The Four Kinds of People Which Jesus Christ Dealt With:

Those four kinds are still with us today. These were:

• The Pharisees:

.... We often see them as evil in their intentions but they really very pious Jews …. Endeavoring to keep the Jewish faith in a sincere way. They had a great concern for God’s way. They were separate from the world, being devoted to their religion. Their idea was to get rid of sin through precise rules and regulations of living. God was in their man-made box of expectations. Jesus had a lot of trouble with these kinds of people. These are equated to many fundamentalist Christians of today who have ‘christianised’ rules and regulations of living. If Jesus were amongst us today, He would a lot of trouble with these kinds of people.

• The Herodians:

…. Their approach was to keep everyone happy ….. don’t rock the boat. They are represented today by very liberal Christians who accept anyone else’s religion or spirituality as being valid. They found Jesus abhorrent when said He was the way, the Truth and the Lighte came to bring a sword.

• The Zealots:

….. They were all for forcing change in society by violence. They found Jesus abhorrent when said they represented. They are also represented today by members in other religions::

• Very extreme Islamic jihad terrorists.
  
• Radical Hindu’s in India against Christians
  
• Radical Buddhist priests in Shri Lanka against Christians
• Protestant Christians against Catholic Christians as in Ireland in recent years.

• The Essenes:

Very committed Jewish believers. They retreated from society by going and setting up an ideal spiritual society in separate communities eg. Qumran

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