Since man's creation it has been his nature to seek what he perceives to be freedom. Eve, thinking she and Adam were in bondage by not having a "knowledge of good and evil," exercised their "choice" and ate of the forbidden tree. The Serpent represented the tree as the source of freedom from their restraints but in fact it was the source of their ultimate bondage. By exercising their will, and trying to better themselves, they went against God’s will and fell into sin and death and placed themselves under the subjection of the Serpent.
The desire to be free and have one’s own way is what drives one into sin. But the other side of this is to replace the liberty God has given each believer that also leads one to sin. For those that are “churched” it is easy to see where with no standards can lead to sin, but the fear of losing control makes us want to force others to our own standards for living. This is the mindset of a Pharisee.
Human history is filled with accounts of individuals and groups of people stealing liberty from others. From physical bondage (such as slavery) to "intellectual bondage" (Catholics who deny their people access to the Scriptures), many feel it is their "duty" to suppress the freedom of others. This is the very reason liberty is to be jealously guarded. In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
Paul wrote the book of Galatians to explain to the Galatians the preciousness of the liberty they have in Christ. There was a group of Jews who were insisting the Galatians must keep the law to become and remain a Christian. Paul spent six chapters explaining to them how they are free in Christ and cannot be perfected by the bondage of the Mosaic Law. He told them they were "foolish" for so readily giving up the liberty they have in Christ and "not obey[ing] the truth" (Gal. 3:1).
The Pharisees are the most notorious advocates of bondage found in the Bible. Christ said of them, "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers" (Matt 23:4). They developed legalistic, man-made rules such as hand washings and tithing of flower seeds which placed great burdens on the gullible and impressionable public. Christ held these self-righteous hypocrites in the utmost contempt. He directed towards them some of the most scathing words in the Scriptures. Many of the traits of the Pharisees can be found among Hyper-Fundamentalist believers today.
The Pharisees of old had the right "Bible," believed their Bible was the very word of God and took it literally, spent countless hours reading and studying it, believed the promise of the coming Messiah, believed in angels and the spirit world, and held to every other fundamental doctrine found in their Scriptures. To the Jewish public they were devout, dedicated, godly, and orthodox, each a model or example for the common believer. Ironically, when the God they claimed to serve came to them in person they didn't recognize Him, and in less than four years they were so opposed to Him they directly caused His death! Their "godly" and "devout" appearance did not reflect the truth.
Even though they had a reputation of being extremely consecrated and devout, Christ reserved for them His most searing remarks and criticism. He sternly and publicly rebuked them for their pious attitude and hypocritical behavior while He exercised kindness, grace, and compassion towards those who were publicly branded as sinners.
Where did the Pharisees go wrong? They had the right God, Bible, heritage, and doctrines, but what power or influence led them astray? What caused them to be so harshly castigated by their Creator?
The Pharisee's besetting sin was a vice called PRIDE. Pride and envy are probably the most consuming and destructive vices one can entertain. Their first victim was not even a man but no less than the anointed cherub Lucifer. Lucifer's five "I wills" found in Isaiah chapter 14 expose Lucifer's pride and arrogance for all creation to see. The “I wills” are still alive to this day as man tries to better the grace God has given him.
The most proud, self-righteous, and legalistic is the persons that I have metis the Hyper-Fundamentalist. Some are so dogmatic in their subjective standards and positions that they, like the Pharisees, actually believe they are doing God service by compelling their biblical standards on others. They are blinded by their conceit. This causes Hyper-Fundamentalists to become "hyper-separationists" in their attitude toward others.
Since Pharisees believe they are God's true and pure people, they feel they must separate from all others who don't follow their truth. True, as seen a few weeks back, Christians are to separate from the world, ungodliness, obvious heresy, and carnal believers, but to refuse fellowship from all other believers simply because they don't look or act as they do is a wrong that Hypers can not see for they are blinded in their pride.
Constantly trying to force ones convictions on others about movies, television, even radio, dress, translations, songs, and other things and to strongly imply if others didn't live like they live they couldn't be in God's will and God won't use them is nothing short of the same pride we find from the beginning of time.
The Lord's most used descriptive term for the Pharisees was "hypocrites." The reason is pride. They see themselves as a better believer for they follow the Law by the letter as they see it and therefore are closer to God than others that do not see it their way. Pride wants a person to look good and be well respected regardless of the truth and will devise all sorts of schemes and plans to make this happen. To pride, image is everything.
Pride loves praise. Often when one goes to a "camp-meeting" he hears enough preachers praising each other to last a lifetime. One word that is commonly heard around preacher conferences is "doctor." If one didn't know better he would think there are more "doctors" in some of these conferences than a hospital could hold. Have you ever looked through a "Sword of the Lord" or another Christian paper regarding the lineup at one of the larger meetings? They are nearly all addressed as "doctor." But you know what's really interesting about this, is that most of them aren't doctors at all. They hold an "honorary doctorate" which is nothing more than a piece of paper saying someone has placed honor on you.
In their eyes the highest form of praise one preacher can give another is the esteemed title of "doctor" so many Christian colleges and universities have granted a "doctorate" to their favorite preachers as an honor.
However, instead of treating the doctorate as an honor, many preachers actually treat it as if it were earned! They call themselves "doctor," sign their names "doctor," encourage others to call them "doctor," and even monogram "Dr." on their clothes.
Why do otherwise sound and sensible preachers engage in such deceptive behavior? Pride.
"Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?" (Pro. 27:4)
One doesn't have to be within the Fundamentalist camp very long before he realizes there are certain "patriarchs" within its ranks. To follow a man who is following Christ is a Biblical practice, but to idolize someone like some of these preachers are idolized is obviously not Scriptural.
We are not mentioning this to make light of or demean the work of these men, many of them have been used of God to win souls and exalt Christ. However, pride loves a good ego trip and delights in being exalted and esteemed by others, so it is very easy for any believer to allow and even encourage others to think more of him than they should. The self-indulgence of allowing excessive praise of one's self will always lead to the person beginning to believe it.
The remedy for legalism or pharisaical behavior is simple in concept but hard for many in practice. It is seeing legalism as sin folks. The way out of this life style is to confess it as sin and repent from it. Once you see your sin for what it really is and give your life over to grace the strength of the Holy Spirit gives power and understanding to overcome.
Now is the time that Hyper-Fundamentalist deal with their pride problem. Now is the time for them to ask God to forgive them so that they can get back to the grace of their salvation and away from their own self-holiness.
Keep your standards if they based on the Bible, for God has given these to you. Return to the love and mercy found only in the grace of God and know your works make you no better then the other believer. Wanting others to be like you is a sin and must be seen as such.
Once again, let us look to God for our holiness and not our works.