Banking on God: Theology, Part 1

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Uncials & stuff—now we're getting serious!For Christians, where do our ideas on wealth and benevolence originate? Well, supposedly from the Bible.

But we tend to look at the Bible as chunks of passages, some of which we like, some of which we tolerate, and some of which we ignore altogether. Even in the most dedicated Bibliophile, a tendency exists to proclaim fealty to every word of Scripture, yet the backtracking starts the second a few contentious verses come up.

Few passages are more problematic for people than those with money-related insights. Sometimes it seems as if no two churches preach the same basis for their perspectives on wealth and benevolence.

Readers of this blog, though, tended to fall in line on this topic. Critics would say that this is due to self-selection in the polling process, as these polls can’t possibly be a truly random sampling of American Christendom. Though I would tend to agree with that complaint, I also know we get a pretty broad readership here, more so than some other blogs that strictly cater to one specific type of Christian denomination or philosophy.

Despite whatever sampling problems these polls might have, let’s look at the theology readers bring to the issue.

A reminder of the Bible passages quoted for the first few questions:

Deuteronomy 28:13 – “And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them….”

Psalms 1:1-3 – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Proverbs 21:13 – Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.

Malachi 3:10 – “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

Matthew 6:31-33 – “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Mark 11:23-24 – “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Luke 18:24-25 – Jesus, seeing that [the rich young ruler] had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Acts 2:44-45 – And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 – The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

1 Timothy 6:10 – For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

[poll=27]

All I can say here is that I’m not surprised by the results. The top three verses are heavily used by churches when justifying their perspective on giving. My only surprise is that the Deuteronomy passage (“Head, not the tail”) was not supported more. That’s a very Pentecostal perspective and I know a respectable number of Pentecostals read this blog.

Then again, the number of people taking these polls dropped by half by the time this poll ran, so perhaps some readers just got fed up with a week of polling!

[poll=26]

I found these responses to be interesting because it shows that readers are more aggressive and less structured in their giving than what their churches preach. The Malachi passage (“10 percent”) dropped here and the Acts passage (“Selling possessions and sharing wealth’) moved up. I think that’s a good thing. Considering how often I talk about going “all in” on this blog, I’m not surprised that readers tended to agree.

[poll=28]

I once blogged that the Mark passage (“Believe and it will be yours”) is the least-believed verse in the Bible, and eerily enough, you readers verified that my assessment may not be off the mark. (“Off the mark“—Ha! a pun!) The Acts passage, though more readers agreed that it was close to what they believed, was also hard for some to handle.

The Mark passage is tough, but I know I personally struggle even harder with the Psalms passage (“In all that he does, he prospers”) in my own life. I know a lot of good people who are struggling, some asking when that promised prosperity is going to show. That’s a tough call. I think of myself as a Psalm 1 kind of guy, but certainly not everything I’ve done prospers. Still trying to process that one in my own life. I guess a few others struggle with it, too.

[poll=29]

Interestingly, my previous unpacking of the poll on tithing had a lot of people agreeing with me in the comments that the temple tithing system had been completed in Jesus and was no longer binding, but a quick look here shows that a third of you disagreed. I’m wondering why the dissenters didn’t comment then on my follow-up post on tithing. Dissenters?

[poll=30]

Well, we’re on the same page regarding consumerism, that’s for sure. Same goes for neglecting the poor. Thanks for those answers. Fewer picked the prosperity gospel as a threat, but guess what? That’s what the second part of this analysis will address, seeing that a few other blogs have talked about prosperity teachings lately and their insidious effects on the American Church today.

But back to consumerism. It’s a form of idolatry, isn’t it? We’ve found a way to fill that classic “God-shaped hole” with whatever the hot new item at Apple or Target may be. Heck, don’t we all know at least one person who has purchased every incarnation of the iPod since the day of its first release? The gal who’s on her fourth digital camera? The guy who’s 30 and yet has owned six different computers in his life? Buy and discard. Lather, rinse, repeat.

And yet that consuming ideal has not only run our country into the ground in our quest for more cheap stuff that rusts and decays, but has been elevated to satisfy the ennui of the soul—if only from one great buy to the next.

Worse, our entire economy is geared to a frenzy of buying. When people finally wise up and scale back, it only damages our economy more, based as it is on a house of cards. Pull out a couple cards and the whole thing collapses. Or so it seems from the newspaper headlines. But I’ll talk about that in a few days, so hold on.

[poll=31]

Ah, Ben Franklin’s classic aphorism. Considered by some to be in the Bible. The “God can’t steer a parked car” passage.

Most of you said that was false, but almost a third said they either weren’t sure or thought ol’ Ben was right on target. I want to thank those of you who answered “True” or “Unknown” for your honesty. I think people struggle with this idea immensely. Everything in American culture tells us to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and grab for the gusto.

And while it may seem like that indeed works for a lot of people (I’m thinking Oprah. here), I’ve got to wonder if it’s the arm of flesh rather than the arm of the Lord. Waiting on God to work is a foreign concept to most of us. We want things in our time done our way (because if we want something done right, we have to do it ourselves). But I just can’t find that way of thinking in the Bible.

I’m willing to be corrected, though. If someone would please, and I mean this seriously, sketch out the Biblical support for “God helps those who help themselves,” I’ll be willing to listen and discuss it here. Because as that great theologian Tom Petty once wrote, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

[poll=32]

The Bible most definitely teaches that God is the one who makes a person rich or poor. A verse that comes to mind:

The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.
—1 Samuel 2:7

And this is an interesting concept since God also commands us in hundreds of passages to take care of the poor. In fact, when we ignore the poor, it angers Him.

So what is going on here?

In the case of the Church, I believe that God makes rich and poor to reveal His glory. And He wishes to reveal that glory by using the Church. It is in the Church’s best interest to partner with God to raise the poor up so that they are rich. I think of the state of widows and orphans, two classes of people dear to God’s heart, and the impact the Church in Jerusalem had on their lives. They went from poor outcasts to having families, food, clothing, and shelter. If that’s not being raised up, I don’t know what is.

This goes hand in hand with Jesus’s response about a certain blind man:

And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
—John 9:2-5

Yes, God is in control. But He also wants us to bring things into alignment with His Kingdom. He may indeed bring a good man low, but He also charges the Church with raising that good man up again for His glory.

Too many of us are willing to sit back and do nothing, believing that what is exists because God has made it that way. And that may be true. However, is that state meant to be permanent? The rest of Scripture most definitely shows that God wants those who follow Him to act, to help change the person of lowly estate into one of abundance and riches. We have to understand this! God is glorified when the Church takes a bad situation and corrects it. In fact, God may have provided that bad situation as a learning tool for us. To make us work to bring light into darkness.

May we never be content with someone else’s suffering.

As that 1st Samuel passage concludes:

He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and on them he has set the world.
—1 Samuel 2:8

And guess what? He uses us to accomplish that purpose!

[poll=33]

Your answers surprised me. A couple years back, I asked how many of you were taught to cast your bread upon the waters, so to speak, and most agreed. In other words, when you give, you get in return. Yet here very few said your church taught that idea of the multiplication of giving. Very intriguing. I’m not sure how to think about this.

The KJV has this:

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
—Psalms 27:13

Do we believe that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living? Or will we have to wait to see it after we die? Most of you thought the latter.

I’d love to get some feedback from all sides on this particular answer. Why did you answer as you did?

[poll=34]

This last question showed that half of you thought your work impacted your walk with Christ positively. I believe that God blesses our work, so that’s good. Yet a little more than 1 in 6 of you thought it worked against your growth.

I would love to hear feedback from both sides of this answer. Why did you answer as you did?

So ends my first comments on the theology behind wealth and giving. My next post, as I mentioned, will look at prosperity gospel teachings and whether they are good or bad for the Church in America. My answers may surprise you, so stay tuned!

***

Banking On God: Series Compendium

5 thoughts on “Banking on God: Theology, Part 1

  1. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalm 1:1-3 KJV).

    Jesus is that Man, and He is that Tree (John 15). Only whatsoever He doeth through us as branches shall prosper as we abide in the Vine. Now, that sounds all well and fine theologically. But still, why are we not prospering? because we are not abiding? because we are trying to be branches that “bear fruit of itself” (John 15:4)? Maybe we have not fully discerned the fruit that is there. Maybe He is pruning us, and we do not equate pruning with prosperity.

    “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12 KJV).

    I think many American Christians do not know how to be abased or how to abound. When we are abased, we blame God for it, or we needlessly blame ourselves, or we refuse to ask others believers for help. When we abound, we credit our hard work, or we waste it on consumer goods and services, or we are not as give as the Lord wants us to give. One way Paul could be “instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need”: When he did have cash, he would be “full,” then give so much away, he immediately would be in need again.

    In my own life, a brother in the Lord prophesied over me a couple of years ago that I had been through the fire, and the Lord would bring me into a broad place. I expected to see results. I worked at a gas station, alone, inside a booth that customers could not enter. Then my bosses renovated the station as a walk-in store. There was more floor space…a “broad place.” During that same period, my younger brother moved out of the house, and I went from awalk-in closet-sized room to his larger bedroom…another “broad place.”

    That was not how I expected the prophecy to be fulfilled in that time frame. Nevertheless, there you have it. I told a dear friend that the Lord will take care of us. He may not take care of us exactly like we want Him to take care of us, but He will.

    As for the so-called prosperity gospel, we own everything, everywhere, in Jesus Christ. Prosperity preachers often get off that message when they preach that we should expect everything to be titled in our name as well. If I need a car, then the Lord will provide me with a car. I do not need three cars in a three-car garage to demonstrate the Lord’s favor in my life.

    • Michael,

      Yes, our expectations are faulty, aren’t they? They are too much informed by American cultural expectations and not enough by God’s expectations. The upshot is that we have no idea at all how to live by “Give us this day our daily bread.” I know that I certainly don’t, though I am learning. It is a very difficult lesson, but only those people who learn it will be able to stand during trying times.

  2. Normandie

    Good letter, Michael, and so true. I wanted to respond to several points Dan made, and you’ve hit on one of them. We can believe that the Lord WILL answer and WILL prosper us, but our understanding of that prosperity needs to be along biblical lines. Many people think God is not blessing their endeavors (and I’m only speaking of endeavors they believe God led them into, not ones in which they stepped out and asked God to follow along with the blessings) when in fact He may be pouring blessings upon them–just not in ways the world recognizes. I’ve written a number of novels in recent years. The manuscripts win accolades from my agent and others and even a contest or two. But have they sold? No. Does that mean God didn’t call me to write? I don’t think so. I think it just means He’s working out something else in me or through me that I don’t yet understand. He knows I’m perfectly willing to move on to something else if He wishes, but so far, I think I’m supposed to continue crafting stories. Maybe they’ll sell. Maybe they won’t. But I’m not going to determine that I’m missing God’s blessing in them just because I don’t have the world’s gold rushing in. He provides in so many other ways–especially if we don’t have huge wants or need to see our name in lights.

    Now, onto another point, the one about God helping those who help themselves. You’re right, Dan. It isn’t in the scriptures. And waiting upon the Lord is. BUT. What if we took it to the next point about God making the poor or needy that way so that the church could move into blessing them? What if the church said they didn’t need to do anything because God would do it if they just prayed it through and waited on Him? Maybe my thoughts here are pushing things a bit, stretching the point, but I know in my own life if I keep myself bathed in prayer and praise and walk slowly in the direction I think I’m supposed to go, then I can trust God to open or close doors to keep me lined up–but He doesn’t do much for me when I just sit back and wait for Him to drop things in my lap. A very personal example: I was taking care of my auntie in her last 9 years of life (God’s symbiotic provision for the two of us when I became “widowed” and my son “orphaned” after my ex-husband left us provisionless). Our broker asked one day if I was just going to sit around expecting God to bring a companion to my door–or to drop him through the roof. I was really home-bound taking care of my aunt, so church social functions went by the wayside. The broker had met her husband in a unique way, so why didn’t I try the Internet? What a thought! Still, God used it to give me a wonderful Godly man (from a state a continent away) who took in both me and my auntie and who has changed my life. I never would have met this wonderful widower if I hadn’t tiptoed into action, asking God to open and close doors.

    A man we know believes God wants him in ministry. He is “waiting on God” and is now angry that God seems to be taking so long in sending the “call.” My husband suggested that he could minister right where he is, that he didn’t need a title to do an important work–in his family and in his community. But the fellow would rather “wait and pray,” thinking he needs the recognition to do the work. Well, if the waiting and the praying were working, he’d be full of peace and joy, wouldn’t he? I think the Lord might bless his “call” if the man took a few steps forward on his own and began using what he has, giving where he is, ministering in the small ways instead of bemoaning this time in the wilderness.

    Normandie

    • Normandie,

      The Franklin quote is “God helps those who help themselves.” It’s not “God helps those who help others.” The former I don’t believe, but the latter I do.

      Our problem is that we oftentimes don’t help others because we claim to be waiting on God to hear from Him before we help. But the Scriptures tell us that if we see a a brother in need, we should take care of him. We’ve been given that permission to meet certain needs.

      However, not all needs fall under that “just do it” idea. Some require God’s approval first. Our problem there is that we assume God’s approval and then just stumble into it. That especially runs true on the big issues. Feed someone who is starving? Yes, I don’t need to wait on that. Launch a new ministry in a certain place? Well, that needs to be greenlighted by God in His time and His provision. Remember, God stopped the apostles from going into certain places until the proper time.

      Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain. That tells me that we can’t be doing things under our own power and wisdom. That means we need God’s green light or else we’ll throw tons of money and time at something He will not bless.

  3. Normandie

    Of course I agree with you, Dan. But in the case of the fellow who wanted God to say, “Here’s a church for you” (and he wasn’t ordained, just wanted to be up there and recognized) or “Here’s the prophet’s cap” or the evangelist’s cap or whatever–we felt he needed to get busy seeing to the needs around him (esp. within his own family) if he wanted to serve, instead of waiting for God to “call” him into some place of prestige. I think we often feel the call of God before we’re ready or want to do something before it’s his time–or want it for the wrong reasons–and that’s when we can either take those baby steps that allow us to bloom where we’re planted and let God do the rest or we can sit around complaining and call it waiting on God. Real waiting on God is going to feel and present itself in a totally different manner.

    I think there’s a time for waiting and a time for stepping out–and a need to be thankful for whatever God answers or gives us as well as being thankful for the vineyard he wants us to tend.

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