John chapter 09 - Judgement

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John 9:1   And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

The blind man never found Jesus. Jesus found the blind man.

Our salvation depends on Jesus coming to rescue us.

Jesus, the Light of the world, meets a blind man who sees no light.

By granting him natural eyesight, Jesus symbolizes that He can open the spiritual insight of a spiritually blind person and turn that person into a believer.

John 9:2   And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Disadvantages and problems are common in our lives.

John 9:3   Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Disability and difficulties are not necessarily a symptom of a sinful life. Big problems in our lives do not necessarily mean that we have sinned. They can simply be an obstacle for God to overcome so that He can demonstrate His power.

John 9:4   I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

To be effective for God, that person has to be sent by God, not by man.

But all too often, the people that God wants to use end up being sent by their church. Then the church controls them rather than God.  There has to be a personal relationship between that person and the revealed Word that is far stronger than any "group-think" persuasion of the church.

Jesus was on the earth for a specific mission, that included doing good and performing miracles. He had a precise schedule to complete, and He must fulfill the Scriptures that spoke of Him. He was concerned with what Scripture said and was not interested in His day's religious institutions that were obsessed with man-made commandments.

Matthew 15:9    But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

The Spirit of God dwelled in Him and guided Him in His words and actions.

Colossians 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Jesus was driven to complete His earthly ministry before His death at the next Passover feast.

Our lives should be driven by realizing that the great Tribulation is coming. Before then, Jesus must leave the throne of mercy to come down and catch up His Bride to meet Him in the air.

With Jesus no longer on the mercy seat, Gentile souls will no longer get saved in the Tribulation.

Only the Holy Spirit can teach us the truth.

John 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

But very few will want to understand the revealed Word.

Luke 18:8 ... Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Thus very few living people will be caught up to Heaven as part of the Bride.

Once the Holy Spirit catches the Bride up to meet the Lord in the air, then Life leaves the earth.

Romans 8:10   but the Spirit is life.

With Life gone, Death enters the world for the Tribulation time. Without the Holy Spirit, the church-goers who are left behind will be in darkness.

We live in the evening time of the Gospel. After us comes the night of the Tribulation. No salvation will be available for unsaved Gentiles. No church can then save their people from the horror of the Tribulation.

John 9:5   As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

While He lived, He set the ultimate example for us to follow.

The whole world could learn from Him and try to copy Him. His ministry lightens up the path that we should try to follow.

The ability of Jesus to give natural light and sight to blind eyes establishes Him as the spiritual light source. If He could give natural sight to a blind man, He can also give a spiritual insight of Scripture to the spiritually blind.

"Eve ate an apple", "Jesus was born on 25 December", "The pastor is the head of the church", "The seventh angel is the voice of God", "God is a Trinity", "God's name is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" -- All these are unscriptural statements that have no light. If we believe them, then we are blind to portions of the Bible.

Why do we believe such statements? Because they were taught to us by our church leaders. So it is the head of the church, a modern-day Pharisee, who keeps us blind.

Church doctrines today are all too often just opinions, masquerading as truth.

Church leaders feed people with highly selective information until they see things that way. After a while, the church people give up proving their beliefs from Scripture because the church leaders cannot do that. Then the people just complacently accept what the church leader says, and they become church-goers -- not Bible believers.

Chained to their beliefs, church-goers become unwilling and unable to free themselves.

Daniel 11:26   Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him,

Meat is a symbol of doctrine. Listening to preachers who believe portions of the Bible, instead of all of the Bible, is the cause of our downfall. Beware of a preacher who says that a certain Scripture is irrelevant, or just a detail, or that a verse in the King James Version of the Bible is a wrong translation. A false teacher will also claim that there is a mistake in the Bible, or that there are portions of the Bible that contradict each other. If we listen to them, then we are being fooled.

Matthew 4:4   But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

2 Timothy 3:16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Doctrine implies authority. Reproof means that we have done wrong.  Correction of our wrong beliefs.  Instruction in how to understand God's Big Plan.

We, humans, have no righteousness of our own.

ISAIAH 64:6   But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;

ROMANS 4:5   But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

We only have righteousness when we have faith in God's revealed Word.

Every Scripture has these deeper meanings even if we are too blind to gain these insights. Thus we must keep striving to see the deeper values of each Scripture.

Luke 8:18   Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.

If you believe the revealed Word that you have heard, you will be given more revelation of the Bible mysteries. As you deny a revealed Scripture, so you see less light and begin to lose the knowledge of Scripture that you once had.

John 9:6   When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,

Religious leaders are exalted.

But when Jesus wanted to cure a blind man, he used dust. Dust is as low as you can get.

We are all made from a handful of dust. By returning to his dusty origins, the man gained his vision.  So, Jesus teaches us the importance of being unimportant and getting back to the original beliefs of the first church age.

All of Adam was made from the dust of the earth. Being blind meant that some vital component of his eyes was missing. Those missing chemicals will be found in dust.

Spit comes from the mouth of God. Symbolizing the Word that comes from the mouth of God. The spit was mixed with humble dust, which provided the missing elements for his eyes.

John 9:7   And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

This is a deep truth. In the place where the blind man was, he was unable to see. If he left that place, then he would be able to see.

Our church leaders have made us blind to Scripture with their man-made doctrines and opinions. So Jesus stands outside the church in the final church age of the Laodiceans. Only outside the church can we see Him as the revealed Word.

Inside the church, we are formed into the pastor's image as we catch the pastor's spirit.

Revelation 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

Revelation 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

The pool of Siloam was water.

Washed in the water of the Word -- that enables us to see and understand the Bible.

We can only achieve God’s purpose in our lives if He sends us out to work for Him. Man cannot send us. The church cannot send us. Only God can send us if we are to achieve God’s will.

Ephesians 5:25   Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

:26     That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

We wash ourselves spiritually by believing and living by the Scripture. Only when we repeat what is written in Scripture can we claim to be sent by the Lord Jesus.

John 9:8   The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?

People could not believe the change in him. A blind man suddenly sees. Wow! What a difference.

This symbolizes being born again with a spiritual insight that can see what the Bible means. People notice the great difference when the sinner has been turned into a saint. The unbeliever who rejected Scripture becomes the believer who can see the Light in the Bible verses.

John 9:9   Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.

Satan always has a cunning deviation. No, this is not the man. This is just someone who looks like him. But the man said, "I am the man that was blind".

The man who was healed had a very definite testimony. He did not give in to the opinions of those who chose to doubt.

A big curse today is competitive Christianity.

Great miracles occur, but if they are not in my church, I ignore them and hope that they will go away. After all, each church-goer is convinced that only their church is right. All the other 45 000 different denominational and non-denominational churches must be wrong. Why? Because I have been fooled into thinking that only my church is right. With this logic, we become the foolish or fooled virgins.

John 9:10   Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?

The Jewish neighbours were baffled. Something had happened, which was way above their abilities. They were simply out of their depth.

Now they try to interrogate the healed man to find some fault. Some excuse so that they could reject what had happened.

John 9:11   He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.

So the Jewish neighbours now demanded to know where Jesus was.

They could not accept the fact of the miracle. This miracle was a major problem for them. They simply could not believe in a miracle.

They hoped that a flood of questions would somehow make this whole problem go away.

John 9:12   Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.

But the man replied that he did not know as Jesus had moved on.

Now their unbelief escalated.

Because they could not believe in Jesus, they called in the religious leaders. They were now on safe grounds because the religious leaders also did not believe in Jesus.

John 9:13   They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.

They brought their religious leaders with only one intention -- to deny what Jesus had done. Today church leaders are brought in to deny what the Scripture says.

Ask a church-goer why God was punishing Eve for being pregnant as she had a conception, and they rush to church leaders in the hope that they can explain it away. That way, they effectively deny what the Scripture says.

Genesis 3:16   Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;

Ask them why God, as a punishment, chose to multiply Eve's one conception and they are baffled because God had originally told them to multiply and replenish the earth.

But now, God wants to greatly multiply her conception. Far more than He had originally intended. Why?

Genesis 1:27   So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

:28   And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

Now multiplying was part of her punishment together with difficult childbirth. But this was not part of Adam's punishment.

Why did God choose a punishment for Eve that Adam could not share?

The questions grow as the church leaders evade the issue of original sin, keeping their own people in the shadow of the leader's ignorance.

So the church leaders reject the revelation of the Scriptures brought by the seventh angel or messenger and deny his teachings and leave their church members in the dark. So the church-goers remain blind to original sin.

Revelation 10:7   But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

The truth has been revealed today. But church leaders are now involved in denying the revelation of the Bible mysteries. Denying the revealed Word.

Ask them why God accepted the shed blood of an animal as the atonement for sin, and you just get a baffled look.

Jesus now challenged the man-made traditions of religious leaders.

Conducting a religious service and preaching on a Saturday Sabbath was hard work for the religious leaders. Yet the Law of Moses said that they were not to work on the Sabbath. So they ignored the fact that the Jewish religious leaders broke the Sabbath law.

Obeying what was in the Old Testament was part of the Jewish Law.

Isaiah 42:18   Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

Getting the blind to see had to be done to fulfill this Scripture. But none of the Pharisees could do it because it was beyond human power to do so. Only God could fulfill this Scripture.

John 9:14   And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

Shock and horror -- Jesus had dared to heal a blind man on the Sabbath day.

Instead of realizing that God had performed a miracle, they chose to classify the miracle as work. Thus they claimed that it broke the Law of Moses. This was a hypocritical conclusion because Pharisees worked hard when they led the Sabbath worship in the synagogue.

Then there was the issue of helping in an emergency.

Luke 14:5   And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?

:6    And they could not answer him again to these things.

If we are happy to help an animal out of its distress, what is wrong with helping a blind man out of his distress?

John 9:15   Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.

The Pharisees were happy. They had a technical excuse, which they thought allowed them to condemn Jesus. This was the spirit of "churchianity" at its worst. The miracle did not happen in my church, so something must be wrong.

Jesus, a Man who was not in subjection to the Pharisees, had done something that no Pharisee could do. Their ego was dented. They had to find an excuse to condemn Him.

John 9:16   Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.

The Pharisees said that Jesus could not be of God because they claimed that He was not allowed to heal on the Sabbath. But others sensibly pointed out that it was impossible for a sinner to do so great a miracle. A miracle that the Pharisees could not do. The only Person Who could open blind eyes was God.

John 9:17   They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.

The blind man now claimed that Jesus was a prophet. But Scripture had said that God would open the eyes of the blind.

Isaiah 35:4   Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

:5   Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

:6     Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

Jesus had performed such miracles. The deaf heard, and the lame walked, the dumb spoke.

The young man who had been healed obviously had the greatest respect for Jesus, as Jesus had done something that only God could do.

But the Jews were angry. Somehow they had to explain away this whole miracle.

Having met Jesus, the young man was more impressed with Jesus and less impressed with the Pharisee, who had previously been his synagogue leader.

John 9:18   But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight.

The Pharisees and neighbours were desperately trying to prove that he had not been born blind. That way they could deny  that a miracle had happened.

The neighbours knew that they had to agree with the Pharisees; otherwise, they would not be tolerated in the synagogue.

Church-goers have the same problem today. They are desperate to believe whatever their pastors say so that they can be accepted in their church and keep their popularity.

But to accept Jesus as God was far more than what the Pharisees were prepared to do.

So they called for the healed man’s parents, who basically said, "Why ask us? Ask our son".

John 9:19   And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?

John 9:20   His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:

John 9:21   But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.

The parents were scared. They were just like today’s church-goers who are terrified of being told to leave the church.

John 9:22   These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.

The parents, like typical cowardly church-goers, refused to acknowledge the miracle from outside their religious institution. They refused to stand up for Jesus and handed the question over to their son.

John 9:23   Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.

John 9:24   Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.

Notice their questioning -- We know Jesus is a sinner. You had better agree with us.

This is the typical bullying nature of religious leaders. They profess that they are right. Disagree at your peril.

They were not asking questions to establish the truth. They had already decided to reject Jesus and were now intimidating the man to agree with them.

Church leaders operate in the same way. Their minds are made up by the system they serve and they seek only to force others to agree with them.

John 9:25   He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.

The healed man bypassed the question of sin which the Pharisees would define in the way that suited them.

Very cleverly he brought the discussion to the main point that could not be denied. He has been blind, and now he could see.

The religious leaders would actually have preferred him to remain blind as a docile part of their congregation.

Now that he could see he was actually beginning to think for himself and was speaking in defense of Jesus.

John 9:26   Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?

Now the Pharisees again questioned how he was healed. Hoping to find some point that would enable them to condemn the miracle.

John 9:27   He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?

Now the healed man replies with an evangelistic answer.

The healed man says,  "I have already told you. Do you want to hear my testimony again because you are thinking of becoming disciples of Jesus?"

His brief contact with Jesus had changed his thinking, and made him unafraid to stand up to the religious leaders. He had already developed an evangelistic outlook whereby he hoped that his testimony might inspire others to follow Jesus.

John 9:28   Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.

Then the Pharisees ridiculed him. Their reputation as religious leaders was at stake. So they referred back to the Law of Moses as their authority.

Quoting that "The prophet Moses said ..."  was to them a higher authority than listening to Jesus. They rejected the man who followed Jesus, instead of following the Pharisees' mistaken interpretation of the prophet Moses' quotes.

History repeats itself today.

The Message preachers place the quotes of William Branham above Scripture.

"The prophet, William Branham, said ..." is to them more important than being Scriptural.

So they splice and misinterpret his quotes to produce a whole variety of Message churches. All of them different, yet each one claiming to be the truth. With their emphasis on selected quotes, they are not too concerned with proving their beliefs from Scripture.

John 9:29   We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.

They dismissed Jesus as irrelevant, as they claimed that only Moses had authority.

But this was sheer hypocrisy. Nowhere in the Law of Moses does it speak of Pharisees and Sadducees. Their man-made office of Pharisee was irrelevant as it was unscriptural.

Similarly, nowhere do we read in the New Testament of the pastor being the church's head. The word pastor is only mentioned once in the New Testament. And then certainly not in the role as the head of the church.

Human leadership always drifts away from the Bible pattern.

If they had really listened to Moses, the Pharisees would have known that Moses himself spoke of a great Prophet to come. And Moses had said that they must listen to this Prophet.

Deuteronomy 18:15   The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

But the Pharisees disobeyed Moses by refusing to listen to Jesus and rejecting Him.

Opening the natural eyes of a man was just a way for Jesus to show that His real ministry was to open the spiritual eyes of the people.

John 9:30   The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.

The religious leaders did not know Jesus Christ.  Jesus opens eyes naturally and also spiritually to give insight into the Word of God. The religious leaders used their man-made opinions and positions to blind the people to Bible truth. Like today, the end-time church's parable says that all ten virgins (clean women, symbolizing  saved Christians) are all asleep.

Matthew 25:1   Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

:2   And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

:5    While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

Revelation Chapter 3 says that the Laodicean's last church age (which means people’s rights) is blind but does not know it.

Revelation 3:14    And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:17   … and knowest not that thou art … blind,

This shows that the church is in complete confusion, but is complacently unaware of the fact.

All Christians praise their churches while the Bible is highly critical of the churches. Church-goers are unaware that the Bible says that they are asleep and blind.

Who is keeping the churches asleep? Their preachers and church leaders.

Just like it was in Jesus' day. There he appeared as a Man and the religious leaders rejected Him.

Today Jesus appears as the revealed Word, and the church leaders again reject Him. Thus He stands outside the church door knocking.

Revelation 3:14    And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock

Jesus is talking to the church, not to sinners.

John 9:31   Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

The healed man reminds the Pharisees that God does not listen to sinners. God listens to true believers.

John 9:32   Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.

Opening the eyes of the blind was an unheard of miracle. Not even Moses had been able to do that.

John 9:33   If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.

To achieve such a spectacular miracle, Jesus had to be sent by God.

John 9:34   They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

Notice their arrogance. They believed that as religious leaders they had nothing to learn. That they knew it all.

Just like the church of the Laodiceans today that says , "I … have need of nothing".  Nobody can teach them anything.

The religious leaders throw the healed man out.

When he was blind and docile, he was welcome. Now that he could see and think for himself, he was not wanted.

The same happens today. A spiritually blind person who knows very little Scripture is welcome in the church. But when God opens someone’s eyes so that they can begin to understand the mysteries of God, which church leaders do not understand, then the church is only too happy to throw them out. Church leaders do not want anyone who can ask awkward questions that the leaders cannot answer.

They now claim that the healed man was "altogether born in sins". That is why he was born blind.

But that contradicts their questioning of him because they were hoping by their interrogation somehow to discover that he had not been born blind. Then they could deny that a miracle had happened. But now they were claiming that being born blind was proof that he was a sinner. Thus their statements are contradictory.

Religious leaders who reject the true Word end up contradicting themselves.

Those who quote Matthew 28:19, and tell people to get baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then deny what Peter says in Acts 2: 38 about getting baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. They also cannot find a name for God because they do not know the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The three Persons in the so-called (unscriptural) Trinity cannot have one name. The Holy Ghost has no name in Scripture. Some claim His name is Comforter. But that is a title that describes what He does. Comforter is not a name. So the whole issue becomes more and more unscriptural.

"God the Son" is unscriptural. So is "God the Holy Ghost". "God the Father" is only found in the New Testament, never in the Old Testament.  Trinitarians cannot explain that.

John 9:35   Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

If a person has the courage to stand up to the church leaders and be cast out of the church, then Jesus will track them down. After all, Jesus is also outside the church.

In the church age of the Laodiceans, at the end of time, Jesus stands outside the church and knocks.  Thus you will no longer find Jesus inside the church. The church has rejected the revealed Word of God.

Now comes a sad irony. It is only by being thrown out of the church that you can meet Jesus Who is also outside the church.

John 9:36   He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?

Having met Jesus, he was keen to learn more. Proof of a person's meeting with Jesus is their willingness to learn from the Word.

John 9:37   And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

The religious leaders could not recognize Jesus as the Son of God. But a man who had been thrown out of the church could recognize Jesus as the Son of God.

John 9:38   And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

He worshipped Jesus, and not any other man.

One cannot believe all the revealed Word until one is cast out of the religious systems. Why?  Because of the very structure of the religious systems and churches that is wrong.

The New Testament never had a church that had a pastor as its head. By making the pastor who is in the church, its head, automatically means that the true Head, Jesus Christ, has to move outside the church. A body cannot have two heads.

John 9:39   And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

This is true judgement. Those who are outside the church are the unbelievers who cannot see. God will open their eyes and get them to obey the  Scriptures as their unscriptural church traditions will not block them.

Those churchgoers who are in the church, and claim that they can see, are actually only capable of seeing their church traditions and the opinions of their church leaders. As the world situation gets more complex, these people will get more and more out of tune with Scripture.

A classic example was the election of Donald Trump as President of America in 2016. Most of the churches claimed he would lose because he was a bad guy. He won.

Why? Because the good-guy presidents never had the courage to stand up against the more than a billion Muslims who claimed that Israel could not have East Jerusalem. The bad guy, Trump, stood up to the Muslims and recognized all of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  This confirmed the prophecy of the Jews returning to their homeland.

Trump, the bad guy, could see that prophecy had to be fulfilled. The blind could suddenly see a deep spiritual truth. He could see how important it is in God’s plan for a prophecy made more than 2500 years ago should come to completion.

In comparison to Trump, the previous presidents had been good guys, but they were totally blind to the need to fulfill Scripture. They were scared of Allah and the Muslims. So they did nothing for God.

So God now has to use the ruffians who are outside the church. This represents a  fascinating change at the end time. Good guys afraid to stand up for the Bible truths will get blinder and blinder. Ruffians with the courage to do God’s will are able to see and understand Scripture better than the good guys in the churches.

John 9:40   And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?

The religious leaders roared in protest. Just like the church leaders of today will do. They just cannot believe that they are blind to Bible truths. They have built up their religious systems to exalt the leaders so that they dominate the people. In their own minds the leaders feel that they are the elite of God’s people.

John 9:41   Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Natural blindness is not due to sin. So if the Pharisees were naturally blind, they could claim to have no sin. A blind person does not consciously close his eyes to block out the light.

But a person who claims that they can see has no excuse not to see the light. Rejecting the light means that the person has deliberately chosen to close his or her eyes.

The Pharisees loved their religious group more than they loved Jesus.

They decided to deny Scripture to stay with their chosen group.(What we today would call a church).

Sin is unbelief.

John 8:24   … for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

The Bible is our spiritual light.

Psalm 119:105   Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

By rejecting the Word of God, they turn out the light and then move on in the darkness, which is spiritual blindness.

James 3:1   My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

People must be very careful when they set themselves up as masters (schoolmasters, or teachers).

If teachers gets the doctrine wrong, then the teachers will answer for their own errors - as well as all the other people that they misled. The punishment of teachers will be severe if they are found to be wrong.

Teachers have one bad characteristic. They easily convince themselves that they are right. Today there are more than 45 000 different types of churches. All different, yet all claiming to be right. Obviously, there must be a lot of error circulating in the churches to explain all the differences.

What went wrong? Human leadership. Each leader or pastor makes his church in his own image.

And the church leaders will each answer for their unscriptural mistakes, because they set themselves up as guides but were themselves unable to explain so much of the Bible.

Thus the church-goers remain blind to much Scripture.

Luke 6:39   And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?

The ditch that looms in front of us all is the Great Tribulation.

Revelation 18:4   And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Remember that Jesus stands outside the church of the Laodiceans.

Isaiah 42:16    And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

At the end time, God is going to reveal His Word outside the churches. We will be guided in a way that is different to our church traditions.

God Himself shall guide the individuals.

A pastor claiming to be the head of his church is not the New Testament pattern any more than a Pharisee claiming to be the head of the synagogue. That was definitely not the Old Testament pattern.

The church becoming subject to a human head is its biggest weakness. But people will never realize this as long as they believe that their safety lies in being a church member.