1st Timothy 6:5-8, “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”
I once heard Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) truthfully say, “All across
America businessmen are destroying churches!” I had to ponder what he
meant, but then I fully understood it when I consider the Bible's
warning against the love of money in 1st Timothy 6:10. You see, there's
just something about money, that once you have it, it has you!
Businessmen think differently than God's man. Businessmen think in terms
of money, profits, acceptable loss and liabilities. But God's man thinks
in terms of truth, righteousness and getting souls saved, upon which a
dollar value cannot be placed. One soul saved is worth more than all the
gold in the world!
God knows that if you offered me a million dollars to take the Lord's name in a Hollywood script, I would decline your ungodly offer. Actors curse in the Lord's name all the time, as part of a movie script for a Hollywood film. You couldn't offer me all the money in this world, to intentionally blaspheme my dead God and Savior for money. I am not for sale! God's man is not for sale! 1st Kings 21:20, “And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.” Christianity started as a new birth in Jesus Christ. When it went to Greece, Christianity became a philosophy. When it went to Rome it became an organization. When Christianity spread throughout Europe it became a culture. But when it came to American, Christianity became a business! It is wickedness! God never intended for Christianity to become a means of making a living. The Bible teaches that a preacher of the Gospel should live of the Gospel, not profit from the Gospel. 1st Corinthians 9:14, “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” I get sick seeing so-called men of God getting paid 6-digit (over $100,000) salaries per year. The clergy used to be a calling, not a profession!
What saith the Scripture? Luke16:13, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus did not say that there are exceptions. The Lord said NO MAN can serve God and mammon (money, a career). The Bible can be wrestled to teach anything a person wants. Anything can be justified! Men are notorious self-deceived liars and deceivers, and that includes the religious business. True Christianity is not a business! The Bible has much to say about money and finances. I am all for preachers teaching their people about these things. I am against what I see at Harvest Baptist Church on Guam—a church that is a mere social club, where Bob Jones graduates who work at their religious school, can meet a superficial obligation to attend church once a week. Harvest started as a Baptist church in 1975. When they started Harvest Baptist Academy, the place became a business!
I gladly attended the church for a year in 2014. I made friends, fell in love with their school nurse, and was happy to be a part of their family. But I made a big mistake when I befriended them with THE TRUTH! I shared with the pastors some books by fundamentalist Baptist preachers. One was titled, “NIV: The Antichrist's Bible” (by Pastor Al Lacy). Another was, “Martin Luther: Master Of Deceit” (by Pastor Max D. Younce). Another was, “Somebody's Got To Milk The Cows” (by Pastor Jack Hyles). Another book was titled, “I Never Knew You” (by Michael P. Bowen). For these wonderful truthful books I was rejected, blackballed, excommunicated, banned and ostracized. Pastor Marty Herron is a wicked religious man! He could have allowed me to stay, loving me in the Lord despite our doctrinal differences. I literally begged three times for Harvest's pastors to please let me return to church services in 2017 (I still have the emails). Those wicked men (Associates pastor's Joe Hanson, Jared Baldwin, and senior pastor Marty Herron) rejected me, turning me away in my dark hour of loneliness and pain of soul. Since 2017, my Harvest neighbours and the church itself, and the new pastor Gary Walton, continue to all ostracize me, because I TOLD THE TRUTH! God will judge between me and Harvest! It's all about money at Harvest! They only care about their careers, making money, and they don't really care about people.
Very
rarely does a religious leader admit that they “love” money. I man who
gets paid $100,000 a year may not think he “loves” money, but that kind
of salary pretty much renders him useless for God! Jesus didn't say that
you cannot serve God and love money. He said you cannot serve God and
money, I don't care if it's just $5. In the work of God, money has no
place!!!
I have never made a single penny since I began my online ministry in 2002. I am not for sale! I preach whatever I believe God wants me to say, and not what will bring in more money. That is one of dozens of reasons why I don't want, nor accept, any money. The Devil can keep it all! Money destroys ministries, families, churches, organizations and people! Money corrupts people. Money corrupted Judas. Money corrupted the church at Laodicea. Money corrupted Balaam. Money corrupted Delilah. Money is the most shallow thing in this life! As a Bible-preacher I want no part of it!!! 1st Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” I cannot tell you how many times I have been discouraged, by someone who seemed to be excited about starting a ministry, but then I realized that they were money-hungry! You will never see a donate button on my ministry websites. NEVER!
I do what I do for the cause of Jesus Christ. I want people to know that there's at least one man of God who is sincere, real and doesn't care about money. That doesn't mean preachers who accept money are bad, crooked or have their priorities wrong, but we don't know, do we? The way you can tell is by listening to how they preach. A genuine man of God will speak the truth, offending people with the plain truth, and not regard their financial support or lack thereof! Evangelist Jack Van Impe was a man of God in the 1970's. He even preached at Hyles-Anderson College! Dr. Hyles incited him. Sadly, decades later Jack Van Impe sinfully said: “Thank God for these Catholic leaders!” My, oh my, look what the love of money did to Jack Van Impe! That is the message of my article—preaching the truth and making money are enemies! You show me the financially well-to-do preachers today, and I'll show you a bunch of compromisers who dip their sails, trim their message, and betray the truth! John the Baptist lived off the land. He drank water, ate locusts and wild honey, wore camel's hair, didn't have a wife or children to support, and needed nothing from anybody. Therefore, John could preach THE TRUTH without worrying about how he would survive!
I found this beautiful quote today from Evangelist John Bunyan...
“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within… you are not able to divide the Word aright, but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —Evangelist John Bunyan (1628-1688)
That is exactly where the Lordship Salvation crowd go horribly wrong on the Gospel, confusing discipleship with sonship (salvation). Calvinism and ecumenical churches are synonymous, and there is a lot of money in this dirty religious business! The genuine man of God who preaches Free Grace Theology is out in the Wilderness, which is where I am preaching from, the Wilderness of cyberspace! To God be the glory, great things He hath done!!! I speak THE TRUTH.
We need a revival in our churches of serving God. I see thousands of pastors in spiritual denial. They will quickly downplay the love of money, but at the same time they are making big bucks! I'm talking about the Bob Jones University crowd! I'm talking about ministers' Steve Pettit, Marty Herron, Sam Horn and John MacArthur (all executives)! Mr. MacArthur has a net worth of $14 million. The other names I just mentioned make over $100,000 a year! Ray Comfort takes in about $4 million a year. All of these religious men preach the Satanic curse of Lordship Salvation! It is disgusting! This is not Bible Christianity. BJU influences thousands of churches. Literally, these ungodly religious businessman are corrupting the churches, just as Pastor Jack Hyles warned, through the influence of their unholy Bible colleges, which all preach Lordship Salvation (i.e., Calvinism). Moody Bible Institute is also a Calvinist nightmare today!
I love everyone, and God knows I am not trying to be unkind or hateful. I am simply upholding the same truth Jesus' upheld, that no man can serve God and mammon. I guarantee you that all of the religious organizations that are making large amounts of money, are extremely vague on the Gospel. They do this intentionally, so as to not offend people. For every person you offend, you've lost more financial support! That is exactly why Jesus said NO MAN can serve two masters. Most organizations today (both secular and religious alike) make decisions based upon what is in their best financial interests! That is why you can go to any Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) website and you won't find a clear Gospel presentation. They don't want to lose fans. They deliberately stay so vague, that hellbound Mormons and Roman Catholics support their music. It's all about the love of money! One day we will all stand before God as our Judge (Romans 14:10-12), and the Lord won't accept lame excuses why celebrities never witnessed the Gospel to their millions of fans! And for that matter, neither will God accept our lame excuses why we didn't witness to our neighbour next door.
I avoid covetous people! There's nothing as repulsive to me, than to be around someone who professes the name of Jesus, who is always thinking about ways to make money. I'm always thinking about ways to get people saved. I am laying up treasures in Heaven, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-20. I don't care about making money down here on earth, nor do I want to hang around people that do. Colossians 3:1-3 commands us as believers to “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:2-3). I love you dear reader with God's unconditional love. I don't want your money. I want you to accept God's free gift of eternal life, so we'll be together as brothers and sisters in Christ in Heaven. I want you to have the peace, joy and contentment of soul that I have, knowing that our names are written in Heaven, and “we are more than conquerors THROUGH HIM [Christ] that loved us” (Romans 8:37b). Jesus is precious!!!
“You say, 'You shouldn't talk trash about other churches!' Well, if they'd stop being trash, I'd stop talking trash!” (a truthful quote by Pastor Steven L. Anderson, from the classic sermon titled, “Queer Sounding Music And Skinny Jeans” - Time 1:07:50)
How Bob Jones University Betrays The Holy Bible!
How Today's Bible Colleges Woefully Deceive Everyone
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