Template:What is Mammon
What is Mammon
- “Mammon, an Aramaic word mamon meaning ‘wealth’ … It is probably derived from Ma’amon, something entrusted to safe keeping. In any case, there was apparently a threefold play on this meaning in Lk. xvi.[1] II: ‘If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true [riches]?’ the word italicized representing forms of the Semitic root word ‘men.”[2]
Scholars may not agree on the etymology of the word.
Gregory of Nyssa also asserted that Mammon was another name for Beelzebub, which is another name for Satan which means the adversary. Christ does make mention that you cannot serve God and Mammon,[3] which is referencing two different opposing ways or systems. Some say Mammon means riches but others say it is the wealth which you entrust. In truth, it often includes both. It is entrusted wealth.
If Mammon is entrusted wealth, which usually means some sort of treasury, then a righteous or unrighteous mammon must refer to the way that wealth or the treasury is collected. The word "Corban" in the New Testament means in the Hebrew "sacrifice" but is translated treasury in Matthew 27:6[4]
There was a treasury in Cain's city-state, in Nimrod's Babylon, in Pharaoh's treasure cities. Even the golden calf was a treasury of sorts. These were all forms of mammon.
There is more than one word that is translated treasury in the New Testament. The most common is the word gazophulakion[5]. It is composed of two words γάζα gaza treasure which was the "the royal treasury" and φυλακή phulake meaning guard, watch.
The other word translated treasury is κορβᾶν or korban.[6] Corban was around in most countries of the world and even in history. It was provided in two ways. Corban was a sacrifice or freewill offering used to take care of the needs of the people of a society. It was part of systems of social welfare of which there have always been two types.
The reason some systems of entrusted wealth are considered unrighteous systems is because they depend on Benefactors who use force to provide for the welfare needs of the people, which John the Baptist and Jesus preached against. Until John the Baptist, governments of the "world" were using force to collect the funds to provide for the welfare or free bread of the people. It was not always this way in places like Rome, Judea and America. At one time they all depended upon Freewill offerings to provide for the needy of their societies. When they departed from those Altars of faith and shifted to dependence on forced offerings, they made the word of God to none effect.
The reason we are to be friends with the unrighteous system is because most people are already snared as a part of those systems with duties and obligations within those systems. They are required by their agreements and membership to pay tribute.
Those duties and obligations fulfill a social welfare purpose described as allegiance rather than simply faith. The Public religion of the world binds the people to service through a Corvee system and debt which is the result of either sloth, covetousness or both. A purpose of Religion is to care for the needy of society without the assistance of the governments of the world. That is what Pure Religion actually means. Early Christians took care of all social welfare through charity without force or borrowing from the next generation like modern Christians do. And borrowing from the next generation is not keeping the principles of the Sabbath.
People today are cursed as children with bondage because of the covetous practices of their parents who applied to the unrighteous mammon for benefits just like the Israelite people in the bondage of Egypt. They cannot free themselves simply because they deny their entanglement in the elements of the world with that yoke of bondage.
- Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
- Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
- Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
- Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
- “The world has always been betrayed not by scoundrels but by decent men with bad ideas.” Sidney Harris.
- “This (Federal Reserve) Act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the president signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed. The trust will soon realize that they have gone too far even for their own good. The people must make a declaration of independence to relieve themselves from the Monetary Power.” [7]
- "That most gigantic trust on earth was to be (and is now established) constructed in a very interesting way. It involved the entrusting of almost all the wealth, property, and rights of man, granted to him by God, into a world-wide trust. It was a process not limited to the money system, but it is that system that is focused on in these pages." From the Book The Covenants of the gods Chapter Money vs Mammon
When the Federal Reserve stopped loaning money into circulation there was a need for more collateral to become surety for the debt. That is why the Social Security system was established.
Being friends with the unrighteous mammon is about those who are a marked as part of that system of benefactors who use force and therefore must pay tribute. But those friends do not have to eat at that table of benefits.
- Proverbs 23:1-3 "When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [be] a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat."
More than a 100 years before John the Baptist, Polybius warned of the effects of such an appetite for benefits and the wages of unrighteousness.
The conflict with Christ and some of the Jews in power certainly revolved around money and treasuries more than religious theologies.
Since most religions today categorize themselves by their theology and church doctrines, many people might not want to see the connection even though it is right in front of them.
Jesus mentions mammon four times in the Bible. Once in Matthew[8] and three times in Luke.[9]
In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus started talking about giving alms to take care of the needy of society. This was an essential element of society and certainly a major part of the Gospel of Christ and a duty of the Church. It is one of the major defining characteristics of the meaning of religion, especially pure religion.
A city of blood
He then talks about the prayers of the hypocrites. They pray in the Churches of that day and in the streets but, he says, if they pray to the Father in heaven they do not have to make a big demonstration of it and certainly not be a hypocrite about it pretending to pray to the Father in heaven when they are really praying to the fathers of the earth when they need anything like bread or aid.
Jesus warns the people later in verse 20[10] that they should not put their trust in central treasuries where thieves and robbers can break in and steal those funds and where, somehow, moths and rust can eat up the value thereof.
Jesus makes this reference to moths eating up your treasure three times which appears to be related to Isaiah 51:8[11] where he talks about those who get eaten up by the worm of the moth because they are not following the righteousness of God from generation to generation.
He sums up this criticism of centralizing stored wealth in a treasury when he says in Matthew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." This is what the people did when they put their wealth in a Golden calf. Understanding what the Golden calf was and how it functioned in societies and why it was bad is important in understanding what makes our modern mammon unrighteous and why it is being worshiped regularly today by modern Christians.
Building golden monuments was a common way of establishing a central bank for a city-state and binding the people together for common defense. If all the wealth of the people was in a central depository, this forced the people to trade amongst themselves and gave them a reason to stay and defend others of their community.
Jesus was just talking about the lord commending the "unjust steward" for forgiving those who could not pay what they owed.
The taxman who collects for the treasury of the unrighteous mammon of today are not like the "unjust steward". They do not forgive debt.
The people today are bound like they were in Egypt.
Israel had gone into bondage in Egypt because they coveted their brother's position. Without their brother, they were not prepared for the famine. Their parents agreed to serve the Pharaoh if the Pharaoh took care of them in their time of need. Modern Christians have sought the benefits of men who exercise authority during times of need. As foretold in the New Testament, through their covetous practices they have become merchandise and cursed their children with a form of economic bondage.
- ↑ Luke 16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
- Luke 16:11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true [riches]?
- Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
- Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
- ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica. Also "There is no evidence that the word was the name of an a angel or a God, as in Milton (Par. Lost i. 678, cf. Spencer F.Q. II. vii “8)"
- ↑ Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
- ↑ Matthew 27:6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury <2878>, because it is the price of blood.
- ↑ 1049 ~γαζοφυλάκιον~ gazophulakion \@gad-zof-oo-lak’-ee-on\@ from 1047 and 5438; ; n n AV-treasury 5; 5
- 1) a repository of treasure, especially of public treasure, a treasury
- It is used to describe the apartments constructed in the courts of the temple, in which the not only the sacred offerings and things needful for the service were kept, but in which the priests, etc, dwelt: #Ne 13:7; of the sacred treasury in which not only treasure but also public records were stored, and the property of widows and orphans was deposited. Josephus speaks of treasuries in the women’s court of Herod’s temple. In the N.T. near the treasury seems to used of that receptacle mentioned by the rabbis to which were fitted thirteen chests or boxes, i.e. trumpets, so called from their shape, and into which were put the contributions made voluntarily or paid yearly by the Jews for the service of the temple and the support of the poor.
- ↑ 2878 ~κορβᾶν~ korban \@kor-ban’\@ and ~κορβανάς~ korbanas \@kor-ban-as’\@ of Hebrew and Aramaic origin respectively 07133 ^ןברק^; TDNT-3:860,459; {See TDNT 406} n m AV-treasury 1, corban 1; 2
- 1) a gift offered (or to be offered) to God
- 2) the sacred treasury
- Matthew 27:6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury <2878>, because it is the price of blood.
- Mark 7:11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban <2878>, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
- ↑ On the eve of the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, December 22, 1913 Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr..
- ↑ Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
- ↑ Luke 16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Luke 16:11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
- Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
- ↑ Matthew 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
- ↑ Isaiah 51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.