But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. - 1Timothy 6: 9-10 (ESV)

The Bible speaks a great deal about money. Not the way prosperity hucksters want you to think it does. No, the Bible actually warns us a lot about money. About how preachers should not be corrupted by the desire for filthy lucre. How it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. How the rich young ruler went away sad because his money was more important to him than the God he claimed to love. Then there are the key verses from today. Look at the explicit language and dire warnings. The mere desire to be rich risks us falling into temptation easier. It is just another button for the devil to press beloved. It can snare us if we are not mindful. That snare is filled with many senseless and harmful desires. Those senseless and harmful desires will plunge us into ruin and destruction. Money in and of itself is not evil at all. It is the love of money that lies at the root of all sorts of evil. Many professing Christians have in fact wandered away from the faith altogether by pursuing this folly. Stabbing themselves with many deep wounds. I know that it is common for those who sell prosperity or tithing to use these Scriptures against the believer but let us turn the spotlight upon them today as well. It applies even more so for leaders. It applies even more so for preachers and pastors - who are responsible for the flock of Almighty God. When perusing the news from this past week I find two more examples to discuss for our consideration of this topic. This week I present Benny Hinn and Brad White/Ed Young.

Benny Hinn, the poster child for false prophets and teachers, was at it again recently. Sending out a letter to his mailing list claiming that you too can enjoy an "unprecedented harvest" if you employ the "thousand dollar principle." That principle being you sending Benny Hinn $1000 of course. In conjunction with renowned false prosperity huckster Tood Coontz, Hinn guarantees a new dimension of favor and increase for those that are ready for "higher seed level giving." Never heard of Coontz? Me neither; so I visited his website where for $200 you can get a double portion! For an additional $73 you can get a breakthrough and then for this $1000 you earn a triple portion! That should be all you need to know but since they dragged the Bible into this...

And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the Lord, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it. 2Chronicles 1: 6 (ESV)

This is the Scripture Hinn claims Koontz uses to defend this heretical notion of the thousand dollar principle. It is true that right after this God asked Solomon what he wanted and he asked for wisdom. He did lead very successfully. But he also did not finish well at all. The foreign wives he took led his heart away from God. I guess that thousand dollar principle has an expiration date. Of course there is no "thousand dollar" principle. The fact is that Koontz and Hinn wanted to try and bilk people out of giving huge donations. So they scoured the Bible to find a verse that had the number 1000 in it and voila! The $1000 principle was born. This is called strip mining the Bible. It is used to prop up pre-conceived false teaching. Let's show how silly it is:

And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, "Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands." - 1Samuel 18: 7 (ESV)

That's right beloved! You too can enjoy this prophetic release from God today! Who wants to settle for a measly thousand dollar favor when you can have access to the special David Anointing of Ten Thousand! Don't find yourself stuck in a Saul blessing when David's is right at your fingertips! Just ten thousand dollars sent to me today guarantees it! God wouldn't lie!

But man sure can lie. We now move from the ridiculous to the obscene. Ed Young pastors a mega church called Fellowship Church. He wanted to castigate his congregation about tithing recently so he brought in mega church pastor of Lifepoint Church, Brad White to do his dirty work. This is a trend I have noticed recently. The home pastor doesn't want the negativity directly associated to him so he brings in a well known outsider to teach tithing. We saw Rick Warren for example bring in Robert Morris to teach tithing to Saddleback Church. The real problem of course is in what Brad White taught.

I watched Part Two of this series, which can be found on the Fellowship Church website. The Scriptural argument made involves the story of Cain and Abel, which is the same heresy promoted by Perry Noble recently. Brad White however, took it to disgusting new lows. The first thing I noticed is that he was reading out of something called the Good News Translation. While admittedly not knowing much about this translation which came out only a few decades ago, a simple Google search turned up plenty of concerns and criticisms. Laying that aside we see White lay the rotten foundation of his sermon. He claims that in Genesis 4 we see the following:

"After some time, Cain brought some of his harvest to the Lord."

The heretical teaching of "first fruits" as a precursor to tithing relies upon the denial of Cain's sacrifice and the acceptance of Abel. What Pastor White does here though is not hermeneutics. He is not expositing the text at all. He is reading into it to support what he needs to find in order to demand that people send the church money. He focuses on the usage of the word "some" twice in the verse above. Here is the absurd conclusions he draws, paraphrased:

"You know what Cain did? Cain harvested all of his garden but he paid the bills first. Cain gave to this distributer and he paid that distributer. He then paid his employees and his rent. He made sure his pantry was full. He even set some aside in a barn for the future in case there was a drought. Then after he took care of all of his responsibilities he brought some to God and he thought God would be proud of him. But God said - I'm disappointed in you because you did not bring me the first and the best. I gave you the best and you gave me leftovers. You see here is what Cain said - I will bring what I want, when I want to bring it."

Wow. That would be a compelling argument if not for one fact - none of what he said is remotely true. The text does not indicate ANY of this nonsense. Cain did not have distributers and employees; or for that matter rent. We do not know if he harvested his entire garden. We do not know if he made sure his pantry was full and he had some stored in the barn for a rainy day. Quite frankly, Pastor White simply made all of those points up to convince the sheep of God that He expects you to pay Him before you pay your bills. Think about this for a minute. A man pretending to be a man of God completely mangled the Bible to form the foundation of his argument. This is a similar heresy taught by Robert Morris, who claims God curses your money if you do not pay Him before your mortgage and electric bill. It is shameless. It is gutless. It is lies straight from the pit of hell. How do I know that? Because it is not biblical!

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. - 1Timothy 5: 8 (ESV)

God expects you to pay your bills beloved. He expects that you will provide for your family. It is a matter of your heart. All the verse said was the word "some." This is beyond poor interpretation. It is willful deception to prop up a pre-conceived talking point. What is worse is when you see the verse in question quoted from a real translation:

In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, - Genesis 4: 3 (ESV)

What word is missing? The word "some." Which is why Pastor White used the GNT and not a more mainstream translation. Beware shady translations that are not used often and more importantly, paraphrases such as "The Message." Such is a favorite of the young gun pastors who care less about biblical accuracy as they do their hairstyle. The Bible is God speaking to us beloved and when you substantively change what was actually said, it is no longer God speaking but rather man. We see from the ESV that there was no conspiracy of time involved with Cain's offering. In the course of time. Why was there a course of time? Because it takes time to grow a garden and reap a harvest! Abel was no different:

and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, - Genesis 4: 4 (ESV)

Abel ALSO brought. The writer here is drawing no distinction in the manner or time frame of the offering. But to Pastor White, the usage of the word "some", which does not appear in any acceptable translation, indicates that Cain had distributors, employees and rent. It also indicates to Pastor White that he filled his own pantry and barns with plenty and then "tipped" God with his leftovers. Now however, Pastor White goes for the kill by turning this on the listeners. He starts by claiming he loves them BUT 70% of the people sitting there today have the heart of Cain. Where does he get that number? Obviously that is the percentage of non-tithers at Fellowship Church. Pastor White goes on to say that 70% of the congregants make their decisions like Cain. You get paid and first pay your mortgage, pay your electric, go out to eat...

Did you notice the disgusting trick he just pulled? He lumps in a personal decision of recreation, such as going out to dinner, with keeping your lights on and making sure you are not evicted or foreclosed upon! In fact White claims that God says when we get paid, before we pay the mortgage, before we pay the light bill, before we do anything, we are to bring the first 10% to Him. The first 10% according to Pastor White, tips the scales of God's favor unto us.

Beloved this is absolute garbage. It is vile and disgusting. I know I have written several pieces on this but I still see so many people in bondage to the tithing lie. Who basically think that God has offered a quid pro quo. If you tithe ten percent than He is required to supernaturally bless you. The most abused chapter in the entire Bible is Malachi Chapter Three. But the new wave of money grubbing pastors are becoming more clever. They are going into other portions of Scriptures which have absolutely nothing to do with money or tithing and reading into the text what they want it to say instead of what God wanted to say. Because that is what this message from Brad White and Ed Young was. It was not what sayeth the Lord. It was what sayeth Brad White. New Testament giving is summed up well for us, with no ambiguity:

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - 2Corinthians 9: 6-7 (ESV)

We must decide within our own heart, in communion with the Holy Spirit within us, what we will give and give it cheerfully; knowing that we are bound by the universal principle of sowing and reaping. Tithing was an agricultural system set up for ancient Israel so the Levites would always have food. It was never money nor intended to be about money. When Jesus died, tithing was nailed to the cross. Giving however was not. People read things like this and wrongly assume I am against giving. Not at all. I am for giving more than 10%. If you are in a true church, that preaches the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ so people can be brought to penitent faith - we should give mightily and cheerfully to that kingdom work. I think 10% lets us off the hook actually and sells God short. If however, you find yourselves in a church unlike what I just described then you should not give a dime. If you are in a church that preaches prosperity, greasy grace, or any number of the popular heresies of the day you need to run as fast as you can.

That goes double if you follow Benny Hinn or attend either Fellowship Church or Lifepoint. Do we realize that according to Benny Hinn there are different levels of blessing available from God based solely upon how much money we give? Is that the lesson from the widow's mite? No, it is the opposite. Do we realize that Brad White completely trashed the Bible and added to it things that he knows are inaccurate just so he can accuse 70% of the Body of Christ that they are robbing God. That's right. In the video from this "sermon" White claims that if you do not bring him your first ten percent, before you pay your mortgage and electric bills, then you are in fact robbing God. Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting. No Pastor White, they are not robbing God but you are trying to rob the people of God. I pray He shows more mercy to you than you have shown to His sheep.

Beloved. Find a good church that is not afraid to preach the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. One that is not based upon seeker friendly and purpose driven theologies that water down the Gospel so as to not offend people. One that does not boil salvation down to a silly three sentence "prayer" that never deals with our sin and need to repent. When you find that church - give cheerfully to the work being done there. Advance the Kingdom of God for His glory only. In Jesus' name.

Reverend Anthony Wade - June 20, 2014