The Era Of The Hypocrites

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you [a]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 men’s 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. They love the [b]best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

Matthew 23:1-7

Back in the late 1990s, the popular buzzword we hear almost daily were the new millennium or the Y2K bug. I recalled those were the days when the Internet was in its early stage of inception, people were beginning to discover and became instantly fascinated when they started loading their first webpage on their computer screen using Netscape. You probably haven’t heard of Netscape, but if you do, you are in my generation of the early adopters.

The world then was entering to the initial days of the year 2000 and the term the new millennium were the hype words spoken by many to describe what was to them a numerical new era on the Gregorian calendar. There was much fanfare and much to celebrate about. Computer users were busy upgrading to the latest edition of Windows 2000, whereas Macintosh fans were hustling to get their hands on a brand new iMac G3, a bubbly shaped Mac computer rolled out to the market in various translucent rainbow colors.

To the global community, the millennium years had begun. Year 2000 marked the beginning of a new thousand years towards the year 3000. It was good. It was thriving and refreshing for the marketplace. Despite the short setback known as the Dotcom bubble, the United States’ NASDAQ composite index rose 400% by March 2000 and subsequently fell 78% from its peak by October 2002. And the garden variety of global indexes never looked back ever since, but only to scale higher and higher over coming years. The fear of not wanting to miss out, among investors, were never greater than ever.

Nevertheless, the term the millennium years was nothing than a copy of the thousand-year rule and reign of Christ when He returns to earth, as vividly described in Revelation 20. In his vision, John saw thrones, and he saw the souls of those who had been murdered for their witness to Christ Jesus and for their allegiance to the Word of God, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The true millennial years to come will be an era of immense holiness and a time when sin will be capped to its limits. The devil and false prophets will be cast away and not permitted to deceive the nations anymore (Revelation 20:10).

It will be a time of gradual decline of sin as the people on earth shall begin to embrace purity and holiness as desired by God. Temptation shall be limited and worked down to eventually zero. It will also be a time of great judgment when the books are opened, the Book of Life. The living and the dead shall be judged according to their works. Make no mistake about this, that’s precisely what is written in Scripture; the dead shall be judged according to their works (Revelation 20:11-15). Therefore, it is neither good to be dead nor to have no credible works of holiness in our hands.

So if your pastors are still preaching an alternative gospel to you, that salvation is attainable by professing with the mouth alone, I suggest you reconsider the options of grace that are still available now, and read, study the Bible carefully what it says. The new millennial years of this world is nothing more than fads and fiction, drummed up by deceivers to falsify and to circumvent the truth, ultimately misleading the nations into believing that there’s an alternative to the holiness that is desired by God.

Inside our modern churches, this alternative fad to the truth has already been seeded and promoted for decades. It is used by unscrupulous leaders who called themselves pastors or men of God, to generate followings for their own monetary gains. The sudden explosion of pretense of Godly divinity is clearly seen in most charismatic churches of our times. In Matthew 23, Jesus used the scribes and the Pharisees to describe this group of people, whom He labelled them as hypocrites. They are hypocrites for they say they do, but do not do. “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.” (Matthew 23:13).

We are still living in the era of the hypocrites. We are not out of the woods yet. The true millennial years mentioned in Revelation is close at hand. And the true new millennium years, the real thousand years of holiness, its beginning shall mark the end of the era of the hypocrites.