Pixel--Dude wrote: ↑May 25th, 2024, 9:02 am
Why are most of these pod people Christians such hypocrites? How many of them actually follow the bible word for word and not just cherry pick doctrines which suits them?
@MrMan makes out he's the perfect Christian and everyone else is a sinner. But even MrMan cherry picks pieces of the Bible which he chooses to follow and which pieces he chooses to ignore.
Acts 2:44-45: "All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need."
Acts 4:34-35: "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 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need."
I can't see MrMan selling his possessions to help the needy, can you @Lucas88?
I didn't say I was a perfect Christian and that everyone else was a sinner. What do you know about my personal finances? What areas of giving am I lacking in? Tell me how it could be improved or exactly how many dollars I was wasteful with.... oh, yeah, you don't have that information. And you have no clue how much I've spent or how much I've given.
Jesus taught not to let your left hand knows what your right hand does. He was talking about giving alms. So this isn't something I'd go into detail with you about either.
I will tell you I was listening to a researcher on the radio in the US, who found that conservatives gave a lot more as a percentage of income to charitable causes... ironically even to environmental causes. And conservative Christians were really big givers. He said it went along with the philosophy. Conservatives believe in individuals giving individually to charity. Liberals/Progressive want the government to tax everyone and give out the funds.
What about this one. This is a good one for you MrMan, advocate of Capitalism and supporter of exploitation.
Acts 4:32: "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."
Then MrMan and his ilk will be like "duuuuh, why should those who make robots share profits with scroungers who don't want to work? Muuuuh hard workism."
Exploitation? i consider what the Bolsheviks did to be horrific exploitation. The Czar had divided land to former peasants. Some of them worked hard and had productive farms and fed the nation. The Bolshevik's came through villages after they took over and asked malcontents who the rich class that was oppressing the people. So the town drunk or lazy person might be jealous of the prosperous farmer, point at him, and the Bolsheviks would take his farm. I saw an interview with a man who had an ancestor who was sent to the Gulag, a horrific prison, for owning a horse.
So what happened to Russia, and the Ukraine for that matter. Not only did the Bolsheviks outright kill and imprison a lot of people, their taking the farms from productive farmers led to tens of millions of people dying due to the famine their Marxist, Leninist, Communism caused.
I don't want the government, run by evil people to divide up all the wealth. You mentioned having all things in common. My wife and I have talked about the commune idea for the future. We'd thought about starting one if some resources came through.
But notice there in Acts that the apostles did not have all things in common with pagans like yourself. It was all believers in Jesus sharing all things in common. There wasn't some pagan priest insisting on using common funds to build a statue to worship a demon.
And giving up goods for communal use was voluntary according to what Peter said to Ananias in Acts 4. It was in Ananias power to do what he wanted with his land and with his money.
The New Testament teaches those who are wealthy with this world's goods to share. There is an __example__, not a command, of a commune. I'd say it is a good thing. But not everyone lived in Jerusalem, and the epistles didn't command Christians from all over the Roman empire and elsewhere to go there to Jerusalem and all live in the commune.
Regarding pagans-- 'what fellowship hath light with darkness.' I don't want to be in a commune with atheists, pagans, or unbelieving Jews. It's not commanded, and I can see Biblical reasons for not doing so. I prefer to live in a society that is productive where people are not starving because of the government idiotically dividing it up according to Marxist principles and causing mass starvation as happened in Russia, Ukraine, and Cambodia.
The Bible teaches individuals to give to the poor, and Christians are to give to/share with one another. It does NOT teach Christians to pressure the government to take the wealth of productive members of society and give it to the less productive, or to create a society that will not be well-managed.
I do not expect AI robot creators to all be Christians, either. so your argument doesn't make much sense.
Christian social teachings often call for the fair and just distribution of resources to prevent extreme inequalities (James 5:1-6). However, many modern Christians live in and accept economic systems that produce significant wealth disparities without actively seeking to reform these systems in line with these teachings.
That's a passage against those who do not pay workers wages. It is NOT a passage telling Christians to pressure the government to take wealth from some people and give it to others. It doesn't say there cannot be 'wealth disparities'. If you were criticizing Christians for not sharing more among themselves, you may have a valid point. But we aren't required to finance your 'right' to travel for free, not work, and have free food. The Bible speaks of working to support the weak, and 'if any man will not work, neither should he eat.'
You really have no idea how some Christians treat their finances, how they live, giving sacrificially, what percentage they give, etc. I know of one preacher who was going to do an evangelistic effort somewhere, but didn't have the funds.. he thought. He believed God was directing him to clean out this account he'd set aside for his child's education to go an evangelistic effort in Russia, where he took a proposed Constitution a Christian friend had written up for him to pass on to the president there... who he didn't know. He ended up going into a party at the hotel he was staying in, looking around, sensing the Lord was directing him to stand in a certain place, then Boris Yeltsin came and stood before him. He handed him the constitution and said it was written to bring peace and prosperity to his people, and parts of it ended up in the Russian constitution. He did his evangelistic efforts there, then went to a Christian ministers conference. Someone asked him if his kid needed a scholarship to a certain Christian college, and they gave it to him.
