The Investment Plan Known As "GOD"

I heard a sermon on Sunday that was incredibly confusing and, according to what I have experienced in the bible, is far from accurate biblical teaching. I won't tell you who he is in order to protect the guilty, not that you would know him anyway. I also am not out to attack him, just a very popular view that is embraced by evangelicals and not by the bible.

His sermon was on tithes and offerings. The beginning of the sermon was him explaining that a cheerful giver gets much in return. He threw out several examples from testimonies found in books to show that the more you give the more you get. What rubbish! He also asserted that ten percent of your earnings belong to God and anything more is you giving out of your heart, therefore it is an offering. Later he claimed that everything belongs to God. So which is God's, the ten percent or all of it? The last thing I'll mention here is something that was fairly subtle. Most wouldn't have even realized what he did. The pastor taught that we should never give expecting to receive. That is very true. The problem is that at the same time he was introducing an expectation for the listeners to hold on to. In short he said this: "Do not give to God expecting to get back; but understand, the more you give, the more God will give back." Not that God does not work this way but it should by no means be the rule. This kind of teaching gets awful close to the "Prosperity Gospel" teaching which I despise to say the least. This teaching is about the money and not about God himself.

How does this relate to evil and suffering?

Poverty is, in most respects, an evil. It is brought on either directly or indirectly. Someone who is lazy invites poverty to be his companion. They will walk hand in hand through life miserable and alone. This is someone who would bring himself to be poor, directly. Now if this man were a business owner with employees and, due to his laziness, his business went under, his employees might experience poverty indirectly. Why would God not protect these innocent people?

The most important kind of poverty I will argue is to be poor in spirit. A number of times Jesus insinuates that in order to follow him we must sell all we have. We must become poor. There seems there might be a correlation between being materially poor and poor in spirit. Maybe the former begets the latter.

Luke 18:18-30 is the story of a ruler. He was extremely rich. He asks Jesus how to inherit salvation. Jesus basically tells him to follow the law. The rich young ruler says "All these I have kept from my youth". Jesus then tells him to sell everything he has and give to the poor. The ruler becomes sad. End of story for him. Jesus wasn't attacking his wealth. Jesus was attacking this man worship of money. His grip on earthly things. The rich young ruler didn't want God or salvation. He wanted God's money.

This whole thing is not a science in which we make God a genie in a bottle. "I want a new Range Rover, God can you hook me up?" I see God's response to that as "NO! You selfish little brat of a child. Go feed my starving children with that five bucks in your pocket instead of buying a cinnamon dolce latte! Love Me and my people, not my stuff!!!"

That is a damnable view of God! There are too many so called Christians who love what God can do for them instead of loving God himself. That is Evil! Anything that is not done in Faith to Christ is sin (Romans 14:23). That includes spending, saving, and investing our money. Our world, our lives, our hearts, are drowning in sin, in death. Our hearts hate God! We would rather starve the poor and take their money. THIS IS EVIL!!! HOW LONG, OH LORD?