Jesus said "sell everything" to get into heaven... What about all those rich pastors?

[Roach Clips]

Idk... It always confuses me how there are so many rich pastors out there, when Jesus, himself, said if you are rich and want to get into heaven, you have to sell everything.

Thoughts?

[aperfectstranger]

Believers pick and choose in the scriptures as they wish. There are other scriptures which make it clear that wealth is a blessing. This gives them a perfect excuse to hold on to their blessing and to discriminate against those not blessed. One of the commandments admonishes the faithful to not covet. To not even think about coveting. So there you have it. The rich stay rich, and the rest are viewed as not having enough faith to be blessed, so it's their own fault. They'll get their reward in the next life the story goes...

[Tigers!]

Idk... It always confuses me how there are so many rich pastors out there, when Jesus, himself, said if you are rich and want to get into heaven, you have to sell everything.

Thoughts?
Two thoughts to this
1. The idea you have was directed at a person in particular, known in Scripture as the rich young ruler (Mark 10:20-22). This applied to him in particular because his welath was very important to him. If someone else has another thing eg. books then they would need to give then up. It all depends on what is standing in the place of God in your life.
2. Jesus also said that it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. (Matt 19:23-25) Jesus didn't say it was impossible to have money and God just very hard. As is colloquically known " the problem is not that you ahve riches rather the riches have you".

That being said like you I am opposed to the idea of pastors, ministers etc making far more money that is necessary. Certainly they need to support themselves and their families but a sense of proportion needs to be kept. At our church the minister is paid a wage which must be approved by the church membership each year. The pastor has no access to the offerings nor he si allowed to be a signatory for any cheques or bank accounts. we have done this to reduce/remove temptation and 'Caesar's wife must be above suspicion in all things'.

[aperfectstranger]

If it is a toss-up between god and books, I've already chosen ;)

[lpetrich]

Some problems with Tigers!'s attempts to explain it away.

The first is that Jesus Christ used examples like that as illustrations of general principles -- after telling that gentleman to sell everything he has and give the money to the poor, he gives us the general principle that a rich person is no more likely to enter the Kingdom of God than a camel/rope is likely to pass through the eye of a needle.

Likewise, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ tells us to accumulate treasures in Heaven, rather than on Earth, where they will be vulnerable.

For more, this page on Biblical moral precepts (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/precepts.html) may be helpful.

[PinkPanther_04]

The last issue of Time had a related cover story: Does god want you to be rich? (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1533448,00.html)

It's not just about wealthy preachers, but also about preachers who tell their congregations that god wants them to prosper.

[topgun12]

rite guys im not a christian but i know the answer to this one...

The passage about the rich young man who comes to jesus sayin how do i get to heaven... jesus replies follow the commandments... the rich young man said he had kept them all, jesus said to him then to sell his possesions, the rich young man turn away and was sad cause he could not do this.. now

all have sinned etc so it was impossible for him to get to heaven by his own acts and that was the point of the story was.