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Freedom From Bad Bible Verses About Jesus And Money

Dear Seeker:

Are You Going Broke With Jesus?

Are bad Bible verses about Jesus and money keeping you stuck?
Do you want freedom from the money Bible verses?

“Are You Going Broke With Jesus?” is a rather impolite question intended for anyone who learned just enough about Jesus and money Bible verses to believe that salvation depends on choosing between God and money.

If you don’t “believe” in God, Jesus, or the Bible, the question, “Are you going broke with Jesus?” is meaningless. Bible verses about Jesus and money are as irrelevant to your life as learning to use snowshoes on a tropical island.

Does Salvation Require You To Choose Between God And Money?

But if you do believe that your salvation requires that you must choose between God or money, money is always going to be a problem in your life. This belief requires you to make an impossible choice.

It’s something like being told that you must choose between these two options:

• Would you rather live your life with food to eat?
• Would you rather live your life with air to breathe?

This is an impossible choice. To stay alive, you need both.

This either/or choice is only a problem for people who learned enough of what I call “Bad Bible” to think that such impossible choices are somehow “biblical.”

What Is Bad Bible?

The Bible itself is not bad. It’s the use of the Bible that turns the Bible into Bad Bible. The Bible becomes Bad Bible when the words of the Bible are used as weapons to control people.

Weapons wound.

You have been wounded by Bad Bible when words from the Bible fill you with painful feelings such as:

• Guilt
• Shame
• Confusion
• Helplessness
• Anxiety
• Fear
• Maybe all of these feelings at the same time.

Impossible Choices

If you believe the Bad Bible claim that that your heavenly salvation requires you to choose between God or money, this impossible choice leads to one inevitable result.

You will always feel stuck between:

• Obedience to the Bad Bible demands of God
• What you need to live a human life on Planet Earth

Stuck In The Bad Bible Salvation Trap

If this is your situation, the Bible becomes a “Bad Bible Salvation Trap.”

And so there you are, stuck in the trap, caught between your need and desire for money on Earth and the nagging fear that your desire for money will keep you out of Heaven.

The purpose of Are You Going Broke With Jesus? is to obliterate the Bad Bible Salvation Trap that keeps you trapped in such an impossible situation. This is the experience of a reader who bought my book and sent me an extraordinary email about its impact on him. My deepest desire as an author is that my books can have this kind of impact on others who feel themselves trapped and cannot find a way to get free from the power of Bad Bible.

A dear friend and mentor sent me a link to your book, Are You Going Broke With Jesus, and before I got half way through it, I KNEW that my life would be changed forever! I have struggled for years with my desire to be wealthy, constantly fighting an inner “voice” telling me it’s ‘bad to be or want to be rich’! Dr. Stevenson… YOU HAVE SET ME FREE! FOREVER! I don’t know how to thank you for clearing away a lifetime of Bible Baggage – Bad Bible as you put it – for good!

The church that I grew up in, from infancy ’til I was 20-ish preached obedience (or else), fear, etc. and I walked out laden with “if you don’t's” you’ll never go to Heaven. If this has been my experience, there must be millions of others that are ‘victims’ of such irresponsible religious dogma. EVERYONE that has religion in their life should read this book. Today’s religious leaders or at least 90% of them can’t get it right, in fact THEY should read this book too!

Dean Kloter
Business and Life Coach
http://www.coachdeankloter.com/

The Problem Of Belief

Before we go any further, I want to set a boundary between belief and Bible study based on disciplined biblical scholarship.

Have you ever heard this statement?

The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.

If you have been around Bible thumping, ardent Bible Believers, you have probably heard these words.

Such a claim might settle the matter for anyone who asserts it, but it actually proves nothing about what “the Bible says” on anything… because belief is not the same as proof.

Can You Prove A Belief?

By definition, “belief” is an opinion or conviction that you cannot prove. Proof requires external evidence.

This is the critical point. What you believe or don’t believe about God, Jesus, the Bible, or salvation is a matter of theology and personal conviction.

• You might believe because of powerful personal experiences of life-changing visions
• You might believe that God has spoken directly to you
• You might have experienced dramatic solutions to problems after prayer

You really can’t “prove” that any of it is true. And no one can “prove” that your experiences are untrue. No one can prove a belief.

Belief And Biblical Scholarship

In contrast, biblical scholars work hard to recognize the difference between belief and proof.

At its best, biblical scholarship strives to maintain a rigorous boundary between personal beliefs and the beliefs of those who wrote the Bible.

The goals of biblical scholars are to:

• Read the Bible on its own terms
• Be aware of their own beliefs, assumptions, and distance from the worlds and words of ancient scriptures

Reading the Bible this way is not easy. It requires discipline, humility, and self-awareness.

My goal is to maintain this boundary between personal belief and biblical scholarship as much as possible.

What Everybody “Knows” About Jesus and Money

Whether you are Christian or not, whether you are religious or not, it is impossible to live in this world without being exposed to “what the Bible says” or “what Jesus says” about just about anything, including money.

We all “know” that

• Jesus said a rich man can’t get into heaven
• You can’t love both God and money
• It’s better to be poor than rich because God blesses the poor

The list goes on and on. Mostly we “know” that the Bible considers money as something to give away to God and those who really need it…unless of course, you read parts of the Bible that seem to claim that God wants you to be rich.

Then, we all “know” that

• Money is a sign of God’s blessing
• Jesus wants you to be rich
• If you tithe, God will bless you with abundance

It All Depends On What Money Bible Verses You Read

It’s all very confusing and very contradictory, isn’t it? Which is true? Does “the Bible say” that God wants you to be rich or poor?

It all depends on which money Bible verses you read and what you choose to believe about them.

The real truth about “the Bible says” is that you can believe just about anything you want to believe about what “Jesus really said about money.” Proving it is a whole different matter.

Widespread exposure to “what the Bible says” leaves all of us vulnerable to claims about the Bible at a time when fewer and fewer people have actually read the Bible in whole or in part, and only a very few Bible readers have any training in the tools of biblical scholarship.

If you don’t have any sort of religious conflict about money, then none of this is a problem for you.

Do You Want To Get Free From Money Bible Verses?

Are You Going Broke With Jesus? is intended for a specific group of people who share a common experience.

You can’t quite get free of money Bible verses constantly nagging you:

• You feel guilty if you want money
• You feel guilty if you have money
• You feel guilty if you aren’t tithing
• You feel guilty if you don’t give money to others

Maybe you haven’t been inside a church for years. Or maybe you attend church several times each week. Maybe you have read the whole Bible more than once. Maybe you memorized some Bible verses in Sunday School. Maybe you just know a few verses.

Maybe you are so turned off by church and Bible thumping believers that you don’t want to hear another word about the Bible ever again…if you could only turn off the Bible verses in your head.

You Know That Something Is Wrong

Deep within, you know that there is something wrong with all of this but you don’t know exactly what. You certainly don’t know what to say to the people who claim to speak for God.

You seek the truth that will set you free. You want to find peace. You also want to end your money struggles.

Who Can Help You Get Free From Bad Bible Money Verses?

What about the “Bible Believer” sites?

Where do you turn for real help? How about the millions of Christian Bible study sites online? We can call them the “Bible Believer” sites.

• They confidently proclaim that they know the real truth about the Bible.
• If you have questions, they have answers.
• They will tell you what you must do to be obedient to “biblical teaching” about money and just about everything else.

But which “Bible Believer” sites do you believe?

• Do you believe the claims of those who insist that true believers must choose God over money?
• Do you believe the claims of prosperity gospel teachers that God wants true believers to be rich?

Which “Bible Believer” sites can you trust to show you the real truth about the Bible and money? And how would you know?

Is it all just a matter of:

“The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it?”

What About The “Bible Basher” Sites?

What about the atheist sites that proclaim with equal certainty that everything in the Bible is ignorant superstition and only idiots would believe a word of it? We can call them the “Bible Basher” sites.

Can “Bible Basher” sites help you turn off the money bible verses in your head?

It’s important to recognize that the “Bible Basher” sites are also based on beliefs.

• They are making belief claims about matters that are really beyond any capacity of human beings to prove
• They pick the worst Bible verses they can find to make sweeping generalizations about religion without making any effort to put those verses into any sort of larger story context
• They are as dogmatic about their belief claims about the Bible as the most dogmatic of the “Bible Believers”
• This means that they can’t prove their beliefs either

What they can do is insist that their own belief claim about about the Bible are true:

“The Bible says it. I DON’T believe it. That settles it.”

It’s still belief, not proof. This means the “Bible Basher” sites can’t really help you get free of the effect of Bad Bible money verses.

What About The “Beyond The Bible” Sites?

What about the sites that tell you, “We don’t believe in religion, we believe in spirituality?” We can call these the “Beyond The Bible” sites.

These sites treat the Bible as a sourcebook for allegories and spiritual principles, while claiming that the deepest truths lie beyond the Bible as the primary sacred scripture.

The fact is that “Beyond The Bible” advocates are also believers. They believe in:

• Abundance
• The Universe
• Spiritual Laws
• Manifestation of money

What they believe can be asserted but not proved. If you feel stuck in Bad Bible beliefs about money, can “Beyond the Bible” beliefs help you get out of the Bad Bible Salvation Trap?

Can Any Belief System Set You Free From Bad Bible?

Do any of these approaches really set you free from guilt, shame, confusion, helplessness, anxiety, and fear instilled in you by Bad Bible verses proclaiming “what the Bible says” about Jesus and money?

The real truth is, none of these belief-based approaches can set you free.

Why?

Because they don’t deal with the real problem.

• They don’t show you how to disarm the power of Bad Bible verses used as weapons against you
• They are simply substituting one set of beliefs for another
• You are still stuck in assertions based on belief

These alternative belief claims are not remedies for wounds caused by Bad Bible.

Is There A Better Solution?

The life-changing solution to the harm caused by belief-based claims about money Bible verses begins by recognizing what turns any part of the Bible into Bad Bible.

• Bad Bible is the result of taking Bible verses taken out of context
• These out-of-context Bible verses are vested with authority as one-size-fits-all, universal truths
• These “universal truths” about money and salvation fill you with guilt, shame, anxiety, and fear about wanting and having money

If you feel wounded because of money Bible Verses, the fundamental cause is that just about everything you have ever heard about Jesus and money started with Bible verses taken out of context.

Here’s just one example of the wounding power of Bad Bible claims about money.

Can A Rich Man Get Into Heaven?

I once attended a seminar about creating a millionaire mindset. After a break, I was returning to my seat when I saw one of the students talking with the speaker. The speaker was standing on the platform looking down.

As I got closer, I saw that the student was very upset as he asked this question:

“How can you say it is good to be rich? Jesus said that a rich man can’t get into Heaven.”

The speaker looked down at the man and said:

“That’s just an allegorical story about being greedy. If you’re not greedy, then there is nothing wrong with being rich.”

This fragment of a conversation demonstrates what happens when two people of widely divergent religious backgrounds converge on one Bible verse. They might be talking about the same Bible verse, but are a universe part in understanding.

Each of these two men had made up a story about “what Jesus said about money.” And each in his own way had missed the fundamental point of the story behind the words.

A Misquoted, Misunderstood, And Misused Bad Bible Verse

The widely held belief that “Jesus said that a rich man can’t get into Heaven” is probably the most misquoted, misunderstood, and misused Bad Bible verse about money in the entire Bible.

Meanwhile, calling this “just an allegory” about greed is as far off the mark as the belief that “Jesus said that a rich man can’t get into heaven.”

In this one brief conversation, both the speaker and the questioner expressed beliefs based on a few words cut adrift from the context of the original story. The result was the inevitable result of Bad Bible verses.

A wounded believer who wanted help because:

• He wanted to have money
• He wanted to go to heaven
• He had an irreconcilable conflict between these two desires

A teacher who could not help because:

• He understood money
• He did not understand the Bible
• He substituted one belief about a misquoted Bible for another belief

The “Whole Story Bible Study” Solution

The only true healing to the wounds caused by Bad Bible verses is to start with “Whole Stories” instead of isolated Bible verses.

When the words of Jesus to the rich man are put into the context of the “Whole Story,” it is clear that what Jesus had to say about the rich man was part of his condemnation of an oppressive economic system. He was not talking about “getting into Heaven.”

Changing the starting place from isolated Bible verses to “Whole Stories” is enough to enough to undo a lifetime of Bad Bible wounds about how true believers must choose between money and God. There is nothing “biblical” about this idea.

Introducing Are You Going Broke With Jesus?: Freedom From Bad Bible Verses About Jesus And Money

You can find out why both the student and the teacher missed the point about what Jesus said about the rich man in Are You Going Broke With Jesus?: Freedom From Bad Bible Verses About Jesus And Money

In Chapter One, “Stuck In The Eye Of The Needle,” you will find out why:

• Jesus did NOT say that rich man can’t get into Heaven
• The difference between Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven
• Why calling any of this “allegory” completely misses the point of the story

Can a simple change in perspective from Bible verses to “Whole Stories” really help you overcome a lifetime of fear, confusion, and anxiety created by Bad Bible verses about money?

Consider this unsolicited testimonial.

Your biggest problem—when it comes to attracting money—may be the religious beliefs you heard growing up.

I stumbled across Dr. Stevenson’s book, bought it, and love it. I found it eye-opening.

If you want clarity about the real meaning of many biblical statements and stories about money, you’ll find it in Are You Going Broke With Jesus?

Dr. Joe Vitale
Author of many books, including the free book, Attract Money Now
and a star in several movies, including The Secret
http://www.attractmoneynow.com

The only solution to such confusion and conflict is to put money Bible verses into their own “Whole Story” contexts.

This is what I have done in my book: Are You Going Broke With Jesus?: Freedom From Bad Bible Verses About Jesus And Money

Why Did I Write This Book?

I also grew up with limiting beliefs about Jesus and money, based on what I learned in Sunday School. Almost everything I learned about the Bible was “Bad Bible,” taught by well-meaning people who had no training at all in biblical scholarship. Everything I learned about the Bible came in the form of Bible verses to be memorized.

The effect of Bad Bible verses on my life was so powerful that I decided that I had to find a way to set myself free from the power of the Bible verses.

And I so attended theological seminary, followed by study for a doctorate in Biblical Studies.

How Biblical Scholarship Set Me Free From Bad Bible Verses

Biblical scholarship set me free from the well-meaning Sunday school Christian lessons about Jesus and money that taught me that:

• Jesus wanted me to be poor
• I had to choose between God or money
• The rich cannot get into Heaven

My own belief is that the biblical scholarship in Are You Going Broke With Jesus will set you free from Bad Bible claims about money bible verses.

I remind you once again of the boundary between belief and biblical scholarship.

What you believe is your business. My goal is to show you how biblical scholarship can get you out of the Bad Bible Salvation Trap.

Nothing in this book is intended to promote or deny any beliefs about:

• The existence of God,
• Jesus as the Son of God
• Heavenly salvation

The goal of this book is to set you free from the Bad Bible Salvation Trap created by out-of-context, mistranslated, misunderstood, and misused money Bible verses that obscure the real purpose of the biblical gospel stories.

My goal is to set you free from wounds created by Bad Bible by showing you how biblical scholarship can change your perspective on the money Bible verses. What you choose to believe about the truth of the Bible is up to you.

What You Will Discover In This Book

A Three Part Book.

Part I, “Society and Stories” concerns context.

Chapter 1 begins with the most misunderstood of all the Jesus money stories. It’s the one about “a rich man and the eye of the needle.” The Christian money beliefs about this story demonstrate how people make up widely divergent meanings for biblical verses. This chapter also introduces the concept of “biblical urban legends.”

Chapter 2 concerns the inevitable and irreconcilable conflicts about money which result from reducing biblical stories to Bible verses. This chapter focuses on the differences between “prosperity” and “social gospel” approaches to money, based on Bible money verses.

Chapter 3 concerns the context of an agrarian society, in which wealth was based on land. This economic context is the essential foundation of the gospel stories.

Chapter 4 concerns the context of a gospel story as a victory story and how the sayings about money need to be seen within that context.

Chapter 5 concerns the context of a hero’s story, to describe Jesus as a hero on a hero’s journey.

Part II, “The Money Stories,” looks at 8 Bible money verses

Chapters 6-13 are each focused on a specific Bible money statement about money in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Some will be very familiar, some not as familiar, and two might seem to be out of place in the book.

GOD AND MAMMON

THE LORD’S PRAYER

BLESSED ARE THE POOR

TAXES TO CAESAR

THE MONEY CHANGERS

HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER

THE POOR WIDOW

THE RICH YOUNG MAN

Part III. “What It Means,” considers what these Bible money stories mean in your own context.

Chapter 14 concerns money and power. It asks why Christian tradition has so often missed the real intention behind the Jesus money stories. Why are heroic stories used to teach obedience and poverty, instead of heroism?

Chapter 15 makes it personal, by offering a heroic vision of your own hero’s journey about money.

If You Want To Get Unstuck From Bad Bible Verses About Money

If you are looking for a way to get unstuck from your own fear, guilt, and confusion about money bible verses, Are You Going Broke With Jesus? will show you how to replace a Bad Bible Salvation Trap with a “Whole Story” vision of Jesus and money in the Gospel stories of the Bible.

Available Immediately

Are You Going Broke With Jesus?: Freedom From Bad Bible Verses About Jesus And Money is available in ebook format. You can download it immediately.

You Will Also Get Two FREE Freedom From Bad Bible Special Reports

Free Report #1: “Why Bible Verses Are Powerful Enemies Of Your Freedom”

In this report, you will discover:

• Why a Bible verse is an artificial thing
• If a man on horseback gave the Bible its verses
• Why the division of the Bible into Bible verses often makes no sense
• Why Bible verses matter in Bible education
• Why much Bible education in Sunday School is often little more than Bible trivia games
• Why Bible verses obscure context
• The story of the poor widow as an example of Bad Bible money teaching
• When Bible verses become pretexts for “what the Bible says about money”
• How misused Bible verses become weapons

Free Report #2: “Do You Know Why No One Can Prove That The Bible Is True?”

In this report, you will learn:

• What’s wrong with the claim that: “The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.”
• How to clarify your own questions about claims that the Bible is inerrant and infallible
• How to set yourself free from intimidation by Bad Bible Bullies
• An evangelical statement of faith about the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible
• The logical problems in claims about inerrancy and infallibility
• The location of the original Bible documents
• The earliest part of the Bible in existence
• What are syllogisms and why do they matter?
• What are enthymemes and why do they matter?
• The logical flaw in the statement of faith
• Why you cannot prove a statement of faith
• What power do claims about biblical inerrancy have over you?
• Can you prove any belief?
• The problem of circular logic
• Does believing that the Bible is true make it true?
• How to disarm Bad Bible Bullies
• How to get free from Bad Bible belief claims

Freedom From Bad Bible Wounds

Can you imagine yourself free from Bad Bible wounds caused by Bible verses that keep you stuck and struggling in the Bad Bible Salvation Trap?

Sometimes all you need is a change of perspective to solve a problem. If you can relate to the experience of feeling stuck and unable to get free of the Bad Bible verses in your life, you don’t need to spend a moment longer stuck in the Bad Bible Salvation Trap of guilt and fear and confusion created by misunderstood, mistranslated, misused Bible verses.

Act now to set yourself free from Bad Bible Salvation Trap money verses. Claim your copy of Are You Going Broke With Jesus? and Your FREE Bonus Reports, “Why Bible Verses Are Powerful Enemies Of Your Freedom” and “Do You Know Why No One Can Prove That The Bible Is True?” for only $27. Click on the button to get your copy now.

For Your Freedom,

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.

P. S. Don’t let Bad Bible verses about Jesus and money keep you stuck in the Bad Bible Salvation Trap.

© 2007 – 2011 GoingBrokeWithJesus.com All Rights Reserved

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