Wow. An asshole and an anti-semite.
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Wow. On so many levels…wow.
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And since the New Covenant is not very well defined, a charismatic church-leader can tell their congregation that they’re divining it through prayer. Thus: “I need luxury private jets to spread the Word!”
One only needs to look as far as the success of “prosperity gospel” preachers to see that exact thing in action. They seem also to like to use the notion of “faith now, for payment later” as a lever against their congregations’ wallets. Basically, they liken giving up one’s wealth to “the church” (AKA, “Cashgrab Ministries”) to the sacrifice Jesus is said to have made for humanity, and attest that God will handsomely reward people who emulate that sacrifice by writing checks in blind faith to creeps with gilded crucifixes on their lapels and private jets in a hangar…
“If you need proof, my friends, you need only look at me! I gave my wealth up to the LORD and he has repaid my faith with a great bounty, and that is why I bring my joyful message to you! All you must do to rid yourself of the suffering, to rid yourself of the guilt, to rid yourself of the fears and concerns of man’s wicked world is to show your faith just as I have done! Giveth unto the LORD and the LORD will provide!”
It’s almost sort of alarming how easy it is to just rattle off that kind of tripe, but it’s also rather telling. The people who are running these megachurches and religious pyramid schemes aren’t even especially clever, they just tread and retread the same self-serving interpretations that have been regurgitated over and over again for thousands of years by religion-based con artists in every corner of the world. The specifics might vary, but the overall message is the same, and it tugs on the same sorts of strings.
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bring 122 million people to the lord jesus christ at what cost? what does that break down to in dollars per person saved? i wonder if there’s a more cost-effective way to save souls…
…i love your eyes.
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REMINDER: It’s much harder to enjoy hookers and blow on commercial airlines without getting caught.
I’m not saying he’s engaged in that behavior, but it does go with the territory, “religious” or not.
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And he’d take the whole hand 
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It’s a thing for the prosperity crowd:
This breaks it down fairly well from a non-prosperity religious perspective:
https://ancient-faith.com/2013/11/10/the-prosperity-gospel-and-two-covenants/
Basically, there’s a lot of stuff in the ‘old covenant’ (as set out in the Old Testament) about how faith in the lord will be rewarded with physical riches and material power - as in freedom from slavery in Egypt, lands of milk and honey, etc.
There’s rather less of that in the ‘new covenant’ (which as others have set out above is unclear) but is pretty hard to interpret as anything including anything other than spiritual benefits for the believer.
So the prosperity bunch tend to pick lots of stuff from the old covenant, which as set out above in other posts, may or may not apply to Christians at all and cherry-pick the few bits in the gospels that support a physical reward.
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I just asked Jesus, and he doesn’t know that guy, he says.
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Who knew that Andy Kaufman was a money changer?
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What Jesus says goes so blatantly against what this guy says that I don’t see any conceivable way to reconcile the two. Surely someone must have confronted him or his ilk with these quotes? Just hand him a camel and a needle and ask him to perform the experiment.
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They will just claim that the eye of the needle was a gate into Jerusalem that was hard for animals to get through.
Other NT quotes are harder to explain away.
Acts 4:32-35
The Believers Share Their Possessions
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
James 5:1-6
Warning to Rich Oppressors
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
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I guarantee you he’d roll out the old saw about “the needle” being a city gate in Jerusalem. As with everything else in the Bible, they pick and choose literalism as it suits them.
[jinx, @the_borderer!]
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Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!
—Alan Ginsberg
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I’m so excited to share this guy’s private jet.
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Lucky for this guy that there is no God to answer to.
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Wikipedia says:
Cyril of Alexandria (fragment 219) claimed that “camel” is a Greek misspelling; that kamêlos (camel) was written in place of kamilos , meaning “rope” or “cable”.[2][3][4] More recently, George Lamsa, in his 1933 translation of the Bible into English from the Syriac, claimed this as well.
There’s no mention of how a rich man enters through the door of a private jet, but Jesus wasn’t there then so we have to extrapolate from very little information and you all know how that usually turns out.
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Ooh, new knowledge. Me likey. That would actually make a lot of sense.
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And IIRC it was called the Bible after Byblos, the Greek town that decided, essentially, “fuck it, let’s put all these religious stories in an Omnibus edition, what’s the worst that could happen?”
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We’ll sell dozens!
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