interesting take on justifying greed


A Colorado pastor and his wife are being accused of fraud in a crypto scheme that raised over $3 million

The two sold an illiquid coin to 300+ investors and made $1.3 million

The pastor explained in a video that he may have "misheard God"

https://x.com/MorningBrew/status/1749825097056026631?s=20

A fool and his money are soon parted.

I would have walked away when he first said "God told me..."

That's your first clue.

Jesus said that there would be those acting Christians who in the end would be told "Get away from me you doer of evil for I never knew you."

Sounds like Elmer Gantry on steroids.

L.W.

Jimmy Swaggart is constantly telling of his conversations with God.

Humm, I thot tha Lord said if you want to be perfect to give up yer stuff and carry my cross.

Seems to be a common affliction among grifters. Nothing is more powerful than God, especially if you're bilking the weak - just ask the Catholic church.

I don't understand how you can look someone in the eye and tell them the Lord told you to remodel your home with crypto money

The Catholics and LDS Mormons among others have a man that takes messages from the Lord. He then informs the peons. No questions allowed.

The folks that take the position of the inerrancy of the Bible have to depend on such a man or ruling council. Otherwise the contradictions and obvious forged additions are a problem.

I'm still bothered finding out about the Amish a few weeks back on here

Having been raised in a charismatic leaning environment I am more and more distancing myself from that camp. Seems they are always at the front and center of this type of nonsense. There is a channel on Instagram called the "Holy Nope" that I started following that highlights this garbage, and it is very eye opening how many people fall for this stuff. Not much discernment out there.

The hoard your money stuff must have been in the Old Testament...

We were in the same boat as you (30yrs Oneness Pentecostal) until God took us out of that mess.

Watch the American Gospel Series. It's an eye opener for those with questions.

https://www.americangospelfilm.com/

Had a guy look me in the eye and tell me it was purely coincidence that I had his phone number, IP address, texts asking a fake 14 year old for sex, pics of his face and junk, an agreement to travel here from Texas….and him being at the correct location in Washington with the correct brand and flavor of lube in his pocket….

He wasn't looking them in the eye, he was poking them in the ass. The Lord told him to do it...

The world's second oldest profession.Maybe the first.

A girl's gotta eat!

Aren't people who hear imaginary voices considered a bit "off"?

I don’t worry about the various religions and their asks for charitable donations. Most want 10% as a rule. They actually use some of that money to help others. Now, I work for myself and the government takes 45% of my net income, and that’s before property and sales taxes. At least I can choose to give to a church! Don’t pay your taxes and 84,000 IRS agents lie in wait.

I haven’t heard that the Lord wants me invest in crypto though.

i guess people who believe in talking snakes and donkeys will believe just about anything.

Someone claiming that has 13 books that were allowed in the New Testament after the main subject (Jesus, for those in Rio Linda) of the New Testament explicitly warned to be on the lookout for someone just like him.

Spend an hour at the Sistine Chapel and then ask yourself, who funded all this opulence?

The business of religion.

Some people are truly gullible. The assistant manager of our accounting department, who had 20 years of service, came in one day and asked to borrow $80,000 from the company. He belonged to some wackdoodle religious cult and they told him to sign over the title to his house to them and he could still live there. As soon as they had the title they kicked him out. Just the type of guy you want handling a lot of your company's cash. We fired him that day.

Must be one of the prosperity preachers…

Fortunately, NOBODY here who professes to hold Christian beliefs, in ALL of the years that you’ve been spewing your Hebrew Roots Movement psychobabble here, has bought into it.

And fortunately, NOBODY here who professes to hold Christian beliefs, agrees with you regarding your repeated denial of the divinity of Jesus, or your questioning of whether belief in the literal actual resurrection of Jesus is even necessary for salvation.

Amateurs - 'Rev.' Creflo Dollar wanted his congregation to buy him a $65 million Grumman Gulfstream jet.

The arrogance! How can one man purport to speak for God to the people? That's the position of the Orthodox Church, anyway.

heeb's heeb's tramps & Thieves... stole our Gold with the dollar goin' round... and laid their Crypto down!...

Beware of people who constantly are parading the words God and Family.

I am not sure it could be fraud. The customer bought it without being bribed or had a gun to their head. They bought into a foolish investment. It is only making news cause he is a "pastor"... here is my case. Many here buy cigarettes . It is a product that does nothing, except slowly kills you ... Perfectly legal... Alchohol does nothing for you. I'm wrong? The MSDS books list it as a poison... There are People here , had they put all that money in an S&P 500 fund would have Millions, and that does not include lost work, lost health, marriage problems, and can you say drunk driving tickets? Ouch, right?? Just one dollar a day in the market for 50 yrs. would have fetched you $176,000 and likely tax free to boot. Five bucks a day ( and that is common here) would have brought you $880,000. Make it clear, I don't care , as long as you don't drive drunk. It is up to all of us to spend our money how we want. If they are so stupid that they buy a fake coin, that is up to them. I don't care, I watch my own bobber. My next investment is in Utilities like FUTY and Wisconsin Energy ( wec) . I put my money where I think it is best.

Oh, I believe he was listening to "god". Little "g" god. god of this world, Satan... As stated above, we are living in Revelation...

Reminds me of the old thing about the preacher that tells you to send your money to God. Then he gives you his own personal address.

They’re charlatans.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-admits-to-selling-32m-in-worthless-cryptocurrency.html

whats amazing about Crypto right now, is about every 3 months, someone comes out with a new crypto "coin" with some stupid sounding name, and people line up to throw money at it.

only to find out its either a scam or to learn its value is tied to something intangible.

Its usually hyped by moron financial influencers on social media who are hoping to cash in the initial offering, but many of them get burned too.

Telling people God is into crypto and is offering 10X return is a new twist though.

Just read about it 👎

All the crypto currency is worth only what another will pay for it. None of it has any actual value. There are entire markets dedicated to doing exactly what he allegedly did.

I hope there's a special extra nasty place in hell for crooks that use The Gospel of Jesus Christ to scam and steal from innocent people. They are the scum of the Earth.

Joel Osteen ain't exactly livin' in the basement of Lakewood Baptist last I heard.
Prophets are entitled to a profit, right?
The congregation is not forced to give, although the church subtly implies generosity in giving greases the skids to heaven. And, if your fat check lands in the plate face up where your brothers and sisters can see it....well, that is some well earned community standing.
Carpenters and construction trades do well, who doesn't like carpenters, right?

How do you know nobody "has bought into it"? How do you know nobody agrees with me?

There are maybe 5 or 6 of you doctrinaire "christians" that are vocal. How would you know if there are or are not dozens out there thinking for themselves and realizing the incongruity with Jesus of some of the writings in the New Testament.

If you have someone meeting Jesus in the desert, having conversations with Jesus, going on trips to heaven and seeing visions, contravening the doctrine of Jesus, admitting lying, and being denounced by all the churches in Jerusalem and Asia Minor it might be a good idea to check your hole card. That ace you thought you had may be a deuce.

Something to consider. As Gandhi said "it is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom".

Because out of the thousands of views that these threads get, and over all of the years mentioned, not a single person who professes to hold Christian beliefs…not a single one…has agreed with you here on this board on these matters that were mentioned.The one’s that you refer to as “doctrinaire Christians” do think for themselves and see no incongruity with Jesus and the writings of Paul…who Jesus clearly said was His “chosen vessel”…in the New Testament. None. Do you actually think that all of “dozens out there” that you think ‘might’ agree with you on these matters are ‘all’ keeping it a secret…? And you call the apostle Paul delusional…!
So instead of believing Luke, James (Jesus’ own brother), apostle Peter, and apostle John, folks should believe you instead…? You who denies the divinity of Jesus, and questions whether belief in the literal resurrection of Jesus is even necessary for salvation…? Your insinuation appears to be that the quote by Ghandi applies to the great many folks who read these threads and clearly disagree with you on these matters. Have you considered the likelihood that the quote by Ghandi applies to you…?

What was that? Must have missed it. Can you tell me about when it was or post a link?

Yes

Sounds like a great place to work

Reverend Creflo Crypto?

LOL.

talking about visiting Amish country and all the Amish food, crafts, etc. People had stories about Amish buying stuff in bulk and slapping "Amish made" labels on it - things like that.

Waydda minute…

The Amish belts aren’t really Amish made????

🤬🤬

you're going to turn this into a 12 page thread now

And people wonder why I think religion is a scam.

Someone does something that's exactly the opposite of what their religion teaches and the religion is the problem?

They are sort of Amish made. Like those Italian companies that got in trouble for importing Chinese stuff and putting a 'made in Italy' sticker on their handbags and such. They solved that by letting thousands of Chinese move to Italy and take over a town to make their stuff which is now 'made in Italy'.

Problem is the Italian-Chinese wised up and cut out the Italian middleman. A further problem was when the Chinese went home for the holidays and made Italy the European epicenter for Covid-19.

Amish don't have that problem. "Amish Made" has to at least go through an in costume Amish middleman or middlewoman.

Swaggart is Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin and they are apples that didn’t fall far from the same tree.

Maybe Jimmy Swaggart is telling "his people" that. However, I dont pay enough attention to any of those to know.. I'm almost 61 yrs. old.. Been going to church all my life . The last 20 yrs. I asked God , that if I don't understand something , to give me the wisdom to understand the bible... If he doesn't give me wisdom to understand , then how can that be my fault? Therefore I read the bible and listen to no man. I still teach Sunday School for 4 to 10 yr olds at church, listen to worship , but rarely listen to the message. " I watch my own bobber."

Fixed it for you.

So, this is what that sounds like to me. “I don’t listen to other people’s message. I read the Bible and figure it out for myself. Then I go give my message (in the Sunday School run by people you don’t listen to?) to a bunch of impressionable 4-10 year olds.” It would seem more consistent to me for you to teach the kids to read and then give them a Bible, unless you are insinuating that your version of the message is the correct one. If that is what you believe, you are competing with everyone else who has their personal interpretation of the Bible, which includes organized religions, Swaggart, and the guy who misheard the message about the crypto thing.

I’m not saying that you are not well-intentioned, but that’s just weird. It also is part of the reason why I think the real truth is really unknowable as long as ancient texts and mere mortals are involved.

What should be the filter through which Jesus’ followers view everything...? What should be the filter through which Jesus’ followers make all of their decisions...?
O
The entirety of what we refer to as the Old Testament ultimately hangs on loving God and loving others. Period. Jesus clearly said so Himself.

And there is nothing complicated about following Jesus’ New Covenant commands. His entire ministry on earth can also be summed up in loving God and loving others…but not ‘just’ loving others as ourselves...He added a caveat, Jesus’ followers are to love others as He loved all of us...!

The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love. If you lack discernment in a matter, what does love for God and love for others require of you regarding this matter…? The answer to that question will likely provide you with direction and discernment. Love God. Love others. The rest is just details. It is a simple ethic. But hard to do.

Show me a church that doesn't revolve around money, specifically collecting money from its members.

Plenty of good churches that don’t even pass the plate.


Plenty of bad churches though too. Fairly easy to spot in my opinion.

-If they constantly talk about tithing and the blessing you will receive from tithing

-If they constantly talk about how God told them things with wild and unverifiable stories

-If they claim to have special knowledge of things and everyone else is wrong. In general if they claim everyone else is wrong and they are right.

-when they do not have a large leadership structure or the leadership structure is just one or two families


You better run.

at least Jerry Lee was honest about him self ,and the things he did .his cousin Jimmy not so much

It takes money to fund a ministry. Even Jesus had people who funded His ministry when He was here on earth. That said, there’s a BIG difference between funding a ministry and being a greedy shyster charlatan like a lotta these Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn types appear to be.