In today’s world it is acceptable to bash on “Pharisees.” It can even be cool and hip.

But as readers can tell from my earlier post titled “Are you a Pharisaical anti-Pharisee?” I am concerned for the direction and outcome of those who can be so zealous for attacking others as “Pharisees.” With the previous post I specifically addressed how some who oppose “Pharisees” (whether real or imagined) can hypocritically and ironically be quite Pharisaical themselves. In this current post I want to address another issue concerning the direction of those who are zealous in opposing “Pharisees.”

Please note that in the previous and this post I am not defending Pharisees or Phariseeism (what I mean by that is the idea that we can be self-righteous before God by our own works and that we can add more laws more higher than God’s laws). Instead my intention is to point out possible blind-spots we can have of our own self in opposing Pharisees. So here goes my second post…

In opposing Pharisees, please do not become a Sadducee.

What do I mean by Sadducee? We need to take a stepback and consider who the Sadducees were during Jesus’ day. Sadducees was one of the religious groups of the time. According to the Bible in Matthew 22:23, Mark 12:18-27 and Acts 23:8 Sadducees were known for their denial of the resurrection of the dead. Acts 23:8 goes further to tell us that they also denied the existence of angels and spirit. The passage also contrasted Sadducees with Pharisees in that the Pharisees believed in those things in which the Sadducees denied.

One can see from the above that Sadducees denies doctrines that are clearly biblical. If we see any modern examples of Sadducees today they would be similar to the theological liberals who have a low view of God’s Word, denies what God teaches in His Words, etc.

Yet both Pharisees and Sadducees opposed Jesus. And Jesus in opposing the Pharisees never became a Sadducees or vice versa.

Let this be a lesson for all as well: That in opposing Pharisees, please do not become a Sadducee.

Sadly we see that all over the internet today people have done exactly that. How many who left some kind of church movements or church sub-culture that they dismiss as being Pharisaical ended up going further to deny sound biblical doctrines. They have swung the theological pendulum instead of coming to Jesus Christ who is the source of both grace and truth. The Pharisees are known for not having grace. The Sadducees are known for not embracing truth. But in actually the Pharisees and Sadducees are bickering cousins, for they are two different forms of unbelief. Turn to Jesus as revealed in the Bible for the truth and for grace.