1688. Sons Vs. Fathers

Sons Vs. Fathers

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the Prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Mat_23:29-33).

In this the Pharisees admitted the sins of their fathers, even though they gave themselves to building their tombs and garnishing their sepulchers.

In this they moreover condemned themselves. First, because they confessed that they were the sons of the people who slew the Prophets. Secondly, because they were doing worse than slaying prophets, they were seeking to slay the Son of God Himself.

The result of all this perfidy was summed up by Christ in these words:

"That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar" (Mat_23:35).

Like the Pharisees, the present-day apostates, in their denominational speeches, are given to garnishing the sepulchers of the church fathers, and to glorying in their past achievements.

They also boast their superiority to the fathers. They claim that they are far more intellectual, and even more spiritual.

In all of this, many of them are to be condemned, for they deny everything for which their fathers stood; and they have gone far beyond them in seeking to crucify afresh the Son of God.

"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Mat_23:33).

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR