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Can A Rich Man Get Into Heaven?

On the matter of Jesus and money, there are three types of people in the world.

1. The first group of people have no idea what Jesus said about money, and they don't care to know.

2. People who care profoundly about what Jesus said about money and do their best to be obedient to those words.

3. The third group are people who know what Jesus said about money and wish they didn't.

If you want an example of the third type of person, consider the statement I overheard at a seminar about becoming a millionaire. As I was going back to my seat after a break, I passed by a man who was asking the speaker a question. He said: "How can you say it is good to be rich. Jesus said that a rich man can't get into Heaven."

My candidate for the Bible verse most likely to convince people that they have to choose between riches and salvation is the comment by Jesus about a rich man and the Kingdom of Heaven. Of all of the words of Jesus about money, this is the one that is most misinterpreted.

The distressed questioner had misquoted the verse itself. Jesus did not say that a rich man can't get into Heaven. In the three biblical versions of the story, Jesus made a statement about a rich man entering the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven. By identifying the "Kingdom of Heaven" with "Heaven," the questioner had significantly missed an important point.

The Kingdom of Heaven concerns the economic reality of people alive on planet Earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is not the same as Heaven.

What is the remedy for someone like the man at the seminar, who was sure that Jesus taught that a rich man cannot get into Heaven? The solution is context. The words of Jesus must be put into the context of the story. And then the story must be put into the context of the economic situation in which Jesus lived. This is the way to liberate people who are sure they know what Jesus said about money but wish they didn't.

If you don't put these words into context, you can spend a lifetime feeling guilty about wanting to have money. This seemed to be what happened to the man at the seminar. The first reason for his inner conflict was that he didn't even have the words right. He was stuck in the "Eye of the Needle" about money because he had missed the real point of the story.

Jesus was not saying that the rich cannot get into Heaven. Jesus was condemning an economic system that produced so much poverty. He was not insisting that people must be poor to get into Heaven.

Article Source: Free Content Articles Directory

What if most of what you believe about Jesus and money is not true? Don't let misunderstood Bible stories block you from living an abundant life.

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