On WealthJesus: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” {= wealth} Mat 6:24.
Jesus
: “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 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.” Mat 19:24.
Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things. He said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Luke 19:45-46.
And Jesus addressed the far-right Christian leadership – the televangelists, mega-ministers, and comfortable priests “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15.
And just to be sure, he added:
“Woe to you leaders of the Christian far-right! For you market false piety, give support to corrupt officials, and neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.” Cf. Mat 23:23.
On Hypocrisy“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.” Mat 23:25-26.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Mat 23:27-28.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” Mat 23:13-15.
Therefore beware of false ministers in shepherd’s clothing who you can easily know by their fruits. A good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bad. Cf. 7:16-17.
Many preach without practicing. Many who are first will be last. Cf. Mat 19:30.
Many are those who say, “Lord, Lord,” or shout “Mohammed,” supposing they will enter the kingdom of heaven. Yet only those who do God’s will enter heaven, and these are already at the gate. Cf. Mat 7:21.
Those who most indulge in God-talk are among those who know God least.
The prayers of those who are in a position to help but will not do so are blasphemous.
On LunacyRender unto God what is God’s and science what belongs to science. Cf. Mat 22:21.
Those who eagerly await apocalypse and rapture are like someone yelling “Beware!” at the foot of a mountain that is prone to avalanches.
Death did not come through sin - silly. The flowers of the field die too (cf. Mat 6:28); yet who has written concerning the disobedience of Adam Dandelion and Eve Petunia in the flower-garden of Og? Because we may perceive death as bad, its occurrence does not mean that an Other-God is punishing us. Let us weed our own gardens, putting away childish thoughts. Cf. Romans 5:12-14.
It is not written, “Be fruitful and multiply until the earth becomes uninhabitable for your children.” Cf. Gen 1:28.
Are you focused on the “unborn?” Then let your concern rest chiefly with the state of the earth that will be inherited from us by the full-fledged and indisputable human beings of the generations to come. Worry more about your grandchildren and less about their fertilized eggs.
Seek but you will not find Bible verses about birth control pills, embryos, stem cell research, or the phrase, “right to life.” Though we find Jesus intervening with love and compassion for the lives of many, none are embryos.
An acorn is not an oak.