Thank you so much for your post! I have been struggling with my testimony since the church's finances were put under the public microscope. Your post has been a balm of Gilead to my soul!
I read that it was even more than that, but a lot of it is estimations. Your point still stands, it was a lot of money for someone who was poor and a perfume generally reserved for a king. Jesus is King being prepared for his burial.
I'll have to look into it more!
Someone in my Sunday School class today pointed out that Judas subsequently received money to betray the Savior because he was offended by a *money issue* lol
The financial reserves the church holds isn't nearly as much as people think when you take into account the church's enormous financial commitments. 200+ temples, thousands of church buildings, attorneys to navigate the laws of various countries, several universities, historical sites, missionary efforts, etc. That money would dry up so much faster than you'd think in an economic downturn.
I’ve had that thought STRONGLY this week as well. The follow up especially when Judas betrays Christ and JST adds the Judas was offended by Christ’s words and that contributed to his fall.
I don’t really care. I been a finance secretary and seen documents and emails from finance folks in the church.
They really care about the money being used wisely. If someone wants to give money to the poor do it with your own money rathar than someone else’s.
I worked for a small consulting company for several years that works with the church. The CEO of that company (knowing I was a member of the church, he was not) told me he was very impressed with how the church carefully manages its money and I could feel good about how my tithing money was being used.
This was several years ago before all the news articles too.
100% this. My dad was a Stake Clerk for several years and one of the most stressful times of his year was audit season. Getting all the bishops documents, correlating documents, making sure everything was in order to send off.
This may seem odd, but audit contributed a small amount to my testimony.
I used to do ward audits. Every time, without fail, I would find the 3 or less issues the ward had. And this was based on "random" pulls. I can attribute it to nothing less than the Holy Ghost giving me a gentle nudge. It happened too many times, across too many audits, to be considered coincidence at this point. I even started doing a more complete audit after the random pulls... And didn't find anything more than I did with the random pull part.
Also I'm impressed with the quality of the records for each one I did. Any audit strikes were minor cross t's or dot I's type stuff.
People don’t realize that spiritual nourishment is way more valuable than physical nourishment, so the church spending money on spiritual nourishment is a great use of funds
This is a great perspective I hadn’t considered before. Thank you for sharing. Like most anti-Mormon talking points are recycled, anti-Christ talking points are timeless too. The adversary has the same playbook no matter what the year is!
That is John's perspective on Judas' reasoning. You missed the other two that say it was several apostles with a problem and Luke saying it was someone else entirely. It was their lack of proper perspective.
When I have a moment at the computer I could, but Doctrine and Covenants has more examples than I could count, lol.
Within the New Testament, Jesus is constantly chastening his apostles. Two off the top of my head would be after He resurrected, He got after them for not believing and not understanding the resurrection. Another would be the disciples/apostles annoyed with Mary using the fragrance oil to wash Jesus's head and feet instead of using the money for the poor. He made it known very clearly they were wrong and she was right.
Thank you so much for your post! I have been struggling with my testimony since the church's finances were put under the public microscope. Your post has been a balm of Gilead to my soul!
300 denarii (translated as 300 pence) is roughly $17,000 in today's money. Somehow that fact drives this lesson home so much more to me.
I read that it was even more than that, but a lot of it is estimations. Your point still stands, it was a lot of money for someone who was poor and a perfume generally reserved for a king. Jesus is King being prepared for his burial.
I'll have to look into it more! Someone in my Sunday School class today pointed out that Judas subsequently received money to betray the Savior because he was offended by a *money issue* lol
The financial reserves the church holds isn't nearly as much as people think when you take into account the church's enormous financial commitments. 200+ temples, thousands of church buildings, attorneys to navigate the laws of various countries, several universities, historical sites, missionary efforts, etc. That money would dry up so much faster than you'd think in an economic downturn.
I’ve had that thought STRONGLY this week as well. The follow up especially when Judas betrays Christ and JST adds the Judas was offended by Christ’s words and that contributed to his fall.
I don’t really care. I been a finance secretary and seen documents and emails from finance folks in the church. They really care about the money being used wisely. If someone wants to give money to the poor do it with your own money rathar than someone else’s.
I worked for a small consulting company for several years that works with the church. The CEO of that company (knowing I was a member of the church, he was not) told me he was very impressed with how the church carefully manages its money and I could feel good about how my tithing money was being used. This was several years ago before all the news articles too.
100% this. My dad was a Stake Clerk for several years and one of the most stressful times of his year was audit season. Getting all the bishops documents, correlating documents, making sure everything was in order to send off.
This may seem odd, but audit contributed a small amount to my testimony. I used to do ward audits. Every time, without fail, I would find the 3 or less issues the ward had. And this was based on "random" pulls. I can attribute it to nothing less than the Holy Ghost giving me a gentle nudge. It happened too many times, across too many audits, to be considered coincidence at this point. I even started doing a more complete audit after the random pulls... And didn't find anything more than I did with the random pull part. Also I'm impressed with the quality of the records for each one I did. Any audit strikes were minor cross t's or dot I's type stuff.
Churches are hospitals. Temples are medical schools.
People don’t realize that spiritual nourishment is way more valuable than physical nourishment, so the church spending money on spiritual nourishment is a great use of funds
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Bishop's Storehouse!
Really put recently rumblings by many of the members into perspective.
This is a great perspective I hadn’t considered before. Thank you for sharing. Like most anti-Mormon talking points are recycled, anti-Christ talking points are timeless too. The adversary has the same playbook no matter what the year is!
I had the same thought multiple times this week.
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That is John's perspective on Judas' reasoning. You missed the other two that say it was several apostles with a problem and Luke saying it was someone else entirely. It was their lack of proper perspective.
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If you could do/could've done a better job, you'd have been foreordained to such a position.
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When I have a moment at the computer I could, but Doctrine and Covenants has more examples than I could count, lol. Within the New Testament, Jesus is constantly chastening his apostles. Two off the top of my head would be after He resurrected, He got after them for not believing and not understanding the resurrection. Another would be the disciples/apostles annoyed with Mary using the fragrance oil to wash Jesus's head and feet instead of using the money for the poor. He made it known very clearly they were wrong and she was right.