Jesus' Criticisms of Hypocritical Religious Leaders We provide these quotes from Jesus to show that judgment of those who

teach in error is mandatory. Such judgments have always been made by the true prophets: including Jesus, the prophets of old, and the Apostles of the Early Church.

Luke 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Matthew 23:33-34 You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. John 8:43-44 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Matthew 7:15-20 Watch out for false prophets.they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. (Per Paul: The Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Gal 5:22) John 5:37-42 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he has sent, you do not believe. You search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they testify of me. But you will not come to me, that you might have life.

I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither do you allow them who are entering to go in. Matthew 23:24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Matthew 15:14 Let them alone: they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Luke 20:46-47 Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation. Luke 12:1-2 Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hidden, that shall not be known. [Hypocrisy is talking, not walking. Pretending to be a godly person, while practicing greed, lying, pornography, drunkenness, slander, rage, lusts, theft, dishonesty, etc. He tells us that any hypocrisy will be exposed and shamed.] Luke 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in [the Kingdom] yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Matt. 5:20 For I say unto you, That unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, YE SHALL IN NO CASE enter into the kingdom of heaven. Mat 23:25-28 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. You are blind, first cleanse the inside of the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. You are like whitewashed tombs, outwardly beautiful, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Matthew 23:16-19 Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! You are fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever

sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. You are fools and blind: for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Luke 11:43 Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted [by flattering title] and bowed down to in the marketplaces. Matthew 21:32 Jesus said to them, [Pharisees] "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. Matt. 21:43-45 Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. Matthew 23:2-5 whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on mens shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. Luke 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Luke 11:44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Matthew 23:16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

Matthew 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Matthew 23:29-31 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. Luke 11:46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for you lay on men with burdens grievous to be borne, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Luke 11:42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Luke 11:47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. John 14:6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Luke 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Luke 6:25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Jude 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been

destroyed in Korah's rebellion. These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted twice dead. Matt. 3:7 [And then there was John the Baptist:] But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O GENERATION OF SNAKES, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?