Author: David J. Stewart
“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than AN INFIDEL.” —1st Timothy 5:8
Charity starts at home. This is Biblical. 1st Timothy 5:8 warns that failing to provide for one’s own family makes a man WORSE than an unsaved heathen. A father should always provide for his family first, which includes paying down any credit card debt before tithing. The idea is absurd that a struggling husband and father is supposed to tithe in the midst of an economic recession, while America’s good paying jobs have relocated to foreign soil to exploit slave labor, while illegal immigrants have been deliberately allowed to flood into America’s work-force (thus lowering real wages), while we’re being hammered with unconstitutional taxes, while our own government is catapulting us and our children into MASSIVE national debt! The average pastor couldn’t care less about these cancerous realities in America that hurt working citizens.
Some pastors are so consumed with making a name for themselves that they’re willing to unfairly pressure the people in their ministry to give unwisely. I know a Baptist pastor of a large congregation who pressured all the parents to give their children’s college funds to the church. 1st Timothy 5:8 teaches, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” Biblically, parents are supposed to put their children’s college first; NOT the church! If you give your child’s college funds to the church, the Bible says you’re WORSE than a heathen unsaved person (because even Godless heathens look after their kids). Proverb 13:22 states, “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.” So while your pastor and his staff are vacationing in Hawaii or the Holy Land with your child’s college tuition money, your child is struggling at a minimum wage job trying to stay afloat financially and is unable to pay for today’s ridiculously high tuition costs.
I know another man whose widowed mother signed over the house to her church in her will; but her son had no home of his own. That is just plain idiocy. Parents ought to put their children first!!! This is Biblical. We’re hearing many stranger doctrines in these Last Days from preachers, saying anything and everything possible to sucker you out of your money. God never intended for us to give money to support padded pews, plush carpeting, stained-glass windows, giant projection entertainments screens, and annual trips to the Holy Land and Hawaii for the church staff, et cetera.
Jesus said to go sell your possessions and give to the poor. Luke 12:33, “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.” Most of us feel like we’ve done such a generous and wonderful thing to give $20 to a homeless person; but until you’ve sold some of the things you own to help the needy, you haven’t really sacrificed for God. Americans don’t know what it means to give. Our government prints money out of thin-air and allegedly gives it away (they’re really stealing the money). It’s massive fraud. We foolishly think that our nation is generous and helping other nations. In reality we’re being plundered into massive debt by the criminal Banksters. Now we’re losing our homes, jobs, savings and country to the Banksters. Not only are the poor still poor, but we’re joining them, getting poor ourselves; but pastors are still getting rich by brow-beating people with false doctrines and unbiblical rubbish. God detests covetous pastors, likening the sin of covetousness to idolatry (Colossians 3:5).
Do you think the church will provide for your children when financial hard times hit? No, and if they do help it won’t be much in comparison to the $500,000 home you could have left to your children instead of the greedy church. Scientology was featured in TIME magazine for exploiting their members financially, coaching them to sign away their estate through wills to the cult. By the way, Scientology is synonymous with satanist, Aleister Crowley.
Sadly, many churches today are no better than Las Vegas gambling casinos, that is… THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS! Get mad at me if you want, but it’s time for Christians to stop neglecting their children. If you have a house, leave it to your children; not the church. It’s common sense folks. God never intended for your children to struggle in poverty; while your pastor leaves a wealth of fortune to his own children. Think about that. I have grown to despise large churches because of the apostasy, compromise and corruption. Churches have sold out in America to the government. Every church that is 501c3 incorporated is a STATE-LICENSED BUSINESS. May I say, the church is not a business.
Giving Money Sensibly
You need to find out how much money a ministry spends to help the needy in comparison to the total amount of contributions. Where does every penny go? You have a right to know. Most ministries won’t disclose this information; but instead will simply provide a general breakdown of where the money goes (which doesn’t reveal much). Every penny should be accounted for or else you should donate your hard-earned dollars elsewhere.
I don’t care if it offends every pastor in America, charity starts at home and there’s NO Biblical obligation to support any particular church. Jesus spoke of giving money to the poor, and of being rich towards God, and of supporting those who preach the Gospel; but there’s nothing in the Bible about giving money to religious organizations. The Bible plainly states in Proverbs 13:22 that “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children.” You cannot leave money to your grandchildren without saving and investing. Yet, some pastors would foolishly have you liquidate all such savings and donate it to their personal ministry. There’s nothing wrong with building and growing a church; but not when it requires parents to forfeit their children’s future education. We’re not talking about keeping the church financially afloat here; we’re talking about an ambitious pastor who wants to unnecessarily expand his own personal ministry. There’s a big difference. What a scam religious organizations have going on in America today! It’s a matter of priorities, and you’re children are your first priority. Before God ever created a church, He created the family.
According to Forbes the Salvation Army’s top dog, Todd Bassett, took home $175,050 from the “CHARITABLE” organization’s donations for the fiscal year ending in 2004. $175,050? That’s ridiculous! I wonder how many Santa Claus buckets need to be filled to pay Mr. Bassett’s extravagant salary? I wouldn’t give a dime to the Salvation Army. People are so naive and gullible nowadays. The Apostle’s didn’t go out on a spending-spree with the money given to them, buying steak dinners, purchasing fancy clothes and vacationing in Hawaii. No, they distributed the money to the THE NEEDY AND AFFLICTED… “And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man ACCORDING AS HE HAD NEED” (Acts 4:35). God deliver us from selfish and covetous pastors who want every penny you have in the bank.
Protecting Your Marriage
Beware of the snakes!!! I wish it were a crime for churches to interfere in people’s marriages, because a lot of pastors and pastor’s wives would be in prison today. Church people will ruin your marriage faster than the heathens down at the local tavern. I’ve seen it happen again and again. There is a cocky arrogance in many of our churches today, where people view the pastor as a type of god, where whatever he says is law, and his wife is a feminist in sheep’s clothing. This is tragic. The Authority of the Church is the Word of God; and not the pastor. Such pastors feel they have a right to advice women in their church to go against their husband’s decisions. A perfect example is church attendance. I know of numerous Baptist pastors who teach that a wife should go to church, even if her husband says “no.” This is rebellion on the part of the wife.
I recently read an excellent book, THE WOMAN’S ROLE, by Pastor Curtis Hutson (who followed in Dr. John R. Rice’s footsteps as editor of the Sword of the Lord). On January 3rd, 1981, Dr. Hutson became Editor, President, and Director of Sword Conferences until his death in March 1995. Thank God for the faithful Christian testimony of such men!
Following below is a quote from Dr. Hutson’s book that I agree with 100%. Pastor Hutson teaches that a wife should stay home from church if her husband tells her to. I know this may harelip every dog in the county; but it is Biblical. Before God ever created a church, a family, or kids—He created the MARRIAGE!
Here are the dear words of a great man of God, Dr. Curtis Hutson…
The Woman’s Role
You are not responsible for how your husband plays his role, but you are responsible for how well you play your role. You are to show the world the relationship of the church of Christ, and your part is to make the church look best you can. It is the husband’s part to make Christ look as good to the world as he can by playing the part of Christ.
You say, “What if he doesn’t try very hard? What if he messes up? What if he gives me a tough time? You mean I still have to play my role?” Yes.
The Holy Spirit says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ. so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”
She says, “In every thing?”
“Yes, every thing.”
I made a mistake as a young pastor that I corrected later. I told a lady, when her husband told her not to go to church, “You just tell him you are going to church anyway. You are going to live for God.” I gave her unscriptural advice. You are to be to your husband what the church is to Christ—submissive, obedient. (emphasis added)
It is like buttoning up a shirt—if you get one button right, you get the rest right. If you get your role right and keep it right, no matter how much pressure comes—and you can believe there is going to be pressure–it will work out right. A preacher once said, “Do good and it will be good.”
Did you know the whole life is pressure? You are like a vessel on a potter’s wheel. God is forming your life, and He makes you form the pressures that come to your life. When you say, “I do,” and the curtain goes up, it is like getting inside a pressure cooker…
Submission is a right attitude, recognizing that the husband is the head. That doesn’t mean the wife can’t make suggestions–that she can’t tell him what she wants. But the husband is to lead the home, and he is make the final decision.
Someone says, “Now, wait a minute. I have said, ‘I do,’ The drama is on. I know my role. Now, what is my husband’s role?”
Well, if he were here, I would tell him. I might say that his script is a little longer than yours, a little more detailed. But there is no need to talk about him; he is not here. Your role is to be submissive. Look at Titus 2. Your role is to love your husband. Your role is to be discrete, chaste, keepers at home. Did you know a woman’s home is her career? It should be…
I must confess I have not been as much like Christ as I wanted to be. I must confess I haven’t tried very hard at times. It is easy to forget your role. When your husband asks you to do something, it is easy to say, “Do it yourself. I am not your slave.” Remember, you are not playing the role of the church when you do that.
SOURCE (Chapter 3 of Dr. Curtis Hutson’s excellent book, The Woman’s Role).
I don’t think much more needs to be said… Pastor Hutson is 100% Biblically correct.
Conclusion
The Bible DOES teach that we should give to the poor, and to our enemies if they thirst or hunger, and to the man of God who is faithfully preaching the Gospel, and to our children and their children; but we are no where commanded in God’s Word to give our child’s inheritance to a covetous pastor who is gung ho about growing “his” ministry.
It’s a shame that America’s churches have turned into a den of thieves, where pastors are continually begging for more money, twisting the Scriptures to seduce people into giving until it hurts, writing unscriptural books on tithing to manipulate people, and then enjoying frequent trips to Hawaii, the Holy Land, et cetera (compliments of the church).
Guard your family, because the least likely place you’d expect to have you family destroy is at a church; but it happens every day all across America. People are people are people. Christians at best are people, and people at best are sinners. People will ruin your life. In this apostate and wicked generation of evil agendas influencing our marriages, churches, courts and society it is very difficult for a family to survive. Satan is attacking the traditional Christian family in America. lesbians are getting married and adopting children, and CPS is leaving them alone. Meanwhile, Christians and traditional’ families are being attacked and broken apart. There is an agenda to destroy your marriage and family. Feminism will ruin your life. Listen ladies!
One of the major causes of divorce are marriage-meddlers. Beware of the so-called friend ladies that thinks divorce is the best solution. Beware of the meddling in-law who thinks divorce is best. God hates divorce (Jeremiah 3:20). God warns against putting a marriage couple apart.
“Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?”
—Psalm 94:16