Corruption in the clergy is nothing new. From selling indulgences in medieval Europe to peddling sham healings in 19th-century America, there are many grifters who have made money off of God.
Anyone who asked for material possessions was blaspheming against the Spirit and was a fraud.is a series of guidelines for evaluating self-proclaimed apostles, prophets, or religious teachers. The first is fairly straightforward—do they know the basic tenets of Christian belief and follow the same sort of liturgical rituals? It’s not so bad to supplement traditions, but those who contradict received tradition should be shunned.
Then there’s the financial issue. If a new arrival is in transit and wants to stay a single night, then he should be welcomed like Jesus, but if he wants to stay longer than two days, things start to get sticky. No one likes a freeloader. If they stay too long, then they have to get a job. When a traveling apostle left the community, they were to be given nothing except for bread. This is striking because the audience of the, like many early Christians, seemed to have practiced a sort of strong philanthropy or loose socialism: if a fellow Christian needed something then you should give it to them. This rule did not apply to potentially fraudulent traveling preachers. Apostles, according to the Gospels, should not carry purses or be amassing wealth .
So far, so good but there was one arena where the rules might go out the window and that was prophecy. What if a minister was overcome by the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy? And what if, in the midst of religious ecstasy, the prophet asked for money, food, a private jet or luxury mansion? Thehas some strong feelings: anyone who asked for material possessions was blaspheming against the Spirit and was a fraud. The Gospels specify that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was an unforgivable sin.
It’s worth noting that, in antiquity, the problem of fraudulent religious experts was not only a Christian one. The Roman writer Juvenal reports that there was a Judean High Priestess working on the streets of Rome who claimed to be able to interpret oracles and the law . The Syrian writer Lucian of Samosata devoted a whole work—
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Merced kidnapping: Second suspect arrested in killing of family of 4Officials say Alberto Salgado, the brother of Jesus Salgado, was arrested Thursday night.
Read more »
Jesus Salgado’s brother Alberto arrested after California family kidnap, murderThe brother of “pure evil” Jesus Salgado — charged with four counts of kidnap and murder for allegedly wiping out his former boss’ family — has also been arrested as a…
Read more »
Instagram restricted Ye’s account after ‘anti-Jewish’ postIn a now-removed post, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, published an alleged interaction with Sean “Diddy” Combs with the caption “Jesus is Jew.”
Read more »
Ground broken for LDS Temple in Heber CityChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Russell M. Nelson broke ground in Heber City on Saturday for construction of the Heber Valley Temple.
Read more »