Calling
All Fruit Inspectors
I was on Facebook recently and noticed a post that had a
picture of TV minister, and his wife, in their private plane. The caption to the picture made a derogatory
reference to people supporting someone’s ministry who has an expensive home and
owns a private airplane.
Now I want to say right up front that I have only caught
bits and pieces of that particular minister’s program here and there and I have
never sent any money to his ministry. I don’t agree with everything he has
said, but I’ll bet that many of the people that criticize him don’t even know
what he preaches. They have heard rumors that he said, this, or he said that. That
being said, I find it disturbing that there are so many people that are down on
this man and judging his character without any real facts to back it up. I got
the idea from reading between the lines on some of the comments made that many
of the people commenting have never watched his program, or read one of his
books. Yet, they are calling him a scammer, a liar, a money grubber, a fraud,
and casting aspersions on his character in general. Most of this seems to be stirred up because
of his wealth. The idea of him having a mansion, and a private plane and at the
same time being a preacher apparently is unacceptable to these folks. They believe that television ministers should
not ask for money. They believe that Jesus was poor, therefore all preachers
should be poor. They think that since these preachers are wealthy, they are
therefore robbing the people who send them offerings and that they are taking
the ministry funds and using them to live a flamboyant lifestyle.
I would like to address this issue about TV ministers and
bring up some ideas that maybe these people have not thought of.
1)
I’m speaking to Christians now. Are we really
supposed to condemn a person when we don’t know the facts? How do we know that
a minister is doing anything dishonest just because he lives well? We don’t
know how he got this airplane or his mansion. It’s very possible that he was
blessed with these items because of the favor of God upon his life. Someone may have given them to him. Does anyone have any evidence that he is
taking money from the ministry for these things? Also, many TV preachers write
books and I’ve been told by one of these preacher’s church members that the
proceeds from book sales and speaking appearances is what is used for the
family’s living expenses. They do not
even take a salary from the church they pastor.
2) Those
who have TV ministries whether they like it or not, are celebrities. They are on television. Millions of people
see their program. Someone in that
position would find it impossible to live in your average house in your average
subdivision. They would be vulnerable to
any kook or nut that could easily find out where they live and they would be in
constant danger. Safety issues aside,
they would never be able to have a normal family life. Someone would be
knocking on their door all the time, night and day. Being a celebrity
necessitates a high level of security which could involve a gated estate, a
security alarm system, etc. Do they really
need a private plane? A speaker who makes lots of public appearances around the
country could find it difficult to be where they need to be if they had to
depend on commercial airlines. Why shouldn’t they have a plane if they aren’t
hurting anyone else, or stealing in order to have it?
3) Where in the Bible does God say that
prosperity is a sin? Prosperity encompasses much more than money. Prosperity is
success in life. In 3 John 2, the Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, I pray that you
may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” What about money? Contrary to what some
people may believe it’s not money that is the root of all evil. It’s the LOVE
of money that is the root of all evil. (I Timothy 6:10) In other words, it’s
okay if you have possessions, as long as the possessions don’t have YOU. I don’t know about all TV ministers, but I do
know of some that are wealthy that are givers. One TV minister in particular
gives away nice, hard bound books, and lots of other materials that he
otherwise could and does make money from and doesn’t even charge postage to
send them to you. This is regardless of whether or not you send him money on a
regular basis. Also he gives to people
in need and has a team that helps people that are caught in natural disasters.
4)Folks seem to have this idea
that Jesus was poor. Compared to what he left in heaven to come to this earth
to die for you and me, he was poor. But
by this world’s standards I don’t believe he was poor. Yes, I know that Jesus
made the comment that he had no place to lay his head, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean he was poor. He traveled a lot on foot, which was customary in
those days and there wasn’t always an inn in which he and the disciples could
spend the night. Hence, he had no place to lay his head. Also in John 19:24 the scriptures tell us
that the soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ garments. They would not have cast lots
for the clothes of a poor person. Another
example is that Judas served as treasurer for the disciples. That means the
group had a treasury. If you have to
have someone to take care of the money, there has to be money. In John 12:6 we are told that Judas was
stealing from the money box. There must have been enough money in it that the
disciples didn’t realize he was stealing it or else they would have kicked up
quite a fuss about it. The disciples
that were called “the sons of thunder” would have had a lot to say about that.
5) Then
there’s this idea that TV ministers shouldn’t ask for money. Now I am not in
favor of these preachers that go into long begging speeches at the end of their
programs. They tell you that if you don’t send them money they are going off
the air and try to make you feel guilty if you don’t send them an offering. It
doesn’t show much faith in God’s provision if you think you have to beg and
plead and manipulate viewers so that you can do what God has called you to do.
If God called you to do it, it would be to his advantage to give you what you
need to fulfill that calling. I like the
TV preachers that offer partnerships in their ministry, but they don’t beg. Or
there are those that ask you to pray and ask the Lord if He would have you to
give something and if so, how much you should give. I don’t see anything wrong
with that. These same preachers with a
relaxed way of fundraising, also tell you that you should first tithe and give
offerings to your local church before you send them an offering. I have never
watched one that said that in order to be saved I had to send them money. Someone made that comment on this post I have
been writing about and I have never seen this with any TV minister. However, if
they didn’t have financial support they couldn’t be on TV. TV time is not free, and it is, in fact, very
expensive. This is a tool that the Lord
uses to get the gospel into all the world and many people come to Christ
because of it.
5) Now I'd like to address the scripture in Matthew 7:
15-20 that talks about false prophets that come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravenous wolves. That scripture passage ends with “Therefore
by their fruits you will know them.”
Well, what fruits do we see from a particular TV ministry? How many
souls has this ministry led to the Lord? I’m thinking about a particular TV
preacher who was involved in a scandal and there were Christians that said some
very ugly things about him. He isn’t someone that ministers to me personally,
but I respect him because he has led countless numbers of people to the Lord.
Just because he fell into sin, doesn’t mean he hasn’t been used by God, and I
will not say anything against him for that very reason. One person who
commented on that post said that one TV preacher tells people they must follow
him in order to be saved. One of this person’s programs that I caught the end
of had him leading people in the sinner’s prayer and I never heard him say
anything about people having to follow him in order to be saved. He led them in
the regular sinner’s prayer according to Romans 10:9-10. So, I think the individual who brought this
up in the comments on the post, was going by rumors he had heard.
6) Again,
I am speaking to Christians when I say that I would remind us all of I Corinthians
13 in which says that love thinks no evil. How can we as Christians judge
someone and condemn them when we don’t even have the facts? God is the only one who is qualified to judge
such a person. In 1 Samuel 16:7 God told Samuel that man looks on the outward
appearance, but God looks on the heart. We can’t know for sure what’s in a
person’s heart.
In closing, I would suggest that if you don’t feel led of
the Lord to support someone’s ministry, or watch their TV program and maybe you
don’t have a good feeling about them ------ pass them by, pray for them, but we
shouldn’t be accusing them of things when we don’t have verified facts. If they are actually doing wrong, God will
deal with them and it will come out.
