To the Capitalist Christian - Jesus the Social Capitalist

originally posted by: buster2010

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Evangelical conservative Christians have probably never read the new testament, they certainly pay no attention to "DO not judge others" and "turn the other cheek" , so reading about Jesus' economics? Pretty sure that would be no.

Seeing how they want to keep cutting programs that helps the poor it makes a person wonder why they call themselves Christians.

Name an actual program that has been cut. One that no longer exists.

a reply to: Isurrender73

I am not Jealous. I have no desire, NONE, to be a billionaire. I have no desire to exploit society.

Ah, I see. You don't want it so nobody else should want it.

If you're so indifferent to materialism why do you care if someone else is not?

After all if this is about being a good Christian then live and let live.

originally posted by: rockintitz
a reply to: Isurrender73

I am not Jealous. I have no desire, NONE, to be a billionaire. I have no desire to exploit society.

Ah, I see. You don't want it so nobody else should want it.

If you're so indifferent to materialism why do you care if someone else is not?

After all if this is about being a good Christian then live and let live.

Because their are 3.5 million homeless, and the billionaires don't give a crap about them. If the one's who have the money won't fix the problem, then the people need to take back the money and fix the problems ourselves.

Unless 3.5 million homeless people and 21 million jobless simply don't matter to you.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This is about being Christian. Christ told me to take care of those in need. And the only way to do that is to fix the system.

a reply to: Isurrender73

Here's the thing:

You could confiscate all the money, all the wealth, all the land, etc., and divide it out equally to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. And it wouldn't take long at all before there would be some who had a lot of wealth and some who had none again.

The reason for this is because some people know how to handle their wealth and use it wisely. Some people are greedy. Some people are foolhardy and wasteful. Some people know how to produce and be successful, to take what they have and make it multiply.

You can try to assign blame and greed all you want, but there is plenty to go around and it doesn't all rest with the wealthy. There is a reason why Christ taught that the poor would always be with us and it was a lot more complicated than just that the wealthy are taking advantage of them. Yes, we ought to help where we can, but in the end, charity is also a personal decision. By their fruits shall you know them. Forced charity, isn't.

a reply to: Isurrender73

Jesus was NOT a capitalist. He didn't work a day in his biblical life! Jesus was a Communist!

Mark 10:17
As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. 19 But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’[a]”

20 “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

21 Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!” 24 This amazed them. But Jesus said again, “Dear children, it is very hard to enter the Kingdom of God. 25 In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

a reply to: Isurrender73

I don't agree with your premise (that the Bible teaches controlled capitalism), but I like the concept.
If you look at the opening chapters of Acts, you'll see that "the believers shared everything, and had everything in common" - that goods and property were sold in order to care for the needs of the group, and so on. This is more akin to communism than it is to capitalism - though obviously communism has one fatal flaw: humans (we're greedy. This is why socialist forms of governance always break down).

You also lost me in the latter paragraphs.
Taking a single Bible verse ("religion that God accepts as pure and faultless...") and extrapolating that out to suggest that it doesn't matter what you believe about Jesus is very poor exegesis, and flies in the face of the entire thread of Scripture. Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father except through me."

Every paragraph, every word, every letter in the Bible is aimed at Jesus Christ. It is quite literally all about Him. Take that away, and you have nothing - just another failed social construct.

a reply to: Awen24

Jesus is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within us is the Way, the Truth and the Life. If one doesn't believe Jesus is the Holy Spirit, but does believe in and follow the Holy Spirit, they will be forgiven for not accepting that Jeus is the Holy Spirit.

This is not complicated and agrees perfectly with the word's that are accredited directly to Jesus. It is about following the Holy Spirit.

The internal voice of Love and Reason, the Holy Spirit guides us with the same message of Christ from within.

The message of the internal devine voice is the same fundamental message of Jesus. Love God, and Love your neighbors. If you do those two things you can be forgiven for everything else.

Ghandi is a perfect example of a man who followed the Holy Spirit but questioned the divinity of Jesus Christ in the flesh. He is/was forgiven, since he did not blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

We are not instructed to follow the physical body of Christ, we are instructed to follow the Holy Spirit within.

Nearly all the sacred religious texts teach to follow the Divine Light. If a Buddhist follows the Devine Light, he is following Christ, since their is only one Devine Light, and the Buddhist teaching predates the Name Jesus Christ.

If the Buddhist follows the Holy Spirit they are forgiven if they did not understand that Jesus is the Devine Light that they follow.

These things are not as complicated as the church has made them out to be.

There are many loving people who believe in the Holy Spirit but don't consider Jesus the Holy Spirit. There is no reason to think that these loving people are condemned for being mistaken.

And Jesus already forgave them in the two verses I quoted.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave us the Holy Spirit, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

To a Christian they way I have interpreted John 3:16 is exactly the same as how it reads. To the non Christian, now they can understand what the message of John 3:16 truly means. This is not blasphemy.

This is why Jesus said this.

And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man WILL BE FORGIVEN, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Mathew 12:32