Is eliminating extreme poverty possible or is it heresy? Is it just a matter of interpretation or a matter of priorities?
Poverty is a Lie
“At its very core, poverty is a mindset that goes far beyond the tragic circumstances. It is the cruel, destructive message that gets whispered into the ears of millions by the enemy Satan himself: ‘Give up! You don’t matter. Nobody cares about you. Look around you: Things are terrible. Always have been, always will be.…
Who Is Jesus Speaking To in John 12:8?
Why have we taken the first half of that sentence in John 12:8 and placed Jesus behind a lectern at a seminar on economic development while completely ignoring the second half of the sentence?
We treat the “you” in the first half of the sentence as an all-time statement to us but we happily…
The Poor Will Not Always Be With You
During a party at Simon the Leper’s, Jesus says to Judas Iscariot, “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11). The misinterpretation of this statement has justified a fatalistic belief that, by divine decree, the world will always have poor people.
The Meaning of Poor as Used in the Bible
Despite a few exceptions, a case can overwhelmingly be made that references in Scripture to the poor or to poverty should be taken to mean economic poverty, unless the passage can clearly be argued to have a different meaning.
What is the Definition of Poverty?
The absence of a clear definition is a serious problem for organizations whose missions are to eradicate poverty or, in our case, to release children from poverty.
Tell us how you understand and define poverty, and then in future blog posts we’ll explain the basis of our holistic approach to ministry and what our definition and…
The Church’s ability to eliminate extreme poverty is just a matter choosing to do so. We used to say that 40,000 children under age 5 die every day of hunger or preventable diseases. Today, that number is 24,000. These statistics show that in 20 years the number of children who die every day of hunger…
Is our ability to eliminate poverty just a matter of how we interpret the Bible? John 12:7-8 is the verse that has captured our thoughts as we think about the poor. The verse that is now the most remembered about the poor.
And yet, when Jesus spoke, he was not talking to us. His use…
Eliminate Poverty: Can We Do It or Not?
On the subject of eliminating poverty, how do we reconcile the seemingly conflicting messages of John 12:8 and Deuteronomy 15:4?
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