Satan says: “Never Judge!”

By Richard Salbato

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own…" Matthew 7:1-3

This is the most quoted passage for people who believe we should all be nice and kind to all people’s opinions, beliefs, politics and life styles. Of course, Satan is a master of Scripture and used true Scripture to tempt Christ in the desert.  This is because Satan likes to take things out of context to corrupt the meaning of it. When you take the entire bible in its simplicity, you will see what Christ really means in the passage above. 

In Matthew 7 we see how we are not to judge.  We are never to condemn anyone to Hell.  Not even the Church ever pronounces anyone in Hell.  We are also never to use a double-standard, judging one person by one set of standards and another, even ourselves, with different standards. This is hypocrisy.  Taking the speck out of our brother’s eye is not condemned in itself. Hypocritical judgment is what Jesus condemns.  We must judge ourselves in the same way we judge the actions of everyone.

The idea we are not to judge at all is a lie.  We cannot judge a person’s state of soul or his motives, that is true.  We are not to judge out of hypocrisy – a double standard.  We are, however, to make proper judgments (borne out of love) to admonish a sinner in order to encourage him to repentance. That is the goal, to save the sinner’s soul, to lead him to repentance. How can we change what we do not judge.

We are to make judgments of behavior, attitudes, and ideas in order to protect our loved-ones and ourselves from danger. People who practice dangerous and sinful behaviors, or have dangerous attitudes and ideas, we are to avoid. We cannot avoid them until and unless a judgment has been made that such people are of the type the Bible tells us to avoid.

The idea we are not to judge is a doctrine of demons.

Satan would love us to avoid making judgments. If he can convince us of this, sin can abound without criticism, and we could continue in our sin without accountability. Then the philosophies of Satan can contaminate all of us with impunity unchecked and unchallenged.

St. Paul instructs us to judge:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead,… preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.—2 Timothy 4:2-4 

Who are these teachers Saint Paul is referring to, who turn people away from truth?  Today, we find them in the philosophies of Humanism and Modernism, and infiltrated into the Catholic Churches.

In the modern world starting with the French Revolution, which preached liberty from faith and morals, even marriage, Modernism has the demonic philosophy that all ideas have equal value and no one should be challenged for holding a view that is contrary to human logic and reasoning. 

When between 1910 and 1920 the Catholic Monarchies fell to secularism, even the bishops and priests started to cave into this idea of freedom of conscience even from the teachings of the Church on faith and morals.  The one most responsible for introducing this false philosophy into the Church was the Catholic theologian, Jacques Maritain.  This was about the same time as the rise of secularism and the republics in Europe, around 1920.

Maritain’sIntegral Humanism” was so eminently acceptable to prelates anxious to appease Caesar that it could not fail to be accepted. 

Maritain explains that integral humanism “...is a universal fraternity of men of good will belonging to different religions or none (including even those who reject the idea of the Creator). It is within this fraternity that the Church should exercise a leavening influence without imposing itself and without demanding that it be recognized as the one true Church. The cement of this fraternity is the virtue of doing good, and understanding grounded in respect for human dignity.’

This idea of universal fraternity was neither original nor new, because as stated above, it was already advanced by the philosophers of the Revolutionaries of 1789. It is also the fraternity beloved of freemasonry and even of the Marxists.

Maritain said:

“Within this “universal fraternity”, the Church must be neither intransigent nor authoritarian. She must know how to make religion acceptable. And so that the truths of faith and morality may be acceptable, Christianity must be practical rather than dogmatic.’

Pope Pius XI fought against this humanism, whereas Pope Paul VI was an admirer of Jacques Maritain. It is from this admiration and influence that Paul VI leaned over backwards to see things in the anti-Christian world’s perspective and unhesitatingly accepted the terms of reference upon which Jacobins, Freemasons, Marxists - the enemies of the Church – had hitherto been insisting.  He maintained the faith of Peter but made no preeminent place for Peter’s faith over other opinions. 

As a result, Vatican II held to the faith of Peter, but the so-called “Spirit of Vatican II” corrupted truth and morals into just the opinion of each and every individual. 

Never Condone Error

Error is never on the same level of dignity with Truth. But if we are not confronted in our error, how can we be motivated to move toward Truth?  If we do not challenge error, we condone and tolerate it.  What we condone and tolerate, we cannot change. We are especially to judge the teaching of teachers, publishers and leaders because if we don’t, then we allow sin and Satan to exploit the weak and ignorant and vulnerable with his lies.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states (No 1868): "… we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them: by (among several actions on our part) not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so."

In other words, we become a part of the sin that we cooperate with even in our silence.  We cannot "disclose" a sin without first assessing (yet another word for judging) that the sin is in fact there in the first place.

Who am I to judge?  Well, I know I judge correctly only if my judgment is the echo of the Church. In other matters, I must rely on an educated logical mind because some things are self evident, like the very existence of a God.

In matters of faith and morals, we must submit our opinion to the Church because Christ gave the Church the authority to guard His Truth. The Church is the "pillar and bulwark [foundation] of truth" as St. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 3:15.

One of the Spiritual Works of Mercy is to "Admonish the sinner."  How can we admonish the sinner, if we do not first judge it to be a sin?  We are not judging the person, but we are judging his actions to be sinful – not his motives, but his actions. 

Truth cannot be compromised—even if it makes enemies of our relatives. Some people will not accept the truth and will hate those who preach it. Truth demands judgment.  If we see sin or error, we must call it for what it is.

Be Nice

If all is equal there can be no value distinctions, only different but equal assertions that have equal validity.  Insisting that we all be nice to each other does this. This "niceness," of course, is a mask for obfuscating the truth.

The word, "nice", in this context means a civility that demands "agreeable" demeanor even at the compromise of truth. It is better to be agreeable than it is to tell the truth. And with this value of agreeableness, error goes unchallenged and truth obfuscated. 

Jesus is seen as a 60’s flower-child type person who is a mild mannered milquetoast, gentle as a lamb, always agreeable and never harsh.  This image of Jesus is a demonic lie. It is a delusion. It is a delusion because the Scriptural evidence does not support this image as the "exclusive" way in which Jesus conducted himself, yet despite the clear record of Scripture, people insist upon the milquetoast image.

Not So Nice Scripture

Jesus never compromised truth for niceness and cordiality: Matthew 3, 7, 10,12, and 23 use words like division, swine, cast off, brood of vipers, hypocrite, etc. 

In addition, His apostles preaching His teaching instructs us to not associate with those calling themselves Christian but living a life of sin (1 Corinthians 5). Scripture also tells us to avoid certain people who pretend to be religion but who deny its power (2 Timothy 3), to shun heretics and divisive people (Titus 3), and even to hand unrepentant sinners over to Satan (1 Corinthians 5).

All these things require judgments to be made. When confronted with the situation that warrants it, the teachings of Jesus fly in the face of niceness. The teachings of Christ step on toes.

Christ calls us to truth, even when it hurts.

To know that we are to judge and how we are to judge, we must look to other passages.  In Titus 3:9-11 we read:  "perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned." We don’t condemn him, he condemns himself, but we do judge him to be divisive beyond tolerance because we tried to admonish him (judge his behavior and warn him of his sin) twice but he would not repent.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 Do not associate with people calling themselves Christians who are "guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber—not even to eat with such a one."

Then Paul verse 12 "Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside."

St. Paul also tells us in 2 Timothy 3:1-9 that we are to avoid people who are "holding to a form of religion but denying the power of it" (e.g., liberals who strip our Church of its sacramental power). Others we are to avoid include those who are "Lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…".  How do we avoid them if we do not judge their actions to be sinful. 

And finally, St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 that some people must be excommunicated—completely removed from fellowship and handed over to Satan. Paul specifically says, "I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing… you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Objective and fundamental truths are either true or they are not; they cannot be both true and untrue at the same time. Thus we must rely not upon our own understanding, but upon God who understands all: “Do not rely on your own insight [understanding]. Be not wise in your own eye." —Proverbs 3:5-7 “[God]; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.—Job 37:24; 38:1-5a, 17-18; 38:33; 39:26 

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith —1 Timothy 6:20-21

St. Paul declares:

For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. … But we will not boast beyond limit, but will keep to the limits God has apportioned us…" 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, 13a

St. Paul teaches us:

For there are many insubordinate men, empty talker and deceivers…they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach... therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the truth.—Titus 1:13

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead,… preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.2 Timothy 4:2-4 “