A better Moustrap
All that is required is that a man produce a better mousetrap.
and the world will beat a path to his door.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Since the
fall of the Church around 200 AD, the backslidden blind ministry
has been in the business of building a better Gospel in the
hopes that in so doing that the world will beat a path
to the church's door.
For as far back as I can remember was given
an alternate peice of revisionist history that went something
like this in 330 AD the Emperor Constantine was converted (This
was viewed as good or bad depending who was speaking.) Constatine
made Christianity a legal religion in the Roman Empire (this
is view as good) . And at that point the early Church was hit
with an explosion of hundreds of thousands of converts.(This
was viewed as good) And we are then told that these converts
brought with them their idols and pagan practices and that they
had “Christianized" them. (As if the laity had the power to do that.) Thus
we are told that becasue of this influx of a mixt multitude
caused the fall of the early Church, not the Church itself..
Now if we had heard such a story on the
Evening News we would suspect that the story had some bias and
spin added to it. But when we read or hear it from modren Christian
sources even known tainted Christian sources suddenly everything
is golden.
The truth is that the Christain leadership
for quite some time was trying to escape the pain and suffering
of Roman persecution. And so they had been at work building
better and better mousetraps for several generations beginning
quite noticeably in the third century with limited success.
Finally a century later during the days of Constantine
they trotted out their latest version of the Gospel and began
preaching a new grossly compromised anything goes Gospel, that
willingly embraced “Believers “ with pagan beliefs and practices,
A Christianity that was for the betterment or enhancement of
all men no matter what you believed. It was sort of like what being an American
became in the 1970’s. People no longer were Americans but Italian/Americans,
French/ Americans, Arab/Americans, Afro/Americans , and Asian/Americans.
Our language and culture was put aside, and the people that
no longer had any allegiance to the nation became squatters,
just living here while still being very much a part of their
home land. And so after
the conversion of Emperor Constantine the world beat a path
to the new ecumenical Church’s door and surprise surprise they
brought all their idols with them too.
Do you suppose in your wildest imagination
beleive that this “Success “ of the early Church was the work
of God? Recently I had a contentious discussion with a brother who attends
a Baptist that bribes children with fistfuls of candy to attend
Sunday school. They hold carnivals, and other public “events”
to attract the unsaved, they hold placard protests, and on and
on. And they tell us that the following verse justifies
all their actions.
Luke
14:21-24 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these
things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his
servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city,
and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt,
and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and
yet there is room. And
the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and
hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be
filled. For I say unto
you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of
my supper.
According to this young man, this verse tells
his Pastor and his Church that they can employ any means possible
to bring people into the church. Lying, trickery, bribery, as
long as they are brought in and hear the Gospel that is all
that matters. So we can use
darkess to bring people tto the light, we can use sin to lead
to salvation, anything goes as long as they can lead poepl to
the Lord.
Indeed they they will make disciples, – but
these disciples are not disciples in christ walking uprightlly
before the Lord -- these discipiles are instead corrupt and
earthy following after sensual things made in their own image
and likeness. Many places like them have filled their churches,
but what have they filled them with? Tares. Tares that will
be gathered and burned.
First they did not fill the house with the poor, and the maimed, and
the halt, and the blind. As was stated in the verse previous.
And why do they like the most successful Churches in our day
pass up Christ’s words to preach the Gospel to the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind?
Does
not this parable
indicate that
these people are to comprise the majority of that Church?
What is the meaning of this parable? Perhaps
it might help us to see what Christ was saying before he spoke
this parable.
Luke
14 :11-14
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. Then said He also to him
that bade him, When thou makest a dinner
or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither
thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee
again, and a recompence be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed,
the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they
cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the
resurrection of the just.
Once
again we find our modren traditions and teachings of men are
in conflict with the actual words of Christ. The answer as to
why my friend's church, and hundreds of churches just like it
as well as all those great temples of men that reach to the
sky do are not comprised of the
poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind is
because they
can not recompense thee.
In other words they don’t have the money to
finance multi-million dollar ministries. Sooooo in order to
finance their vision of either local and worldwide evangelism
they preach to the middle class and the rich. They create partnerships
with the world to be able to do "good works.". And
what does Jesus say in this parable about
receiving recompense from a congregation of friends,
of thy brethren of thy kinsmen and of the rich – You
as a beleiver, you as a disciple you as a Chritsian can not
do it.
No, no, no, that cannot be, because that conflicts
with the Church's prime directive to compel
them to come in and collect tithes and offerings from the well
to do and the wealthy. Shock of shocks brothers and sisters
Christ emphatically states here that you are to only receive
recompense for working with those that cannot give you any recompense.
The meaning also carried in Jesus’ words is that that
those who preach and teach
thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen,
nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also
bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
The word Bid
in the Greek is Anti-Kalesosin this is actually two words Anti and Kaleo Anti in English
has come to mean
against in the Greek Anti
means: to correspond to. To do in like kind, to do in retribution, to do out of consideration of something that
was done. Kaleo
means: to call or be invited to receive an office or position,
to receive privilege, to receive favor or regard.
The
meaning of Anti- Kalesosin
is a lot more than I buy you dinner and you buy me dinner. It
speaks of a certain smarminess that has taken over our church
in the last two generations, regarding preaching to the middle
class and the wealthy so that
we (like the Loadieans)
can be increased with
goods and do lots of Gospel things. So that
by bringing in the well-to-do, we can receive the prestige
of men and rub elbows with the right
people. That we can receive favors of men opening doors for
us so that we cam appear at the chief seats at dinners and events.
So that we can receive most particularly their money in tithes
gifts and offerings. Big Churches, and big ministries require
massive infusions of cold hard cash – something that the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and
the blind don’t have much of.
Mark
12:41-43 And
Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people
cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in
much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites,
which make a farthing. And
he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily
I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than
all they which have cast into the treasury:
This text is the basis of 10,000 sermons on
tithing and giving offerings – according to the doctrines and
the traditions of men, this passage means that we are to give
more. And more importantly that Jesus notices our sacrificial
giving and we are therefore blessed for it.
Note that in this verse Jesus did not walk
over to the woman and lay hands on her and say because of your
sacrificial giving thou art healed and thy household shall receive
great financial reward. In fact Jesus did not EVER say
a single word to this woman.
In hearing these words neither Peter nor any
of the twelve disciples understood that that Jesus noticed her
sacrificial giving, nor were they aware of His advising them
to do likewise and that they would be blessed beyound their
wildest dreams of averice for it.
In another familiar passage look at Peter’s
response when he is faced with something that Christ wanted
him to experience.
John
13:7-9 Jesus
answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now;
but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt
never wash my feet. Jesus answered him. If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not
my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
We see in this passage that when Peter perceived
that hi might receive a blessing from Christ -- be immediately
when for it with all his heart andsould na strength. So is it
not reasonable to suggest in another passage that if Christ
was suggesting that His head was turned by the widow’s offering,
that if Christ was suggesting that by sacrificial giving the
disciples would receive some greater blessing don’t you thing
that at least Simon Peter would have stood up and said:: having
saved this one mite, farthing, or piece of silver, and lo I
give it all. And then Peter would have ran up and tossed in
the box.
The same people that preach this nonsense tell
us that Jesus and the disciples were financially rich. If that
is so why don’t we read of Peter emptying his gold filled pockets
into the offering box and declaring “Lo I have given all so
that he could have received that hundred fold blessing.”
But we know from scripture that Peter was as broke as
Jesus was.
Matthew
17:24-27 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute
money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?
He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented
him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings
of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children,
or of strangers? Peter
saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are
the children free. Notwithstanding,
lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an
hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou
hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a
piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me
and thee.
So if Jesus and the disciples were rich as
we are told by the preachers of the prosperity gospel why didn’t
Jesus just reach into that sack that Judas had to drag around?
Poor Judas he had to work harder than any of the disciples dragging
this 300 pound sack of gold behind him. And after every meeting
that Jesus passed those solid gold offering plates of His to
the poor. And naturally the poor forked out all they had for
Jesus and the disciples to fund their chariots, their 100 houses
their 100 plots of land and their 100 wives. And Judas of course
was stuck with the task of dragging that ever-increasing bag
around.
Haven’t you figured it out yet that if anything
like this would have happened that Jesus would have been disqualified
from offering himself for our sins as He would have bowed the
knee to the love of the world the love of the things of the
world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes?
Jesus owned one piece of raiment like the disciples.
He never made an issue of whether it was a fine suit or a cheap
suit. All we need to know is he had one set of nice clothes
and he wore the same clothes day in and day out.
And as far as we know from the word of God he wore that
same set of clothes from the first day of His ministry.
He was probably also baptized in that same robe. It was
probably paid for by His working for father Joseph or it was
a present from his parents as he went off to do the will of
God.
So in fact when the issue of taxes came up
in Matthew 17:24-27 the little bag or little
pouch Judas carried was empty.
Jesus loved his disciples as a father loves his children
so when the tax man comes to Peter and demands tribute Jesus
would have given Peter the money if He had had it, but Jesus
has no money – So the Lord does not instruct Peter to run and
hide –but Jesus says we
don’t offend so I want you to go fish.
I think that we can agree that Peter James and John probably
fished regularly for what Jesus and the disciples ate. They
didn’t do Taco Bell, Red Lobster, or any other fine restaurants
of their day – things that we claim we could not live without
–and if we don’t eat out daily we would wonder if God cares
at all about us. So Peter goes fishing as he is instructed cast
the hook in pulls out the first fish, and finds a
single coin in its mouth enough to pay Peter’s and Jesus’
taxes and no more.
Now if Jesus were operating under the prosperity
gospel don’t you think that the fish would have been huge and
filled with gold? If Jesus would have believed in and taught
the prosperity Gospel this verse have read like this: And
Peter hooking the fish cried out to James and John to help him
the three labored for an hour to bring the fish in. And the
fish weighed three talents and was exceeding large and when
Simon Peter opened the fish’s mouth coins began to fall out.
And when the disciples cut open the great fish they found 612
pieces of gold in it then Jesus and the disciples rejoiced and
went to town and had a feast –and invited the tax collector
and when the tax collect saw their great wealth he was compelled
to believe.
When are we going to be able to read the word
of God without reading in these doctrines and traditions of
men? When are we going to seek God with a singleness of vision,
seek Him for himself as opposed to seeking Him for personal
enrichment, ministry and power?
I want to get back to the widow’s mite, and
that none of the disciples understood at that time or anywhere
in their writings that God had respect of a person based on
their level of giving.
Concerning the temple offering that the poor
widow was a part of, we do not know if this was a weekly offering,
a monthly offering, or a yearly offering. Now I suppose that
if someone really loved the truth on this matter they would
feel compelled to read Josephus’ writings as he lived around
the time of Christ and wrote extensively on what was practiced
in the temple of Herod as opposed to what was prescribed by
the Law of Moses. And one might also feel compelled to read the
writings of the Apostolic fathers as they were the next generation
after the Apostles to see if they might be able to shed some
light on the matter, or we might even want to read Alfred Edersheim’s
book “The Temple” to get a more scholarly and scriptural view
of tithes offerings and the sacrifices. All of which I might
add can be found and read online.
So this widow has these two mites and she’s
giving an annual gift to the temple – she probably had a house,
she may have had children, certainly she had to eat and sleep
somewhere. In your wildest imagination would you believe that
this was in fact the first fruits of all the money that had
crossed the widow’s palm during the course of a year?
It would take far more than 20 mites (The total
that 2 mites would be 10% of) to house, cloth, and feed this
widow for a year. If it took 40 mites for this woman to live,
we would be told by our modern tithe and offering Pharisees
that she had robbed God, for she would have kept back 50% or
that she owed God two more mites? If it took 80 mites to feed
cloth and shelter this widow for a year she would have been
keeping back from God a whopping 66% or 4 mites of her tithe.
And if it took 120 mites (taht would translate out to 1 mite
to feed cloth and shelter this widow for every three days she
would have been holding out on God for a whopping 75% or 10
mites. Now
if someone would be familiar with the law of Moses they would
have already known that the poor were not required to tithe.
And that the tithe in the law was not
paid on financial commerce, but it was PAID ON edible farm products
Only. It was given because the Levites had no inheritance ie
no farm fields, no vineyards, no olive groves, no herds of cattle
and no sheep of their own.
And that the produce of the tithe was to feed the priests,
the fatherless and the widows. Incidentally, the Apostles seemed to have been
strangely taken with this notion of taking care of the widows
and the fatherless in the book of Acts, so much so that for
quite some time they were personally seeing to the feeding and
care for the fatherless and widows.
So unlike the common view of this hour Christ
was apparently not viewing her offering in context to her tithing.
Now in the bible we are told that there was a group of people
that did have great regard to people’s tithes and offerings.
That would be the Pharisees.
And in light of the widow and her gift there
is are some instructive verses regarding the Pharisees view
of all of this.
Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows'
houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall
receive the greater damnation.
I am now going to give you a strange sounding
doctrine, a doctrine none the less of far reaching implication.
Christ himself teaches a doctrine that in coercing offerings
from the poor, preaching that if they don’t tithe they are robbing
God, preaching that if they don’t tithe or give cash offerings
that God will not bless them. Telling someone that because of
their not giving money that they are sick, or their children
or relatives are sick, is a capital offense in the kingdom of
Heaven. In so doing and so teaching you will guarantee for yourself
a place in the lowest hell.
Mark
12:40-41 Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers:
these shall receive greater damnation. And Jesus sat over against
the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the
treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
The Pharisees
were telling these poor widows that they needed to give into
the Pharisees ministry, they were having widows borrow money
against their houses and assets. And over time the collection
agency would show up and seize the house and property from the
widows. Bite by bite they devoured the widows holdings to enrich
their lifestyle and their ministerial goals.
And strangely enough this destructive practice of the
Pharisees in this passage leads straight into the temple treasury
and to Jesus seeing the widow give her two mites. This is probably
the very place that the Pharisees had their watchmen, this is
probably where they selected their marks, from the widows and
the poor that had enough religious conviction to bring in an
offering. The Pharisees or their surrogates would probably befriend
these people. And them wj=ehn they had them hooked they would
tell them in mournful terms how God, the king of heaven, the
owner of the cattle on a thousand hills had of late fallen upon
hard times and had these dire financial needs. And how that
poor old God needed their financial help HIM out, because without
their tithes and offerings of corrupt mammon, alas God couldn’t
keep the temple open, and the work of their great evangelistic
ministry would have to cease.
There was a day not to far
in the distant past that ministers preached the Gospel for free
and lived by what was termed a faith ministry which meant they
personally had to believe God to provide all their needs ie
their next meal, shelter over their heads, and for the place
they met. Missionaries Evangelists Pastors and Itinerate preachers
lived day by day hand to mouth. Now they have cast off their
bonds, they have put aside the yolk of Christ and have not only
made merchandise of their hearers, but have brought corrupt
mammon directly into
the Church service and made it as part of the worship service.
And thus have they defiled themselves, their ministries and
their hearers.
In case you
are curious this passage of scripture in the Law of Mosses that
Christ was referring to here it is:
Exodus 22:22-27 Ye
shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me,
I will surely hear their cry; And my wrath shall wax hot, and
I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows,
and your children fatherless. If thou lend money to any
of my people that is poor
by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt
thou lay upon him usury.
If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou
shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: For that
is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein
shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto
me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.
How many poor, fatherless
children and widows have evangelists, television ministries
and pastors fleeced for all they were worth? For three decades
God has heard the cry of the innocent being financially ruined
and losing all they had, their being forced to live in slums
where they are in danger night and day, they are forced to eat
cat food, give up medicine and turn the heat down to a minimum
while these ministers live like kings and build palatial estates
for themselves?
In
the 1970’s I heard talk of evangelists sucking congregations
dry for months, and this same thing happened with the advent
of the televangelists in the 1980’s. There had been reports
of hundreds of these shameless ministers have taken everything
from the poor and working class people even that which they
needed for food and shelter.
What does
God say in Exodus? His wrath shall wax hot, and he shall kill
them that do these things by the sword. Everybody senses something
is coming and they are so excited. I am filled with fear because
I know the death and carnage that is coming to the Church. Judgment
day is coming, a day when He will clean house and gather first
all that causes to offend, Jesus said that the tares shall be
gathered first to be burned.
This is the only day that I can effect for
God yesterday is past and I have no guarantee of tomorrow. Are
we prepared for weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? It
would appear that most are. All you have to do to earn that
reward is to do what you have always have done and you will
get what you have already gotten – (sowing unto the flesh and
reaping death.) But if we want to have a singleness of vision
and desire to be converted from darkness to light we are going
to have to do something more than give God lip service, show
up to church and sing a few songs. We are going to have to fall
before the stone and be broken of our ways, of our envious desires,
and our covetous desires for the wealth and things of this world.
The time to play is over it is high time to
awake out of our slumber and put on the armor of light.
The Church has become fixated with the accomplishments
of men in sports entertainment, politics, the military, in education,
the wealthy and now their own preachers and evangelists. They
openly offer shameful praise and adoration for their fleshly
accomplishments. And it has been commonly taught for the last
30 years that if only we could get some of these pop icons saved
that there would be a vast influx of millions that would follow
suit because X got saved. In my life time many Mr X’s and Ms
X’s have come in and “Gotten saved” but the promised revival
has not occurred with any of them. This feast and celebration
of the flesh of men is precisely why Paul the Apostle declared:
1
Corinthians 1:25-27 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness
of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are
called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty;
God will not share his glory and praise with
anyone. Not with a sports figure not with an entertainer, not
with a singer, not with a politician, not with a military hero,
not with a pastor, teacher or evangelist, and not with the wealthy.
With the advent of
people being able to sell their testimony and make a good living
on traveling the Christian circuit it has been increasingly
hard for God find someone to work through that will not accept
praise and worship from Christians.