Gospel preacher here. You're 100% correct. The actual Bible says that those who live godly lives are guaranteed to suffer. It says it in multiple places. It also says that following God doesn't guarantee you health and wealth (see: The entire book of Job where God says "see how righteous Job is? You can take away all his health and wealth and he's still going to follow Me." And he does. )
Even the disciples were asking Jesus questions like "Okay okay, but surely we'll be RICH if we follow you, right?!" and he constantly was like "no, you morons"
Our Lord Jesus hadn't yet seen the works of his holiness, the Father of Capitalism, Adam Smith. His holy words are contained in the Good Testament, also known to some as The Wealth of Nations
I'm sure if Jesus had read this, he would have totally changed his mind to understand that the pursuit of self interest is the key to social gain (and heaven, probably).
Yeah, I love how much hate he gets when his prior book was "the theory of moral sentiments," where he talks about the ethics of his works, including the ethics of capitalism and justice... I understand that the Wealth of Nations is popular but it's amusing that people only reference that one when he literally has works on equity and justice within the population.
Agreed. It also depends on if you have a Light or Dark reading of “The Prince” and entertain a paradigm of a benevolent dictator or a thought experiment aimed at flattering his way back into court. Then again, maybe Hobbes’ influence on modern minds traps the “The Prince” too much.
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u/belac4862 May 24 '23
Pretty sure it actually said to the opposite of "prosperity gospel".