Greg Matthews said

Liam Foley said

GreatBigBore said
Thinking about Jesus expecting the imminent end, I can’t figure out why he would advise people to give their possessions to the poor. To tell the truth, I can’t figure out why he’d give that advice even if the end weren’t coming. Seems like it would be better to tell people, especially rich people, to manage their wealth to help the poor over the long term. But if indeed the time were short, what could he have been envisioning for the beneficiaries of these riches? Some finite number of poor people could have benefited for a while, maybe long enough to keep them going until God came down? I can’t make sense of it. Does anyone have any thoughts?

A Fundamentalist told me that when Jesus told the rich young man to sell all his possessions it was not to be taken literally. In context with that passage the rich man had asked how to inherit eternal life. The rich man said he had kept the law and Jesus said he had to go further and sell all his possessions as a means of demonstrating no man can earn salvation even by selling all his possessions. That is why after the rich young man walked away Jesus explained to his disciples that what is impossible with man is not impossible with God.

Don’t like what the Bible says?  Just say it’s allegory!  Typical fundy.

Yup, and they accuse me of doing the same thing!

this fundy site does give the same explanation I did.

** you do not have permission to see this link **

Greg Matthews said  Don’t like what the Bible says?  Just say it’s allegory!  Typical fundy.

 You GO, Greg!

My question to the fundy is how do you know it was “not to be taken literally”. Considering fundamentalists do just that with everything else. Is there some sort of textual characteristic that tells us?  Yes, the magical context. Notice the salvation that

“is only possible with God”  becomes the wealth that “is only possible with God”

spiker said

Greg Matthews said  Don’t like what the Bible says?  Just say it’s allegory!  Typical fundy.

 

 You GO, Greg!

My question to the fundy is how do you know it was “not to be taken literally”. Considering fundamentalists do just that with everything else. Is there some sort of textual characteristic that tells us?  Yes, the magical context. Notice the salvation that

“is only possible with God”  becomes the wealth that “is only possible with God”

Yup, the magic of context! It allows them to interpret it the way they like and cancel out what they don’t like.