Are reformed people, or at least some of them, Pharisees? Whether they are or not, at times this kind of accusation is heard and insinuation made. You hear someone say that one should not go to the beach on Sundays and someone else retorts: "that is being Pharisaic.” You hear someone insisting that a Reformed person should not go to the movies, and again the quick reply is: "Do not be so Pharisaic.” At times this accusation is also leveled against those who insist on the binding nature of the confessions.

Perhaps, at times, this accusation and insinuation is lightly made but, if there is any truth to it, it is a very serious matter. The Lord Jesus had warned His disciples for the leaven of the Pharisees, for their kind of thinking not only leads to the death of the prophets but also to the death of Christ Himself. If that kind of thinking is really found among Reformed people so that they may be referred to as Reformed Pharisees something must be done about it very quickly. The kind of leaven that has brought men to crucify the Christ may find no place in the church.

Nothing New⤒🔗

The suggestion and insinuation that Reformed people are Pharisees or at times have something Pharisaic about them is nothing new. In June of 1925 Dr. K Schilder held a speech on the annual Theological School-day with the title: Reformed Pharisaism? – are the Reformed the Pharisees of this age? That same year it was published in a brochure. In this speech he refers to a Rev. H W Laman who noted that a certain Rev. Zaalberg in 1860 had a sermon about the leaven of the Pharisees in which he had said:

They call themselves Pharisees, i.e. seceders… Can I help it that our seceded brothers did not understand Hebrew and therefore have chosen this unfortunate name?

The reference was to those who seceded from the old Dutch Reformed Churches in 1834. Rev. Zaalberg considered the seceders to be Pharisaic because they had insisted on adhering to the confessions. They were accused of adhering to the traditions of the fathers much like the Pharisees had.

In his speech Dr. Schilder first examines who the Pharisees really were and then compares their teachings with what Reformed people teach and practise. He comes to the conclusion that the Reformed are not Pharisees and if they have anything Pharisaic about them, which may happen, they have abandoned the Reformed faith. Seeing that so many years later one still hears of Reformed people being Pharisaic, it would be wise to take another look at who these Pharisees really were and whether Pharisaic teachings or practices are found among Reformed people.

Who were the Pharisees?←⤒🔗

When picking up a Bible Dictionary or Encyclopedia you may find some connection made between the reform that took place upon the preaching of Ezra and the teaching of the Pharisees. Through Ezra the Lord had called His people to repent and submit to the law. However, as Dr. Schilder points out, if there is some historic connection to be made we must not see the Pharisees as those who have continued according to the reform which took place in the days of Ezra, but as those who deviated from it terribly. Ezra had called the children of Israel to submit themselves to the Lord's will by obeying His Word, but the Pharisees undermined the Lord's will by putting human traditions above God's Word.

The Lord Jesus exposes this, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount. He first says that He has not come to destroy the law and the prophets and then says that not a jot or iota will pass from the law. He adds that whoever "breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" and then says, verse 20:

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

In the context, the Lord Jesus speaks not about how the Pharisees hold on to the revealed law too much but about how they fail to keep it.

The Lord Jesus also shows that keeping the law is a matter of the heart. In verses 21-26 He speaks about how in the sixth commandment one is not to think a lot of oneself for having refrained from committing murder, for this commandment goes much deeper. It addresses the heart - whether you hate your brother. Likewise then in verses 27-30 the Lord speaks about adultery to insist that it, too, in its fullest meaning, is a matter of the heart.

Perhaps what the Lord Jesus says in verse 33-37 about the oath shows even more clearly what the Pharisees were doing. As is evident from what we read in Matthew 23:16-20 the Pharisees had made a whole list of valid and invalid oaths depending on what object they swore by. Because many people were ignorant of which oaths were considered valid, people were often cheated. So, instead of using the oath to promote honesty it was used for dishonesty. These traditions did not uphold the law but by these traditions the law was being undermined. Thus one of the errors of the Pharisees was that they gave more authority to the traditions of men than to God's revealed law. These traditions were used to undermine the truth of God's law.

A second error of the Pharisees which is closely related to the first was that they made worshipping the Lord and keeping the law an external matter. Think of what the Lord says in Matthew 23:26-28:

Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are fall of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Notice that here, too, the problem is not that the Pharisees keep the law or are too zealous for the law but that their keeping it is outward and that inwardly they fail to keep the law.

A third error of the Pharisees was pride. They liked to show others how good they were. It is in contrast to them that in Matthew 6 the Lord Jesus tells us to give our alms in secret, not to stand in the synagogues or street corners to pray and not to make ourselves look dismal when fasting. The Pharisees did it to be seen by men. In Matthew 23 the Lord Jesus says of them in verse 5 that "all their works they do to be seen by men" and that they "love the best places at the feast, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi'." Along with pride is jealousy which they clearly showed when seeking to maintain their own honourable position over against others whom they perceived to be a threat.

A fourth error is that they relied on their own person and works for salvation. In Luke 16:15 the Lord Jesus said to them,

You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

This is also shown in the parable recorded in Luke 18:10-14 where two men go up to pray and the Pharisee prays, saying:

God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a Week; I give tithes of all that I possess.

This is in contrast to how the tax-collector humbles himself before the Lord and seeks His forgiveness. Perhaps this comes out even more in the letters where the leaders from among the Jews insist on circumcision and other ceremonies of the law in order to obtain salvation.

The Reformed faith – a Contrast to the Pharisees←⤒🔗

in Article 7 of the Belgic Those who know the Reformed Confessions will very quickly recognize a sharp contrast between them and the teachings of the Pharisees. One might even receive the impression that the confessions were written against the Pharisees. While the Pharisees teach the traditions of men, we maintain Confession that,

We may not consider any writings of men, however holy these men may have been, of equal value with the divine Scriptures; nor ought we to consider custom, or the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times and persons, or councils, decrees or statutes, as of equal value with the truth of God…

Likewise in Lord's Day 33 we confess that good works are those done out of true faith in accordance with the law of God and not those based on our own opinions or on the precepts of men.

Can anyone who insists on the binding nature of this confession still be accused of being Pharisaic? Only those who are ignorant of what the confessions say can really make that kind of accusation. By this confession the church rejects this Pharisaic error when it found its way back into the churches. This confession allows no room for any human ordinance to undermine the deep meaning and application of the law.

The second error of the Pharisees is also addressed in the confessions. When we pick up the summary of God's law in Lord's Day 2 to insist that the law requires us "to love the Lord your God" and "your neighbour as yourself", we maintain from God's Word that the law is much more than an outward keeping of some precepts. It is again addressed in Lord's Day 33 where the Heidelberg Catechism maintains from God's Word that the new life is "a heartfelt joy in God through Christ, and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good Works.” Confessionally we insist that obedience to the will of the Lord cannot be only an outward matter, but is a matter of the heart.

When Dr. Schilder writes about this he points out that those who accuse others of being Pharisaic when insisting that we should not do various things often only look at these outward things without considering what is behind them in die heart of those who teach it. What he implies is that it makes a lot of difference whether one insists on going to church on Sundays and staying away from the movies for the sake of these outward things themselves or whether it is done out of loving dedication to the Lord. The one is Pharisaic; the other is being faithful.

At times there are Reformed people who sinfully show pride and jealousy. However, anyone who has lived among Reformed people knows that pride and jealousy is not promoted but is known to be sinful.

The fourth error of the Pharisees is rejected the most strongly in the confessions for the gospel of salvation is to believe that even though our sins are very many and very great, we trust there is forgiveness through the blood of Christ. The Pharisees boast in what they have done, but we confess (Lord's Day 2) that after the fall into sin "I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour" and after the Lord renews us to live a holy life no one can boast of the good we do because it is a gift from the Lord and we confess, Lord's Day 44, that even then "the holiest have only a small beginning of this disobedience.” In the Belgic Confession and even more particularly in the Canons of Dort even the smallest attempt to make salvation depend on something besides Christ's sacrifice is strongly and conclusively rejected from Scripture.

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Reformed Pharisees?←⤒🔗

As has been shown, the reformed faith, as maintained in the confession, rejects the teaching of the Pharisees. It may happen that someone in the Reformed church holds to some Pharisaic teaching. However, such a person has deviated from the Reformed faith. We may therefore conclude that there are no truly Reformed Pharisees. Let us therefore be careful in making that kind of accusation. Labels like pharisaic are easy to give but end up being very cheap. The Pharisees were unfaithful in various ways and therefore if we are to help one another to hold on to the truth of God's revealed work, let us at least show each other the kindness of pointing out just where one deviates from the truth of God's Word.

When addressing those who questioned or tempted Him the Lord Jesus Himself more than once pointed at Scripture and insisted that "it is written.” The inspired writers of Scripture too show all respect for what the Lord has revealed in His Word and now that we have received the full measure of God's revelation for this life, how much more should we do so today. So long as we maintain the sola scriptura of the reformation, all Pharisaism is rejected!