But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. -- 1Timothy 5:8 (ESV)
"I am a billionaire, because the assignment that the Lord gave me, He said: 'I want you to begin to confess the billion flow.'" -- Kenneth Copeland
Yeah, no. God gave Kenneth Copeland no such assignment. The bible goes to extreme measures to decry the love of money and how it can corrupt. I used to answer people who asked if I believed God wanted them poor with a resounding "no!" Through my years of study the answer now is yes, if that is the question on your heart. God would much rather you poor in this life but eternally saved than rich and going to hell. It is a matter of valuing the eternal life over this temporary stop. Prosperity and word faith have so infiltrated the church and the NAR now that we hardly bat an eye over quotes like this from the poster child of money whores, Kenneth Copeland. People like Kris Vallotton and Paula White can only dream to be as deceptively good at robbing the people of God as Kenneth Copeland is. He is definitively worth at least 760 million dollars but as we see in the quote, he brags about being a billionaire! Brags about it from the pulpit! Defenders will point to minimal charitable donations. Realize that even if Copeland gave a million dollars to charity that is only .01 percent of his wealth! Now while this is bad enough, Copeland used his television show this week to beat the sheep and mug them of their money despite the global pandemic of COVID.
"Fear of this coronavirus is faith in its ability to hurt you or kill you. The fear of 'What are we gonna do? I'm getting laid off at work!' Hey! Your job's not your source. If it is, you're in trouble. Jesus is your source! Whatever you do right now, don't you stop tithing! Don't you stop sowing offerings. 'Well, they won't let us go to church!' Well, email it in, then! Text together. Something. But you get your tithe in that church if you have to go take it down there and drop it off" stick it under the door or something. You get that tithe in that church, you get that offering in that church, and then you go home and do what you're supposed to do." -- Kenneth Copeland
Let us first go through the debunking process before we get to the sleaze factor. Fear of the virus is not faith in its ability to hurt you -- it is common sense. Christians are not supposed to check their brain at the church door. Italy now has the entire country quarantined! Now I agree panic serves no one but to not fear this is to behave like the idiotic college kids on Spring Break who think they are impervious. Copeland says this to guilt Christians into thinking they are somehow dishonoring to God if they are afraid. Elijah was fearful unto his own death! David was frightened. Moses too. So stop this "I am more righteous than reality" garbage.
Secondly, your job is your source. Now now, calm down. God provides everything for us but to pretend that the actual place that gives us money so we might eat and live is somehow not our source is asinine Christianese. Realize that what Copeland is setting up is the argument that because Jesus is your source, you must keep paying Him via the tithe if you want to live. God is not a mafia boss waiting for His tribute before providing you protection. This is the reality of what hucksters like Copeland either do not understand or care about. There are real lives they are ruining. I often talk about the post made on Joel Osteen's page by a man in Texas who was about the have the sheriffs come and padlock his house. He was genuinely confused because he said he always tithed like pastor Joel instructed and gave above his tithe as Osteen taught. Not only was he not experiencing a "harvest" but he was about to lose his house. Now I did not expect the charlatan Osteen to answer this fellow but the responses from the Osteenites were an appalling mish mosh of castigation for not having enough faith and shallow prayers for the midnight hour. Do not kid yourself -- there are always victims of these snake-oil salesmen.
Which brings us to the sleaze. Make sure your outrage meter grasps this. A man who has made a billion dollars from stealing money from the flock is now beating that same flock to not stop tithing even if they lose their job due to the pandemic. People are dying by the thousands and here is Kenneth Copeland with his grubby, greedy hands outstretched to take more money from you. Look at the demonic desperation. Email it! Text it! Stick it under the door! Hurry! Get your offering to the church! Let me put a face on this type of greed. The face has a name, Bonnie Parker. She died of cancer in 2004 after she refused treatment in lieu of "sowing" money into Copeland's church. After her death her family found her diary in which she revealed that she believed if she sought treatment it would be a sin. Instead she just wrote, "God heal me, God heal me, God heal me." When John Oliver did an expose on this he followed it up with Gloria Copeland expressly preaching that it was better to pray than to seek medical treatment for cancer. Now, if you want to rely upon prayer rather than the solutions of this world, go for it. Just do not think that sending money to charlatans and wolves will increase the likelihood of the miracle you seek. Bonnie Parker just kept increasing her seed, trying to buy the healing Copeland promised her. Right up until she died.
There are an untold number of Bonnie Parker's out there. Kenneth Copeland has made this much money because people follow him. Tithing is not a requirement for New Testament Christians. It was part of Israel's civil law and it was nailed to the cross. Read Galatians and be set free. If we find a church that preaches the uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ then we will not find a better place to invest our money to give to the kingdom. God however is not waiting for you after work with a lead pipe looking to kneecap you. Look what the key verses state today. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, especially the members of his direct household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever! So enough about first fruits, tithe first or be cursed, or run and shove it under the closed church door. These are nothing more than carnal schemes designed by hucksters and whores to enrich themselves at the expense of you and your household.
Rev. Anthony
