Jesus is not returning Just Yet.

I have been reading AN Wilson's Paul, not to mention Diarmaid McCulloch's History of Christianity. The very early Christians (and I believe the very early Quakers) thought they were not going to have to keep it up for very long, Jesus was coming back in their lifetimes. Prudence, self-sufficiency and fighting your family's corner were not called for.

Jesus specifically said the disciples were not to worry about food or money in travelling in the ministry. Paul, by contrast, says "If a person does not work s/he will not eat". Ananias and Sapphira, in keeping back some money for their own use, were ahead of the game, and paid for it with their lives. (Or possibly they were punished only for not telling the truth.) --There has to have been a slow and unhappy acceptance that Christians were going to have to Keep it Up for a Long Time; and idealism will have got eroded. We need to inhabit that transition, and push the boundaries back in the direction of risk taking/our ideals a little further every week. The reminder every prophet and philosopher offers, that we might die tomorrow, needs to be kept in mind and tackled as often as possible. (It goes without saying that I am exhorting myself also.)

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Responsible Religion

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