Jesus said of the Pharisees, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
This statement has been rightly applied to all those cultic groups whose leaders use their personal charisma to draw followers away from Christ and after themselves. But few recognize the full implications of what Jesus is saying.
First, we must recognize the real context of what Jesus is referring to – the work of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were hyper-traditionalists. They so enshrouded the law of Moses with layers of traditions of their own making that the things God had said were of primary importance were concealed, neglected and disobeyed. The devil, who is the father of all lies, had so twisted their understanding that they saw nothing wrong with attempting to murder Jesus (who was their promised Messiah) for exercising His God-given ability to heal – on their idea of a Sabbath! This is the real context and content of Jesus’ statement. The Pharisees had produced a system that generated people who gave lip service to God but their hearts were far from Him – the people had eyes but did not see and ears but did not hear what God was doing for and saying to His people. Today we have the institutionalized “church” that is producing similar results. The institutional “church” (and all of its contaminated offspring – too often even the house “church” is only an institutional “church” on a small scale) has enshrouded the gospel of the kingdom with centuries of conflicting “church” traditions and the things that God has said are of primary importance are relegated to utter irrelevancy. The devil, assisted by the realms of the demonic, has so twisted the understanding of the leadership of most “churches” to the extent that they see nothing wrong with catering to the carnal, well-paying “ninety-nine” while they drive off the spiritually hungry “ones” who dare to question the dry lifelessness the leadership refuses to recognize or even acknowledge. Once again, the people are trained to give lip service to God and Christ but their hearts are far from Him – they have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear what God is doing for and saying to His people. Even if they should catch a glimpse or hear something of what God is saying, everything is piped into and interpreted through the “church” paradigm (the preconceived misconception and belief that all is well with the way “church” is routinely practiced) and the intent of God is utterly lost. The blind followers at the institutional “church” can attend for years, sitting in the pews (or chairs), seeing the pulpit, listening to sermons, submitting to the “pastor,” paying “tithes and offerings,” even helping to renovate, remodel, maintain or build a new “church” building and never be able to see that none of this is to be rightly found anywhere in the Scriptures but instead comes from the practices of ancient pagan religion. If one points this out – perhaps pointing one toward some of the historical research that has been done to show the “church’s” roots – they will have already decided (before reading such research for themselves) that the authors of such research are just wrong or they are mistakenly applying to all “churches” something that is only true about some “churches” – and certainly not true about the “church” they attend. Or they will look to the “bad experiences” of the researchers and dismiss the truth because “they’ve been hurt.” This line is at least as old as Wycliffe (died 1384) – one of the first to translate the Scriptures from Latin to English in an attempt to rein in the abuses of the clergy – who is still accused by some “church” men of being a bitter, angry, disappointed man with a harsh and narrow mind. This dim view of the messenger always makes the deceived victim more comfortable in their chains of darkness.Or if these people are presented with what the Scriptures really say, clear commands of God are first filtered through that one’s relativistic (lawless – doing what is right in one’s own eyes) “standards” and then dismissed with some twist of reason or logic as to why that doesn’t apply today or at least doesn’t apply to them or is simply not important because of the “context” of some distant, unrelated or obscure Bible verse. The truth is quite often dismissed in utter arrogance as these self-proclaimed experts dismiss anyone and any thing that differs with their own preset opinions. Their own opinions are simply better set and more properly gained than anyone else’s – at least in their own eyes.
The question is never asked: From whom did I learn what I think I know? Was it from a man or did I really learn this from God? Asking this question and getting God’s answer would remove a lot of “theology” from our knowledge base and empty our heart of a lot of religious baggage that gives the demonic power and influence over our lives.
So long as the blind follows other blind men they are only carnal enemies of the Spirit of God. They are blind because they want to be. One cannot have a “church” despot (benevolent “pastor” or whatever) without the blind sycophants and groupies who keep him in power over “the flock.” The whole system is designed to keep everyone quiet and comfortable in anesthetized drowsiness and darkness that stifles and blocks out the true light that would bring life and liberty to those held in this voluntary captivity – and there is not much point in trying to disturb them in their slumber. They will only hate and persecute the one who dares to disturb them.
Let he who has ears hear.
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