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Comment by thatguy0900 | Hacker News Reader

I always wonder about rich people who think themselves Christians. Or other Christians who look up to them. Jesus directly states that rich people don't go to heaven when asked.

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No, Jesus didn’t. Jesus did, however, use a rhetorical device to emphasize that the rich could become worthy of heaven only by humbling themselves.

Correct. There's one Sunday devoted to the readings about Jesus's statement that getting to heaven is like passing through the "eye of the needle", a very narrow gate to a city. The standard interpretation is that to pass through the eye of the needle, you need to remove all of your belongings. In other words, you can't take it with you.

It is fairly common for preachers to say that money is not the problem -- it's what you do with the money.

This stuff varies quite a bit by denomination and just tradition honestly.

I mean you also have mainstream preachers telling you that if your faith is strong enough god will reward you with riches, which has been considered a heresy for at least a thousand years.

So I don't know they should be but preachers may not universally be the experts on this unfortunately.

The eye of the needle thing does not represent his entire full viewpoint on wealth right? It comes up quite a few times. Regardless of how you interpret the camel bit, there are other moments where he clearly tells the wealthy to give it all away.

Yeah I am an atheist these days but at the same time life is complex and I guess in some ways I am not not a christian.

I have no respect for wealthy christians! At all! Yer boy Jesus was extremely extremely clear about what is expected of you on this front. He was ambiguous and contradictory on some things but not this one.

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