Is God a Micro-Manager of Your Life?
If you tithe to some preacher or church, does God really "bless" you for doing so? If indeed that were true, then every tithe payer on earth should prosper beyond all measure, while every non-tither would be cursed, based upon how Christians believe what they think God says in the Bible. It would require supernatural micro-management on the part of God, for people to be blessed or cursed based upon the false doctrine of tithing. Guess how many non-tithe payers in this world are very prosperous from hard work and not from tithing?
In reality many tithe payers do not prosper, but struggle to make ends meet and no wonder. Placing preachers above the family and children, by giving pastors free $money, is simply the stuff of Biblical ignorance. Virtually any church goer who tithes is Biblically ignorant and a person who has never studied the subject of tithing for themselves.
Naturally pastors of churches are going to demand tithing, while they stand in the pulpit and twist verses in the Bible to cause the naive and the gullible to take from their families and give to the preacher, as if God sanctions such a ridiculous fraud.
Proof that church goers and preachers reject Jesus Christ is in fact, the false doctrine of tithing. Check it out for yourself and you will find that Jesus spoke to His hand-picked disciples "freely you have received, freely give" and that meant to not take from people and take advantage of them, by demanding $money, using the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that His disciples were to take the good news to the world at no charge and for free. So where has your pastor gone wrong? Greed? Lust for a free mansion to live in at your expense?
If your pastor or church demands cash, in the form of tithes and offerings, then you should exit the building, because any true follower of Jesus Christ does not live from fake tithes and offerings, but does exactly what Jesus said and that is "freely you have received, freely give" and that does not mean that church goers are to "freely give" to lazy preachers, who play golf and go fishing, while church goers work for a living. Nor can you follow some character named Paul (name changed from Saul and why?) and think you are following Jesus Christ.
Either you follow Jesus Christ or you follow some dude named Paul, or you follow some character who stands in a pulpit and pretends to speak for God/Jesus Christ, when he no more represents Jesus Christ, than your local car salesman. Or perhaps you follow some fictional character named in the "Old" testament, that you have never met, and have no clue about, other than your book of fairy-tales.
The biggest problem with the organized church world, is that millions follow preachers and believe what they say, when the preachers are no more than self-appointed religious overlords, because the $money is so good and there is no work or labor for the free $cash.
Do yourself and your family a great service and boycott all organized churches, because none of them follow Jesus Christ, they only follow the $money. You can worship God/Jesus Christ one-on-one and since God DOES NOT dwell in temples made with hands, you can be at peace that God dwells in your heart and mind and not in brick, mortar, stone, wood and glass buildings with clowns standing in the pulpits.
Van Robison
I agree that the concept of tithing has been severely abused - especially by the Armstrongs and the men who have succeeded them. It does seem like the main focus of most preachers is to maximize church income without much regard for how that might impact individual members. When I left the WCOG, one of the first things that I began to study was tithing. I contacted a local rabbi and asked him about the three tithes. He started laughing. He said, You must be an Armstrong follower!" The system that was given to ISRAEL clearly used one tithe for three purposes. For those who care to do an independent and in-depth study of the subject, it will quickly become clear that a majority of the funds dedicated to the Lord were devoted to Festival observance and taking care of the poor - the Levites only benefited from a small portion of what was collected. Moreover, the preachers always fail to remind their flock that tithing in the Old Testament was based on an agricultural economy that assumed land ownership. Tithing was also only levied on the INCREASE or PROFIT (the number of calves/kids that the herd/flock produced and/or the number of bushels that the land yielded over and above what was planted. Even so, it's a bit much to make such a blanket condemnation of organized Christianity or all preachers. To be fair, there are a few who don't operate in such a greedy, self-serving fashion.
ReplyDeleteVan Robison asked: "...So where has your pastor gone wrong? Greed? Lust for a free mansion to live in at your expense?..."
ReplyDeletePerhaps those ministers may want to expound on one verse that is speaking about another spirit that abides within them:
"Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" James 4:5
John
According to the ACOG description of the Millennium, God is indeed a micromanager. Word was, everybody who qualified and became a spirit being was supposed to keep careful tabs on their mortal charges and stop them if they looked like they were about to succumb to sin. I remember that one minister (forget which--could have been Rod Meredith) acted out the scene. He said we were supposed to rush up and warn them, "Ah! Ah! Don't do that! You know what the Law says."
ReplyDeleteSounds like Meredith is urging LCOG ministers to get a head start on their millennial jobs as God's spiritual hall monitors.
And we were supposed to look forward eagerly to wielding that kind of control. Hearing that message, I shuddered and immediately decided that if God actually wanted that job done, he would just have to hire somebody else to do it. I refused to apply for the position.
Hopefully, we will get some nice surprises. Armstrongism as "God's" government for all eternity would mean that there were two hells, and no reward.
ReplyDeleteBB
Good commentary Van!
ReplyDeleteI suspect if the Jesus I have read about in the new testament were to ever stumble across Herbert W. Armstrong or the idiot Rod Meredith, he would spew them out. With the same righteous indignation as he displayed when he over turned the tables of the money changers in the temple, he would say to these clowns - Mr. Armstrong and to the idiot Rod Meredith both of whom came in his name and deceived many - "I NEVER knew you!"
The religion that Mr. Armstrong founded in 1934, has produced NOTHING of any lasting value other than providing life-time incomes to an idiot like Roderick C. Meredith who never worked a real job in his life, and lived off the dole of the dumb sheep tithe slaves all his adult life.
I am thankful, so thankful, to have exited the Worldwide Church of God in 1976. I am thankful, so thankful, that I was an Ambassador College reject. I would never want to be a Roderick C. Meredith or any of the other Herbert Armstrong wannabes. Time has proven them all to be frauds, and they are condemned by their own words and their own actions.
I am certain that the Jesus I have read about would say to these religious frauds, "I KNOW YOU NOT!"
Richard
LCG wants to re-instate the visiting ministers program from WCG. I can imagine it will go like this, "So Mr. & Mrs. So-and-so, What kind of flour do you use? Sugar? Are your children home schooled? Vaccinated? What kinds of sex acts do you engage in? Oral? I see you have a new car, have you thought about how selfish and unsupportive it is of God's work to not put that money into offerings? Etc, etc, etc. Disgusting and pathetic.
ReplyDelete