(August 6, 2014 at 6:56 am)Drich Wrote: Wealth in of itself is not the problem the pursuit and lusting after it is. The account of the rich young ruler is a prime example of that.
Yes we know how christians love to use their personal decoder rings to interpret scripture in the most convenient light. However, taking all of his sayings about wealth such as “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19), Luke 16:19-31, (Matthew 25:31-46), and 1 John 3:17 together and looking at the message as a whole, one cannot honestly rationalize holding a bank account and real estate in the form of modern wealth that would have beggared the mind of an apostle of that time.
While you can stretch Armstrong the interpretations of what jesus meant in relation to todays christians, you cannot stretch it so far as to change jesus' audience's interpretation. The Apostles had never seen or imagined the kind of wealth and ease of life that even a family in the middle class in the U.S. sees. The fabled king Salomon in his day would have lived with pests and fleas. Would have eaten food during winters that you nor I would have eaten. He had no toilet paper or dental hygiene products and everyone would have stank of body odor due to lack of deodorants and reliable indoor plumbing. Bedding was not soft and comfortable like todays' Thermopedic mattresses. Sweltering in the summer heat was all they knew, an air conditioned modern home would have put any palace to shame.
In summary, everyone at the time of christ, to whom christ was speaking to, would have definitely classified todays' wealthy preachers as abhorrent when even one poor man still walked the earth. Jesus' message was taken to mean that christians have a duty, a requirement, to have compassion for our poor brothers everywhere, and to share wealth with the poor, and not just the 10% to god level, but all of it, to the point that everyone had enough.
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