[The wealthy] begin to focus their attention on their wealth and the accumulation of wealth. Why? What does wealth provide in this world? Power. And one can easily gain a sense of self-sufficiency and become so preoccupied not with the consumable goods that the wealth can purchase but with the power that goes with it, and then slipping into a kind of arrogance, a sense of independence, a sense of "I don't need to prostrate myself before Almighty God." So there's a sense in which prosperity can become a curse to a person [Dr. R.C. Sproul, "Wealth and Poverty," Renewing Your Mind (audio), 2007.12.27, timestamp 08:40-09:22; link courtesy of Bob Ellis].
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Friday, December 28, 2007
Wealth and Power Threaten Christianity
Maybe Bob does get it:
I don't think you listened to the whole thing, Cory. If you had you'd realize that Sproul pointed out, and rightly so, that neither wealth nor poverty are a sign of being in God's will, or of NOT being in God's will. God can and does work His purposes through both wealth and poverty. Remember that Job, Abraham and a number of other commended people in the Bible were very wealthy...but so was the widow who could only put a mite into the collection plate. And Jesus had many wealthy friends, but only said to (I believe) one rich person that they needed to give up their wealth...maybe because that one had an unhealthy fixation on the importance of his wealth?
ReplyDeleteRecall, too, that the Bible doesn't say, as is commonly misquoted, that money is the root of all evil, but "the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil." You don't have to have lots of money to be greedy for it. In fact, there may be as many poor and middle class folks in love with money as there are rich folks in love with it. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%206:6-10;&version=31;) That's what the class envy fostered by liberalism engenders: greed and envy for something you don't have, rather than Godliness with contentment.
This is why weighing the whole counsel of God (i.e. read each part of the Bible in context with the rest of it) is so important. In the limited scope of our human understanding, it's easy to fixate on one lesson, when there are other lessons within the Bible which provide a balanced understanding of the whole issue. In this case, the overall lesson is that money itself is not wrong, but our heart's response to it--regardless of how much or how little of it we have--can be.
We need to quit worrying about what others have, as long as they've broken no laws to get it, and be more content in what God has given us.
Oh, silly me. Bob doesn't get it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not celebrating poverty. I'm saying if you're worried about monsters using their power against you, then you should be most worried about the wealthy, who have the most power to warp society toward materialism and away from faith. Quite making excuses, quit dodging the truth of economic and social injustice. Poverty isn't a virtue, but Jesus hung out with the poor. God favors the poor and powerless, and he calls on you to protect the powerless against abuses from above. The wealthy and powerful perpetrate much greater crimes than the poor, the powerless, or even the secular humanists. Pick the right battles, Bob. Your fear-mongering and excuses only serve the powerful (and not the Almighty).
The wealthy don't have any power to warp others away from faith and toward materialism; that's a choice that each of us makes.
ReplyDeleteGod favors the poor...but he also favors the rich just as much. In fact, he favors those who are obedient to him, regardless of how much money they have. God prizes justice and what is right over favoring someone because of their bank balance; if it were otherwise, why would he have said, "Do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit?"
God judges the heart, and he can't be fooled. He won't overlook wrong because someone has a lot of money...and he won't overlook it because they have a little money.
Don't make excuses. God's truth is available to you right now. Jump in your Bible, pray and find it. It would make God very happy.