Why WHTT.org calls it's Magazine,  "Pharisee Watch"

by Charles E. Carlson, WHTT.org
 



A friend recently wrote to us saying he likes what we say, but: “Can you 
consider changing the name to something a little less automatically offensive 
to Jewish people, a little less terminally (if unintentionally) anti-Semitic, than 
"Pharisee Watch"? The insensitivity of this name boggles the mind.” The writer 
expresses himself plainly, so he should appreciate Jesus’ words.  We chose 
“Pharisee Watch” as the title for our Internet journal about three years ago, not 
in order to place blame on the ancient Jews, but to place it squarely on the 
“Christians” of our day.


Our church leaders are the Pharisees. Of course there are exceptions; we leave 
it to you to find them, and we want to hear about them when you do. Pharisee 
Watch is about those who say they are Christians. If the shoe fits Jews, let 
them wear it. It is intended to be strong, in response to the real ill in our society. 
We have written about 150 Pharisee Watch’s, and any fair reader will have to 
admit we blame the Judaized-Christianity leaders of present day evangelical 
churches for their anti-life public policies, whether Democrat or Republican.
 

We could name and blame many celebrity icons who are trampling Christianity 
into the gutter of racism.  One amazing case will be mentioned later, but we 
prefer to talk about your pastor. : He is the real problem and the only one you 
can change. Having said this, we would be remiss not to note that no one has 
reason to enjoy the demise of Christianity more than the Rabbis, since Judaism by 
definition denies Christ.  

 
Our language cannot be too plain when dealing with the enormity of what we are 
trying to get across.  When we call your church leaders “Pharisees” we are not 
talking about someone else’s church. We are talking about yours, and we are 
asking you to do an organized, tactical withdrawal from your church, unless yours 
is an exception.  Tactical withdrawal mean, first, confront the pastor privately; then, 
write a good-by letter to everyone you know in your church stating why you must 
leave; and then walk out to stay. This is the only way change can happen.
 



A Word to the Not-Evangelicals


Mainline and Catholic churches are not normally evangelical, or “dispensational” 
as the popular self described term introduced by Cyrus I Scofield calls them, 
but if Mainliners and Catholics fail to speak out, they are no better than 
evangelicals who openly support war.  By their silence, they affirm, and they 
open their members to being brainwashed in “home bible studies” conducted 
by mass marketing dispensational organizations such as Precept Ministries, 
to name only one, where “Dispensationalism” is sold as the only way to salvation.
 



Jesus Challenged the Clergy


In talking to Pharisees, Jesus said (paraphrased): 
 
“How terrible it is for you teachers of the law, Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You 
lock the door of the kingdom of heaven in other people’s faces, but you yourself 
do not go in nor do you allow in those who are trying to get in.” 
 

Jesus told the Pharisees they were UNFIT FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
These are firm words found in Matthew 23:13.  The entire chapter is startlingly 
direct.  In Jesus’ time the Judeans were predominantly Israelite-ish in at least 
the pretext of their religion, but it appears they were confused and apostate in their 
practice of it.  Those who were honest knew they could not follow all the 600 odd 
laws found in the 28the chapter of Deuteronomy, and they also knew the Pharisees 
and others had corrupted what was supposed to be the faith of Abraham into a 
hopeless man-controlled religion.  The source of their corruption was the ruling 
faction Jesus referred to as Pharisees and condemned to hell in Matthew 24.
 

By contrast there are now hundreds, perhaps thousands of Pharisees in churches 
for every one in the synagogue.  Our political leadership today depends on Judaized 
Christians (the so-called Christian Right) for their rock-hard political support. 
Pharisaic-Christianity is every bit as political as Judean Pharisaism was. The 
Pharisees were in bed with the Romans.  The evangelicals are in bed with the 
Israelis and with every politician who is more patriotic to Israel than to their own 
USA...
 

We Americans claim to be 80% Christian, perhaps 1/3 of these are “evangelicals.”  
Politicians and parties depend on the votes of that 1/3 because they tend to vote 
in a block, other Christians tend to split.  This in no way diminishes the power of 
AIPAC and other Jewish groups who exercise their clout in our government.  We 
Hold These Truths published a scholarly book named ONE NATION UNDER ISRAEL 
on this subject.  But it is the evangelicals who have the numbers and the media 
access to prop up the faltering war agenda based on what they believe to be 
scriptural grounds.  
 

The Pharisees of our day repeat the error of the 1st century Pharisees, who Jesus 
said, “shut themselves and those who follow them from Christ’s the Kingdom of 
Heaven.” It is hard to imagine why Jesus would not hold us to as high a standard 
when it comes to the shedding of innocent blood, for the Pharisees shed His blood 
only hour after He challenged them. 




 
Why Judaized-Christian Pharisees Support Wars


Judaized support for serial wars hinges upon the 100-year old altered scripture 
found in study bibles and scores of related popular novels, which place the focus 
on Israel instead of Christ.
 

The modern State of Israel borrowed its name from an ancient story of the lineage 
of Abraham, called Israelites. They were not called “Israelis.” The political State 
of Israel came into existence 40 years after the first Scofield Reference Bible 
heralded its coming.  Either Mr. Scofield was a prophet, or someone who knew 
about Zionist plans helped him write his pseudo-bible.  The Zionist state of Israel 
and evangelical Christianity are a strange pair of Siamese twins, inseminated at 
the same time, but born after different gestation periods.  Neither came about as 
a result of Immaculate Conception.

 
Israel existed very much in the plans of the World Zionist movement in 1908 when 
a Zionist-friendly Oxford University Press published the Scofield’s book.  In its 
footnotes it legitimized a Jewish “return” to Palestine and the tale of God’s unfulfilled 
promises to give the land of the ancient Canaanites to the ancient Israelites. Scofield 
helped an absent-minded god remember his long-forgotten promise, (they claimed) 
not to the ancient Israelites and their descendants, but to the European immigrants 
to Israel.
 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS gave evangelicalism its first big promotional
boost.  It did it by loading the evangelical’s seminaries with Scofield Bibles.  
When the State of Israel was finally born in 1948, Oxford rewrote the book to 
welcome the return of the European “Israelites” to Palestine, proclaiming it to 
be the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophesy.
 

POLITICAL ZIONISM--a movement to establish political rights to land for a Jewish 
state--was legitimatized by respected European, Theodore Herzl.  His 1895 books, 
Der judenstaat, promoted a plan to raise money to buy out the land from the 
residents of Palestine, and he promised that no one would ever be cheated 
or displaced.  But more aggressive Zionists, beginning with Chaim Weisman, 
took over the movement, and Herzl died unhappy, ended up in the trash bin 
of world Zionism, later to have a mountain named for him in Israel.

 
Today, the strongest support for the most ruthless wing of the Zionist movement 
comes from “Christians” who preach it in thousands of churches.  These support 
endless wars in the Mideast, wars that Israel lets them know to be beneficial to 
its interest, for example, the destruction of Iraq.  Evangelicalism is now a giant
cross-denominational sect that Pharisee Watch has named Judaized-Christianity.  
It has been politicized into the largest and most unified voting block in America, 
centering not on Christian morality but on the political wants of the most radically 
racist and bloodthirsty factions in the State of Israel.
 

One such international Pharisee in the news is Kay Arthur, the founder and leader 
of Precept Ministries.  It’s dispensational, Israel first teaching are claimed to reach 
into 120 countries and the majority of American churches, including Mainline and 
Catholics.  At a Jerusalem interview in early June she told of plans to lobby the
Israeli Knesset against Israel giving any concessions to Palestinians.  She is one of
those who seem to believe the Palestinians must go, on foot or in body bags.  
She told Haaretz; "God has chosen Israel above all the nations of the earth, and 
because I love God, I have to follow God's heart and be dedicated to the land and 
the people of Israel."  Arthur reaffirmed her previous statement: 
 
     


"If I had to choose between America and Israel I would choose Israel"
 

At the National Religious Broadcasters convention in California earlier this year, 
Christian Zionist leader Kay Arthur declared in a since memorable speech that 
despite her love for the United States, "if I had to chose between America and 
Israel, I would choose Israel." According to reports, the gathering, which included 
the who's who in the religious broadcasting world, responded with "tepid" applause, 
a few faces "cringing with embarrassment."


Arthur, who was in Israel this week, had apparently crossed a sort of fine line, 
that until now most outspoken Christian Zionists have managed to delicately, for 
the most part, maintain. But Arthur, whose name often appears alongside
the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Ralph Reed, insisted in a Jerusalem 
interview this week that she stands behind the declaration and plans, in fact, on 
becoming even more involved in the Holy Land with the creation of a women's 
council within the Christian Allies Caucus, the increasingly influential evangelical 
lobby group in the Knesset.

"I completely stand behind my speech at the conference," she insisted. "God has chosen Israel above all the nations of the earth, and because I love God, I have to follow God's heart and be dedicated to the land and the people of Israel."


Arthur, 71, the co-founder of the Precept Ministries, which is based in the U.S. but has branches in some 120 countries worldwide, was in Israel this week leading a tour group of 150 devoted Christians to various holy sites - save Bethlehem, "because it's a hassle to get there." By her own estimates, she's been to Israel "at least 30 times" since she was born-again at age 29. She hosts her own radio show and television program, where she appears before hundreds of thousands of co-religionists and rattles off verses from the Old and New Testament alike, convincing them of Jewish nation's uniqueness and the biblical-basis for her gung-ho Zionism. "When my feet touched Eretz Israel," she says of her first trip here, "I felt at home."


In the hours following that February speech in California, Arthur was approached by a number of Israelis in the crowd, including Tourism Minister Abraham Hirchson, MK Yuri Stern, who founded of the Christian Allies Caucus, and U.S.-born Josh Reinstein, who serves as the director of the lobby.


Together, it was agreed that Arthur would join the Caucus, and at the moment, she's working towards the creation of a women-only group within the lobby, to include other American religious leaders, such as Christian broadcast guru Janet Parshall and Diane Hagee, wife of well-known television evangelist John Hagee. They'll be joined by MK Gila Gamliel (Likud) and MK Gila Finkelstein (NRP), with the aim of furthering Judeo-Christian discourse, and its role in the advancement of women. The counsel will provide a platform for these women to discuss issues such as domestic abuse and women's rights in the context of religious values.


Kay, who is in the midst of planning a national women's convention in Tennessee for Christian women later this summer, has already invited Gamliel and Finkelstein as her featured guests. In the meantime, Arthur is determined to maintain a steadfast connection to the Israeli political scene. She is firmly against the disengagement or any form of giving away "God's land" and she believes it is evangelical pressure alone that maintains the warm relationship between the U.S. and Israel. "The president [George Bush] is a wonderful, God-fearing man," she said, "but we have to continue to pray that he honors God's covenant with Israel.

Kay Arthur’s Israeli Patriotism is her own business, but the blood on her hands is 
staining those who follow here, and her political lobbying for war costs live and lot 
of dollars everywhere.  It is our business.  She operates tax-free.

 
Evangelicals are taught that the Old Testament is fulfilled in the creation of the 
political state of Israel.  This is blasphemy.  In contrast, for two thousand years 
followers of Christ have always believed that only HE IS THE FULFILLMENT OF 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. Why? Because Jesus said so.   

 
In the book of Matthew, Jesus called the Judean Pharisees “ a generation of vipers.” 
But he also left the door open to any individual among them who had the courage 
to leave Pharisaism and follow him.  Among those who did were the Apostle Paul 
and several others who are named.  Among those who failed the test were a high
priest and the rich young man found in the parable of the camel and the needle.  
Jesus never rejected any individual who was willing to follow him, but many rejected 
him. He condemned the Pharisees to hell because they rejected him.
 

“You snakes and children of snakes, how do you expect to escape from
the condemnation of hell?”  Matthew 23:33
 

Pharisees are, by Jesus definition, the leaders of most (but not all) evangelical 
churches.  Their mission is every bit as deadly and bloody as those Jesus 
challenged almost 2000 years ago.  These leaders can change.
 




Words for Your Friend's Pastor  (if not your own):

My dear friend and pastor,


I know by your words and acts that you are enablers of war in the Mideast. I know you sincerely believe that war is good for Israel,
and therefore, a duty to America. But I can no longer ignore the suffering and death of so many. It puts too much innocent blood on my hands when I support you, not to mention your hands. I am pro-life; I cannot tolerate this death and war in the name of religion anymore. Now I ask you to change and let this church know you are changing. I want to know right now if you can and will do so. If you cannot do it, I must leave.

 

Where do I go if I leave my Church?


If you don’t know a church that follows Christ toward peace, and you probably do 
not, you might join the unincorporated home church movement; it’s growing fast. 
Several of our Advisors have started one called Strait Gate Ecclesia.  Ecclesia 
means church.  Save your money and tithes. It is not Godly to give to the ungodly.
 
Project Strait Gate is confrontational because Jesus was.  He said he came to 
“divide;” He said meant by this to divide those who would follow from those who 
would not.  Jesus was speaking of the corrupt religious system of his day when 
he said: “Come out of her, my people, that ye not partakers of her sins and that 
you receive not her plagues.”  Might he be saying the same thing to us today? 
(Revelations 18:4)
 





Endnotes:

One Nation Under Israel  http://www.whtt.org/articles/onui.htm
 
The Scofield Reference Bible  http://www.whtt.org/articles/020807.htm
 
Kay Arthur http://www.whtt.org/whtt.shtml?rpr/KArthur.htm
 
Project Strait Gate  http://www.whtt.org/straitgate/index.htm
 
Books of the Christ Follower's Bible 
http://www.whtt.org/catalog/default.php?cPath=21&sort=2a&page=3

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