Trillion Dollar Church!
The American church system through its thousands of schemes to gather money, has amassed over a trillion dollars worth of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, insurance programs, real estate, etc. The interest they pay on the mortgages of their buildings could literally feed all the poor in the world! The deceptive means 10’s of thousands of ministers use to raise money, of which the modern tithe is one of them, has drained our country of resources that could tremendously bless the world. But the church is sitting on the money. Now they are beginning to be fleeced themselves.
Recently, hundreds of the leading Christian organizations lost millions of dollars investing in a fund named “New Era.” It was a scam called a “Ponzi scheme.” An evangelical, named Bennett, dropping the right names such as Billy Graham and Rockefeller, convinced most of the leading Protestant ministries to invest as much as over 500 million dollars into a fund that promised them a doubling of their money over a 6 month period of time. Now anyone with a little sense should smell something amiss here, especially since conservative Christians should be looking at conservative investments that usually give a low return on investment. But top Christian ministries invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a fund started by another Christian, whose sole purpose in setting up the fund was to defraud them of their, or should I say “your” money. The federal authorities finally shut it down, but not before millions of dollars were lost. (See Dew from Mount Hermon, issue number 7 for more details.)
A person who teaches tithing robs God’s people from hearing from God Himself about what and whom to give to each and every day. Someone who pays their taxes, and gives 10 per cent of their income to their pastor, plus offerings for missions, building fund, bake and rummage sales, etc., because the law or tradition of their organization pressures them to do so, is likely to develop an attitude that their giving is finished at the offering plate. They are so drained of finances that when Jesus arrives at their door for a piece of bread, their response might be, “Oh, I gave already at the church!” Laws such as the modern tithing law, instituted by either ignorant or deceiving ministers keep God’s children from hearing what they should be doing on a day to day basis! Yes, Mr. or Mrs. or Reverend Tithing Teacher, you are robbing God’s people, God, and the world from the blessings He wants to pour out on them and through us! Now repent and stop it! His mercy endures forever! Go to the fountain of Grace and discover how to enter into His rest yourself! Then and only then can you lead God’s sheep into that rest themselves. Until then all you will do is fleece them and eat them yourself!
“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.” (Ezek. 34:2-4)
“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place. All who found them have devoured them.” (Jer. 50:6-7)
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that those who mix Mosaic Law and Grace, or worse, twist the Mosaic Law to say what it doesn’t say, are robbing God even though they may not be aware of it. They are also robbing themselves of much needed rest, and they are robbing the world around them from the true blessings they are to bestow upon their neighbors.
This world needs Christians full of the works of the Lord prepared from the foundation of the world, not weak, beaten, and fleeced sheep who look like they haven’t had a day’s rest since they became Christians because they are always so busy building their minister’s kingdom while thinking they are doing God’s work. Yes, Mr. or Mrs. or Reverend Tithe Collector, I am being very hard right now. But so have you been! It is time for it to stop! Now!!
I am not speaking from a “holier than thou” position here. I have been duped by this false system and I have used guilt-centered ways to get people to support some of the work I have done. “I am a man of unclean lips living in the midst of an unclean people,” as Isaiah said. There is a right way to teach proper Christian giving. I do not say I have all the answers on the subject, but some of the methods and techniques we, (Christians in ministry) use to extract funds, are just outright sacrilegious!
I used to feel so unclean whenever I brought a visitor to a church who had to listen to an elder, deacon, evangelist, or the pastor himself spend a great deal of time laying on the guilt to make sure the offering was a “good” one. “Bring in your tithes and offerings unto the Lord.” And then the plates, buckets, envelopes, bags, anything—whatever would hold a lot of cash would get passed around the church. Of course, every one could see whether you placed anything in the plate or not. In some churches, the pressure was even worse, they made you go up to the altar with your offering. I have been in churches where they passed that plate as many as 7 times in one service until the pastor felt there was enough in it. And we wonder why people don’t want to go to church. As far as I am concerned, no visitor should be pressured to give anything to a church. As a matter of fact, the fund-raising activity should be such that a visitor does not participate in that activity.
The Scriptures are abundantly clear, that the work of the Lord is to be done by His people, not the people of the world.
Churches are full of people who do not have a living relationship with our Father. They may bring in the bucks, but this mixture always corrupts downward to carnality and not upward toward the works of the Holy Spirit.
Free to Give Freely
Does not being under the Mosaic Law and its ordinances free us from the obligation of giving? Yes, and no. If you are giving out of fear placed in you by hard task masters (often in the form of ministers), or giving in order to get more back or a host of other reasons for giving stemming from fear and selfishness, then you are free to stop giving. He can keep this universe going without your help, financial or otherwise. God does not want your money! It is all His anyway. We just keep forgetting that. Perhaps the grave is a good reminder of that fact. See how much of what you think is yours will still belong to you on the other side of the grave. Some of us will be amazed at our emptiness, how little we actually have gathered in this lifetime. It is not too late to begin gathering things that will be yours to keep on the other side. Begin to ask the Holy Spirit about these kinds of possessions.
He wants our hearts! And when He has our hearts, He will fill them with Himself and we will give because that is His nature. He is a giver. Apart from His giving, the universe would cease to exist. It is by the giving of Himself that all things are sustained. He wants to give Himself through us. Why? Because He wants to bless us! He wants us to experience what it is to be like Him. He pours Himself out to the object of His love. As we give Him to the world through our obedience to the Law of the New Covenant, the law of Love (John 15:12,13), we give from His will, His gifts, His nature, His fruit, and we partake of it as we give it. He wants you to pass it on… and He wants to give it back. How?
“‘I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.ʼ”
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” (Matt. 25:35-40)
When we become the instruments in His hands to bless His creation, we ourselves are blessed. It truly is better to give than to receive. He made it that way. The only way one can be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ is to give. We are all in need of the Holy Spirit to convict us of our selfish ways so that we can be truly changed within.
We pray this publication will be helpful to the body of Christ in discerning the proper way to give and help to discern what kind of Christian activities to support. Much of what goes on in the name of Christ is nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble. May you be found faithful with the talents He has given you. May this publication be found helpful to you in the matter of giving.
We realize those ministers who repent and change their methods of fund-raising, will experience some profound changes. An organization viewed as a cult by most Evangelicals has recently changed its teachings regarding tithing. It used to teach the modern day tithe and in some years, a second and third tithe. It has dropped this teaching. This organization’s income dropped thirty per cent in the first year of the change. Programs such as their orchestra program had to be dropped.
And there is the rub. The cost of changing to Scriptural means of support will cost too much. Many ministers are not willing to let die the many projects they have begun. They would rather see the world starve to death than to dismantle their Christmas Cantata program, or their new steeple fund.
While we may think that only those who have been teaching this un-Biblical tithe should repent, it is just as important for those who have been tithing to clearly see that much of the fruit of their tithing has not produced good fruit; instead much of it has alienated the world from Christianity. In other words, we must all repent—those who teach it and those who give it.
In summary, because the tithe as taught by modern churches is not the New Testament way of giving, it will not produce the fruit of the New Covenant, neither for the people who tithe, nor the “programs” for which the money is used. Should we give? Graciously and abundantly! Should we support those who minister the Gospel? Even to the point of giving “double honor.” They who preach the Gospel have a right to live from the Gospel (1Cor. 9:3-13), even though it is often abused.
All Christians must never forget, however, that those in leadership and those not in leadership are priests, a royal priesthood. You, my dear Christian brother or sister, are to be a blessing to the world because you are ladened with gifts from above which He has called you to manifest in the earth. It is time to stop supporting wolves in sheep’s clothing and be about your Father’s business. This will restore the joy of your salvation.
“Remember this—meagre sowing means meagre reaping; generous sowing means generous reaping. Each person must make up his own mind what he is going to give. He must not give as if giving hurt him, or as if the money was being forced out of him. God loves a man who enjoys giving. God can give you more than enough of every good gift, enough for you to have plenty for yourselves always and in any circumstances, and to have enough left over to contribute to every good cause.” (2 Cor. 9:6-8)
“You must love your enemies; you must be kind to them; you must lend without hope of getting anything back. If you do that, you will receive a rich reward, and you will be like the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and to the mean. You must show yourself merciful, as your Father is merciful.
Do not make a habit of judging people, and you will not be judged yourselves. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Be generous, and you will find others generous to you. Good measure, close-packed, and shaken down, brimming over, will be poured into your lap. You will get in exactly the same proportion as you give.” (Luke 6:35-38, William Barclay Translation)
The End