"Pedalino - They have to start dreaming with Jesus. You have to invite Jesus into your finances.
Ah yes, the deep theology of dreaming with Jesus. To prove her point Pedalino tells of when her and her husband bought vacant lots in California at the start of COVID, on "faith." They apparently built homes which they then sold at the height of the housing market and made a killing. This was held up as a success story of inviting Jesus into your finances. Of course, how much money did she start with to be able to buy that much property in California? Please.
On tithing -
Pedalino - "well, you know Abraham tithed four hundred years before the law!"
Vallotton - "yes he gave ten percent."
Pedalino - "You know it is the red print in the bible that shows us Jesus saying to the Pharisees - it is good that you tithe. Think of Jesus as your business partner."
Because most prosperity pimps know the argument of tithing being part of the law is easily debunked as a rationale for giving today, they often go back to this one mention of tithing in the life of Abraham and want to pretend it set some kind of universal principle. In order to pull off that lie though they need to misread this story as well. After war, Abraham did not give ten percent but rather gave 100% of the spoils of war to the king so that he could not claim to have made Abraham rich. So, if they want to hold this up as a principle, we just need to give all of our spoils of war. Abraham gave NOTHING from his personal wealth. He did not give the spoils as an act of reverence but rather to protect himself from the king claiming falsely that Abraham's wealth came from him instead of God. The bible also gives no indication that Abraham ever did this again in his entire life.
As for the correct quote from Jesus to the Pharisees what the hucksters always forget is that Jesus had not gone to the cross yet and thus we were still under the old covenant. The Pharisees were Jewish and thus they were supposed to tithe. That is why Jesus told THEM it is good that THEY tithe! It is not a prescriptive verse for the church. The New Testament states that giving should not be under compulsion and tithing is compulsory by nature and design. Thus, tithing cannot be a model for New Testament giving. In closing Kris asks Samia if she has any closing encouragement and she actually says that she wants people to know they do not have to stay in poverty. How arrogant and heartless. Remember the example of our brothers and sisters around the world. Could you honestly look them in the face and tell them this? Someone once asked me why God doesn't let them win the lottery. My answer was simply - He knows what will happen if you do. We are all not destined for greatness and abundant wealth. Doing all things through Christ means we live the abundant life in lack and plenty. We are rich in Christ even if we are poor on this earth. That is not a "poverty" mindset but a biblical one. We should all strive to be better and money in and of itself is not evil. Loving it however is.
That brings us to a quick word about seeing a grift in action. I am on Kris Vallotton's newsletter so I can keep up on all of his antics. Every August Bethel runs a weeklong class called the school of the prophets where people plunk down stupid money to pretend God has called them to be prophets. Kris sent a summary email this week about how great everything went. As bad as most of this was, what caught my eye was a little further down in the email:
