Found this astounding article that opens up the research on how religious organizations provide a safe haven for 34 billion in fraud and theft ANNUALLY! Here are a few excerpts. It will blow your mind!!
The January 2011 issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research reported that “Christian religious leaders will commit an estimated $34 billion in financial fraud in 2011 while $31 billion will be spent on global missions.” Researchers from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimate that Christian religious leaders will commit $90 million in financial crimes daily and the fraud is growing at a rate of 5.97% each year. If the researchers are correct, religious financial fraud among Christians will almost double in 14 years to $60 billion annually by 2025. 1
Dr. David Barrett, the first editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia and a researcher for the Center, has been studying religious financial fraud for more than 20 years. According to Dr. Todd Johnson, the Center’s director, these statistics were the result of Barrett “developing a balance sheet for global Christianity.” Barrett was “trying to understand the totality of Christian finance.” 2
Is this for real?
Here’s another excerpt
Here is a small sample of religious financial scandals from around the world:
- Brazil: Bishop Edir Macedo, head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, and 9 of his associates have been charged with embezzling more than $2 billion. 4
- Canada: Televangelists Ron and Reynold Mainse allegedly recruited investors in a Ponzi scheme. 5
- China: A whistleblower goes to jail for speaking out after donations for earthquake victims were stolen. 6
- Italy: Police confiscated 23 million euros in a Vatican bank account as part of an investigation into money laundering. 7
- Ukraine: Pastor Sunday Adelaja was charged with fraud in promoting a business venture to his congregation that lost $100 million. 8
- United Kingdom: Church treasurer Derek Klein embezzled funds to pay for a stamp collection. 9
- United States: Trent Huddleston, former senior accountant at Oral Roberts University, alleges that more than $1 billion was money laundered annually by members of the Oral Roberts University board. 10
The whole article is so eye-popping! There is much more. You must read! After reading, I almost want nothing to do with church. I don’t even want to be called the ‘church’. I don’t want to be called a ‘Christian’. This is so embarrassing! How much more anti-Christ can you be? Maybe the 501c-3, non-profit, religious machine is the depiction of the anti-christ?
All along Tim LaHaye has us looking for some attractive European man with hidden horns and fangs, when we’ve created an institution that looks like Jesus, talks like Jesus, and seems like Jesus, but resembles the anti Jesus. How much more anti Christ can you be than a ravenous wolf dressed as a sheep? What does a real follower of Jesus do? This certainly puts me in a quandary.
Without looking closer at accusations across the globe, we can’t condemn our brothers and sisters. In the case of Bishop Macedo, no charges have ever stuck and it is more a matter of jealousy about Brazilian issues.
Anyone who pays a tithe to their pastor/church has been a victim of religious fraud.
The Biblical tithe was NEVER on money. The Biblical tithe was NEVER on income. The Biblical tithe was ALWAYS on GOD’S miraculous increase of crops and animals. Nothing else.
Leviticus 27:30-33, Numbers 18: The First Tithe – a tenth of crops and animals and commanded to take the tithe to the Levites.
Deuteronomy 14:22-27: The Second Tithe aka The Festival Tithe – a tenth of crops, plus add to that the firstborn animals, and take for the yearly feast.
Deuteronomy 14:28-29: The Third Tithe aka The Three-Year Tithe aka The Poor Tithe – a tenth of crops, kept at home, and invite the Levites, widows, orphans, stranger to eat.
Now, tell me. Which of the above three tithes commanded by God does anyone follow today?
The ONLY people in the Old Testament that were commanded to tithe were those who INHERITED THE PROMISED LAND WITH EVERYTHING ON IT. They got the land, house, animals, crops, etc. ALL FREE AND CLEAR. No mortgage payment or rent to pay. And THEY were commanded to tithe on the crops and animals and take it to the Levites who INHERITED the tithe INSTEAD OF the promised land with everything on it. No one else tithed. Wage earners did not tithe. Jesus didn’t tithe. Paul didn’t tithe. Peter didn’t tithe.
HOW CAN YOU COMPARE THAT WITH CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE TO PAY THEIR MORTGAGE PAYMENT OR RENT, INCOME TAXES, PROPERTY TAXES, SALES TAXES, ETC?
There is no way to justify making some “principle” out of the Biblical facts and then apply it to Christians today. It is just flat out wrong and makes no sense at all.
The tithing scam started in the churches around 1870. I find it quite offensive that pastors have appointed themselves to be the receiver of what belongs to God. After all, the pastor says the tithe belongs to God. Then he self-appoints himself to receive the tithe!!!
God never gave any pastor or church permission to receive his tithe or his gifts. God commanded His tithe be taken to the Levites, FOREVER, in Numbers 18.
Since the tithe belongs to God, if your pastor accepts it isn’t he stealing it from God?
Lucky for those of you who think you tithe, you are merely giving a tenth of your income to your church. You aren’t paying the Biblical tithe or you would be disobeying God’s command to take His tithe to the Levites. But then, if in your heart you are paying the Biblical tithe, then I guess you are sinning by breaking God’s commands.
This is not true. I go to a wonderful church where my pastors don’t take a salary. They both have jobs and buy there own things. They are always giving to us members in need and for the community as a whole. They have given away cars to those who were in need. The lady who won didn’t have a car and she was taking care of her grandchildren while her daughter was in prison. They have built houses to help people and some live without having to pay rent. There are still some good sold out to God Ministers left don’t put them in to all one catagory. God said he is the only judge and they will receive what judgement he has for them. They will not escape. I suggest that you talk to God for yourself. If you aren’t living for God you are giving you money to the devil everyday!
“Since the tithe belongs to God, if your pastor accepts it isn’t he stealing it from God?”
Well doesn’t that put a new twist on Malachi 3:8… :)
@Final Trumpet,
Did anyone actually take the tithe directly to God? God commanded the tithe be taken to the Levites. God GAVE the tithe to the Levites AS THEIR INHERITANCE. Therefore, if God was robbed of tithes, it was because they didn’t take the tithe to the Levites per God’s command, OR they stole the tithe from the Levites.
Therefore, if anyone other than a Levites accepts God’s tithe, they are robbing God.
Consider the following:
Let’s look at Malachi 3. First, who is God speaking to – the priests or the people?
We need to study the entire Book of Malachi rather than take a few verses out of context.
By the time we get to verse 6 in chapter 1, we see it is the priests that are being addressed at that point.
In both chapters 1 and 2 of Malachi there is a conversation going on between God and the priests. Every time the word “you” is used, it is referring to the priests. Chapter 3 continues with this conversation. In verse 5 God says “And I will come near to you to judgment…..” In the Old Testament, during this period of time and generally speaking, only the priests could get near to God. It is only in the New Testament that born again believers, you and I, can get close to God. So up to chapter 3 verse 5, God is speaking to the priests. The word “you” is still referring to the priests. There is nothing in the scripture to indicate this changes when you get to verse 8. But that’s not all.
Read Numbers 18:29-30 and then read Malachi 1:14. Those verses explain robbing God of the offerings. The PRIESTS, not the people, robbed God of the offering by giving to God the worst instead of the best.
In Nehemiah 13 we are told that the priests stole the Levites portion of the tithe; therefore, they had no food to eat at the temple, and they went back to their own fields.
Therefore, taking the Levites portion of the tithe is the robbing God of the tithe. Or to put it another way, THE LEVITES WERE ROBBED. God said He was robbed because the tithe was not taken where God directed.
Next, in Malachi 3:10 God says to bring all the tithes to the storehouse. The people took the tithes to the Levites who lived in the Levitical cities, not to the temple. The Levites took the required tithe of the tithe to the temple. (See Nehemiah 10:37-38) Only those tithes ever made it to the temple. The priests then took those tithes to the storehouse. It only makes sense if God is speaking to the priests in this verse.
Since in Numbers 18 God makes it perfectly clear that the tithe belongs to Him, and He gave it to the Levites, anyone who takes God’s tithe to their local church must also be robbing God since the Levites are not the ones getting it.
I see no way around this. Either the tithe ended per Hebrews 7:18, OR those who take God’s tithe to their local church must be robbing God since God gave clear instructions where to take His tithe. There is nothing in God’s Word to show that God ever changed those instructions. Therefore, the only conclusion I can reach is that taking a tithe to your local church is NOT paying the tithe to God. It is giving it to man. Nowhere in God’s Word does He give permission for the Christian Church to receive His tithe.
Therefore, IT IS A SIN AGAINST GOD to take God’s tithe to your local church. IT IS A SIN for any pastor to accept God’s tithe.
Gary I agree with you so much.
Final Trumpet. Why grace preachers with the respectful title of pastor if you think they are crooks? Sure they are the pastors that eat the sheep but not pastors after the heart of God who die for the Sheep. Jesus said the first should be last so many times why do folks miss this when it comes to Christian leaders. Christian leaders should be the most humble!
I am so sad about that preacher in Ukraine he is from Nigeria and It is so sad to see a positive African in Europe making such a bad name for Christians. I pray he is not guilty.
Praise Jesus friend when did you start challenging the traditions of Church tithing? Your post was so strong I was greatly encuraged in Christ!
Your post was wonderful and informative. I will download your book.
Thanks steward!
Christ in Us
I am a misionary from Holland and i wil say AMEN Brother
Good post. My comment was just to point out the irony of the fact that the preachers always use Malachi 3:8 to “milk the sheep” when it is they who are the ones doing the stealing. Can goats milk sheep? Of course we know the answer.
I would like to know why Jesus never said a word about giving tithes. I believe that giving to God is giving to the needy and not the Catholic church or Judeo Christian churches.