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Matthew 15:9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

The Jews embellished the commandments of God with rules of their own.

Matthew 15:1 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2 "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."

Matthew 15:4  For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 "But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God" — 6 ‘then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.

Matthew 23:16  Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ 17 "Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 "And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ 19  "Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 "Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21 "He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22 "And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

Luke 13:14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, "There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day."

The rules and regulations built onto the commandments of God shifted the emphasis of loving God and their neighbour into a myriad set of petty rules for personal observance. These by dint of observance brought about the ‘holier than thou attitude’ endemic in the Jewish leaders.

John 7:46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!" 47 Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? 48 "Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 "But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."

Those who lived by these ‘traditions’ would not find salvation because they had missed the point.

Matthew 12:7  But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Those who enforced the ‘rules’ prevented men from entering the kingdom of God.

Matthew 23:13  But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

Christianity, having been released from the Law of Moses and the traditions of the Jews, proceeded to build up traditions of the 'fathers' of their own.

Within 400 years, The Church of Christ became a ‘State’ Church. God was changed from the One God of the Jews to the ‘triune’ God of Pagan philosophy. A priesthood was set up and separated from the laity. The priesthood was forbidden to marry. The people were commanded to abstain from meat on Friday. Penance replaced repentance. The soul that died according to God (Ezekiel 18:20) became immortal. Purgatory was invented so that the immortal soul would have somewhere to serve out its penance after death. Money could be paid to the Church to speed your dead relatives through purgatory. The commandment to love your enemies and to do good to them was replaced by the doctrine of a ‘just’ war whereby one's enemies could be killed. Heretics in addition to excommunication were to be burnt at the stake. The saints instead of sleeping in the dust awaiting the return of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13) became alive in heaven to receive devotions.

The list goes on; showing that Christianity fell into the same error as the Jews in their ‘Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’.

The result for those who are deceived will be the same as for the Jews.

Matthew 15:14... if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

For this reason it is important that we compare Church teaching with scripture.

Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

If we would not worship God in vain, the commandments of men have to be separated the commandments of God.

I hope this helps.

Glenn Smith