A Moody title I'd like in Vyrso: Extreme Righteousness

Rosie Perera

I have this book in print and it made quite an impact on me when I read it about 17 years ago. I'd like to be able to search through it now as I reflect back on those lessons learned.

Extreme Righteousness: Seeing Ourselves in the Pharisees by Tom O. Hovestol (Moody, 1997)

JT (alabama24)

Rosie Perera said:

A Moody title I'd like in Vyrso

Unless Moody makes an ebook version of this resource available, it won't be coming to Vyrso. Since it is older, is there any chance it was once a Logos edition?

David Paul

The title of this book evidences one of the greatest blunders in the history of Christianity. Christian voices have long insisted (that is, assumed) that Yeishuu`a's statement in Mt. 5:20 is some sort of praise (albeit ineffectual) for the Pharisees. The way it is interpreted is..."If you can't be as totally awesome and fabulous as the Pharisees are, then you are ____ outta luck!" In other words, the Pharisees are (as the title of this book asserts) extremely righteous, and if you aren't even more righteous than them (an impossible task!!!), you can't enter the kingdom.

That interpretation is pure nonsense. Why? Because the Pharisees didn't have a righteous bone in their bodies. To be a Pharisee, by definition, was to be in a constant state of unrighteousness. Why? Because the defining characteristic of Pharisaism was the practice of twisting, truncating, refabricating, and in every other way imaginable, violating the Law. As Josephus puts it, the Pharisees would have unanimously won the award for "Most Likely to Change the Law".  But you don't have to take my word for it...Mt. 23:27, 28.

In Yeishuu`a's view, anyone who has a show of being religious but refuses to keep the Law is a Pharisee. By that definition, it ought to be pretty easy for most folks to do what the book says and see themselves in the Pharisees.

Literally anyone who has a modicum of desire to do what YHWH actually says is far more righteous than any Pharisee. That doesn't mean such people are a shoo-in for the kingdom, but they certainly aren't excluded merely because of a comparative evaluation to the Pharisees.

That said, I'd love to see this book available in Vyrso.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/723044#Comment_723044

alabama24 said:

Rosie Perera said:

A Moody title I'd like in Vyrso

Unless Moody makes an ebook version of this resource available, it won't be coming to Vyrso. Since it is older, is there any chance it was once a Logos edition?

No, it was never a Logos edition as far as I know, and there is no ebook edition available (e.g., Kindle). But one can always hope, that's why I requested it.

David Paul said:

The title of this book evidences one of the greatest blunders in the history of Christianity. Christian voices have long insisted (that is, assumed) that Yeishuu`a's statement in Mt. 5:20 is some sort of praise (albeit ineffectual) for the Pharisees.

David, the point of the book is pretty much what you're saying. Not praise of the Pharisees at all. They were judgmental of others because they thought they were more righteous than everyone else, but quite the contrary. Jesus was using sarcasm about them in Mt 5:20. I don't know of any Christians who think Jesus was ineffectually praising the Pharisees there. His comments about them there have to be seen in the context of his overarching opinion of them, as expressed in Mt 23 for example.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/723072#Comment_723072

Rosie Perera said:

But one can always hope, that's why I requested it.

You can hope, but ALL vyrso resources are auto converted from the publisher files. (I know you know... but others might not know). 

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/723074#Comment_723074

alabama24 said:

Rosie Perera said:

But one can always hope, that's why I requested it.

You can hope, but ALL vyrso resources are auto converted from the publisher files. (I know you know... but others might not know). 

I know, but maybe this request would cause Faithlife to put some pressure on Moody to do an ebook version of this. I know, it's not likely given Faithlife and Moody are on somewhat shaky terms still. But, as I said before, one can always hope.