Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
“Sowing and Reaping”, “The Widow’s Mite”, “30, 60 and 100 fold return”, “The Cheerful Giver”, “Don’t Eat Your Seed” and even tithing taught in some forms, are just some of the topics that have been twisted and manipulated to extract more and more money from trusting congregants.
On the surface, all of these messages seem valid. But, you have to go a little deeper to fully understand the reason money messages are being preached more than others, and what their effects have been on the masses. The motivation to give and/or tithe should be out of obedience and not with the intent of what you get in return, which is what the emphasis is for most of these messages.
During the first two years of my ministry, my budget was fifty dollars each week. By the time I lost PTL in 1987, I had to raise a million dollars every two days . . . and it wasn’t enough. The more money I raised, the more we spent, and the more we needed to raise. I should have listened to Solomon, who gave us the key to true success. He said, “Now all has been heard; / here is the conclusion of the matter: / Fear God and keep his commandments, / for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13–14 NIV). That’s what really matters, not the accumulation of material things. Financial gain is no indication of God’s pleasure. As Paul wrote to Timothy, “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:1 NKJV). Unfortunately, few people I have ever met are truly content; most of us have an insatiable appetite for more, more, more.
I will be eternally grateful to God for apprehending my life and drawing me into the valley so that He could teach me what He really thought about money. In searching out the scriptures, I concluded that Jesus didn’t have one good thing to say about money! The “Prosperity Gospel” I had taught was a complete misrepresentation of the messages taught throughout the scriptures.
It was a course-correction I will never forget.
Today, much of the “Prosperity Gospel” is still being preached in lieu of the Revelation Message. Even with everything that is happening in our world that screams from our daily headlines about the Second Coming, this perverted message of money often pre-empts it. Why? I believe it’s because people don’t want to hear a message of what they perceive as “gloom and doom” and the preachers know this. Stay tuned for my next blog on that point. Having itching ears, they heap up teachers that will tickle them. If they preach about Revelation, they lose some people and their income drops. If they talk only about how people can be blessed, blessed, blessed – everybody wins!
So, it’s good for the preacher (keeps money flowing in) and good for the people (tickles their ears), and everybody stays happy in “Happy Church.”
Or do they?
In an effort to extract more and more money from their listeners, preachers teach all of this money gospel with the promise of the return of a multiplied MONEY blessing. This has created what we refer to as a “give to get” gospel. This is a false gospel and when it doesn’t come through for the giver, it sometimes shipwrecks their faith!
Many people have left the church, broken and disillusioned with what they believed to be a spiritual truth, but what was, in fact, false teaching. This isn’t a ‘Santa Claus’ god we serve, but a God who is worthy of all our worship, in the good times and in the bad, in valleys as well as the mountaintops.
Jesus wasn’t against men having money, He was against money having men. It’s a heart matter. Money is not the root of all evil; it’s the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil.
Thankfully, many people are now beginning to wake up to the deception of this (and other) false gospels and rejecting them altogether! But there were some who believed with all their hearts what they were taught and were virtually destroyed in their faith when the promise of monetary prosperity did not materialize! Some left the body of believers and scattered like frightened and skinned sheep!
Those who have taught this false gospel will be held accountable for those sheep who were destroyed and scattered – unless they repent! I used to teach this doctrine, until I studied the Word of God and found the truth. I love ALL pastor’s and I have made this mistake too. Let’s all stand together believing for eyes and ears to be opened, and for hearts to be changed. None of us want any of our leaders to experience the “woe” that comes unto those who would ignore the correction.
Jeremiah 23:1,2 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away , and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
In Mt. 23:23 – Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin
and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. I have yet to hear a message from this Scripture. Jesus goes on to say we should have done these without leaving the other undone. But he lay the significance on justice, mercy and faith,
The facts are these:
1. The NT gives no explicit commands with respect to tithing.
2. The most definitive statement on the subject of tithing in the NT is that “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7)
– S
Please Pray for our Pastor:
Dear Pastor,
“Hear this, Child of GOD, Know the Lord thy God is ONE.”
ONE LORD GOD Creator Maker
of the whole universe
GOD of Creation
who make all our sun, moon, stars, planets, galaxies,
our planet Earth, the oceans, land, every living thing, every human being has
ONE GOD CREATOR
That created you and me child of GOD.
“Know the LORD thy GOD is ONE.”
ONE GOD.
ONE.
the eye of the needle is a literal place. In order for the camel
to get through. It has to be unloaded. The camel has to get down on
it’s knees and crawl through. It is possible, but difficult.
I’m still confused about tithing. I’ve heard that tithing was done away with because Jesus did away with living under the Law. Concerning tithing, how does 1 Corinthians 16:2 fit in as well as 2 Corinthians 9:7. please let me know your thoughts?
Thank you!
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
Sir, nicely expressed.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
What comes to my mind is ‘it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven’. It’s difficult to give all one owns then take up one’s cross and follow Jesus.
I suppose on the other hand people who have rejected their faith because they didn’t get a monetary return, perhaps because of being charmed by the ‘prosperity gospel’, really have had their souls scrammbled by the evil this lust for money has done to them. From my point of view the bible always comes in two halves, or two ways, or basically a person comes to a point in their lives and they can either go the Jesus way or else the wrong way. In the case of the ‘prosperity gospel’, the victim if you like to the root of all evil tossed a coin, and they were happy it landed on the side of monetry wealth rather than the Jesus side which is spiritual wealth, which is heaven, which equals zero dollars.
We believe in Jesus, we read the bible, the bible speaks to us, God our father rebukes us, we repent and say we are sorry, Jesus loves us and comforts us.
Really Sir, your Woe series has been excellent. Great food for thought,
God bless,
Stephen
England, UK.
I appreciate your statement, our God is not a Santa Claus God. Our
God is the Lord of Hosts, mighty in battle. He is the God of Israel,
the God of the downtrodden, the Father to the fatherless, the husband to the widow. He is a great King, a God who is close at hand and
not far off. My heart is stirred with that thought. Some are serving a Santa Claus God.
Dear pastor Jim
Thank you again for sharing the truth about what has happened to the church, I went to a prophetic conference for three days, The young man told so many jokes, it was hard to stay focus on the messege , he was bringing. I didnt go to have my ears tickled. I was very griefed and upset with myself for going. I had to ask the Lord to deliver me and he is so good that he did. may God bless you and lori and family