The Mega Church and the Myth of Tithing

I had the privilege of listening to Joseph Prince preach at Hillsong London recently. I always enjoy listening to Pastor Prince’s teaching, and especially enjoy the experience of hearing him live on 11^th October 2009. You can download this podcast for free here.

But there was something that bothered me about what Joseph Prince said. Joseph Prince said that we should tithe; he then gave a brief testimony of one of the members of his church: Olivia Lum. Olivia Lum went from having an average life to being the richest woman in South East Asia. Apparently, Olivia told Joseph Prince that the key to her success was that she always paid a tithe and she prayed for wisdom.

Joseph Prince and the Grace Revolution

I would say that Joseph Prince is at the fore-front of what could be called a “grace revolution”. Ever since Joseph Prince visited my church, Hillsong London, in 2006/2007 – the message at my church has become a lot more grace-oriented (the pastor’s admitted it themselves). I have a CD box set of the teaching that he delivered during his visit and it is truly amazing.

Joseph Prince has a lot of respect for the Senior Pastor at Hillsong London, Gary Clarke, and Joseph preaches at the annual Hillsong Europe Conference and sometimes speaks at Hillsong London as a guest speaker. Gary has also visited Singapore where he preached at New Creation Church – Joseph Prince’s church.

The revelation of grace that has happened in Singapore is spreading all over the world. Joseph Prince’s teaching is seen, or listened to, by people all over the world: his teaching can be downloaded in MP3 format from his website at http://www.josephprince.org. Joseph Prince has a presence on Christian Television including the popular Daystar network. This wonderful grace preacher is influencing a lot of churches and Christians and it is probably for this reason that he still supports the message of tithing.

Darin Hufford on Tithing

Darin Hufford of the Free Believers Network has admitted that he does not believe in tithing. Darin is an ex-pastor of the Dream Center – a mega church in Los Angeles U.S.A. I recall Darin relating in one of his Into the Wild podcasts, that he set-up his own church after he left the Dream Center. He promptly told his new congregation that they did not have to tithe. Darin ended-up having an argument with his accountant because his ministry was rapidly running out of money. However, Darin would not waver from his convictions and he stood firm when it came to not deceiving the congregation into tithing out of an obligation or with the promise of extravagant blessings should they continue to do so. Darin concluded from this experience that the whole institution church experience is man-made and is utterly dependant on the myth of tithing.

It is important to note that the ministries of that of Bertie Brits and Joseph Prince, despite having a similar message, they are actually rather different: Joseph Prince is the senior pastor of a mega-church, albeit a grace mega-church, whilst Bertie does not have his own church, but produces videos from his home studio or travels to other churches and to conferences. There is a difference and if we are to take Darin Hufford’s statement as the truth – we can see why one preacher teaches on the tithe and why the other does not.

I’m kind of torn between accepting this statement fully and arguing that it is not the case, that there are some good things about the institutional church, particularly grace-oriented mega-churches such as Hillsong. However, I cannot deny that Darin does have a point and it does get me thinking. If this is the case, then perhaps Joseph Prince has to preach on the tithe so that he himself can continue to exist in a mega-church environment and so that he can continue to influence those who are also in a mega-church environment (the Hillsong Europe Conference being a case in point).

A Hint of W.O.F.

I also see some aspects of Word of Faith in Joseph’s teaching – particularly the daily devotionals he produces. I suppose this is to be expected because like me, his main influence was Kenneth E. Hagin. Hagin himself was a pioneer of faith during his day. Hagin had to overcome a lot of opposition from the church with his beliefs on faith for finances and faith for healing. Hagin was seen to be a heretic because of his propensity towards blessings, signs, wonders and spiritual gifts. God does not give any one Bible teacher a monopoly on Biblical truth, and more than likely, never will.

I made the big mistake of simply accepting everything I read in Hagin’s books without question. I suppose this was because I was so convinced by the extravagant testimonies of blessings and miracles; as well as the all-too-familiar name-it-and-claim-it faith confessions. I was desperate for love and approval and in the absence of proper teaching on grace – I just looked to performance and achievement. I saw faith as being the key to unlocking the power of God that I needed in order to be happy, satisfied and accepted.

I think if Hagin would have been given the same revelation of grace that Joseph Prince has been given today – it is likely that Hagin would have been driven out of the church for sure and labelled a crank.

Conclusion

Biblical prosperity is a very tricky subject – there needs to be a balance and I believe that extravagant testimonies, such as that of Olivia Lum, need to be seen as exceptional and not typical. I believe that the main reason behind such testimonies is to serve to take the limits off God. So many times we try to figure God out, anticipate His next move, and to define the boundaries of what we can or can’t have, or what we can or can’t do. It is so easy to quote a testimony like that of Olivia Lum and then attempt to make some sort of generic “template” out of it; a rule, principal or formula that anyone can follow in order to achieve instantaneous, and predictable, success.

Yes, I do believe that God’s intention is that we have our needs met, and even that we can enjoy prosperity – but there is a difference between needs and wants. A lot of people still look to financial prosperity as a means of offsetting other unmet needs in their life, such as a sense of approval and security – things that only a well-established relationship with Christ can fulfil.

I foresee the grace revolution as being a rather slow process as old religious mindsets give way to the message of pure grace. I believe that the message of tithing will probably be the last bastion of Christian legalism to fall. Why? Well because it involves money of course!

What Grace Preachers Say About Tithing

Joseph Prince is the only grace preacher I know of who still teaches that we should tithe. But he does add that we should give from a heart of love and not give out of obligation. But I think that a lot of Christians want to give out of love - but end up giving out of fear.

It does seem like a noble concept at first, but when people tithe for years and nothing significant happens as a result, the inevitable result is one of disappointment. Feelings of guilt can also arise from teaching on tithing because when a person fails to experience all of the wonderful promises that were made to him by a pastor or evangelist – it causes the Christian to wonder what he did wrong or what he is missing: is it a lack of faith? Do I have to give more? Is there sin in my life? And so on.

First of all, we really need to get beyond this fear associated with tithing. To do this, we need to hear teaching that shows that tithing is an Old Testament concept and that Jesus has bore the curse of the law.

I recommend Bertie Brits' teaching on the subject of tithing. Bertie's teaching is available for free download on his website http://www.dynamicministries.com I particularly recommend the teaching "Money on the Cross" and "Hermanus Leadership Conference". But there are various other teachings by Bertie in which he touches on this subject. Basically, Bertie argues that if we can attribute healing and salvation and everything else in Christ to the cross - why not prosperity and finances?

Steve McVey also asserts in his "101 Lies Told in Church" series of short videos, that we do not need to tithe. See Lie #66 You Will Be Blessed Because You Tithe.

Grace preacher Andrew Wommack also teaches that we should not tithe out of compulsion and that God will bless you even if you don't. See the Financial Stewardship series, which can be downloaded for free on his website. This teaching series is a little confusing because in the first MP3 (and perhaps part of the second), Andrew says that we don't need to tithe, but then in the subsequent MP3s in the series, he says that we should tithe.

My personal belief is that our relationship with God should never be out of fear, or out of lust for that matter. What ultimately determines the quality of our life is how much we know we are accepted and loved by God, and loving others from that place of acceptance. We should never see our prosperity as depending on a rule we should keep or an obligation we should fulfil. Inevitably, it’s all about having a sense of security and knowing that we are blessed and accepted by God through faith in Christ, not in any kind of religious obligation that we need to keep.

Affluenza

I had heard of the book by London journalist Oliver James, Affluenza, for a little while now. I had seen this book in shop windows and advertised on websites such as Amazon.co.uk. The word is a mixture of the words “affluence” and “influenza” – denoting a desire for affluence that is both contagious and bad for ones health.

You can read more about this book on what appears to be the author’s official website here. You can read a product description, reviews and buy the book on Amazon here.

In researching the book, Oliver James spent nine months travelling the world in search of answers as to why people in developed countries tend to suffer from anxiety and depression more than previous generations. The author suspected that there was a connection between a growing dissatisfaction in people and the incessant need to keep up with ones peer group in relation to status, money and possessions. Some of the destinations that James travelled to include Sydney, Singapore, Moscow, Copenhagen, New York and Shanghai. Despite obvious cultural differences, James noticed that there were shocking similarities in the way that the people continually aspired for more of what they did not have. The more they aspired – the more adversely affected they were from a mental and emotional perspective.

This book seemed to get a mixed bag of reviews on the Amazon.co.uk website. Some complained that it was not well written, others argued that the observations were just that – observations – and they could hardly be substantiated. Whilst others praised the authors work as being true-to-life and an engaging read. I could not help but feel that most of the negative comments were made by people who were already stricken by the “virus” (as the author puts it) and that they certainly had something to defend.

Personally, I found the book a compelling “read”. I’ve intentionally used inverted commas with the word “read” here, as I downloaded the audio version of the book from iTunes.

I’m certain that I have mentioned in a previous blog that I amassed a rather large number of books in the past, in my pursuit of principles and formulas that I believed would change my life for the better – I did this in the form of numerous self-help and “charismatic” Christian books.

On a side-note, I regret not having spent more time and money buying and reading the latest thrillers, like a John Grisham or Tom Clancy novel - but never mind. I recently got rid of most of my books, particularly the self-help and Christians ones, by either selling them or giving them away to a charity shop. From now on, it’s audio books for me. I only downloaded the book today and I’m already halfway through! Another great thing about audio books, besides the time it takes to “read” them, is that they take up far less space than their predecessors.

I enjoyed listening to Oliver James’ accounts of the different people that he met around the world, the way some of them were coping and adapting to rapid changes in the economy and attitudes towards money, possessions and careers. I felt that the book made a good attempt to highlight the disturbing trends towards global commercialism. It is a call for balance and an eye-opener in relation to what is going on around us and the way that it is adversely affecting people. James also backs-up his finding with some rather alarming statistics.

I find that the subject of financial prosperity in relation to self-help and Christianity is a rather difficult one. There tends to be an orientation in people’s attitudes that veer to either one extreme or the other. Personally, I have striven to establish a rather balanced viewpoint which is situation more-or-less in the middle of these opposing camps. If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you may indeed be acquainted with some of my viewpoints on this subject – I will certainly continue to express my beliefs about prosperity in future blogposts.

I recommend Oliver James’ Affluenza to anyone who is feeling dissatisfied with the rat-race and is seeking answers in this area. I feel that James does a good job in summarising what has been going on for some time now; I feel that it goes a long way towards reflecting my own personal beliefs when it comes to the disputed subject of global capitalism and consumerism and its cost on our overall quality of life.

Is There a Case for Universalism?

I don't really agree with the concept of universalism or ultimate reconciliation. I wish it was true because I don't want anyone to go to hell - especially my nearest-and-dearest who don't know the Lord.

It seems to me that as the message of grace steers us away from the long-held image of a scary, vengeful God, there is an inclination to also steer away from the concept of hell for some people. They say, "How could a God who loves us so much send people to hell?" They mean well, I suppose, but they are getting led astray by their own wishful thinking, I feel.

There are some rather scary verses in the Bible. Like when the ground swallowed-up a man and his family; then there is Ananias and Sapphira, who dropped dead instantly after Peter accused them of lying to the Holy Spirit; and how can we forget the story of Sodom and Gomorra who's entire inhabitants, except Lot and his wife, were destroyed? Well, Lot's wife nearly escaped and would have if she did not look back and get turned into a pillar of salt!

There are a whole lot of rather scary verses in the Bible which we cannot fathom in the light of grace: it all seems so plausible when we are sold-out to the notion of an angry God who demands perfection from His children. But it can become confusing when we realise that God is not as harsh as we used to think He was.

The way I see it is that there are things that God does that we struggle to understand - and I don't think we are meant to make sense of it. All we can do is to trust in God and know that He loves us. Perhaps the gravitation towards Universalism or Ultimate Reconciliation is an attempt at reconciling this seeming discrepancy when a person comes into the revelation of grace?

When it comes down to Biblical facts - I cannot see anything in scripture which refutes the hell doctrine. Personally, I wish the whole hell thing simply did not exist - but according to the Bible - it seems to exist. Hell is just another one of those scary doctrines in the Bible that simply does not make sense to the newly enlightened grace believer.

It seems to me that God is bound to certain obligations because of who He is and because He requires absolute perfection. We could never attain that level of perfection, and therefore, Christ died for us. Perhaps hell is another one of those things that exist due to who God is and the way in which mankind was created?

We could always broaden the main argument supporting Universalism (how could a God who loves us do such a thing) to Jesus dying on the cross: how could a God who loves people so much, allow Jesus to be tortured and to die a slow, agonising death? The Universalists don't ask that question - do they?

It seems that Jesus dying on the cross was one of those inevitable obligations that had to be fulfilled by God, in a way that seems to veer to the opposite extreme of His character, in a way that causes people to eventually doubt His love for us.

In conclusion, I would really, really love to embrace the doctrine of Universalism or Ultimate Reconciliation - but there does not seem to be compelling enough evidence in the Bible to support such a notion. Believers can, like they often do, take one or two verses in isolation and make them fit their own beliefs - they do this for prosperity and so forth - so why not Universalism? All of scripture needs to be read in the right context, knowing who it was written to and when, knowing that we are now redeemed in Christ - only if we believe.

Sin and Patience in Relation to Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael

The story of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael can help answer the question of, "Will God Bless You When You Sin?"

My answer is "no", and the story of Abraham demonstrates this. Abraham still received Isaac as promised by God, though he slipped-up and had a child with his servant Hagar. You will still receive the promised blessings of God, but your well being (emotional, body and/or material) may suffer unnecessarily.

God promised Abram his promised child when he was 75 years-old (Genesis 12). Abram ran out of patience when waiting for the promised seed when he was 85 and agreed to take Hagar, the Egyptian maid, to be his wife and she bore Ishmael when Abraham was 86 (Genesis 16). When Abram was 99 years-old, God changed his name to Abraham and his wife's name from Sarai to Sarah, and a year later Abraham finally had his promised son, Isaac, 25 years after God first made the promised.

What Can we Learn from This?

God is faithful, when He made a promised; it's not a question of whether it would happen but when. God is omniscient and loves you; He has been to your future and knows the best time for the promise to come to pass. He could have blessed Abraham the next moment after He made the promise - but that was not to be. We have to believe His un-surpassing goodness and love for us by faith.

Patience is important: Abraham ran out of patience 11 years after he received the promise, committed sin (or perhaps transgressed) and had Ishmael, which he "lost" when Sarah cast both Hagar and Ishmael out. Imagine the sense of loss that Abraham had to endure to his grave sending away his flesh and blood - Ishmael. Abraham's joy of having Isaac - the son promised by God, would have been full if not dented by the “loss” of Ishmael. Abraham must have had some wonderful memories of Ishmael.

The blessings that Christ died for you and me to receive will surely come, there is only one thing that we need to do - labour to enter into rest (Hebrews 4:11). We need to make an active and deliberate choice of choosing rest in His love for us over the roaring of the devil (1 Peter 5:8) and the disappointments of life. We can do this by meditating on the message of the Gospel and knowing who are in Christ. Many believers would also add praying unceasingly in the spirit (Ephesians 6:18).

A Sense of Security and Acceptance – Part 3

Approval of Others

I have noticed that the approval of others also seems to go hand in hand with a person’s sense of security. It would seem that we look to other people to give us confirmation that we are okay the way that we are. The want for approval is finally being taken on by Bible teachers. Joyce Meyer’s popular book Approval Addiction reached number 9 in the New York Times Bestseller list. Grace Preacher Bertie Brits also teaches on the want for approval in his series entitled What God Says About You.

In his book, Mastering Your Emotions, Pastor Colin Dye states that the basic human wants are those of security, significance and self-worth. This makes a lot of sense to me because the want for approval seems to be the fuel for people’s sense of significance and self-worth.

What Causes Sin?

Sin is the soul’s self-preservation mechanism which is only brought into play when the mind determines that its overall security is threatened. Sin comes down to the innate needs in the nature of man. I think that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs does a wonderful job of summarising the various levels of human need and how we pursue the next category of needs when our most demanding needs are met.

Sin manifests itself in terms of typical wrong modes of behaviour. In Galatians 5:19-21 the apostle Paul lists some of the typical wrong modes of behaviour which he calls “works of the flesh”; Paul said the “works of the flesh” are evident. According to Thayer’s Greek Definitions the word evident or manifest here means plainly recognised or known.

When the identification and control of wrong behaviour is emphasised as a means of inducing good patterns of behaviour, it results in resistance and rebellion, because we don’t like to be told what to do. Paul said in Romans 7:9 that when the commandment came (Ten Commandments) he died (spiritually became devoid of power and self-control). The Message Bible in Romans 7:8 says that the flesh nature makes a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of the law. It is little wonder that Paul calls the Old Testament the ministry of condemnation in 2 Cor. 3:9. Paul also calls the Old Testament the ministry of death in 2 Cor. 3:7.

The Old Testament did not give the promise of life; it simply demanded righteousness from spiritual bankrupt men. The law threatened curses and destruction if its strict demands were not met. When a gun is pointed to a person’s head and they are forced to behave a certain way, they are likely to attempt to do so – but they are likely to be overcome with fear in anything that is demanded of them in that way. If people are forced to respond in fear – the sinful nature will be manifested.

Security and Insecurity

I made a note of a chart that was displayed during a sermon at Hillsong London, which compared attributes of security with that of insecurity. I feel that this comparison perfectly sums-up the contrast between the dispositions of security with that of insecurity. I’ve posted-up this chart before and make no apologies for doing so again; because I really do think it is utterly brilliant is summing-up the contrast between a disposition of security and that of insecurity.

Security	Insecurity
At rest & at peace	Driven & anxious
Accepting of self, confident of one's value to God	Striving to get acclaim, to prove one's value
Content with one's lot in life	Constantly comparing, envying, coveting
Able to bless, affirm and serve others	Jealous, controlling, manipulative & demanding of others

In Summary

• Will God bless us when we have unbelief? Not very much.
• Will God bless us when we have a disposition of sin? Again, not very much because if we are living out of the old nature, we are in unbelief and vice-versa.
• Will God bless us when we transgress? A resounding “Yes!”

A Sense of Security and Acceptance – Part 2

Something Good from Something Bad

I have heard grace preachers say that God does not allow bad things to happen in our lives to teach us something; they argue that this is not the nature of a God that truly loves us. I agree with this notion to an extent and I must say that we cannot fully comprehend the will of God and why bad things happen. I often think we read all sorts of nonsense things into circumstances.

But it seems that life’s tribulations seem to draw people to God. Perhaps it is because they are hammered by life to the point that they no longer have a sense of security vested in who they are and what they do. I can personally vouch for this notion because I can categorically affirm that if life would have gone well for me, if people would have approved of me like I always wished they would and if life would have gone more smoothly for me – I would have been a totally different person today; my sense of security, identity, purpose, approval and empowerment would have been rooted firmly in my ability and achievements.

I have only to look at some of the people in my life to see that their success in life, which I have always envied, has become their undoing to an extent in that it has driven them away from Christ. But who can blame them? I have wondered sometimes if it was really worth it. I have spent countless hours, days, weeks, months and even years in the pursuit of things, holding onto certain beliefs and expectations, only to eventually realise that what I had been told was true was actually baseless.

I have often wondered why the church seemed to only attract insecure people: those who had been battered into submission so that they no longer boasted in their own efforts and ability. If I would have been a stronger individual, I think I would have ran a mile from all of the confusing, patronising and often contradictory doctrines that were being spewed from the pulpit.

But one good thing that has come out of all the struggle and the pain is that I have been founded in the message of grace. Now, I read the Bible with a different perspective than many Christians: when I read the Bible I see the love, mercy and grace of God to us through Jesus Christ. I suppose I had to go through what I did in order to come to the humbling understanding that I did not have complete conscious control over my life and that I could not guarantee success in everything I did simply by “working hard” or “thinking positively” or whatever platitude performance-driven people use.

I have also come to understand the contrast between law and grace; as well as the misconceptions and the suffering that arises when people mix the old and new covenants. So when a fellow grace believer begins to share their struggles with duff Christian doctrines and performance based Christianity – I can relate to their experiences because I know what they’ve been going through. I suppose that puts me in a unique position that I would not have been in had life instilled a sense of confidence in me and I had not been desperate enough to listen to a rules-based or achievement-based monologue in church each and every Sunday, as well as the numerous Christian books I read which made all sorts of promises of being blessed extravagantly by God and pleasing Him through the pursuit of formulas and principles.