The Modern western Church gives the world an Excuse to Blaspheme God by its Hypocritical Mammonisation
It is truly a baffling irony that a person can speak about the need to be holy and righteous in the sight of God, but yet, when it comes to the issue of money, wealth and mammon, he treats the issue with literally postmodernistic thinking; claiming that God allows him to do as he chooses with his money because it is his own. This indeed is the mindset of many true converts who are strict in holiness in all areas of life, that is, all area except for that of money.
Indeed, the typical modern Christian thinks that the issue of money, wealth and mammon is not a big deal, if at all an issue in living his life. One professing Christian even had the audacity, the vile, abominable, despicable, disgusting, blasphemous, evil, absolutely loathsome, wrath-deserving audacity to say that the issue of mammon, which is money and wealth, as he intended to mean, is only a minor issue. What disgusting, abominable, vile blasphemy! Such is the spiritual adultery of the modern Church, seeking to be friends with the world, and yet at the same time seeking favours from God.
James 4:4 makes it clear: Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
You may ask how can I make a statement about the Church as a whole when I don't know all the local churches. You are making this reply out of your vile mockery, as if a person needed to go to all the local churches to know. One can simply observe the manner of spirit of much of the Christian literature today, or what passes as Christian literature, the fear of many Christians when speaking about the issue of wealth and riches, not to say, all the vitriolic and just absolutely despicably presumptuous theological replies such mammonised Christians make in response the proclamation of truth about the issue, thinking they know all about the issue when they have not a single clue about what mammon and riches really are. This is all just merely a fruit and the manifestation itself of the spirit of mammon influencing and controlling such people.
You may say that you are a true convert and therefore the Holy Spirit controls you. That is true. However, it is also possible for a true convert to quench the Holy Spirit by grieving Him. That is why the Bible warns "Quench not the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Why does it warn quench not the Holy Spirit? Because it is easy for a true convert to quench Him.
It is extremely ironic how many in the modern Church love to simply say "we are sinful" referring to themselves as true Christians who are sinners, in that abominable flippant tone they use. Yet, when told that they are under the spirit of mammon, because of their sin of anxiety for obtaining their earthly needs, they react with such hostility and retort that people under the spirit of mammon are not true Christians at all.
Didn't you people just say that you may still fall into sin as a Christian? Why do you say that a person who as a result of his sin becomes under the spirit of mammon cannot be a true Christian?
You may say that to say that the reason why a true Christian cannot be under the spirit of mammon is because the whole issue of being under the spirit of mammon is not a matter of falling into sin, but serving mammon. Sin is from the heart, you may reply. That is exactly why these mammonised Christians are under the spirit of mammon. It is because of their own sins of anxiety for obtaining their earthly needs, for which they make an excuse by saying they need to care for their families, thinking that 1 Timothy 5:8 justifies them, that they become under the spirit of mammon. Mammon has a foothold over their lives because of their anxiety for earthly needs, for which they excuse themselves with all sorts of absolutely foolish excuses.
Money has a spiritual effect on all of us. It does not make us generous, but stingy because it seduces our fleshly desire to serve ourselves. To think that one should be entitled to one's so-called basic needs, it itself a manifestation of the spirit of mammon controlling oneself. Jesus explained that a person serves mammon by being anxious for one's own needs in Matthew 6:24-25:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
The very anxiety, which manifests in taking thought for one's life, itself is sin. It is faithlessness. Without faith, one cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6). It is to tell God that He, despite being the Sovereign, Almighty Lord God of Hosts who created the whole universe ex nihilo that He cannot truly provide. It is not just an insult to God. It is an attack on God's character. It is not just to say that He lies. It is to call Him a liar, by not trusting in Him even to the slightest. That is why the Bible says without faith, one cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6).
The problem with the modern Church in the west is not that it has too little money. The modern Church in the west has so much money that it has become smug, arrogant and proud like the Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22). It is not a false church as many in the modern Church, would try to make it out to be. If it were a false church, not of Christ, Christ would not be exhorting it and disciplining it as He did by saying to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:18-22:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
God only disciplines or chastens those who are His true children as He does not discipline those who are not His true children. Hebrews 12:5-8 says:
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
The modern Church in the west is one that has not faced the persecutions by the world, of having one's home taken away and denies, imprisoned on the basis of one's faith, or brutally murdered for one's faith in Christ, only to have no one mourn, not even one's own earthly family, except for a few believers who will also be martyred.
The modern western Church is spoilt rotten by all the wealth its has, not like a little spoilt child, but as an adult who thinks that all that he has is his. This is not a humourous statement, but a very serious one. Wealth has a spirit behind it, the spirit of mammon. By the flattering of wealth, she has become smug, arrogant and proud, thinking that all is well with her because she has all she needs, thinking she is rich, when she is really poor, blind and pitiable as did the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-17:
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
The world sees right through this hypocrisy of the Church, knowing that she should not loves material thing, which is exactly what enjoying earthly comfort and thinking oneself entitled to it is. So, when the world sees the Church being earthly like them, by failing to be different from them, it mocks the Church. It is not mockery made with no basis. It is mockery made with basis which makes it all the more disturbing.
The modern western Church has given the world an excuse to blaspheme God by its mammonisation. Its mindset that it is legitimate to enjoy earthly comfort, claiming it as one's own, and to seek one's so-called "rights", "liberty" and "equality", all in the name of justice is a manifestation of being under the spirit of mammon.
Indeed, the typical modern Christian thinks that the issue of money, wealth and mammon is not a big deal, if at all an issue in living his life. One professing Christian even had the audacity, the vile, abominable, despicable, disgusting, blasphemous, evil, absolutely loathsome, wrath-deserving audacity to say that the issue of mammon, which is money and wealth, as he intended to mean, is only a minor issue. What disgusting, abominable, vile blasphemy! Such is the spiritual adultery of the modern Church, seeking to be friends with the world, and yet at the same time seeking favours from God.
James 4:4 makes it clear: Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
You may ask how can I make a statement about the Church as a whole when I don't know all the local churches. You are making this reply out of your vile mockery, as if a person needed to go to all the local churches to know. One can simply observe the manner of spirit of much of the Christian literature today, or what passes as Christian literature, the fear of many Christians when speaking about the issue of wealth and riches, not to say, all the vitriolic and just absolutely despicably presumptuous theological replies such mammonised Christians make in response the proclamation of truth about the issue, thinking they know all about the issue when they have not a single clue about what mammon and riches really are. This is all just merely a fruit and the manifestation itself of the spirit of mammon influencing and controlling such people.
You may say that you are a true convert and therefore the Holy Spirit controls you. That is true. However, it is also possible for a true convert to quench the Holy Spirit by grieving Him. That is why the Bible warns "Quench not the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Why does it warn quench not the Holy Spirit? Because it is easy for a true convert to quench Him.
It is extremely ironic how many in the modern Church love to simply say "we are sinful" referring to themselves as true Christians who are sinners, in that abominable flippant tone they use. Yet, when told that they are under the spirit of mammon, because of their sin of anxiety for obtaining their earthly needs, they react with such hostility and retort that people under the spirit of mammon are not true Christians at all.
Didn't you people just say that you may still fall into sin as a Christian? Why do you say that a person who as a result of his sin becomes under the spirit of mammon cannot be a true Christian?
You may say that to say that the reason why a true Christian cannot be under the spirit of mammon is because the whole issue of being under the spirit of mammon is not a matter of falling into sin, but serving mammon. Sin is from the heart, you may reply. That is exactly why these mammonised Christians are under the spirit of mammon. It is because of their own sins of anxiety for obtaining their earthly needs, for which they make an excuse by saying they need to care for their families, thinking that 1 Timothy 5:8 justifies them, that they become under the spirit of mammon. Mammon has a foothold over their lives because of their anxiety for earthly needs, for which they excuse themselves with all sorts of absolutely foolish excuses.
Money has a spiritual effect on all of us. It does not make us generous, but stingy because it seduces our fleshly desire to serve ourselves. To think that one should be entitled to one's so-called basic needs, it itself a manifestation of the spirit of mammon controlling oneself. Jesus explained that a person serves mammon by being anxious for one's own needs in Matthew 6:24-25:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
The very anxiety, which manifests in taking thought for one's life, itself is sin. It is faithlessness. Without faith, one cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6). It is to tell God that He, despite being the Sovereign, Almighty Lord God of Hosts who created the whole universe ex nihilo that He cannot truly provide. It is not just an insult to God. It is an attack on God's character. It is not just to say that He lies. It is to call Him a liar, by not trusting in Him even to the slightest. That is why the Bible says without faith, one cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6).
The problem with the modern Church in the west is not that it has too little money. The modern Church in the west has so much money that it has become smug, arrogant and proud like the Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22). It is not a false church as many in the modern Church, would try to make it out to be. If it were a false church, not of Christ, Christ would not be exhorting it and disciplining it as He did by saying to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:18-22:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
God only disciplines or chastens those who are His true children as He does not discipline those who are not His true children. Hebrews 12:5-8 says:
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
The modern Church in the west is one that has not faced the persecutions by the world, of having one's home taken away and denies, imprisoned on the basis of one's faith, or brutally murdered for one's faith in Christ, only to have no one mourn, not even one's own earthly family, except for a few believers who will also be martyred.
The modern western Church is spoilt rotten by all the wealth its has, not like a little spoilt child, but as an adult who thinks that all that he has is his. This is not a humourous statement, but a very serious one. Wealth has a spirit behind it, the spirit of mammon. By the flattering of wealth, she has become smug, arrogant and proud, thinking that all is well with her because she has all she needs, thinking she is rich, when she is really poor, blind and pitiable as did the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-17:
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
The world sees right through this hypocrisy of the Church, knowing that she should not loves material thing, which is exactly what enjoying earthly comfort and thinking oneself entitled to it is. So, when the world sees the Church being earthly like them, by failing to be different from them, it mocks the Church. It is not mockery made with no basis. It is mockery made with basis which makes it all the more disturbing.
The modern western Church has given the world an excuse to blaspheme God by its mammonisation. Its mindset that it is legitimate to enjoy earthly comfort, claiming it as one's own, and to seek one's so-called "rights", "liberty" and "equality", all in the name of justice is a manifestation of being under the spirit of mammon.
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