False Leaders (long article, but worth the read)

RELIGIOUS FALSE LEADERS

PHARISEES

Matthew 16:11-12 "How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."

Beware is prosecho in Greek, meaning 'to hold the mind', to pay attention to, to be cautious about, to attend to, to take heed to, or to regard.

Doctrine is didache in Greek, meaning instruction or what hath been taught.

Matthew 21:31b-32 "Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him."

Matthew 23:13,15 "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."

The Jewish sinners were repenting and entering God's kingdom ahead of the pious. The Pharisees and those they converted were destined for hell unless they repented and believed in Jesus as Messiah. Jesus was adamantly opposed to the unbelieving, spiritual abusers of His day, yet He still offered them hope of entering heaven if they turned to Him.