Why the Business of Faith is Taking a Dangerous Turn

Money is a requirement for most in this society to survive. It’s a tool used by some to share the Word of God. It is discussed in the Bible on many occasions and most would consider it a necessary evil. Is the “evil” part of money becoming more of a problem today? Absolutely.

There are obvious examples that draw the attention of both the secular world as well as the church that give us a universal enemy towards which to point a finger. We’ll discuss some of those, but a deeper dive into the motivations of many who are more subtle in their endeavors will reveal a terrible truth: many attempts to spread the Gospel are driven too fervently by a need for profit or even survival.

Discernment that is given when we wear the Armor of God is all that is needed to see through the deceptions, but the need to fight this trend goes beyond the goal of not being misled as individuals. There is a very clear danger of the Word being corrupted and the spreading distortions of the Biblical worldview makes this more than something to avoid. It is something that believers should strive to abolish. This is where we get into murky waters.

Nothing done by man is pure. Even the best acts guided by the Holy Spirit, righteous as they may be, will have at least a hint of corruption from our sinful nature. In these finite bodies, we are incapable of being “good” even when doing the Lord’s Work and following His Will. For example, one might work fervently to expose a person to Grace and that person may accept Yeshua as their Lord and Savior. Even the most humble and obedient person doing this in the name of Yeshua will feel at least a hint of pride or accomplishment because it became part of our nature once sin was introduced into these bodies. That pride is corruption, so even the good act is tainted.

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.Mark 10:18 (KJV)

Even Yeshua, when He was in his earthly body, would not allow His disciples to call Him good because he was bound by the limitations of this body at the time. He ate. He could feel pain. He was killed. When He returned to His true form, those limitations were gone, but while He walked the earth He did not want to be called good.

It’s important to understand this point so we recognize that corruption seeps into everything we do. In business, in life, in all of our endeavors, there’s a scale that we must tip in the favor of our true mission. On one side is the persistent evil that is part of the nature of our world. On the other side is the body of actions that are driven by a calling to serve man for our Father. It’s a scale that measures what we do for the world and what we do for our Lord. Today, many scales are tipping towards the world. This is the risk we face.

Let’s explore different types of corruptions so that we can start to recognize what we can do to tip the scale.

The Obvious Deceptions

Depending on which Christian you ask about Trey Smith, they’ll likely either love him or loath him if they’ve seen his works. To some, he’s a bold and truthful believer on the quest to expose information not usually discussed on Sundays. To others, he’s a conspiracy theorist crackpot spreading an invalid message. We watch his videos for both information and entertainment.

One of his quests is to bring to light the evil natures of popular evangelists like Benny Hinn and Mike Murdock. These men are examples of the obvious deceivers. They utilize the business of faith to build empires and live lavish lifestyles through corruption and deceit. There are so many examples of people like this who will say anything they can to get more “love money” from the people they deceive.

Unfortunately, they influence millions of people who want to walk with Yeshua. Keep in mind that truth versus deception is also on a scale. There are many things these people say and do that benefit people. Just because someone follows them doesn’t mean that he or she is also corrupted. There are plenty of true believers in their congregations despite the corruption that surrounds them. With that said, those with discernment should be able to see through their lies and realize that they are driven by greed rather than the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

Here’s a fun video Smith made about Hinn:

We don’t need to talk too much about these people. If you’re reading this article, you probably already see through their deception.

A Quick Note on Cults

Televangelists and other scammers are often called “cult leaders” because they often generate the same sort of devotion that is associated with cults. The dangers of the various cults around the world are well documented, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve even more attention because of the way that they mislead people and turn them away from the true faith.

We don’t want to downplay the role of cults in any way, but it’s important to note that they are not driven by greed. There is a more sinister force driving them that we won’t discuss in this article; it’s something we’ll dive into in the future. For now, we want to make a clear delineation between the “business of faith” and the perversion of spirituality that is also rising in the world. Classifying them in the same category as people often do is not a fair comparison. People like Benny Hinn can have a positive effect on some of those they reach. People like Jim Jones, pictured here, and the modern occult leaders that have risen in his wake conform to a different type of evil that has only the required traces of a positive effect in the world. Though nothing can be purely evil, these cults are about as close as humans can get to achieving that level of deception and damage.

The Real Problem with Faith as a Business

We cannot look into the hearts of those who are clearly misleading people such as the popular televangelists. Therefore, we do not know if they are completely fraudulent in their endeavors or if they believe that they are doing God’s Work and just happen to be benefiting as a result.

The bigger problem lies in the people who believe in their hearts that they’re doing the right things but who have made sacrifices to doctrine, methodology, venue, or messaging in order to accomplish what they want to accomplish in a financially feasible way. Rather than trying to describe it as a concept, let’s look at some examples so that hopefully you’ll understand what we’re really discussing here:

Merchandise Sales

We’ll start off with one that would garner many arguments from supporters. It is becoming a popular business model to sell items to Christians. It’s an extremely lucrative market and there is a growing need for people to pronounce their belief of God in a world that is shifting to a secular mindset. Many are righteously calling for people to be bold in their faith, to accept that there will be criticism and ridicule, and to display their beliefs in all that they do.

These are all wonderful things in the fight for the faith, but there’s a risk. Often in an effort to increase sales and improve the profits or viability of the business model, companies will often resort to the use of inappropriate messaging or pop culture icons in order to keep sales flourishing. This takes people down a dangerous path because it can portray both the person displaying the message and the message itself in an inappropriate light.

Christian Websites and Forums

One might call me a hypocrite for mentioning this one. After all, my own business is one that focuses on marketing to help drive traffic to websites so that businesses can make more money. The difference between what I do professionally and what I am discussing here is that we do not promote Bible teachings in an effort to make money.

I once inquired with a popular religious site about writing there. The response was unexpected at the time, though now I understand why it happened. This site only allows writers who have a built-in following or who have a substantial social media presence. At first I assumed that it was for credibility; they probably have tons of terrible writers trying to post for them and a built-in following is a quality control so they don’t have to sift through as much garbage. Then, I realized what was really being said. They only want people, regardless of the message, who can drive more traffic to their advertisement-funded website.

Now, just because we do not take sponsorships or post ads here, that doesn’t mean we think less of those who do. It takes money to run a website, so the right ads or sponsors makes perfect sense. However, the money should be used to promote the right messages. Instead, many publications use the message (good or bad) to make more money. I have nothing against Nissan seen in the ad to the right on a popular religious website, but Google and other ad platforms are not a controlled message. Christian website that use them may be supporting anti-Biblical businesses without knowing it.

The Conference Circuit

I had a difficult time reconciling the way that many respected, intelligent Bible scholars promote a pretrib rapture doctrine. It seemed that many of them, particularly the most popular ones, would seem exceptionally aligned with sound doctrines, even if they went against the mainstream church teachings, but on the topic of the rapture they would fold. In some cases, they would contradict themselves when the discussion of the rapture came up, describing how this truth or that truth followed a certain doctrinal style but that the rapture was a topic that pushed logic out the window.

Then, I watched a documentary (wish I had bookmarked it at the time) that explained it all in a few short sentences. If a Bible scholar wants to be in the “club” that allows them to speak at the right conferences, appear on the right shows, get invites from the right churches, and sell books, they had to be aligned on this particular issue. We’ve seen Bible scholars who have risen in popularity only to plummet into obscurity if they switch their teaching to be against a pretribulation rapture. Conversely, I’ve seen one example where a lightly popular Bible scholar switched to a pretrib view, allowing him to get into the “club” and start making real money.

I’m not suggesting that any popular Bible scholar who preaches a pretrib rapture is doing so for popularity or out of greed. Many truly believe it. However, it seems to be a pragmatic approach to teaching the Bible. If you want to be able to spread the Word, you have to be pretrib (at least that’s what many are forced to concede).

Again, this is not about passing judgment. We still watch and learn from many who hold this false doctrine because other things they teach are solid. However, it’s a shame that a sacrifice of integrity and a willingness to participate in false teaching is perceived as necessary in order to be a successful professional Bible scholar.

Churches

This is a hard pill for many to swallow, but a good chunk of the churches across America and the world are sacrificing the delivery of the right messages in order to grow or even maintain their congregational size. It costs a lot of money to operate a church (too much, in our opinion), so many have been forced to be driven by a business model rather than focused on spreading the Gospel.

It has created a rash of lukewarm churches and congregations. It has church leaders who feel they are obligated to do what it takes to keep the doors open rather than promote the proper Word of God. It has created taboos within churches where certain important topics are avoided so they don’t turn away people who may be giving an offering.

There’s another challenge that we’ll discuss below in detail: Flinstone Vitamin Theology

Why this is Dangerous

We’ve spent a great deal of setup time to get to a very basic point. These sacrifices are made by Christian businesses for three reasons that all lead to one core.

1. You need money to continue spreading the Word.


2. You need customers (buyers, website visitors, conference attendees, or church members) to get the money.


3. It’s okay if the message is a little off as long as they’re getting the main message of Jesus Christ being the Lord.

This brings us to the core: many are so focused on providing for themselves, their businesses, and/or their ministries that they go against the Bible. It isn’t tolerance that is bringing more churches into acceptance of non-Biblical or even anti-Biblical doctrines. It’s fear. We’ve seen numerous occasions just in the last couple of years where truly fighting for the faith is going against a worldview that can be crushing.

The justification that many hold onto is the Flinstone Vitamin style of theology. They believe that if you want to spread the Word and cure the disease of ungodliness, that you will reach more people with a sweet, chewable little pill of Bible teachings rather than a 3″ hypodermic needle preaching fire and brimstone. Strict adherence to the Word is what Yeshua taught. It’s what God has always wanted. We are to strive to worship and honor our Lord every moment of our lives, yet so many churches are doing what they think they must to get people into their buildings for an hour a week.

We need the hypodermic needles. This cannot be a bulk play. When the goal is to make enough money to sustain a ministry or turn a profit, the message is what gets sacrificed and that’s simply unacceptable. One may wonder why we would spend the time to write a 2500 word article on the topic when it won’t reach 1/10th of the people that one of Rick Warren’s 140-character Tweets will reach. It comes down to faith.

Popularity and profit are not part of Yeshua’s equation. It’s better to reach a single person with the right message than to reach the masses with the wrong message.

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Why Christians Should Care About the Pagan Roots of Valentine’s Day

A few years ago, there are probably many who would be shocked about the origins of Valentine’s Day. Between the rise of available knowledge through the internet and the acceptance by many churches of non-Biblical doctrines, it’s likely nothing that would shock (or even sway) many today.

We could go into detail about the practices of Lupercalia, the original Roman festival of “love” that ran between February 13-15. The festivities started with animal sacrifices. Then, the skins of the animals were used by men to magically bestow fertility into women by flailing them with these skins. That is, of course, non-Biblical, but that’s not the main reason Christians should care about Valentine’s Day.

“It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it. That didn’t stop it from being a day of fertility and love.”Noel Lenski, Historian, University of Colorado at Boulder

We could discuss the Catholic establishment of the holiday by Pope Gelasius I that was intended to tone down the craziness of the pagan festival and meld it with a love celebration surrounding the story of St. Valentine, a bishop who was executed for performing marriages when they had been outlawed by Emperor Claudius II. Still, none of this is the reason that Christians should care.

The biggest reason that Christians should care is because of what the holiday has become. It’s not the commercialization, though yearly spending for the holiday is approaching $20 billion. It’s the fact that, as a tradition of men, it acts as a replacement for certain Bible teachings.

There are Holy Days established by God that we should follow. He created them for very specific reasons, yet most Christians are unaware of when they are or what they really mean. Instead, most have plans to enjoy themselves on man-made holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and/or Halloween. The first two act as replacements; we are supposed to love our spouses and honor our parents constantly. When a particular day is set aside by tradition that is supposed to be set aside for “extra-special loving and honoring,” we’re diluting the intent of the constants in the Bible.

In other words, we shouldn’t celebrate man-made events that are designed to pull away from the ongoing decrees.

That’s not to say that every man-made holiday goes against the Bible. Independence Day, for example, is a celebration designed to commemorate an important day in the country’s history while forcing us to remember something that we don’t normally think about on a regular basis. Celebrating the 4th of July does not dilute anything because we don’t consider it regularly. We should be considering our parents or spouses regularly without a holiday to remind us.

I’m not condemning anyone or saying that you’re going to hell because you bought flowers for your spouse. We are all sinners in one way or another. Our works do not get us into Heaven. Conversely, celebrating Valentine’s Day won’t keep us from Heaven. That doesn’t give us license to take an ancient pagan holiday loaded with debauchery and twist it into something acceptable to the morality of the day.

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He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 10 is one of the most confusing books of the Bible. Don’t get me wrong; the overarching message is very clear. However, within many of the verse are statements by Yeshua that can be hard to contemplate because they seem to have strange contradictions and/or commands that are not obvious to everyone.

One of the most misunderstood ones is actually very easy to get on the surface but it may have a much deeper meaning that is thankfully not hard to understand either if you’re looking at it the right way.

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.Matthew 10:39 (KJV)

This concept is mentioned more than once in the New Testament and has a root in a common theme within the teachings: if you protect your life in this world and it goes against Yeshua, then you can lose your soul. For example, if faced with a gun to your head and told to renounce Yeshua as your Lord and Savior, would you stay strong in your faith and accept death in this life? Would you cross your fingers or make a mental bargain that you’re not really renouncing Him, but only saying it to get out of the situation? It’s a question that everyone needs to be able to answer even if we’re never faced with the situation.

There may be a deeper meaning to the verse as well. Finding one’s “life” could be referring to a focus on the accomplishments, joys, and worries in our mortal, sinful lives. To lose our lives may be that we let everything go with faith in our heart that our Father will provide so that we can follow Yeshua with all of our being in this world. It’s a concept that Yeshua echoed in his own ministry:

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.Matthew 19:21 (KJV)

Unfortunately, it’s verses like this one that have been used by evil men to swindle people out of their money, to join cults, and to even take their own lives after leaving everything to their earthly deceivers.

It’s a verse that is not only complex, but also one that should give us hope. Regardless of the situation, no matter how dire of a circumstance we find ourselves in, we can know that by persevering through the trials and keeping our focus on Yeshua, we will have our rewards after this life.

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Paternity test required. No way a girl this lovely came from me.

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Jeb’s Last Name has Nothing to do with Why He Shouldn’t Be President

On one hand, the response has been good. We’re seeing more conservative groups and individuals going after Jeb Bush now before it’s too late. On the other hand, some of what we’re seeing is poor, particularly attacking the idea of a dynasty or similarities to the former Presidents Bush.

His name and his family really have very little to do with why Americans, particularly conservatives, should not want him to be the next President. It’s a combination of his ideas and his incompetence that make him dangerous.

First and foremost, he has already demonstrated with his campaign before it has officially begun that he makes very poor choices. First, his PAC hired Ethan Czahor who quickly resigned when offensive Tweets came to light. Either they didn’t vet him out properly (his Twitter account was public) or they didn’t think his Tweets were a big deal. Either way, it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of how voters and the media will view the people with which he surrounds himself.

That alone is inexcusable, but he and his team did even worse by releasing all of his emails including ones with personal data on Florida citizens. They published people’s social security numbers, among other pieces of personal information. This demonstrates carelessness and, again, a lack of understanding of how “that pesky technology thing” works in 2015.

Jeb Bush is a Bush. To some, this is a positive thing. To others, it’s a negative. That should not be the focus of candidates or conservative groups who do not want him to be President. The man is racking up mistakes left and right, demonstrating that he is not nearly competent enough to represent the Republican party, let alone be our next President.

Focus on the issues. There’s no need to make it personal or to make his name an issue. He’s accumulating enough fatal mistakes regardless of his last name.

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This is as close to a throwback picture as I have readily available. You may say, "But you look the same other than a different haircut." I would point to the old Jawbone bluetooth. This is so antiquated.

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Captain America Ring Pop. Nailed it.

It’s hard to tell whether this is just poor craftsmanship on behalf of the ring pop maker or a political statement about truth in advertising and the state of affairs in American politics.

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Christianity is Not a Task

It’s a busy world. Many of us are wrapped up in it to the point that we can’t always make time for the things we know we should be doing. There are things you can do to manage activities such as Bible study, but don’t let that get in the way of your complete faith.

Last year, I wrote an article about Bible study in which I recommended scheduling it on a calendar. This makes sense for some people, especially those who are so busy with their worldly activities that if it’s not on a calendar, it’s not going to happen. I stand by that recommendation, but it’s important for me to add a caveat.

There’s a difference between setting aside time for faithful tasks and turning one’s presence within the realm of Biblical Christianity into a task unto itself. One of the biggest problems with the lukewarm church and the secular society that builds so many “part-time Christians” is that there are so many people who are only focused on their faith during these specific moments. They “do church” as some people call it, then they go back to their worldly lives without a thought towards God’s Will or following Yeshua as our permanent, ongoing Lord and Savior.

You can schedule time for Bible study. You can’t schedule time to live a servant’s life. Everything you do must be focused on Yeshua and the Father. It isn’t an occasional thing. It isn’t about separating “Bible time” from “real life time” like so many of us have done. You cannot set aside time to do Christian things. You have to set yourself apart as being a Christian 24/7.

Devotion is not about having devotion time. It’s about being devoted. It’s about making every decision at every level with God on your mind and Yeshua in your heart. It’s about accepting His Will in all things you do and being mindful of the guidance of the Holy Spirit whether you’re deciding if the person you’re with is the right person to marry or if you’re picking between ranch dressing or blue cheese for your lunch salad.

Some would say that the Holy Spirit does not work with trivial matters such as salad dressing. That concept takes away from the sovereignty of our Father because it implies that we know what things are important and what things are not. We don’t know. Only He knows. To you, it may just be a salad and what taste you’re in the mood for today. God knows if the ranch is tainted and will make you sick. If you’re open to constant guidance, you won’t know why but for some reason the blue cheese certainly seems like the right choice this time.

Schedule the tasks. Live as a Christian. You shouldn’t try to schedule your beliefs.

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Romans 12:2 – ‘conformed to this world’

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.Romans 12:2 (KJV)

A good portion of the teachings of the New Testament focus on the idea that this world is not to be our focus. As believers, our thoughts are to be on the Kingdom of God above anything that this world throws at us. This world is run by the adversary. We are to stay strong in our faith and be guided by the Holy Spirit.

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