
Mine did not. I don't ever remember hearing about the sin of Hypocrisy in Sunday
school, not during the childhood years when kid's brains are sponges.
Hypocrisy got covered in the older youth group, but only in passing, as a
bad Pharisee thing.
It wasn't until I joined the now defunct
CrossWalk forums in the early 2000s that I dug into studying the
scripture dealing with hypocrisy on my own (because I desired and did win a debate taking on the "Don't Judge" trope โ both Mt 7:1 and Rom 2:1 contextually fall under Hypocrisy).
But
my findings and My Point is: With the exception of failure to accept
Jesus, Hypocrisy is probably the greatest of the "sleeper sins" that
civil law never addresses. Hypocrisy brought out Jesus' righteous anger
whereas the sins most people think are worse were met with compassion.
...if you are able to call out hypocrisy as a genuine warning instead of as an insult, that would be an act of love.
I keep running into people who post on political forums that REALLY, REALLY (without knowing anything about me) seem to be on a mission to convince me that Freemasons founded America. That America was corrupt and bad from the get-go.They take No Excuses for not swallowing their spiel! They particularly like to quote George Washington complimenting the Freemasons' good works in their attempts to convince me that he was "all in" and part of a traitorous plot to destroy the fledgling nation.
I don't buy that. The following is my answer to one of these folks:
This is somewhat misleading BECAUSE... Satan was late to the party. During colonial America, Freemasonry had not yet gotten a strong foothold. It was largely business networking, akin to the lower three levels of Freemasonry today: male socializing, contact hobnobbing, and a side of charity work. The deep weird stuff, the freemasonry of France, was an ocean away. The masons were present, but not strong enough to effectively influence the culture.
The TIPPING POINT on that can be traced
to around 1789-1791. By the Lord's Providence, America had her
Constitution written and ratified before the masonic infestation could
push their ideas with any degree of impact. That started to change when
Pierre L'Enfant leveraged those "business contacts" and obtained the
contract to design the new capital of Washington DC in 1791.
So here's the Truth:
The founding of the District of Columbia (Washington) was the beginning
of Freemasonry being able to make inroads in our government. Our
founding documents had been written and voted upon prior to masonic influence. Satan
was metaphorically still spreading tares when the Founding Fathers made
their covenants. By the time they germinated and the thief's crop could
be harvested, our Declaration of Independence (which Honored our
Creator), and our Constitution (which was patterned after biblical law)
had already been secured. Freemasonry has been a problem ever since, but
America was not founded upon it.
Zechariah prophesied:
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injuredโฆ 12:2-3
I do not think we are thereโyet. But the Bible runs many patterns, and we are in one of those foreshadowing systems. Various translations use drunkenness, staggering, intoxication, and reeling in place of 'trembling.' I believe that this International Court opinion opens the door to a biblical pattern when the nations of the world will be shaking, trembling, and staggering under a combination of political, technological, financial, and natural geomorphic events. The season has only just begun, but we had a hydrothermal explosion at Yellowstone yesterday, BRICS appears to have driven a gold rush, and the "democracy" party has a presumptive nominee that no one has voted on... 'Sounds like a pattern of shaking. And now the UN has provided a new catalyst!
If you are unaware of the UN Court ruling, here's the beginning of LifeSite's article covering itโ
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (LifeSiteNews) โ The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court serving the United Nations, ruled Friday that Israel is legally obligated to end its 57-year military occupation of internationally recognized Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible, evacuate hundreds of thousands of Jewish colonizers from settlements, and pay reparations to all Palestinians who have suffered injury or loss of land or property.
This non-binding 80-page legal opinion also judges that UN member states are obligated to โnot recognize as legalโ the situation resulting from Israelโs illegal occupation or โrender aid or assistanceโ to Israel in maintaining the situation. Furthermore, the UN, especially the General Assembly and Security Council, should strive to consider and implement the most effective means for bringing an end to the unlawful Israeli occupation of Palestine โas rapidly as possible.โ