Pastors Frequently Twist Scriptures

by Van Robison

A new "Christian" television station has gone on the air in our area, and on the television screen it says, "Thank You Partners", meaning of course, "we want your money" (and as usual they list a toll free number, and have their telephone operators taking calls). Oddly, I have never read in any of the teachings of Jesus Christ in the four Gospels, where Jesus said, "Thank You Partners for Your Financial Support." Instead, what I have read is that Jesus said to His disciples (you know the guys He sent out to heal the sick, cast out the demons and to convey Christ to others?), "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). A "funny" thing has happened on the way into the Kingdom of God, and that is that the preachers have become money obsessed, and they think the Gospel can't be preached to the world, unless they pocket a trainload of your money. I wonder how the Gospel spread into all the world for all those years before television (you know, for the last two thousand years)?

Well, lo and behold, this young "pastor" of a local church happened to be on this television program, begging for money in the name of Jesus Christ, and saying that God opened a door in 2007, and now in 2008, it is time to go through the door. Guess what folks, I have heard this type of preaching all my adult life (and that is many years), and I don't think it will ever cease on earth as long as churchianity is functioning. This young man talked about Elijah and the miraculous jar of oil, and also how the raven fed Elijah. The reason pastors use stories of this type is because they want you to think that if you take care of the "prophet" of God, or the "pastor", God will take care of you and your children. The idea is that God is purchased with money. It all sounds good as you listen, but it is based upon EMOTIONAL belief and not upon the teachings of Jesus Christ. Pastors have the bad habit of making people believe that what God did in the Old Testament somehow applies to pastors or people today, based upon a single event once in the history of life on earth. I wonder why these pastors don't quote Jesus Christ? They use His name and sound sincere. Have they not read that Jesus Christ FULFILLED the law and the prophets? It is a new era. It is a different era. Jesus Christ is the sole source who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The past is past, and there is a NEW JERUSALEM (Revelation 21:2), and the things of God are of the Holy Spirit.

It is a false Gospel for preachers to convey to people, that Jesus Christ can be bought with tithes, seed or money offerings. That is perverse. What the preachers do is try to tell you that "obedience is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22), implying that you need to tithe to the pastors and the churches, because that is what "obedience" is. Again, many pastors love to take Old Testament passages and make people think that how God dealt with the physical, very carnally-minded tribes in that day, apply to Spirit-filled Christians today. The examples that pastors frequently quote, to satisfy their money and power-over-you agenda, were never quotes that Jesus Christ taught as a means of taking up money collections. So who do these preachers really follow? Jesus Christ or their own wild imaginations? Show me where Jesus Christ quoted a story about Elijah, in order to finance His ministry? Get real preachers, get real!

If church goers really took the time to "think" about what preachers say and evaluate what they say against what Jesus Christ taught, they would have to shake their heads in utter astonishment. It is long overdue that pastors find the REAL HEAD of the Body, and it is not the guy in the pulpit, and it is not Elijah, nor Moses, nor Abraham, nor the "Old Testament." Pastors may be sincere, but they are often sincerely wrong. It is just that they don't know that you know they are wrong. Maybe some day they will awaken from their stupor.