Financial Exploitation (Mark #10)

Tithing is just the beginning!

The marvelous message of the Gospel of Christ is that one may receive eternal salvation "without money and without price."

The New Testament Scriptures tell us that salvation comes to us as an absolutely free gift. "The gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23). We are "justified freely by His grace" (Romans 3:24). The word freely means without a cause.

The grace of Jesus Christ is the all-pervading doctrine that applies both to the reception of salvation and our continued walk with God. By the grace of Jesus Christ, each of us has become rich. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

The Christian is rich indeed! He has received the wonderful gift of justification by faith and a thousand derivative benefits. All of this comes to him because of the expenditure of the blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. He is what he is by the grace of God.

It is clear also from the Word of God that the Christian is never put under obligation to do, give, sacrifice, or expend himself in any way in order to be more sure that he has the gift of God which is eternal life. He is invited in many earnest ways to commit himself to the service of Christ and to become a useful instrument in the hands of God. The Word of God, however, is clear that service for Christ is a voluntary proposition on the part of the Christian, and nothing that he does will increase his own guarantee of eternal life. He is saved by grace and kept by the power of God. His eternal life came to him without payment on his part. It is dependent wholly on the work of Christ on the cross.

It is also clear in Scripture that the gifts, the power, the blessing of God in the life of a Christian do not come because of his ability to purchase them with money, because of his giving to God. We have a fascinating vignette in the Book of Acts. It seems that a man called Simon, who was previously involved in sorcery, became a believer in Jesus Christ. He saw the remarkable power of the Apostles through the wonderful working of the Holy Spirit, and he immediately saw the possibilities in the use of such power. (Read Acts 8:18-22)

Quite obviously here, the gifts and the power of God were not a purchasable commodity. Special blessing was hardly available to this man because of his financial offer. Indeed the opposite was true. Peter said to him "For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of inequity" (Acts 8:23). We have no teaching in the New Testament whatsoever that one develops an inside track with God or a greater certainty of salvation because of his giving.

There is another lesson that is very clear from this story. The true leaders of the Church were utterly offended at the suggestion that their favour or the favour of their God could be gained with money. They accused the one who made this offer of terrible sin and said that he was surely under the judgment of God.

We thank the Lord that the Apostles were really members of the untouchables; they were incorruptible people whose infidelity to Jesus Christ was beyond the power of money to buy. Indeed, in their ministries they spoke against the power of money again and again, saying finally, "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). They invited Christians to give gladly out of a full heart, but they conducted their own lives on a plane of personal sacrifice. And they maintained utter rectitude as to the reception and the use of money.

They even went further than this. They taught that sacrificial Christian leaders thereby gave evidence of their faithfulness to Jesus Christ. By contrast they said that a characteristic of false teachers was that they were those "supposing that gain is godliness" (1 Timothy 6:5). Peter, when speaking of false teachers, said, "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you" (2 Peter 2:3).

The Apostle Paul, again leaving us a shining example, was very careful never to accept gifts from the churches for his own personal use. He said, "These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me" (Acts 20:34). He did this for the purpose of making the Gospel of Jesus Christ totally without charge. The Church of Christ is the richer because of the peerless standard of personal sacrifice that was left for us by the Apostles of Christ.

Happy is the Christian leader who at the end of his life can say with Paul, "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:33-35). The Apostle Paul both preached and practiced the proposition that the love of money is the root of all evil.

What a contrast we see in the cultic practitioner of today! He strongly implies that money contributed to the cause will buy privileges or gifts or powers for the receptive follower. He offers healing for $100. He offers deliverance from accident for life for $1,000. The follower of the cult is often promised that he can escape the many purgatories in this world and the next through the investment of his money.

In the financial structure of the average cult, tithing is but the beginning. Then comes the real pressure. The follower, as the screw is turned, is exploited to the point of economic exhaustion. The stories are legion of wives and children who have been brought to the point of hunger and impoverishment because of the cultic contributions of the head of the family. Enamoured by his new spiritual leader, the head of the house forgets the clear teaching of Scripture, "If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel" (1 Timothy 5:8).

The consequence is that conscienceless religious leaders have provided for themselves massive homes, spacious estates, and large holdings in the commercial world. Some of them even quote as their excuse, "No good thing will He [God] withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalms 84:11). What is this but twisting the Scripture to one's own destruction?

The newspapers have carried many stories of shameless financial exploitation by cult leaders. Some argue that they should be treated like a god, encourage lavish financial gifts to be given to him and his family. Others press their followers to triple-tithe for the support of his cult. How else could private jets be purchased and operated for his personal use in the keeping up of his image?

It is fair to say that an almost universal characteristic of the cults is an insatiable financial appetite in the leadership. They cruelly dangle their followers over the fires of hell as punishment for not giving large amounts of money to their cause.

The false religions of the world are characterized by lavish temples, overlaid with gold and studded with diamonds. Most of them stand amidst a sea of poverty which the cults themselves have caused. Their apparent prosperity is nothing more than the shameful result of their cruel exploitation of frightened people who seek their favours with financial gifts.

True Christianity is an illustration of the opposite point of view, the free grace of Jesus Christ. His amazing grace brings amazing peace of mind. True Christianity brings peace; cults do not. For the cultist there is no peace of mind.

(from Know the Marks of Cults - the 12 basic errors of false religion by Dave Breese)

Confessing It Means Possessing It

Word Faith celebrity, Kenneth Copeland, says, "What you are saying is exactly what you are getting now. If you are living in poverty, in lack and want, change what you are saying...The powerful force of the spiritual world that creates the circumstances around us is controlled by the words of the mouth." Kenneth E. Hagin, who served for many years as Copeland's mentor, echoes his protege: "Your right confession will become a reality, and then you will get whatever you need from God."

Positively confessing something is the very first step to getting what is wanted (i.e., healing, a new boat, someone to marry, etc.). The "force of faith" coupled with a carefully conceived positive confession is really the only way to produce results because such methods are what releases God's ability to bring about the things desired: "God's word conceived in the heart, then formed with the tongue and spoken out of the mouth becomes a spiritual force releasing the ability of God."

The stress placed on correct "speaking" often leads to some rather interesting instructions on how to "make" God work:

What do you need? Start creating it. Start speaking about it. Start speaking it into being. Speak to your billfold. Say, "You big, thick billfold, full of money." Speak to your chequebook. Say, "You, chequebook, you. You have never been so prosperous since I owned you. You're just jammed full of money." Say to your body, "You're whole, body! Why, you just function so beautifully and so well. Why, body, you never have any problems. You're a strong healthy body." Or speak to your leg, or speak to your foot, or speak to your neck, or speak to your back...Speak to your wife, speak to your husband, speak to your circumstances; and speak faith to them to create in them and God will create in them what you are speaking.

This exhortation, as humourous as it sounds, masks a cruelty that comes through whenever someone in the Word Faith movement faces trials. Just as positive words have the power to create positive (good) results, negative words have the power to create negative (bad) results, at least to the Word Faith followers. Consequently, those suffering have only themselves to blame, say the Word Faith teachers. As Frederick K.C. Price says, "If you keep talking death, that is what you are going to have. If you keep talking sickness and disease, that is what you are going to have, because you are going to create the reality of them with your own mouth. That is a divine law." (Walter Martin)