Red Flags Concerning Offerings
Tony Cooke
The following is the fourth article I’ve shared in recent times dealing with finances and offerings. Much of this material is excerpted from my 2012 book, Qualified: Serving God with Integrity and Finishing Your Course with Honor.
https://tonycooke.org/store/
Other articles recently published on our website include:
Common Sense Thoughts on Prosperity
Who Were the Poor in the New Testament?
Avoiding Manipulation in Offerings
Red Flag #1
It should be a red flag when the impression is given that as a result of giving in a specific offering, you will receive some special kind of blessing, miracle, or breakthrough that you would not otherwise be able to receive if you were simply giving to your church or supporting another ministry.
Frequently used incentives include things like: all your debts will be supernaturally paid off, you will receive a needed healing, or your children or spouse will get saved… all because you gave money. Again, watch out for the “token disclaimer.” You will probably be told, “Now you can’t buy a miracle, this is a matter of faith!” Nevertheless, the specifically prescribed way you release your faith is by giving money in this particular offering.
Decades ago, Gordon Lindsay wrote, “Perhaps the most serious scheme to raise money is one promoted by a certain religious adventurer who promises the people that God has given him the gift to make them wealthy, if only they will give him a good offering. Such assertions approach to the crime of blasphemy.”
Red Flag #2
It should be a red flag when “specially anointed” oil or prayer cloths are used in conjunction with offerings. While cloths (Acts 19:11-12) and anointing with oil (James 5:14-15) are definitely mentioned positively in the New Testament, caution must be exercised to ensure that these things don’t become gimmicks to initiate an appeal for funds. In some situations, these are initially offered for free by certain ministries, but strong financial appeals soon follow.
Likewise, some have offered “prophecies” for a donation, and in some cases, the first “prophecy” is just a teaser. Guess what you have to do to get the more detailed “prophecy” that will really release God’s blessings in your life? That’s right: send more money. No one is so audacious as to say outright that they are selling the blessings of God, but when all the veneer and spiritual lingo is removed, that is essentially what is happening.
Red Flag #3
It should be a red flag when any type of ministry diminishes your sense of priesthood. Instead of you having your own relationship with God in which you can exercise faith, use wisdom, and be led by the Spirit yourself, you are dependent on the minister with the “special prosperity anointing” to direct you into receiving your blessing. Legitimate ministry supports and reinforces your sense of priesthood before God; it doesn’t create an unhealthy dependency on some “super minister” who, in essence, becomes your link to God and God’s blessings.
First Timothy 2:5 says, “…there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” Legitimate ministry cultivates your dependency on God, His Word, and your ability to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Unhealthy ministry promotes a dependency on some specially anointed minister, who alone can facilitate God’s blessings coming to you (especially when your faith is “activated” and “released” by the financial seed you sow into “God’s servant”). Intimidation may even be used, projecting to the listener that he is being disobedient if he does not participate or is being “religious” if he questions the supposedly infallible word of God’s anointed servant.
Red Flag #4
It should be a red flag when marvelous testimonies are offered from individuals who experienced extraordinary miracles as a result of giving to a particular ministry. The implication is that if you give, then you will also experience the same kind of results. I’ve noticed on TV commercials for weight loss products that a testimony is often given in which a person shares their story of drastic weight loss via that particular diet plan. At the bottom of the television screen in small letters is typically the phrase, “Results Not Typical.”
Perhaps that is a legal requirement for secular advertising, but it would be refreshing to hear a minister acknowledge that most people who give are not going to find an unexpected $75,000 check in the mail or get their house miraculously paid off because they gave in that one “special” offering. It is also unfortunate that some ministries have resorted to brochures and “infomercials” that feature pictures of mansions, swimming pools, luxury sports cars, diamond jewelry, gold bars, and huge stacks of cash.
Such tasteless promotions (in the name of the Lord) shamelessly appeal to greed and remind me of Paul’s warning to Timothy regarding, “…men who are corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, who imagine that godliness or righteousness is a source of profit [a moneymaking business, a means of livelihood]. From such withdraw” (1 Timothy 6:5, Amplified).
Red Flag #5
It should be a red flag when the minister suggests a donation amount based on a particular Bible verse or through the use of numerology. For example, after preaching on Isaiah 55:11, a minister suggests that if the listener needs a miracle, he should give an offering of $55.11. It is interesting that ministers who use this technique are far more likely to preach from Psalm 107:20 than they are from Psalm 1:1. After all, an offering of $107.20 is much better than an offering of $1.01. Offerings based on some numerological interpretation of the Bible are almost always the result of human manipulation, not divine inspiration.
I would have no problem if, for instance, on a church’s 50th Anniversary, the leadership of the church suggested that everyone prayerfully consider giving an extra $5, $50, or $500 to do what they can toward some special project. However this should only be a suggestion. It becomes problematic when the “highly anointed minister” plays “the Lord told me” card, and authoritatively proclaims that everyone who gives $500 or $5,000 is going to receive some type of blessing that can only be accessed by giving this particular divinely decreed amount. That is when it becomes manipulative and coercive. Always beware of anyone who endeavors to prophesy money out of your pocket – and into theirs!
Red Flag #6
It should be a red flag when dates of certain Jewish feasts or other Old Testament events are used to promote special offerings in the New Testament era. Since most of us are New Testament believers from non-Jewish backgrounds, these days are not to govern our walk with God (Galatians 4:9-11; Colossians 2:16-17). In writing to a congregation of mixed background (Jewish and Gentile), Paul indicated that there should be tolerance and respect when it comes to background issues and personal convictions (Romans 14:1-9), but there is no New Testament basis for proclaiming that God will especially bless “Old Testament-based” offerings in the Church age.
Red Flag #7
It should be a red flag when a message is peppered with not-so-subtle hints about how God has blessed people who have given to the minister or his ministry. Those types of hints (to borrow the terminology of fundraisers) are called “greasing the chute.” In other words, it is psychologically conditioning the people to give. It should also be of concern when excessive time is spent by ministers talking about all the wealth and material blessings that they have received.
Ministers are called to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2), not to parade their possessions. Paul said that love, “…is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily” (1 Corinthians 13:4, AMP). Paul also said, “…our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you.” (2 Corinthians 4:5, Message). God never ordained that ministers have a “rock star” or “celebrity” mentality; we are called to be servants. We are certainly not called to manipulate people for our own personal gain or benefit.
Background History
Deception relative to financial offerings did not begin in the Middle Ages, but it certainly reached an apex during that era. One of my favorite movies chronicles Martin Luther’s ministry, leading up to, and through the Protestant Reformation.
In the movie, Luther’s distress over the unscriptural practice of indulgences is clearly seen. Indulgences, “…authorized by papal authority in 1411, had begun in the eleventh century with the teaching that pious service, say, in the Crusades would reduce one’s stay in purgatory. In the fifteenth century, guarantees of shorter stays in purgatory in exchange for monies became a regular component of fundraising techniques for the papacy.”[1]
In other words, if you gave a certain amount of money or did a particular act of service, the church would issue a letter shortening a loved one’s time in purgatory, or one’s own time in purgatory. The leading “indulgence preacher” in that era was Johann Tetzel, who was famous for the phrase, “As soon as the coin in the coffer (offering plate) rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
Luther was incensed over the spiritual manipulation of people relative to finances, and his disgust over indulgences was a primary motivation in his launching of the Protestant Reformation. In Luther’s 95 theses, he said, “those who preach indulgences are in error when they say that a man is absolved and saved from every penalty by the pope’s indulgences,” and “there is no divine authority for preaching that the soul flies out of the purgatory immediately the money clinks in the bottom of the chest.”
Indulgences as described above may seem abhorrent to most all believers today, but we need to make sure that we don’t have the same type of mindset that makes us vulnerable to slick, manipulative practices by those who fit Peter’s description: “They give the way of truth a bad name. They’re only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you” (2 Peter 2:3 MSG).
[1] Bingham, Jerrey, Pocket History of the Church, (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2002) 113.
