- ‘It’s the main attraction for some pastors’
By ENYERIBE EJIOGU ([email protected])
Two Pentecostal pastors have weighed in on the firestorm of controversy set off by popular on-air-personality, Daddy Freeze, over the issue of tithe.
Pastor Bassey James, senior pastor of Royal House of Faith, Lekki, Lagos, and Apostle Patrick Ohio, senior pastor of Chambers of Christ Ministries (aka Pure Grace Assembly), Lagos, who expressed their views on the tithe controversy dismissed it as another subtle act of the devil to distract the church from the more important matter of evangelism and drawing men to God through salvation grace made available in Jesus Christ. They came down hard on some pastors, whose conduct and misuse of the tithe paid by their members, gave occasion for the devil to attack the church through the mouth of Daddy Freeze, at a time when the Pentecostal Christendom in Nigeria was in an upbeat mood for the farewell crusade of respected evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, which took place in Lagos.
James and Ohio in their individual interventions laid out the scriptural and immutable basis for tithe. In the same manner that former Lagos State Commissioner for Budget and Planning and currently the Director General of Budget and Planning in the Presidency, Abuja, Pastor Ben Akabueze, who once said that “a lot of people do not know how to process information properly,” the two pastors urged people they referred to as natural men who do not understand the things of the spirit of God, to speak carefully about biblical issues so that they do not become a stumbling block to individuals whose faith may not be strong.
Firing the first shot in a chat with Sunday Sun, James said: “Tithe is not a Nigerian or African issue. It is a biblical issue; the bible talks about it in Malachi chapter 3, where God said that the people were robbing Him in tithes and offerings. God said we should bring in all the tithes and offerings so that there would be meat in his storehouse. God added that the people should test him in this, and that he would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing such that there would not be room enough to hold it.
Again, the Bible in Genesis 14 talks about Abraham paying tithe to Melchizedek. So the devil cannot re-invent the bible, the devil cannot change, subtract or add to it. The bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, thousands of years ago. Every true believer knows the dos and don’ts. So nobody should begin to talk rubbish about tithe.
“In simple language, any child of God that does not pay tithe is robbing God. In the bible, God promised that when we faithfully pay our tithes, he rebukes the devourer on our behalf and you will have peace. Tithing is a commandment of God; it is not something that one entertainment personality should pontificate on. It is not about religion, but a commandment of God and every child of God is expected to pay tithe.
“However, nobody should force you to pay, it should be done as an act of love for God and appreciation of his faithfulness and mercy towards us. You have a right to say, ‘I’ll go to church, I will not give offering or pay tithe, I’ll just be a member, period.’ But I know that those who faithfully pay tithe have beautiful testimonies of God working out things in their life.
“Permit me to use myself as an example: I pay more than tithe and I even pay tithe to other pastors I do not even know. When I travel to Akwa Ibom, I worship at any living church and at times I identify a church that may not be doing well and I pay tithe there, to support the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ, being done through the pastor.
“Let me give another example. I run a company and I executed a project. I was not paid the money for almost seven months. And we were looking for land to build a church auditorium. So I made a vow to God that if the money was paid to me, I would pay more than tithe (which is 10 per cent). To the glory of God, the money was paid. Nobody told me to make a vow, I just prayed and God heard me. The money was paid and I gave tithe of more than 30 per cent of the money. The money was used to buy the land, and we built the church auditorium. Now people come there to worship God. So tithing is of God and the Spirit of God should lead you on what to do. Whenever I am paying tithe, I always add a little vow to it and God has been blessing me.”
On his part, Ohio said: “The word of God stands sure. The frailties of people, including pastors, does not make the word of God of no effect. Tithe had been before the coming of the law through Moses, and some people argue today that we are no longer under the dispensation of the law and therefore we no longer have to pay tithe. The truth about tithe is that before the law there was tithe and after the law there was still tithe. The first man to pay tithe was Abraham (in Genesis chapter 14) after the conquest of five cities. He met Melchizedek, the King of Salem and Priest of the Most High, and gave him a tithe of the spoils of war. It must be noted that Melchizedek never asked him for tithe. But Abraham knew by relationship with God that it was in his place to pay tithe, without the law. Again in Hebrew chapter 7, the Bible referred to the same Genesis 14, and said that when Abraham gave tithe, Levi was in his loins. Levi happens to be his great great grandson, born by Jacob and the first priest according to the Levitical order instituted by Moses in the wilderness.
“Therefore, God expects all his children to give 10 per cent of all their incomes as tithes, for reasons that are very clear. The first is for the running of the church, which is a spiritual body that has physical and financial needs and obligations. The church pays bills, salaries, buys diesel to run generators, pays land use charge to government, and pays for other services such as sanitation fees to the local governments, etc. The church supports indigent members, including sponsoring the education of their brilliant children through the award of scholarships. It publishes evangelism materials such as newsletters and tracts and also holds open air crusades, which require musical equipment and powerful speakers. The church maintains its buildings and supports missionaries in the mission fields.
“All these obligations require money. The Almighty God in his wisdom instituted that his children should give a tithe to the church, to meet these obligations. In essence, tithing is a divine instruction from God.
Under the law, God devised tithe as a means to sustain the Levites, the priest clan, who were not given any land to cultivate as an inheritance. God said that their portion would be the tithes to be given by the other tribes. The Lord recognised that the Levites could not be without basic necessities of life even as they served full time in the temple. That was why he instituted tithe so that the other tribes would provide for them through their tithes.
“Now that we are in modern times, some people are saying that they no longer have to pay tithe. In the New Testament, which is where people are having confusion, Jesus said that he didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. He endorsed tithe in Matthew 23: 23, where he said that we should pay tithe but not neglect the weightier matters of the law. So paying tithe is not the ultimate. I believe in tithing, but I do not hold the view that people who don’t pay tithe will go to hell.
Turning his attention to the improper conduct of some pastors towards tithes and offerings, Ohio declared: “Some pastors go into ministry with their eyes set on the tithes and offerings that the members will bring to church. You find that those churches do not survive when the tithes and offering are not forthcoming. They close down.
“It is in such cases that you find pastors that do not use the tithes and offerings for the purpose for which God instituted tithe as I enumerated earlier. You find that some pastors collect the tithe and divert same to their personal needs, idiosyncrasies and financing their flamboyant lifestyles; they basically live large like celebrities in entertainment industry. And engage in ostentatious acquisitions like Mayweather, the African American boxer. That is very wrong.”
In agreement with Ohio, James drew this analogy, to explain why people should not refrain from paying tithe because of the wrong use of the tithes by some pastors, who make merchandise of the word of God: “For the fact that there may be abuses of the tithe by some pastors, is not a solid reason not to pay tithe. For the fact that there is fake naira, fake dollar and fake pound sterling, does not mean that there is no original (genuine) naira printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria or the US Treasury Department or the Bank of England. So there are fake people who twist the word of God and use the church as a money-making machine. This will not make the word of God to change. It does not matter where you are, whether in Nigeria, South Africa, America or anywhere, contending with the word of God is an attack against God and the church and it cannot succeed.”
Ohio, alluding to the scripture, where the bible queried, ‘Judgeth ye another man’s servant?,’ emphasized that it is not the place of the tithe giver to question the use to which it put by the pastor and counsels that members should leave God to deal with the erring pastor.
Mr Joseph Ibezim, a Christian elder in a Pentecostal church with headquarters in Okota added: “If your pastor is spending your tithe on frivolities that bear no relationship to evangelism, supporting missionaries in the mission fields where there is desperate need to preach the gospel of salvation, and touching the lives of the poor, sack him by giving your tithe to churches that are actually doing what Christ said we should do in Mathew chapter 28:19-20. That scripture represents the totality of our calling and the purpose for which Christ saved us and reconciled us to God. We are saved to save others by preaching the gospel of salvation to them. That is why I get incensed when I see some so-called Pentecostal pastors doing things that would make Apostle Paul weep in his grave. Recently, a popular pastor in Ikeja was reported in the media to have acquired a N100 million Rolls Royce. Imagine the number of souls he would have won into the kingdom of Christ, if he had spent just N2million each, to organize crusades in 50 tertiary institutions across the country. The mere fact of his celebrity status would have attracted young people to come and listen to the message of salvation. He only needed to re-tell the story of how he was converted. The Holy Spirit would have brooded on the words spoken by him and won the youngsters for Christ. This is the kind of thing that people see and talk rubbish about tithes, like Daddy Freeze.
James described the controversy which broke in the media about the time the Reinhard Bonnke crusade was about to hold, as part of the subtle agenda of the devil to oppose the church and the work of the gospel. He said: “It is the work of satan, who will always oppose the work of God by every means it can use, to distract the church from its primary purpose. The Lord Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” These people that are saying negative things about tithe are like gates of hell, wanting to oppose the work of God.
“So all the Daddy Freezes in this world, should freeze their mouth and stop talking about what they don’t understand. Tithing is right, it is scriptural and will remain with us until the day of rapture. As I said, nobody can force you to pay, but if you pay, you are simply obeying God’s commandment and God blesses you the more as you support the work of the gospel in righteousness and obedience.”