Quotes from The Shepherd of Hermas
(also known as the Pastor)
written about 140-150 A.D.

This work was widely read and believed to be authentic by most Christians. Some churches even

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included it in the bible, though others did not include it because it was not written by one of the apostles.

This particular short quote gives us a great amount of light on how the early church viewed wealth and its proper use. It of course agrees with what I have written in the Forgotten Gospel, The Prosperity Gospel Exposed, and Bible Prophecy Revealed.

People who think out evil in their hearts bring death and captivity upon themselves, especially those who seize upon this present world for themselves and boast of their wealth and do not turn their will toward the good things that are to come. The Lord is near to those who turn to him, as it is written in the book of Eldad and Medad, who prophesied to the people in the desert. Because the church was created before all other things, she is old. It was for her sake that the world was founded.

The stones that are white and round and do not fit into the building are the people who have faith but at the same time possess the riches of this world. When the suffering of persecution comes upon them, they deny their Lord because of their wealth and their business affairs. Once their wealth which entices their souls is cut off from them on all sides, they will be useful to God. Just as a round stone cannot be squared and made useful for the building unless it is hewn and thus loses one part of itself after another, so also the wealthy in this world-age cannot be used by the Lord unless their wealth is cut off from them on all sides. Learn this first from your own life's experience: when you were rich you were useless, but now you are useful, now you can be accepted into life. Be useful to God, all of you! For you yourself will also be taken from these very stones.

Do you not see that the tower is still being built? Only when the construction of the tower is finished will the end come. But it will be built up quickly. Let this reminder and this renewal of your spirits be sufficient for you and for the saints.

Listen to me now: Stand together in peace! Look after one another! Be concerned each for the other! Do not use for yourselves alone what God has created, but share it with the poor! By eating too much, some are bringing sickness upon their bodies and ruining them, while the bodies of others who have nothing to eat are ruined by lack of food. Their bodies are wasting away. High living is harmful to you who are well off and do not share with the poor. Think of the coming judgment! You who are privileged, seek out those who are going hungry while the tower is still incomplete. Once the tower is finished you will wish to do good, but you will not have an opportunity anymore. You who enjoy your wealth, take care that the poor do not groan lest their groaning go up to the Lord and you be shut outside the door of the tower with all your riches.

(The Early Christians in Their Own Words, by Eberhard Arnold. Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA, 1997. Pages 310-311)