He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things...

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. — Luke 1:52-53

“What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” —Luke 3:10-14

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.” — Luke 6:24-25

“Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.” —Luke 6:30

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage ware against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” — Luke 14:28-33

So why don't we all sell all our possessions and go help people in the Congo? Am I going to Hell? Is the Pope going to Hell?

Yes

There is no such thing as hell.

...
was jesus communist

>So why don't we all sell all our possessions and go help people in the Congo?
You can do that. But as my mum says "Charity begins at home".

>my true calling for my soul lies in the heavenly realms far above the worldly concerns of this temporary world
>uh except for wealth tho

You are interpreting it literally.
Which is incorrect.

...

Literally no argument.

Christianity started as a doomsday cult to undermine Imperial oppression. Easy to lambaste the rich when you yourselves are aesthetics in dire poverty.

Now that they themselves are the comfortable powers-that-be, they are in a conundrum. Thankfully you can always just reinterpret "God's Word" to ACTUALLY mean whatever is convenient for your institution. So the popes have their golden marys, the megachurches have their golden jesuses, the televangalists have their golden pianos, etc. Because apparently the God of all Time and Space likes extravagance exactly as a human does, gee wow.

Of course you could just quietly pray to yourself in your room with no golden anything, but face it, no one will be impressed or care, so you better be getting a nice fat self-esteem boost from it.

So that answers the "Congo" part. But how do you reconcile your ownership of wealth and possesions with the things Jesus said?

*ascetics

How do you interpret these verses?

So are you saying God miraculously sustains their coffers or are you full of shit?

Basically. Jesus was an anarcho-pacifist.

...

Not enough.

They take in way more wealth by far than they give out.

Go to bed Judas.

John 12:3 Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. 8 The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

>Is the Pope going to Hell?

Yes, he will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire a little more than 7 years from now.

/thread

Jesus said you cannot serve both God and money. I see this as similar to his other statement when he said "who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

It's about letting go of attachments to the physical and being more concerned with the spiritual progress of your own self. Jesus said you will receive much more in this life and the next, I view this as him saying you will find contentment and even enlightenment if you follow his teaching.

The problem is the translation, the bible does not translate very well into English.

The Vatican was built with wealth gained by Simony

Beauty ≠ extravagance.

How does this justify hoarding wealth at all? It looks to me like Jesus is rejecting Judas's proposition here because

A) Judas is a dishonest thief who may keep the profit from selling the ointment
and
B) "You will always have the poor, but not always have me," Well now he has ascended and we, as he said we would, still have poor. But now that he has ascended, we should give what we would give to him but cannot (material possessions) to the poor.

Jesus is in no way encouraging keeping your wealth and possessions here, and as I put in the OP he often says to exactly not do that. You are providing an example of him giving one specific exception under special circumstances (which I outlined above). I have provided many examples of him saying to give away all you own, with no special circumstances.

I do not understand your rebuttal at all.

Not that user, but be satisfied with your daily needs.

The rich are in a tough place though...because look. Lol I had money once, but long story short I lost it all.

Now there might be some people in this thread that understand what this is like, but when I lost all my money...the anger and frustration that followed. Just from having to eat less then I did prior....my new diet alone turned me into a cranky angry bastard. I mean the lifestyle I was attached to when I had money, it was crazy.

This is why I'll forever remember this one thing that I learned....no one can say anything in relation to these teaches, no one can offer an opinion worth examining, not unless they have been truly hungry.

To be truly hungry, maybe people in college will know this, but to be rich and then to lose everything, it's beyond painful. It's like pulling a scab off that isn't fully healed.

To be rich, to have real money, the perpetual state of satisfaction, it can cause a RIDICULOUS level of difficulty in creating separation from your belongings.

Like legit pain is felt when your wealth is stripped from you. Because everyone avoids pain...the rich will have issues forfeiting these things, that's just the truth.

Now God/Christ is flawless love and unconditional love, even when people know this and Christ reveals himself, to the rich, to the hyper-attached, these people will STILL have issues letting go when asked by God Himself.

Woe to them, woe them INDEED.

I doubt I would have been able to do it on my own, but I squandered all my wealth on drink and laziness man. Bills piled up, short sells in real estate, mortgage, it all ate me up.

Having all of it ripped from me though, it was seriously painful adjusting to a new lifestyle. But I learned from it, it was a necessary falling down. I'm actually thankful for it to this day.

I'm less spoiled because of it and being less spoiled generally means youre going to be less insufferable etc etc lol.

Not quite. He said you could not serve both God and Mammon.

Mammon is a demon god of greed, and people who worship Mammon desire ever increasing amounts of money in their possession, which they tend to hoard.

Like Mr. Burns.

"I would give away everything I owned, for just a little bit more."

>$10 million church is worthwhile if it brings in $1 million annually for centuries

What exactly does said church produce?

Sure, some money will have to be spent on things that you might not think about.

>electricity
>water
>insurance
>building costs
>communion
>etc.

Poverty, abuse, and lost denizens of hell.

You're the prodigal son; have you returned to the Father yet? Or are you still on the road back?

That's nice of you to say user, preciate' that. But yeah, always working on walking the straight and narrow. Always.

Supporting africans is not a good thing.

Do you at least give to the poor? Or even let the poor in your home area ask you for donations?

I mean its one thing to say no to poor people, its another to be walled in your gated community refusing to even see their needs.

Hopefully it brings people towards God and allows the faithful to experience a deeper faith.

Also,
>implying all businesses produce things
>there are no service based companies