Christianity has been hijacked by the wealthy
Just when you think there isn’t really anything left for the rich to appropriate along comes a Christian spirituality aimed directly at the middle class and the elite rich they aspire to be. If you looked at the parking lots filled with luxury SUVs of many ‘modern’ suburban Christian churches you would be forgiven for thinking that humans have found a way to get a camel through the eye of a needle:
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. Mark 10:25
According to the same bible middle-class worshipers read, Jesus tells them directly (in a jokey kind of way) that they will never enter Heaven. That kind of kills the business model for every single evangelical and pentecostal church around the world.
These are churches that often promote (directly and indirectly) the strange and anti-Christian message of ‘the prosperity gospel’. This is a specific reading of the bible that ignores ALL of Jesus’ teachings on money and earthly wealth and replaces it with something more appealing to those with disposable income to donate to churches.
If you’re not familiar with the concept, it goes like this: God is in control of your life, and so if you are blessed with money, house/s, and otherworldly possessions then that is all from God. He wants you to be obscenely wealthy BECAUSE you believe in Jesus. Just by believing worshippers can become richer.
The reality of course is that many of these places of worship merely act as a networking opportunity. So it isn’t really Jesus making any of these believers richer, it is the collection of mostly middle-class and wealthy believers that are doing it. This teaching also causes a number of problems with the entire New Testament gospels because it ignores nearly everything Jesus says.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Matthew 5:3
While in the churches that attract the wealthy, the poor are to them cursed by God. This is because according to their theology only those with material wealth are being blessed by God in this lifetime. Their poverty is caused by their lack of faith in Jesus, as Brian Houston (founder of Hillsong Church) points out in this REAL video:
While this video is from some time ago, the wealthy believers have polished up their remade version of Christianity complete with a Jesus that just doesn’t match up with the Bible accounts. When Hillsong says “Mighty to Save” they are probably referring to their own bank accounts.
You should (if you are a believer) always be wary of Churches that place an emphasis on worshipping Jesus, rather than following the teachings set out in the New Testament gospel. It pays for the rich (and many have become very rich from evangelical and pentecostal “churches”) to reduce Jesus to a caricature of a guy in a robe who just loves everyone and IS literally God. Even though Jesus also said:
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good — except God alone” Mark 10:18
If the rich believers that attend these churches believe that Jesus condones any kind of excessive wealth, then they need to revisit their bibles. There is even a very specific story featuring a rich young man, who Jesus encourages to give away all of his money and follow Him instead.
Are these stories not present in the bibles of the rich? Of course they are, the rich believers have shaped Christianity in their own image and merely kept Jesus on as some kind of idiotic mascot that doesn’t speak for themselves.
The ability for the bible to be read by rich people, be believed and be worshipped still amazes me due to the controversial things Jesus said about the rich. Perhaps the most beautiful rebuttal to the horde of rich believers who think saying “Jesus” will get them into heaven is the story of the widow in the temple:
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on.”
(Mark 12:41–44)
So we can hear in Jesus’ own words that he does not favor the rich, and by association, we can assume his Heavenly Father doesn’t like them either. So what can believers do against people who cannot even understand some basics of Christianity? We speak out as Jesus would have spoken out against them as he did during the time of the gospels.
The rich do so much harm to genuine believers because they make it easy for non-believers to label all Christians as hypocrites. What do you do if you are a believer who is doing very well for themselves? According to the bible, you should repent, and look at somewhere to give away that money to (ALL OF IT). Otherwise, you will never enter Heaven, that’s what Jesus said. Gospel truth.
You can also start by treating the poor with the respect they deserve.
Thanks for reading, you can also explore one of my latest blogging series called “Faith Restored” for more discussions on faith.
