Exposing the false teaching of first fruits by charlatan Paula White

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For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. -- Titus 1: 10-11 (ESV)

https://paulawhite.org/firstfruits

Jesus once looked upon the crowds and was filled with compassion for they were like sheep without a shepherd. I want us to start from that place today. The heart of God is moved by the people who are not led correctly. So often in discernment ministries we hear people defend the wolves at all costs and denounce the sheep as people who "should have known better." That is clearly not the heart of the God we serve. This is why so much has been written in the Bible regarding false teaching. Today you can find so many sheep without a shepherd within the walls of what we call church. People who are being taught wrong. People who never hear the real Gospel of Jesus Christ. People who will raise their hands every Sunday for decades only to stand before the Lord and hear, "I never knew you." How profoundly sad to spend your life thinking you are following Christ only to discover in the end He never even knew you. It all stems from false teachers who we allow into the body of Christ as voracious wolves only stand back and watch them devour the sheep over and over again. Sheep without a shepherd moved the heart of Jesus Christ and it should move ours as well.

Today's example for our consideration is Paula White-Cain. Thrice married, Mrs. White has carved out a nice little five million dollar slice of Christianity for herself. She has personally fleeced the flock of God for every mite she has to her name. She has mugged the sheep of the Lord shamelessly. I once wrote about a teaching where she claimed God told her 1Chronicles 22:9 meant God wanted everyone listening to her to send her $229 dollars. I kid you not. As we turned the corner into 2018, White dredged up one of her old favorite tricks for mugging the sheep -- first fruits. Hardly alone, first fruits is a relatively new tactic employed by greedy false teachers who began to realize that the flock was becoming more educated about the falseness of tithing. With the false teaching about first fruits they were able to pretend that God has ordained a "principle" that has always existed and is not bound by which covenant we are in. Beloved, God has ordained no such thing. He did not establish a principle that ordains you must send in your money to hucksters like Paula White. Moreover, because her work is against the Gospel, your sending money to her might accomplish the opposite effect of what you desire. We need to be careful of what we support. Let us walk through the first fruits teaching on Paula's website, which she uses as the source for her renewed call now in 2018 (all caps are hers).

"There is a specific principle that I am deeply convicted about and MUST share with you after years of studying the Word of God. This principle is found from early on, throughout the Bible, and it supernaturally unlocks amazing opportunity, blessing, favor and divine order for your life. It is the basis or underlying support for your success in 2018. It is GOD'S PRINCIPLE OF FIRST FRUITS." -- Paula White

The first thing a huckster must do is establish that what they are selling is of crucial value to the listener. They have to hook them in. Look at what she is essentially saying though. She has uncovered something hidden in the Bible -- gnosis. This would mean God has hidden some special revelation, not even given to John in the final revelation because He was waiting for Paula White to come along and unlock it. How pathetically absurd. That God is now hiding from you amazing opportunity, blessing, favor and divine order. Not only that but you can leverage this apparently to guarantee success in 2018! Will it be some deeper level of prayer? Some revolutionary method of praise? Or will it be sending money to this ridiculous woman.

When you honor this principle it provides the foundation and structure for God's blessings and promises in your life, it unlocks deep dimensions of spiritual truths that literally transform your life! When you apply this everything comes in divine alignment for His plan and promises for you. When you don't honor it, whether through ignorance or direct disobedience there are consequences. Let me explain"" -- Paula White

So without sending her money we all suffer with no foundation and structure for God's blessings and promises in our lives? Seriously? So God has made us promises throughout the Bible that only come to pass if we send Paula White our money? Without doing this we are actually not in alignment with God? Allow me beloved to lead you into a deeper dimension of spiritual truth, absolutely free of charge:

Paula White is lying to you. Go ahead and let that sink in and it will literally transform your life. The unmitigated gall to then turn God into some kind of mafia shylock who is going to kneecap you if you do not pony up His money is simply disgusting. The sad thing is she does not realize the consequences she will face for teaching for shameful gain the things she ought not teach, as our key verses point out. Unfortunately, she is just getting warmed up:

"The word "eighteen" is made up of two letters of the Hebrew alphabet - Chet (--") and Yod (×™"), forming the word "chai", meaning "alive", or "living"" In Hebrew, the related word chaya means "living thing" and is derived from the Hebrew word chai (--×™),meaning "life". We are demanding LIFE to your purpose. And with obedience to this first fruits instruction, which is PUTTING GOD FIRST NOW, your purpose, your year, your prosperity, and your power will have LIFE and be resurrected! In the name of Jesus!" -- Paula White

What????? I will assume whoever told her the translation was correct because it is beyond the point. The huckster now has to make what is unbiblical sound pious and solemn. If you can throw a little Greek or Hebrew in, even better. Let's try to follow the nonsense. Eighteen is made up of two words that when combined somehow form a different word meaning "alive." Then she leaps to a different but related word to arrive at "life." She then proclaims first fruits obedience will result in this "life" in your purpose, year, prosperity and power. Wow. Where do we start? First of all the year is 2018, not 18. Secondly numerology is demonic, not Christian. Next, even if we overlook the word hopscotch she plays how did first fruits get interjected into this stream of thought? It had nothing to do with chai, chaya, yod or chet. Lastly, we have the age old huckster technique of the spiritual onesie. That everyone magically listening to her voice can have all of this. No one in the valley. No one suffering. A one size fits all blessing that is patently absurd.

"The principle of FIRSTFRUITS is all about honoring God by putting Him first IN EVERYTHING. The reason is God lays claim to all firsts. So when you keep for yourself something that belongs to God you are desecrating what is to be consecrated to God. It reminds me of Joshua chapter 7, "But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel."

Devoted things and First things have the exact same meaning; they are the irrevocable giving over to the Lord. They are the things that belong to God and God alone. Again, honoring God with the principle of FIRST FRUITS will open up something powerful I have seen consistently in my own life and the lives of those around me since I received revelation and was mandated by God to teach it. It releases GENERATIONAL BLESSING, OPPORTUNITY, FAVOR, & SUPERNATURAL BLESSINGS." -- Paula White

One of my great joys is watching hucksters and charlatans try and divide the Word of God because they cannot do it without exposing themselves as frauds. White here tries to leverage the story of the sin of Achan to support her heretical first fruits teaching. Her premise is that the first of everything is God's even though she has provided zero scriptural support for this assertion she continues to make. That by keeping what belongs to God we desecrate what was supposed to be consecrated. After the fall of Jericho, the Lord declared that the spoils of war this time should not be taken by the Israelites. That these items were to considered "devoted." Paula saw this word and ran with it without bothering to see that a better word here would be "accursed." Oops. Yes the spoils of Jericho were to be set apart for the Lord but set apart to be destroyed! Achan did not violate some secret principle of first fruits -- he just got greedy. I am sure Paula can empathize.

"Let's pray: "Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we are ready for prophetic instruction! Everything we do from this moment on bring us into alignment for 2018 and beyond. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. By the supreme Blood of Jesus, secure us. Let Your Spirit guide us, Your Word be a light and a map, and our obedience be a sign we are demanding the breakthrough that IS COMING. Amen." For those who have an "ear to hear," there is a powerful revelation. Often, it's not that we are doing something wrong but not doing enough of what is right! This month is the most important of the year to establish what happens to the rest. You have a special opportunity to activate the principle of First Fruits as mandated in the Word of God." -- Paula White

If Paula White truly wanted the Word to be her light and map she would start by obeying the key verses today and cease teaching for shameful gain the things she ought not. The arrogance here of demanding breakthroughs from God however is simply staggering. Also here we see this pattern emerge when she pretends she has established first fruits as something mandated by God through His Word when she has done no such thing. She has skirted past a couple of Scripture fragments, out of context and out of her depth to rightly exegete them.

"God declares, "When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest" (Leviticus 23:10 NIV). -- This divine establishment of God's order is actually the root, the foundation that governs the rest. "For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches" (Romans 11:16 NKJV). The first represents the total. In other words, whatever you do with the first governs what happens to the rest. By presenting all firsts to God during this first month of the year you are establishing His redeeming covenant for it! All firsts belong to God! -- "Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow"" (Proverbs 3:9--10 NKJV)." -- Paula White

Now this is where many get lost too easily. Yes the Bible does use the term first fruits. In fact, this is one of the seven feasts of Israel recognized to this day. Israel however is not the church. To teach such, is known as "replacement theology." Leviticus is part of the law established for Israel and nailed to the cross by Jesus Christ. Galatians 5 teaches us that if we insist on adhering to any part of the law, we sever ourselves from Christ and will be judged by the entirety of the law. I want us to go a little deeper today though when examining the folly of these arguments made by White and her cronies. The proverbs verse is real. The concept of honoring God with the first fruits within the agrarian society and the Levitical tribe not working was very real. This was partially orchestrated because left to their own selfish devices, the people would not provide their best for the sacrifice and then the Levites would suffer for it. We saw this when Nehemiah went back to Babylon and suddenly the Priests stopped providing the best for the work of the temple. So the people were still tithing correctly but those in charge of distribution were cheating by offering lame animals and subpar sacrifices. Paula White acts as if God does not care what the first fruits are used for. That the principle is the only thing that matters. We see this spiritual laziness constantly in the church today regarding giving. I know many people who think their responsibility is to give their ten percent and then whatever happens is not on them. That is irresponsible nonsense. The Bible teaches us that we are either gathering people to Christ or scattering them away. There is no third option. So then we must as responsible stewards ask ourselves what our money is supporting. Is it supporting the work of gathering or scattering? Paula White does not preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She sells false prosperity, word faith heresy and is notorious for fleecing the flock of God to make herself richer. She is insubordinate to Christ. She is an empty talker and deceiver. The key verses were written about people like Paula White. Even if this false principle were real, God would not want His children supporting wolves like Paula White. Let me wrap up here with some loony-tune bullet point groupings from the remainder of White's teaching:

"First fruits send a signal in the spirit to the future harvest to be released to you!

When you KEEP FIRST THINGS FIRST through faith and obedience, you turn God's promise into provision.

Because He wants to see you succeed, He has put a pattern into place based on the principle of "First Fruits." The Bible references first fruits or first things or devoted things no less than 32 times." -- Paula White

These are the things discerning believers must be wary of. Pious sounding snippets that make no sense when you really think about them and apply the Word. Do you honestly believe that there is a harvest from God that needs a signal in order to be released? That the promises of God must be "turned into" provision? That God would make you jump through some gnostic hoops in order to see you succeed? What kind of a mean capricious god is Paula White selling? I am sure the Bible says the word "orphan" at least 32 times. That does not mean there is a secret orphan principle. Ugh.

"According to Ezekiel 44, when you present your First Fruits offering, it will cause a blessing to rest upon your house!

As you remember the Lord your God, according to Deuteronomy 8:18, through your first fruits offering, He gives you the power to acquire wealth to establish His covenant.

Each January, I put God first and honor Him with the first of our substance by sowing a first fruits offering of one month's pay." -- Paula White

Ezekiel 44 was written to Israel and was reinforcing the Levitical Law. It is not meant as a prescriptive text for the church today. Likewise, Deuteronomy 8 was also written to Israel and not the church. Why is Paula White trying to yoke Christians back to the law? Specifically here God is reminding Israel that any material blessings they may have is only due to God and then He warns them that if they do not obey the law, which no one could, then God will make sure they perish! Beloved, if you can read all of this nonsense and think for a second that Paula White "sows" a month's salary every January then I am not sure I can help.

"Jesus declared, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness... all these things will be added to you," (Matthew 6:33). God adds the "things" to you when foundation is in place to be built upon. I challenge you to put FIRST THINGS FIRST and HONOR GOD!

"The best of all the firstfruit and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give them the first portion of your ground meal so that a blessing may rest on your household" (Ezekiel 44:30). Give your very best as a first fruits offering and watch God's unlimited blessings pour into your life and your family." -- Paula White

I close with this because these two snippets are a microcosm of the false prosperity huckster gospel. Matthew 6:33 teaches the opposite principle of this first fruits con. It says to not worry about the material things here on earth because your Father in heaven knows what you need. Not to make sure you bring your sheaf to the storehouse! If you want blessings in August you better pay up in January! Paula White's heresy here is all about worrying about the material baubles of this life. Matthew 6:33 is the opposite. Likewise, Ezekiel 44:30 is speaking about the Levitical priests, not Paula White or any preacher today. So God instructs Israel thousands of years ago to make sure the tribe of Levi would be fed and Paula White steals it to pretend that it is a "principle" that you need to feed her today. How utterly disgusting. This is nothing more than Grand Spiritual Larceny. It is mugging the sheep of the Lord by teaching for shameful gain what thou ought not to be teaching.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- January 10, 2018

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.