It came to me this morning as I discussed with a sister in Christ the historical correlation between Roman Catholicism/Protestantism AND…the ancient Sanhedrin that there was a commentary in here somewhere.
As you know, the ‘Temple re-builders’ have just about completed the reconstruction of all the sacred vessels and furniture associated with the old sacrificial system. The great vessels and lavers are nigh complete. I understand that the beautifully wrought, gold items have been reconstructed. The originals are now (allegedly) secreted within the secret chambers of the Vatican.
Undoubtedly, from their frequent media announcements, the Sanhedrin plan to re-introduce the ancient Judaic sacrificial system and the once-only atonement for the year by the High Priest within a ‘new’ Holy of Holies.
They say, if and when they get access to the ‘alleged’ Temple Mount (and yes…I am one who thinks the Temple itself was never on this site and that it is part of the flattened site of the old Roman Antonia fort where 600 Roman troops – six centuries probably under a Tribune – were garrisoned.
Archeological evidence has recently emerged (disputed I understand by the rabbinate) that the site of the original Temple(s) is downwind in the Old City of David WHERE THE GIHON SPRING STILL BURBLES – there being no spring on what they now call Temple Mount. That’s another interesting story, but Yeshua will soon reveal where His true Temple will ultimately stand within the New Jerusalem that will descend from the Heavens. And I don’t think it will be where ‘man,’ under the auspices of the new Sanhedrin, erects the Third Temple that is prophesied to be defiled.
Getting back to my point (darn it…old age – I wander off at a tangent as a kaleidoscope of thoughts bombard what now passes for intellect), the ancient Sanhedrin eventually went right off the rails. They repudiated the consistent warnings by the major prophets. And Yeshua noted their complicity in the murders/executions of some of the prophets who had been instrumental in the haranguing of the people/nobility and kings about the depth of their corporate sin and iniquity – sin that was so manifestly evil because it continued for hundreds of years with little sign of national repentance.
And so, by the advent and ministry of Yeshua, though its power was greatly diminished under the Roman occupation, it was still, in its own right (under Roman patronage and oversight), a powerful but almost completely corrupt body. And when we look at its modern Gentile equivalent as manifest within Rome and much of modern Protestantism, we can see, chapter and verse, that our sin is absolutely no different in type and execution, except, GOD help us, surely we are much worse.
Like that now well-passed dance, the Limbo craze made famous by Chubby Checker in the sixties, we have excelled ourselves in evil, welcoming it in and Satan with it. Traditionally, the Limbo dance began at the lowest possible bar height, and the bar was gradually raised. In its West-Indian origins, this was meant to signify an emergence from death into life. In its more modern form, Chubby and others re-defined it by starting the bar up high, and as each dancer went under the bar successfully, it was then lowered.
Those sponsoring the craze probably had little understanding that they danced to a Voodoo black magic rite. My point being that our passing world has reached a stage where we view with each other to demonstrate how low we can go (and take community with us).
In Matthew 7:15 Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets,” and goes into detail as to how we shall know them. Jesus didn’t just dislike them; by His very statements, He totally abhorred them. We should shiver at the closeness of the relationship between these modern paragons of religious virtue who would have us believe that they are the inspired of God, and their ancient counterpart.
In Matthew 11:20-23 He goes on to compare the wickedness of certain cities to Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they will fare far worse than the destroyed cities of the plain (which incidentally are to be restored at Judgment). And if this is so, then I draw the conclusion ‘that where we are today makes S & G look like kindergarten creches.’ Can any true Christian doubt that this is so?
In Matthew 12 the Scribes and Pharisees are at it again with their pin-pricking, vitriolic hatred and (under direct orders from the Sanhedrin to help indict Him), follow him and note every word in order to gather sufficient evidence to have Him executed.
Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Matthew 12:1-7 “At that time Yeshua was walking on the Sabbath in the grain fields, and his disciples were hungry and they began plucking the ears of grain and they were eating. But when the Pharisees saw them, they were saying to him, ‘Behold, your disciples are doing something that is illegal to do on the Sabbath.’
“But he said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God, and he ate the bread of the table of THE LORD JEHOVAH, that which was not legal for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but rather for the priests only? Or have you not read in The Written Law that the priests in The Temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? But I say to you, one greater than The Temple is here. But if you had known what this is, ‘I want mercy and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned those who are blameless.’”
The following verses detail how intense were these attempts to indict Jesus. They followed Him everywhere, giving Him no peace or quarter. They saw no good in Him. However, I suspect that within themselves they well knew that if He was who He obviously appeared to be, then not only was the Messiah come amongst them (as promised), but their own (The Sanhedrin) corrupt pack of cards was more than likely forfeit. Again I say “see the Sanhedrin and see Rome/Protestantism today!”
Chapter 12: 9-42 shows how thoroughly our LORD deals with these blunt instruments of the Sanhedrin. He literally takes them apart. He knows, names and shames them for what they are. And He shows us that any others (then or now) who masquerade as a ‘divine’ priesthood stand upon ground so porous as to be like that which opened up under Korah and his 250 followers and swallowed them all down to Hell whilst yet they were alive, because of their power challenge to Moses and Aaron whom God had directly appointed to the leadership of the Hebraic Exodus.
“And Yeshua departed from there and he came to their synagogue. One man was there whose hand was withered, and they were asking him, and they were saying, ‘Is it legal to heal on the Sabbath,’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Who is the man among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, will not take hold and lift it out? How much greater is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is legal to do good on the Sabbath.’ And then he said to that man, ‘Stretch out your hand,’ and he stretched out his hand and it was restored like his other. And the Pharisees went out and they took council against him so that they might destroy him.
“But then they brought to him a certain demoniac, mute and blind, and he healed him so that the mute and blind man could speak and could see. And all the crowds were astounded and they were saying, ‘Is this not The Son of David?’ But the Pharisees, when they heard, they were saying, ‘This one does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the prince of demons.’
“But Yeshua knew their designs, and he said to them, ‘Every Kingdom that is divided against itself will be destroyed and every house and city that is divided against itself will not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he has been divided against himself; how therefore will his Kingdom stand? And if I am casting out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. And if I am casting out demons by The Spirit of God, the Kingdom of God has come near to you. For how can a man enter the house of the mighty man and plunder his goods unless first he bind the mighty man? Then he may plunder his house.
“Whoever is not with me is against me; whoever does not gather with me truly is scattering. Therefore I say to you, all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven to the children of men, but the blasphemy that is against The Spirit will not be forgiven to the children of men. Everyone who will say a word against The Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever will speak against The Spirit of Holiness, it will not be forgiven to him, not in this world, neither in the world that is being prepared.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. Offspring of vipers! How can you who are evil speak good things? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man from a good treasure brings good things, and an evil man from evil treasure brings evil things. For I say to you that every idle word that people will speak, they will give an answer for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.’
“Then some of the Scribes and Pharisees responded and they were saying to him, ‘Teacher we wish to see a sign from you.’ But he answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign and a sign will not be given to it except the sign of Jonah the Prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, thus The Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
“The Ninevite men will arise in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here. The queen of The South will arise in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, one greater than Solomon is here.”
And finally Jesus could no longer contain the way He felt.
Matthew 23: 27-36 “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. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 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.’
“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 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.”
I am convinced that Rome and too much of modern Protestantism have become the epitome of the re-incarnation of the morally corrupt, ancient Sanhedrin. Whether called ‘High Priest,’ ‘Pope’ or Canterbury,’ collectively, their ongoing leadership has led the peoples astray, and they know it.
Though many pious men have come through the respective systems (as with Nicodemus in the Sanhedrin of Christ’s time of ministry), the institutions themselves were and remain evil charades, a foul masquerade of caricature, corrupt, pus-filled cankers of heresy that the King of kings and Lord of lords will soon lance. How do we know this to be true? Yeshua says so as he describes to John the Evangelist, in The Book of Revelation, the state of the churches, their types and how He will respond to them.
No wonder we are enjoined to come out and away from them whilst we can. If you however, have been blessed to the extent that you have found a church and pastoral guide who is true to Scripture (in its entirety), then how fortunate and how blest are you. And may GOD bless that righteous man who so pastors you. He will yet live to see those who draw the big dollars and the big crowds with their splendid oratory and songs of praise (as they collect the outpoured tithes) thrown down. GOD help them; they are the legion of the lost.
I am out in the cold at present, having not attended church for well over a year, maybe two, because of my role as a full-time carer. Yet on Rapture Ready and several like websites, I have found a bevy of pastors who feed me strong meat. And brothers/sisters, I thank GOD for that. Fellowship in Christ is a gem of the rarest value, and it is my treasure within which I plumb its depths constantly.
Maranatha
Denis