Just as Lucifer who started off right and ended up wrong, we see the same practice in many of the church leaders today. Many of them go into church leadership as a career, not a calling. And some of them that are called, end up wrong just as it was with Lucifer. Recall how Lucifer was once the “Anointed Cherub that Covereth,” and yet he fell from God’s grace. Many people today call us anointed. So if God’s anointed Cherub fell, so can we! They are getting filthy rich off of the gullible church members who keep stuffing their pockets with cash. The love of money is the root of all evil. Many preach for money, not souls. If they were in it to win souls, they would preach the truth; and take from their millions and assist the other suffering members in their churches. The practice of the true Christian church in the book of Acts was demonstrated when the Apostles didn’t stuff their pockets with money. They collected all offerings together and distributed to all other believers who were suffering and in need. But today, while many of their members are suffering financially, the preachers are living in mansions and driving expensive idol cars – with quoting the same ole rhymes like: give to us or sow a seed and God will bless you. In Romans 16:18, Paul said these types of people don’t serve Christ but their own bellies. The unrighteous mammon (which Jesus called it) or filthy lucre (which Paul called it) they preach for it, and money is more important to some of them than winning souls for the kingdom. God never intended Christian ministry end up this way. Finally, understand that there is nothing wrong with money in itself; money is not evil. But it is the LOVE OF MONEY that is the root of all types of evil.
– Blessings to all of you.
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I agree it is becoming a challenge to witness about the goodness Jesus when people are focusing on securing the bag and their social media presence. Let us all become content in all things and stand firm in Jesus, our provider.
Our purpose is to help people understand the Scriptures better and thereby know Jesus better. We want to do everything we can to help people avoid hell, and thus be made free by knowing the truth. This is done by relaying the truth. Jesus is very clear and didn’t stutter when He said how “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt. 19:24). It is common for us to try to justify our actions, and one of the primary ways is to place them on God. In order to justify behavior, people will say, “It is God that blessed me” or “It was God that told me to do such and such.” But is/was it ‘really’ God who made you rich? God will never go against the Scriptures even to bless you. When Jesus said (in my paraphrase), that, a rich person cannot and will not enter heaven, there was/is no hidden meaning behind the words what He stated. The only alternative is that your riches came to you from the devil. And riches themselves are very well a curse and not a blessing as you assumed.
Hi Everyone! Great discussion!
Sad but true! But I would also caution nonbelievers to understand that the scriptures also say, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain {Let the ox eat while it’s working] and “The worker is worthy of his wages” [Pay the worker for his/her work]. -1 Timothy 5:18. I say this because I have heard many church goers- Believers and non-Believers alike- say that pastors and others who labor for the Lord should do it for free. Well. it takes money to travel, to feed one’s family, to pay bills, etc.- particularly when a pastor is ministering full time and has no outside job. So yes! Pay those who are laboring in the trenches for the church.
Now don’t get me wrong. I totally agree with what was said so far. It truly is sad and totally wrong to go around prophesying money out of people’s pocket’s in the name of the Lord. I’ve seen this done time and time again. I visited a particular church, and the Apostle kept saying “Sew a seed! Sew a seed!” and in turn, the person had everyone who gave money to stand in line for a “special word”. It gave me the impression that if no one had money to give, then the Lord did not have anything to say to him/her, and if I felt this way, I’m sure the poor individuals who didn’t have any money to give probably had their heads hung low. I had money to give, but I didn’t fall for it because I knew it wasn’t scriptural.
My husband and I often discuss this same issue on occasion. He told me about a church he used to attend, where the pastor had someone carrying around his Bible for him, opening doors for him and catering to his every need. Not that anything is wrong with assisting the pastor in and of itself, but this pastor took it to the extreme. He sat in a tall, polished chair on the pulpit, often looking down (literally and physically) on his congregation. The pastor was dressed in a designer suit at the mall one day, head held high. Meanwhile, the pastor’s assistant had on a dirty, over-size, generic suit and dirty shoes with holes in them carrying the pastor’s designer attache case and Bible around. Sad. Honor the wo/man of God- yes! Be his/her personal slave- No!
And yes, something is DEFINITELY wrong when a church collects millions of dollars, and the leadership is living in mansions. Yet, when a member falls on hard times and comes to the pastor for help, he/she simple tells the person to “Pray about it, sister! The Lord will provide!” And does nothing to offer financial assistance to the person who’s tithes and offerings pay the same pastor’s bills in the first place. What’s even more twisted is when a member tells a megachurch pastor that he or she lost their job, and the pastor sends the jobless person away with a prayer, instead of hiring the member to work in the church for a salary. Some megachurches have coffee shops and stores in them. Also, all churches need grounds keepers and cleaning. So why not put the unemployed to work? And why is everyone on staff driving up in a luxury car, to a 50 million dollar megachurch that is thriving in an impoverished neighborhood? Shouldn’t the entire neighborhood be prospering from the millions that is collected each year?
Last point: A woman gave a sad and troubling testimony about her mother who had died of cancer. She said her mom gave her life savings to a televangelist over the course of several decades. $100 here and there…$500…$10,000 etc. Every time this man appeared on TV and asked the audience to give and said he would pray for them to be healed etc. in exchange, her mom sent him a check. The daughter found out about it as an adult and had begged her mom to stop giving to the man’s ministry, telling her that it was a fraud, but the mom would not listen. The senior citizen was struggling to pay her bills. In total, the daughter estimated that her mother had given over $80,000 to this man’s ministry in the course of several years. When her mother was in the final stages of cancer, the daughter finally wrote the man’s ministry a letter telling him about how her mother had watched him on television for decades, and how her mother had given so much money to him and that her mother was a huge supporter. She also told him that her mother was in Hospice, dying from cancer and she desperately wished for him to come see her in person. In turn, she said all she received was a generic, computer-generated response asking for more money and telling her thanks for giving. “Send $100 for a special Bible,” it said. Her mother had passed away long before the letter arrived. The televangelist turned the daughter away from all church(es) and all things Christian. So sad!
Christian leaders better be extra-care how they handle God’s flock! It’s a very serious matter!
Great discussion, everyone! Blessings!
-Miles, NC
If you were given a choice between the Bible and a million dollars, which one would you take? You were given the choice to either keep a million dollars and burn the Bible or keep the Bible and burn the million dollars – which option would you choose. It is sad to say that there are so many people in the world that would choose to burn the Bible and keep the million dollars. It is even sadder how there are those who say they are ministers who would do the same. Many even prove this every day through their actions. But when is enough, indeed enough? The love of money is the root of all evil. It is simply greed. Many ministers, or those who call themselves ministers, sacrifice truth over personal gain. Many today twist the Scriptures to manipulate people into giving money to them. There are people who have used the Bible to accumulate large amounts of wealth for themselves. They try to justify their actions by saying that God blessed them and made them wealthy. In reality, they imposed certain Scriptures upon people’s weaknesses and guilty consciences and used the Scriptures in a self-seeking way. When you are robbing from the poor to give to the rich, especially by the means of quoting Scriptures for personal gain is wrong. There is no right justification for this type of action. If you rob from the poor and bless the rich, you are therefore found in contempt. And the deceived ones who are working on your behalf are also in contempt. I read an article about a so-called minister who lives on a property that costs nearly six-million dollars. He has people working for him that call around asking people to donate money to his ministry. The article stated that $100,000 went to his wife, and each of his children received $100,000. He has workers calling people to collect money on his behalf in the name of ministry. The man is a multi-millionaire. It is sad how renegade ministers such as this one don’t stop but keeps asking for more and more. Consider this other example as well. For instance, when we consider the popular preachers who are called into town to rains money to meat a certain function; the preacher puts himself in a compromising position where preaches for money. It reminds me of a time I went to hear a popular bishop preach at a conference. He asked for all who would give a $1,000 to stand in line. After seeing that all the $1,000 people were no longer joining the line, he then asked for $100, then $50, then $20, and after that, he called for everybody else who could give money. The bishop appeared to not have been content with all the people who stood in line to give money. He then shouted, “We’re going to meet this budget.” It didn’t bother him that people were using bank cards to meet his goal. He just wanted their money. If the bishop wanted to raise the money he should have just said that it was their goal. I think he should have been honest and upfront with the people, rather than using the Scriptures to prey on the guilty consciences of people in order to get money. See, people don’t mind giving to honest ways to meet honest needs. The practice of dishonesty and manipulation to gain wealth is not even necessary if the ones asking for the money can be honest, and show that they aren’t just stacking up the money in their bank accounts.
– Blessings to all of you.