ‘new and improved’ and ‘more reliable,’ etc.) revelations, which they place alongside the Word of God!

“After the ‘new revelation’ has been accepted as such, (here comes that redundant observation again) the Bible is always put on a ‘back burner’ and then becomes all but forgotten.

“The new ‘revelation’ in time becomes the entire emphasis of that particular sect, group, denomination, or even ‘religion.’ If there is ever a conflict between the Bible, and the new revelation, the Bible is always pushed away as the untrustworthy, or at best ‘inferior’ revelation and that which was added is regarded as the paramount authority and will be the sole basis and authority that will decide any conflict.”