THE LEAVEN OF THE SADDUCEES
The Protestant Apostasy

Warnings Against False Teachers:

ACTS 20:28-31 COL 2:8-23 2PETER 2:1-22 JUDE 8-19 2JOHN 7-11 1JOHN 2:18-19 MATT 24:11 MATT 7:15

2Thess 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away (Greek: apostasia Strong's 646 to forsake, defection from the true faith) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN

MAT 13:33 He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." This fourth parable has been the source of heated debate over the years. There is no need for confusion if the authority of the Scriptures is recognized and allowed to interpret the parable. The popular conception, that the leaven is the Gospel of Christ, and that this Gospel is to pervade and permeate the world until the world is saved, is without scriptural basis. Not only does such an interpretation place our Lord in the position of contradicting all His other parables by the use of this one, but it also fails to use the whole Bible as the source of authority in the matter of its own understanding and interpretation.
Allowing Scripture to interpret itself, it is found that leaven is never once used in the Word of God except as a type of corruption. In connection with the first Passover, Israel was commanded to put away leaven out of their houses (Exodus 12:15).

Lev2:11: the Law provided that no meal offering should be made with leaven.Leviticus 6:17: in the law of the meal offering, it is written, "it must not be baked with yeast...it is most holy".
The two wave loaves of the Pentecostal offering (Leviticus 23:17) were baked with leaven because they typified the Church of God, including Jews and Gentiles, and signified that we are accepted in the Beloved despite our indwelling evil nature, for He was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In His personal ministry our Lord often used leaven as a type of evil. At one time His disciples forgot to take a supply of bread with them. Jesus told to them; "Be careful. be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." MAT 16:6 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. MAT 16:12 In Luke 12:1 the Lord Jesus warned His disciples,"Be on your guard against the leaven of the Phariseeswhich is legalism, ritual and hypocrisy. The leaven of the Sadducees was their unbelief in the Resurection and the supernatural workings of God, such as miracles. And in Mark 8:15 Jesus also warned them against the leaven of Herod, evidently meaning the lust for worldly power. Therefore Leaven is a figure of corruption.

THE LEAVEN OF THE SADDUCEES:

HIGHER CRITICISM

During the 19th Century in Germany a discipline arose called "Historical Criticism" as an outgrowth of legitimate textual criticism within hermenuetics; the methodology and principles employed in Biblical interpretation. Whereas textual criticism dealt with the integrity of word usage in manuscript copies (also linguistic evaluation of words used in their historical context). historical criticism questions the integrity of the message itself. Form criticism, an extension of the latter, questions the integrity of the sources of the Scriptures. Clearly the principles of historical criticism operate from a denial of the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. This was the first stage in Satan's temptation of Eve; "Yea, hath God said..." Gen.3:1. Temptation usually begins with doubt about God's Word proceeds with disbelief in God's Word, and ends in denial and disobedience through sin. The temptation concludes with "...ye shall be as gods." This is the position that a critic of God's Word assumes when he arrogantly proposes to judge what God has revealed. Although Schleiermacher was the forerunner of modern theological liberalism, his views were certainly not widely accepted in the early 19th century. Historical criticism began a departure from the absolute standard of God's Word and has degenerated into a complete denial of the basic tenets of the Christian Faith. Although the Medieval Church was abused by leadership that was oftentimes licentious, covetous, immoral, and scandalous in behavior, these corrupt men never denied the basic principles of the Christian Faith because it was from these principles that they derived their power.

Two individuals worth mentioning from the 19th Century are Messrs. Graf and Welhausen. Julius Wellhausen(1844-1910) claimed that the Hebrew religion developed from primitive stories into institutionalized rituals. Fitted development into an evolutionary context. Both Graf and Welhausen led the attack on the Scriptures by using a type of Form Criticism in which they deny Moses as the human writer of the Pentateuch. Claiming that the people in Moses' time could not write, they contend that the Levitical priests on the 8th Century BC wrote the Pentateuch after Judaism had evolved. These men claim an insight apparently not available even to Jesus Christ and the Apostles, who attributed these writings to Moses. 20th Century archeology has established that men wrote before the time of Moses, however, the Graf Welhausen Theory is still taught at some liberal universities today. Whether these men could be considered apostate is questionable. However they laid the modern framework for apostasy by attacking Biblical inerrancy.

Only in the mid-19th and 20th centuries has professing Christendom ever witnessed such a radical departure from basic Christian doctrine such as the Doctrine of Christ (2John 8-9 and Faith Statement).

Jesus and the Apostles each warned the early Church that, in the last days, false teachers would arise who would deceive many. Some of these false teachers would arise from within the Church itself. "For I know this, after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." Acts20:29-31 "They went out from us but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they may be made manifest, that none of them were of us." 1John2:19 "But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." ITim3:13 "Let no one deceive you by any means: for that Day will not come unless the falling away (Greek: apostasia) comes first,..." 2Thess2:3. This is the word from which we get "apostasy" meaning the deliberate rejection or departure from the Christian Faith. Jesus' Parables of Matthew 13 also confirm a vast presence of evil in the Church as it matures (the Woman and the Leaven), and the presence of Christian counterfeits in the last days. (Wheat/Tares).

This is a list of the names and beliefs of some of the leading proponents of this Apostasy within the professing Christian Church and a brief summary of their beliefs that are in conflict with orthodox Christian doctrine as expressed in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Dr. Machen, one of the last leading defenders of the Faith at Princeton Divinity School, correctly assesses this movement as "another religion".

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1763-1834) Father of modern religious liberalism. stressed feeling and experience rejected historical doctrines of the virgin birth substitutionary atonement and deity of Jesus Christ believed Christ was not redeemer but example of god-conscienceness no external authority not even Scripture. He rejected the authority of the Scriptures

Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889) rejected emphasis on experience and taught ethical values. He also rejected: doctrine of original sin Incarnation, Resurrection and deity of Jesus Christ vicarious substitutionary atonement of Jesus miracles recorded in the Scripture laid the foundations for the "social gospel"

Adolph Von Harnack (1851-1930) denied that Jesus ever claimed deity and His miracles claimed Paul corrupted the simple religion of Jesus.

F.C. Bauer (1792-1860) Biblical Criticism rejected historical Christian doctrines used Hegel's principle of dialectic in Christianity eg. the dialect between Peter (Jewish) and Paul Gentile Theology) produced synthesis.

David Strauss (1808-1874); student of F.C. Bauer denied historical accuracy of biblical accounts viewed the Bible as a myth believed that Jesus was only a symbol of the "Absolute Idea"; the God-man which is the human race. All 5 Books of the Pentateuch were not written by Moses.

Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) Father of American Theological Liberalism rejected original sin, rejected the doctrine of divine inspiration of the Scriptures

Rudolph Bultmann (1884-1976) developed form criticism arguing that very little could be traced to Jesus, Himself. He embraced the dialectic theology of Karl Barth. He "demythologized" the New Testament, denying Jesus' physical Resurrection. He claimed that the "how and why of Jesus' death are unimportant" He attempted to fit the Gospel into an existential framework claimed that the Gospel of John was highly influenced by Gnosticism.

Paul Tillich (1886-1965)
approached an understanding of God philosophically rather than theologically believed God is not a personal Being; He is the Power of Being sin is estrangement from one's true self. The Fall was not an historic event. salvation is "ultimate concern" for the kind of life seen in Christ Christ is a symbol of the "New Being" rejected belief in Jesus' Incarnation and physical Resurrection.

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) Father of Neo-Liberalism. Educated at Union Theological Seminary. Attacked Fundamentalism.

Walter Horton also classified as "neo-liberal" viewed man as basically good.

acknowledged Christ as divine but reject the virgin birth denied the necessity of vicarious blood atonement for sin.

Theologians of the "God-Is-Dead" Movement: In the 1960's several former students influenced by these teachers began teaching:

God is irrelevant

The Bible is a myth

secular man must find meaning in Jesus from a new freedom to love.

a form of secular Christianity was espoused that placed man, not God, at the center of human concern.

The orthodox view of God was rejected.

secular man must seek his answers through science and technology, not through primitive belief in prayer to God.

These men were:

Thomas Altizer (b. 1927) Episcopalian who taught at Emory. He believed that God actually died in history referring to Phil 2:6-8. He speaks in dialectic terminology. He believed man should be fully immanent with the world. Altizer was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche. He was also influenced by Rudolph Bultmann's belief that the Bible is a myth, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's idea that man must learn to live without a personal God or reliance on Him.

Paul Van Buren(b. 1924)taught at Episcopal Theological Seminary, Austin, TX.

William Hamilton (b. 1924) Baptist Minister who taught at Colgate Divinity School.

Although their teachings were denounced as heretical by some prominent theologians, these students merely took the teachings of their apostate teachers to their logical conclusions.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) Jesuit anthropologist who attempted to reconcile Christianity with evolution. He claimed that the world was an "evolving cosmogenesis" moving towards the Omega Point-Christ. de Chardin's teachings were originally rejected by the Roman Catholic Church but have gained acceptance since Vatican II. His teachings are popular in the New Age Movement.

The following is a summary of major Roman Catholic Theological thought over the last 30 years contained in the teachings of three of its leading figures:

Hans Kung (b.1928) Roman Catholic Theologian and Professor at Tubingen attacked infallibility of the Scriptures believes that Jesus did not assume the title of "Messiah" and that "Son of God" has nothing to do with his nature. He denies the deity of Jesus Christ. Kung has been disciplined by the Roman Catholic Church for some of his teachings which include attacks on papal infallibility

Karl Rahner (1904-1984) Roman Catholic Theologian and major driver of Vatican II. He taught at Innsbruck and Munster. He taught and developed Thomism. claimed that a human being, by nature of his intellect, is pre-disposed to a knowledge of God. He doesn't recognize man's fallen nature. Rahner taught an anthropomorphic theology and perceived Christ as the pinnacle of human evolution. He didn't teach the two natures of Jesus Christ.

Edward Schillebeeckx (b. 1919) Roman Catholic Theologian

taught that there is revelation in word and revelation in reality (existentialism) although outwardly espousing a Trinitarian view, it is doubtful that he maintains orthodoxy on the Trinity or the two natures of Jesus Christ as defined by the Athanasian Creed.

REFERENCES
Notes on theologians taken from Ennis, Paul. Moody Handbook of Theology.Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1989

Bible References from KJV

Historical references from:

Dowley, Dr. Tim. Eerdman’s Handbook to The History of Christianity Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977

Manschreck, Clyde L. A History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1964. Vol. 2

Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1910. Vol. IV

ULTIMATE END OF UNITY AT ANY COST

Unity & Departure from the Basic Tenets of the Christian Faith

   The Thinking & the Theology of Hort & Westcott

       Examples of Apostasy & Denial of the Word of God

Denial of JOHN 3:3

Woes & Abominations

"Christian Judges"

The Cursillo Movements

Rev 3:20-22 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” In this Scripture we see Jesus, outside of the apostate Church of Laodicea, making an appeal to the people, not the leadership. Jesus loves these people and is offering them salvation. I believe that two moves of the Holy Spirit in our time fulfilled this appeal of Jesus to believers hopelessly bound to dead or apostate churches. The Cursillo Movement and the Charismatic Renewal reached into the hearts of church members in mainline Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic Church and saved many. His offer to those church people, then and now, is“And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35-36

For those church attenders in mainline Protestant Churches and Roman Catholic Churches who feel spiritually empty, hopeless, frustrated or lacking Scriptural direction, I would invite you to attend a Cursillo Week End. If you attend with the faith & expectation of seeking a deeper union with Jesus, you will not be disappointed. I have seen many lives transformed by this three-day weekend. If you want Jesus, please seek Him. These sites can help you do that.


Emmaus Walk – United Methodists


National Cursillo Center
These have full denominational sanction from the United Methodists, Presbyterian Church USA and the Roman Catholic Church

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JESUS IS LORD Ministries of Monroe, Inc.
March 1, 2000