rich
05 - 03/25 /10:07
Jesus said to His disciples, “It is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
— Matthew chapter 19
By most every measure Christianity is in decline in America and Europe. Church attendance is down. Cathedrals are being re-purposed into architectural shrines—people come to gawk at what men created instead of worship the Creator.
Sociologists report the decline of Christianity in Europe accelerated after WW1. Comprehending that some 8,500,000 Christians had just been slaughtered by “Christian nations,” Europeans began to question the veracity of Christianity.
Sociologists report the decline of Christianity in the United States began during the war in Vietnam, accelerating with Watergate. Americans increasingly became aware that lies were told to manipulate us into a war in southeast Asia, and lies are told by politicians to manipulate voters.
Sociologists could be wrong.
Jesus offers another explanation for Christianity’s decline in the West. Wealth. “It is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” As the West has become richer and richer, Christianity has declined. Wealth nurtures self-reliance. Self-reliance leaves little space for a Savior.
And we are rich. The World Bank reports only six countries have a GDP per capita richer than the USA; only Singapore is not in the West. GDP per capita of Saudi Arabia and Japan is less than 1/2 of the USA—China’s is 1/6th.
Jesus, however, sees us differently. “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
Hope can come when we see that regardless of our material wealth, we really are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked.
2024 Nicole Shanahan, a multi-billionaire, was chosen by R.F. Kennedy Jr as his VP Candidate. This winter she experienced an epiphany. A heaviness settled over her, thick and suffocating. “It pressed against my chest, not like a weight, but like a presence—something unseen yet undeniable.”
Ms Shanahan asked her message therapist, “Do you know anyone who can help keep away ‘bad energy’.” He introduced her to a jail chaplain who used a well worn Bible to guide Nicole through Scriptures revealing that she was wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and needed a Savior. Upon her confession of faith in Jesus, Nicole Shanahan was baptized in her swimming pool. She announced via X that she is now a Jew for Jesus.
When asked who can be saved, Jesus answered, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” ~
Blessings,
Dan Nygaard