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There's another verse of the bible that says "all things are possible with god"
However...One thing the bible is pretty consistently against is liars, cheaters and thieves.
To be a mega-church preacher, you need to be a liar a cheater, and you need to know how to run a scam, so that would fall under the category of a thief.
"Give me all of your money and god will cure your cancer!" obvious scam and a lie.
"Give me all of your money and god will make your credit card debt vanish" is another thing I've seen mega-church types say.
The one time Jesus was ever violent was when he flipped tables and used a whip to get all the merchants out of the church. But under 100% of other situations, he literally wouldn't fight anyone even if they attacked him unprovoked.
Does that sound like the kind of guy that wants a church to be a for-profit business? Mega-churches claim they're non-profit, but all of them live in giant mansions and own multiple private jets and multiple cars that each cost more money that I've ever earned in my life.
I'm non-religious, but I'm more in line with what Jesus wanted people to do than 99% of self proclaimed Christians.
Luke 19:45-46: Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 4and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”
22“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
Matthew 7:22-23
I shudder to think of how these types have deluded themselves. To think they'd meet their Creator and say something like:
"Look, Lord, I know we locked the homeless out during a blizzard and used desperate peoples' resources to buy a private jet, and undermined the Gospel's perception across the entire world at every turn....but we raised so much money...for YOU!"
"Give me all of your money and god will cure your cancer!" obvious scam and a lie.
"Give me all of your money and god will make your credit card debt vanish" is another thing I've seen mega-church types say.
Incidentally, there's a conjecture around Christian circles I've seen that says these kinds of actions are what the phrase "thou shalt not take the lord's name in vain" actually warns against.
Not cursing, as it has become commonly associated with, but the literal act of using the lord for vain purposes. Like saying "Give me your money and god will cure your cancer"
An omnipotent and supreme being, who loves me, wants all of my money before he'll get rid of my cancer?
Hey Christians! Who do you think Jesus would deny healthcare to? Who do you think Jesus would be okay with dropping a drone-bomb onto?
Yeah, I don't believe these megachurch pastors believe the word of God at all, or they wouldn't be in that line of work.
Somehow in being an atheist I'm a more honest Christian than them in that I at least state outright that I'm not a Christian. That's more honest than pretending to be Christian just to leverage people's hopelessness to scam them into an even more dire and hopeless situation.
Jesus is actually hiding under my couch right now. When I first saw him down there, I asked him what he was doing there and he said "I'm hiding from the Christians"
The boss upstairs set him up with a pocket dimension with his own utilities down there, but sometimes when it's just him, the cats and my dog in the house he'll come up to my room and watch me play video games.
He doesn't like my taste in video games, he's put off by the violence in a lot of them. But when I showed him video-essays on how "the flood" works in halo, he compared it to the bullshit megachurches are always doing, how they infect people and extort them into giving up their money.
Jesus is a really cool guy....modern day Christians on the other hand...that's another story
99% of self proclaimed Christians hate megachurches.
Anyway, I think with "all things are possible with God" really means if God consents to it, as Jesus said when praying: "Thy will be done"
99% of self proclaimed Christians hate megachurches.
that's a pretty big fucking 1% that give money to megachurches then
99% of self proclaimed Christians hate megachurches.
If the figure is that high, it gives me hope. I wonder if there's data on this somewhere.
Megachurches are definitely among the "principalities and powers" we struggle against.
If they're not outright thieving, they're just self-help seminars preaching about how "Jesus and Americanism are actually totally compatible for realsies."
Consider all of the nations with Christians, and all within. You have large denominations like Roman Catholics who make up the largest portion of Christendom, a sizable amount of Orthodoxy and then protestants. Protestantism itself is divided into denominations. You have classical protestants which also rule out megachurches, such as the Anglicans/Episcopalians (Anglican communion forming the third largest Christian communion) Reformed/Presbyterians and Lutherans. Maybe a little sprinkling of Moravian and Methodist in there. Then you have evangelical Christianity with Baptists, non denominationals, some pentecostals. There's low church baptists who again would mostly be anti megachurch. Imagine your small rural congregation "me and my KJV" type.
Generally to get to the megachurches you need to go down the pentecostal/charismatic side of the non denominationals. Sure there's a sizable amount, but when you put all of Christianity in perspective, you can see it's a small slice.