Tithing - The untold story

Giving is good, it’s a virtue, and noble too...It is more blessed to give than to receive…did I say money, no I didn’t, I said GIVING.

I would like to discuss a topic that many a preachers, pastors, Reverends, Bishops and the likes would rather you don’t go into details about, except of course if it is in line with what they teach. I have nothing against anyone, and its good to note that there are a few chosen who preach the word of God for what it is, who dedicate their lives to make the truths of the scriptures known to all men, and who seek to transform the lives of others through teaching and application of the tenets of the Most High, to such, may you live long enough to cause an impact enough to transform Christianity, yes, Christianity, not non-believers. Christians should be the starting point transformation.

I bring you Tithing!

Since the inception of today’s church many hundreds of years ago, teaching on Tithe has been confined to church leaders, and where any other party teaches on this topic, it has to be in agreement with the former’s teachings.

Let me pause and state that the tithing I refer to here is what is popularly known as 10% of one’s income, be it from a salary, investment returns, grant, gift, award and so on. Just a second, Questions have been asked on what part of one’s salary should be tithed, the gross or the net. Others don’t even understand what type of income they should tithe in the first place. Such questions, plus many others, emanate from the lack of understanding of the doctrine of giving, yes, GIVING, not just tithing. We know we should tithe, or so has been taught us that we should, not by the scriptures, but by the preachers of the word, self proclaimed or otherwise.

I am sure most of you will confirm having heard the phrase “will a man rob God?”, or something close to that in the sermons on giving, specifically on the topic of Tithing. What habitually follows is a condemnation of those who have not honored the “requirement” or “obligation” to tithe, sometimes even being referred to as robbers, and some preachers have even gone to the extent of using the Bible to condemn non-tithers to hell! This has made many Christians to pay their tithes, not out of fervor, but out of deception (where one obeys a law/belief which they can’t defend with the word of God), or out of coercion (where one is instilled with fear and guilt, not necessarily from disobeying the word of God for what it is, but for what the preacher says it is, or wants it to be), and still others out of mis-interpretation of the scriptures with the assistance of the preachers of the word.

Let us seek the Truth, so that we can be set free...so that we can GIVE freely…

In coming parts of this multiple part series, we shall try to understand Tithing from a biblical perspective, free from what we hear from others, from a Berean’s approach to teachings of the Holy Bible. We shall also seek to understand how this practice applies to the New Testament Christian. I will try to answer questions that many a Christian would rather not ask for the fear of being branded ‘robbers’

Keep it here…

Largest Bank in Kenya to Collapse – Dr. Awuor Prophesies

Dr. Awuor, the prophet famed for prophesies the Earthquakes that were to befall Kenya, of which tremors were felt in various parts of the country after the declaration, and other major earthquakes all over the world, is now prophesying to Kenya again, this time, about a financial institution. In a call broadcasted by Jesus Is Lord radio based in Nakuru, the Prophet declared that “an envoy of the Lord” was sent to tell him to declare that the Messiah is coming, and that the largest bank in Kenya, “with a global Outreach” is going to collapse.

He however did not give timelines, or the name of the bank.Below is the verbatim of the call.

Joan:           Praise the Lord Prophet of the Lord.

Dr. Awuor:   Praise the Lord pastor Joan.

Joan:           Praise the Lord my Lord.

Dr. Awuor:   Joan, the Lord has spoken with me. The Lord spoke with me today at about 2 o’clock, 2 o'clock east African time, 2 o’clock in the morning, in the night here in Kenya, and the Lord has spoken to me in a very tremendous way. The Lord sent he that spoke with me as the envoy of the Lord, he that was covered with bees all over him, millions of bees covered his head all the way to his shoulders, and he spoke with me. The Lord has sent him again to speak with me about a very critical situation that is going to befall the nations of the earth, and especially Kenya. The Lord has spoken with me again about the coming of the messiah precious people, and in this process he has spoken to me about a critical situation that is going to befall the nations of the earth, and especially Kenya is going to be affected. The largest bank in this country is going to collapse, I have seen the collapse of the largest bank in this country, and he that was covered with bees, standing right in the sky and speaking with me. The envoy that was sent from heaven to speak with me in this mighty vision of the Lord. He has told me that the largest bank is going to collapse in Kenya, and of course globally, and it is going to collapse in Kenya. It is the largest bank in this land, and is a bank that has a global dimension, a global outreach. And it’s a dire situation, people will be running up and down to withdraw their money but then the bank will have shut down. People will be crying, struggling to see if they can pull out their money, withdraw some money, but it will be too late. Again, there will be news, panic news all over the country as people will be rushing to withdraw their money. I have spoken with the man that is covered with the bees, and the Lord sent him tonight to speak with me about the coming of the messiah, and he told me that the messiah is coming. And, in this process, the largest bank in this land which is also a global bank is going to collapse and there will be a lot of running up and down as people cry to withdraw their cash. I’ve seen that news, the way the Kenya news outlets will announce it, I’ve seen the great panic, people running to withdraw money when that news circulated the nation and other nations. We have seen that ever since I gave the prophecy that banks would collapse after the conversation with the man that was covered with bees all over himself, and the Lord sent him as an envoy to speak with me he was standing in the skies and was covered with millions of bees all over his face, all the way up to his shoulders, and he gave me a report at that time, at the time I gave the first prophecy, and he said “now, I have collapsed all the banks, now, I have brought down all the financial institutions of the earth.” And we’ve seen that since that time, there has been meetings in Europe by the EU leaders, leaders from Germany, France, from all over the EU trying to resuscitate the banks, trying to test the banks, to recapitalize the banks, there has been a big panic over the stability of the banks in Europe and globally, but now it will affect Kenya also, the Messiah is coming. He that is covered with bees all over, all over his head up to shoulders has been sent again this night, 2 o’clock, and he spoke with me. He said, say that the Messiah is coming, Inshalla... End of call…

You can also find this call on YouTube by following this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHbRPyl549Y

Another Pastor Has Done It

As I write this, I know I am putting myself out on the firing line. I understand the consequences of questioning doctrine, but I have the right to state what I believe is not right, and I will do it till things get right.

When I heard about Pastor Thomas Wahome’s troubles with his former wife of two children (as she claims), two scriptures came to my mind.

But first, about Pastor Wahome. Pastor Wahome is the founder of the famous Helicopter of Christ Church, situated somewhere near OTC and Bus Station in Nairobi’s downtown. He got married to Leah Mueni in 2005 under the Kamba Customary law, and they begot two children aged 4 and 3 years old, but she abandoned them. Leah on the other hand claims that Wahome Wahome walked out on her in January 2011, abandoning his matrimonial home, and is now cohabiting with another woman. He has filed a divorce and Leah has sued to have the court compel him to pay her upkeep of up to over 300K.

Back to the scriptures. 1 Timothy 5:8 states “if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” NIV Version.

I do not want to brand Pst Wahome as one who has denied the faith, neither do I want to label him worse than an unbeliever. But I wonder if he has knowledge of the existence of this scripture in the bible, which I doubt. Let me explain my doubts. For those who take time to watch his programme on TV, you will notice that he rarely reads from the scriptures when delivering his “sermons”. He instead gives personal and other stories, which, in my opinion, are geared towards playing with the congregation’s emotions and make them believe that he possesses the powers that he proclaims. I don’t know whether he does. If he knew about this verse, as a responsible church leader, he would have managed this situation differently. If he was a responsible church leader, he would be cautious not to be seen to live a life portraying the opposite of what he preaches. But again, I doubt whether he really knows what he purports to preach. I put it to you, he is not interested in advancing the true gospel as per the written word of God. He is not interested in whatever impact his actions cause to the gospel of Christ. His priority is not making sure the word of God is received positively. His core interests are in accumulating and guarding his wealth acquired from the tithes, offerings, gifts, seeds, etc of believers desperate for a solution for their problems, the hard-earned cash of a people desperate to prosper as per his teachings. And this brings me to the second verse:-

1 Timothy 3:1 - 12 gives an outline of the qualities and qualifications of a Bishop, deacon, and their wives. I do not intend to outline all the qualities here as I believe you must have access to a bible, and in this error of Information access, you can access it with the simple click of a button.

I however cannot complete this without outlining some of them. A bishop should be:-

-          Above reproach – meaning he should be in a position where he can’t be carelessly accused, above blame, reproach or scolding. Count for me how many preachers are above reproach.

-          Faithful to his wife – they have mastered the art of working this out.

-          Temperate.

-          Self-controlled – many only need to be subjected to real tests, and you will easily tell. Remember when the government proposed taxation for churches?

-          Respectable – this quality may not catch many, but a considerable number is far from anything near worthy of respect.

-          Hospitable – while we have some of the wealthiest preachers and churches, people still die of hunger, go naked, sleep on the streets, die of poor health.

-          Able to teach – the has seriously gone berserk. Every preacher has his own doctrine, some do not even read the scriptures, and many twist the word to their selfish desires.

-          Not given to drunkenness – this they easily obey.

-          Gentle – a high calling for most of our preachers.

-          Not quarrelsome – we have quite a number who cannot be objective in public arguments.

-          Not a lover of money – am sure you cannot complete the list of those who come short of this.

When I look at many a current day preachers, and put them parallel to the qualities outlined in this passage, it pains me to realize how we have mutilated the original gospel of Christ. Of course only a few will be triggered to think by this, but I will not keep quite with it, until sanity, sorry to say so, returns to the church, until we start preaching the bible, until we start reading from the bible and not into it.

It is a pity that this is just an example of the many preachers, church leaders, deacons, Reverends and others who are causing the gospel of Christ great disservice. Believers should learn to shun such preachers/churches so that they lose relevance in our society.

GOD HELP US!

Cash for Blessings,,,

I am not one to fight preachers of the word of the most high. It is the source of life and I believe in freedom to spread it to the whole world, in accordance of the commands of Christ contained in the good book, directing the fathers of the gospel to go into all the world, preaching the word, and making disciples of all nations.

However, am pressed to try and speak against a number of trends that, as per the wisdom granted to me by the most High through the knowledge of His word, amount to deception, manipulation, and selfish schemes to self enrichment, at the expense of many poor followers looking to strike gold in the name of financial prosperity, and some rich alike, hoping to get richer.

We will continue with this topic in later posts, but let me highlight one incident that left me appalled at the illusory tactics of one televangelist, bent at enriching himself in the name of offering countless blessings to those in need of them. (We will discuss the misinterpretation of BLESSINGS later.) You will recall that it is this preacher who made alot of noise on TV after the government indicated that it would start vetting and probably subjecting church finances to tax. I will hold names for now.

This preacher was doing his kawaida service on TV, and as usual pronounced a lot of blessings to those willing to kujitolea kwa mali yao to God.

This particular day, the giving was different. The preacher declared that God would bless all those whose names started with the letters he was about to read out. So, I got interested and decided to wait for my names initials to be called out, and sure he did read them, and among the first ones. However, something told me that there was something fishy about this…fortunately for me, the preacher decided to repeat the letters, and I decided to check out how many letters were read out. I started the count as he called them out, and to my astonishment, he called 23 letters out of the 26 of the alphabet!!!

Before I told myself that God must have planned blessings for quite a majority, I decided to check out the missing letters. Your guess is as good as mine, the missing letters were X, Y and Q!!! And here comes my analysis.

It is common knowledge that most persons' names start with all the mentioned letters of the alphabet, save for the left out X, Y and Q, which account for a negligible minority. My take: -  

-          The preacher left out these three letters to conveniently avoid casting doubts on the authenticity of this “revelation” if he called out all the letters of the alphabet.

-          The preacher had to make sure that the letters he decided to call, or which were "revealed" to him, represented a majority of his audience and listeners, and the ones he left out only represented a negligible minority, who most likely were not watching TV after all.

The preacher then brandished a mobile phone, gave two mobile numbers to which listeners were supposed to MPESA their gift, and “message ikiingia tu hivi, utapokea Baraka yako”, he said.

It is upon this premise that I agonize at having to speak against this “televangelist’s”, and many others' way of getting congregations to give cash so as to reap blessings.

I am in no way against giving for the advancement of the work of God, I take pleasure in giving to the poor, the needy, the hungry, the unclothed, the unsheltered e.t.c. but it is the way the gospel of giving is presented to the listeners, with little or no reference or guidance from the word of God, and where the money ends up, building mega churches, buying the pastor the latest car in the market, buying the pastor a home in the best neighborhoods…but of course, these are all “a manifestation of the blessings of God”, or are they? You be the judge….

I rest for now….We will talk more later...