(April 22, 2015 at 7:40 pm)Nope Wrote: Jesus made several statements that seem to indicate that Christians shouldn't save their money. Are there any Christian groups that don't believe in saving money or don't use banks?Clearly Jesus had a lot to say about thinking on possessions, but it's not quite what it appears.
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There are also many Old Testament verses about not charging fellow Hebrews usury. There are more verses against charging interest than there are about homosexuality being an abomination. If the number of verses influenced Christian politics than there would be mass protests against banks.
I don't know if there are similar verses in the Quran that seem to go against saving wealth. Are there Muslim groups that don't use banks?
For most C1 Jews, by possessions was generally meant land. (The Hebrew words for possession, land, inheritance and rest are closely aligned.)
Therefore rather than being an attack on C21 style materialism, Jesus was asking them to sit loose to what for a C1 Jew was their slice of the Holy Land, promised by God to his Holy People. It would have been seen as a rather outrageous attack on C1 Israel's basic religious tenets. Jesus was changing religious ideas radically here.
Joseph of Arimathea remained a property owner, and Zacchaeus only gave away half (also minus restoration), so ownership wasn't seen as wrong as such. The same goes for the Greek churches which supported the poorer, rather than went for shared ownership.
(Matt 19:21) Jesus is challenging the general assumption that the rich would be part of God's Kingdom. Note the replacement of some of the ten commandments- this was more about an anti-idol instruction to avoid putting God in second place to money. It would have been person specific.
The OT restrictions on usury/interest would be part of the Torah that became optional after the resurrection.
The parable of the Talents (Matt 25) is an interesting one. The King (aka God) appears to commend the two who used silly interest rates/kneecapping/loan shark practices (that's how the story goes), and condemns the one who refuses to get involved.
(Long story short, it's about Jesus fulfilling God's return to Israel in judgement.)
Muslim banks can't do interest AFAIUI (Google "Riba Islam").
