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What Qualifies You to Be a Big Wheel in God’s Kingdom?

By Patricia Backora

Simon Peter never went to what you understand today as a “Bible


School.” He himself admitted he was just an ignorant fisherman
who had walked with Jesus. The disciples were widely known as
ignorant and unlearned men (Acts 4:13). The important thing was
they had BEEN WITH JESUS and sat at His feet to absorb His Word.

Directly trained by the Master under the clear blue skies instead of
in a classroom, these men were empowered by God’s Spirit to turn
the world upside down with the Mighty Works of God (Acts 17:6).
They gave witness of the reality of the Risen Christ through many
marvelous signs and wonders (Acts 4:29-30; I Cor.2:4). Those who
prayed for signs and wonders had previously been baptized in God’s
Spirit. But once again the place was shaken, and they were granted
a new filling of God’s Holy Spirit to bolster their power to advance
against the enemy. Pray for a refill of God’s power from on high
whenever you feel at a low ebb and overwhelmed by satan.

After His Resurrection, the Lord Jesus commissioned Peter to feed


His sheep (John 21:15-17). Thrice He confirmed Peter’s ordination
to the ministry of an under shepherd having oversight over the
Lord’s flock. Peter had never been to “Bible School” or any religious
institution to get his training for the mission field. No “church
board” guaranteed him a big salary or told him to wear a three-
piece suit and practice his homiletics in front of a mirror. By today’s
standards, Peter didn’t look much like a polished professional
entitled to the financial support of other Christians. He must have
gone barefoot or poorly clothed or even hungry part of the time.

If Peter had taught some of today’s flawed doctrines, he never


would have lacked for any material comfort this world could
provide. Peter could have afforded a mansion overlooking the Sea
of Galilee. He could have had dozens of servants waiting on him
hand and foot. He could have worn fancy ecclesiastical vestments
and a crown of authority on his head to show other believers who
was boss. But that was not God’s way. Instead of lording it over
God’s inheritance, Peter was a faithful under shepherd who wisely
taught ministers of the Word NOT to be overbearing tyrants barking
orders behind a pulpit (I Pet.5:3).

Peter would be outraged to see the abuses happening in today’s


carnal church system. How that insidious ten per cent tithing
system is rigidly enforced to fleece and bleed the poorer members
of Christ’s body dry. And the stupidest thing of all is: Hardly
anyone stops to wonder: Just what gives this man (or woman) the
right to call themselves a minister of Christ? Does God sanction the
authority of Bible Schools to “ordain” anyone to be lord over other
believers? And even if all Bible school graduates ARE true ministers
of God, does the Word of God give any alleged representative of
God the right to threaten a blood-washed saint with hell for failure
to turn over ten per cent of his or her gross earnings?

Many prestigious Bible colleges churn out graduates who studied


hard to get their degree, to entitle them to call themselves
“Reverend” and get respect that way. But that term is to be
reserved ONLY for the Lord God Who is mighty in power and holy
and just in all His ways (Psalms 111:9). It is idolatry to refer to
yourself as reverend because you are NOT the holy God, just a
restored sinner saved by grace and faith in Christ.

Still other men and women get other bogus titles such as “doctor”
which they do little or nothing to earn. Sometimes it is an honorary
status, but one which is still milked like a cow to gain benefits
thereby. If a sneaky preacher dresses up in a sharp suit and is
called Dr. so and so, and claims to be a graduate of some
prestigious earthly Bible school, the people automatically loosen
their grip on their cash and hang onto every word he/she says
without consulting the Lord first. If you do find yourself in a crowd
“sitting under an anointed ministry” it is a very good idea to jot
down any teaching comment that makes you feel uneasy and bring
them into your private prayer closet. Alone with God and your
Bible, He is able to either confirm or deny the validity of whatever
the guy behind the pulpit spoke that morning. Sometimes a farmer
in bib overalls has far more integrity and depth of understanding in
God’s Word than these polished professionals who are so eager to
rake in an easy living. An expensive suit does not make an honest
man.

Tithing is NEVER taught to Christ’s New Testament Church. It


wasn’t even enforced on Old Testament Jews who didn’t engage in
agricultural activities as a livelihood. Tithes were NEVER taken
from paychecks in either testament. Tithes were NEVER paid by
any Old Covenant priest. You, as a New Covenant believer, have
been made part of God’s New Covenant Priesthood (I Pet.2:5,9).
Why will you let some well-dressed deceiver defraud you of your
own priesthood in Christ by turning you into a tribute-paying peon
instead of a son or daughter of the Living God?

These deceivers swear that you’ll be blessed for tithing to THEM.


The opposite is true. You’ll fall back under the Law and its manifold
curses (Gal.3:10). Read Deuteronomy 28 to see what kind of
sufferings can happen to those who are under the Old Law, yet
perform it imperfectly or break any of it. Yes, imperfect keeping of
the Law is just as dangerous as breaking it! God doesn’t endorse
sloppy law-keeping that deviates from the rules set forth in His
Word. Nor did He ever give anybody, even a seminary professor,
the authority to rewrite or reinterpret His Word to suit themselves.

Although preachers eagerly seize on the ten per cent aspect of


tithing and ignore everything else but the misapplied curse of
Malachi, the Tithing Law (like the Sabbath Law) is comprised of
many ordinances. The tithe was to be taken ONLY from agricultural
produce of the Land of Israel (Lev.27:30-34). The tithe was given
BY MOSES FROM MT. SINAI TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Not to
the children of the Eskimos, the Chinese, the American Indians, the
Mongolian hordes, etc. Tithes were to be consumed in a meal of
rejoicing before the Lord (Deut.14:22-29). As part of that meal,
you could buy alcoholic drinks. If your pastor doesn’t permit these
practices, he’s breaking the true Biblical Tithing Law!

Preachers claim that your secular job is your harvest field, even if
you toil at McDonald’s for a living. Well, it should work both ways
then. In ancient Israel, the fields were neither sowed nor reaped on
the seventh year of the tithing cycle. If the pastor doesn’t excuse
you from going to your burger flipping job every seventh year and
excuse you from tithing on its fruits (which he swears is your puny
paycheck, not the burgers that actually grow in that harvest field)
he’s breaking the tithing law (Lev.25:4). Furthermore, it wasn’t the
field hands who were responsible for turning in the tithe of the crop,
but the OWNER of that field and the crop it produced! The actual
burden of producing the tithe was put on the farmland of Israel, not
the lowly wage earner.

If you’re a wage slave, the pastor looks ridiculous by calling your


workplace your harvest field, because you don’t even own it! If your
pastor were being more consistent in his comparison, he’d go to the
owners of the company where you worked to demand his cut of the
FRUITS of that alleged harvest field, whether it be burgers, or
plastic chairs, or lawn furniture, cars, etc. Money isn’t manufactured
at those places, just earned. As a tithe God wanted the OUTPUT of a
LITERAL field made of DIRT, not the wages of hired workers taken
from a pretend harvest field belonging to someone else! Unless you
work at the Federal Mint you don’t manufacture money. Next time a
tithe-taking preacher demands ten per cent of the fruits of your
labor, stick a hamburger or other manufactured item in the offering
bag and see how he reacts!
Every third year of the seven-year tithing cycle, all the tithe was to
be given to the poor, which included the Levites who owned no land
in Israel (Deut.26:12). If your pastor doesn’t give ALL the tithe to
the poor every third year of the tithing cycle, He’s breaking the
Biblical tithing Law.

If your pastor isn’t a direct descendant of Aaron the High Priest,


he’s an imposter and a fraud whenever he collects tithes, and he’s
doing it unlawfully (Heb.7:5). If he’s not of the Tribe of Levi, he has
no right to collect tithes of any kind.

What are you doing, listening to these lying oppressors, God’s


people? Don’t you believe God’s own words when I said, Ye are not
to lord it over each other because ye are all brethren (Matt.23:8)?
Is Jesus less of an authority over His people’s beliefs, just because
He looked more like a hippie than a business executive when He
walked the earth?

When your precious child takes second or third place to some fancy
preacher in your giving, that little one KNOWS you are withholding
the good that is due to him or her (Prov.3:27). Children soon wise
up to the fact that you’re making a religious offering out of what
ought to be going to their support (Mark 7:11-13; I Tim.5:8). It
leaves a lasting negative impression on that child’s concept of
his/her place in God’s Body, as being a second rate citizen of God’s
Kingdom who has to make do with the leftover scraps because
they’re not very important. While your child does without decent
school apparel or dental care, the pastor and his wife might be
vacationing in Hawaii.

One of the greatest lies being taught from the pulpit is that giving
to God means giving to seminary-trained professional ministers,
and it doesn’t count when you lavish a little money on your own
family to meet THEIR needs. God wants EQUALITY of well being in
the Body of Christ(2 Cor.8:14). Consider your own physical body.
You don’t walk barefoot in the snow while the rest of you is covered
up with a warm coat. When part of your body suffers, ALL of you
suffers. Yet in Christ’s own body the Church on earth, one tiny part
lives lavishly while the other part suffers lack, and in many cases
preachers LIE when they say they “feel your pain”. They live in their
own tidy little garden of delights reserved only for themselves and
their privileged entourage. You and other pew warming believers
are shut out of it as you toil to hang onto whatever you have.

Those who teach and enforce tithing today are contradicting the
Spirit of God who said New Testament Gentile believers are NOT
required to keep the Old Law (Acts 15:24,28). That’s a dangerous
position to be in, to KNOW you’re deliberately deceiving God’s
people by yanking isolated verses out of context and misapplying
them to ram tithing down the throats of harassed Christians who
are struggling to make ends meet.

God’s people should put more credence in the words of John the
Baptist, who wore the worst sort of clothing, than in the polished
lies of rich, well-dressed preachers trying to bamboozle money out
of you.

Luke 3:9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees:
every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire.
10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?
11 He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let
let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let
him do likewise.

In Mark 9 Jesus’ own apostles argued about which of them was


highest in the pecking order. In verse 35 Jesus told them they must
first become the servant of all before they could lay claim to
greatness in the Kingdom of God Jesus set a little child in the midst
of them and told them they needed to become childlike. In John 13
Jesus put them all to shame by getting up from dinner, tying a
towel around his waist, stooping down and performing the most
menial of tasks: washing His disciples’ grungy feet. Jesus told them
that the servant is no better than his lord, and if they mean
business with Him they’ll follow His example. How many modern
preachers refuse to get up from the fat table where they’ve been
stuffing themselves on luxuries, and go minister to the humblest of
Christ’s disciples! Instead of helping out that poor widow who’s
about to be thrown out of her apartment, they demand that so-
called pew Christians wait on THEM hand and foot with tithes and
special offerings to finance their jet set lifestyles!

Charity toward the less fortunate and LOVE IN ACTION are


evidences of the Christ life within (James 1:27). Share your
blessings with the less fortunate instead of listening to preachers
who say that greed is godliness (I Tim.6:18; Pet.6:5). Whether you
give a few minutes of your time, or just a smile and word of
encouragement if that’s all you’ve got, you get rewarded in heaven
for whatever acts springs from a motivation to share the love of
God in Christ Jesus.

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