Friday 13 March 2015

Donation to Ministries: For what purpose?

I had come across an article where word faith prosperity false teacher Creflo Dollar said the following:

You can read the article here: http://m.christianpost.com/news/televangelist-creflo-dollar-needs-200000-people-to-donate-300-each-so-he-can-buy-65m-ministry-plane--135582/

There is so many problems with this regarding Dollar. First of all, Why does he need a private plane in order to travel overseas as in a private jet? One can always take an ordinary jet. Second of all, The apostle Paul, while he asked for donations, it was to fund the mission of the Gospel, Let us turn to the 2nd letter to the Corinthians:
"5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”[a] 6 I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. 7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!"

The money that Paul recieved from other churches may have been used to cover travel expenses and could be read that way, however, it wasn't extravegant travel, Paul didn't travel in first class on a cruise boat or something of that kind in the ancient world. The money he used was strictly to advance the Gospel and take the Gospel to other nations.

There is a case in the book of Acts where money was laid at the apostles feet, let's look:
"Acts 4:32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.


Acts 5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet."

Money was also used to assist others and help the needy, certainly a far cry from using a private jet. That money could be put to better use by helping those less fortunate from you.

Money itself isn't evil, but the love of money is and as we know, the case of the rich ruler who made money his idol, not to mention Jesus himself stated that one cannot serve two masters, It has to be either God or Mammon, NOT both.

Second,  Here's a principle I have. I don't ask for donations for my website, but if I did, they would be to fund getting more material to use for my website, namely theological material, be it a book or a lexicon etc.

If I want to get something that isn't relevant to the ministry like let's say a movie or a video game or even soundtrack, I'll pay with my own money I earn in my job, not rely on gospel donations to pay for them. I have spent some of my own savings to get some theological material, namely John MacArthur's book "Strange Fire", Along with James White's books namely "The Forgotten Trinity" and "The Roman Catholic Controversy" I don't ask for donations, but if I did, as said before it would be to get theological material for advancement of the Gospel, not for my own personal hobbies.

This is a disgrace what Dollar is doing. You don't need a plane of your own, just catch one. It is totally extraneous and unwarranted to ask for a private jet just to preach the Gospel.

Having said that, I hope he doesn't get on a plane ever again to preach, since his heresies like others such as Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer are a cancer. Plus, like the other word faith preachers (many can be listed here), Dollar preaches the prosperity Gospel, which is to be honest an abomination and is not Gospel at all.

For a detailed exposure of the Word of Faith Movement, I recommend going to these links:

Keith Thompson
Word of Faith Teachers: Origins & Errors of Their Teaching (Full Film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvC4lqaPgDo

Joel Osteen: Origins & Errors of His Teaching (a film by Keith Thompson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_CRWZNUkrk&t=10s

Michael Horton
Michael Horton on TV Word-of-Faith Cultists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnP23fQrFwU

These informative videos should be of great assistance to you.

Lest anyone accuse me of attacking Dollar for him having a private jet, Let me ask you this, Doesn't it seem strange he is not putting more effort into actually delivering a true Gospel message, but instead is focusing on prosperity and living in luxury at the expense of actually preaching God as sovereign Lord who reigns over you? Not to mention his false gospel is a cancer even if his motivation was to give it and share it with others?

Now there are biblical ministries out there that DO have honest reasons for asking for a donation and one thing we need to be careful is not to falsely accuse people of evil intent. There are cases I have seen where malicious intent is ascribed to them simply to discredit them rather than a concern for truth. A television broadcast for preaching the Gospel is acceptable and thus donations can be made to keep it on the air, if it's preaching the Biblical Gospel of course. Enabling someone to go on a mission to minister and help spread the Gospel via donations is fine too.

Creflo Dollar is not teaching a biblical Gospel, especially in light of his adherence to the Word Faith movement, thus his ministry shouldn't be supported in the first place and second, do I need to go over that fact about the plane not being needed?

Think on this issue.

Answering Judaism

Edit: Sunday 14th of March 2014: Apparently his link has been removed: http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/college-park/2015/03/13/televangelist-wants-millions-for-new-jet/70287852/

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