The following is from Proclaiming the Gospel via Pure Gospel Truth:
The Divine Rebuke of Corrupt Religious Authority by Mike Gendron
Two streams of Christianity have been operating side-by-side for 2000 years. One is the body of Christ, the apostolic church which includes all who have been born again with the Spirit of God. This true church holds to the faith of the apostles and submits to the authority of Scripture. The other stream is apostate Christianity; those who profess Christ but hold to a different gospel and therefore have never experienced the second birth (1 John 2:19-20). Since apostasy also occurred in Judaism, there is a critical question to consider. Was the action that caused the Jews to depart from the only religion God ordained, the same action that caused apostates to depart from the only Church Christ established? Yes! The fatal error common to both occurred when religious leaders replaced God's authority with an authority of their own. The Pharisees used the Chair of Moses to distort God's word with their own traditions and the Roman Catholic Church has used the Chair of Peter to do the same. It is indeed astonishing to see how the Catholic clergy resembles the Pharisees of first century Judaism. Both became corrupt when they rejected the absolute supreme authority of Scripture. While we know how Jesus condemned the hypocritical Pharisees for their character and conduct, we can only wonder if the same rebukes would apply to the Catholic clergy today. The Pharisee's stubborn refusal to submit to God's authority ultimately led them to reject Jesus as the Messiah, while the same stubborn refusal has led the Catholic clergy to reject Him as their all-sufficient Savior.
In Matthew 23 Jesus gives His last public sermon and it is filled with sharp rebukes against the corrupt religious leadership of the Pharisees. The sermon is also a warning for those who follow false shepherds instead of the True Shepherd. It is therefore my prayer that Catholics will take an objective look at their religious leaders. Have they become just as corrupt as the shepherds of God's chosen people? Let us look at the similarities between the Pharisees and the Roman Catholic clergy.
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