Abstract:

The oldest form of judaism knows nothing of life after death or another world. So, weal and woe can come only in this world. If God desires to punish or to reward, He must do so during man’s life. The righteous therefore is prosperous here, and the wicked here suffer punishment. The eschatological doctrine of judaism asserted that only the righteous and the pious would rise up after death. But these beliefs were of foreign origin, coming probably by Persia. The great aim of this life is to obey God’s commandment Earthly happiness apart from God has no existence. Hence it is folly to seek to obtain earthly possessions for their own sake. But to obtain them in order to use them for divine ends, so that they become at one and the same time the outward symbols and guarantees of God’s pleasure, as signs of His blessing. Now earthly possessions in this view of them include a well appointed house material well being, in a word wealth

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