Thirdly, if economics is about providing needed goods and services, and if the goal of Biblical economics is to glorify God, then it is not unreasonable to conclude that ultimately, economics is critical and central to the dominion mandate. Whoever controls the means of production in a society also controls the wealth of that society, and therefore the power of a society. If God promises to bless the faithful as they labor unto Him, then wealth and power will flow to Christians over time. Therefore Christian economics must be self-consciously dedicated to extending the reign of Christ over every area of life. Eventually, the glory of God will fill the earth, and Christians will own everything.
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If God promises to bless the faithful as they labor unto Him, then wealth and power will flow to Christians over time.
And that, dear flock, is why you never see rich Jews, Hindus, or atheists.
Biblical economics? WTF?
"If God promises to bless the faithful as they labor unto Him, then wealth and power will flow to Christians over time."
Too bad Jay-sus said sell all your shit and give it to the poor then, eh? Bummer for you.
The prosperity gospel may work for people like Pat Robertson, but only because they tell people what they want to hear before getting them to send in their money. It's no different from the OT rules where you had to give animals to the priest so he could offer them to God as a sacrifice. I'm sure the priests ate pretty well back then.
And Christians owning everything? Good luck, Christians are only about 1/3 the earth's population, and is waning in places like Europe and has started to in the U.S.
Uh, what about Jesus's admonition that Christians "should not store up treasures on Earth,... but rather store up treasures in Heaven?"
What about Jesus's statement that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
Or that statement about how a man cannot worship both God and Mammon (the Persian god of wealth)?
The whole "Prosperity Gospel" is simply a way of saying that Christians can indeed worship both God and Mammon!
keep going..eventually you will be able to rationalize genocide and mass murder using the same technique.
Sorry about the godwin, but that is how Hitler started.
"Whoever controls the means of production in a society also controls the wealth of that society,"
One of the axioms of Marxism, this.
If good Christians get wealth and power, why the fuck was Mother Theresa poor? Oh right, she was actually following the whole "live in self-imposed poverty and help the needy" bit Jesus was going on about.
And you can keep your god. My deities aren't presented as omniscient and perfect, but we don't want or need them to be. They deal with their bits of nature, we acknowledge them, sometimes pray to them, but mostly we use their legends as allegories that invite the listener to come to their own interpretations.
This sounds an AWFUL lot like Max Weber's take on the origins of capitalism.
By that, I mean accumulating wealth as "glorifying" god and success as a sign of providence. You know, all that fun shit.
""But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep."
Prosperity doctrine, my ass.
What's truly interesting about your argument is that it completely ignores everything Jesus ever said about the wealthy. It's almost like you completely skipped over the gospels to the parts that you liked best.
Jesus teaches that the rich have an obligation to help the poor. That, if they want to be perfect, they need to sell all of their possessions. How does that mesh with your "prosperity gospel"?
However, for some unknown reason, God make Japanese, who are atheists, and some Muslim sheiks in the Persian Gulf, not rich, FILTHY RICH. And moreover, he later on sent his son to say that rich people are not Heaven material.
Oh fuck off.
I thought as an economist I was immune to the kind of idiocy that biologists, chemists, astronomers and others had to deal with but, really now?
fuck you.
"You've had almost 2,000 years. The Bible Belt is one of the poorest parts of the US. When is God going to start helping all those dumb 10th grade drop-out redneck Bible-thumpers?"
"Thirdly, if economics is about providing needed goods and services, and if the goal of Biblical economics is to glorify God, then it is not unreasonable to conclude that ultimately, economics is critical and central to the dominion mandate. Whoever controls the means of production in a society also controls the wealth of that society, and therefore the power of a society. If God promises to bless the faithful as they labor unto Him, then wealth and power will flow to Christians over time. Therefore Christian economics must be self-consciously dedicated to extending the reign of Christ over every area of life. Eventually, the glory of God will fill the earth, and Christians will own everything."
USA is in major hock to China. They hold over $2 trillion in foreign currency reserves. China is an Atheist country. One more thing:
image
Your call, Brian.
In other words, greed is good, but only when we do it.
Kind of like lying, eh Brian?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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