Examining a recent teaching from Paula White about why Pentecost means you must send her money.

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But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed. -- 2Peter 2: 1-3 (NLT)

God has not left us uninformed beloved. There are warnings after warnings after warnings in His Word about the proliferation of false teaching that will arise in the church. God has gone deeper than that however. He has addressed the types of false teachings we would see so that we might easily identify them and rebuke them. Unfortunately, He also reminds us that many in the church are the ones who demand the false teachings. They gather to themselves teachers who will tell them exactly what they want to hear. That God loves them so much He doesn't care if they sin anymore. That God manifests Himself within our personal experiences. That God desires that all of us be rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Just this morning I saw a comment from someone alleging to be Christian that said, "I believe God would not send anyone to hell." The only way you believe that is if you do not read your Bible. Any sentence that starts with "I believe God"" is simply us recreating God in our own image.

Today we are going to focus in on people in church leadership who shamelessly engage in spiritual armed robbery. Our key verses warn us about these types of charlatans. They deny the Master by pretending that they hear from Him and selling the blessings of God for money. They essentially pimp God out as a pious ponzi scheme. Today we will be looking specifically at Paula White and a recent teaching she delivered. Please realize that Paula White has fleeced over five million dollars from the people of God. She is highly considered when people are talking about female leadership in the church today and she is nothing but a snake oil saleswoman. It is because of women like this the way of the truth is slandered. The world sees this con artist for what she is but the church revels in her demonic teachings. She is one of the ravenous wolves the Bible warns us about beloved. There is nothing redeemable about her ministry. I used the NLT version for the key verses because of the plain way it states the main point:

In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.

Hold onto that Scripture as we progress today and you will see it come alive in front of your eyes. Another translation says that they make merchandise of you. That is all she sees you as. Thankfully, God condemned her long ago and her eventual destruction will not be delayed. Let's examine a teaching Paula White did recently on Pentecost:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R2ut3i_JWY

Paula wastes no time in setting up numerology as the backbone of this teaching. That because there are fifty days between the resurrection and Pentecost, there must be significance within the number fifty. Thus, because every fifty years in ancient Israel they had a jubilee year she tries to wedge that into your life. So during Jubilee for example, all debts were cancelled, so this must mean that Pentecost is also an appointed time for "supernatural debt cancellation." What utter garbage. First of all, Jubilee is not even followed today by Jewish people. Secondly, it only applied to them and most importantly, how in the world is this transferred to the church? Answer? It's not. White however shamelessly promises that this is the year you will have double portion. This is the year that you have a divine advantage. This is the year of supernatural increase. Says who? Not God. Not His Word. Says Paula White. And for whom are these great things supposed to occur? Apparently everyone who is watching her show. What blasphemous nonsense.

One of the tricks these bandits use is to provide just enough Scripture, misinterpreted or out of context, to give the veneer that the teaching is biblical. Because she is trying to use Pentecost to convince you to send her money, she reads the first four verses of Acts Chapter Two. She zeroes in on one word:

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. -- Acts 2: 2 (NIV)

After reading this verse Paula pauses to pray a "suddenly" for our lives. Pray a what? Beloved the word suddenly is used here as an adjective to describe that the Holy Spirit fell quickly. It is not prophetic for other "suddenlies" in our lives. This text is not about us. It is about Jesus Christ. Not to Paula White however. Not when she is trying to make some cash. Instead, she brazenly states that God has made a covenant to usher in a new season on Pentecost. Is this in the Bible? Absolutely not. God has made no such covenant. He has made no such promise.

White then mangles the purpose for the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ. Remember denying the Master? She correctly points out that Passover is in remembrance of when they applied blood to the doorpost so the death angel would pass over them. So what does that mean for us as believers? It is a type of Christ. Now we have the blood of Jesus on the doorpost of our lives. This means when it is time for judgment on the last day, God will pass over us and we will not be condemned to eternal suffering. The death angel was from God beloved. He sent the death angel. It was the final plague upon Egypt. Let's see what Paula does with this:

"So when the blood is applied to the heart of your life, to the doorpost of your heart, then the death angel, the satanic forces, will pass over. It literally means that God's hand would be stretched out for you. And that no weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper." -- Paula White

Beloved allow me to explain. The truth of Passover for the believer is the crux of our faith. That we have the hope of glory now. That we will spend eternity with the Father. But those are all eternal considerations. They are not carnal in nature so Paula White can't sell them. She traffics in the temporal blessings. She can sell debt cancellation. She can sell worldly prosperity. So she must make the Passover revelation carnal in order to make her sales pitch. Instead of a glorious picture of an eternal life with the Creator, she reduces it down to overcoming "satanic forces" so God's mighty hand of blessing can stretch out for you. It is insulting in its blasphemous nature. Just as insulting as when she claimed that every time we faced a Pharaoh, God delivered us because the blood of Jesus delivers us. What on earth are you talking about? We were not there in ancient Egypt Paula. That story is not about us. I have never faced Pharaoh or Goliath. Those are stories that are supposed to point us to Christ; not your bank account. The blood of Jesus delivers us from final judgment, not the "Pharaohs we face."

Having established her unbiblical premise she goes for the kill. Since Pentecost is derived from the feast days of Israel, Paula leverages the Old Testament and the offerings the Israelites were required to make to pretend that the key to Pentecost is to present and offering to the Lord. Of course that means an offering to Paula White. She brazenly says that some offer 50, 500 or even 5000 dollars because after all, this is holy.

"These are the mandated times that God says you must bring to me, don't stand before me empty-handed. So I want you to call our toll free number right now. And as you honor God with an offering, you are standing in position, ready to receive revelation and harvest. For the outpouring of what God has for you." -- Paula White

Paula goes to break now so her pre-fabricated commercial can get to fleecing the flock. What proceeds is a mish-mosh of scriptures, cobbled together out of context, that were all intended for Israel. One thing that was interesting was after the commercial strings together commands to Israel regarding the feast days, Paula White flashes this verse:

"It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations." -- Leviticus 23

I understand why Paula is trying to drive this point home. Anyone with a sliver of discernment will realize by now that these are all Scriptures and commands to ancient Israel, not the church of today. So she is creating the impression that these feast commands must be perpetually carried out throughout all generations. Now, even if this is accurate it still would not apply to the church but I actually took the time to find where in Leviticus 23 this was stated and found the following:

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath." -- Leviticus 23: 26-32 (ESV)

The verse in Leviticus 23 about a perpetual statute was referring to the Sabbath, not the feast requirements. Ironically enough even this admonition would be nailed to the cross with the coming of Christ. The point here however is enormity of the hubris of Paula White Ministries. They simply assumed no one would bother to actually check the Scriptures to see if what she was saying was accurate. The commercial goes on to say that by honoring God with your Pentecost offering you activate God's promise and release the harvest He has already established for your spirit, soul, mind, body and finances. That the results of honoring Him on His divine appointments are miraculous. Beloved this is beyond shameless. This is arrogantly demonic in nature. This is a greedy messenger from Satan who is making up clever lies to get a hold of your money.

Paula was not done with her duplicitous deception however. After coming back from her sales pitch break, she launches into a teaching about the importance of getting in line with the Word of God. The reason why is she is still trying to sell the notion that all of this is some kind of established ordinance God has set up. We already saw however that she was willing to directly lie about the verses from Leviticus 23 so it should be of no surprise that her exposition of Isaiah 55:11 was just as dishonest:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. -- Isaiah 55: 11 (KJV)

Beloved this is also a powerful verse in our faith. It is God's assurance to us of the power of His Word. That His Word has a purpose and that is the salvation of man. White chooses the King James Version here because of the usage of the word "prosper." Prosperity pimps love to find translations that use the word prosper so they can twist that to mean earthly material prosperity. Other translations however show this word is closer to "achieve" or succeed." What is it that will achieve or succeed? The Word of course! The Word has a purpose and it shall prosper in that purpose. Let's take a look how Paula White mangles this verse to try and steal your money:

"Then He says that which I have for you, the Word of God, will not come back to you worthless. But it will make you advance and it will push forward the things that I sent it to. So the Word of God is about to shift things for you." -- Paula White

Do you notice the subtle changes? Instead of being a verse about the power of His Word it is now about us. The word will not return to God void -- not us. It does not advance us. It does not push us forward. Now do not get me wrong. If we are living a life of sin and debauchery then the Word certainly can shift things for us. That is how we got saved. Someone preached the Gospel to us and the Spirit of God drew us unto Him. The purpose however is for the glory of God at our salvation. It did not advance us. If anything it made us retreat from ourselves. It did not push us forward. It brought us low to the foot of the cross. But that does not sell and Paula White knows it.

Beloved, Paula White has over three million likes for her page on Facebook. This is no small matter. Pentecost is the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out. It was the birth of the church today. It was when the first sermon was delivered and the first 3000 were saved. It is a glorious day in our faith. It has absolutely nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with the church keeping the requirements of the feast days of Israel. Think for a moment how offensive this truly is. How she purposefully misrepresented both the Leviticus and Isaiah verses so she could get her greedy little paws into your pockets. When you think about that remember that the Word is God. She was lying about God. From the moment she opened her mouth until the moment she faded from this half hour infomercial. This is not some game. The eternal lives of men hang in the balance.

I am going to share a carnal trick used in the world of gambling. There are charlatans who do cold calls to convince people that they have inside information on a big game and they are giving that information away for free. Half the people they call are told one team and the other half are told the other team. Why? Because the ones that lose they will simply not call back but the ones that win think they really have inside information. Now they can market to these people. Now they have something to sell. Who cares about the half that just lost their paychecks? While they were the suckers for this week the true suckers are the ones who won because they are dragged deeper into the deception. Paula White operates the exact same way. She tells everyone that God will shift a season, grant a harvest, and do something miraculous if we would just follow her inside information about Pentecost. For some people, there will be something positive in the coming days and Paula will point to the Pentecost offering and scream -- I told you so! But for the majority, the harvest will never come. Will they blame Paula or the false god she sold them? Will they ever come back seeking God? Will they stand before Christ one day and have Him say that He never knew them? I remember watching a documentary this year about prosperity pimps and one of those highlighted was Kenneth Copeland. The documentary focused on the life of a woman who was dying. Instead of seeking treatment that might have saved her, she just kept upping her offerings to Copeland's ministry based on his teachings about healing, faith, and seed-harvest theology. She did this right up until the day she died. While it is profoundly sad that she was deceived into her own death, what was potentially sadder was the effect it had on her unbelieving family who blamed God as well as Copeland. This is what the key verse means by the way of the truth being slandered.

When you twist the Word of God to lie to people in an attempt to steal their money you are committing spiritual armed robbery. If they do not make it to heaven because of being led astray, you have committed spiritual murder. Jesus called this shutting the doors of heaven in the faces of those seeking God. That is what Paula White does for a living and she has over five million reasons to continue. Christians everywhere should have absolutely nothing to do with her and should warn those that are being suckered in that it is all just a con from one of the most devious snake oil saleswomen today.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- June 5, 2016

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.