Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Matthew 19:24,
“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
I’ve never met a teacher who says “doing things this way is extremely hard, but there’s another way that seems harder now but is ultimately easier” and meant anything other than “no seriously do it the second way because you’re just going to fail and be confused if you do it the first way”. Now that’s the generous statement.
The reality is that there is no archaeological or historical evidence of this particular gate. There is however immense theological evidence that Jesus of Nazareth, in the explicit canon of post Nicene Christianity, routinely demanded those who followed him to give everything in charity to those in need, to share without concern for the self, and to treat their fellow humans with the level of love and care they give themselves. But when someone actually does all that they wind up socially punished and/or sanctified.
There's also a theory that the word "camel" in that passage was a mistranslation of a type of rope. IE it's easier to thread a needle with a full cord of rope than for a rich man to get into heaven. The metaphor still works the same, but now it doesn't rely on an in joke about one specific gate in Jerusalem.
Despite the fact that im not christian, I love when jesus preaches against hoarding wealth because they are totally reasonable guidelines for equitable living in a community, and most christians just totally ignore it
People are saying that didn't happen, but I genuinely remember when I would constantly see sentiment that he would save the human race back in like, 2012?
It was a majority opinion in tech and liberal circles.
Yeah, I remember all that, I just don’t remember him being part of the “new atheist” group that was popular around that time. Mostly it was the cars and “colonizing” Mars…nothing to do at all with religion or lack thereof, really.
Seriously, he at best seemed questionably okay 10+ years ago.Then he turned out to be a giant piece of shit, an unintelligent, horribly cliche villain from an M. Night Shyamalan movie.
I definitely remember that, but it was more about saving humanity and being an interplanetary species and stuff. I don’t recall anything specifically referring to his religious/spiritual beliefs or him being an atheist leader, icon, hero, etc, like Dawkins or Harris. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t, I could have missed it, but personally this is the first time I’ve seen him connected to atheism so that’s why I’m a little confused. And sadly I’ve kept a close eye on him over the years because sometimes my job involves interfacing with one of his companies. I don’t love it.
Then he should give everything he has to the poor. A lot of people say they believe in the teachings of Jesus then act as though they merely believe in his divinity
Back when I was a Christian (and still today) people like him are why I have such an issue with sola fide. How you act should be seen as a crucial element of your beliefs. And while there’s room for forgiveness for failure, what you really believe is found in the way you strive and struggle to behave.
The Supreme Court has made it clear that only congress can enforce who can or can't run for president. Not even the states can choose who can run. So, if he wants to run for president and either the house or senate refuse to stop him... whelp, nothing that can be done about it.
"The Supreme Court has made it clear that only congress can enforce who...", while already fulfilling the Constitutional requirements to run for office, "...can or can’t run for president"
He finally realized he was gonna die and its important that someone forgives him for the harm he has caused. Not his victims. That would be absurd. Just the invisible sky wizard.
When a black person does a bad thing, we never question their blackness. If an LGBTQ+ person does a bad thing, we never question their LGBTQ+-ness. If a Muslim does a bad thing, we never question their Muslimness.
If a Christian does a bad thing, they're not a Christian. If they're rich, we bring up the parts of the Bible about how the rich won't get to heavens. If they're hateful, we bring up Christ's love. If they're violent, we bring up the "other cheeck" line.
We need to stop whitewashing Christianity, and realize the evil its capable of in the wrong hands. That's how we got the dominionist cult into the most powerful country, and that's how we got Putin, Orbán, etc., and will continue to get others if we dont change our outlook on things.