Do American Christians serve god or money?

[Cowman]

No one can serve two masters; for a slave with either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Matthew 6:24

3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? James 2:3-4

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. Timothy 6:9

17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Timothy 6:17-19

A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. Proverbs 28:20




Some of the people I see who are most obsessed with money, getting rich and being wealthy are those of religious faith, particularly Christian religious faith. Why is this? Many churches themselves are just money generating machines.

Is this monetary infatuation and the trust in wealth generating institutions simply a coincidence, or are many Christians betraying the bible?

And why do they never, EVER stop to question what they do and the way they act? Whenever they face up against a quote from the bible, or an onslaught of quotes that describes their actions or the path they are taking they are very quick to dismiss the bible and say it is taken "out of context".

When the rich get "commanded" to be generous, it is the religious right who fight back most fervently, taking the side of the rich and opposing that of the poor.

 

[Salt Jones]

They serve Mammon or Joel Orsteen.

 

[Caroljo]

A true God loving Christian will serve Him. If they truly worship Him, He makes sure you have all you need.

 

[Caroljo]

Wrong....for me God gives me all i need. As for Joel Olsteen, he's a false preacher. One of those "feel good" guys that won't teach the entire Bible.....only what his people want to hear.

 

[rdean]

They serve "greed" and "hate".

 

[rdean]

Wrong....for me God gives me all i need. As for Joel Olsteen, he's a false preacher. One of those "feel good" guys that won't teach the entire Bible.....only what his people want to hear.

Joel sure tells the funniest jokes at the beginning of his services. I try to catch the beginning just to get a new joke.

I like the one about about the bear. I said "run" and my friend said you can't outrun a bear and I said I only need to outrun you.

 

[Cowman]

A true God loving Christian will serve Him. If they truly worship Him, He makes sure you have all you need.

Do you believe that a Christian who is very involved in business and who ensures every step of the way that his money is well invested, well protected and always earning more for him, can be as much of a servant of God as he is to his money?

Now, a normal person would just say... "What do I care? That's between him and god..."

But you see, many Christians seem to act this way about themselves... the fact that nobody else should be concerned with their value placed on money, as a sort of a shield and self delusion.

Sure, you say you serve God, but when you spend so much time obsessing over wealth, money and the rich, can you really say with confidence that god is looking at you with praise?

 

[Avatar4321]

Some serve God. Some serve money.

However, your implication that not letting the government rob us is serving money, you are wrong. Its quite the opposite. It's those who want to keep and support themselves that are being charitable. They dont want to be a burden on others. People who want to provide charity for themselves and outsource their responsibilities to the government are the ones who are truly serving God.

 

[Cowman]

Some serve God. Some serve money.

However, your implication that not letting the government rob us is serving money, you are wrong. Its quite the opposite. It's those who want to keep and support themselves that are being charitable. They dont want to be a burden on others. People who want to provide charity for themselves and outsource their responsibilities to the government are the ones who are truly serving God.

Sorry God, I don't want to be commanded to give more to the needy. I don't want to be commanded to support the poor.

Avatar4321, I command you not to be so arrogant.

 

[Caroljo]

That is funny!

 

[whitehall]

The left wing has gotta have a crazy stick up it's ass when they worry about Christian identity after two hundred years while the jihad is killing Americans because somebody somewhere might have made movie which was critical of big Mo.

 

[Avatar4321]

Some serve God. Some serve money.

However, your implication that not letting the government rob us is serving money, you are wrong. Its quite the opposite. It's those who want to keep and support themselves that are being charitable. They dont want to be a burden on others. People who want to provide charity for themselves and outsource their responsibilities to the government are the ones who are truly serving God.

Sorry God, I don't want to be commanded to give more to the needy. I don't want to be commanded to support the poor.

Avatar4321, I command you not to be so arrogant.

And what arrogance is there? What have I said that's untrue?

You dont want to be commanded to give more to the needy, so you want to force others to? The whole point of charity is voluntary service. When government attempts to fulfill our responsibilities by robbing our neighbors, there is no charity because there is no voluntariness.

 

[Caroljo]

A true God loving Christian will serve Him. If they truly worship Him, He makes sure you have all you need.

Do you believe that a Christian who is very involved in business and who ensures every step of the way that his money is well invested, well protected and always earning more for him, can be as much of a servant of God as he is to his money?

Now, a normal person would just say... "What do I care? That's between him and god..."

But you see, many Christians seem to act this way about themselves... the fact that nobody else should be concerned with their value placed on money, as a sort of a shield and self delusion.

Sure, you say you serve God, but when you spend so much time obsessing over wealth, money and the rich, can you really say with confidence that god is looking at you with praise?

Believe it or not there are many wealthy Christians that are true Christians. God never said we shouldn't be wealthy. He's told us how we're to be, and if you're wealthy it's important what you do with your money. The top thing is helping the poor. Giving to charities.

God never said though that we should give to the idle. He said if you don't work, you don't eat. Now the "idle" would be the ones that just don't want to work to support his family, he wants handouts.

And just as we have false teachers (priests, pastors, etc) we also have many false Christians. Most of the false ones are rich.....

 

[Cowman]

Some serve God. Some serve money.

However, your implication that not letting the government rob us is serving money, you are wrong. Its quite the opposite. It's those who want to keep and support themselves that are being charitable. They dont want to be a burden on others. People who want to provide charity for themselves and outsource their responsibilities to the government are the ones who are truly serving God.

Sorry God, I don't want to be commanded to give more to the needy. I don't want to be commanded to support the poor.

Avatar4321, I command you not to be so arrogant.

And what arrogance is there? What have I said that's untrue?

You dont want to be commanded to give more to the needy, so you want to force others to? The whole point of charity is voluntary service. When government attempts to fulfill our responsibilities by robbing our neighbors, there is no charity because there is no voluntariness.

Right there in one of the bits of scripture I quoted... commanding the poor to be more generous, to share, to help the needy, feed and clothe the poor.

It's not "government" that is at the root of the desire to have the rich invest more in their country, it is the people. It is people like me who want you to be more Christian.

I command you to do good Avatar4321. Don't do good because you feel charitable, do good because I command you to be good in rich deeds.

 

[Famine]

I guess this all depends on the Christians.Some like the ones televised such as Pat Robertson is just all about money,money and more money. Take a poor backwoods church on the other hand that is when you see Christianity in its truest form.

 

[Cowman]

A true God loving Christian will serve Him. If they truly worship Him, He makes sure you have all you need.

Do you believe that a Christian who is very involved in business and who ensures every step of the way that his money is well invested, well protected and always earning more for him, can be as much of a servant of God as he is to his money?

Now, a normal person would just say... "What do I care? That's between him and god..."

But you see, many Christians seem to act this way about themselves... the fact that nobody else should be concerned with their value placed on money, as a sort of a shield and self delusion.

Sure, you say you serve God, but when you spend so much time obsessing over wealth, money and the rich, can you really say with confidence that god is looking at you with praise?

Believe it or not there are many wealthy Christians that are true Christians. God never said we shouldn't be wealthy. He's told us how we're to be, and if you're wealthy it's important what you do with your money. The top thing is helping the poor. Giving to charities.

God never said though that we should give to the idle. He said if you don't work, you don't eat. Now the "idle" would be the ones that just don't want to work to support his family, he wants handouts.

And just as we have false teachers (priests, pastors, etc) we also have many false Christians. Most of the false ones are rich.....

If god said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven, do you really think that most rich Christians would be worthy of god?

Or do you think it'd be something more realistic for the difficulty level, such as 5% or less of rich people actually worthy enough to enter heaven.

Those Pat Robertson types... those types who are obviously not the type of individuals we're talking about, they're few and far between compared to the average rich American Christians. Are those average rich Americans so incredible in their personalities and faith to be more believable than a camel being thread through a needle?

 

[Avatar4321]

Right there in one of the bits of scripture I quoted... commanding the poor to be more generous, to share, to help the needy, feed and clothe the poor.

It's not "government" that is at the root of the desire to have the rich invest more in their country, it is the people. It is people like me who want you to be more Christian.

I command you to do good Avatar4321. Don't do good because you feel charitable, do good because I command you to be good in rich deeds.

Yeah your rambling statements here aren't making any sense.

 

[Cowman]

Right there in one of the bits of scripture I quoted... commanding the poor to be more generous, to share, to help the needy, feed and clothe the poor.

It's not "government" that is at the root of the desire to have the rich invest more in their country, it is the people. It is people like me who want you to be more Christian.

I command you to do good Avatar4321. Don't do good because you feel charitable, do good because I command you to be good in rich deeds.

Yeah your rambling statements here aren't making any sense.

I'm just pointing out that you don't want to be the type of Christian that god wants you to be.

You're not a follower of Jesus, you're just a fan.

The bible says a lot of shit, demands a lot of shit of you than you would care for it to. So you just ignore it, and believe it to be something it isn't.

 

[Mr. H.]

I knew a Christian that served gouda AND Pinot Grigio.

 

[Avatar4321]

Right there in one of the bits of scripture I quoted... commanding the poor to be more generous, to share, to help the needy, feed and clothe the poor.

It's not "government" that is at the root of the desire to have the rich invest more in their country, it is the people. It is people like me who want you to be more Christian.

I command you to do good Avatar4321. Don't do good because you feel charitable, do good because I command you to be good in rich deeds.

Yeah your rambling statements here aren't making any sense.

I'm just pointing out that you don't want to be the type of Christian that god wants you to be.

You're not a follower of Jesus, you're just a fan.

No. You don't know much at all about me. And you dont understand the scriptures. But one day you will.