Tithes, Tongues & Doom

Tithes, Tongues & Doom

By Richard Joseph

Well, I am at that dangerous point where I don’t know if I will go to church any more.  I just can’t take it.  No, I’m not being funny.  The theology is so faulty that a truth seeking Christian cannot stomach it any more and maybe that is part of the decline in Christian ethics in society.  All of these preachers, who really mean well, go to seminary and come out like they went through a cookie cutter.  If the theology was good then that wouldn’t be such a bad thing but it appears that once faulty theology gets a grip, it then gains a stronghold and is thus replicated over and over and over again.

After hearing the same thing week after week I am finally  calling it quits, for a while at least.  That last sermon (just like most of them) started out pretty good with some challenges to get serious about your faith in Jesus Christ.  However, what I am figuring out is that being serious about Jesus really means being serious about tithing, brainwashing and being scared.

The preacher (who I think is a great guy and has a good heart) started out by talking about tongues which, at this point is not really part of the service.  He is misguided about scripture and what tongues really were used for.  Yes, I do mean used for.  One thing one must understand is that everything that Jesus or the Holy Spirit does is productive and functional, always producing fruit.  The Apostles were gifted with tongues in order to preach to a diverse population of multiple languages.  It produced much fruit because they understood the gospel in their own language and was baptized into the faith.  The harvest was plentiful.  That is a far cry from today where you get a bunch of excited people blabbing away without any real fruit produced.  Paul’s groanings had nothing to do with tongues necessarily.  Those were his deepest prayers and supplications to God that were personal and meaningful.  In fact Paul says that these groanings by the Holy Spirit “cannot even be uttered”.  But they keep on uttering. Then on to the next point.

He then assured us that the end was very near!  The world was getting more dangerous and earthquakes are more frequent etc etc.  I have been hearing that my entire life.   The funny part of this is that Jesus and the Apostles said the very same thing.  In fact they were so sure of it that they sold their property and some even would forgo marriage because they believed the end was going to come in their lifetime.  In ancient Israel all property was to be returned to the original family every 50 years (the year of Jubilee).  But they sold it and gave the money to help the church as if they did not expect to get the land back.  Neither did they invest the money for gain.  They were that convinced that the end would come in their lifetime.  So, who shall I believe, the seminary taught preacher or Jesus and the Apostles?  Well, quit guessing, I will tell you plainly; I believe Jesus and the Apostles every time over anybody else.  History and scripture bear out the fact that the second coming did infact occur during the first century (please see my other articles or email me for more information if you do not understand this).  So why is this important?

It is important because we are losing the world because of it.  Here is the long short of it.  The doomsday preachers are basically saying that the Christian Church lost the battle and that Satan won.  We should therefore send the preacher more money and tithers, then sit on our butts and wait for the big Jesus to come and beat the bad guys up.  The preacher is waiting for Jesus to come and do something.  In truth however, it is Jesus that is waiting for “us” to do something.  Jesus is sitting on his throne saying “I already did my job.  I suffered, died, rose again, and became the fulfilment of the scriptures.  Now it is your turn to take the Holy Spirit and conquer the world in love, and justice and freedom”.  Jesus already conquered death and defeated the enemy.  He also punished those that killed the prophets and hung him on a cross.  It is our turn to take the power he gave us and be the victors of planet earth.  Why are the homosexuals and the Muslims gaining power and the Christians are losing power?   It is a direct result of our new seeker friendly preachers who are not equipping the flock to be victorious and become involved in society with the gospel.  Instead they are telling us to tuck tail and run (oh and don’t forget tithe and buy the latest DVD on the END OF THE WORLD).  Just sit in that pew for 50 years and never make an impact on society.  They believe that “the Lord’s work” is only at the church so give your money here and don’t worry about taking the gospel to the voting booth, to the school, to work, to the world.  The modern church is a complete failure.  

In the end all I here is Tithe (which is an Old Testament law and never mentioned in the New Testament because there is no “law” in the New Testament), Tongues & Doom.  This does not go over well with me because I seek the truth.  The truth is that Jesus already returned by AD 70 and gave us the power to conquer the earth with the gospel, not to sit and let the homosexuals and Islam be the victors.   If the Christian Church fails then the earth fails.  If the Christian Church thrives, the earth thrives.   There is no second choice.  It is Christ or doom.