He makes some perfectly valid points about selfishness and the danger of going to Hell.
The final remarks about income “inequities” and tax cuts have NOTHING to do with the valid moral points that precede it. There is NOTHING about high tax rates or compulsory income limits that in any way responds to the teaching of Jesus.
This is a man who knows something about the Gospel, and NOTHING about economics.
Very true. This paragraph made that clear:
Americans have made a lot of people rich. In our recent history, we have made it easier for people to become rich. They have become rich at the expense of the poor.
You have hit the target area.
I think a larger point to consider is all the prattling from the pulpit these days - and this is definitely where this pastor gets it wrong - about using a leviathan government as the means to achieve the social justice ends in the message of Christ. Think of all the wealth transferred since the New Deal - or even the Great Society. It has accomplished precious little to being about equality between the richest and poorest.
Why? One reason is that because the people who coronate themselves with the title of wealth redistributionist assume themselves worthy of worship. THEY replace and become God.
Jesus’ message was about changing hearts and minds one at a time. He knew the minute you try to enforce those feelings by governmental fiat, you create resentment and ultimately resistance and rebellion to the idea.
False.
The author of the article is reading into Scripture and manifesting his own sin. The scribe who asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved, since he had kept the Commandments since his birth, was told to give away his possessions and this proved too much a challenge for his fate, might be a candidate for such a false conclusion, but not the report of Lazarus and the rich man.
The reason the rich man was condemned and never received salvation was that he was already condemned from birth, without anything righteous to be identified with God for permanent relationship and because he never submitted to God in his heart, mind and soul, he didn;t even have faith which could be identified with the faith of Christ.
Lazarus did believe and went to Abraham's bosom or Paradise upon his first death. The rich man did not.
The same situation may happen today, but if a rich man today receives Christ through faith in Him, he still has salvation.
Those who are saved might lapse back into sin and arrogance, submitting to the natural man instead of the new man, the new creation, but that doesn't mean their new human spirit will not be saved.
The author hardly presents either a Protestant or Baptist soteriology. Worse, it tends to equate the charity of the believer with salvation. Such a policy results in God being made a debtor, rather than glorifying the Son who has paid the debt in full, allowing God the opportunity to righteously and justly give the believer eternal life by his grace alone.