ToughDiamond wrote:
The arguments for the "prosperity gospel" thing seem pretty thin to me. There's a small number of rich dudes in the New Testament who, it kind of insinuates, are good Christians, but it's not mentioned whether they got to heaven or not. And as you suggest, there's a lot of stuff in the NT that suggests more strongly that wealth is a bar to the kingdom of heaven. True, the OT has a lot about good people being rewarded with huge material wealth, but I thought the Jesus and the NT superceded that. In fact I don't quite understand why the OT wasn' ditched a long time ago, or at least heavily cut down to size.
With the exception of Ezekiel and Job, the rest of the cast of the OT aren't very "godly" folk. But sticking to the rich ones, quite clearly Solomon and David were blessed by god and happily lived as some of the wealthiest men on the planet. Perhaps god changed the entry requirements for entering his kingdom closer to the birth of his son and our saviour.
05 Mar 2025, 5:18 am
