Private jets, 13 mansions and a $100,000 mobile home just for the dogs: Televangelists 'defrauded t

Originally posted by John_Rodger_Cornman

Originally posted by natters
this is more common that we can even begin to guess I bet. Jesus will deal with them appropriately I'm sure.....I know a guy who attends a church where the pastor has a jet. He claims the guy needs it to properly evangelize. I say if hoofing it around is good enough for the son of God it's good enough for the pastor of any lame old church.

We'll at least they are not sacrificing human beings, raping children and drinking blood.

Perhaps not. I'll have to read it again but I don't recall them denying it.

This is nothing new, rather this has been going on for a very long time. Some of the things from history are littered with the tales of such. As it was recorded, there as that part about planetary indulgences, and that led to the start of the schism of the entire Christian church. Back then, it was common practice of selling letters of indulgence, to give either a shortened stay in purgatory or even forgiveness of sins. A Catholic Priest by the name of Martin Luther, found these to be against the bible in whole, and set up a Thesis, and started the entire Protestant revolution in the countries that were primarily Catholic in belief. This all came from the time of Pope Leo the X, who needed funds to complete St. Peter’s Basilica, and he entered an agreement with the Archbishop of Brandenburg. Money exchanged hands and the entire indulgence scheme was started. Martin found this to be wrong, as the granting of indulgences without repentance was contrary to the doctrine. And he is stated to have said: To assert that the pope can deliver souls from purgatory is audacious. If he can do so, then he is cruel not to release them all.

This of course led to many of the different break away church’s and beliefs, including the formation of the English protestant church.

Come forward in time and we are seeing the exact same things occurring now with the modern day people who are claiming to need money for God. But then again, why does God need money? Isn’t that really a lie, as it is really the church that needs the money for the upkeep and to pay for the minister and the staff?
The reality and truth is that many churches to need money, for the upkeep of the building, pay the bills, and pay the staff, however, when the minister is so rich as to forget the very people he is leading, that his very actions are in conflict with those who he is sworn to lead, whose very lifestyle is that of decadence, it no longer becomes valid and is contradictory to that of the teachings in the bible. The bible is a wonderful book, with many lessons that could help people live a better life, and ultimately be something far greater than what it is, just that those who follow it keep missing the message, and that is to live the message, not just to know it. They fail when it comes to the very essence of wisdom there, and at best tend to stray from the path 6 days a week.

George Carlin said this: Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or else you'll to to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! ...And he needs money! He's all powerful, but he can't handle money!

And this:
I want you to know, when it comes to believing in god- I really tried. I really really tried. I tried to believe that there is a god who created each one of us in his own image and likeness, loves us very much and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize...something is #ED-UP. Something is WRONG here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is NOT good work. If this is the best god can do, I am NOT impressed. Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being. This is the kind of # you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently run universe, this guy would have been out on his all-powerful-ass a long time ago.

reply to post by sdcigarpig


The world isn't screwed up because this the best God can do.
It's screwed up because this is the best man can do (at the moment).
We have free will to do whatever we want here on Earth, including turning it into a Hell.
To err is human, to forgive is divine.
If you were God would you forgive someone who ruined paradise and blamed him for it?

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Right. It's screwed up because its the "best the man can do"

Let me ask you a question: would you screw it up? Very important question.

Originally posted by sad_eyed_lady
You know a few rich fat cats who use God as a tool to bring themselves riches give the rest of us bad names. What these are doing is not people are not Christ-like in any way.

The message of these televangelists was/is Prosperity Theology. It was one thing to have decades ago a preacher in a poor church preaching these ideas to its small number of members, but a network created to spread the word that God shows his love to you by giving you riches made the movement go bigtime.

The flocks expanded into mainstream culture and affected political culture
God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the GOP Crusade for Values Voters

reply to post by Asktheanimals


If only it were as simple as "God"... but it has literally nothing to do with believing in such an entity...

Fret not LOL, the time of these people is about up, and it will be shown through some truly wondrous REVELATION.

My parents are also like yours, however they too, are lost big time, and will be in for a TREMENDOUS shock at the fact literally everything they believe in, on a subconscious level even, is completely off target, and meaningless.

Get ready to LEAD !

reply to post by Asktheanimals

In answer to your question, the being that ruined paradise, was never forgiven and forever punished for the rest of eternity. According to the bible, the serpent was stripped from walking and forever cursed to move along the ground on his belly. In the past God was not so forgiving, more vengeful and bound to take up arms, giving large flashy signs of his presence. Yet that has changed, now those signs are far and few between, and even now there are reasons behind such.

And as you asked, if I was God, then hypothetically speaking, I would not have left the garden so unattended to let things spiral out of control, nor would there be any doubt as if I did not did not exist, or what the message truly was. And there in lies the ultimate paradox, which is if we have free will, then why let things spiral out of control to where the choice is no longer there for us? How is that free will for any person?
Why is the message so confusing to so many as to where those are not sure what that message is anymore? Why allow all of the hypocrisy in the name of said God and ultimately why has God abandoned the Garden?


It is not the message that is wrong, it is the way it is interpreted and defined, picked and chosen over. One of the movies that actually went into this was the movie Dogma, here are a few quotes from such that pretty much outlines all of the problems with such:
I have issues with anyone who treats God as a burden instead of a blessing. You people don’t celebrate your faith; you morn it.

When are you people going to learn? It’s not about who’s right or wrong. No denomination nailed it yet, because they’re all to self-righteous to realize that it doesn’t matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith. Your hearts are in the right place, but your brains have gotta wake up.


There is a trade off for all of our intelligence, for all of our innovation, and all of our free will, and ultimately that is what we see now days. As put out in the movie, Inherit the Wind, for ever modern innovation, there is something that is lost, for every modern miracle of science, there is less of a mystery to be thought of as in the realm of the divine.

The nature of God is far more complex and some would say ultimately messed up being, being wrathful one moment, loving the next, full of conflicting messages as to that nature in itself. And we as humans are just now scratching the surface of what makes that tick, along with the modern miracles, that are slowly taking way from the mystery of what is God.

Originally posted by Deaf Alien
reply to post by Asktheanimals

 

Right. It's screwed up because its the "best the man can do"

Let me ask you a question: would you screw it up? Very important question.

I've done my fair share of messing things up.
I've also done my best to improve some of it.

ETA: I don't put much stock in the Old Testament but the teaching of Jesus is worth a read.

reply to post by PulsusMeusGallo


OMG, I'm so shocked!
A crooked preacher!

/sarcasm

When will people stop listening to snake-oil salesmen?

In the 1980s my Father FORCED me to watch Paul and Jan Crouch.

I knew back then they were scam artists...I was 8.

So, I guess this is another case of "altar ego" gone wild.
2nd. (take that Mods! )

reply to post by Asktheanimals


......" "altar ego" gone wild"........that was funny!..."altar ego"....

I can just see a set of videos being marketed. ...but I wouldn't make the purchase, because then I would have to relive seeing Tammy Faye Bakker crying,