Money: good, bad, or it depends?

[Maratom]

Lots of the early Italian Christian converts and saints were very wealthy. They inherited vast, vast estates from their families - one at least, and I don’t remember his name, placed his estate in his servants hands to run it while he retired to the ‘wilderness’ to live very simply on a small allowance he drew from the estate every few weeks and which was brought to him by his servant.

Many of God’s people in the OT were very wealthy.

 

[stinkcat_14]

Here is my favorite quote on stuff, from Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Centesimus Annus:

The historical experience of the West, for its part, shows that even if the Marxist analysis and its foundation of alienation are false, nevertheless alienation — and the loss of the authentic meaning of life — is a reality in Western societies too. This happens in consumerism, when people are ensnared in a web of false and superficial gratifications rather than being helped to experience their personhood in an authentic and concrete way

The question I would ask your friend is: does he need the hummer and the expensive house to help him express his personhood? I cannot answer that for someone else, but it is a good thing for each of us to meditate upon now and then when we are considering making purchases.

 

[colliric]

Then why is a basket shoved in my face every Sunday?… "If God will provide… "

Walk the Talk. You say “God will provide… (pay for 8 kids, etc.)” but the basket is in my face every week asking for $$$"

Funny double standard… Restrict how I live, and ask for tribute every week.

Because the bible says that in order to prove your generosity and love you must give something of the order of 10% of your income to the church of god. This was in the Old Testament Specifically in the book of Malachi 3:8-12:
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, `How are we robbing thee?’ In your tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you.
10 Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts.
12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.

Basically it says if you show that you will give for the greater good of society and for God, When you hit hard times yourself God will provide the escape, like you provided the escape for other people and their hard times. Jesus reflected on this teaching in a very specific manner. He said that you give tithe to both god and then the mandatory second tithe, Taxes, to your local government. The first is for the spiritual and physically well being of individuals, the second tithe for society to fully function(as without adequate government society is chaos).

As god said, “Put me to the test”.

 

[LeahInancsi]

If he’s sharing with the Church in proportion to his income, I think it’s great. The more money he earns, the more the Church benefits.