This coming Sunday I’ll be speaking on the line in Lennon’s Imagine when he said, “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, nothing to kill or die for, a brotherhood of man.”
Is money the root of all evil (as the Bible is often misquoted as saying?).
Are poor people in some sense better off?
Would the world be better if they just gave everyone the same, whether a little or a lot?
How long would that system last?
One of my readings is the famous story of the ‘Rich Young Ruler.’ He appears in all three of the Synoptic gospels, went away from Jesus sad, because he had a lot of money. Does more make you miserable?
Your thoughts and ideas appreciated, as I try to gather mine.
Greetings,
Hi I hope you are well and doing fine. I certainly encourage you in your endeavour to serve God. What I have to say is long so I’ll get to the point.
Man must choose between the God of the Bible or the God of this world. The God of this world is materialism. Scripture says we cannot serve God and mammon. We must make a choice. Do we love man more or do we love money more. The answer my friend is in our actions. I have seen such savage behaivour in the business world that it would make your head spin around. Some of these actions be supposed Christians. Note when Christ was speaking He claimed His father was God and that the Father of the Jews was the devil. In the practices of Wicca and Free Masonry there is a hierarchy. The low level initiates are kept in the dark about the true nature of the organizations. Yet as the progress upward they get farther and farther from God. Ultimately they bow the knee to Lucifer.
Furthermore Jesus is neither a Marxist nor a Capitalist. The idea that America is God’s country is one we must dismiss. There is no special relationship to our nation. God will bless His people. God’s people are of course the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World. God’s people are then the preserving or enlightening factor. The country they live in will be blessed by their presence. Unfortunately in America we have lost our way. Christianity is on the decline. Meanwhile in China it is growing abundantly despite or perhaps because of severe persecution. In America we seldom face persecution for our faith. And in the circumstances we do it is seldom life threateningly. Sure we may loose a job or friends or family but not our lives.
We have too competing theories of Marx and Adam Smith. We must acknowledge that both are theories made by man and should be examined as such. They are not scripture that we may trust them implicitly. Both contain obvious eras. The capitalistic “invisible hand” controlling the market is shown to be a lie by hijacked gasoline prices. Also Marx’s “dictatorship of the proletariat” is false as it denies that human nature is perverted when one receives much power.
There is a line from Marx that should strike home however. I paraphrase. “We all should contribute as we can and take as we need.” It is a simple concept. Every man should do all the service they can. At the same time people should only take as they need. Some people in society are brilliant. Others have mental retardations. Surely God loves them all. Should the one that is brilliant take almost all the resources. At this point we must remind ourselves that all we have is by the Grace of God. All that we have and possess is just a gift. We are not owners of the lands but stewards.
This brings us to the wisdom of the indigenous peoples of this continent. They lived for the future generations. They lived in harmony with the land taking only as they needed. Long before Marx lived they had a benevolent and kind societym a communistic society. When one would become a full member of a tribe they were given a new name. With the new name they made a promise that nobody in the tribe would go hungry nor no individual would become an orphan. There would always be somebody to take care of them.
I do not think the Bible teaches us that to have material possessions in abundance is wrong. We have the parable of the rich young ruler who was sad about giving all he had to God. Also we have Christ’s statement that “It is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven.” Furthermore the book of James clearly says that it is the rich people who are blasphemying the name of Christ.
Whereever are treasures are there are hearts will be also. We must remember that we in America have great material wealth. Thanks to modern technology we have more than any generation previously. Yet we use this wealth so foolishly. Not only are our citizens in depth but so is the government. The United States spends more money on weapons than all the rest of the world combined. These weapons one day will be used to ensure that the wealths of other nations still flow outward.
It would be good to sit back and take an objective look. Who is my master? What kind of society do I want to live in? What legacy will I leave to my great grand children?
Love,
John