Most antiquities scholars think that the New Testament gospels are "mythologized history." In other words, based on the evidence available they think that around the start of the first century a controversial Jewish rabbi named Yeshua ben Yosef gathered a following and his life and teachings provide...
Zealot by Reza Aslan is a great read on this subject.
It compares and contrasts between Jesus of Nazareth vs Jesus the Christ.
Basically says that Jesus hated the rich for fucking up the temples and stealing from the common folks.
But somehow that shit got twisted by rich people and now you have prosperity gospel which is basically a lie to take advantage of people who don’t know much.
We have no contemporary primary sources which confirms the existence of neither a Jesus of Nazareth nor a Jesus the Christ. It is still just a discussion of interpretations of later secondary sources.
Part of the prosperity gospel is just modification of the middleman racket run by priests. Instead of being the interpreter and conduit between the person and god you now pay for that service with the idea that the more you pay the better your chances of god noticing you and your desire to go to heaven. Rich people have always assumed they can just buy their way into or out of any situation, heaven and hell included.
Exactly. It’s indulgences for Protestants, but without the priestly vows of poverty or the internal justification that the money is going to the poor. Hell they don’t even believe in purgatory, at least in indulgences there’s the idea that you’re going to be having a bad time and that through acts of charity you can buy your way into less. No this is instead you trade wealth on earth for divine favor in the form of wealth on earth. I struggle to imagine a lazier scam.