Hey christians! You may give me all your money
In case here happens to be any christians who consider themselves as true believers, I have a proposal to make.
If you have ever read the gospels from the Bible, you may have noticed that Jesus is very much against being rich and owning money.
The message is very clear, it's repeated many times in the gospels:
Stop storing up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But keep on storing up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:19-21)
No one can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches! (Matt 6:24)
Just then a man came up to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good deed should I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus asked him, “Why ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you want to get into that life, you must keep the commandments.”
The young man asked him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “‘You must not murder, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘you must love your neighbor as yourself.’”
The young man told him, “I have kept all of these. What do I still lack?”
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the destitute, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come back and follow me.” But when the young man heard this statement he went away sad, because he had many possessions.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “I tell all of you with certainty, it will be hard for a rich person to get into the kingdom from heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God.” (Matt 19:16-24)
“Look!” Peter replied. “We have left everything and followed you. So what will we get?”
Jesus told them, “I tell all of you with certainty, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the renewed creation, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, governing the twelve tribes of Israel. In fact, everyone who has left his homes, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, or fields because of my name will receive a hundred times as muchand will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Matt 19:27-30)
As Jesus was setting out again, a man ran up to him, knelt down in front of him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Nobody is good except for one—God. You know the commandments: ‘Never murder.’ ‘Never commit adultery.’ ‘Never steal.’ ‘Never give false testimony.’ ‘Never cheat.’ ‘Honor your father and mother.’”
The man replied to him, “Teacher, I have obeyed all of these since I was a young man.”
Jesus looked at him and loved him. Then he told him, “You’re missing one thing. Go and sell everything you own, give the money to the destitute, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come back and follow me.” Shocked at this statement, the man went away sad, because he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and told his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were startled by these words, but Jesus told them again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in their wealth to get into the kingdom of God! It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:17-25)
Then Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “I tell all of you with certainty, there is no one who has left his home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or fields because of me and the gospel who will not receive a hundred times as much here in this world—homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, along with persecution—as well as eternal life in the age to come. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Mark 10:28-31)
He filled hungry people with good things and sent rich people away with nothing. (Luke 1:53)
But how terrible it will be for you who are rich, because you have had your comfort!
How terrible it will be for you who are full now, because you will be hungry!
How terrible it will be for you who are laughing now, because you will mourn and cry! (Luke 6:24-25)
Then he told them, “Be careful to guard yourselves against every kind of greed, because a person’s life doesn’t consist of the amount of possessions he has.”
Then he told them a parable. He said, “The land of a certain rich man produced good crops. So he began to think to himself, ‘What should I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I’ll store all my grain and goods in them. Then I’ll say to myself, “You’ve stored up plenty of good things for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.”’ But God told him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you. Now who will get the things you’ve accumulated?’ That’s how it is with the person who stores up treasures for himself rather than with God.” (Luke 12:15-21)
In the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions. (Luke 14:33)
No servant can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth! (Luke 16:13)
Then an official asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Nobody is good except for one—God. You know the commandments: ‘Never commit adultery. Never murder. Never steal. Never give false testimony. Honor your father and mother.’”
The official replied, “I have kept all of these since I was a young man.”
When Jesus heard this, he told him, “You still need to do one thing. Sell everything you have and give the money to the destitute, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come back and follow me.” But when the official heard this he became sad, because he was very rich.
So when Jesus saw how sad he was, he said, “How hard it is for rich people to get into the kingdom of God! Indeed, it’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:18-24)
Then Peter said, “See, we have left everything we have and followed you.”
Jesus told them, “I tell all of you with certainty, there is no one who has left his home, wife, brothers, parents, or children because of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times as much in this world, as well as eternal life in the age to come.” (Luke 18:28-30)
If you are a true believer, but for some unfortunate reason have acquired a lot of money, you should give it to me. There are several good reasons for this:
- God will take you into Heaven. If you have too much money, you can't go there.
- When you are in Heaven, you will get back hundred times as much as you gave me. Pretty sweet deal?
- I'm currently unemployed, so some extra money would be nice.
- My access to Heaven is permanently denied. So I think it would be fair if I could at least enjoy my life here on earth. That is much easier when I have more money than I do have now.
- I don't use money for destructive stuff that creates pain and misery for myself or other people. First I'll use the money to improve my quality of life, and when that is secured, I probably invest the rest for ethical businesses and/or donate it.
- No uplimits! All of you can give me as much money as you can. Some people shouldn't have much money in their hands, but I'm not that kind of person. I'm quite sure I can handle huge sums of money and not get corrupted by it or go crazy.
It's probably a good idea to give me your money even if you are poor yourself:
As Jesus sat facing the offering box, he watched how the crowd was dropping their money into it. Many rich people were dropping in large amounts. Then a destitute widow came and dropped in two small copper coins, worth about a cent. He called his disciples and told them, “I tell all of you with certainty, this destitute widow has dropped in more than everyone who is contributing to the offering box, because all of them contributed out of their surplus, but out of her poverty she has given everything she had to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44)
This is also a great way to check whether or not you are worshipping the right God. If you donate everything to me, God will take care of you – he promises so in the Bible! If that doesn't happen, you might need to think a little bit if you really have true faith in true God.
“That’s why I’m telling you to stop worrying about your life—what you will eat or what you will drink—or about your body—what you will wear. Life is more than food, isn’t it, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t plant or harvest or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. You are more valuable than they are, aren’t you? Can any of you add a single hour to the length of your life by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies in the field and how they grow. They don’t work or spin yarn, but I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was clothed like one of them. Now if that is the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, won’t he clothe you much better—you who have little faith?
“So don’t ever worry by saying, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ because it is the unbelievers who are eager for all those things. Surely your heavenly Father knows that you need all of them! But first be concerned about God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you as well. So never worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt 6:25-34)
I prefer cryptocurrencies as primary means for transferring your money to me.
- Steem account: samupaha
- Bitcoin address: 1DTu35NcM53yHFWSS4xmNV1FGVxgqWYzVR
- Bitshares account: samupaha
If you want to give any other type of property, leave a comment and we can discuss the details.
And remember – this is win-win deal for both of us!
I would like to put my hat in the ring for donations of any type of property value from Christians.
Your eternal soul is in peril.
Donate to me today.
Bitcoin address : 17pW3GHmMM3GhcvPkciJdSABrjbCMHjhgU
Remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the devil is always expanding his collection of souls.
Save yours today and donate all of your possessions to me.
You can trust me, I'm a mathematician (or maybe that means you cannot trust me, as man was not meant to intervene in divine affairs).
wtf!! hahahaahahahahaha
Now for the true test of mastery. What then did Jesus mean by this parable from Matthew 25:14?
This is easy!
The message is: You should invest everything so you can have more later.
Investing in this case is the point that I made in the OP. The more you give away ("invest") in this life, the more you will receive in Heaven.
Those people who haven't given anything in this life will lose everything and more after they die.
Close, but there is also this to consider:
Salvation is based only on faith in Jesus Christ. How you use the resources God has given you will merely determine your eternal rewards (specifically, how much responsibility you will be trusted with in the next life.)
This one is little bit trickier.
I'd say that this is something like what Jesus talked about Pharisees.
Christians who use gold and other valuable stuff to show their faith are not cool. The right thing to do is to forget all shiny megachurches and rely only on personal faith. Probably you will get saved even if you build (or donate your money for) shiny megachurches, but seriously, that's not cool.
Your best option is to donate all your money for non-christians.
And being poor helps a lot, like I pointed out in the OP.
Very insightful. All we have is entrusted to us. IMHO there are increasingly better things to do with it, from least to best:
So, its about giving the Lord the best possible return on investment. This is not necessarily just for non-Christians. You could meet the needs of poor Christians or train rich Christians to be more obedient and effective disciples.
The man with just one bag of gold merely returned it to his master without adding any value. To me, that would be like thoughtlessly giving it away. No increase in value, merely redistributing what you have received.
Nice piece of research. This is the single most use useful and theologically correct post you have ever made - a very valuable compilation of relevant Scripture.
The only error is your belief that your access to Heaven is permanently denied. It's never too late to turn around as long as you have one conscious thought left.
As to sending you money, you have already achieved a commendable freedom from it. It just wouldn't be right to cause your addiction to something from which the rest of us are still struggling to escape. :P
Thanks!
Sorry but you are wrong on this. There is actually one occasion when an individual loses the chance for getting into Heaven.
I have spoken against the Holy Spirit several times and because it can't be forgiven, I'm banned from Heaven forever. Mark 3:29 and Luke 12:10 make the same point.
Of course there are a lot of people in the world who are poorer than me. But because I live in a welfare state, everything is very expensive, forbidden and/or heavily regulated. My purchasing power is not really that great.
Given your willingness to discuss this subject and your familiarity with Scripture, I seriously doubt that you have committed the unforgivable sin. After all:
The penalty of eternal separation from God with no hope of return applies in scripture only in two cases—either, as in Hebrews 6 and 10, to persons who willfully, publicly and explicitly reject Jesus as Savior after having confessed him, or, as in the gospels, to those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit by declaring that the works of Jesus were the works of the Evil one.
I found this explanation somewhat helpful: The Unpardonable Sin
While someone is doing that, there is, by definition, no way for help to reach them.
So just quit doing that!
Well, I don't know... That interpretation seems to be kind of far fetched. I think Jesus is quite clear on this case. If somebody speaks against Holy Spirit, it won't be ever forgiven.
Only when that rejection becomes settled and firm is there is no hope for forgiveness.
Google "unpardonable sin". There's tons of commentary to that effect.
If somebody takes Bible seriously and literally, there shouldn't be any need for interpretation. Jesus means exactly what he says. Why else he would have said that?
This is by far the best chat dialogue I have ever seen, so much collaboration . Jesus4Life!
That's why I said you should read the large body of commentary (of which I provided a sample above). You can take the Bible seriously and literally and still spend a lifetime understanding the deep implications of everything that Jesus said. Jesus spoke in parables so that only those with the right attitude would understand him. There are many audiences for his words across all time and one should not assume the simplest surface meaning is all there is.
Besides, its not in your best interest to assume the worst case. That way leads to the dark side. While there is life there is hope.
Yeah, Jesus spoke in parables, but I don't think that is case in this situation. He is not telling a story, he is stating facts.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to testify of Jesus, to point us to Jesus. When that testimony of the Holy Spirit about who Jesus is and what he came to do is fully rejected then one has truly blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Only when that rejection becomes settled and firm is there no hope for forgiveness.
How can someone know if they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit?
The fact that someone desires Jesus at all shows that they are not guilty of this sin.
Do you want Jesus? Do you want to put your faith in him? Do you seek after him at all? Then this is evidence that you have not finally and completely rejected the testimony of the Holy Spirit. The continued rejection of Jesus makes us more and more hardened against him and puts us on the path for a full and final rejection.
I have rejected Jesus pretty much all of my life, so I don't think that even this interpretation will save me.
Then Stan has the best answer above. :)
http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/beyond-forgiveness-blasphemy-against-the-spirit
1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
God judges the heart.
This should be in funny, not in christianity. Otherwise this is entertaining.
Sometimes we Christians need a good satirical poke to get the Message.
This is what the Bible says. Check for yourself if you don't believe. Being poor is something that Jesus states as a prerequisite for Heaven.
This is very important point in christian theology, although many heretics try to act like it's not.
;)