"In all honesty, playing the lottery will give you better odds at receiving a return on your investment, than giving to the ministries of Dewey Cheatum and Howe Inc!"
- Heather Zubiate
The Whittier Housewife
Filthy Lucre
1Ti 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; G146 but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
1Ti 3:8 Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; G146
Tit 1:7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; G146
2And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, 3and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. 4And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.… Acts 18:2-4
33 "I have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes. 34"You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. 35"In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"… Acts 20:33-35
14 Nevertheless you have done well that you shared in my distress.
15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only.
16 For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Phil 4:14-16
In stark contrast to, or even haughty defiance of Jesus's and Paul's example, the members of Dewy Cheatum and Howe live in lavish style. They jet around the world to preach their worldly gospel of gain aboard private planes, stay in exclusive hotel suites, and vacation on tropical islands. They drive up to their mansions in one of many luxury cars, while the vast majority of their like minded greedy minions live in poverty, and do without, in order to give according to their need. I once saw Jan Crouch on T.V. asking little old ladies who are on welfare to give her their grocery money. The very idea! What gall that rich old biddy has! And because these poor widows have no one to protect them from these wolves, they are easy prey for the equally greedy fleecers. Why do I say such a harsh thing about the ones who give to these mega faith preachers? Aren't they the victims? Yes. They are victims, but not in the way you would suppose. They are victims of their own greed and covetousness. No one is forcing them to give, in fact, these preachers love to harp on how only 20% of the body of Christ tithes or gives offerings. I don't say this with an accusatory pointing finger, it is simply the truth. And I can say that, because I used to be one of their greedy "victims."
God's Favor Is For Hire?
Another tactic is that they will say a generality like: "poverty is a curse, and prosperity is a blessing." This is true to a point, obviously prosperity is better than poverty, but how you become prosperous is more important than the prosperity itself. Proverbs 19:1 states this truth.
Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and a fool. Proverbs 19:1
Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are
perverse. Proverbs 28:6
As for making Solomon their go to rich guy, they never seem to get around to mention these golden nuggets of truth either:
He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty. Proverbs 22:16
A man with an evil eye hastens after riches,
And does not consider that poverty will come upon him. Proverbs 28:2
Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches--
Feed me with the food allotted to me; Proverbs 30:8
Easy Money
You are told to sew your monetary seed into their ministry, because they say it's "good ground," and they've been given revelation knowledge, even though it goes against God's written word. What do you actually receive when you partner with these hucksters? You get a "free" propaganda publication that isn't any better than the paper its printed on. But how about your chance of receiving the promised monetary dividends? Well that depends on how much you give. According to their twisted understanding of Jesus' words in their favorite parable of the seed sower, it could be 30, 60, or even 100 fold return! The odds should get better the more you give, and the better you are at working their formula, right? Wrong! The more you give, the richer they get, and the poorer you get, like Solomon said. Before you get all bent out of shape and start spewing venom at me, sit down and do some math. Calculate how long and how much you have been giving into their ministry, and then figure out how much money you have gotten in return. Have you gotten your 30, 60, or 100 fold yet? No? Yeah, I didn't think so.
As for the sower in Jesus' parable, this refers to God's word, not to money. Ill gotten gain acquired by gambling, get rich quick schemes, and swindling via the hustle are as old as time and all of such exploits will bring a curse with them. In all honesty, playing the lottery will give you better odds at receiving a return on your investment, than giving to the ministries of Dewey Cheatum and Howe Inc! Jesus never taught that we should give in order to get. He simply said that it is better to give than to receive, and when you give cheerfully and in secret, God will repay, as he sees fit. We are in no position to demand anything.
Psalm 73
They are destined for the eternal torment of the lake of fire. How awful is that? Some would say that I'm just envious of their godly prosperity, but they couldn't be more wrong. I don't envy anyone of their wealth, especially if they earned it through honest means and hard work!
These people earn their living by fleecing their junior apostates and the deceived sheep.
If only they would repent of their wickedness, before it's too late. But like the rich young ruler, it is impossible for them to be the recipients of eternal life, without God's help. And help them he can; that is if they let him. Of course, that would mean they would have to be like Zacchaeus, and give all or half of what they have to the poor. Zacchaeus even went a step further and said that he would pay back four times what he stole from people. Wow! That's a lot of figs! But what is that compared to eternal life with Jesus? Not much. I'm not saying that they would be buying their way to heaven. As always, word and deed must match, and so the giving would illustrate the inner change of heart. And then they would have to do what Jesus told the woman caught in prostitution, "go and sin no more." That means Dewy Chetum and Howe would have to close up shop for good and get a real job. Then they would be worthy of the words Jesus said of Zacchaeus after his pledge, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” And that would be marvelous in my eyes! Amen!