Pat Robertson Shows Craziness of the Tithing Doctrine If Taken to Logical Conclusion

If you haven't heard the latest craziness from Pat Robertson, this one is worth a listen.

He tells one of his elderly viewers on a fixed income that they still must tithe their paltry income in order to "rebuke the devourer". He even says that her husband is sick precisely because she is not tithing.

"Your husband has all these medical problems because the 'devourer' has not been rebuked. You need to rebuke him. You give your tithes faithfully and God said 'I will rebuke the devourer, the person that is eating up your money and eating up your health.'"

That is Pat's response to an elderly woman asking Pat if she should continue to tithe on her fixed income despite being poor. She wonders if she should instead use tithe money to pay for her husband's medial expenses. Sad to think that she doesn't know the answer to the question, sadder still that she thinks Pat Robertson is the person who can give her the answer.

Before you dismiss this as just "crazy 'ole Pat" doing what he does...consider that he is logically extending the tithing nonsense that evangelical preachers like Steve Gaines, Perry Noble, Robert Morris, Ed Young and others teach to their followers. Pat is practically applying the false theology that a Christian is obligated to fork over their first 10% of income to the church in order to secure God's blessings and to avoid God's cursings.

As nutty as Pat sounds, if what Robert Morris and Perry Noble and Steve Gaines and Ed Young preaches on tithing is true, then what Pat is saying makes perfect sense - that yes, even an elderly person on Social Security should FIRST give 10% of her Social Security check to Ed Young's church before she thinks about paying for her husband's medical care. And oh by the way, if she would only give more money, her husband wouldn't be so sick in the first place.

Hence, as more of these mega church pastors push this storehouse tithing nonsense, the more modern evangelicalism is moving down a road that is not sustainable beyond the current generation of gullible sheep who tolerate it.

Ergun Caner Platform Guest at Richard Land's Inauguration - Then Speaking at Ravi Zacharias' Conference

The unrepentant Ergun Caner continues his comeback.

As you see at left, Ergun Caner is on the platform while Richard Land is inaugurated as the new president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES).

And then, starting tomorrow Caner is a featured speaker at an apologetics conference hosted at SES, and presented by Ravi Zacharias' International Ministries.

Why a seminary would want to feature Ergun Caner - a man who build a fortune and a reputation based on documented lies about his background - on the platform as their seminary president is inaugurated, is way beyond comprehension. Caner not only has never explained or publicly apologized for his decade of deceit - he is now even suing a pastor for posting on the Internet one of Caner's most egregious offenses, posing as an Arabic-speaking man who was raised in the Middle East while speaking to our Marines during a training session.

I suppose this is just another example of the sorry state of modern evangelicalism. Truth and honor in leadership is not important. Christian virtues of asking for forgiveness and telling the truth no matter the cost are not what are valued in Christian leaders. What is important is whether the man is talented story teller, can he draw and work a crowd, and can he raise revenue. And Caner is a good friend of Norman Geisler, one of the founders and former president of SES. So THAT is important too these days: who do you know.

I couldn't help but notice this irony of Caner speaking at the conference being presented by Zacharias: read this featured quote of Zacharias on the conference webpage:

"In Christian engagement, the goal is to win the person who is of the other worldview - not to destroy the person." Ravi Zacharias

Someone forgot to tell Ravi about Caner's history of uttering racial and ethnic slurs to audiences. He has spoken ugly stereotypes of Muslims, blacks and Hispanics - all to get a laugh and entertain his audiences, under the guise of being an olive-skinned "minority" himself.

Caner is not a person to put forth to help persuade people of other worldviews concerning the claims of the Christian faith. To the contrary, Caner himself is an obstacle - especially to Muslims.

Perhaps if Ravi Zacharias had seen the Ergun Caner tweets below from earlier this year he might think twice about sponsoring an apologetics conference that includes Ergun Caner.  A conference whose goal is to help lovingly "win" people of other worldviews - should not include Ergun Caner. Caner is the antithesis of this strategy - as the tweets below demonstrate:

 

Acts 29 Pastor Asks: "Have You Had a Spiritual Prostate Exam"? They're Only $99 at the Acts 29 "Raleigh Boot Camp"

I shall file this under: "Pastors say the darnedest things".

Pastor Geoff Bradford says the following in his article this week on the Acts 29 blog:

"Once you hit 40, well, they do bad, bad things to you at the doctor's office. The worst, of course, is the prostate exam....if you were up for a spiritual prostate exam, if your spiritual blood work were up for review; how healthy would you really be?"

Interesting use of the graphic imagery of a digital rectal exam or DRE - drawing an analogy between a DRE and a much needed pastoral "spiritual prostate exam". Their churches need the pastor to get this exam because as Geoff says, "Let's face it: healthy pastor, healthy church. Sick pastor, sick church."

And where do you go to get this extremely important spiritual rectal exam? According to Geoff you can get one at the Acts 29 "boot camp" in November. And it only costs $99.

So pastors, sign up and head to Raleigh in November for your SRE. The health of your church depends on it!

Robert Morris Lays Down the Law: Non-Tithers are "Arrogant" and "Thieves" And Subject to Demon Possession

"Listen to me carefully, I'm going to say something very strong: Any person that doesn't tithe is arrogant, because you believe you can make it your way and not doing it God's way. And you HAVE to be arrogant to steal from God. You have to be extremely arrogant to steal from God. And please understand if you don't tithe, that's an open door to demons...and I don't say that to make you feel condemned or to argue about tithing. And no matter how many doors you close in your life, if you're not a tither, you've got an open door to the 'enemy'."  Robert Morris 9/30/13"

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If it wasn't bad enough already with Robert Morris telling Christians everywhere they must tithe to "rebuke the devourer", to avoid divorce, to protect your kids - now Robert Morris has thrown down the gauntlet. Now non-tithers are thieves - they're arrogant, AND they are subject to demon possession.

Yes, demon possession. You know, an "open door" to demons. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? 

This sort of nonsense from Morris - this abuse, really is what it is - declaring Christians at his church to be thieves, that they are arrogant (look at the video and his finger pointing - just who is the most arrogant person in his massive auditorium?) - that no matter how good they are in other areas of their Christian life if they don't fork over 10% they are still subject to little devils ruining their lives - is so laughable given that Gateway markets themselves as being "all about people": 

 
Really? "All about people"? Robert Morris loves "people"? What sort of a man tells his congregation that the 80% of them that don't tithe (probably more) are arrogant and criminals and will have opened themselves to demons entering their lives? That isn't love. What sort of a madman tells Christian people looking for spiritual hope that because they can't give 10% of their income that their resources will be consumed by some unseen "devourer"?

And his finger-pointing, and his emphasis: "Listen to me very carefully, I'm going to say something very strong..." And his emphasis of the primacy and urgency of this single matter of tithing in a person's life by saying "No matter how many doors you close in your life, if you're not tithing..."

To Robert, there is nothing more important in a Christian's life, nothing that will determine your life's outcome, than how much money you give.

Robert, let me tell you something. Read carefully, this is very strong: You are abusing the people of your church. You should be ashamed. I wished that people just heard you and laughed it off and smiled and dismissed your claims as fairy tales. But I hear grown men on the video amen'ing your nonsense so I know many are taking you seriously.

You've turned the "good news" into very, very bad news.

Robert, that morning you were the most arrogant man in the church building.  Look in the mirror, Robert. YOU are the arrogant one.

And I dare say perhaps YOU and your family members who draw fat salaries from the offerings of these people you are abusing with your yarns are more apt to be seen as thieves.

But I will stop short of claiming your false teaching has opened a door to the devils and demons and devourers - I wouldn't ever stoop that low, Robert.

Furtick Prepares His Church for News Report About His 16,000 SF "Not That Great of a House" Mansion

Steven Furtick, the pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC, is building a 16,000 square foot mansion - and according to Furtick an investigative reporter is asking questions about where the money came from.

In the middle of his sermon on "suffering" last week, Furtick told his church how HE is suffering for the Lord: by having to endure an investigative reporter ask questions about the financing of his mansion. Wow, the pain and suffering of mega church pastors - how DO they endure such hardships? They must really love Jesus to suffer so much.

Watch the excerpt below from this sermon:

Furtick is Suffering for Jesus: Enduring the Questions of a Reporter About His Mansion from FBCJax Watchdog on Vimeo.

In the video you saw that Furtick is preparing his congregation for the investigative report by claiming the reporter "wants to make our church look bad", and characterizes him as "a guy who might not like us."

It will be interesting if the investigative reporter gets anyone at Elevation to talk -  since Furtick's  church requires members and volunteers to sign a  "Confidentiality Agreement", that prohibits anyone from disclosing:

"...the Church's finances, including personal financial/salary information related to the staff, the Church's financial statements, balance sheets, offerings information, cash flow, forecasts, and cost analyses."

And I'll leave you from a quote from Steven's Emmy-worthy performance on his "Hey Hater's" video, that I think accurately depicts the disdain that Furtick must have for a pesky reporter who wants answers to his questions about a local pastor building a mansion:

"Fall back! It's a new day! 'Cause we're not looking for approval from you, who give no respect and never neglect the chance to complain. Are you going to criticize, or create? Waste your time, casting stones, breaking bones, belittling everyone you consider opposed?...A new light has dawned to still the tongue of the cynic..."

Yes, a new light has dawned at Elevation Church, all right. It is the light of the free press, and the light of the inquisitive mind of an investigative reporter who has questions, and who wants answers.

Let your light shine, Mr. Investigative Reporter. Don't hide it under a bushel, let it shine, let is shine.