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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Religion / Beware Of Tithe Collectors. By Femi Aribisala (592 Views)
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Beware Of Tithe Collectors. By Femi Aribisala by collinspro(m): 7:57pm On Oct 04, 2015 |
Don’t allow pastors who don’t understand the
ways of God to continue to deceive you. God
is no respecter of “tithers.”
John says: “There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18).
Therefore, Christians should resist any attempt
by anyone to scare them into doing anything
pertaining to the righteousness of God. That
is precisely what mercenary pastors do in
order to arm-twist Christians to pay tithes; a
requirement now inapplicable under the New
Testament.
Threat of curses
If you are one of those with a money-minded
pastor, he will call you a thief for failing to pay
tithes and insist you are cursed. The legal
authority for this predicament comes from
Malachi: “Will a man rob God? Surely not! And
yet you have robbed me. ‘What do you mean?
When did we ever rob you?’ ‘You have robbed
me of the tithes and offerings due to me. And
so the awesome curse of God is cursing you,
for your whole nation has been robbing
me.’” (Malachi 3:8-9).
The truth, however, is that this scripture has
no application whatsoever to Christians.
Malachi’s invective was addressed to Old
Testament priests and not even their
congregation. Today’s pastors are experts at
double-speak. They quote Paul: “Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the
law.” (Galatians 3:13). Then they use Malachi
to curse the redeemed in order to squeeze
money out of them.
Believers are blessed: “with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in
Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3). These blessings are
not conditional upon the payment of tithes but
attendant on our faith in Christ and adherence
to his teachings. God would never curse a
Christian whom he has already blessed. When
Balaam was offered money to curse the
children of Israel, he replied: “God has blessed
them, and I cannot reverse it! No curse can be
placed on Jacob, and no magic shall be done
against him.” (Numbers 23:18/23).
God said to Abraham: “I will bless those who
bless you, and I will curse him who curses
you.” (Genesis 12:3). Christians are the seed
and heirs of God’s promise to Abraham.
(Galatians 3:29). Therefore, any pastor who
curses a Christian is only cursing himself.
Scourge of the devourer
Pastors further seek to manipulate Christians
by saying, if you do not pay your tithe, God
will unleash the devourer on you. (Malachi
3:11). This means you will be confronted with
all kinds of unnecessary expenditure that will
continually drain away your finances.
Accordingly, Bishop David Oyedepo writes that
rats ate all the cables in the car of a woman
in his church. When she had the car re-wired,
the rats ate the cables again. On
investigation, it was discovered she had not
been paying her tithes, which was why the
devouring rats had been unleashed on her.
Once she started paying her tithes dutifully
again, the rat-attacks stopped.
Stories like this are commonplace in the
churches and they are pure balderdash. It is
amazing how far pastors will go in order to
fleece their flock. Bishop Oyedepo says the
offending rats in question were not ordinary
rats but “devourer rats.” However, he fails to
tell us how to differentiate between the one
and the other, in case we come across any
rats.
Suffice to say that such stories are
manipulative. They are only designed to scare
people into paying tithes. I don’t pay tithes
and I don’t have rats of any kind in my car or
in my house.
Answer me this: do bad things only happen to
those who don’t pay tithes? Indeed, do bad
things only happen to unbelievers? The
answer is emphatically “No.” As a matter of
fact, the truth is that in this world, worse
things actually happen to believers than to
unbelievers. The psalmist declares: “Many are
the afflictions of the righteous.” (Psalm
34:19).
According to Jesus, in this world the believer
is appointed to problems. He says to his
disciples: “These things I have spoken to you,
that in me you may have peace. In the world
you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).
Tribulation, it should be pointed out, does not
connote prosperity.
Bait of showers of blessings
Having used these scare-tactics to manipulate
the gullible into paying tithes, many pastors
then employ the promise of blessings as
additional inducement. They say if you pay
your tithes, God will open the windows of
heaven for you and pour out a blessing so
great there would not be enough room to
contain it. (Malachi 3:10).
But let me ask a question here tongue-in-
cheek. Have you actually discovered that
Christians are any richer than non-Christians,
after all only Christians pay tithes?
Pastor Adeboye claims to be richer than Bill
Gates because he allegedly has houses in 188
countries. However, even if each of Adeboye’s
putative 188 houses were to cost one million
dollars, it would still not make him a
billionaire. However, Bill Gates is not worth
188 million dollars: he is worth 76 billion
dollars; making him truly the richest man in
the world. Nevertheless, Bill Gates is an
agnostic, in spite of his Catholic background.
He does not pay tithes to any church or
pastor.
Don’t believe the lie.
People don’t get rich from paying tithes. They
don’t even get rich from being righteous. Take
another look at this kingdom dynamic:
“The truth is that the wicked live on to a good
old age and become great and powerful. They
live to see their children grow to maturity
around them, and their grandchildren too.
Their homes are safe from every fear, and
God does not punish them. Their cattle are
productive, they have many happy children,
they spend their time singing and dancing.
They are wealthy and need deny themselves
nothing; they are prosperous to the end. All
this despite the fact that they ordered God
away and wanted no part of him and his
ways.” (Job 21:7-14).
Don’t allow pastors who don’t understand the
ways of God to continue to deceive you. God
is no respecter of “tithers.” Jesus says:
“(God) makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the just and on
the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45). In all the time
you have been going to church, have you ever
seen any “tither” who received so much
money he had no room to put it? I doubt it.
The windows of heaven were opened on
believers when Jesus gave us the keys of the
kingdom of God. (Matthew 16:19). The
blessing that there shall not be room enough
to contain is the blessing of salvation. In the
kingdom of God, a man who is financially rich
is not deemed to be blessed. The man who is
blessed is he who has received forgiveness of
sins.
Jesus says: “Blessed are the merciful! For
they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7). David
concurs: “Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the LORD does not impute
iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no
deceit.” (Psalm 32:1-2).
So if you have been deceived into believing
some financial windfall is going to fall down
on you from heaven because you pay tithes,
think again. You have been conned. 2 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Beware Of Tithe Collectors. By Femi Aribisala by An2elect2(f): 8:37pm On Oct 04, 2015 |
Amen!!!!!!!!! God bless you. |
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