FYI.
Modern interpretation of Christ driving the money changers from the temple by Anthony Freda/Daniel Zollinger
– Why Jesus Was REALLY Killed: Challenging the Money Changers (Washington’s Blog, April 20, 2014):
Why Jesus Was Killed
Preface: If you are an atheist and believe that religion is crazy, please remember that some 85% of the American population identifies itself as Christian and millions more identify themselves as Jewish. Very few Americans are atheists … and the majority don’t trust atheists. Therefore, knowing a few bible verses might be helpful for atheists speaking to people of faith.
Reverend Howard Bess notes:
Jesus did not go to the temple to cleanse. He came to the temple to announce the destruction of a whole way of life. Those who operated the temple had no power to silence Jesus and put him to death. Those powers were held by the Roman retainers.
The charges that were leveled against him can be summed up as insurrection. There were three specific charges: encouraging non-payment of taxes, threatening to destroy property (the temple), and claiming to be a king. It was the temple incident that took Jesus from being an irritating, but harmless country rebel from the rural north to a nuisance in a city that controlled the great tradition. Rome’s retainers killed him on a cross.
In other words, Jesus wasn’t sentenced to death until he challenged the money changers.
What Does it Mean to Do God’s Work?
The head of Goldman Sachs said he’s doing “God’s work” with his banking activities.
The head of Barclays also told his congregation that banking as practiced by his company was not antithetical to Christian principles.
Are they right? Is big banking as practiced by the giant banks in harmony with Christian principles?
Do Justice
Initially, the Bible does not counsel us to ignore the breaking of laws by the the powerful.
In fact, the Bible mentions justice over 200 times — more than just about any other topic. The Bible asks us to do justice and to stand up to ANYONE — including the rich or powerful — who do injustice or oppress the people.
Indeed, one of the first things God asks of us is to do justice:
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
While many churches and synagogues have become obsessed with other issues, many have arguably ignored this most important of God’s demands of us. As pointed out by a leading Christian ministry, which rescues underage girls trapped as sex slaves in third world countries:
In Scripture there is a constant call to seek justice. Jesus got upset at the Pharisees because they neglected the weightier matters of the law, which He defined as justice and the love of God . . . Isaiah 58 complains about the fact that while the people of God are praying and praying and praying, they are not doing anything about the injustice.
Should Christians just pray for justice and leave the rest to God?
That’s not what the Bible asks us to do. Instead, Hebrews 11:33 tells us that we are God’s hands for dispensing justice, and God uses us to “administer justice.”
We have to “walk our talk” and put our prayers into action.
God demands that we do everything in our power to act as “God’s hands” in bringing justice. And as Saint Augustine reminds us, “Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.”
Indeed:
The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene. (Isaiah 59:15-16)
This is the only place in the Bible where the word “appalled” is used for the way God feels — in other words, the only thing which we know God is appalled by is if people are not doing justice.
There are hundreds of other references to justice in the Bible, including:
- Blessed are they who maintain justice . . . . (Psalm 106:3)
- This is what the LORD says: Maintain justice and do what is right . . . . (Isiah 56:1)
- This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. (Jeremiah 22:3,13-17)
- Follow justice and justice alone. (Deuteronomy 16:19, 20)
- For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice . . . . (Job 11:5,7)
- Learn to do right! Seek justice . . . . (Isaiah 1:17)
So if the powerful players in the giant banks broke the laws, they must be held to account.
Fraud and Manipulation of Money
The big banks have engaged in systemic, continuous ongoing criminal fraud.
Allowing the banks to commit crime with impunity is not what Jesus would do. What would Jesus do? Turn over the tables of the money-changers. (economists agree.)
Moreover, the giant banks manipulate currency through the use of schemes such as manipulating interest rates (gaming interest rates in different regions – Libor, Eurobor, etc. – can in turn drive their currencies up or down), high frequency trading and artificially suppressing gold prices (which artificially inflates the value of fiat money) .
As Ron Paul notes, the Bible forbids altering the quality of money (which, at the time and place, was entirely in the form of coins):
Even the Bible is clear that altering the quality of money is an immoral act. We are instructed to follow the rules of “just weights and measures.” “You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin” (Leviticus 19:35-36). “Diverse weights are an abomination to the LORD, and a false balance is not good” (Proverbs 20:23). The general principle can be summed as “You shall not steal.”
Proverbs 11:1 also provides:
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight.
So to the extent that the giant banks have engaged in any dishonest acts or the manipulation of currencies, they are violating scripture.
Oppression of the Poor
The Bible condemns oppression of the poor for the benefit of the affluent:
He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall surely come to want. (Proverbs 22:16)
To the extent that the giant banks have oppressed the poor to increase their riches, they are violating scripture.
Due to their looting, inequality is now worse in American than in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, most Latin American banana republics … and ancient Rome.
Waging War
Bankers are often the driving force behind war. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9), and Jesus would not have taken kindly to waging wars for profit based upon false pretenses.
Resurrection: Christ’s Ministry
Christ – and his ministry – lives to the extent that we act as God’s hands to confront the big banks which are warping our economy and our world.
What many Christians don’t understand is how small the world was then. Many of the government leaders didn’t know who Jesus was until after he was long dead…….most of this is built up thanks to oral tradition. His teachings changed the viewpoint of mankind over the next few centuries. He was a small leader of a little group of people, he was really not a danger to the Emperors or the Roman government. Most of the stories written about him were composed 100-200 years after his death. His message was a good one, and the same lessons have been taught century after century.
The value put on human life by the Christian movement caused one of the biggest social changes to mankind in thousands of years…….much of what it taught was good. Unfortunately, some bad people grabbed hold of it and used it in their wars and greedy pursuits as they always do.
The Catholic Church is the world’s oldest corporation……..they are an excellent representation of the best and worst of religion. They saved the teachings of the ancients when we went into the Dark Ages, otherwise they would all have been lost……. they educated and schooled many in letters, numbers and gorilla warfare (especially the Jesuits)………it is a rich and amazing history. It has done good, and it has done bad…..pretty much like all of us.
Jesus’ life itself is the teaching….the pursuit of good and viable purpose for all good people in their life work, and that is where the lesson is. Jesus never meant to be a god, just a messenger. The established religions made him a god…..they changed the other good teachers to saints.
All the ancient religions had a trinity, a resurrection, ascension and saints. The Gnostics called them Eons, or minor gods, the Catholics called them saints, other religions had other names for them. They took the statue of Isis, and renamed her the Virgin Mary. They took the Pagan religions and converted them to Christianity at the bidding of Emperor Constantine when he changed Rome to a Christian nation.
Religion has been used throughout the ages to control and teach people. Some scholars call religion one of the great evils of humanity. I don’t, I think people would find this a very desolate place without a concept of a higher power or purpose. Also, there are people who are savages, and need a sense of an unseen entity watching them to keep them in line…….
I cannot walk in nature without an inner sense of being a small part of something infinitely larger. The ancients also found it in nature; that is the closest for me.
I like what Einstein said. He was an atheist for many years, but as he aged and learned he said the universe was far too intelligent and well organized to have happened by accident…..there has to be a higher intelligence, a God. We all find our own concepts of Him, some in the Bible, others in nature and many other places.
When I was a young girl, Easter was a festive time of rebirth, Springtime, a time to be dressed up with hats, gloves and go to Church to celebrate life. Our society has destroyed and buried it in political correctness, and we have lost a lot. Easter is now just another day, and I sure miss it. Nazi Germany fed their people the same political correctness game, a subtle game used to curb their tongues and real thoughts…..it strangles something within the human spirit………..we live in a barren and meaningless society. Nothing of value seems to matter any longer.
Thanks for an interesting article. When he overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, that is the one time in the Bible that demonstrates real anger in Jesus, and I think it is one with which we all identify today.
http://www.roitov.com/articles/guinea.htm
As a kid I was a member of the Sunday Scripture Union, a churchgoer and in High School, regularly came top in Religious Instruction, and was a member of the local Church Youth Club as a teenager.
I agree it helped bonding,
Now I am an atheist, not agnostic. I firmly believe we have been persecuted since the beginning, using the fear of the upset Deity as the ultimate weapon for control of the uneducated.
The child abuse by the world’s representatives of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, finished me off, and I started asking questions.
This video summarises my current understanding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWkQy7w15QU
To Squodgy: The God of my understanding doesn’t give a damn if you believe in him or not…..it is what you do that matters. The rest is marketing and people control.
Agreed, in our little villaee, the regular churchgoing ‘Christian’ worshippers are, in the main, about as good, caring and loving as all the yids I’ve met.
And Jesus was Jewish along with the original followers of Christianity. All white people are descendants of Judaism.