It was the Apostle John who said that we know that the whole world lies in wickedness. [1 John 5:19] And since wickedness is darkness, we know that the whole world lies in darkness. But God's saints in light [Col. 1:12] have overcome the world, and we walk in light to show the world their darkness, peradventure they would be saved. [2 Cor.3:1-2; 1 John 3:9-10]

Not only does the world lie in darkness, but darkness is widespread in many once Bible-believing churches and ministers. Just as the Catholic Church has been made to face its widespread sexual perversion, Evangelical and Holiness Churches must be brought to bear with the widespread corruption and perversion within them. There was a time when these Holiness Churches could honestly tout a sense of godliness above most others, but that time has long since passed. Darkness has engulfed these churches as well as all other churches.

Apostle Paul said anything that makes manifest (known) is light; [Eph. 5:13] although we preach and cry against horrible things, they must be brought to the light and be dealt with because we are the children of light. And being in the light, we reprove the world of sin and declare that many of the once holy churches have become dens of thieves, and many of the ministers and members have lost the love of truth and moved into perversion and perdition. Yet the Bible says, he that does righteousness is righteous, but he that commits sin is of the devil--regardless of his or her position, titles, loudness of voice, or longevity of years in a church--and is the servant, not of God, but of sin! [John 8:34; 1 John 3:7-10]

In many of the Evangelical and Holiness Churches, their congregations are growing vastly because they allow sexual perversions and all types of sin, once never tolerated, for financial gain. (1) Many of these ministries have turned totally to the Gospel of Wealth, while their leaders profit the most! Anyone who looks at the Clefo Dollar, the Leroy Thomas, the Kenneth Copeland types of ministries throughout this nation can clearly sees duplications of the same Gospel of Wealth message in Black and white. And this Gospel of Wealth preaching is an Amway type of system, where wealth is from the poor at bottom up for distribution to the rich at the top. And these rich have become celebrity ministers. Far are they from anything to do with God, but all to do with greed. And that fact is only narrowly disguised!

This new Gospel of Wealth ministry is a return and broadening of the old Rev. Ike scam: You send your money to me, and God will give you more money. And the more you give to me the more God gives to you; and when you get more you must give more. The congregants are just along to watch the leaders ride and make sure the few dollars they have worked to earn are at the disposal of these already rich leaders, making sure their rides are smooth.

These Gospel of Wealth preachers are wolves in sheep's clothing, as they make merchandise of the people of God. [Mat. 7:15] They are not preaching salvation of Christ and the growth into perfection after salvation. This way of God they do not know!

Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman, said many have fallen victim to a time of Infectious Greed. As this greed has infected businessmen and the nation, it has has not passed by the current church of greed. It is almost impossible to tell the difference between the church and the world today. The maladies of sin are all present in the church. The preachers of wealth have merchandised the people of God for money, which is the root of all their evil. [2 Pet. 2:3; 1Tim.6:10] They have lost the love for truth and clung tenaciously to a love of money and the Church of God has become a business used to acquire wealth.

Never has there been a period where so many ministers have become wealthy, while so many of the poor congregants linger in financial ruin to make ministers of greed richer. The Kenneth Copeland and Leroy Thomas types of ministries fly in their personal airplanes, live in large mansions and gated communities, have servants, and chauffeurs to drive them around. And those ministers of greed who are not as wealthy only aspire to their wealth. They then tax the few members they have locked up mentally in their churches mercilessly beyond their means and make the congregants' finances merely the pastor's wallet.

These ministers of greed have redefined the blessings of God to mean wealth. The Apostle John's words to Gaius, that he may prosper and be in health, even as his soul prospers, have been used to cement their definition. [3 John 2] They attempt to argue this scripture into saying that if they are doing well financially, that is an indication that they are doing well spiritually. "Prosper" only means wealth to them. But this flawed logic stretches causation and credibility beyond their limits. Yet, sadly, it is a flawed logic many buy as though it we sound reasoning.

Many years ago, Jesus went into the temple and saw even these current peddlers of wealth plying their trade. They were using the very temple of God for their merchandise, and Jesus drove them out, saying, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." [Mat 21:13] And so it is today; the same merchants, but without the doves.

These Gospel of Wealth preachers and the smaller storefront con artist ministers do not recognize themselves, and they are preventing others from identifying them in the word of God. They have given themselves so totally unto wealth and the acquisition of material possessions and they pay little attention to God's word concerning their behavior and the consequences of that behavior. They are corrupt and given to the love of money and not the love of truth, yet they shroud their crude manner by godly words and a feigned godliness.

These con artists are not about the people or the word of God; their ministries are not about God or godliness, not about saving souls, not about the saints growing into Him (Christ), and certainly not about the soon return of Christ. If Christ were to return now, they would be the most disappointed and miserable of all the sinners!

There have always been Simons (the sorcerers) in the church, [Acts 8:18] but what has happened to many of the current crop of con artist ministers and congregants who follow them is this:

First: Many of them were once actually saved and had sincere, and some even powerful ministries in Christ, but over a period of time, they did not grow and get stronger, but their love waxed cold. [Mat 24:12] They no longer had the love of the truth or the joy for the things of God within them. Their fall can be traced in their ministries, if anyone looked closely--their sermons stopped being thoughtfully prepared; the anointing of God left them; they read book sermons written by others and but placing their special motifs on them, with no regard for plagiarism. The call and acculturation of the world became too strong for them to resist, and as they congregated with other unsaved con artist ministers, they saw God's people as merchandise and an easy and unregulated market to fulfill their greed. [2 Thes.2: 10-11]

Look at the many auxiliaries in the churches. Are these not minister devised strategies to extract money for pastors? There is seldom anyone they help or anything they do, other than give money to the pastors on anniversaries and at special times of giving to the pastor--he is usually the richest person and the fatted calf in the church, and those riches are from poor members. What about those poor members? Who cares for them? They are given prayers by a pastor God does not regard; hence, the poor are given nothing! Certainly not any of those auxiliaries funds.

And because the judgment of God is slow in coming, they disarm the congregants, even as they loot their life-savings and current salaries. After all, who was to stop them? Are they not doing God's work? They have and are doing their deeds in the name of Christ, and they know that people will do anything, regardless of how perverse, in the service of God. So they take advantage of that reality by cloaking their dastardly deeds in God's name.

Second: When these ministers from within lost their love of truth, they did not do the honorable thing and leave from the church, going back into the world; they stayed in the church and in their positions of leadership, as the went back to their old vomits and new ones as well.

This act of staying in the church and in their leadership positions, after backsliding, has been one of the greatest harms that has hit the church. As these once-saved, now sinners ministers stay in leadership positions, they are able to affect and negatively influence many to follow their pernicious ways. [Isa. 9:16] Congregants see them in little lies and big lies; they see the little foxes eating away at their vines of truth and godliness; they see them in all sorts of perversion and sin. [SoS. 2:15]

And because all humans and animals learn through imitation, without a word, the congregants mimic the behavior of these backslidden leaders, with little regard to God's word. Some ministers, to justify their sins and seek a cover, actually start misinterpreting the word of God to their fallen way of life. And the people follow.[Isa. 4:1; 9:16]

Third: Because these ministers are in sin, even if they tried to, and most will not try to, they could not correctly expound and rightly divide the word of God. To correctly delineate the word of God one must be living and studying the word of God, which Paul said is work. But Satan's ministers are lazy and greedy dogs. [2 Tim. 2:15; Isa. 55:10-11]

They will not do the work of study because it is hard. [2 Tim. 2:15] Instead, they acquire unearned and unaccredited degrees that mean nothing; these fallacious degrees are only sounding brass and tinkling symbols and part of the pomp and circumstance that these actors carry on. [1 Cor. 13]

The scripture says, then shall we know as we follow on to know the Lord. [Hos. 6:3] There are depths (2) of God's word that can never be plundered by one not walking in the light of the Lord. The scripture also says that we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Eph. 4:15; 1Pet. 2:2; 2Pet. 3:18] No sinner, regardless of how he/she tries can really know the word of God sufficiently to lead God's people because his/her understanding is darkened and closed to understanding the things of God, which are spiritually discerned. [Lk. 24:45; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 4:18] You see, sinners walk in darkness, they are blind, and those who follow them fall into a ditch with them. [Luke 6:39]

Fourth: Because these once-saved ministers have lost the love of truth and acquired the love of money, God, Himself, shall send them strong delusion that they will believe a lie and be damned. [2 Thes.2:10] Under these circumstances, they are almost unreachable by the word, as they are totally committed to their sinful and deceived lifestyles. They think they are right when, in fact, they are so far wrong that God has sent them a strong delusion, and they think a minister like me is extreme and does not speak to their state.

Were God to send a messenger directly calling upon them, they would reject His messenger. They, in all their sinful glory and pride, would offer some naive explanation to assuage their own folly. Such notions as this have been heard: if God has a message or a word for me, he would talk to me.

How many times have I seen this self-deceived notion offered by backslidden, haughty spirited ministers who were once saved but are now outside the orbit of grace? They are blinded to the fact that sin blinds and separates God from man; they do not know that they are dogs with too many fleas for God to touch. If they are going to get a word from God, it must be from God's ministers. God will not come near them! Their sins are too abominable for God. Yet in their exalted states of pride, they want God from heaven, an angel out of heaven, or one from the dead to come and speak to them, but God has said, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.....[Lke 16:20-31]

Sin even separated God from Christ on Calvary's cross, so why would He go directly to them? [Isa. 59:1-3; Mat. 27:46] They are caught in Samson's web--they have slept with Delilah so long that their strength is gone and they are unaware of it. (3)

Today, many of the once-holy churches that loved the truth of God's word have become dens of thieves and various forms of perverseness. But God is calling ministers here and there who have the strength to cry against sin in the leadership; He is calling His seven thousand ministers who have not bowed their knees to Baal. [1 Ki. 19:18] It is going to take ministers of God, not the current crop of ministers of greed, to tear these houses of deception and pretense down. Ministers who are prepared in the word and financially independent to stand. Ministers who are directly anointed and can withstand the loneliness that is peculiar to the man of God and the true Church of God.

A few days ago, a brother in Florida wrote me of how lonely he felt preaching in this wilderness, and as I read his note, I felt and understood his burden. Once upon a time, the church was the lone soldiers in the world who held forth the light of life. Now the number is smaller. It is a few ministers here and there that God is using to cry against sin in the pews and in the pulpits. It is a lonely road, but our calling is high and exalted, far above the chatter of meaningless voices. Our mission is the saving of souls, as saints in light. We are angels to a fallen church and backslidden leaders.

But thank God and glory be to His high and holy name, though the road we travel seems lonely and hard, though we are burdened for souls and afflicted by sinning saints influenced and propelled by Satan, as a defense of their ill-gotten gain and aberrant behavior far from the word of God, we do not walk alone!

Judgment has begun at the house of God, at the wicked ministry of once-saved ministers who continue in the church and in high places deceiving and taking the church down roads it should not go. These backslidden ministers who were once washed from their sins have now returned to their vomit and swallowing in the filth from which they came; they are fools who return to their folly, but they stay in the church, and young, impressionable Christians see their folly and model their behavior. [Prov. 26:11; 2 Pet.2:22] These old sinners will not be blameless before God, and although they swallow down the riches of the poor saints like water, they shall vomit them up again like a flood. [Job 20:15]

We have two types of sinful leaders in the church--those coming from within and those who come from outside. Paul said that grievous wolves shall arise from within the flock and from outside the flock. [Acts 20:29] Some of those from within the flock are the once-saved ministers. They are the most dangerous because they have the ear of the congregation--many were saved under their ministries and cannot now see them as not saved still. But the Bible is clear: "Whoever transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ has not God...." [2 John 9] What was done in the past does not speak to one's salvation today. If one turns from his righteousness unto sin, his righteousness is remembered no more; he is a sinner and shall die in his sins! [Ezek. 3:20] No sentimentality of man can change God's concerning His word.

Those from outside the flock are the Simon the sorcerer types who came in only for the money. They stand outside and see an unregulated and lucrative niche-market that can easily be plundered, and they do. They do not preach a Gospel of Christ; they are untutored in the things of God, because they do not bother themselves with study of God's word. They can get a sermon from a book and a hum from anywhere. After an easy incorporation, and hiring out a building, they are ready to start their business of financial seduction by means of the scriptures.

Both the once-saved and the never-saved ministers preach a harsh doctrine of New Testament Tithing in which the pastor gets all the tithes or half of the tithes from the church. (4) Others turn to a Gospel of Wealth as a con scheme that many con artists use.

There are two cardinal sins brazen in the Evangelical and Holiness Churches I am confronted with as I travel to various churches: A.) the merchandising the people of God and B.) sexual sins and perversions in the pews and pulpits. And since I have written extensively about the financial sins elsewhere, [Unbridled Con artists in the Church] I will only link that writing here and go on to sexual sins and perversions, a subject I have also touched on slightly.

The word of God is clear on homosexuality--God is against it. Many once fundamentalist churches that loved God's word have become churches populated by sexually perverse members and leaders. Some of the pastors and bishops have wives for show, but they are clearly homosexuals in their bearing and in their behavior.(5) These ministers and members are allowed to openly function as members in good standing. And as they function, they breed a congregation unto themselves. No one should be confused about God's response to this type of assemblage in His House. [Gen.19]

Whole churches have pastors and congregations given to perverse sexual practices and lifestyles. Even Apostolic Church are headed by lesbian and gay male pastors. Many churches are not given over totally, but have sizable congregations of homosexual members allowed to exist and function as members in good standing, just with an alternative life style that is as credible as all others. These things are not to be in God's House!

Many of the members who claim not to be gay in these gay-led churches, argue pathetically that they can be saved in such churches. God makes a statement concerning their argument: can two walk together except they agree? [Amos 3:3]. Lot grieved his soul, and God moved him from the sodomites. Certainly, a leader into this type of perversion cannot teach the word of God with truth, regardless of how that person tries to do so.

So widespread and accepted has this problem of homosexual leadership become that it is quietly accepted, along with all the other perversions and sins that go on in the current church. A sister told me that while at a large national convention of a very once-holy church she asked one of the bishops why no one preached against homosexuality. His answer was that he did not want to offend anyone, since many ministers have that problem. Through such an answer, he indicated he thought it acceptable to offend God, but not man. How strange they have become in their confused priorities and perceptions.

But just as the Catholics have shown the world that sexual perversion among them is great, the Holiness Churches have kept many of their sexual sins covered, and those sins and sinners have stabilized themselves in the church and have become much like stabilized mutations that reproduce themselves.

A mutation is a deviant departure from the norm. It is found in nature and in social constructs. Martin Luther King wrote of it by implication, when he said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." That is a social construct of a social mutation--injustice--taking on a stability as if it were normal and right. When it does that, it threatens justice because others see it and imagine it could be right. But justice, Isaiah has us to know, is the correct social order from God.

Likewise, when a perverse and sinful life style is tolerated among the congregation and leadership as though it were normal, such teralance and behavior harm the fabric of the church of God.

Beyond the clear perversity that has made itself a part of God's House, another more subtle sin has entered that house as well. The confused nature of church marriages cannot be covered. Many of them have no biblical grounds yet they have been permitted, administered, and engaged in by leaders and their followers alike, and they are in blatant disregard to God's word. Many of the ministers engaging in these ungodly sanctioned marriages continue to preach what they call is the gospel and hold positions of leadership in God's House.

The Bible offers two methods of accepted divorces and remarriages: 1.) Except it be for fornication [Mat.5:32] 2.) If the unsaved depart, a brother is not under bondage in such a case. [1Cor 7:12-15] The Bible also offers one way to be divorced from a saved spouse and still be saved: "If she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled...." Such a one is not free to marry another spouse. [I Cor. 7:11]

Also, marriage is to occur within the Lord, as the scripture say, not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. [2 Cor.6:14]

But in the church that used to pride itself on loving the word and the truth, there is such confusion of marriages that one would not think God had given any guidance on marriage or that His guidance was confusing. Yet marriage is one of the most sacred institutions God has created, for it actually is a symbol and metaphor for Christ and the church. but instead of honoring this great institution, it has become a mockery. Men are marrying and giving in marriage.

A sociological term many sociologists are using to describe today's multiple marriages is Serial Marriages, much like serial rapists and/or serial murderers. This is an apt parallel because we have murdered the symbolism that God intends for godly marriages.

But when there is no king among men, each does what is right in his own eyes, and his way seems right to him because it is based on carnality and not the word of God. [Judges 21:25; Prov.12:15;15:2; 16:25; 30:12]. We have gone so far away from God and His word that this message seems like a pricking of the soul to some. And surely it must be to cause them to examine themselves to see if they are in the faith. [1 Cor 11:22]. That examination must be through the use of God's rightly divided word.

I say to you, whomever you may be reading this paper, if I have wrongly divided the word of God in any way, correct me. I will change to be right in the sight of God! But if I have not, and you have it differently, why don't you change and return to God? He will abundantly pardon your sins. [Isa. 55:6-10; Jer. 33:8] I plead with you, brothers and sisters, return unto the Lord!

And with that said, I feel a move of God bidding me enough for now; may God bless you in studying these words is my prayer. []

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1.) I offer this disclaimer now: I speak not out of any want; I am not wealthy, nor am I seeking to become, but my needs are all met and I live comfortably and respectfully. And all that I have has been worked for honestly and none at the expense of God's people. I like Paul have a profession that pays me well. My formal education is not in Theology, and my degrees are not fake, but from accredited, well known and highly regarded schools. I am paid handsomely for my skills and professional advice.

I make this disclaimer because one highly positioned in the church, but poor brother accused me of being jealous of him, as he took ungodly sums from the people of God to increase his already millionaire status, and preached against it openly, showing irrefutably how his teaching was wrong. How could I be jealous of him, when God has specifically anointed me to cry against his types of sins?

God has been gracious to me: I have always had more than enough; furthermore, all who have been around me, at assessing their positions since being around me, have seen the Joseph blessing upon me so that they too have prospered. All that I have put my hand to do, God has blessed; all those around me have been blessed; and God has blessed me as a green bay tree when others meant my harm. When we cry against sin, it is always the case that those who find themselves wanting will use any rationale to cover their nakedness.

2.) Many years ago, I was pastor of a small start up church in the hard ghetto of an urban city. I wanted to preach out of that stony place a work for the Lord. As I preached to harden sinners, nothing was seemingly happening, so I went to God and asked why nothing was happening. I cited to Him his word in Jeremiah, that His word was like a hammer, breaking the rocks to pieces. [Jer. 23:29] I asked God why those sinners were not getting saved immediately at the preaching of His word--I had reexamined my preaching to make sure I was preaching God's word and that the flaw was not me. God answered me and said, "You did not see the time element in that scripture, did you?" And as I acknowledged that time element through doing, those sinners started getting saved. But I would have never known there was a time element in that scripture if I had not lived that scripture. There are many such areas of God's word we cannot know unless we live the word; hence, a sinner is hopelessly lost in understanding much of God's word.

3.) When Samson heard the call from Delilah that the Philistines be upon thee, Samson, he rose again and shook himself, as he had done previously, but this time his strength was gone, and he didn't know that the Lord had departed from him. Some of these ministers do not know that God has departed from them because they are too busy acquiring money and engaging in sin to examine themselves to see if they are in the faith. [Judges 16:20; 1 Cor. 11:28]

4.) See a correct teaching of Tithes here.

5.) Whereas politically and socially, my views are political and social, but the House of God is not a political body, but a spiritual body. The rules and my views are different there--they must conform to the word of God.

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