Jesus Wants Us To Be Rich

[_The Nehor]

Yes he did what? He was after money? I hate to burst your little bubble here but there are easier ways then a decade of missionary work to get a house that size, even back then.

Oh yea he made a killing looking for buried treasure..
The man was a con-artist who invented a religion.. And he did it just not for money but also power..

Then why did he never get around to leveraging his position to get all that wealth?

He had a nice home, so what?

[_The Nehor]

Are we supposed to be ashamed that our Prophets didn't live off bread crumbs, live in a box, and wear rags everywhere they went?

Umm you mean like say.. Christ?

LOL. Well, if you base your understanding on Christ's life from a couple of movies I can see how you can draw that conclusion......

Hate to break this to you but Christ was accused of gluttony and living the high life when (like you) his detractors insisted he should be an impoverished man living off the desert. His response was that John the Baptist tried that approach and it didn't work so now they're trying this.

[_asbestosman]

Hate to break this to you but Christ was accused of gluttony and living the high life when (like you) his detractors insisted he should be an impoverished man living off the desert. His response was that John the Baptist tried that approach and it didn't work so now they're trying this.

Somtimes I think that atheists believe in a different Jesus than we do.

(I was going to write the "politically correct", but "atheists" provides better ironic contrast and the point should still be apparent.)

[_The Nehor]

Hate to break this to you but Christ was accused of gluttony and living the high life when (like you) his detractors insisted he should be an impoverished man living off the desert. His response was that John the Baptist tried that approach and it didn't work so now they're trying this.

Somtimes I think that atheists believe in a different Jesus than we do.

(I was going to write the "politically correct", but "atheists" provides better ironic contrast and the point should still be apparent.)

Yeah, he's become the 'good guy' of our culture and people tend to ascribe anything they think is good to him. Hence you get people talking about how he taught nothing but love (except for when he promised that he would rip families apart), how he was always kind and gentle (except when he was telling people how it is), and that he was teaching equality (except when he was claiming to be the Son of God and saying some people were more blessed then others).

The only counter to attaching this generation's pet values to Jesus at the expense of everything else he taught is to rigorously study him and grow to know him via the atonement.

[_Chap]

Hate to break this to you but Christ was accused of gluttony and living the high life when (like you) his detractors insisted he should be an impoverished man living off the desert. His response was that John the Baptist tried that approach and it didn't work so now they're trying this.

You are thinking of Luke 7?

33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

I don't see that this says what you apparently think it does. There is no suggestion that John's approach 'didn't work', merely that John and Jesus (one an ascetic, the other following the normal diet of his day in eating bread and drinking wine) have both been subject to criticism which is contradictory as well as unfair.

The Holy Land is full of pious frauds generated by all the Abrahamic religions. But I think that nowhere will you find yourself offered a tour of the site of the 'Jesus House', whose solid and extensive remains show it to have been a substantially built property in the best district in town, next to which there are traces of a considerable hostelry where visitors to the Galilean prophet could be entertained in style.

This seems to have been more the style of things:

Luke 9:

57 ¶ And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

[_TAK]

Then why did he never get around to leveraging his position to get all that wealth?

Because he had the misfortune of being on the losing end of a gunfight..

[_John Larsen]

Umm you mean like say.. Christ?

LOL. Well, if you base your understanding on Christ's life from a couple of movies I can see how you can draw that conclusion......

Hate to break this to you but Christ was accused of gluttony and living the high life when (like you) his detractors insisted he should be an impoverished man living off the desert. His response was that John the Baptist tried that approach and it didn't work so now they're trying this.

Didn't Jesus tell his followers to sell everything they had and follow him? Didn't Jesus say that he had no place to lay his head? Didn't Jesus say it was harder for a rich many to get into heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle? Didn't early Christians keep all things in common, holding back nothing for themselves?

[_Chap]

Didn't Jesus tell his followers to sell everything they had and follow him?

Yup. And note the context, as always:

Mark 10:21

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Jesus didn't say "Put your money in my bank". He didn't say "Buy stock in the Nazareth House". He certainly didn't say "Give it to me" - not even "Give 10% of it to me". He said, in effect, "Give it away, become destitute, and then come and live like I do".

[_dartagnan]

The key word here is "sell."

Jesus didn't tell them to just give their crap away and live off dirt.

But what is ths thread talking about anyway? That Jesus doesn't want preachers getting rich or that he doesn't want anyone getting rich? And where is the line drawn between the rich and those who aren't? Is it an Obama standard?

I think it depends on the person really. A rich Christian who gives half of his wealth to charity, like Warren Buffet.... Am I to believe Christ didn't prefer he be rich to do the amount of charity he did?

Christ didn't say a rich man couldn't go to heaven. He simply pointed out that human nature is quick to give into vanity. Becoming rich akes it more difficult because one is given more opportunity to put oneself before all else.

[_Chap]

The key word here is "sell."

Jesus didn't tell them to just give their s*** away and live off dirt.

(What do you feel it adds to your post if you use foul and unpleasant language?)

As you will have seen from the text quoted above, Jesus told the young man in question to sell whatever he owned, and to give the proceeds away to the poor. The young man would then of course have had nothing.

Jesus is not recorded in this story as having specified what that young man was to live on thereafter. Had he been asked, I suppose he might have repeated his words elsewhere:

Matthew 6:

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

I am not of course suggesting that the gospels can or should be used by Christians to derive a universal rule of life. I am merely pointing out that it does not seem that the practice of Joseph Smith as regards worldly goods was very closely modelled on what is said to have been that of Jesus.

Of course, some people may feel that does not matter very much.