Materialism Is Not Evil!

[An e-mail sent to the Generals:]

Dear deprived people,

     I greet you from the world of materialism—and I LOVE it! It really bothers me and my associates that you people are always railing on materialism, as if it were evil. We live in a materialistic world, so why not ENJOY all we can of it?

     Why deprive yourself of God’s greatest gift to humankind?

                                    Materialist Maggie

Our Reply:

Transcendent

My Dear Maggie,

     Greetings from our realm of dominion over “stuff and things”. You say we are “deprived”, we say we are spiritually blessed. Yes, we live in a materialistic (stuff-loving) world, but as born-again, Spirit-filled, water-baptized and heaven-oriented Christians, our value system obviously is not the same as yours, although you use the name of God (in vain?).

     Have you spent time in the Holy Bible? I have. The Bible is replete with warnings against loving the world and the things in and of the world more than loving Christ. I got out of the “rat race” years ago (I really never did give myself to the pursuit or acquisition of materialism).

     Paul, in I Timothy 6:6-14 writes about, even warns about, the “love of money”, etc—

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (NIV).

Read for yourself, dear materialist. We are warned to “flee from ALL this, and pursue (chase after!) righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

     Paul in this chapter was dealing with false teachers (like MOST religious teachers of our day!) at Ephesus who outwardly practiced godliness in order to gain an abundance of carnal riches. They were driven by an underlying sinful motivation of GREED and taught that their “stuff and things” was a sign of the Lord’s divine approval. Sound familiar?

     I could write pages on this subject, but do your own homework. My “hue and cry” ought to provoke my readers to do the same. Chasing the riches of this world is to drive a sharp nail into one’s coffin! God’s Word on this subject of riches is creme de la creme—it is the best.

     All this cock-and-bull about how God wants us to have the Biggest, the Best, and the Most has damned millions to Hell already. We ought to pursue the things of God, not the things of this fallen world.

     Despite what others believe about us, we do not teach that money is evil, we teach that the LOVE and LUST of money is the root of all evil—this is Scriptural.

     When I was filled/baptized in the Holy Ghost, God did not give me carte blanche (French, meaning “a blank card”) to do what I wanted and “fill in” what I would. NO! The New Testament points out plainly what pleases and displeases our Lord. And we’ve never taught to get wealth or material “stuff and things” by hook or by crook—but by working hard and honestly to get what we need, not out of greed.

     Some, yea, MOST church people believe that the Kingdom of God is a shopping mall. They make it seem as though God is so high that He doesn’t care how His people interact with the stuff of this world. Their lust for materialism has lifted and removed (in their minds) the Transcendent God even higher above this earthly realm than what the Bible says concerning this issue. For sure the gods of materialism have driven a wedge between God and His professing people. God is transcendent, but He is also close to us, for Jesus and Jesus alone stands between us and the world and keeps us from the consuming filth of it as we keep ourselves unspotted from the world.

     True, we live among the world’s people, but we do not have to chase after, embrace and worship their gods and goddesses. Be honest, all the accumulated “goods” have become mere “stuff gods”—deaf and dumb and dead consumables. And remember, what we possess out of greed/lust possesses us! Did you hear me? 

     Christ and Christ ALONE can bring one back from the land of idolatry. Our strength lies in what we seek after; things remain a menace depending on how we proceed. Trust me, Christ is not some mystical glue that holds two incommensurables (disproportionates) together—we either love the one and hate the other or we hate the one and love the other—we cannot, CANNOT serve two masters.

     Metaphysics, the study dealing with transcending physical matter, is also a problematic idea being pushed off as “truth” in our materialistic churches. Yet the metaphysical sphere and the Christian cannot be joined to form a whole any more than the materialistic sphere and the Christian. Again, we CANNOT, CANNOT serve two masters.

     To serve two masters is trying to make the gods of this world and Christ smile together and be well pleased. How STUPID! Myths and superstitions keep the demonic realm alive, ad nauseam.

—Gen. Jim