Why don’t preachers stop beating around the bush?

[Craig]

I read some more of your comments on tithing, Ray.  Great stuff! What an eye-opener, to realize that italics can radically alter the true meaning of a verse.  In Malachi, it is someone else doing the cursing, and who do preachers feel like cursing more than those who wise up to their greedy game?  Men of the cloth count on people being way too busy to read the Word of God for themselves to check the truth of  the dogma (dog mess) which spews forth from pulpits worldwide.

Why don't preachers stop beating around the bush, and admit they are only hirelings out for an easy living?  Life is too short to be mealy-mouthed about what you really mean. The way I see it, if you want to go to a fancy church and enjoy the padded velvet pews, the thrilling concerts, the expensive guest speakers and the upper crust atmosphere, you should be willing to kick in your fair share, same as if you wanted to chow down in a five-star restaurant instead of McDonald's.  But for goodness sake, don't twist the Word of God to make it say what it doesn't mean!  Just be up front with the folks and tell 'em to dig deep in their wallets because there's no free lunch at  Scrooge's spiritual restaurant.  If  poor people can't afford to pitch in to help pay for Pastor's fancy church fixtures, there's plenty of house churches and congregations meeting in storefronts, where the overhead is much lower. And the burdened poor would no longer be tempted to feel resentful that they eat peanut butter to help finance Pastor's next first-class jaunt to some tourist hot spot.

The whole concept of the IC (institutional church) is suspect. I no longer believe in the validity of the ritualized, dead religious clubs men call church. The IC is a white elephant on God's back. How sad, to realize that so many have deserted Christ because of the lies being peddled today in His Name.  I believe the Holy Spirit is restoring the true concept of  "church" held by the first century Christians.  God's true church is not a fancy building you go to, church is something you are, relating to one another as the Body of Christ.  Tithing to men denies the priesthood of  all believers taught in I Pet. 5: 2,5.&a mp;n bsp; Contrary to Scripture, it divides the Body of Christ into clergy and laity, marring the unity Christ desired for His true church.

Keep up the good work, Ray!

Pat


Thank you for your email and comments, Pat.
God be with you,
Ray