Why our Words seem Harsh to Some

[This article is the afterword of a small, 70-page book I have just completed on Tithe. I publish the afterword here. The book is titled, Thieves and Robbers. It will be available in three-months]
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I have written harshly about this matter on many matters, especially of tithes being placed on New Testament saints because I am convinced by the Word and by the behavior of men, that a gross wickedness has overtaken God's people. Men who once knew God in honesty have turned from following God and received a money-lust spirit that is afloat in the world today.

The DotCom, get-rich-quick ethos has overtaken many ministers and pastors who feel they deserve riches because there is some room in scripture for support of the ministry, and they are not content with being supported by the gospel. They want more than mere church support, hence they used tithes as a way of getting more than they should have. There is no room in scripture for ministers thinking that the gospel of Christ supports millionaires. Such a concept is an abominable corruption; it is as distorted as the idea that homosexual ministers are approved by God; it is not the mind of Christ!

Many of the present crop of unholy ministers were once holy men of God, but they turned from following God and no longer have the love of God's truth; these cannot be saved. Furthermore, they have maintained their wrong thoughts and actions so long that they have a strong delusion and actually believe their own lies. [2 Thes. 2:10]

Many who are deceived by continuity of existence, thinking that because a process, situation, or entity has existed and continued for a long time, its continuity of existence means that entity is correct, normal, or right. Continuity of existence never makes wrong right. Were it so, sin would have become right, but it is still sin and still wrong in the sight of God.

All saints of God need to be able to see false leaders for who they are NOW, and not who they once were! Paul prophesized that the problematic situation we face today would come. That situation is this: once-saved men/ministers/pastors/bishops have backslidden, yet they remain in the church, among the saints as if they were still saved, and they remain in various leadership positions; some have even been promoted to higher positions by other men.

Most ministers functioning in churches, although they were once saved, are not now saved! Paul prophesized that grievous wolves shall enter among you, not sparing the flock; also, of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them. Remember Paul has warned us of these men. [Acts 20:29]

This second batch of men Paul cites are those who shall arise from among us; they are the worst and most dangerous because they grew up with us and some even preached Christ to us, but now they have gone back and pretend to be saved still. They preach, teach, and behave in ways contrary to scripture. They are to be marked by the Word! And once their teaching and behavior are compared to the Word of God, you will see their standing with God. Paul says to have no fellowship with them who walk contrary to the doctrine you learned of him, for they serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies, and by good words and fair speech they deceive the hearts of the simple. [Rom. 16:17]

God's true ministers in light, like His true saints in light, have an inheritance that should not be ruined by thieves and robbers as they pursue their earthly rewards, knowing they have no inheritance with the saints in light. [Col. 1:12] Therefore, we in light should not fancy or financially support their darkness; they only have a form of godliness, but they are ungodly men, denying the power of that form. [2 Tim. 3:5] They are wicked men who literally, spiritually, and figuratively creep into houses and lead silly women captive, laden with sin. [2Tim. 3:5]

John the Beloved wrote and said, He that transgress and abide not in the doctrine of Christ HAS NOT GOD! [2 John 1:9] Notice further how strongly Paul stated it, saying it twice: though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which he preached to the church, let him be accursed of God. [Gal. 1:8-9] Paul NEVER preached tithing to the church! That's another gospel, and preachers of that gospel are accursed! That's serious and not to be dismissed by wicked men or those who mistakenly follow them.

There are false prophets, false apostles, false bishops, false ministers, and false saints among us, but God knows where their seats are in the church. [Col. 1:12; Rev.2:3] The major danger of tithe teaching is that tithe teachers place New Testament saints under the Law, and that causes them to fall from grace, whether they feel like it or not. God's Word, not one's feelings determines who is saved. Paul was unequivocal in Galatians 5, when he said one who does a part of the Law is a debtor to do the whole law. And further, Christ is become of no effect to you; you have fallen from grace! The Law, no part of the Law, can save you. You are under grace, if you live by faith.

I have wondered for some time how a student of God's Word read the most learned of apostles, Paul, comprehend the vastness of his scholarship and depth in God's Word, and clearly see that Paul, having known the Law perfectly, never ordered, suggested, said, indicated, or implied that tithe-paying was a method God wanted for His New Testament people. That failure to teach tithe or imply it in any way was not an oversight by Paul; it was an intentional and deliberate act not to place this doctrine on God's people.

Finally, I have seen godly men turn to the love of money so strongly that they have vilified God's true ministers who soundly preach and live His Word. I too have been painted as a jealous man because I have dared to preach God's Word without fear of position and without money motives.

As a bishop of an organization of churches told me I was jealous of him, supposedly because of his ill-begotten gain at the expense of the poor people of God, I recognized that this man's conscience was seared and he assumed that I was like him: a lover of money more than a lover of God.

I have seen poor saints struggle to pay their rents while ungodly preachers fly off to expensive vacations, dine in fine restaurants, and drive expensive cars to their gated communities that poor congregants cannot enter, even though it is their money that has paid for these worldly possessions. I have seen a charade made of the gospel; I have seen souls who would have been saved turn away because of corruption of ministers in Jesus Name, Holiness, Fundamentalist, Evangelical churches of corruption; I have seen slim men become fat men off the backs of God's people and justify sick and aberrant behavior for money. I have seen Rev. Ike's spirit possess many a charlatan preachers. Remember, Ike was from a very strict Jesus Name/Holiness background; he left God for this present world and his rewards now, but at least he went out of the church, and did not stay in to corrupt God's Word in the minds of believers. [2 Tim. 4:10]

My words are hard on pastors because they are the greatest offenders of the people and God's Word in this tithe-teaching distortion, but, hopefully, some who are now at the edge of darkness will be shaken from blindly following leaders whose immediate end is money, and their ultimate end is damnation.

We are hard on pastors because I have ben a pastor and seen many souls destroyed by wicked pastors as they assume an ascendancy up over the entire ministry that God never intended, and they have shut the doors to the rest of the ministry, not allowing the people of God to grow into perfection for fear of losing control over weak saints they have made into cash-cows.

There is great corruption that has blighted the church today, and that corruption is spearheaded by wicked pastors and leaders who are corrupt in every way possible. The sexual abuses of the Roman Catholic Church are not restricted to them; Holiness Churches that once touted having the truth now have homosexual leaders and believers and every form of corruption in the world. That is why judgment has begun at the church.

I have seen and heard so much foolishness and wickedness coming over the pulpits by unlearned ministers and pastors who use their positions as personal ego-gratification mounds on which they stand and excoriate others. And I have seen the children of our churches die as fools-in prisons, jails, insane institutions, die on the streets, and linger in the shadows going nowhere as a result of the corruption and foolishness in the churches and in our homes. [2 Sam. 3:33]

I have seen mockery in the use of the Word by ministers as they teach retardation to God's people--a retardation that allows control and oppression over the minds and bodies of God's people. I have seen gross sin and corruption in God's House! And I know that these sins are wounds and putrefying sores upon the beautiful body of Christ. Judgment has begun at His House, at the leadership level where sin is most egregious!

When you hear one who would be saved, but sees sinful pastors as little more than pimps, and you know they are right, judgment must start here that we not stand in the way of any soul wanting to come to Christ.

Whatever happened to God's command that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God as our reasonable service and not be conformed to this world? [Rom. 12] This is what God expects and demands of His saints still. Instead, we have chosen tithe-paying--a faithless method of money-grabbing--so unworthy ministers can be like the Bill Gates of this world, without the work of Gates. Why are we are so crude and dishonest in all things? Is there not an ounce of God left in His body? Gates made his money through long hours and years of hard work, not quickly and off the backs of the poor people of God. There is a price that must be paid for success.

The tithe is symbolic in the Old Testament: it represents the little we give to God, but now, in this dispensation, God is demanding all of us, not a tenth of us--that was the Law, this is Grace. But when God says give, love, honor, unlike pastors of today, he does not mean money; He means all of us. The preacher of tithes is still dealing with the low, beggarly elements of this world.

If you think I have been harsh in this little book, look at God's disgust with Israel, as he had Ezekiel so show them by an act that was more than harsh. He told Ezekiel to make and cook cakes of bread before the people and let them see what you are doing. And use human excrement to cook your bread. Then eat it. When Ezekiel protested greatly to God, He said that He would allow Ezekiel to use cow dung. [Ezek. 4] When sin is great, as now, God demands a shaking of His people to awakening them. Harsh words from God are to awake those who are asleep and not yet dead.

I close with this parphrased verse from T.S. Eliot's Prufrock poem: I have seen the hour of our church's greatness flicker, and I see the eternal footman holding our coats with a snicker, and for many saints, I am afraid; afraid they will not be snatched from the fires of hell.

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