Australians just love their 'super'. They look forward to their years in 'retirement' where they can just "enjoy life". This includes many Australian Christians, orthodox, evangelical and conservative Christians, who have no idea just what spirit they are under. They also think that there is nothing wrong with super. However, this just testifies to how under the spirit of mammon they are, and how enslaves they are to him.
There is even a company called Christian Super. They say on their website:
Do you care how your hard-earned super is being invested? Would you like to receive social and environmental returns, along with financial returns? Like sending students to university, investing in hospitals, producing clean water, creating affordable housing, developing green energy… all while avoiding things that harm people and our planet.
Christian Super are ethical investing experts. 100% of our investments are ethically screened based on values we find in the Bible. We invite you to join the award-winning super fund that’s changing the world through ethical investing. Best of all, you can join and switch your super online in minutes.
They say their investments are "screened based on values we find in the Bible". Really? What about Ezekiel 18:13 which says: Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him. What about what Jesus Himself said in Luke 6:34: And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
I know too well that the typical modern western Christian will give a blank stare in response to this and ask, "what of it?" What of it? Investments are not only based on usury. They are usury. For those of you who don't know how investments work, the return obtained by the charging of 'interest', properly called usury, on a principal. It is not only the product of usury. It is usury itself.
Apart from investments being usury, the whole essence of superannuation is unbiblical itself. Jesus said:
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
Read it again. It says "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth". It does not say lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth, unless it is by so-called 'ethical investment', or where the treasure on earth is only for one's family, that it is only a "small amount", or for one's survival. No, it just says "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth". There is no qualification to this command, not opinion, advice, or view, but command by Jesus to not store up treasure on earth.
You may say this is a hard teaching. Yes, indeed it is hard teaching for those who are rebellious, sinful, wicked and evil. The entire Bible is hard teaching for rebellious, sinful, wicked and evil people, which is anyone who is not living a truly holy righteous life before God, seeking first His Kingdom (Matthew 6:33). That is what makes the entire Bible hard teaching. Because it is hard for rebellious, sinful and wicked people, like most of you to accept. So don't you dare claim to obey the Word of God, as many in the modern conservative, orthodox, evangelical Church in the west do, but yet attempt to soften, qualify or exceptionalise any teaching in the Bible whatsoever which one finds 'hard to accept', that is, that one does not want to obey.
Whenever a Bible teaching is said to be hard to accept, what is really meant is that one does not want to obey it because of one's rebelliousness and wickedness. That is it. So, that is why people should stop saying that some teachings of the Bible are 'hard to accept', because that is really to deny that one is being rebellious against God. To say it is 'hard to accept' is to blame for how hard the teaching is, when it is really one's own fault for being disobedient towards God.
It is because most people will not truly repent of their sins to live a truly holy and righteous life for Jesus that Jesus said: Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
Don't be the many. Heed the words of Jesus who commands us to enter the narrow gate to life, and reject the wide gate which only ends in death.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
There is even a company called Christian Super. They say on their website:
Do you care how your hard-earned super is being invested? Would you like to receive social and environmental returns, along with financial returns? Like sending students to university, investing in hospitals, producing clean water, creating affordable housing, developing green energy… all while avoiding things that harm people and our planet.
Christian Super are ethical investing experts. 100% of our investments are ethically screened based on values we find in the Bible. We invite you to join the award-winning super fund that’s changing the world through ethical investing. Best of all, you can join and switch your super online in minutes.
They say their investments are "screened based on values we find in the Bible". Really? What about Ezekiel 18:13 which says: Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him. What about what Jesus Himself said in Luke 6:34: And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
I know too well that the typical modern western Christian will give a blank stare in response to this and ask, "what of it?" What of it? Investments are not only based on usury. They are usury. For those of you who don't know how investments work, the return obtained by the charging of 'interest', properly called usury, on a principal. It is not only the product of usury. It is usury itself.
Apart from investments being usury, the whole essence of superannuation is unbiblical itself. Jesus said:
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
Read it again. It says "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth". It does not say lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth, unless it is by so-called 'ethical investment', or where the treasure on earth is only for one's family, that it is only a "small amount", or for one's survival. No, it just says "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth". There is no qualification to this command, not opinion, advice, or view, but command by Jesus to not store up treasure on earth.
You may say this is a hard teaching. Yes, indeed it is hard teaching for those who are rebellious, sinful, wicked and evil. The entire Bible is hard teaching for rebellious, sinful, wicked and evil people, which is anyone who is not living a truly holy righteous life before God, seeking first His Kingdom (Matthew 6:33). That is what makes the entire Bible hard teaching. Because it is hard for rebellious, sinful and wicked people, like most of you to accept. So don't you dare claim to obey the Word of God, as many in the modern conservative, orthodox, evangelical Church in the west do, but yet attempt to soften, qualify or exceptionalise any teaching in the Bible whatsoever which one finds 'hard to accept', that is, that one does not want to obey.
Whenever a Bible teaching is said to be hard to accept, what is really meant is that one does not want to obey it because of one's rebelliousness and wickedness. That is it. So, that is why people should stop saying that some teachings of the Bible are 'hard to accept', because that is really to deny that one is being rebellious against God. To say it is 'hard to accept' is to blame for how hard the teaching is, when it is really one's own fault for being disobedient towards God.
It is because most people will not truly repent of their sins to live a truly holy and righteous life for Jesus that Jesus said: Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
Don't be the many. Heed the words of Jesus who commands us to enter the narrow gate to life, and reject the wide gate which only ends in death.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
Comments
Post a Comment