Fasting & Tithing: Blessing-bringers or Burdens?

by Patricia Backora© All Rights Reserved

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This book or portions of it may be freely distributed or quoted for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author.

Freely ye have received, freely give (Jesus, in Matt.10:8)

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Contents

My Personal Testimony. . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 You May vs. You Must . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Christ’s Royal Priesthood . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Holler Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Malachi 3:8-10: Robbery . . . . . . . . . . . .26 A Deadly Cocktail of Curses . . . . . . . . . .31 No Longer Under Tribute . . . . . . . . . . . .39 Pleading for Pigeons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 The Chicken Chest (Song) . . . . . . . . . . .45 The Unpardonable Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Adding to Acts Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . .55 Rewriting Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Tithe-tanic Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Fry in Hell You Bums Cartoon. . . . . . . . .75 Satan’s Sly Tithing Lies . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Healing You Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Vow Now Cartoon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Digging Up Dead Traditions . . . . . . . . . . 84 Drink Fast Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Beat Satan’s Butt Cartoon. . . . . . . . . . . 85 Is Fasting God’s Key to Victory? . . . . . . . 86 Is Fasting Essential for Godliness? . . . . . 98 Mouse Munchies Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Sweet Bald-Headed Papa Cartoon. . . . . . 105 Fast With Your Mouth Shut! . . . . . . . . . 106 Spiritual Dangers of the Bridegroom Fast 110 The Leaven of Fasting Legalism. . . . . . . . 124 Fasting For Favor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Fast Food Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Save the Preacher’s Life Cartoon. . . . . . 142 A Weighty Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 God’s Kingdom Don’t Run on Fat . . . . . 148 3 Reasons Miracles Are Scarce . . . . . . . 152 Little Grandma Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Meet Jesus’ Need Cartoon. . . . . . . . . . 157 Grace and Law Don’t Mix . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Sandwich Cartoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Farmer Faith Preacher Cartoon. . . . . . . 163 Fasting, Faith and Foolishness . . . . . . . 164 Weak and Beggarly Elements . . . . . . . . 181 Tithing and Fasting Flaws . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Don’t Go Around Bragging. . . . . . . . . . . 193 Why Not Enforce Other Jewish Penances?197 Let’s Make a Deal, I’ll Skip a Meal. . . . . .200 Fasting is of Fear, not the Rest of Faith. .203

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My Personal TestimonyBy Patricia Backora

On Sunday, June 21, 1970, I received the glorious Baptism in the Holy Spirit. I had prayed to receive Christ as my Savior as a youngster, but for years afterward had remained ignorant of my need to enter into a deeper dimension of the Life of Christ. I had drunk from the Well of Living Water in my initial salvation experience. But I still needed to be fully immersed more into the River of God, the flow of the blessed Holy Spirit. As we live in the Spirit, we can more readily appropriate the power of Christ for victory in daily living, and His Presence seems so much more real. Up until the time of my spiritual Baptism into the Life of God, I had had only a superficial belief in the living Christ. I had never been taught about my rights as a child of God. Nor had I ever heard a sermon given on the spiritual gifts (see I Corinthians 12:1-11), which are available to those who are baptized in the Spirit (see Acts 2:1-18). I believe the operation of the spiritual gifts is crucial for lasting victory over satan. The devil rejoices when a believer does not know what resources have been provided for him or her through the atonement of Christ. It delights him when God’s supernatural gifts are either relegated to the scrap heap of past dispensations or “spiritualized away”. In the days before my Baptism in the Holy Spirit, I hungered for the REALITY of God, not the powerless Sunday School religion I’d been sold in empty churchianity. I wanted God to be relevant to life in the real world. The most dramatic change I experienced from My encounter with the Holy Spirit was this: I learned the meaning of I John 4:7-8: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God, and everyone who loves (with God’s love) is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. I gained a vital awareness that God is my loving Heavenly Father, not some slave-driver in the sky. In the late 60’s and early 70’s, there was a wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in America, especially among young people who were disenchanted with the stiff, dry formality of conventional church settings. Millions of people like myself yearned for a real encounter with the Living God. This great revival began in Costa Mesa, California. The living Presence of Christ brought hope to millions of disenchanted young people like myself as God moved by His Spirit throughout the United States and even around the world. There was a resurgence of the supernatural element in the Church which had been suppressed for nearly 2000 years. I was particularly thrilled to learn about the spiritual gifts. Shortly after receiving the Holy Spirit, God graciously bestowed the gift of prophecy upon me. This gift was always exercised in an orderly manner, usually during a lull in the worship service when everyone grew silent, waiting on God to speak to all our hearts. The number of prophetic utterances would vary from service to service. There might be one prophecy given, sometimes two or three; occasionally more, or none at all. In our church, there were no hard and fast rules restricting the number of prophecies, although I Corinthians 14:29 indicates that two or three occurring during any one particular service is the norm. On numerous occasions, visiting Spirit-filled ministers would come and pray over individual members, and God would frequently impart an uplifting message of edification, exhortation, and comfort to these people, as described in I Corinthians 14:3. The goal of prophecy given over believers is three-fold: to edify, (strengthen a person in his spirit) to exhort him to faith and godliness, and to comfort (lend encouragement in his walk with God). These days, God’s children need all the help He can give them. In the years before we moved to Northern Ireland, I endured some very dark days, and felt that no one on earth knew how to touch God on my behalf. No matter how long you’ve walked with the Lord, battles will come, and it helps to have someone who will pray with you, and truly care about you as an individual. When I could find no help within the context of a formal church situation, I found one ministry which cared.

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One of the purest hearts I ever knew (I’ll call him “Brother Bob”) did not conduct formal church services, but he did host small prayer meetings in his home. Many people, saint and sinner alike, came to him out of sheer desperation. Their churches had either lost the power of God or had never really wanted it in the first place. The Lord anointed him with the gift of supernatural knowledge and wisdom, and faith to pray for miracles. Graciously he ministered to those who came to him seeking prayer and “a word in good season” to overcome oppressive circumstances. The Holy Spirit would illuminate Biblical verses to Brother Bob’s remembrance and anoint them with divine power, and people would be set free from the works of the devil in their lives. Time and again I’d phone Brother Bob for advice or prayer. That old saying: “No man is an island” is true. Truly God’s people need one another. This kindly, unpretentious saint was always full of homespun wisdom. Patiently he’d take the time to inspire me with words of encouragement and faith. Because one man was willing to share God’s Word in the power of the Holy Ghost, many miracles came into my life to overcome the devil’s attacks. Through Brother Bob’s ministry, I rediscovered the meaning of the true nature of Jesus, and acquired the ability to disassociate God from loveless hypocrites. Through this book I hope to help separate the wheat of God’s Word from the chaff of distorted doctrines circulating in the Charismatic church world. Some doctrines are legitimate and have their place. But problems arise when peripheral doctrines (doctrines not essential to salvation) dominate a believer’s life. In order to exalt one thing, something else must “take a lower seat” (Luke 14:9). Minor doctrines (or false traditions) which take the believer’s focus off “Christ and Him crucified” (I Cor.1:30-31; 2:2) have become harmful, not helpful. Legalism is the spirit of slavery, and God has called His dear children to liberty in Christ Jesus (Gal.4:21-31; 5:1). I hope the messages and articles in this book are of help to you. God bless you as you walk with Jesus in the light of His Word.

Patricia Backorahttp://kingdomage.tripod.comhttp://banpreachergreed.tripod.comhttp://boogerbucks.tripod.com

Video Links:Tithe-atron is Coming to Churchhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6-nxfu7yMThe Apostles Did Not Teach Fasting and Tithinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p4shu6va24Tithe or You’ll Fry in Hellhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KUu7g8fvWIFleecing the Flockhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUlbi2TmDc

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YOU MAY vs. YOU MUST

Christians greatly differ on such topics as ways to finance the church, Sabbath observance, ascetic practices, etc. Some say certain doctrines must be kept as commandments. Other equally sincere believers feel some issues are less important doctrines which are not binding commandments, but permitted things (I Cor.7:6). At times it’s a matter of YOU MUST. Other times, it’s a matter of YOU MAY. It takes prayerful discernment to spot the difference. After the Flood of Genesis, God gave mankind permission to begin eating meat (Gen.9:3). But that doesn’t make it a sin to be a vegetarian! The one commandment which encapsulates all others is “love one another” (Rom.13:8; Gal.5:14; I John 4:7-8). Whenever Christian believers do disagree on nonessential issues, it should be in a spirit of love, rather resorting to name-calling or questioning the personal consecration of the person you’re disagreeing with. Our ancestors fought for freedom of speech, and even if we don’t always agree with what the other person thinks, we should defend his/her right to the liberty of their own conscience. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in Him (I John 2:10).* * * If our choices in life are guided by God’s love in the light of His Word, there is much less likelihood of stumbling in our walk with the Lord. I’m sure there are many other topics Christians differ on, but let’s apply that principle to the few listed above.

1. FINANCING THE CHURCH: In many other articles and stories I’ve cited a wide range of reasons I don’t believe New Covenant tithing is supported by Scripture. But I do believe that those who are able to help those in need should do it with freewill contributions. The pastor shouldn’t shoulder the entire burden for the light bill, church mortgage, missionary fund, etc. Those who choose to worship at that pastor’s church should contribute to its support OUT OF WHAT THEY HAVE, not out of what they don’t have (i.e. pledge cards, “vows of faith”, credit cards, etc.). Sharing with GENUINE needs is love in action!

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth (I John 3:18). Now therefore perform the doing of it (collecting an offering for the needy); that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also OUT OF THAT WHICH YE HAVE (2 Cor.8:11). VERSE 12: For if there first be a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man HATH, AND NOT ACCORDING TO THAT HE HATH NOT.* * * *This runs contrary to today’s popular “seed faith” doctrine of promising “the Lord” money you don’t already have. This verse shows that this way of giving is NOT acceptable to God, and will not be rewarded by Him!VERSE 13: For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye be burdened.* * * *Today’s celebrity televangelists are being EASED (living a luxurious, free-loading lifestyle), while poor Christians make themselves poorer by “planting seed” which ought to go for family necessities, rent, etc. Scripture has only ONE promise for those who make the rich richer: He that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want (extreme poverty)(Proverbs 22:16b).VERSE 14: But BY AN EQUALITY, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want (lack), that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be EQUALITY; * * * *Even poor Christians living on disability or Social Security are being pressured to tithe or send money in to TV preachers! What kind of equality is that in the Body of Christ? Those poor souls are supported by tax payers!

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Greedy preachers rob the tax payers when they live like kings off welfare money allocated by the government to feed the hungry and house the homeless! VERSE 15: As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack.* * * *Paul doesn’t sound like today’s “success & lies” prosperity guru who devours vows and bellows about family values, while saying poor families on welfare MUST tithe to preachers who live comfortably. Far from caring for the collective welfare of the Body of Christ, such a selfish “blind leader of the blind” really thinks struggling families should “sink or swim”. Paul preached EQUALITY of well-being in the church of God. Based on what Paul wrote, he probably wouldn’t agree that it’s just dandy that 52 “successful” individuals own over 50 percent of the world’s wealth while 1 in every 3 people in the world live on less than a dollar a day!

Joyful giving springs out of what YOU MAY do to be a blessing to another soul. Compulsive contributions are a YOU MUST mindset which brings bondage and resentment. God doesn’t want anyone’s money if it is not given cheerfully (2 Cor.9:7).

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Six of the Ten Commandments are restated under the New Covenant as being still applicable in their literal sense. All others, except for one, are implied in the context of some verse as having been carried over to the Church Age to be literally kept. The Christ nature within us instinctively keeps the righteousness of these old commandments, out of love for God and neighbor. When this occurs, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit are manifesting as goodness and righteousness and truth in the life of a believer (Eph.5:9). Righteous conduct is not self-effort on the believer’s part to gain favor with God, but reliance only on the life of “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory” (Col.1:27). I’ll list all Ten Commandments and comment on some.

1. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME (EX. 20:3).NT (IMPLIED): Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and the table of devils (I Cor.10:21). VERSE 22: Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

2. THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE (IDOL)…ETC.(EX.20:4)NT (RESTATED): Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. (I John 5:21).

3. THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN (EX.20:7).NT (IMPLIED): Do not they (rich oppressors) blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? (James 2:7).* * * *The clear implication here is it’s still wrong to take the Lord’s Name in vain! II Peter 2:1-3 foretells today’s televangelist greed, when false teachers would “bring in damnable heresies and make merchandise of you”. These thieves and robbers dishonor the blessed Name of Jesus to get rich.

4. REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY (EX.20:8). NT: This one commandment is not restated as being required of New Covenant believers, except in its spiritual application. Literal observance of the Sabbath involves taking on a multitude of hard-to-remember ordinances of “touch not” and “handle not”, etc. (Col.2:21), which would bring the believer back under the Law. To this day Orthodox Jews won’t even push an elevator button on the Sabbath! Christians were rebuked for immorality, swearing, and coveting the possessions of others. But no Christian was EVER rebuked in the epistles for Sabbath-breaking! Nor did Christ mention this commandment in the first three chapters of Revelation where

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He rebukes sins and bad attitudes in the church. Keeping the Mosaic Sabbath Law would have been IMPOSSIBLE for Christian slaves who were expected to work every day of the week! Christian wives would have had to cross their unconverted husbands by refusing to cook special meals on that day, etc. The Sabbath was given as a sign TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, not Gentiles (Ex.31:13). Those who claim to keep the Old Testament Sabbath should remember that ordinary activities were punishable by the death penalty on that day! Baking on Saturday (the seventh, or Sabbath, day) to get ready for Sunday dinner would have been a capital crime! It was against the Law to build a fire on the Sabbath Day (Ex.35:3). One Israelite was stoned to death for gathering firewood on the Sabbath (Num.15:32-36). What about a Christian who lives in a log cabin up in Alaska? What would be the greater sin, expecting that Alaskan to freeze to death, or stoning him for building a fire when it was fifty below outside? In Jesus’ day Jews customarily gathered in the synagogue for worship (Luke 4:16). Jesus taught on the Sabbath Day (Luke 13:10). Jesus even healed people on the Sabbath Day, and He was criticized for it because there were six other days during which Jesus could heal people (Matt.12:10-13; Luke 13:10-16). So did Jesus (or even the self-righteous Pharisees) keep the LETTER of all the Sabbath regulations as originally given by Moses? The Israelites were not even supposed to LEAVE THEIR HOMES on the Sabbath Day (Exodus 16:29)! Getting all dolled up and going out to attend a worship service on that day would have been a breach of God’s instructions! People were told to stay home and rest. Period. Jesus did not sin. He might have appeared to break the letter of the Sabbath Law, but He kept the purpose of the Sabbath, which is rest. Jesus gave rest to sick people who had suffered a long time from tormenting illnesses.

Based on what he wrote (or didn’t write), the Apostle Paul appears to be ambiguous about whether Christians should observe the Sabbath.

Galatians 4:9: But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?VERSE 10: Ye observe DAYS, and months, and times, and years.* * * *Observing days would include not only the Sabbath, but imposing a law on yourself that never again will you eat on a certain day of the week because it’s set aside for fasting.VERSE 11: I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.Colossians 2:16: Let no man judge you in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days:VERSE 17: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.* * * *The only Sabbath Christians must keep is “ceasing from their own works, as God did from His” (Heb. 4:9-10). Christ IS our rest (Matt.11:28). When we abide in Christ (John 15:4) we rest in His finished work (John 17:4; John 19:30).

One way a Christian factory owner could keep the spirit of this law would be to give his employees a day off to rest and be with their families, without reducing their pay! That is “loving thy neighbour as thyself”.

5. HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER…(ETC.)…(EX.20:12)NT (RESTATED): Honour thy father and thy mother; which is the first commandment with promise; (Eph.6:2).VERSE 3: That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

6. THOU SHALT NOT KILL (commit murder) (EX.20:13).NT (RESTATED): Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers.

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I Pet.4:15: But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.I John 3:15: Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

7. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY (EX.20:14)NT (RESTATED): Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: (Matt.5:27)VERSE 28: But I (Jesus) say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.* * * *Jesus doesn’t make this commandment easier to keep. He expands it beyond the simple letter of the Law. Jesus says it’s a sin to even LOOK lustfully at a woman!I Cor.6:9: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?....nor adulterers…..etc.VERSE 10: …..nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.Gal.5:19: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,VERSE 21……..they which do such things shall not enter the kingdom of God.Hebrews 13:4: Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

8. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL (EX.20:15).NT (RESTATED): Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth (Eph.4:28).* * * * Not only is the negative (do not steal) restated, the positive side of that commandment is emphasized under the New Covenant!

9. THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOUR (EX.20:16).NT (IMPLIED):Even so must their wives be grave, NOT SLANDERERS, sober, faithful in all things.James 4:11: Speak not evil of one another, brethren…etc.(James 4:11).* * * Bearing false witness (lying about someone else) would be one aspect of speaking evil of another! Rev.21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving,….., and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone”: which is the second death.

10. THOU SHALT NOT COVET….ETC. (EX.20:17).NT (RESTATED): But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints (Eph.5:3).Hebrews 13:5: Let your conversation (behavior) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he (God) hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

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Living godly in the light of those ways of love is a MUST for Christians to live by each day, every day. If you love your neighbor you will not even WANT to slander him, steal his wife, or take his life. If you love God you will not want to worship idols or disrespect His Holy Name. Unless persecution results from such godly living, no one’s physical or emotional health ever suffers from putting these things into practice. They are a MUST, not just a MAY. Some practices, however, might be deemed to be helpful, but they can become harmful both physically and spiritually when done in a spirit of legalism. Asceticism falls into this category, particularly such activities as keeping vigils (periods without sleep) or fasting (going without food) frequently or for extended periods of time.

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Jesus fasted forty days before He began His brief ministry (Matt.4:2). On another occasion He prayed all night long (Luke 6:12) just before choosing His twelve disciples. Jesus was faithful to His calling. Jesus worked hard. He would someday go to the Cross, but He didn’t ”burn the candle at both ends”. He took a nap during a storm which was so fierce it nearly sank His disciples’ boat (Mark 4:35-41). We are commanded to persevere and watch (Gr. gregorueo, be vigilant) in prayer (Matt.26:41; Eph.6:18). But at the same time we are not to be worriers. We can’t add even one inch to our height through “taking thought” (worry) (Matt.6:27). Some assume that Jesus fasted frequently, but Scripture records no other fast done by Jesus than the one mentioned in Matthew Chapter 4, which lasted forty days. On the contrary, Jesus said He “came eating and drinking” (Luke 7:34), while John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. Jesus and His disciples seem to have done considerably less fasting than John the Baptist and His disciples (Matt.9:14). But it was Christ who performed miracles. John was a great man, but no miracle is attributed to him by Scripture. Fasting does not create miracles, God does. God’s sovereign will is the deciding factor to the outcome of our prayers, though He does respond to genuine faith in Him (Mark 11:22-24). Nowhere is fasting made a requirement for the church, though deep involvement in prayer might make it imperative that a person focus strictly on the things of the Spirit. In the epistles no one is ever rebuked for failure to fast. Some find fasting helps their prayer lives, but I have heard of people harming their health by thinking they couldn’t get closer to God unless they did a whole lot of it. The spiritual danger would be to forget that it is through the precious Blood of Jesus, not fasting, that we obtain boldness to enter into the Holiest of all (Heb.10:19). Based on what I could find in the epistles (or couldn’t find) I would classify fasting as permissible, but only within strict limits. Fasting for fasting’s sake is mere religion, performed out of a sense of obligation. Only as a byproduct of extended prayer is fasting justifiable under Grace. Only the actual prayer done instead of eating has any value for Christians today. Fasting is the hole in the doughnut of prayer! Fasting without prayer is a big zero! We are not slaves but sons (Gal.4:7). We enjoy doing the work of the Lord, and we do it according to the ability and strength God gives us. But while we are yet in our mortal bodies, we need proper rest and nourishment. The Lord remembers that we’re still made of dust (Psalms 103:14).

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Christ's Royal Priesthood Owes NO Man Tithes!

I was surfing the Net to find out if there was any info posted on a Full Gospel church I used to visit with other young people back in the early 70's. At the time I first heard this message preached I had just recently received my Baptism with the Holy Spirit. To my utter amazement I remember hearing this sermon and who preached it. I was about 20 when this message was shared by one of the elder ministers at one of the first Full Gospel conventions I ever attended. I'll quote only that small section of the Internet story which is pertinent to this article. The author relates a vision someone is said to have had of a rich businessman who died and went to appear before his Judge. When I heard it as a baby Christian, it filled me with dread and great relief that it wasn't me standing before God in that man's shoes. But now that I'm much older and better acquainted with the Word of God, I realize that not everything in the vision passes muster with correctly applied Scripture. I still have a godly fear toward Almighty God, but I no longer allow myself to be intimidated by doctrines proven by Scripture to be false traditions of men. It is very, very important not to be overpowered by "deeper" revelations, even if they are preached by a popular teacher who means well. You can be sincerely wrong about something! Beware of being taken captive by religious sentiments springing from bad manmade traditions. We must be persuaded ONLY by the Word of God as it was originally taught to the church by the early apostles. The following segment contains words I heard preached from a pulpit back in the early 70’s:

* * * * *Some months back the Lord gave the writer a vivid vision of a former, Waco, Texas, wealthy business man who had died.

He had been a nominal Christian for forty years. He stood trembling before the Judge and His Judgment Seat to have his life work judged for eternal rewards. The Lord asked, "What did you bring me out of your long Christian life in Waco, Texas?" The man stood paralyzed with shame, for he could think of nothing acceptable to give God as a present. Then pointing to nine large objects the voice said: "Those are the things you stole from God during your Christian life." The first object with his name on it was all the Lord’s money in tithes and offerings he has used for himself.

* * * * *Pretty heavy stuff, isn't it? And because the writer quoted a vision allegedly given by the LORD, that alone would seem to lend the story all the credibility it needs. When I was young I would be overcome with awe whenever I heard about somebody having a vision. But sad experience has not only given me hindsight, it has taught me to keep a clear head, even as I remain open to the Holy Spirit's workings. Only the Word of God, correctly translated, PROPERLY INTERPRETED IN CONTEXT, and correctly applied as believers living under GRACE (we're not under Mosaic Law, INCLUDING THE TITHE LAW) must be the final authority for our faith and practice, not somebody's spurious vision. We must not be blown about by every wind of new doctrine that comes along, including that which comes from alleged supernatural visitations from heaven (Eph.4:14; Heb.13:9). NOT ONE scripture teaches or even supports monetary tithing, either in the Old or the New Testament. NOT ONCE does the apostle Paul ever teach or enforce monetary tithing. Biblical Christians are exhorted strongly to be cheerful givers, but NOT ONCE is anybody ever named and shamed by any New Testament apostle for failure to tithe! Yet I have read examples of preachers resorting to threats to get tithe money! If so-and-so doesn't start tithing by next week, his or her name will be read from the pulpit as a non-tither, and they will be held up to public disgrace! If you don’t cough up that tithe, God will send you to hell for blaspheming the Holy Ghost! Talk about

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blackmail and slander! Not only is the believer slandered from the pulpit, so is Almighty God! The New Testament doesn't ever command tithing on money, and neither does the Old Testament. But the Bible does have plenty to say about slander. Standing behind a pulpit gives no one the right to crucify a blood-washed believer for breaking some religious law INVENTED BY MEN to make clergymen richer! Poverty-stricken Paul could have lived like an oil tycoon if he'd taken even five per cent of his flock's salaries and wages. Jesus Himself did not support his own ministry through tithes, only freewill offerings. If Jesus ever once told Simon Peter to take an ice cream bucket and collect the "tithes" off of the poor peasants who attended His speaking engagements, SHOW ME THE SCRIPTURE! You'll read plenty about Jesus healing people for free, or feeding the crowds their dinner after His message, but nothing about "taking up the offering", much less taking up anybody's tithe. It's a safe bet Jesus never resorted to razzle-dazzle religious rhetoric to empty people's pockets! It's just as non-kosher to pay monetary tithes to 21st-century Gentile preachers as it is for an orthodox Jew to eat a pork barbeque sandwich! Before His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus lived under the Mosaic Covenant of Law (Gal.4:4). Jesus Himself did not qualify to pay tithes to the Levites because He did not farm the land or raise livestock. Jesus was a Carpenter (Mark 6:3). And it would have been against Jewish Law for Jesus to collect tithes to finance His own ministry! Aside from the fact Moses never commanded money tithes, Jesus hailed from the Tribe of Judah, which had never been authorized by Moses to officiate in the Levitical Priesthood (Heb.7:14). Only members of the priestly Tribe of Levi qualified to take tithes (Numbers 18:21-24). Tithes were paid only on the produce of the Land of Israel and they were paid by landowners who made their living from agriculture, not by wage earners (see Deut.14:22-29). If you were a hired hand working for the landowner you didn't tithe on your daily wage. If you were a sandalmaker or a fisherman in ancient Israel you didn't owe any tithes on the fruits of your labor! Sandals, pots, pans, fish, gold, silver and money were never subject to the Mosaic tithing tax! In the above vision, the guy who welshed on paying monetary tithes is castigated by "the Lord" for failure to pay tithes on money. Our God does not contradict Himself! He does not change the rules at the end of the game. If God expected New Testament saints to pay monetary tithes, or any other kind, surely He would have made that clear from the very outset of the Church Age! Having a selfish heart and closing your eyes to the need of poorer people around you is a sin, but show me the Scripture which commands anybody, rich or poor, to pay tithes on their pay checks! The businessman was found guilty of wasting "tithe money" on himself. But read through Deuteronomy 14: 22-29 to find out what the tithe consisted of and who was to benefit from it. Verses 24-26 covers the case of a tithe-payer who lives too far away from the place of worship to haul his farm or ranch produce there. ONLY in that particular context is money ever mentioned in conjunction with tithing! In that case the tithe payer is permitted to sell the tithed produce of his dirt farm or his tithed farm animals, then take the money and use it to purchase FOR HIS OWN CONSUMPTION any food or drink his soul (not the preacher's) desires, even wine or strong drink. The purpose of the tithe was to feed hungry widows, aliens and orphans. It was a vital part of God's social welfare program for vulnerable poor people who possessed no inheritance of Land in Israel. Another purpose of the tithe was to gather foods to eat with other Israelites at a feast of thanksgiving before the Lord. It was a joyous time of celebration in which ALL were to share, not just the religious elite! If you're going to transfer an Old Testament Law to this New Covenant of Grace, at least show more fidelity to Scripture. Let the poor help you eat the tithe, although it would still be hard to do that with today's tithe. It isn't easy to choke down a twenty-dollar bill! The tithe was FOOD, plain and simple. The true Biblical tithe was

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NEVER used to build fancy buildings or finance a life of luxury for pulpit pilots. It shocked the daylights out of me when I read Deuteronomy 14:26 and discovered that if I'd lived back in Old Testament times I could have spent money from the sale of tithed goods on a six-pack of Bacardi Breezer wine coolers. In that verse the tither is encouraged to buy wine or strong drink with the money! NOT ONCE have I ever heard any minister preach on Deuteronomy 14:26. I wonder why? It wouldn't look very spiritual to chug down beer at a religious function, so it's best to just pretend that verse isn't even in the Bible! Imposing Moses' tithing law on today's church opens a big can of theological worms. You cannot transfer a law without also transferring all the terms and conditions of that law. If you want the Mosaic Tithing Law, you must take ALL of it upon yourself. Deuteronomy 14:26 is part of the Tithing Law. So break out the Bud! The charitable intent of Mosaic tithing was not resurrected along with the IDEA of imposing a ten per cent religious tax on worshippers. The purpose and precepts of the true Biblical Tithing Law fly in the face of the heavy yoke laid upon Christians today. Those who break the genetically modified, adulterated laws which preachers have concocted FOR THEIR OWN SELFISH CARNAL GAIN are threatened with public humiliation or divine judgment, just like the self-righteous Pharisees of Jesus' day would throw people out of the synagogue for listening to Jesus preach God's real Word instead of submitting to their man-made legalism. I read a shocking account of one popular “prosperity preacher” who got mad at some poor guy out in the congregation who didn’t “pay his tithe”. An ugly racist insult was hurled at him by the preacher. How’s that for brotherly love? Any Biblical law that's been tampered with and given a face lift by men doesn't carry much weight with God. He hates religious confusion, for He is a God of perfect holiness and order. The tithe-collecting Levites did not take American Express! I read about “Tithe-paying machines” being installed in so-called mega-churches. If Jesus were to come back to cleanse the buyers and the sellers out of the House of God again, He’d probably shout at the deacon to get rid of the Judas Junk Box gobbling up people’s paychecks! I wonder how you could feed REAL Biblical tithes into those electronic bandits: goodies like grapes, wheat and figs! I’m just curious. Why don’t today’s preachers claim OTHER perks of the Old Testament priesthood, like the hides left over from animal sacrifices (Lev.7:8)? If preachers are after your bucks, ask them if they want the “buckskins” too! Every seventh year there would be no tithe paid in Israel at all because the land was to lie fallow and no harvest could be collected from it (Lev.25:4). This was to be instead a sabbath of rest for the land. How many Christians are granted a sabbath rest every seven years from being commanded BY MEN to tithe on their overstretched paychecks? If clergymen must transfer their favorite Old Testament ceremonial ordinance into our dispensation of Grace, they should also transfer all the statutes which make up that Law, even those which are don't cater to their greed! God doesn't like it when preachers go around singing that we've been set free from the Law, then turn around and put their favorite Mosaic ordinance back on us, modernized into a moneymaker. Some ministers caution against eating the tithe, but that's exactly what God said it was for in the first place. God doesn't take kindly to pulpit bullies adding make-believe scriptures to His Word to blackmail Christ's blood-washed saints with (Rev. 22:18). In Acts Chapter 15 there was a dispute about whether Gentile converts were obligated to keep the Law of Moses or any part of it. In verses 28-29 only four (4) restrictions are placed on the liberty of Gentile followers. They were to refrain from:1. meats offered to idols2. the consumption of blood3. eating strangled animals4. committing fornication.

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Where does the Tithing Law appear on that long list of commands? Nowhere! If ever there was an opportunity for the early apostles to impose monetary tithing on unpaid Christian slaves and salaried workers, that would have been the best time to do it, don't you think? I cut my spiritual eye teeth on the teachings of the church where I first heard about the vision of the dead businessman. We sang joyfully about being set free from the Law of sin and death, and we really believed it too. We were allowed to put that belief into practice…up to a point. One of my favorite choruses was Galatians 5:1: Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The ordinances of the Old Covenant have been nailed to the Cross of Christ (Col.2:14). Christ is the END OF THE LAW for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom.10:4). Whoever puts himself back under the Law of Moses or any part of it has fallen from grace (Gal.5:4). Preachers profess to love liberty and grace. So long as these New Testament blessings don't dry up the cash flow , that is. Preachers claim that Christ has fulfilled the Law, but He didn't quite finish the job and we have to fulfill just a little bit of it too. They testify that Christ paid our debt in full…except for the ongoing TITHE DEBT which will be perpetually payable to the lords of the institutional church until they are raptured up to their second helping of paradise. Preachers mercilessly refuse to forgive imaginary debts allegedly owed to them by the serfs out in the pews, yet Paul says in Romans 13:8: Owe no man any thing but to love one another. Preachers sing: "He was nailed to the Cross for me", and they preach that God raised Christ from the dead. But it is up to them to personally resurrect lucrative Mosaic ceremonial ordinances which Christ took to the Cross with Him. All the rest of those abolished laws can stay on that cross for all they care, because there's no profit to be gained by enforcing them. If preachers discovered a way to get rich off of circumcision, those geniuses in the pulpit would be crafty enough to yank a few scriptures out of context to prove this law is still binding upon all believers today, including the poor widow with a quarter left in her purse. And if she cited 101 reasons why she couldn't conform to this law, the preacher would still tell her, "if you really loved Jesus you'd just shut up and submit." That's how desperate preachers are to get easy money, enough to pull a few crazy rabbits out of their hats. But for now, those spiritual butchers are content to give your paycheck the chop! Physical circumcision was a vow to God to keep the whole Law of Moses. In Paul's day a controversy raged as to whether Gentile converts to Christ were obligated to undergo circumcision. The issue of tithing is to our generation what the circumcision question was to the early church. But now, as then, Christian liberty and our position in Christ are at stake, not just whether certain religious practices are part of the New Covenant. Paul was often attacked by aggressive legalists who opposed his Gospel of Grace. Paul says of them in Galatians 5:12: I would they were even cut off which trouble you. Some Greek scholars believe that what Paul is really saying is that if those troublesome legalists insist on circumcision, why don't they go the whole nine yards and castrate themselves? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are the first five books of the Bible, given to Moses by God. They comprise the Jewish Torah. These books contain sound principles on how to love God and your neighbor. You can learn much by reading the biographies of the men and women of faith contained in these books, and the Christian can profit spiritually by reading them. But they also contain the entire scroll of the Law given by Moses to the children of Israel. The Jews were obliged to keep 613 ceremonial ordinances which governed their daily lives. In Leviticus 27: 30-33 we read what constituted the true Biblical tithe: the seed of the land, the fruit of the tree, herds and flocks. Nowhere does it mention the fruit of the Federal Mint! And the biggest eye-opener of all is verse 34, the very end of the book of Leviticus: These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses FOR

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THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL in Mount Sinai. So we see that the Tithing Law is the very last law covered by the law book of Leviticus. Notice, God did not give these ceremonial laws to the Apache Indians or the Eskimos to keep. Which reminds me of how some hold that keeping the Sabbath is binding on believers today, just like tithing. But the same principle applies. Transfer a law, and you must transfer all the statutes which comprise that law. One rule for keeping the Sabbath was you were forbidden to kindle a fire in your home on that day (Ex.35:3). Pity the poor Eskimo if he should run into a self-righteous Pharisee! In Numbers 15:32-36 a man gathers sticks on the Sabbath Day to build a fire with and that's the last household chore he ever performs on earth! When you put somebody under the Law, you also put them under its penalty if they break it! God expected the children of Israel to be most meticulous in following instructions for observing the Mosaic ordinances. If God asked a Jew to sacrifice a bullock He wouldn't have settled for Porky Pig. I think it's really tragic that certain Gentile theologians have modernized one of Moses' laws and changed the requirements of keeping that law for their own personal gain. Now we have all types of Heinz 57-pedigree Gentiles substituting for Jews from the Tribe of Levi. Preachers leech off poor minimum wage earners who wouldn't have had to tithe in ancient Israel. They hit them up for money which should be spent to buy decent school clothes for little Johnny. Then they collect an unscriptural tithe which is inedible by any stretch of the imagination (unless a nanny goat could digest the greenery in the collection plate)! Preachers warn that God will sick the boogerman on poor Christians if they eat their tithe instead of putting it in the offering, though the Scriptural tithe was gathered for the express purpose of feeding the poor in the first place! And even though Israel got a rest every seven years from tithing, preachers never miss a single year milking the cash cows out in the pews. And worst of all, preachers give God the credit for the amalgamated mess they've made of an ancient law yanked out of context, twisted and colored to conform to modern culture, and then imposed on people Christ has redeemed from the Old Law. Then to avoid having to take responsibility for the chaos their lies cause God's people, they pass the buck on to God! They dump the responsibility on God to repay the money they've extorted with threats and lies, and then sanitize the situation with flowery platitudes promising God's blessing. So Who gets the blame when tithers fall into even deeper poverty than ever before? Tithers are told God will surely reward their obedience…but who were they obedient to in the first place? Why should God bless obedience to the genetically modified religion preachers have created by cross-breeding the Old and New Testaments? Talk about a Frankenstein freak! God blesses a cheerful giver, but why wouldn't He give a hundred-fold back to a poor tither who does his best to keep a modernized version of a law given only to Israel? Because God is under no obligation whatsoever to reward the observance of a man-made heresy, even if it is kept in ignorance. Which brings this question to mind: Why have I never once heard a sermon preached on Proverbs 22:16? He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want (extreme poverty). Any preacher who drives a brand new Lexus and wears a $2000 suit has no business dunning a poor chicken plucker for ten per cent of her wages! Moses set an example of meekness and godliness for all generations, but Jesus is our Shepherd and lord, not Moses. Our covenant springs from Mount Calvary, not Mount Sinai. Most of Christ's church consists of Gentiles like myself, not physical Israelites. Jewish rabbis don't impose tithing on their own congregations anymore. There are no Levitical priests in office who qualify to take up tithes, and the Temple in Jerusalem has not yet been rebuilt. But those minor points don't discourage the religious revenue agents of Christendom. They conveniently forget that whenever Jesus did urge people to give alms (never tithes), the money was specifically used for the poor, not the rich (Matt.19:21; Luke 18:22). In those verses Christ is speaking to

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the Rich Young Ruler, asking him to sell all that he has and give to the poor. Jesus didn't tell the Rich Young Ruler to go and take up a collection from poor beggars so he could finance a fancy palace for the ruler of the synagogue! Many try to defend tithing by appealing to the poor widow and the two mites she deposited in the Temple treasury. But if you'll read the story objectively, you'll find that NOWHERE does Christ command the poor widow to give her bread money to the Temple, He merely states that she did this. This incident is recorded in Mark 12:41-44. But it happens immediately after Jesus finishes telling his disciples what He thinks of greedy religious hypocrites. In verses 38-40 Jesus says: And Jesus said unto them of his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the market places, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: WHICH DEVOUR WIDOWS' HOUSES, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. Christ says the same thing in Matthew 23:14, where He is in the middle of giving the scribes and Pharisees the worst verbal whipping they've ever had: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Far from condemning poor parents for providing for their families before they give to the institutional church, Jesus pronounces dread judgment on those who covet the finances of poor widows. The widow might have given her last two mites out of love, but she was under no legal obligation to sacrifice all her living to the Temple. God would far rather have mercy than sacrifice (Hosea 6:6). In Matthew 12:7 Jesus repeats this truth to defend disciples who break the Sabbath Law of rest so they can pluck ears of grain and eat. Most ministers of Christendom would rather defend their favorite legalisms than show mercy. Oh, it may prove profitable in the short term for preachers to lay their favorite law back on the people of God, but it leads to spiritual disaster. As many as are under the works of the Law are under a curse (Gal.3:10). The man in the vision was cited as an example to strike fear into the hearts of God's people to get them to tithe on money, even if it meant they or their children had to do without. Service rendered out of fear of punishment speaks of Mount Sinai, with its terrible lightning storms that made Moses exceedingly fear and quake (Heb.12:18-21). Galatians 3:10: For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in ALL things which are written in the book of the Law to do them.

Verse 11: But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident: for the just shall live by faith.

Whatsoever is not of faith is sin (including service to God which springs not from faith but from faulty teaching) (Rom.14:23). Such SERVICE TO MEN who appoint themselves as God's special IRS agents will not be motivated by love and will be grudging, just like slaves under the whip would resent their cruel overseers. God hates guilt-based giving. He loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor.9:7). If you aren't glad to give it, God doesn't want it!

Gal.3:12: And the Law is not of faith: but the man that doeth them shall live in them.

The Law of God is a package deal, not a restaurant menu you can pick and choose from. If you covenant with God to live under just one tiny part of the Old Law, you must live under it ALL! That includes circumcision for men, periodic pigeon offerings for women, giving up ham and shrimp, putting tassels on your garments, wearing phylacteries, the whole kit and caboodle. And if you offend in just ONE point of Mosaic Law, you've broken it all and brought yourself under a curse. How can any

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minister of the Gospel claim to love his brethren and then turn around and lay the Law back on them to keep the money rolling in? That isn't the love of Christ! Preachers defend the tithing doctrine as pre-dating the Law by citing the ONE occasion Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedek, king of Salem, in Genesis 14:18-20. Abraham and his men had just fought a battle to rescue Lot and other citizens of Sodom. Those people had been taken captive by the Kings of the Plain. Their town had been ransacked of valuables. Abraham fought Lot's foes and recovered all the goods stolen from Sodom. To show his gratitude to God for the victory, Abraham presented a tenth of the spoils to Melchisedek. Abraham was a generous, unselfish guy. He was a giver and a man of hospitality. But nowhere does Scripture teach that Abraham ever tithes again or tithes on any of his personal possessions. In order to enforce Abraham's tithing example on the Body of Christ, you'd have to do just like he did. Since Sodom doesn’t exist anymore, recruit a gang to help you go fight some desperados who have just burgled a local bordello. Once you've beaten the stuffing out of the thieves, take back the goods and donate ten percent of the recovered CD's, jewelry, cash, and electronic toys to the Salvation Army. Give the other ninety per cent to the gang leaders who helped you win the victory and keep nothing for yourself. That's about as close as you could come to following Abraham's tithing example, because Melchisedek probably wouldn't come down from heaven to collect that stuff anyway. Actually Jesus Himself is our great High Priest after the order of Melchisedek (Heb.7:21). We are one body in Christ Jesus and we are made one Spirit with Him through faith (I Cor.6:17). Does one member of your physical body use threats of divine judgment to extort taxes from another member of your body? Ridiculous!

Covenant Confusion

Preachers greedily seize upon Abraham’s example of tithing goods stolen by bandits from the wicked city of Sodom! But if they imitate Abraham’s example in one controversial area, why not in others? Is it okay for men to marry their half-sisters? Abraham did! (Gen.20:12). That practice would later be forbidden by the Law of Moses (Lev.18:11). In Genesis 18:8 Abraham violated Deuteronomy 14:21, which orthodox Jews interpret as a ban on serving dairy products and meat at the same meal. Those who insist on ONE law of Moses being applicable today (the Tithe) usually think it’s okay to eat cheese on their hamburger! God justified Abraham by faith BEFORE he was ever circumcised (Rom.4:7-10). Abraham and Ishmael were 99 and 13 years old, respectively, when they were finally circumcised (Gen.17:24-25). Does that mean that Abraham was loathsome to God before he underwent his circumcision? In Gen.17:10-14 God ordered that all males born in Abraham’s household be circumcised by the eighth day of life. This law predated Moses, just like limited VOLUNTARY acts of tithing. But where do you ever read of earlier saints like Seth or Noah tithing or getting circumcised? How many preachers enforcing the tithing law today would be willing to marry their own sister and practice everything ELSE Abraham did? It works both ways now. If it’s okay to retrieve Abraham’s ONE-TIME act of tithing as proof that tithing predated the Law and is compulsory today, in all fairness you must also revive the practice of circumcision and marriage of close relatives! It’s just as crazy to tell us that we have to keep a defunct Mosaic ordinance as it would have been to slap handcuffs on Abraham for violating a couple of ordinances that hadn’t yet been given by God on Mt. Sinai! Jacob is cited as the other example of pre-Law tithing. But was his tithe an “act of faith” where he “gave out of his lack”? Jacob’s “vow of faith” was the act of a desperate man looking for an escape hatch. Jacob had just conned his brother Esau into swapping the family birthright for a bowl of soup (how did he manage THAT?) Every used car salesman would have loved

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Jacob! When Esau got Montezuma’s revenge from Jacob’s genetically modified lentils, he went gunning for his shifty brother. So naturally Jacob ran away. As he journeyed to his Uncle Laban’s sheep ranch in Syria, Jacob woke up at his campsite and prayed thus:

Gen.28:20: And Jacob vowed a vow, saying: IF God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment (clothing) to put on,VERSE 21: So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; THEN shall the Lord be my God:VERSE 22: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou SHALT give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

To imitate Jacob’s tithing “VOW OF FAITH”, you have to see past the ten per cent bit and do all the rest of it as well:

1. Tell God that he must FIRST feed you, clothe you, and keep you safe in your journeyings BEFORE He will be accepted as your God. The nerve of that ungrateful guy! That sounds like an exclusive college fraternity telling a pledge: “IF you cook, clean, and wash our socks for us during “Hell Week”, we just MIGHT consider accepting you as a member!” Our Creator, the One Who gives us every breath we breathe, deserves more respect than that! I couldn’t have made that one up! Verse 21 actually records that wheeler-dealer Jacob had the chutzpah to tell the Almighty that strings were attached to his love for God!

2. Set up a pillar stone (remember the monolith in 2001: a Space Odyssey?) and tell God that marble slab is gonna be His pad from now on. It’s different now. The whole Body of Christ, the Church, is God’s House (Eph.2:22).

3. AFTER (not before) God has made you rich enough to do it, has provided fully for your needs and kept you safe, then, and only then, begin to pay God, not some rich TV preacher in Malibu, ten per cent of everything you have (not just money)! Jacob kept sheep, but you probably own only a dog or a cat. If you get ten or more kittens in their next litter (you don’t have to tithe on nine), give one away as your “tithe” to some poor kid to cheer him up. Since God can’t play CD’s and DVD’s up in heaven, what would He have you do with those plastic pacifiers? Sell ‘em and give the dough to your local homeless mission, the Salvash, etc. And don’t forget to tithe on ten per cent of your Elvis “oldies but goldies”!

Seriously, tithing under the New Covenant is a grave dispensational error. We don’t live in Abraham’s time, and we don’t live in Moses’ time. Abraham and Moses lived BEFORE the Cross. But we live AFTER the Cross of Christ disannulled (Gr. athetesis: abolition) the Old Law, under God’s New Covenant of Grace (Rom.10:4; Heb.7:18). Imagine you’re driving through Mississippi. While you’re in Mississippi you’re under Mississippi law. But once you cross the Tennessee line, you’re no longer under Mississippi law, but Tennessee law. Both Mississippi and Tennessee might have one ordinance on their books that Kentucky doesn’t have. Just for fun, let’s pretend that law forbids singing in the car as you drive. Finally you cross the line into Kentucky, where that one law Mississippi and Tennessee have in common no longer applies to you personally, because you aren’t in those states anymore. Now, wouldn’t it be ridiculous if after you crossed over into Kentucky and started singing in your car, a state trooper arrested you for violating anti-singing laws of the other two states? Yet something just as ridiculous is going on today in churches throughout the land.

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On God’s timeline, you had Abraham’s covenant with its conditions, later you had the Age of Mosaic Law. In God’s earlier covenant with Noah (Gen.9:1-17), circumcision was not even mentioned, nor was tithing. But under the Abrahamic Covenant and Covenant of Law, circumcision was mandatory for all male believers. Tithing was permissible in Abraham’s day, but not yet given by God as a religious law. Under Mosaic Law, tithing was compulsory, but only for those who grew crops or raised livestock. There were four different tithes paid in Israel. The chart on the following page illustrates just WHO was responsible for providing WHICH tithe and where each tithe ended up:

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Type of Tithe Paid How usedLEVITICAL TITHE Yearly, by farmers and

herdsmen, except for Sabbatical years (Num.18:21)

Stored in Levitical Cities (Lev.25:32) to feed Levites and their families (Neh.10:37)

FESTIVAL TITHE Yearly, By farmers and herdsmen (some scholars believe it wasn’t paid during years of Poor Tithe)

Hauled to place of worship and immediately EATEN BY WORSHIPPER and others (Deut.14:22-27)

POOR TITHE Every third and sixth year of seven-year tithing cycle by farmers and herdsmen (Deut.14:28-29)

Laid up within Israel’s city gates as emergency supply of food for Levites and poor people

PRIEST’S TITHE Yearly, by the Levites, to the Aaronic priesthood. The choicest ten per cent “heaved out of” the tithes they received from the people (Num.18:25-32)

ONLY kind brought to Temple storehouses! Fed priests who worked rotating shifts (Mal.3:10; I Chron. Chap.24; Luke 1:8)

Church: The Land of Bilk and Money

After Christ died on the Cross, all claims the old Law had on us were satisfied. The Law was made obsolete (Rom.10:4; Heb.7:18). On God’s timeline, believers are now under the jurisdiction of the New Covenant of Grace, and are subject neither to the customs of Abraham’s day nor the ordinances of Mosaic Law. Those dispensations are past. Yet some devious preachers still claim we’re under at least one of the 613 laws of Moses! Tithing on money is totally alien to Scripture. Even before his pay day comes, a believer is pressured with guilt tactics to fork over his tithe to the man in the pulpit. Many families have found tithing a financial burden and a strain on their marriage and home life. People are under tremendous pressure to make ends meet today. Ten per cent may not be such a big deal to a rich family, but for a poor family buying groceries with the little left over after bill-paying, tithing can be the straw that broke the camel's back. Tithing can create the need for working an extra job. That helps perpetuate a vicious circle of increased need for child care, extra work expenses, etc. Many poor people have either quit church or won't start going because of financial intimidation from overbearing preachers. From starting out 2000 years ago as a loving, close-knit family of faith brimming over with the pure love of Jesus, today's typical “church” has become an institution rather than a family of faith. The worst type of institutional church is little more than a money-making club run by a poodle-permed fear-monger who charges dues called “tithes”, and tips called “offerings”. For many, many years I’ve given the institutional church the benefit of the doubt. But only after I compared today’s church with the church in Acts could I put my finger on what’s missing in church life: LIFE! Whose life? Jesus’ life! Not some imaginary Jesus who’s depicted as a garish cartoon character wearing a Rolex and buying His fifth Beverly Hills mansion, but that same One Who loved us so much He became poor for all our sakes (II Cor.8:9). More and more I’m leaning toward the conviction

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that traditional churchianity is a poor substitute for true fellowship in the Spirit. It’s like a fancy chocolate box with nothing inside it but hot air! America (and Western nations in general) follow a consumer culture. When Americans get hungry on the Road of Life, they head for McDonald’s or Burger King. When they need medicine, lawn furniture, or toys, they head for Walmart or Target. When they need food for their soul, they instinctively go to still another building: that fancy sheep shed down the road that boasts spraying fountains, “inspirational prayer gardens”, crystal architecture… and a fifty-year mortgage. But unless the real Jesus of the Bible is welcome there, it’s just a mausoleum for the spiritually dead and dying! I feel that the growing house church movement is solid evidence that the Holy Ghost is calling sincere Spirit-filled believers out of a money-centered system that is incurably sick from head to toe (Isaiah 1:6). But wherever you meet, if you feel that God has you in a place where He is using you to minister the life of Christ, and you are also receiving love from others through the Spirit of Christ, stay there! At least until you are absolutely certain that you are being sent elsewhere through God’s clear guidance. But don’t ever allow some MAN behind a pulpit to scare you into doing or giving anything. Give joyfully to GENUINE needs, but don’t fall into the trap of ritual giving out of a sense of guilt. Some preachers insinuate that we give to the Lord ONLY when we give to some professional minister or to faraway missions, and supporting our own family doesn't count as giving to the Lord. But Jesus thinks otherwise. Let the children FIRST be filled (Mark 7:27). Not just barely fed and clothed in cheap rags, but with their own needs totally satisfied. In Mark 7:9-13 Jesus castigates some self-righteous Pharisees for teaching their disciples to consecrate to religious purposes money which should have gone to support aged parents. Instead of keeping the commandment "Honor your father and your mother", those blind leaders of the blind made void the Word of God through their own vain traditions. I read that in traditional Judaism, no poor man was obligated to give alms out of that which he needed to sustain his own life. Let the children first be fed! Whenever a New Covenant believer pays tithes to another believer, even a doctor of divinity in a jet-propelled pulpit, he or she denies their own priesthood in Christ Jesus. The whole Body of Christ is called a Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation (I Pet.2:9). Tithes were to be levied only on the produce of the Land of Israel. Tithes were never produced by or paid by the priestly branch of the Tribe of Levi, the priesthood, which descended from Aaron the High Priest. We are in Christ, Who is our own High Priest (2 Cor.5:17; Heb.9:11). All our consecrated service on earth is to be performed in Jesus' Name, just as if it were His own hands doing it. Part of that service is freewill offerings to bless the needy as the Lord leads. But whenever some human leader extorts tithes from a Spirit-indwelt believer, they are setting themselves up as being superior to Christ Himself. They dare to seize the highest seat at the table for themselves and demote the Christ in other Christians to a field hand who is told to work hard and keep the tribute rolling in. Old Covenant priests came and went, but Jesus is the ONLY High Priest of the New Covenant! Brother so-and-so with the Rolex watch is NOT qualified to preside as acting High Priest on behalf of Jesus and exact tribute from His people! What doctrinal chaos is caused by "spiritual Levites" who exalt themselves above the factory workers and burger flippers out in the pews, expecting to receive tribute from them as underlings! But since when is Christ divided into two classes, the peasants and the aristocracy? Did Christ intend for "spiritual Levites" to be supported by literal tithe money earned by the lower-ranking laity? We are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal.3:28). God's Word means what it says and says what it means! Much, much more is involved here than dollars and cents. I am not advocating selfishness, only faithfulness to what the Word really does teach New Testament Christians. Always guard against a stingy attitude and respond to legitimate needs around you as the Lord leads, with freewill offerings. But Gentile clergymen who

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collect tithes are way out of order. Only members of the Tribe of Levi were ever allowed by God to collect tithes (Numbers 18:21-24). Class division is the automatic result when some Gentile clergyman takes tithes of people out in the pews. They are disregarding God's clear instructions on tithing. They are, saying in effect, "I don't care two cents what God says in His Word. I'll change God's rules to serve my own selfish ends." And by threatening you with the imminent judgment of God for non-tithing, the preacher is denying your own priesthood in Christ and demoting you to being a slave instead of a son. He’s really saying: "You are just there to serve us!" What an arrogant dismissal of the fact all true believers, rich and poor alike, are children of the Great King. We are no longer slaves but sons with an eternal inheritance (Gal.4:7). And if we are sons, then why should we let some religious leader bring us under tribute (Matt.17:25-26)? There's more than one way to get a stubborn donkey to move, preachers have discovered. The stick approach says "Pay up or you'll have to answer to God for it! Pay up or I'll name and shame you from this pulpit next week!" The other approach seems less scary, stringing the donkey along by dangling the carrot in front of his nose. "You can't outgive God!" preachers holler. They've really got a lot of nerve, don't they? First they take their favorite Old Testament ordinance down from the Cross. Then they magically transform fruit and veggie tithes into crispy lettuce with big numbers on it. Finally, they make God liable to pay back the tithe money they've filched out of fearful, ignorant souls. God does take good care of His people, but contrary to modern Prosperity theology, not every Christian is gonna hit the jackpot in this lifetime. How many millions of poor Christians have gone to their graves wondering why they never did receive the bumper harvest preachers promised them for tithing on money? Religious profiteers who have led God's people back under bondage will have to answer to Him for all the financial hardship and resentment caused by the divisive doctrine of monetary tithing. Maybe God won't be nearly so concerned about the Slurpee some poor Christian bought with untithed pocket change as He will be about all the poor kids who had to do without decent food or new shoes because some slick theologian shamed their parents into emptying their pockets, supposedly for the furtherance of the Gospel! It's the unquestioning, follow-the-leader believer who pays the piper for ignorance. Whereas Christ's yoke is easy and His burden is light, the yoke of servitude any other master puts on you is grievously heavy.. And being victimized by bad doctrine doesn't guarantee you won't have to answer to God someday for the bad things you yourself have done and failed to repent of. But I tend to suspect that while God may rebuke the little guy in the pews for unrepented-of selfishness, He might deal much more severely with devious manipulators of the Word who twisted scripture for selfish gain and hid under a bushel basket vital truth which would have set the saints free to walk in total liberty. If Christ doesn't command it, man shouldn't demand it!

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Malachi 3: 10: Who Robbed Who of What?

YE ARE CURSED WITH A CURSE! How many times a Sunday is this execration bellowed forth from pulpits far and wide, all across America? Preachers are like grave robbers digging for buried treasure. Christ took the old Law with Him to the Cross and nailed it there (Col.2:14). But preachers dig up their favorite part of the Law, Malachi 3:8-10, up from the grave of sweet forgetfulness and reapply it to Christians who are NOT under the Law of Moses (Rom.6:14). They care not that in reimposing any part of the Law of Moses upon those justified by faith, they are bringing blood-washed saints back under the Curse of the Law and causing them to stumble and run the risk of falling from grace (Gal.3:10; 5:4). If you bind yourself to observe one part of the old Law you are spiritually bound to keep it ALL! Christ pronounced a “woe” upon any devious person who would offend (cause to stumble ) babes in Christ (Matt.18:6). Let’s read this passage, which has caused so much bondage and fear out in the congregation and profited so many preachers: Malachi 3:8-10. Malachi 3:8: Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.VERSE 9: Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.VERSE 10: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat (food, not money!) in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Whenever preachers excoriate the congregation with dreadful execrations for defrauding “God” of monetary tithes, they’ll soften the blow just a bit at the end of verse 10, by repeating God’s promise to pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Why, then, have I read countless testimonies which prove just the opposite? Far from bringing a blessing upon us, returning to the Law of Moses or any part of it actually results in a curse (Gal.3:10). In one religious sect, members were required to double-tithe as punishment if, even out of great hardship, they “borrowed the tithe” to spend on family necessities. Seems to me like those folks should have been SHOWERED with blessings! Instead, there were woeful tales of kids who rarely saw their parents because both parents had to go out to work all kinds of crazy hours to earn “tithe money” for their “church”, which was run by a control freak who lived high on the hog. Kids went without decent food, dental care, new shoes, etc., just so tithes could be paid to the pampered leadership of their sect. At their “annual feasts” the congregation would gather in a big hall to feast on boiled beans while the “leadership” ate in a fancier dining room by themselves, feasting on the finest. The question remains: Why all the hardship if tithing brings blessings? Those poor kids who suffered privations had PLENTY of room to receive more from God! That abominable religious system which oppressed those poor people caused parents to have to neglect their children because they had to be out working like slaves. When poor people pay their bills, there is often just a very thin margin of disposable (spendable) income left to buy the necessities of life. Whenever Christians take the food out of their own kids’ mouths to “pay tithes”, they are literally forced to disobey I Timothy 5:8: But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.* * * Lots of “infidels” are being churned out by infidels behind modern pulpits!

God DID promise to pour out His blessings upon SOMEONE who was asked to tithe SOMETHING at some point in history, but who was this Scripture talking about? We don’t have to pay tithes to a religious hierarchy INVENTED BY MEN anymore than

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we’re responsible for paying George Washington’s phone bill! Christ DID NOT ordain a clergy-laity caste system in the Body of Christ! He said we are all to treat each other equally as being brethren in the Lord (Matt.23:8). The early church had their elders, apostles, and deacons, but those men were there to SERVE God’s people, not to make slaves of them! For the first couple of centuries after Pentecost God’s people related to each other on an equal basis as brothers and sisters. Elders shared the wisdom of the Lord as fellow brethren, rather than mounting a tall pulpit and threatening God’s retribution for failure to give generously for the upkeep of the institutional church. First, let’s address the question of WHO was robbing God in Malachi. Malachi 3:9 says: ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. But the word “even” is in italics. Any word in italics was added by translators. In reality, whoever was doing the robbing was defrauding not only God, but the whole nation. WHO is God addressing in this book of Malachi? Just two verses before our main text, God says: Malachi 3:6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye SONS OF JACOB are not consumed. Are WE literal sons of Jacob? I don’t think so, at least not the majority of those who are reading this! Was God also addressing the sons (or daughters) of Gentiles far and wide, of all times? Forget religious sentiment! A plain reading of Scripture does NOT support preachers’ contentions that Malachi (and its many rebukes) are aimed at the Church of Jesus Christ living under the New Covenant! That’s just as stupid as saying that I Samuel 28: 16 is directed at the Body of Christ. But I wouldn’t put anything past today’s greedy preachers. If they could make a quick buck by convincing Christians that the ghost of the prophet Samuel pronounced judgment not only upon King Saul but also upon modern-day Christians, they wouldn’t hesitate to misapply I Samuel 28:16 just like they twist Malachi to line their own pockets. It really boils down to this: preachers are running a protection racket to protect God’s people from an obsolete curse which had nothing whatsoever to do with monetary tithing either in the Old Testament or now! They are threatening Christ’s redeemed ones with a curse! THEY ARE ACTUALLY THREATENING CHRIST HIMSELF! When you sin against the brethren in any way, you sin directly against Jesus (Matt.25:40; I Cor.8:12). What a damnable sin preachers commit against the Body of Christ! Christ REDEEMED us from the curse of the Law (Gal.3:13). HOW DARE those greedy serpents (Matt.23:33) put Old Covenant curses back on God’s people! Those who “beat their fellow-servants” with vile lies are merciless thieves and crooks who will themselves receive no mercy from God (Luke 12:45-46; James 2:13). As much as preachers might deny it, it was the SONS OF JACOB, not the sons of other nations who were held responsible for those sins in the book of Malachi! Now, what sins were those rascally “sons of Jacob” guilty of committing? Malachi 3:5 says: And I will come near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

Notice that the hireling (wage earner) is lumped together with other oppressed groups, such as the widow and the fatherless. How can anybody construe that the rebukes of Malachi are aimed at the poor wage earner? Can the hireling oppress the hireling? Just three verses later in Malachi 3:8, we read God’s first mention of tithing in this book. Now why would God suddenly shift gears in mid-stream and decide to level His rebukes at the very ones who are being victimized by the sins in this particular book of Scripture?

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The Sons of Jacob (Israel) were divided into twelve tribes and many sub-clans. WHICH “sons of Jacob” is God primarily addressing in the Book of Malachi? Let’s go back to the very beginning of Malachi for a clue.

Malachi 1:6: A son honoureth his father, and a servant honoureth his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you O PRIESTS, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?

VERSE 7: Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye (the priests) say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. VERSE 8: And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.

AHA! So it’s the PRIESTS OF ISRAEL this book is addressed to! To claim that this book is an indictment against 21st-century Christian believers who fail to bring money tithes into “God’s House” ( the church building) is spiritual abuse of God’s people, plain and simple. Ordinary Israelites weren’t permitted by God to even come NEAR the Tabernacle of the Congregation, on pain of death (Num.18:22). Far from being a “church building” where ordinary Israelites congregated to put money in the preacher’s plate, hold services, potluck dinners, etc., the Tabernacle of Moses’ Day inspired terror in the hearts of God’s people. They were afraid to come anywhere near it, much less bring the fruits of cash wages into it (Numbers 17:12-13). Not only are monetary tithes extracted from God’s people by misinterpretation and misuse of Malachi, so are “offerings above and beyond the tithe”. But what did God demand in offerings? Well, if you’ll reread verse 8 it speaks of bad offerings being lame, blind and sick! How on earth can a hundred-dollar bill be lame, blind and sick? Get real! Do preachers think we’re stupid? God is clearly referring to offerings of ANIMAL SACRIFICES in this passage, nothing more and nothing less! If any of you have ever been asked by your preacher for an animal sacrifice to be brought to church to be burnt on the altar, please let me know about it. That would hit the headlines! Malachi 3:3 reinforces my belief that the Book of Malachi is addressed by God to the priesthood of Israel, not to us:

And he (God) shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify THE SONS OF LEVI, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.* * * *WHO is God purifying here, so that they may offer up the LORD’s offering in righteousness? The SONS OF LEVI!

God’s tithes weren’t being brought into the Temple storehouse (Heb.owtsar), which simply means a granary to store food, not a bank for hippie bread! What did God demand as tithes? If it was grown BY THE LAND or nourished BY THE LAND (grain, fruit, cattle, sheep, etc.) it was a tithable commodity (Lev.27:30; 32-33). Even under the Law, money was NOT a tithable commodity! Those who earned their living through banking, midwifery, carpentry, fishing, etc., did not owe any tithes in ancient Israel, unless they raised crops or livestock on the side! The farming family would set aside one tithe of their crops to consume at the three annual feasts in Jerusalem (Deut.14:22-27). Every three years a special tithe was “laid up within their city gates” to feed poor people (verses 28-29). Whenever the tithing storehouses were empty, that vital social safety net for hungry poor people wasn’t available. The poor, as well as the Levites, would have been robbed if tithing were neglected by those who grew or raised tithable commodities in the Land

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of Israel. It was not the weaver or fisherman who was liable for supplying edible tithes, so God’s rebuke could not have been aimed at everybody in the nation for failure to tithe! The priests’ tithe of the tithe (heave offering) was the one addressed by Malachi. The Tribe of Levi would receive as wages for their service the Levitical tithe, which constituted ten per cent of all the agricultural produce of Israel (Num.18:21). But they, in turn, were to present ten per cent of their tithe to the actual priesthood, the Aaronic sub-clan of the tribe of Levi who outranked all other Levites and actually served at the altar (Num.18:25-32). It was the LEVITES (sons of Levi), not the other tribes of Israel, who were being rebuked by God for failure to bring their “tithe of the tithe” to the storehouse so that the officiating priests in the Temple could eat and be satisfied. Neglect of the tithing storehouses resulted in hunger for poor widows, aliens, orphans and others, including the “hireling”, or wage earner. Wage earners were poor in those days, and at great risk of going hungry at least part of the time, because of poor wages, locust plagues, seasonal unemployment, etc. The wage earner, who once helped eat the tithe, often still lives hand to mouth. Yet the wage earner is being spiritually blackmailed by religious tyrants to fork over ten per cent of his paycheck! Aside from the fact that it’s ILLEGAL to mix profitable parts of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant and to substitute money for farm produce, NOT ONE Gentile tithe collector today can prove through reliable genealogical records that he (or she) is descended from Aaron the High Priest and entitled to take tithes from the people of God! It is an act of gross heresy and robbery to take tithes under the New Covenant, and anybody who collects tithes today is an imposter! Impersonating an Old Covenant priest was punishable by DEATH in ancient Israel (Numbers 3:10), So I say to all those windbags bellowing curses at non-tithers out in the pews: “Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!” Where’s the smoking meat on your “altar table”, the periodic pigeon offerings from the women, the drink offerings, the incense, the brass laver for washing your feet, etc.? Show me the shewbread you lay out every Saturday (Sabbath Day)! That’s part of playing priest, not just grabbing the money and running before people wise up to the truth! Under the Old Covenant, the Levitical priesthood served as intermediaries between a Holy God and His people. No ordinary Israelite would have been allowed to approach things pertaining to the Tabernacle on pain of death (Num.1:51)! Far from being required to bring money and lay it on the altar, “strangers” (or non-Levitical Israelites) were forbidden direct access into the place of God’s Presence, and were forbidden to touch any of His holy things. I tremble for modern preachers who are pretending to be Old Covenant priests qualified to take tithes, when not even the first apostles dared to do such a thing! Today’s tithe collectors are actually LYING to God’s people about what He actually commanded in His Word, and living off the fruits of those lies! Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord “which He commanded not” and were didn’t live long afterward (Num.3:4)! Today we have hypocritical preachers scaring saints by threatening them with judgment out of the “inerrant Word of God” for failure to keep THEIR false traditions, while they themselves brazenly change the content of the “inerrant Word of God” to mooch money off it! Which is worse in the sight of God? Why are preachers content to pose only as “spiritual Levites”? Most members of the tribe of Levi ranked beneath the priesthood and served them. In the days of Nehemiah, as always, it was strictly the Levites’ task to bring their own “tithe of the tithe” into the Temple storehouse (Neh.10:38), although at that time the other Children of Israel brought edible OFFERINGS there also (verse 39). One interesting point to ponder is this: The Children of Israel could not have owed or paid either “firstfruits offerings” or tithes of agricultural produce while they lived in the Wilderness! They were supernaturally fed manna. The Children of Israel could not grow crops to collect tithes from until they entered the Promised Land.

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Aaron the High Priest did not change God’s rules and decide to substitute silver and gold for tithes of edible things, like preachers dare to do today. Think about it. In Exodus Chapter 32 Aaron actually built the Golden Calf for the rebellious Children of Israel in the Wilderness! It’s a miracle God spared him, considering there was a man who got killed just for picking up sticks on the Sabbath Day (Num.15:32-36)! As imperfect as Aaron was, not even he, a LEGITIMATE Old Covenant High Priest, dared to change the provisions of God’s tithing ordinance, or any other Mosaic law! Shockingly, those who rob God’s people with bald-faced lies claim to be doing so under God’s authority!

Enough of this dribble about bringing counterfeit money tithes into the “house of God” at the corner of Maple and Fifth. We, the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ, ARE the Temple of God (I Cor.3:16). And, we are the new priesthood of God (I Pet.2: 5,9). We are NOT under the Law of Moses, and we are NOT under the authority of the old Levitical priesthood, who took tithes only from the produce of the Land of Israel. God’s rebuke TO THE SONS OF LEVI for failure to bring all the tithes into the storehouse could not have been directed to the midwives, fishermen, carpenters, and potters of ancient Israel, and it certainly cannot be aimed at us, at least by God!

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Avoiding a Deadly Cocktail of CursesProverbs 22:16, Malachi 3:9 and Galatians 3:10

RUSH your best gift in to our ministry RIGHT NOW! Sign your name to this red prayer rag! Sleep over it just ONE night and don’t forget to wrap it around the BIGGEST bill in your wallet! God gave HIS best for YOU, so you should do the same for Him! Old Scratch is absolutely TERRIFIED about what you’re about to do! Make giving fun and he’ll tuck tail and run! This is YOUR month of Jubilee Release! Seven, I said SEVEN major BREAKTHROUGH WITH GOD MIRACLES are about to transform your life forever! So act NOW! There might NEVER be another opportunity for you to work God’s Golden Blessing Keys to unlock His mighty power! The bigger the sacrifice the bigger the blessing! Month after month such propaganda would arrive in my mailbox. I was desperate enough to “prove God”, even when I only had pennies in my purse. I disregarded the voice of caution inside me as being a mere temptation to “be selfish”. Funny how years of listening to “new revelations” in church, over the radio, and at religious crusades can warp your understanding of how God operates and what you need to do to persuade Him to move in power on your behalf. I inhaled that twisted teaching like a vacuum cleaner . I turned a blind eye to any evidence that God’s “anointed servants” were living like kings off the backs of poor working people. After all, I really didn’t expect Brother Wonderworker to appear on TV dressed in a torn T-shirt and faded jeans. They had to keep up appearances “for the glory of God”, but I eventually came to the conclusion that no preacher’s poodle needs its own air-conditioned condominium! I needed desperately to believe in something. I had a Hero in heaven, Jesus, but like many other people, I thought I needed a (visible) hero on earth too. In those days, I really didn’t have much of an awareness that we are ALL on an equal footing in the sight of God, where it concerned the priesthood of all believers. God is not nearly so impressed with wealth and fame (or lack of it) as people are. Every one of His beloved children who earnestly seeks Him with a pure heart gets a royal welcome before His Throne of Grace. God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34-35). Things only got worse in those days when I got regular mail-outs from famous preachers. I was bowled over by the slick brochures, “personalized letters”, and tiny vials of “miracle oil” that would arrive several times a month. Surely my miracle would come if only I would follow “God’s” instructions and send in the preacher’s red hankie wrapped around my last dollar. Most of the time all I could offer was prayer. Somewhat uneasily I conceded that God just might be doing “something new” in the church world, by teaching His kids the Golden Principles of Prosperity. God was depicted as Someone Who was powerless to help you unless you first “sowed a sacrificial seed” into His Kingdom. You had to give (and give big!) to get your needs met by God. Even if your favorite televangelist ate the finest food and wore the fanciest clothes, he (or she) was still “God’s anointed” and “giving” only got rewarded by God if it was done to the likes of them. Giving to gimmicky preachers is done merely for the sake of “putting your faith in action”, not because the preacher is going hungry and needs food, as happened to the Apostle Paul (I Cor.9:4; 2 Cor.11:27). Sacrifice was encouraged to be done just for the sake of sacrifice, although such a thing never was taught by Jesus or any of His apostles. What greedy televangelists are really saying is this: God demands continual “give-till-it-hurts” sacrifice. Preachers make you think that while Jesus’ one-time sacrifice on Calvary was sufficient to get us saved to heaven, it isn’t enough to save us from satan’s attacks on earth! Whenever people were asked to give in the New Testament, it was only to meet REAL needs, not to “test” God to see if He would outgive your gift to the preacher a hundred fold! Jesus plainly says in Matt.4:7: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. “Tempt” as used in this verse comes from the Greek word “ekpeirazo” which means

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to test thoroughly. Preachers appeal to Malachi 3:10 where God tells the sons of Jacob (see verse 6), not the Church, to bring in the tithe and to prove Him to see whether He would open the windows of heaven and pour them out a blessing. God does not say: Bring ye all the money into the church offering plates that there may be new carpeting in the vestibule, etc. Jesus plainly said “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (put Him to the test). Whenever two scriptures seem to conflict, we must remember that Jesus is Lord of the Church. The conflict is resolved because tithing never was on money, tithing was never done on the wages of laborers, the tithing law was for Israel only, and tithing was nailed to the Cross of Christ along with all other temporary Mosaic ordinances (Col.2:14). Preachers who tell people to give their rent money “by faith” to “prove God” are tempting them to sin by breaking Jesus’ own commandment not to put God to the test. I read that fishers for funds are getting so desperate these days that they even coax Christians to “empty their bank accounts for the Lord”. Then when the landlord wants the rent, it’s supposedly the Lord’s fault if He doesn’t provide a quick-fix for the mess caused by some lying preacher’s sales pitch. Prosperity theology had never been pushed at the church where I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. But it wasn’t many years after my Baptism that I first heard of that “Christian” doctrine, in the seventies. When money got tight at our house I decided to “prove God”. At every opportunity I sent in bits of money to this preacher or that preacher. I held a huge yard sale to raise money for my favorite missionary work. As people bought my discarded items I literally tingled with excitement, doing the math in my head: 100 X 100 equals 10,000 smackeroos! Once we got our hundred-fold return, our troubles would be over! Our home got burgled shortly afterward, and other troubles hit us. When he was in L.A., my husband got robbed by an armed street thug, who took what little he had. Preachers say that if only you’ll sow more seed (give money to THEM), God will make you the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. If that were true, then why isn’t the average church parking lot filled with Rolls Royces? Many years ago we rented a spare room to a Christian, to help make ends meet. This guy served in his (non-Charismatic) church’s music ministry and tithed faithfully. He was there every time the church doors opened. The church he attended was one of the richest in L.A. He subsisted on a diet of dried soup mix and rode a bike to work. He declined our offer of a square meal, saying his “simple sustenance” was good enough for him. This young man saw nothing wrong with tithing to a pastor who dressed in fancy suits and enjoyed the “finer” things in life. Preachers count on poor parishioners to:

a. Be content with a bare-bones lifestyle so they can donate more, or:b. Even if parishioners aren’t content to live on soup mix and drive an old bike to

work, they’ll go on sowing “seed” in hopes of a BREAKTHROUGH MIRACLE (which ends up breaking their heart and shattering their faith when disillusionment sets in).

If “planting a seed” makes you rich, those windy preachers must have meant “rich in trouble”! In those dark days of my ignorance I clung to everything the “prosperity preachers” taught. I loved those exciting preachers so much I “vowed” to God that if He rewarded my “seeds” with a huge harvest, I’d give a big hunk of my hundred-fold harvest to that smiley preacher who taught me the Seven Keys to Success. But instead of hitting the jackpot, some terrible trials came our way. I felt mighty low at times and had to war against a spirit of shame and humiliation sent against me by satan. What a blow to my misdirected faith! It’s a miracle I survived spiritually in those days when I took my focus off the real Jesus of the Bible and got blown off course in my Christian life. When I was deceived by spiritual quacks only the devil prospered.

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Day after day I wondered: “When is my 100-fold reward EVER going to materialize? Are those rich TV preachers really more precious to God than us poor peasants?” How can you locate the light at the end of the tunnel when it’s a struggle even to keep the lights on? But whenever I’d tune in to my favorite TV preachers, they looked like they were in a carefree paradise! Those pretty preachers lived in a wonderland of piped-in praise music, golden furniture and flower gardens. Their clothes sparkled with perpetual newness. They had diamonds and delight. Most people I knew experienced only drudgery and dread of incoming bills. It seemed like TV preachers were forever traveling to exciting destinations. Always first class, of course! Their lives were one long jubilee. THEY didn’t have to drag their bodies out of bed every morning to go to some dreary, dead-end job to scratch out an existence. They were living life to the fullest because their pockets were always full. All they had to do was turn on the tears and show pictures of hungry kids. After a long, drawn-out song from one of their happy-clappy acts, there would be a whoop of excitement as the latest tote board figure was read out: “Hallelujah! We’ve reached Five Million Dollars for our BEG-A-THON!” When the carrot approach no longer works, there’s always the stick. Preachers hold the curse of Malachi 3:9 over the heads of people who refuse to tithe money, which is never commanded in Scripture to be paid as a tithe. Preachers add a soft touch by reminding folks that God will rebuke the devourer if they tithe on wages. Why is it, then, that some who tithe very generously to preachers and faithfully follow the ABC’s of faith are the ones who can’t pay the light bill or have to put an item back at the supermarket checkout? The more I gave to preachers, the tighter things got for us. After I stopped giving to gimmicky preachers I began to see more needs met in my life and more answered prayer, believe it or not! Any principle of righteousness which applies to one believer usually applies to all in the New Testament. Tithing is treated as an essential to the Christian faith, a prerequisite for gaining and keeping God’s favor. Tithing is put on an equal footing with practices expected of all Christians, such as faith, prayer, walking in love, etc. But Paul never taught unpaid housewives or slaves how to tithe. How could a poor slave getting zilch on his paycheck every payday tithe to God from it, so as to merit His favor thereby? Paul didn’t even teach Lydia the rich businesswoman how to tithe off the profits of her purple cloth! If tithing is so all-fired important, then where are the scriptures which teach converted heathens how to do it properly? It is forbidden by God to add commandments to His written Word (Deut.4:2). Tithing on cash wages was NEVER commanded in either testament and educated preachers know it! Yet Malachi 3:8-11 is yanked out of context and incorrectly applied to the modern church. In this passage God says that SOMEBODY robbed Him of SOMETHING which was due Him in tithes and offerings, and so they were “cursed with a curse”. But if they brought those tithes in, the windows of heaven would be opened. Malachi is misapplied to Christian believers today to penetrate their pockets. Period. Preachers lead their flock to think that God is addressing New Covenant believers in Malachi. WRONG! Start reading Malachi from the very beginning (very few preachers ever start their tithing pitch from Malachi Chapter One). Mal.1:1: The burden of the word of the LORD TO ISRAEL by Malachi.* * *Failure to distinguish between Israel as a nation and Jesus’ mostly Gentile church causes much misunderstanding of Scripture. Applying the tithing message of Malachi to the Church is just like somebody taking medication prescribed for somebody else. Tithing was for Malachi’s time, and God writing out a prescription to spiritually sick Levites: Be faithful to bring in their “tithe of the tithe” OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE ONLY to the Temple storehouse to feed priests who were working their courses of duty there. Faithfulness to tithing (and other Mosaic ordinances) was prescribed for those under the Law, as was circumcision, animal sacrifice, phylacteries, sidelocks, dietary laws, etc. Those things are NOT prescribed for us, and do us harm by bringing us back

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under the Law. Taking medicine prescribed for somebody else could kill you physically. Taking the wrong spiritual medicine can kill you spiritually! Other verses in Malachi clarify just who this book is directed to:Mal.2:1: AND NOW, O YE PRIESTS, THIS COMMANDMENT IS FOR YOU.* * *God is here addressing the priesthood, not congregational worshippers, and certainly not Gentile converts to Christianity!Malachi 3:3: And he (God) shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify THE SONS OF LEVI, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.* * *Under the Old Covenant, ordinary Israelites (and certainly not Gentiles) had no right to directly approach the altar of God to offer any sacrifice. In this chapter, God is dealing with the sins of THE SONS OF LEVI, not the sins of the Eskimos, the Apache Indians and the Greeks! Two verses later God says: And I will come near to you (sons of Levi) to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and AGAINST THOSE THAT OPPRESS THE HIRELING IN HIS WAGES, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right.* * * * WHICH right? The right to eat tithed food out of the tithing storehouses in time of need (see Deut.14:28-29) * * * *and fear not me, saith the LORD of Hosts. * * * Whoever God is addressing in this passage was defrauding not only God, but the “hireling” (wage earner). Now if God is rebuking the wage earner for non-tithing of money, that just doesn’t make sense, especially since tithe teachers can’t produce even ONE solitary scripture out of the whole Bible to prove that God commands money to be paid to any religious institution as tithes! Contrary to what preachers say, not every verse in the Bible is addressed by God to us today! Example: the entire Book of Obadiah is a pronouncement of divine judgment aimed solely at the wicked nation of Edom, which persecuted Israel and earned God’s everlasting enmity.

Obadiah 1: The vision of Obadiah: Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

Throughout this very short (1 chapter) book, God rebukes the Edomites for sins their ancestors committed against the Israelites. The Edomites mocked the Jews when Judah got invaded by Babylon. The Edomites prevented the Jews from escaping their captors when they were being led away to Babylon (Obad. 14). A terrible outpouring of judgment was coming upon Mt. Seir, home of the Edomites.

Obadiah 18: And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau: for the LORD hath spoken it.

It makes just about as much sense to apply this particular curse to the Church as it does to apply the curse of Malachi 3:9 to modern believers living under grace! Simply because God is not addressing the Church in Malachi, any more than he is addressing the Church in Obadiah. I don’t remember hearing many sermons preached on Obadiah. I guess there’s no money to be squeezed out of Obadiah. Every time God shifts His focus from one person or group to another when He dishes out rebukes, He makes it clear that He is doing so! In Ezekiel 28:11 God instructs Ezekiel to “take up a lament” against the king of Tyrus (which many scholars believe to be a symbolic name for satan). God’s proclamation of judgment against the king of Tyrus continues through verse 19. The next subject of rebuke is named by God in verse 20 as Zidon, which had been an adversary to Israel. Zidon is rebuked and threatened with bloody judgment until verse 25, when God declares

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that Israel shall be brought back from captivity and dwell safely in her own land. All of Ezekiel Chapter 29 and part of Chapter 30 is devoted to proclaiming judgment against Egypt. One particular individual is targeted by God for judgment in Ezekiel 30: 20: Pharaoh. God’s lamentation against Pharaoh continues well into Chapter 32. Pharaoh is chewed out by God for His sinful pride and told he will descend into the nether parts of the earth with other foes of God (Ezek.31:18). In Chapter 32:17-32 specific nations are mentioned as being headed for hell, among them Egypt, Asshur, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, and the Zidonians. Thank God, people of ALL nations of our time are eligible for salvation through Christ, but those who oppressed Israel and died unrepentant died without hope. In Malachi 3:3 God speaks of His need to purify THE SONS OF LEVI to make them fit to offer up animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant There is no transitional phrase between Mal.3:3 and 3:5 to indicate that God has suddenly shifted His focus from rebuking the priesthood of ancient Israel to rebuking the wage earner of the Church Age! God isn’t even rebuking the poor laborers of ancient Israel, who never were required by God to pay tithes on their daily wages! Whoever is being rebuked by God in Malachi 3:5 is guilty of oppressing the hireling, as well as poor widows, strangers and orphans! If this passage is proof that street sweepers and chicken pluckers must tithe on their wages, then why on earth would God rebuke the hireling (wage earner) for oppressing the hireling? Simple logic tells you this passage can’t be for Joe Blow Burger Flipper! Malachi 3:6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye SONS OF JACOB are not consumed.* * *Are WE literal sons of Jacob? I doubt that most of us are. Again, there is no transitional phrase between Mal.3:6 and Mal.3:8 to indicate that God is shifting the focus of His rebuke from the sons of Jacob to include the children of other nations. As much as preachers love to pound people over the head with the Curse of Malachi to increase their offerings, they are doing it without God’s authorization! The curse of Malachi is no more applicable to the Church than the ancient curse over the nation of Edom! Christ REDEEMED us from the curse of the Law (Gal.3:13). If there’s any curse still associated with it, it must be for those who use it to dig into people’s pockets. Speaking of curse, the Apostle Paul says:

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have delivered unto you, let him be accursed (Gal.1:8.)VERSE 9: As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

1. Paul himself plainly stated in Acts 20:27: For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.* * *If today’s “seed faith” doctrine and monetary tithing was taught and enforced by Paul, then let both these practices continue, with God’s blessing. But if Paul did not teach them, then they are doctrines of devils which are part of “another gospel” OF MEN. Some religious groups reject the truth that only the written Word of God has authority for formulating church doctrine. Instead, they believe in “continuing revelation”, where God’s way of salvation and way of living the Christian life are continually adapting to conform to changing cultural norms. Just like tithing was introduced as to the institutional church in the 500’s A.D., today’s Name-it-and-Claim-it doctrine is being promoted as “something new God is doing”. But the fact Paul didn’t teach this dodgy doctrine makes it a false doctrine and “another gospel”. The Curse of Malachi, along with every other curse of the Law, was nailed to the Cross of Christ, along with those ancient ordinances which could only serve to accuse us before God (Col.2:14). Those who resurrect the Curse of Malachi to make money from it are like a grave-robber who digs up a mummy in an ancient tomb, hoping to reactivate some

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ancient virus to use as a weapon. In profiteering off Old Testament curses for gain, unscrupulous preachers place themselves in danger of the curse pronounced by Paul.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US AND THEM

Preachers love to enslave “pew Christians” to Old Covenant laws for gain. But there is a profound difference between believers’ status under the Old Covenant and under the New Covenant. For example:

1. Old Covenant priesthood: Reserved exclusively for the sons of Aaron (Ex.28:1). Anyone else who dared approach the altar as a priest was sentenced to death (Num.3:10).New Covenant priesthood: ALL believers in Christ are priests (I Pet.2:5,9; Rev.5:10

2. Before the Cross, believers (and Jesus Himself) lived under the Law (Gal.4:4).After the Cross, New Covenant of Grace began. We are not under the Law, but under grace (Rom.6:14; Gal.5:18).

3. Before the Cross, God’s people were counted as His servants (slaves) in Leviticus 25:42. They served under the Law with an attitude of fear instead of freedom. In Galatians 5:21-31 Paul contrasts the status of Hagar the Egyptian bondwoman with that of Sarah, the freewoman. Under the Law, the Israelites’ salvation depended upon doing the best they could to keep the Law of Moses and offer up animal sacrifices for sin. They lived under the shadow of a curse should they fail to faithfully observe God’s laws (Deut.28:15-68; Gal.3:10). Since the Cross, believers are free from the Law and its curse, because the penalty of broken Law has been paid by Christ, Who became a curse for us and was nailed to the tree (Gal.3:13). We are dead to the Law and alive to Christ (Rom.7:4-6). We are not slaves, but sons (Gal.3:5-7). God is angry with preachers who abuse His Word to try to bring His sons and daughters back under religious bondages.

4. Before the Cross, many sacrifices had to be offered to make atonement for sin (Ex.29:10-18; Lev.16:11-28). The Temple Tax was required of all Jewish males from 20 on up (Ex.30:11-16; Matt.17:24-27).Since the Cross, Jesus’ ONE sacrifice has ended the need for further sacrifices (Heb.10:12). In Matt.17:25:27 Jesus paid the Temple Tax required under the Law, but said, “The children are free”, meaning that the children of kings are free of having to pay taxes to their own father. God does not tax His own children. Preachers who threaten naïve Christians with hellfire or curses for not paying sufficient “sacrifices” to religious leaders are risking the wrath of God themselves for being a stumblingblock to new believers still unskilled in rightly dividing the Word of God (see Luke 17:1-2).

5. Before the Cross, God’s House on earth was a manmade Temple (I Kings 9:3; 2 Chron.2:4-6). Since the Cross, the Temple of God is comprised of all true believers in Christ (I Cor.3:16; 2 Cor.6:16). We are brought near to God through the precious blood of Christ (Heb.4:16; 10:19). We are actually made one spirit with Christ (I Cor.6:17). So when preachers threaten you for non-payment of tithes and offerings, they are actually threatening Christ Himself (see also Matt.25:40). There is no further need to bring tithes to a literal building to support a

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discontinued Levitical priesthood. Tithes NEVER were supposed to be garnished from the paychecks of laborers, only taken from the produce of the Land of Israel. Mandatory tithing was for Israel only (Lev.27:30-34).

In order to remain free of those old curses, you must walk in the Spirit and “be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal.5:1). If you allow some preacher to bring you back under bondage to tithing or any other Old Testament practice to gain merit with God, you automatically get a curse for yourself instead. If you put yourself under any part of the Law of Moses you make yourself a debtor to keep it ALL (Gal.5:3). And you’ll fall back under the curse of that Law (Gal.3:10). I fell for that prosperity garbage, and got trouble for it instead of blessing. God can bless a spirit of liberality in giving when it is done out of love toward Him. But He cannot violate His own Word by blessing those who give out of compulsion for the wrong reasons, even if they do so because some fancy preacher misled them. A grave danger lies in doing anything, even the right thing, with the wrong attitude. If someone THINKS non-tithing is a sin and doesn’t do it just to “dare” God to bring the curse of Malachi as punishment, that Christian will probably be punished by God for bad attitude and sinning against a weak conscience, as in I Cor.8:7; (see also Romans chapter 14). But if “tithes” are withheld because a Christian is true to the Word of God and gives only when the Spirit leads him, then that is pleasing in God’s sight. Money and lust for it has ruined many lives and sent many souls down the road to perdition (I Tim.6:10). Preachers who deliberately teach lies by twisting the Word of God and adding “laws” that aren’t in it defile the consciences of their listeners and bear a great burden of guilt before Almighty God! Don’t be quick to buy some “exciting new revelation” just because it’s presented by a pretty preacher dancing around with lots of flashing lights and lively music. People tend to judge by what their eyes see (I Sam.16:7). A powerfully built, handsome, finely dressed preacher behind a pulpit with a long string of degrees is automatically assumed to have your best interest at heart. Be very careful not to judge a preacher’s character by his pearly white teeth.

2 Cor.11:13: For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ;VERSE 14: And no marvel; for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. VERSE 15: Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

I have NEVER heard a sermon preached on this verse:Proverbs 22:16: He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want (extreme poverty).

Remember that verse next time some preacher declares that “God is doing a new thing in the earth, and so long as you open your wallet wide you’ll be on the receiving end of His richest blessings. But that’s a big fat lie. Give to that slick operator with the fleet of fine cars and oceanfront mansion, and you’ll bring yourself under the curse of Proverbs 22:16. Don’t ever fall into the trap of “planting a seed” to make God love you more, or you’ll run the risk of losing your own salvation, because it is then you’re mingling works with God’s Gospel of Grace and falling away from sole dependency on Christ’s finished work on the Cross.

Galatians 5:4: Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified (made righteous with God) through the Law; ye are fallen from grace.* * *There was a long dry spell in my life where I felt like I just went through the motions of being a

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Christian. Though I was still able to pray in tongues, all the joy and confidence in believing in God’s love toward me had dimmed. Now I understand why. For such a long time I “put confidence in the flesh” (see Phil.3:3) by hero-worshipping flashy preachers behind a pulpit. Now I fellowship with Jesus with no pulpit standing between us. I have regained that wonderful status of freedom I had when I was freshly Spirit-filled because I’ve finally thrown out all that old garbage I swallowed years ago and dug into the Word for myself.

Now that I’ve broken free of legalism and all its fears I never intend to go back.

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Prophetic MessageNo Longer Under Tribute

Matt. 17:24-27; Gal. 4:1-7; I Cor. 6:17; I Pet. 2:9; Heb. 3:1; 4:14-16

Some of you have been alienated from Me by wrong applications of selected Scriptures such as: ‘You shall not appear before the Lord they God empty’ (Deut. 16:16-17). You might recall an imperious figure in a pulpit, impeccably dressed, eager to finish the offertory prayer just so he could reap the harvest of his favorite lucrative Scriptures. Ones addressed specifically to Old Testament worshippers under the Law of Moses. O My beloved child, don’t you realize you are always before Me? My Spirit indwells you and your very body IS My Temple. You don’t have to show up at some brick-and-mortar building to appear before Me in prayer. The Body of Christ, the Church, is composed of living stones and I dwell within each one of you, and I manifest My glory in the midst of you. When you were born again under the New Covenant of Grace, you became My dear children, not My servants only. If money-hungry pastors are so eager to dig gold nuggets out of My Word, why do they gloss over those parts of their pet Scripture passages which don’t serve their own ends? Compulsory monetary contributions to the Temple were called ‘tribute’ (Deut. 16:10), and were required of males only, and only three times a year, during the three major holy feasts of Israel (Deut. 16:16-17). If opportunistic preachers really wanted to apply Old Testament guidelines for giving, they would exempt women from compulsory offerings altogether, and collect them from the men only during the the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. And they would offer up burnt animal sacrifices in the church building on the same occasions. They couldn’t do this anyway. Why? I no longer reside in a Temple of Stone. Modern-day pastors are NOT the equivalent of the High Priest who presided over the ancient Temple, whose upkeep was paid for with tribute money. My Son is High Priest over My entire Church and He presides over a Temple of Living Stones. My corporate body of believers world-wide comprises the Church of the Living God, though there are local manifestations of it. All true believers comprise My modern Priesthood. You are made one Spirit with Me by faith. So how can you possibly consider yourself “the laity”, who “come to church” just to bring in tribute to fatten the lifestyle of more exalted Christians? Scripture has been used as a weapon to fire condemnation at those out of work, on tight pensions or underpaid. If you were more industrious and disciplined, some pastors say, you would never have to appear before the Lord empty. How much money did the dying Thief on the Cross have to put in the offering plate before I forgave him? Is there money in heaven? I think not. My own Son, Who

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is God Incarnate, had to take His own Temple tax contribution from the mouth of a fish. When you reproach the penniless you insult Me also. When you say they have no right to come to your church you also shut Me out.

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Pleading for Pigeons Just imagine what church life might be like if even one legalistic preacher got bored with preaching about tithing. There are still hundreds of other Old Testament rites that could be distorted beyond recognition in order to apply them to modern church life. Brother Broadman gets a kick out of controlling people, and that is what keeps him going. He has set a challenge for himself: See if there are OTHER ways to control people besides ransacking their wallets. On Sunday morning Brother Broadman mounted his big pulpit, dressed in a strange headdress and a fringed blue robe with tiny bells and fruit charms dangling from the hem. Brother Broadman announced, to a chorus of hallelujahs: “From now on, there will be no more sermons on tithing. Last Saturday night I won the fifty-million-dollar Lotto jackpot, and that’s good enough for me. But there WILL be other changes here as well. From now on, I preside at the altar as your priest, so I’m dressed for the part, according to Exodus Chapter 28. Don’t look at me like that, folks. Some of you are telling me we’re free from the Law of Moses. That’s right, but there are still eternal PRINCIPLES which must be observed in the Word of God. Tithing predated the Law, at least it did for Abraham when he tithed on plunder stolen from Sodom. And other practices predate the Law as well, so they must still be valid today. One by one we’ll introduce them to our weekly worship. One ritual practiced before the Law of Moses is animal sacrifice. If you truly love the Lord you won’t believe in a cost-free Christianity. We’ll take this step by step. It was enough of a shock for you to see me dressed like this today. “But next week, I’ll start burning sacrifices on the church altar. But it’s up to YOU to bring ‘em in, especially if you sin in some way. Ben, I know you’re always asking God’s forgiveness for cussing. Sister Sharon, you’re always praying for God to forgive you for getting drunk. So next week, I expect both you and Brother Ben to bring in a calf to barbeque on our altar. If you guys are too poor to pop for a whole calf, then two pigeons apiece will do.” “But Brother Ben!” Sister Amanda objected. “We thought JESUS was the only Sacrifice we need!” “Maybe so, sister, but it’s also important to submit to authority. Remember, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. You people are lucky you won’t have to tithe anymore! You couldn’t say that about any other faith church in the vicinity. Our needs are simple. Just look at me. I’m the picture of prosperity. I’ve already spent half my winnings and I’ve invested the rest on Wall Street. I picked some winning stocks and before the year is out I should be a billionaire! I’ve learned to be content with what I have. I’ve got all the good food a man could want, three homes, my own personal jet, the world’s biggest collection of Rolexes, the best cars, a real swimming pool, and the most respected family in Happytown. The elder and music director are my sons, and they are also shining examples of Biblical prosperity. The ministry of this church lacks for nothing, so there’s no need for me to ever teach tithing again. But we would be cheating you people of the chance to learn about giving if we didn’t put SOME restrictions on your Christian liberty. Now, if any of you guys don’t like it, that door swings both ways. After I comment on some Old Testament scriptures, we’ll top off today’s service with a few candlelit Gregorian chants and close the service with the benediction.”

* * * * *

Sharon wandered through the park with her butterfly net, looking nervously around hoping no one was watching, or people might think she was nuts. Aha! Two pigeons were contentedly feeding beside a trash can. As stealthily as a cat Sharon crept up over them, net poised for action. But before she could swoop down on the pigeons…. “Hey!” a rough voice called. “What’re you doing?”

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The birds flew away, frightened. Sharon looked up at a great big cop. “Don’t you know pigeon poaching is against the law in Happytown?” he frowned. “But…I…needed them,” Sharon faltered. “Why?” “To take to church?” she squeaked. The policeman laughed. “Well, now I’ve heard everything! Praying pigeons! Are you guys so hard up for recruits that pigeons have to populate your pews? That’s crazy!” The cop let Sharon off with a warning. But she and Ben had to show up at church empty-handed. Ben’s backyard pigeon trap hadn’t worked. Sweet incense wafted over the congregation from two burners by the baptistery. A rectangular barbecue grill was set upon the altar table, coals glowing and ready for something to cook on it. Brother Broadman asked if anybody had committed any sins during the past week. Only Ben and Sharon confessed any. Ben had cussed at his cat and Sharon had gotten plastered on Thursday night after an argument with her in-laws. “C’mon now!” Brother Broadman scolded. “Don’t tell me only Sharon and Ben sinned this past week! What about you, Sister Helga?” he asked an elderly lady. “Didn’t you do anything bad?” “Well….I DID say ‘Oh, shoot!’ after I burnt my finger on the toaster,” she admitted. “Does that count as a sin?” Brother Broadman frowned. “Technically no, give or take a vowel or two, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Now, where’s everybody’s pigeon offerings, or lambs, if you could cough up the cash for them?” “Well?” Brother Broadman persisted. “Ben, Sharon, I know you two owe me some meat, so where’s the beef?” “Ah…I couldn’t afford that calf you wanted, Brother Broadman,” Ben hesitated. “I know you had your heart set on filling your freezer with veal steaks.” “Well, what about you, Sharon? Getting soused doesn’t come cheap in MY church.” “I’m out of a job, Brother Broadman,” she faltered. “Well, where’s my pigeons, then!” he barked. “Unless you two were too stingy to go to a pet store and buy me some!” “I don’t think they sell pigeons at the pet store, Brother Broadman,” Ben said, ducking down in his pew. “Honest, I TRIED to bring pigeons this week, but my stupid cat wasn’t able to catch any for me, and my pigeon trap didn’t work.” “And a cop almost arrested me for pigeon poaching in the park,” Sharon added. “Excuses, excuses!” Brother Broadman bellowed. “All of you are lying to me about whether you’ve sinned or not, too! There’s no human being alive who doesn’t at least have a dirty thought at some time during the week! You were supposed to bring in a beast or two to make amends for your misdemeanors. Ye are cursed with a curse! The Bible plainly says that if you do the deed, you deliver the meat! Well, next week, we’re gonna take you guys down the road of spiritual responsibility a little further. This church is your spiritual boot camp. The wife and I want to head off to Hawaii for a vacation to celebrate our big windfall, but first we want to ground you guys in some of the oldest principles in the Bible. This I am determined to do over the next few weeks. Even if it kills me I’m gonna instill some discipline in your souls! Next week everybody bring something to barbecue, and that’s an order!” The following week, the church was filled with squawking pigeons, easily caught by the congregation because the police department happened to be on strike. One man brought in the coveted calf. The deacon took the animals to the back and butchered them while Brother Broadman preached. “We’ll cook up those critters when they’re all dressed and ready,” the preacher said. That week several vegetarians quit, along with a few other squeamish folks who barfed when they noticed that the “purtenance” or entrails, of the animals were

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included in Brother Broadman’s unusual rites. Even a nurse out in the congregation fainted at the sight of all the blood that was shed! On succeeding Sundays more pigeons were cooked in church. One day the roasting was done with the windows closed, since it was a cold day. That set the smoke alarm off. A whole fleet of fire trucks arrived, sirens blaring. An irate cop arrived. Brother Broadman got fined for running a smoking barbecue grill in an enclosed space. “That’s persecution for you,” the preacher grumbled as the policeman finished writing out his citation and drove away. “So church altar cookouts are out. Fine and well, we can get around that technicality. Next week I’ll put up a big open-air tent and we’ll hold our sacrifices underneath that.” “Hey, Brother Broadman,” Lester Perkins asked. “Can I bring a pile of pork chops to cook at the next service?” Brother Broadman scratched his head. He was tired of munching on burnt pigeons for Sunday dinner. “Well, they ain’t exactly kosher, but this IS 2008. Heck, times are a’changin’, and we’ve gotta keep in step. So if you sin, bring ‘em in.” It wasn’t long before teenagers came to Brother Broadman to get their zits checked to see if they had a serious disease, in observance of Leviticus Chapter 13. Parents of newborn babies would present a “poor man’s offering” of two pigeons, or ducks poached from the riverbank. Brother Broadman was developing an even more liberal interpretation of Old Testament Law by now, and roast duck tasted a lot better than pigeon. One week Sally Barton presented a whole ice chest full of quails shot by her husband. “Sorry, pastor,” she said. “Last Sabbath Day I accidentally flipped my light switch 27 times, ran my vacuum cleaner, and fixed Roger’s breakfast in the microwave. I just can’t get it through my thick skull that on the Sabbath Day you’re not even allowed to button your blouse or brush your hair. Stupid me.” Brother Broadman grinned. He didn’t need any of the “sacrifices” brought by his people, but he did get a heady feeling from the power he exerted over his flock. “You’re forgiven, sister. Man, it’s been a while since I’ve tasted wild quail.” Every week brought more changes. Brother Broadman thought some of Moses’ laws were a great idea, so he included more of those rites in his services, although they didn’t predate the Law. When Brother Broadman insisted that all the men let their beards grow, AND told them they were forbidden to trim the hair on the sides of their head in keeping with Leviticus 19:27, half of them fled back to the tithe-enforcing churches. The women were also getting tired of some of the other Old Testament rules and regulations. Why were they expected to save a “firstfruits” wad of dough for the preacher every time they baked a pan of biscuits? He looked like he needed it! Putting on a brave face, Brother Broadman said at the next service, which had by now been shifted to Saturday, in keeping with Old Testament Sabbath Law: “We’ve had to liberalize our interpretation of Sabbath law just a little to make the keeping of it possible. Unless you stay in bed with the covers pulled over your head, it’s impossible to get through a whole day without doing some sort of work. You’ve got to pull on your clothes, open a door, change your baby’s diaper, open the fridge, drive your car to get way out to this church house, and all sorts of little things like that. Just so long as you don’t do the laundry, mow the lawn, or cook a complicated meal, we’ll count you guys as being faithful to keep the Sabbath. Sadly, we’ve lost a lot of our men because of our new requirement to grow beards and sidelocks. But far from getting discouraged and quitting this experiment in holiness like the devil would want, next week we’ll be taking our faithfulness to the Law a step further.” Next Sabbath morning, after a rousing call for sacrificial commitment to the cause, Brother Broadman announced he was ready to introduce the congregation to yet another rite which preceded the Law of Moses. And if it was practiced before the Law, it still must be valid during the Church Age. So he reached under his lectern and

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brought out a pair of garden shears. All remaining males of the congregation stampeded out the front door, screaming that the preacher was out of his mind. Brother Broadman scratched his head and said, “Now why did those fellows forsake me? All I was gonna do was teach everybody how to shear a sheep.”

The moral of this story: The Law produces fear, not faith (Rom.8:15; Gal.3:12).

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The Chicken Chest(spoken to soft organ music)

In church one afternoonBud was thinkin' bout the rent and the light bill too

When the preacher said next timeI'm gonna talk about the tithe

Now let's hear no lame excusesIf anybody out there refuses

It's only you that losesBetter put God to the test

Or you'll miss out on His best.

Bud heard his stomach growlAs the preacher preached real loud

If you don't pay a tenthYou're guilty of a big sin

So you'd better come forward and repent.

Bud knew that old preacher wellRemembered how he'd sit a spellIn his boyhood home so long agoHe'd sip iced tea and wouldn't go

Till Ma got busy in the kitchen.

If the preacher smelled fried chickenHe'd shoot the bull and stayBut if it was fried liver dayHe'd soon be on his way

To visit rich folks down the roadWho always had a roast

The preacher would go to sit a spellHe'd stay until the dinner bell.

On fried chicken day it was a safe betThat a long-winded guest they were gonna get

The preacher was always asked to stayAnd say grace over the chicken plate

The preacher was asked to pick his piece firstThe pieces the grownups left were the worst

The neck, the gizzard, the back and the wingsBut Bud was too scared to say anything.

Bud acted polite but inside he fumedTo not get his fair share of the foodBud fed those chickens every day

Watered them, collected their eggsAs the oldest, Bud caught the birds to kill

Cleaned 'em for Ma 'cause the sight made her illBut the best Bud could get was a bony backThe wishbone went to the youngest, Jack.

Bud was tired of bein' fed scrapsOne day Bud just up and snapped.

Poor hungry Bud did something sneaky

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During grace when the preacher wasn't peekin'Bud pinched the chicken breast off the platter

Put it in his pocket to nibble on laterBut Old Blue snuck in while heads were still bent

That hound picked Bud's pocket before the "amen"

Pa heard Old Blue a-chewin' some foodPa opened his eyes from sayin' graceGuilt was written all over Bud's face

Blue sniffed at Bud's pocket to look for moreBud's grease stains caused a big uproar

When Pa asked Bud how the hound had been fedBud confessed:"I pinched a breast!"

Bud remembered the whuppin' he gotBut the preacher watchin' sure hurt a lot

Bud went to bed without any supperBut later Bud got the news from his brother

How the preacher’s plate was piled high to the skyAnd how he inhaled one half of the pie.

Funny how the preacher preached on fastin’Even while his waistline was expandin’

From all those missions of mercy he madeTo roast beef, chicken, catfish and cake.

Bud reminisced as he sat in his pewHardly hearin' all the gobbledygook

About how blessed it is to titheTo preachers who live a luxurious life.

Bud recalled how his own life had been a hard rideA struggle to feed his kids and his wife

How a mean Scrooge landlord had raised his rentAt Christmas time when Bud didn't have a cent

All the pinto beans Bud said grace overWhile the preacher got famous and grazed in clover.

Now it was high time Bud got redressFor all those thighs and chicken breasts

Bud stood up straight and raised his voiceNow at last I've got a choice!

Bud said he’d already paid his titheThe Bible tithe was food and that was why.

Pastor, Bud said, I think Malachi 3:10 spells outHow the Lord wanted food, not money in His HouseAnd there was hardly ever enough food on MY plate

Even though no chicken in our coop felt safe.You used to be a bachelor preacher

When I was a kid I recall you were meekerAll the folks fed you 'cause you couldn't cook

They did it joyfully 'cause you taught the Good Book.

Then you married a rich man's daughter

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And you rose up higher on the social ladderBut my wife and I you never did invite

For supper though you kept on takin' our tithes.

As I recall you never invited ma and paAnd their passel of young'uns to break bread with y'all

Dirt farmers in dungarees don't match your décorYou didn't need us or our chicken no more

Just money from the invisible poor.

No, I ain't gonna tithe on my leftover fiveI’ll state my case in a way that’s polite

I pinched the wrong part when I was a kidAnd pa shore gave me a whuppin’ for it

Now I’ll git my guitar and sing my new hit:

* * * * *(singing part, growing in intensity toward the end)

When I was a kid you robbed my chicken coopNow you raid my piggy bank and drive a Lexus coupe

Though you've made your millions you're always wantin' moreMoney from the hungry poor.

Jesus always said to take the lowest seatBut you’d always manage to pinch the nicest meat

From my father’s chair you’d say a purty prayerBut I never got my share.

Don't tell me more lies about your preacher titheYou already got it when you gobbled up my thigh

While I got the back you ate the very bestThe crispy juicy chicken chest.

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Cashing in on the Unpardonable Sin

What a convenient crowbar some fishers for funds find in Acts 5:1-11! A warning not to lie to the Holy Spirit is turned into a tool to extort money out of the flock of God. Clergymen who resort to this lie are guilty of a worse sin than Ananias and Sapphira committed. It is a grave sin to hold back part of God’s Truth from the church to protect your pockets. Many ministers have themselves been wrongly taught, and have never questioned those who passed on flawed doctrine to them. So ignorance abounds in the Body of Christ and the Church suffers because of it. God knows that all His loved ones are still maturing spiritually while present in the mortal body. Hebrews 5:2 says that Jesus can have compassion on the ignorant, and on those "who are out of the way", (which covers those imperfect in their doctrine). We’d all be in big trouble if we couldn’t be accepted of God unless 100% of our doctrine was accurate all the time! The commentary in the margin of my Bible clarifies "can have compassion on the ignorant" as meaning: "can reasonably bear with". God picks us up when we stumble and He bears patiently with us because we sincerely love Him and want to serve Him in purity of heart. But what He cannot bear are those who deliberately hide the truth to make a tidy pile for themselves. All sorts of sinners inhabited Jesus’ world of 2000 years ago. Harlots, thieves, tax collectors, even murderous brigands like Barabbas. But about the only sinners Jesus ever chewed out in the Gospels were the self-righteous Pharisees, who devoured widows’ houses and turned their converts into twice the son of hell as themselves (Matt: 23:14-15). And the worst of the worst were guilty of attributing Jesus’ miracles to the power of satan, though they knew better (Mark 3:22-30). Insulting the Holy Spirit and attributing His wonderful works of love to satan constitutes the unpardonable sin, and this sin was committed by the vilest of the Pharisees. This sin had nothing at all to do with withholding monetary tithes! Men of the cloth who push such a lie KNOW they’re using wicked scare tactics to enrich themselves, and I sure would hate to be in their shoes on the Day of Judgment! Jesus spends over half of Matthew Chapter 23 giving the Pharisees a verbal whipping. The guiltiest of these religious experts knew Jesus was the true Son of God, but they deliberately deceived the people because they would have had too much earthly honor and wealth to lose by preaching the Truth and allowing the captives to be set free. So they did their worst to stamp out this precious Truth, even using a Roman cross to try to bury the truth forever. Jesus said: And ye shall know the Truth, and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32). He is speaking here of Himself as being the Truth. Verse 36 says: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Indeed, Jesus IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Now back to Ananias and Sapphira. Exactly what sin could the couple have committed that was so bad God would strike them dead for it? Contrary to what the worst of predatory preachers would have you to believe, their sin had NOTHING to do with monetary tithing. Their death didn’t even happen as punishment for being stingy with freewill offerings! Yes, money was involved in their sin, but it was their OWN money they lied to God about, not money they owed to the church. Actually, this story begins in the preceding chapter, Acts Chapter 4. Instead of zooming on up to where Ananias and Sapphira drop dead, as one crafty preacher did in his sermon, let’s consider each relevant verse to get a feel for the contextual setting in which the couple’s REAL sin against the Holy Spirit was committed.

Acts 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. ***What love, what unity in the Spirit of Christ! What

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selflessness! A far cry from selfish televangelists who impoverish others to make themselves richer! That’s the kind of church Ananias and Sapphira belonged to.VERSE 33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. ***You want to see more power in your witnessing as a church? Start loving one another in the Love of Christ and being concerned about one another’s needs. In that way, the world will know that Jesus still lives, as it sees Christ living in and through you, and God will pour out His power and Spirit of Grace upon your church as never before.VERSE 34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold. ***These church people showed by their actions that they actually believed their treasures were laid up in heaven, not on earth, contrary to what prosperity teachers will tell you!VERSE 35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet. And distribution was made to every man according as he had need. ***Notice, the apostles didn’t grab this loot and rush off to buy Cadillacs and Rolexes. The proceeds supported the needy in the church! Today a lot of people are made to feel like leeches when they go to the church for help to put food on their table. Sick or well, old or young, they’re either told to go get a job or they don't deserve to eat. And they’re viewed as failures in the sacrosanct School of Prosperity!VERSE 36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus). * * * We need more "sons of consolation" in the church today, and fewer "sons of condemnation".VERSE 37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.Acts 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,VERSE 2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.VERSE 3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

Now we have reached a key verse skipped over by one unscrupulous minister who didn’t want a monkey wrench thrown into his doctrine of devils:

VERSE 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine OWN? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? THOU HAST NOT LIED UNTO MEN, BUT UNTO GOD.***Contrary to what fear peddlers would have you believe, the apostles DID NOT REQUIRE each church member to sell their land and give the money to the church, and the word "tithing" occurs nowhere in this context, and nowhere is it implied. The land was Ananias’ to do with as he pleased. His sin was in lying to God about what he did with his OWN money, not withholding tithes and offerings! If Ananias had told the apostles that he was only donating part of the money to begin with, he would not have been guilty of lying to the Holy Spirit and he would not have died for giving less than the total price of the land. But Ananias wanted credit for donating an amount he didn’t give. Plain and simple.

VERSE 5 And Ananias hearing these things fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.VERSE 6 And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.VERSE 7 And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. VERSE 8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.

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VERSE 9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to TEMPT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.***Sapphira was an accomplice to Ananias’ sin. In lying to the Holy Spirit, they tempted (provoked) Him to wrath. Again, no mention of failure to tithe money, or refusal to donate a required amount, as many falsely teach.VERSE 10 Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.VERSE 11 And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things***Through this sad incident, the early church learned that God must be held in reverential fear, not for non-tithing, but to avoid sins like lying to Him to provoke Him! In that church scenario where believers sold lands and houses and "possessed all things in common", the needy were so well cared for out of the church fund that not one among them lacked for the necessities of life. This was a very strong testimony to the world of the Love of Jesus, much more effective than verbal witnessing only. I John 3:18 exhorts us to love not just in word, but in deed and in truth. But truth was absent in Ananias’ life. He and Sapphira were the equivalent of welfare cheats, in that they wanted to live off the church fund and still hide away a nest egg to save for a rainy day. That could be why they withheld part of the price of the land. If the apostles believed that they had made themselves financially vulnerable by giving their all, the couple could have taken charity from the church common fund, like other believers who lacked other means of support. In essence, they were robbing other believers needier than themselves. Here were two wayward sheep trying to pull the wool over God’s eyes, but they didn’t live to brag about it to their grandchildren. How many "faith" preachers in our day hoard vast riches for themselves while crying to "seed sowers" on Social Security to send in money or they’ll go bust! How many preachers have I read about who are filthy rich, owning SEVERAL multi-million-dollar mansions apiece, with swimming pools, tennis courts, and a fleet of fancy cars! And all the while, they cry crocodile tears on TV pleading for “sweet little grandmas out there” to give up some of their grocery money! How many of these evil religion peddlers shamelessly appeal to the story of Elijah being fed by the last of a starving widow’s flour and oil so they can put more bread in their bank account and fuel their own lusts! And they teach their followers to grease God's palm with sacrificial offerings TO THEMSELVES. Only in that way, it is claimed, will God ever relent and grant desperate people a badly needed miracle! But never any mention that the liberating truths of the Kingdom are to be FREELY shared, and certainly no mention of what the Bible REALLY says about the Law of Tithing! How many "faith" preachers in our day weep and whimper over starving babies and cry about how many sacrifices they’re making for God, even as they’re dressed head to toe in designer duds and diamonds? As they pull the wool over the sheep’s eyes, God is provoked to see these shysters deliberately withhold part of the truth of His Word from His flock in order to leech off the poor of the church and splash around in the lap of luxury! Why is the miracle-working power of God blocked in today’s church? I see some of the answer in Acts 20:27: For I have not shunned to declare unto you ALL the counsel of God.***If monetary tithing had been in force in the early church Paul would surely have mentioned it. The other side of the coin is this: If Paul had seen that church-goers were being pressured to tithe money in some of the churches he oversaw, and he KNEW it was nowhere sanctioned by the Word of God, Paul would have spoken up and denounced the error publicly. He was an overseer over many churches (II Cor.11:28). Paul guarded the church against so-called judaizers trying to sneak legalism into a church called unto liberty. Paul would have chased unscriptural

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doctrine out of the church like Jesus chased the money-changers out of the Temple. If you don't love your flock enough to tell them the whole truth of God's Word even if it cramps your ritzy lifestyle, you don't deserve to be their shepherd because you aren't loving them with the unselfish love of Christ! Monetary tithing was NOT enforced in the Church until the sixth century A.D., when it was made church law by the Roman Catholic Church. According to McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, two church councils were held legislating mandatory tithing on money. The first was the Council of Tours in 567 A.D. The second, the Council of Macon in 585 A.D., enjoined the payment of tithes under pain of excommunication. Apart from the fact that we are not under law but grace, tithing on money is nowhere commanded in Scripture, much less in that scary Ananias and Sapphira incident. Others will differ with me on this most controversial of topics, and that’s their right. But whenever a minister harbors secret convictions in his heart that tithing on money is unscriptural, and makes it a point never to mention the Scriptures which prove that traditional church teaching on tithing is wrong, he is committing a grave sin. Especially when he says to his flock: "I have declared unto you ALL the council of God." Rather than being Fishers of Men, such men are Fisher for Funds. And what's more it is THEY who stand guilty before God in Ananias and Sapphira’s shoes, not poor people who withhold "God's" tithe. Deceitful users of the Word of God heap guilt on God's overburdened people, accusing them of selfishness even as they withhold vital truth which would set them free from guilt-based giving. In Acts 20: 29-31 Paul warns his fellow laborers to be vigilant in their watchcare over the church of God: For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one day and night with tears.*** Unlike many today, Paul would never have withheld vital truth which protects the flock of God from swallowing heresy!

It is only by the mercy of God that religious deceivers who hold back non-lucrative truth from the body of Christ don’t meet the same fate as Ananias and Sapphira. But Peter doesn’t hold out much more hope for such deceivers than he did for the couple who fell dead at his feet for lying to God. This passage could have been written for our generation:

II Peter 2:1: But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily (in a sneaky way) shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.***I noticed something here. Some might say to those who preach strongly against sin: You’re not perfect yet, so shut up. Who are YOU to judge what's right and wrong? But here we have Peter warning of those who would deny their own Lord. Peter knew he himself had denied the Lord three times, but he still delivered God’s warnings. If we waited till we were perfect enough to preach against sin, none of us would qualify to do that till we got to heaven!

VERSE 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways (lascivious ways, as it reads in the margin); by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. ***What a convenient excuse fishers-for-funds have provided for sinners to turn away from hearing the Gospel presented by God’s true servants! The shame of it all! God will hold deceivers liable for hindering the spread of the Gospel of Salvation. And God will hold them accountable for every single soul who refused to heed the Savior's call to repentance because of the example they set in committing religious fraud in the Name of Christ!

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VERSE 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.***This is God’s answer to religious frauds who brag that they can have their heaven right here on earth with ice cream piled on top, and even more in the world to come!

Most of those dishonest men of the cloth seem to get away with it in the here and now, but God’s church has not escaped the consequences. Some churches have suffered untold loss through being presided over by ministers of deceit out to enrich themselves. How can God fill a particular church with His glory and power when devious shenanigans have been going on under cover of darkness to keep the funds flowing like milk and honey? I knew some preachers who knew their Bible inside out from cover to cover. They were warm-hearted, kindly men who longed to see more of the power of God in their churches. They could tell you the exact meaning behind every Old Testament ritual under the sun, and the spiritual significance of every stick of Tabernacle furniture. But never once did I ever hear them or any other pulpit minister preach a truly scriptural sermon on tithing, just that we were to do it. A proper sermon on tithing would include scriptures such as Deuteronomy 14:22-27. This passage, as others do, makes it clear that only edible farm produce was ever subject to the tithing ordinance. And contrary to popular teaching, tithes were (in part) EATEN by the tithe-payer himself! The ceremonial ordinances given by Moses have been nailed to the Cross (Col. 2:14). This includes the tithing ordinance, which never was on money to begin with. And to prove that tithing is an ordinance from Mt. Sinai, you need only look at the final verses of the book of Leviticus. Leviticus 27:30-33 cover tithing, and that’s the last ordinance of the Law of Moses mentioned before verse 34, the final verse which says: These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses FOR THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (not us Gentiles!) in mount Sinai. Yet ministers of greed will still twist the Word of God to get what they want out of God’s people. They will refuse to let this dead work of the Law stay where God put it. Along with hundreds of other carnal ordinances of the Scroll of the Law, the tithing law was nailed to the Cross with Christ, but unlike Christ, never was supposed to be resurrected. But like disobedient religious experts of today do, King Saul hung onto things God ordered destroyed, as you can read in I Samuel Chapter 15. Saul excused his disobedience away, saying he could go ahead and spare the best of the livestock God ordered destroyed so he could offer them up as sacrifices unto the Lord. Some people would say Saul’s sin was a nitpicking peccadillo and God shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. After all, Saul's intentions were allegedly good. But Samuel says in I Samuel 15:22: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.***When wily preachers deliberately sit on scriptures they know they should be sharing with the people to set them free, even though it be out of zeal for the offering of the Lord, they put themselves in the same position as rebellious Saul. The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul (I Sam. 16:14). In many churches the poor are shamed instead of loved (I Cor. 11:22; James 2:6). Between the implicit lies of money-loving ministers and the lack of love in dead congregations, it’s no wonder such places never witness the wonderful works of God in their midst. Faith works by love (Gal. 5:6). And no wonder. For God is Love (I John 4:7-8). When you banish love from your midst, you also banish God and the mighty workings of His power. I received a prophetic word from the Lord concerning this terrible problem in the church:

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Making Merchandise of the Unpardonable SinEzekiel 13:22; Acts 20:27-30

Desperate ministers of deceit are like bloodsuckers who try to squeeze the last drop dry from anemic sheep, the way they change their tactics from bad to worse as they sense the winds of change in My beleaguered body. In time of abundance fishers for funds siphon off a little of the extra fat from well-to-do contributors and even urge poorer saints to be willing to tighten their belts and do without a few luxuries, supposedly for the sake of the “Kingdom of God.” They would dangle a glittery prosperity carrot before the bedazzled eyes of My people, promising that they would be repaid for their generosity on a ratio of a hundred to one. Scriptures would be jerked out of their context to prove I was the ultimate investment, and “you can’t get better odds in Vegas.” What garbagey theology! The promises I made to those who sow seeds into the Kingdom of God meant that a great harvest of souls would be reaped into My eternal Kingdom, and the good works of My Spirit of Grace would be spread abroad to bless many unto a newness of life. As for those who are hardened in heart and love riches more than Me, their dirty money perish with them! Now that times are harder for so many, they are switching from the carrot approach to the stick approach, both diabolical perversions of My Word. Some are filling My children’s hearts with fear that I will execute them like Ananias and Sapphira if they withhold donations from their so-called ministries or refuse to tithe on money, which is nowhere commanded in My Word. Most of those deceivers know that robbing My people of their sustenance is a doctrine of devils! Saints whom I have chosen to enter into My perfect rest of peace have been troubled and I shall surely trouble those who sow lies into their hearts, saith the Lord. Those greedy deceivers who make the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, I shall make sad in return. That is the only return they will get on their investment of lies. They shall surely have their day in the Court of Heaven to answer for all they have done to hurt and rob My Body. Satan instills lying guilt feelings in millions of My children today because they are unable to give massive amounts of money to religious organizations. Some are told that it is a sin against the Holy Ghost to be stingy in their contributions and they won’t get to heaven unless they open their wallets wide. Unfounded fear of being guilty of the unpardonable sin has ruined the peace and the health of so many of My precious children. But the unpardonable sin has nothing to do with money! It is a sin against the Love of God which is committed by maliciously and deliberately attributing the wonderful works of My Spirit of Grace to the devil, or speaking slanderous words against My Holy Spirit, which brings eternal alienation from the only One Who can perform the marvelous work of redemption down in your inward parts. The sin committed by Ananias and Sapphira was to lie to My Holy Spirit, not to refuse to fork over ten percent of their wages to bogus ministries. If this couple had admitted to Peter that they lacked the faith to give all the price of the land and so were only giving part of the money to the church, they would have been spared judgment because they would not have been lying to the apostles. They were not even required to sell their land in the first place, for Peter said unto the couple, “While the land remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was the money not in thine power?” Ananias and Sapphira had the right to either keep their land or sell it, and after they sold it they even had the right to keep the money or just donate part of it. But these deceivers wanted to gain credit for giving a bigger donation than they actually did, in order to live off the church common fund and hold something back for a rainy day. But their rainy day came sooner than they expected, saith the Lord, because you cannot deceive Me. I who weigh the thoughts and intents of the soul knew those two were conspiring against Me, to rob My people.

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So who is robbing My people today; poor saints who withhold part of their paycheck from greedy ministers of darkness, or learned religious experts who withhold that part of the Truth of My Word which they find unprofitable, and then boldly declare unto My Church: “I have faithfully declared unto you ALL the counsel of God.” Instead, they sell My people a pack of lies. Most of the wolves in sheep’s clothing who try to scare My people with the story of Ananias and Sapphira KNOW that the real issue in it was lying to the Holy Spirit, not non-tithing or refusing to give a required donation. But these same false ministers know their Bible inside out and yet they sit on truths I would share with My people which would liberate them from the bondage of fear. These evil men and women take advantage of My people’s ignorance of scripture to pry “tithes” out of them, and to maximize their ministry income so they can live luxuriously like the parasites they are. So who is really guilty, saith the Lord? Those who honestly cannot afford big contributions and don’t give unless I direct them to, or lying deceivers who hold back non-lucrative portions of My Word from their flocks? Poor, destitute saints who hold back part of the amount these mooches want find out in a hurry that it makes these men mean enough to breathe threats at them from the pulpit and over the air. They just can’t stand to have their luxurious lifestyle cramped by the poverty of their listeners. And so these men withhold truths unprofitable to their banks accounts; scriptural truths of the Gospel of Grace which expose the darkness and folly of the lies of the Gospel of Greed. Liberating truths are suppressed which would profit My Body and set them free from the lies which fill them with fear. I will surely go from place to place, saith the Lord, and I shall cut the leeches off My Body. And I shall surely cut the fetters off My people so they can walk in the liberty unto which I have called them.

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ADDING TO ACTS CHAPTER 15

In its early infancy, the church of Jesus Christ was mostly a Jewish church, composed of people who had grown up under the Law of Moses. Even under the New Covenant, many, if not most of, these Jewish believers continued to observe such Old Covenant ordinances as circumcision, kosher food regulations, Sabbath restrictions, and many other laws which had to do with “taste not, touch not, handle not” (Col.2:20-23). The Laws given to Moses by God were interpreted and re-interpreted by Scribes and Pharisees until many hard-to-keep customs (commandments of men) were also imposed upon the faithful. Jesus denounced the doctors of the Law for adding extra rigid rules to the Word of God: Luke 11:46: And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! For ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. The last section of Acts Chapter 14 speaks of the success enjoyed by Paul and Barnabas in their missionary journeys through Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Many Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ. But “certain men which came down from Judea” came on the scene and warned those Gentile converts that they’d better be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses if they wanted to continue as believers in Christ. This created such a controversy that Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to consult with Peter, James and other apostles and elders of the church to settle the question. These godly men sought the Lord about this crucial issue, which was very wise, because imposing upon the Gentile converts the heavy burden of the 613-ordinance Law of Moses would be no light matter. James himself asks the brethren in Acts 15:10: Now therefore WHY TEMPT (TEST) YE GOD, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? Legalists who hold the ignorant and the fearful in bondage to manmade religious rules are testing God’s patience! So were the Gentile converts obligated to accept circumcision and submit to the laws and customs of the Jews? Here is the conclusion reached by this first apostolic council held at Jerusalem:

Acts 15:24: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, SUBVERTING (DESTABILIZING) YOUR SOULS, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: TO WHOM WE GAVE NO SUCH COMMANDMENT;VERSE 25: It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul;VERSE 26: Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.VERSE 27: We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.VERSE 28: FOR IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST, AND TO US, TO LAY UPON YOU NO GREATER BURDEN THAN THESE NECESSARY THINGS;VERSE 29: That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Notice particularly verses 28 and 29. The Holy Ghost Himself laid upon the new converts no greater burden than those four necessary things: abstaining from foods offered to idols, from consumption of blood, from consumption of strangled animals, and abstaining from fornication. And furthermore, the apostles’ letter declares that if a Christian observes just these four requirements, he does well. Nothing is said about adding such common religious customs as tithing, seasons of fasting, rigid

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dress codes, banning beards on men, pulpit paraphernalia, fancy liturgy, restricting activities on the Sabbath (or any other day),“making vows of faith”, or “sowing a seed to meet your need.” Some seem to think that the Holy Ghost forgot to add a few “necessary things” to the list of four requirements sent by the apostles to the new Gentile converts. This article will mainly address just two religious practices often added BY MEN to the requirements of Acts 15 as being an essential part of Christian discipleship. First, religious fasting. Remember that the context of Acts Chapter 15 concerns Gentile converts who had formerly lived a lifestyle which did not include Jewish religious practices. Some of those Gentiles were probably intellectual types who had been interested in Greek philosophy but had nothing to do with customs of organized religion. Others, who had worshipped licentious heathen gods, might not have fasted in service to them at any time. But the Jews, unlike the pagans, often fasted and prayed in penitence for their sins and the sins of their forefathers as they awaited their Messianic Deliverer. Fasting was a deeply entrenched part of their way of life. Generally speaking, fasting was alien to Greeks and Romans who often reveled at banquets and lived a more carefree life than the deeply serious Jews. Some Gentiles of the Greco-Roman world did practice fasting, such as Gnostics and devotees of other mystery religions. They would fast to detach their souls from the material dimension and tune in to the world of spirits (demons posing as benevolent spirits). But many more Gentile converts would never have fasted before, unless illness or poverty made them miss a few meals. If fasting is God’s requirement, then why didn’t the Holy Ghost mention this minor point when the apostles gathered in Acts 15 to decide what was required of Gentile converts? Fasting proponents might argue that even if Paul never commanded fasting to the church per se, he did say that all believers in Christ are spiritual Jews, So it follows that God must expect Christians to incorporate into their lives all the religious devotions practiced by Biblical Jews. But notice what Paul says:

Rom.2:28:  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

In this context Paul is arguing that physical circumcision is not necessary for the believer in Christ, because God now demands only inward circumcision of the heart. The outward religious acts performed by Jews under the Old Covenant were only shadows and types pointing to greater spiritual realities under the New Covenant. This is borne out by:

Col.2:11: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ

Instead of cutting a bit of flesh off a man’s body, God wants Christians to put off the “old man” the corrupt flesh nature inherited from Adam (Eph.4:22). Which begs the question: Why do most Christians agree that circumcision was made spiritual only (in putting off the deeds of the flesh, (see Col.2:11), but fasting, a Jewish tradition, still has to be literally kept? Instead of thinking that going three days without a Kit Kat bar will make you holy in the sight of God, why isn’t it enough to abstain from actual sins which will send your soul to hell (1 Pet.2:11)? Temperance in all things is important, but the only food restrictions the Holy Ghost gave to Gentile believers in Acts 15 were to abstain from blood, strangled animals, and food offered to idols. Some think that this isn’t enough, and more “discipline” must be added to earn God’s approval. Food has nothing to do with

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commending us to God (Rom.14:17; I Cor.8:8). We are at liberty to eat or not to eat, as we feel led. If you are deeply engaged in prayer, you are under no obligation to have dinner at your regularly scheduled hour. It might sometimes be necessary to delay eating until you feel deep in your spirit that you have prevailed in prayer and the need is met. Or you might skip lunch while you are making an intense effort to win someone to the Lord. Jesus was so deeply involved in satisfying the spiritual hunger of the woman at the well that His own physical hunger was temporarily forgotten (John 4:31-34). In Jesus’ day the Pharisees, who sat in Moses’ seat of authority (Matt.23:2-3) imposed fasting on themselves and their disciples twice a week (Luke 18:12). God did not impose these twice-weekly fasts upon those Pharisees, and their only reward was to appear more spiritual in the sight of others. But in this Age of Grace there is no need to imitate the ritual fasting of the Pharisees. Our sins have already been dealt with at the Cross. Our Deliverer has already come. We do not need to fast in sorrow over the sins of our ancestors. We are responsible for our own lives and for the choices we ourselves make. Besides, I know virtually nothing about my ancestors who lived before my grandparents! All I know is they were mostly Scotch-Irish-Pennsylvania Dutch, with a teaspoon of Native American. I know I had blacksmiths in my family tree. But I don’t have to do research to find out what sins my forbears committed ten generations back and bewail over them. All we Christians need do is remain humble before God, keeping our accounts with Him clear through repentance when it is needed, and trusting in the Blood of Jesus. Some object that expecting Jesus to pay for everything without chipping in our own two cents’ worth of suffering is grossly unfair, and a little immature. This whole argument is predicated on the silly notion that Christians don’t do enough suffering to prove they love Jesus. Don’t make me laugh! There’s enough trials, sicknesses, conflicts, storms, and persecution in the average Christian’s life that he doesn’t need to impose more suffering on himself to wipe the smile off his face! There is danger of spiritual pride in religious observances. The woman who fasts twice a week is tempted to look down on the one who fasts just once a week, etc. Actually, there is NO command given by the apostles to the church to fast for any length of time! Even under the Old Covenant, only one ritual fast was commanded by God: the Day of Atonement (Lev.23:32). Other regular fasts were added BY COMMANDMENT OF MEN, such as the annual fast held by Jews on the 9 th of Av, to commemorate a number of national tragedies which have occurred on that day, among them the destruction of both Jewish temples.

Teaching New Converts? Not So Fast!

Before you take a young convert who is still aglow with the joy of the Lord and teach him that fasting is essential for his spiritual health, remember this: When the fasting question was brought up, Jesus immediately linked it with mourning (Matt.9:15). In the days following His crucifixion his disciples would mourn and fast for sorrow of heart, but their sorrow would soon be turned to joy (John 16:20).

In Acts 2:42-47 fasting is missing from the list of things routinely done by the early church. It does say they praised the Lord, fellowshipped, continued in the apostles’ doctrine, broke bread from house to house and ate their food with gladness and singleness (Gr. Phellos, pure benevolence) of heart.

When we lived in Holland I attended a church which occasionally called a church fast, but otherwise did not overemphasize fasting. This church had one fatal flaw, though: It taught that you might be saved by grace, but you were kept by works. I eventually left this church for this very reason. But I will give them credit for one thing. They kept one custom of the early church: regularly eating meals together as an act of fellowship. Each Sunday, the congregation would divide into little groups to meet over at different people’s houses to eat and visit. In that way the FAMILY

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feeling of “church” was experienced. In the early church, the entire congregation probably ate their meals “feasts of charity” (love feasts) together (spoken of in Jude 12). It was at that time they celebrated the Lord’s Supper (I Cor.11:20-22). Why do I believe this? Because of verses 21-22. People were overdoing the wine and getting drunk! You can’t get drunk from a thimbleful of wine! And in verses 33-34, Paul exhorts the ones who come earlier to wait till the others arrive (probably poor laborers who couldn’t get there early).

There is much more scriptural support for teaching new converts that eating together as a church is helpful to spiritual growth, than teaching them that frequent fasting is essential. What about tithing? Should new converts be taught to tithe? The early church did NOT practice tithing! If tithing is such an important doctrine, then why is it nowhere commanded by Peter, Paul, or any of the other apostles? Jesus does mention tithing, but in only two contexts, one where He is castigating some haughty Scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy and lack of mercy (Matt.23:23; Luke 11:42). The other example is where Christ describes a proud prayer offered up by an unrepentant Pharisee who went home unjustified by God (Luke 18:12). Only those three verses contain any remarks from Jesus about tithing, and they are all in an unfavorable context! Jesus okays the Pharisee’s tithing of mint, anise and cumin, but He was speaking to someone who lived under the Law of Moses and before the Cross. Jesus said nothing about the Pharisee needing to tithe his money. Modern tithe takers order their congregation to give TO THEM first dibs on their paycheck each week, but Scripture clearly specifies what is to be tithed under the Law:

Leviticus 27:30: And all the tithe OF THE LAND (not of a paycheck!) whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD.

Leviticus 27:32 And concerning the tithe OF THE HERD, OR OF THE FLOCK, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth (not the first item counted) shall be holy unto the Lord.

Nehemiah 10:35-37 specifies what items constitute a firstfruits (heave) offering unto the Lord. The firstfruits offering was collected from whatever agricultural produce ripened first (Deut.26:2). It was presented by the Israelite farmer (not the sandalmaker or fisherman!) to the officiating priest. The firstfruits offering was presented early in the harvest season, some time before the tithe (every tenth item) was gathered from the vast majority of the harvest which ripened later. What exactly made up the firstfruits offering?

VERSE 35: And to bring the firstfruits OF OUR GROUND (no mention of money), and the firstfruits of all manner of trees, year by year unto the house of the Lord:

VERSE 36: Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstlings of our herds, and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the Priests that minister to the house of our God******The first part of this verse helps to prove the distinction between tithes and firstfruits, which are often used interchangeably by pulpit preachers to get more money from poor folks who buy groceries with what little is left after paying their bills. And, notice:

The firstfruits law applied to human sons, not just the firstfruits of cattle. But tithes were not paid on every tenth child borne by a woman! The firstborn son was payable to the Lord as a firstfruits offering, and even he was supposed to be redeemed (bought back) by the parents (Numbers 18:15-16). But no one under the New Covenant needs to pay redemption money to some preacher. We are NOT redeemed with silver or gold, but with the precious Blood of Jesus (I Peter 1:18-19).

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The Lord later accepted the Tribe of Levi as belonging to Him instead of the firstborn of the Israelites (Numbers 3:45). Notice also, the firstfruits were brought “to the House of our God, unto the priests”. Even if it were okay to transfer the Tithing Law from the Old Covenant over to the New (which God forbids!), you’d also have to transfer ALL the components of that particular law, including the priests and the House of God! Just what IS the New Covenant House of God, and who ARE the priests of the New Covenant?

I Cor.3:16: Know ye not that YE are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?2 Cor.6:16: And what agreement hath the Temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Saints, WE are the Temple of God! The new convert must not be left in the dark about this important fact! He (or she) already has plenty of hurdles to overcome in this life (peer pressure, satan’s temptations, etc.), without also being brainwashed by greedy preachers who teach them that the CHURCH BUILDING is a literal storehouse for money, rather than the believers themselves being the House of God! Saints, not only are we the Temple of God, we are also the PRIESTS of God! Another under-emphasized power secret new converts must know!I Peter 2:5 YE also, as lively (living) stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.VERSE 9: But YE are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar (purchased) people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. In those verses Peter made NO distinction between “pew Christians” and “pulpit ministers”!

What kinds of items were brought by Israelite farmers under the Old Covenant? Continuing with verse 37 of Nehemiah Chapter 10: And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough (bread dough, that is), and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers (storerooms) of the House of our God; and the TITHES OF OUR GROUND (again, tithes are distinguished from the firstfruits here!) unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage. Only EDIBLE tithes which grew or grazed on the ground were brought to the Levites. OFFERINGS of the fruit of the ground and firstfruits of crops were brought to the Temple storehouses by the people, but tithes paid to the Levites by the people were to be stored in the cities set aside for the Levites and their families (Lev.25:32), not in the Temple storehouse! Provision for Levites and the poor was also to be stored within the city gates of all Israelite cities (Deut. 14:28-29). Scripture does not command the ordinary Israelite to bring any tithe to the Temple storehouse, but to store them for the poor and Levites only, besides that tithe which was set aside for their own personal use at the yearly Festivals. So that shoots a hole in the argument that the church building is analogous to the place where ordinary Israelites brought their tithes to the Levites! When do you ever hear any preacher rant and roar about neglect of the third-year Poor Tithe? What about yelling at farmers for failure to allow homeless people to glean ears of corn out of their field? Take a gander at the Book of Ruth, and you’ll see God’s love for poor people, not just “spiritual Levites”! Pulpit ministers often call themselves “spiritual Levites” but they could set their sights higher. Numbers 3:9 and 8:19 says that the Levites WERE GIVEN AS GOD’S GIFT to the sons of Aaron, the only Israelites allowed to be official priests! They were, in effect, bondservants (virtual slaves) of the priesthood! Far from being the kingpins, the Levites did the menial chores of the Tabernacle, such as setting up its props, skinning sacrifices, transporting the Holy Things, ministering at the Door of

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the Tabernacle of the Congregation, etc., while the actual priesthood drew near to the Presence of Almighty God at the Altar!

Bad doctrine has been repeated millions of times from millions of pulpits over the centuries, so I’ll repeat the TRUTH: The Levites presented their own “tithe of the tithe” to the Priesthood who did not have to pay any tithes at all (see Numbers 18:26-28)! Only this tithe, PAID BY THE LEVITES, was ever stored in Temple storehouses (Neh.10:38)! THOSE WHO PAY TITHES DENY THEIR OWN PRIESTHOOD IN CHRIST JESUS! Seminary-trained preachers who downplay the priesthood of the new convert (or any other Christian) by demanding tithes are sinning against God!

Tithe Teachers Cherry-Pick Only Profitable Plums

Why are preachers so picky about what they “spiritualize” in the Bible? According to the laws of algebra, unless you do to one side of your equation what you did to the other, your whole argument collapses like a haystack in a tornado! Jacob had twelve sons (which comprise the House of Israel). Now, if you’re gonna spiritualize one egg in a carton of twelve, you’ve just gotta spiritualize all the rest, or your analogy just won’t fly! Why don’t we ever hear any sermons on “spiritual Benjamites, Gadites, or Danites”? What about dudes like Reuben, Issachar and Naphtali? Where’s the money in making spiritual giants out of these guys anyway? And don’t you think it’s plum weird, the way preachers “spiritualize” the agricultural produce of the Land of Israel into other greenery: filthy lucre? When did they ever get God’s permission to do that? Even if it WERE permissible to carry over the ancient Tithing Law and impose mandatory tithing on non-edible things, are today’s tithers keeping (the preacher’s) law perfectly by consistently tithing on all their increase, as is so often preached from pulpits? Are tithers REALLY fulfilling those instructions perfectly? What about savings on grocery coupons, birthday and Christmas gifts, free favors done by friends, increase in the value of the family home? What about stocks and bonds, college scholarships, etc.? When was the last time some pew Christian brought the preacher a sack of tomatoes or a few watermelons as a tithe on their garden harvest? Does God only care about the greenery churned out by the Federal Mint? Why do preachers worship money so much, especially since the value of that old green dollar, like the old gray mare, just ain’t what it used to be?

Preachers are always hollering about how God will curse you if you don’t tithe on your increase (“increase” is an old English word for “harvest”). But assuming “increase” also applied to cash money, what if cash became worthless tomorrow and society had to revert to the barter system to run its economy? Don’t laugh at the notion. It’s happened before. Before World War II the German Deutschmark became so worthless it took a wheelbarrow full of them to buy a loaf of bread! Cigarettes became a medium of exchange in place of cash. What brand does your local tithe collector smoke? If that dollar hits rock bottom, who knows HOW business will continue in this old world!

So if you babysat your neighbor’s kid and they washed your car in exchange, how would you tithe to the preacher on THAT increase? How many preachers would jump ship if they didn’t get their ten per cent of the chickens the poor farmer in a barter economy paid the vet for delivering a calf?

By ignoring the third-year Poor Tithe of ancient Israel and the seventh year (Sabbatical) release from sowing and reaping and tithing, and failing to keep their own self-imposed law of tithing on ALL financial gains, Christians and their pastors are ALWAYS keeping the Tithing Law imperfectly, and, hence, bringing themselves under condemnation (Gal.3:10). That, in a nutshell, is why so many people “tithe”, and instead of being blessed by God, things only go from bad to worse!

Does Might Make Right?

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Preachers make a lot of noise about tithing, but that doesn’t make them right. Some think that he who makes the most noise for the longest time ends up winning the argument, just by wearing down the opposition. That’s just what tithe enforcers do, they way they drill into you a sense of obligation to “give till it hurts”, and especially the way they confuse you by reinterpreting Old Testament terminology to make up doctrines that aren’t really in the Bible. Next time some religious tyrant hammers you over the head with the Law of Tithing, ask him if he’d like some of the crispy lettuce out of your garden! And if he demands a “firstfruits” offering, offer him the firstborn of your kitten litter! Taking up offerings to relieve GENUINE needs is a good thing, but no man or woman has the right to demand tithes or firstfruit offerings under the New Covenant of Grace! Christ FULFILLED the Law of firstfruits and Paul says Christ IS the real Firstfruits (I Cor.15:23)! For any preacher to demand a “firstfruits” offering, he must automatically place Himself in the position of Christ, our only High Priest, because it was the serving High Priest who collected firstfruits offerings under the Old Covenant. Believers comprise the Royal Priesthood of the New Covenant but Christ is the ONLY High Priest of our Covenant (Heb.4:14-16)! I used to steer dangerously close to idolizing human preachers, the way I’d hang onto their every word, but now it’s finally sunk in: ONLY CHRIST STANDS BETWEEN US AND GOD (!!!) I have read that Scripture in Hebrews so many times, but it takes the Holy Spirit to really drive it home to my deepest understanding. Christ in His role as sole Mediator between us and God can’t be emphasized enough because this glorious revelation is able to set folks free from feeling intimidated by preachers who try to stand between ordinary believers and God. Some money-hungry preachers even resort to scaring people with the unpardonable sin and divine judgment if they don’t cough up the cash! Saints, God is opening up all the religious cages of fear which have imprisoned His people ever since this ungodly, un-Christlike false clergy-laity system first crept into His church!

Shout it from the rooftops:

For there is ONE God, and ONE MEDIATOR (Go-between) between God and men, the man Christ Jesus!

The Old Mosaic system was pretty complicated. Even the overall total tithe gathered from the Promised Land added up to much more than the simple ten per cent latched onto by today’s preachers. Actually, there were several types of tithe in ancient Israel, destined for different eaters. One of them, the “Ma’aser Ani, or “poor tithe” was collected just once every three years, in a seven-year tithing cycle. This particular tithe was not brought to the House of the Lord at all, but stored “within the gates” of cities for the consumption of poor Levites, fatherless children, foreigners and widows (Deut.14:28). Does any church you know of donate all its tithe to the poor every three years, and collect no tithe at all every seventh (Sabbatical) year, as the Lord commanded the ancient Israelites? Tithing was NOT done during the seventh year, and could not be done, since no crops were grown during that year (Lev.25:20). If preachers were consistent in “applying” the tithing doctrine, they’d not only collect tithes just once a year as the ancient Israelites did, they’d also give the poor tither a break every seventh year! Israelite farmers had to trust in God that He would feed them during those sabbatical years when the land was required to lie fallow. God’s people out in the pews often have to live by faith and trust in Him to restock their empty cupboards. But it’s doubtful whether preachers would be able to “live by faith” without taking monetary tithes for a whole year! Just the idea would send those “faith preachers” into a panic, wouldn’t it?

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We’re supposed to be living under a far better covenant than Old Testament saints did, but today an illicit tithe (money) is being extorted with threats of divine retribution FROM THE POOR for the benefit of the spiritual elite. That’s religious piracy, plain and simple. It’s the reverse of Robin Hood, robbing the poor to bless the rich! Monetary tithing was first laid down as church law in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. Various church councils held in the sixth and eighth centuries A.D. imposed monetary tithing on pain of excommunication. In succeeding centuries, tithing was adopted by some Protestant denominations. But the Word of God, correctly interpreted and applied in correct context, must always be the final authority for deciding what is true or false. Even if ten thousand men of the cloth preach a false doctrine as being true, it just don’t make it so. While tithing has enriched a few and built great monuments to the pride of men, it has caused financial hardship for struggling families, groundless guilt, and a disorderly mingling of the Old and New Covenants. Tithing has exacerbated social divisions between rich and poor in the Body of Christ. Tithing has weakened the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers by demoting the many and exalting the few. Tithing has helped build an unscriptural hierarchy called “clergy’ and “laity” in the Body of Christ, although Jesus Himself said:

Matthew 23:8: But be not ye called Rabbi (Gr. Rhabbi, my master): for one is your Master, even Christ; AND YE ARE ALL BRETHREN.

VERSE 9 And call no man your father upon earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven (Catholics address their priests as ‘father’, while Protestants address their clergy as ‘Reverend’).VERSE 10: Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.VERSE 11: But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

Instead of a brotherhood of love in today’s church world, we see artificial divisions made by men. Instead of walking in humility with a servant’s heart, religious rulers rip off poor pew saints who serve them. Saints of God are being deceived by bad doctrines which rob them not only out of money they need for their own families, but out of their blood-bought spiritual inheritance as actually BEING the spiritual House of God and Priests of God! Laws imposed by Moses upon the Old Covenant Children of Israel are being “spiritualized” by modern “doctors of the Law” to make them more profitable, then they are reimposed on saints of the Church Age. What is even more despicable is the sneaky way this is being done, by bewitching emotional Christians with “deeply moving” religious snake oil soap opera tactics. Guilt is laded onto the backs of sheep to make them bear burdens God never placed upon them. You’ll hear in so many mealy-mouthed words: “Well…tithing (or whatever) may not be EXACTLY required by Scripture, but out of love for Jesus and gratitude for all He has done for you, you really SHOULD do it…and besides, you’ll go to heck if you don’t write out that check out of respect toward your local “spiritual covering” (Did that sound like smothering?). So you don’t truly love Jesus if you refuse to buy pulpit spit which strips you of your own priesthood under the New Covenant? Discernment must be made between religious tradition OF MEN and solid, sound doctrine practiced by the early church. We must contend earnestly for the truth (Jude 3). Those who impose man-made legalism on the Body of Christ are only adding their own regulations to the Word of God. They’re really saying that the Holy Ghost didn’t put enough of a burden on New Covenant believers in Acts Chapter 15, so they’ll help Him do His job better.

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Deut.4:2: Ye shall not add unto the word that I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.Again, in Deut. 12:32: What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: THOU SHALT NOT ADD THERETO, nor diminish from it.

God plainly says just do whatever He commands you to do, and don’t try to improve on it to impress Him. Preachers talk all the time about the sin of omission, or omitting things Christians are commanded to do. But they never mention the sin of ADDING extra requirements for living the Christian life. Just think of how preachers sin by adding hundreds of extra laws to God’s Word: New Covenant tithing, white shirt and tie for church, special “love offerings” on certain days, no movies or TV, no makeup or jewelry, no caffeine beverages, etc. If you genuinely don’t desire to eat, that’s okay. If eating would be a distraction to your prayer period, you are free not to eat. But these verses strongly imply that it is a SIN to practice religious fasting as God’s requirement for righteousness, because in doing so you’re ADDING TO what the Paul and other apostles require of Gentile believers in Christ. Fasting is NOT COMMANDED by scripture to the Body of Christ, nor was it even hinted at in Acts Chapter 15, where the Holy Spirit plainly spelled out what was required of followers of Jesus.

One of the shorter scripture verses I Thes.5:25: Brethren, pray for us. Just four words. If Paul had thought fasting would give him the victory over satan, that verse would have contained six words: Brethren, fast and pray for us. But it doesn’t. NOWHERE does any apostle request fasting along with prayer from the brethren. In time of emergency fasts were proclaimed in ancient Israel. But the only time you see the words “fast for me” was Queen Esther’s request of Mordecai and other Jews to do this (Esther 4:16). If fasting were the spiritual dynamite it’s cracked up to be, surely Paul would go to great lengths to instruct Christians to fast, which he never did in His epistles.

In reading the book of Esther, you must remember the Jews were in Babylonian exile at the time, banished by God from His Promised Land for idolatry and disobedience. They lived in great sorrow of heart because of being geographically separated from the place where God’s Name had been placed, the city of Jerusalem (I Kings 11:36). Our own experience of being allowed into God’s Holy Presence through faith in Christ, and having the actual indwelling of His Spirit was unknown to them. Esther knew God had fulfilled His promise to divorce His people for spiritual adultery (see Ezekiel chapter 23). She felt an overwhelming sense of unworthiness and shame for the sins of her people, fully aware she could not offer animal sacrifices for her sins because the Temple and its services had been destroyed. But she needed a big favor from God. Perhaps He might take pity on her endangered people if she humbled her soul with fasting. She did not share our experience of being fully justified and made worthy through the merits of the shed blood of Christ.

If you feel you have something far more important to do than eat, use common sense. Who knows but what God might say to you, “Don’t have lunch now. Instead, go talk to that man about Jesus before he leaves on the train in five minutes.” Or, God might say you’re to delay your dinner till you finish praying EARNESTLY for all the people on your prayer list, instead of just mumbling, “Lord, bless ‘em all.” But to fast to torture the body to gain His favor, that’s quite another story. If you think God ordered you to fast two days a week (or skip two nights of sleep for that matter), first ask yourself why none of the New Testament apostles ever command believers to perform such ascetic practices. Would God order you to do something His own Word

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doesn’t demand of you? If you’re afraid of being punished by God for non-fasting, then you’re bound by a Jewish religious custom never commanded in the New Covenant. Those who insist on religious fasting as God’s requirement must appeal to Old Covenant verses addressed to the Jewish nation when they were under divine judgment for sin. God never ordered people to fast in times of joy.

Many say that although fasting (like tithing) is not commanded to New Testament believers, you SHOULD still practice it. Sez who? Surely not God! The above verses in Deuteronomy plainly say God FORBIDS us to add extra requirements to what He commands NT believers to do in Scripture. So that means: If Scripture doesn’t command you to fast to get closer to the Lord, YOU SHOULDN’T, AND MUSTN’T!

Fasting to subdue the carnal sin nature doesn’t work (see Col.2:20-23). If anything, fasting will only make you grouchy. Just ask any dieter. Sinful attitudes popped up in Jesus’ disciples even while He walked among them (Matt.16:23; Mark 9:34; Luke 9:54-55). But Jesus didn’t order them to fast to overcome sin. If you give in to the temptation to placate God through just one religious work, satan will trick you into laying still other laws on yourself. In doing so fall from the grace of God (Gal.5:4).

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Rewriting Scripture to Justify Tithing

In order to justify monetary tithing (or any other kind) under the New Covenant, you have to give Scripture a major rehaul. Let’s begin with scriptures taken out of the Old Covenant (where tithing belongs).

Leviticus 27:30: And all the tithe OF THE LAND, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S; it is holy unto the LORD.Change to: And all the tithe OF THE FRUIT OF YOUR LABOR, whether of your savings in the bank, or of the Fruit of the Federal Mint, is the preacher’s; it is holy unto the preacher.

Verse 31: And if a man will redeem ought (any) of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereto.Change to: If some poor widow wants to borrow back some of her tithe money to eat, charge her 20% interest.

Verse 32: And concerning the tithe OF THE HERD, or OF THE FLOCK, even whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.Change to: And concerning the tithe OF YOUR WORK WAGES, or OF YOUR POCKETBOOK, even whatsoever passeth out of an ATM machine, the FIRST part of it shall be holy unto the preacher.

Verse 33: He (the tithe payer) shall not search (inspect) whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.Change to: The tithe payer shall inspect his paycheck to make sure he gives the BEST (biggest) part of it. If he changes his mind and decides to substitute a prettier hundred dollar bill, he should just empty his wallet and fast until the next payday rolls around.

Verse 34: These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mt. Sinai.Change to: These are the genetically modified commandments, which the PREACHER commanded the church in Atlanta, Ga.

Deuteronomy 14:22: Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.Change to: Thou shalt truly tithe on all the wages you earn, that the boss pays you week by week.

Verse 23: And THOU SHALT EAT before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place His name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds, and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.Change to: And you shall pay, before the preacher, in the place where you’re sitting in the pew, the tithe or your cash, of your wallet, and of your oil stock dividends, and the first of your hard-earned paycheck, that you might learn to be afraid of the preacher always.* * * Forget that bit about the wine, everybody knows they really drank Welch’s Grape Juice back then. And don’t take scripture so literally that you actually EAT the Lord’s tithe like they did back then! The preacher will do that FOR you when he takes his buddies out to a lobster restaurant!

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Verse 24: And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: Change to: If you live too far from the hole-in-the-wall and are unable to haul a hundred-dollar bill to the place where the preacher is building a name for himself, when you’re still living in poverty:

Verse 25: Then thou shalt turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place where the LORD thy God shall choose:Change to: No need to turn it into money, it’s always BEEN money! Bring that money in to build a project which the preacher shall choose. (MONEY is mentioned in this tithing verse! So the preacher must be right…or IS he?)

The next verse will blow you out of the water! New converts, hide your eyes!

Verse 26: And thou (the tithe-payer) shalt bestow (spend) that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after; for oxen, or for sheep, OR FOR WINE, OR FOR STRONG DRINK, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household. Change to: Get rid of the wine and strong drink, for heaven’s sake! Old Testament folks didn’t know they were supposed to drink Coke instead! That money's supposed to go into MY church treasury! Must be a translational error! And the preacher shall spend that money for whatever his soul LUSTETH after (true): for a new car, a bigger and better suit, or for a trip to Hawaii, or whatever his little old heart desires: and the poor tither shall go home broke and eat leftover pinto beans in front of an old TV set, and he shall grumble about it with his whole household.

Verse 27: And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.Change to: Hey, wait a minute! Aren’t preachers “spiritual Levites” and ordinary Christians…what tribe do THEY belong to? Poor little pew Christians, they ain’t got no tribe, so they’d better pay up! Anyhow, the spiritual Levite that's hollering at you from up in the pulpit, thou shalt not defraud him of HIS tithe. He’s got a brand new car and home, and might inherit even more from his rich uncle. But having just a little more never hurt, did it?

Verse 28: At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithes of thine increase the same year, and shall lay it up within thy gates.Change to: Every single week (or pay period), before Uncle Sam gets his cut, thou shalt deduct ten per cent of thy paycheck and store it in the church treasury.

Verse 29: And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come and eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.Change to: And the spiritual Levite in the pulpit, who owns a nice hunk of real estate, shall consume the third-year tithe which should be feeding the homeless guy, the fatherless, and the widow. Thou shalt tell them to go get a job or they don’t deserve to eat anyway, and the preacher will stop blessing out his congregation for being tithing deadbeats. On a more serious note, why isn’t the whole tithe given to the poor like they did in ancient Israel? I sort of suspect God didn’t want tithes TAKEN from the poor in ancient Israel like they are today!

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Why, in all my long life, have I NEVER heard a tithing sermon based on this passage?

Leviticus 25:1: And the LORD spake unto Moses in Mt. Sinai saying,Verse 2: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, when ye come into the land which I shall give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the LORD.Verse 3: Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; Verse 4: But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.Verse 5: That which growth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the Land.Verse 6: And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat (food) for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee.Verse 7: And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

The Israelites observed a seven-year agricultural (and tithing) cycle. Every seventh year the land (and the tithers) got a break. No large-scale reaping was to be done, so no tithes were to be paid. Any Jewish rabbi will tell you no tithes were paid in ancient Israel on the seventh year, and tithes were never collected from the wages of the poor. During the Sabbatical year, people were to take from the land just what they needed for their own personal consumption, and nothing more. How would this set with “conservative” preachers who holler about having a strong work ethic, and making the most (money) out of every waking moment of your life? What if somebody out in the congregation decided that every seventh year he would ditch the factory job, sling on a backpack and go live off the land like the Indians did before the coming of the white man? Today’s tithers simply don’t get that seventh-year break commanded by Scripture. They’re pressured to slave SEVEN years out of seven to satisfy Organized Religion’s hunger for finances. When one job isn’t enough, people are encouraged to work two. Preachers LITERALLY (and wrongly) apply the Tithing Law, while “spiritualizing away” people’s need for physical rest, to keep the cash rolling in. Parents who must work extra jobs come under criticism because they aren’t always there for the kids and “have poor family values”. Think of it. God actually gave the farmer a whole year off every seventh year from plowing, sowing and reaping, besides their weekly Sabbath Day rest. God even cared about the land, which is nothing but dead, wormy dirt! Funny how preachers don’t worry about other Christians dropping dead from overwork. I kinda suspect God is a lot more merciful than His supposed representatives up in the pulpit. Let’s pay a visit to the three verses tithing teachers base most of their doctrine on. But, unlike them, let’s also read (and airbrush to fit their doctrine) other verses in the same context which clarify who this scripture is addressed to.

Malachi 2:1: And now, O YE PRIESTS, this commandment is for YOU.Change to: And now, O ye pew Christians, this commandment is for YOU.

Malachi 3:3: And he (God) shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.Change to: And he (the preacher) shall sit in judgment on those lacking gold or silver; and he shall terrify the sons of Gentiles, and plunder them of gold and silver, that they may offer unto him an offering out of fear.

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Verse 4: Then shall the offering of Judah and of Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.Change to: Then shall the offering of Nashville and of Chicago be pleasant unto the preacher, as it always has been, and bigger than last week’s.

Verse 5: And I will come near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and AGAINST THOSE THAT OPPRESS THE HIRELING IN HIS WAGES, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.* * *Preachers either ignore this verse or ignore the inclusion of “the hireling” (wage-earner) in this context where God is rebuking the LEVITES, not the people, for failure to be kind to exploited groups of people. Change to: And I, your tithe-collector, will sit in judgment upon you; and I will be a swift witness against sorry offerings, and against adult members who don’t pay up, and against falling offerings, and against those that don’t deduct a tenth from the hireling’s wages, the stingy widow, and the tight-fisted fatherless, and that argue with MY right to take your tithe, and don’t show me proper fear and reverence, saith the preacher in the pulpit.

Verse 6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye SONS OF JACOB are not consumed.Change to: For I am the preacher who’s trying to tell you God’s wrong here! He said “sons of Jacob” He REALLY means he’s rebuking the sons of the Apache Indians, the sons of the Eskimos, the sons of the Gypsies, the sons of Latinos, etc., who are in danger of being consumed for committing the sins in this passage!

Verse 7: Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?Change to: Even from the days of your fathers the Vikings, the Normans, the Celts, the Africans and the Anglo-Saxons, you have departed from the ordinances of Mosaic Law and have not kept them. Return unto a Mosaic Law never given to your ancestors, saith the Preacher. Don’t’ sweat over the dietary laws, Sabbath laws, circumcision, etc. but be sure to hang onto tithing! But ye said, Why should we return to a church that tries to put Mosaic Law on us when Christ died to set us free?

Now we’ve reached the three verses tithing preachers love the most. But how would you need to change them to justify THEIR tithing doctrine?

Verse 8: Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.Change to: Will a man rob God’s supposed representative? Yet ye have robbed him of what he wants most: money. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed the preacher? In monetary tithes and big enough offerings.

Verse 9: Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.Change to: That curse carries over into the New Covenant Gentile church, even though God was addressing the Nation of Israel (sons of Jacob) ONLY (see verse 6). Guess that’s a mistranslation.

Verse 10: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

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Change to: Bring ye ten per cent of all the paychecks, that there may be money in my (the preacher’s) church treasury, and test GOD to see if he will open up an unexpected source of income and shower you with money, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.* * *So what if Jesus Himself says: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, or put him to the test (Matt.4:7). So what if the whole Body of Christ, , not some “church building”, is the New Covenant habitation of God (Eph.2:21-22; I Pet.2:5?) Just disregard the fact that things radically changed after the Cross, and you’ll get indigestion if you bring money into the New Covenant House of God, which is the body of the believer (I Cor.3:16; 2 Cor.6:16).

Let’s go on to the New Testament, where you’ll search in vain for any command by Paul (or even Jesus) to pay tithes on wages. Christ’s earthly ministry took place under the final days of the period of Law (Gal.4:4). Only after the Cross did the New Testament era actually begin. But even as He spoke of tithing under the Law, Christ mentioned only tithes taken from things which grow out of the earth: mint, anise and cumin (Matt.23:23). Christ did not command His own disciples (or anyone else) to tithe on their wages. Christ modified the law on adultery to include looking lustfully at a woman, but He did not change the tithing law to tax the wages of Christians! Jesus did not support His own ministry through tithes, nor did His disciples. They were (mostly) from the Tribe of Judah, and only the Levites qualified to ask for tithes of any kind (Num.18:26). Many preachers teach that since Jesus made certain laws harder to keep (e.g. the prohibition against divorce and adultery) it follows that He also wants to make other laws more difficult as well, and pass them on to the church. But the plain truth is this: While scriptural teachings on the sanctity of marriage are repeated in the New Testament epistles, tithing was a TEMPORARY ordinance for a specific nation, Israel (Lev.27:34). Tithing was NEVER, NOT EVEN ONCE, given to the Gentile Church by Paul or any other apostle. Paul teaches cheerful, gracious giving ONLY. Paul rebukes Christians for every evil under the sun. But NOT ONCE does Paul remind the churches under his oversight to pay their tithe, or rebuke any church or individual for withholding ten per cent of their income from the church. But did Jesus REALLY come to put His church under a heavier burden than was borne by the Jews under Law, who did NOT have to tithe on wages and salaries? How would you need to change the following verses to justify the kind of “stewardship” sermons preached in today’s churches?

Matt.12:28: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Change to: Come to church, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I, the preacher, will give you no rest.

Verse 29: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Change to: Fill out my pledge card, and learn the ABC’s of faith; for I, the preacher, am merciless and cold of heart: and ye shall find no rest for your souls.

Verse 30: For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.Change to: For my folks are uneasy because my sermons bite.

How would you modify the following NT verses to justify today’s tithing doctrine?

Does the Holy Spirit require Christian converts to tithe ten per cent of their paychecks to the church? Let’s peek at Acts chapter 15 for a clue. The apostles are debating whether or not new Gentile converts must start keeping the Law of Moses,

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which included tithing (only on farm produce and ONLY to the Levites). What was their conclusion? What is the modern preacher’s conclusion? Apostles’ conclusion, Part I: Acts 15:24: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting (upsetting) your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment. Preachers’ conclusion, Part I: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain super apostles which flew to your conference from our mega-church have taught you word of faith theology, challenging your stingy souls, saying the offering needs to be supersized, and you have to hang onto the preacher’s favorite Old Testament law, and that, in a nutshell, is OUR commandment! Apostles’ conclusion, Part II: Verse 28: FOR IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST, and to us, to lay upon you NO GREATER BURDEN than these necessary things;

Verse 29: That ye abstain from meats (foods) offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Farewell.

Preachers’ conclusion, Part II: Verse 28: For it seemed good to the church treasurer, and to us, to lay upon you ONE greater burden than these necessary things;

Verse 29: That ye abstain from meeting at home instead of church, and from burdening us with unwanted questions, and from starting to think for yourself, and from forcing us to move to a cheaper building: from which if ye keep yourselves, that’s just the start. Oh, we almost forgot. God expects you to tithe ten per cent of your net….we mean GROSS! paycheck! You are dismissed.

Are Christians REALLY under grace instead of law?

Romans 6:14: For sin shall not have dominion over (rule over) you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.Change to: For sin shall not rule over you (that’s the preacher’s job); for ye are not under the law (except for certain laws that profit the preacher), and you’d better grease the preacher’s palm if you want to stay in his good graces!

Gal.3:10: For as many as are under the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed be every one that continueth not in ALL things which are written in the book of the law to do them (that includes every law in Leviticus, including animal sacrifices and ritual washings). Change to: For as many as are under the laws the preacher likes are under a blessing that exists only in their imagination: for the preacher says: Cursed is every one who continueth not to keep OUR version of Moses’ tithing law (don’t forget the firstfruits), but forget dietary laws, circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, etc.

Speaking of circumcision, it was just as hot an issue in the days of the First Century church as tithing is in our day. I never hear preachers holler about bringing back circumcision, which legalists in the early church tried to enforce, just like tithing is enforced today. Maybe PROFITABLE doctrine is a bigger priority in the modern church, and that’s why we don’t see many online forums debating Christian circumcision. It’s safe to say that if preachers could get rich from circumcision, they wouldn’t hesitate to transform spiritual circumcision of the heart into a big money-making operation. Money-hungry preachers are so economical with the truth, they’d be able to twist the Word of God and “discover” 1001 reasons why ALL Christians,

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including the poor widow, had to get circumcised as a requirement for church membership! Can you imagine the big stampede out the church door if circumcision WAS made a requirement for church membership? But week after week preachers are snipping away at people’s paychecks, without God’s authorization. Ten per cent may be the difference between children eating a nutritious meal and having macaroni and cheese five nights a week. Preachers NEVER preach on this one (at least I’ve never heard it done). How would you need to reinterpret this verse to justify tithing?

Proverbs 22:16: He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.Change to: He who makes himself poorer to increase the preacher’s riches, and he who showers rich preachers with more money, shall surely reap a hundred-fold harvest of money (what else matters?).

Just for fun, let’s examine a passage of Scripture which tells Christians the proper way to give. The context is Paul is taking up a collection to feed hungry saints in Jerusalem. How do tithe-hungry preachers interpret these verses today?

2 Cor.8:11: Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance out of that which ye have.Change to: Step out in “faith” and make a credit card donation out of what you don’t have yet, believing that the LORD will come to the rescue with a windfall blessing from an "unexpected source".

Verse 12: For if there first be a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, not according to that he hath not.Change to: Your hesitation is of the devil! Hurry up and give before satan argues you out of it! Make a $2,000 vow of faith out of what you don’t think you have yet, because even though you haven’t gotten that money yet, you ALREADY have it by faith and it will soon materialize into the visible realm, so go ahead and pledge it by faith and God will accept it.

Verse 13: For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye be burdened.Change to: If our preaching means anything to you, you’ll be willing to pay for it, even if it makes you poorer.

Verse 14: But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality.Change to: Charity begins here in this church, not at home! And it begins with us here in this pulpit, so pay up! Forget this notion of us all being lovey-dovey brethren looking after each other’s mutual welfare as equals. That sounds too much like socialism and we’re way too conservative for that! Some sink, some swim. Tough luck.

Verse 15: As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.Change to: God wants ME to have the very finest because I’m far more important than you are. Poverty builds character, and it wouldn’t hurt you to fast a few meals anyway.

2 Cor.9:7: Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.

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Change to: Every man (and woman) according as he feels intimidated by the sermon, so let him pay tithes, because he has to; for the preacher loves his cash cows.

Verse 8: And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.Change to: And the preacher is able to make the pressure pile up on you; that ye, seldom having enough money left over to pay your bills, may give the preacher more and more.

Verse 9: As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.Change to: The good Christian limits his giving strictly to the four walls of this sanctuary, he has given to the preacher: his money remaineth here for ever.

How does Jesus Himself view the issue of equality in the Body of Christ?

Matt.23:8: But be not ye called Rabbi (Master); for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

Preachers act as if Christ had said this instead:Peter, James, and John, you three are my inner circle. You’re head and shoulders above the rest, so those church members out in the pews must call you Master. Christ may be your main Master, but there are many other masters as well. That’s the way the cookie crumbles. Some are masters, some are slaves.

Matt.23:9: And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.Christ did NOT say:Some will be father figures over you to take tribute from you. Go ahead and call the most important church leaders “Reverend”, “Father” “Holy Father”, “Your Grace”, etc. The Father in heaven is just ONE of many higher-ranking fathers who rule over you.

Verse 10: Neither be ye called masters: for One is your Master, even Christ.Jesus did NOT say:You will be exalted masters and rule over God’s people as “little gods” in the pulpit.

Verse 11: But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant:Jesus did NOT say:But he that is greatest among you shall take your money and scare you with tithing sermons.

One famous televangelist boasted that those who didn’t agree with him would be his slaves up in heaven. Christ did not tell His people to worship keynote speakers at conventions and exalt them above ordinary Christians.

Verse 12: And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.Christ did not say:It’s okay if religious celebrities live like kings at the expense of the poor, and unless you fight for your place in the pecking order you’ll end up a third-class peon in heaven.

Jesus: On paying taxes (New Covenant tithing is a church tax imposed BY MEN)

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Matt.18:24: And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?Verse 25: He saith, yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented (appeared before) him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute (tax)? Of their own children, or of strangers?Verse 26: Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

God’s own dear children are FREE from paying taxes to their own kingdom! But tithe collectors in tall pulpits threaten them with the fires of hell for failure to cough up ten per cent of their gross wages and salaries to THEM, the exalted representatives of Big Religion! I think Jesus’ simple words about the children not having to pay taxes to their own Father carries much more weight than ten thousand pro-tithing sermons which appeal to Scriptures that just aren’t there.

Conclusion:

We are ALL brethren, of equal importance in the sight of God. God even disapproves of lofty titles being used by preachers to set themselves apart from the rest of the Body of Christ as lords over God’s heritage (I Pet.5:3). Giving is to be done cheerfully, to meet true needs. You and I have just as much right to ask a preacher for money (or tithes) as they have to ask us for it!

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SINKING FAST

Satan’s Sly Tithing Lies

The following story is fictional, but it is based on disturbing teachings I’ve read on various sites. The story is a composite picture of many mind manipulation games I’ve observed at services. Satan is one sly guy, and he seasons his worst lies with enough sweet sugar to make undiscerning Christians swallow his deception. I noticed no author name or contact details on the particular site I’m thinking of. Seems to me that any author who is sure that his/her viewpoint is Biblically sound wouldn’t be reluctant to post that information in order to get feedback from readers.

* * * * *Bless Me, Brother, for I Have Sinned

Time to try a new approach, Brother Love thought. This us-versus-them business has gotten the leadership nowhere. Brother Love prepared to address his vast congregation. The sea of tired, careworn faces were attached to impeccably dressed, mostly middle-class bodies, but hard economic times were taking their toll and today’s sermon might not be easy to swallow. Many dejectedly hung their heads, for rumor had it the “T” word would (once again) be the preacher’s topic. After a few introductory remarks, a few frozen faces relaxed into smiles. This time Brother Love wasn’t hollering threats at his flock. As he eased into his sermon his voice was as soothing as ointment on a burn. Could it be he was finally beginning to look at life from THEIR point of view? Brother Love spoke of God being a wonderful Heavenly Father, One Whose compassions failed not, a Refuge in the time of storm, a Mighty Bulwark in times of trouble. Brother Love sensed he was connecting with his congregation and gaining their trust. Then came the bottom line. “Jesus is a merciful Savior,” Brother Love said, “and He can have compassion on those who are beset by any human weakness. Christ lives forevermore to make intercession for His people so their sins can be forgiven. Sometimes, brothers and sisters, it’s easy to slip into sin because you’re afraid to do what’s just and right in the eyes of God. Many of you have allowed FEAR, that dirty four-letter word, drive you to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do. Many of you are so reluctant to believe in God’s faithfulness that you have become robbers of God Himself. Malachi 3:8 asks you this question: ‘Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.’ “You have approached tithing as being a dreaded duty, instead of the blessing God designed it to be. You have allowed pressure from other obligations to come between you and your God. God deserves and expects ten percent of all the money that falls into your hands. Jesus died to pay for your sins. The very least He deserves is His rightful portion of your paycheck. “My Bible teaches in Isaiah chapter 59, verses 1 and 2: Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. “Ever wonder why you’ve been praying for the boss to give you that raise, or for God to heal Aunt Susie, and the answer just won’t come? My Bible teaches that sin breaks your fellowship with God and hinders your prayers. God simply can’t afford to bless you if you withhold your tithe from His ministers who serve at the altar. Some of you refuse to tithe because you quote I Peter 2, verses 5 and 9 and point out that since you’re part of Christ’s Royal Priesthood and Old Testament priests did not tithe, that lets YOU off the hook as well. By digging into God’s Word and discovering that the Priestly order of the Tribe of Levi did not pay tithes, you have proven yourselves to be diligent students of God’s Word. Still, I question your MOTIVE for digging this information out of the Old Covenant. True, Old Covenant priests did not owe Temple

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Tribute or tithes because they were at the top of Israel’s social pecking order and the lay people were at the bottom. But you forget, God has called His people to live by a HIGHER standard than Old Testament people. YOU are called to go the extra mile, not out of duty, but out of love. Jesus wants you to be a servant, and even if Scripture does say you’re part of His priesthood, the lay members of this church ought to pay tithes to His ordained ministers. “If you’ll read I Cor.9:13 it has this to say about your tithing obligation: Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live [of the things] of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? You cannot use your priesthood as an escape from the Law of Tithing, folks. You might be a priest but we’re the professional ministers of God and so we have a right to eat the fruits of your labor. You say you’re walking in liberty and aren’t obligated to pay any set amount, but don’t you realize you’re bought and paid for through the precious blood of Christ, and you’re God’s bond slaves? Some of you are trying to cast off His yoke and break free of God’s control. You might be part of Christ’s Royal Priesthood, but you do not minister at the altar. You go to your jobs every day and work for secular bosses. There were servant-Levites in the Old Testament who dared not approach the altar, and they paid tithes out of the tithes they themselves received from the people. They gave these tithes to the altar priests to live on. We’re your spiritual parents in the Lord, and LOVE demands that you share of your bounty with us even when the going gets rough. LOVE demands that you die to your old selfish nature and tithe to those who break the Bread of Life to you. “Some of you may have offended deeply in this area of trying to wriggle out of your tithing obligation. Yet God has promised to forgive those who are truly contrite in heart. Confess your sin of withholding God’s tithe today and He will pour out His forgiveness upon you and restore His blessing to your life. Jesus will forgive you if you tell Him you’re sorry for withholding His tithe. Oh, what a merciful Savior! “Our choir is going to sing ‘Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me’. Let this hymn minister to your hearts the grace and love of our God as you search your souls. Ask God to purge you of the greed and selfishness which has robbed you of your love for Jesus and caused you to rob Him of what is rightfully His. As you search your hearts for hidden sin, come up front and let me and the elders of the church pray for you. As it is written, confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. So come up front, brothers and sisters, and I’ll help you seek God’s forgiveness so you can be greatly blessed by Him. Far from robbing your families of the necessities of life by paying ten per cent of your paycheck to the church, God has promised that if you do this, He’ll open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so there won’t be room to receive it. Mom and Dad, be a good example to your kids. Don’t just tell them you love Jesus. SHOW them.” The stirring music swept over the congregation as Brother Love continued wooing “God-robbers” to come up and confess. The faces of the white-robed choir glistened beneath the stage lights. To work-weary, everyday folks too busy to join any choir, they sounded like angels. One after another of the church members went forward, gave the preacher his or her hand, and choked out confessions of some alleged sin. Brother Love’s smooth hand touched one waiting head after another in the prayer line, as he urged each person to pour out their guilt and shame to the Lord. A widespread rash of weeping broke out as people fell under the spell of the ethereal choral singing and the hypnotic, polished rhetoric of the preacher. The atmosphere was so soggy with sadness that some even knelt between the pews, sobbing their hearts out. A very few got up and quietly left to clear their heads outside in the fresh air and sunshine. Brother Love stooped down beside one frail old lady who appeared to be in her 80’s. “You’re SUCH a holy man, Brother Love, even if you ARE young enough to be my grandson. Please pray for me to the Lord that he’ll forgive me for being stingy

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with my Social Security checks! I could lower my thermostat in the winter time. But my old flesh wants to be comfortable. Oh, the devil gets after me, Brother Love! I need to fast more often so I’ll have more to give to his work! Please pray that I’ll have the grace to skip a few more meals so I can afford to tithe. If I really loved Jesus I’d be willing to wait till I got to heaven to get my good things. I’m willing to burn out in the service of the Lord.” “Of course I’ll pray with you, Sister Withers,” Brother Love said with a cheesy smile. “Jesus gave His all for you, so now it brings you great joy to give more of yourself to Him.” After Sister Withers repeated a melodramatic “prayer” after the preacher, Brother Love gently raised the old lady to her wobbly feet as she steadied herself with her cane. Brother Love bragged on the woman to the rest of the church. “This little lady has made Jesus her partner in prosperity!” he cried. “She says she’s even trimmed her grocery budget so she can give the Lord a big thank offering! Sister Withers walks to church and does without heat in the winter to prove her devotion to God. Lots of you out there should be ASHAMED of the way you live, with all your extra fat and fancy cars! As the ushers come forward to pray the offertory prayer, let Sister Withers be a bright and shining example to inspire everyone here to give of their all to the Master. Open your wallets wide to sow a seed of faith! Lots of weeping has been done in our midst today, but your tears are as precious diamonds in the sight of God and He treasures them. Godly sorrow leads to repentance. God is doing a marvelous work in our midst. Choir, please continue singing softly as we ask our ushers to come forward and receive the Lord’s tithes and offerings.”

* * * * *

So what’s wrong with this preacher’s sermon?

In other articles in this book I go into exhaustive detail explaining why monetary tithing (or any other kind) is not for the church.

There’s a multitude of things wrong with that sneaky sermon:

1. It’s professionally polished and pre-calculated to get the people to lower their guard and accept lies as truth. God’s people have a right and a commandment to prove all things (I Thes.5:21). Resorting to mind-bending tricks to control others is a form of witchcraft. Any preacher who plays on religious sentiment to get what he wants out of people is committing a terrible sin and is usurping of the Holy Spirit’s place to lead and guide His people from their innermost being. The Jezebel of Revelation persuaded God’s people to do unscriptural things (Rev. 2:20). You don’t have to sound like a scary gangster to tell a lie. Satan used smooth talk to deceive Eve (2 Cor. 11:3) and he still does this today through ministers of darkness who, by cunning craftiness, lie in wait to deceive and toss the children of God to and fro with false doctrines (Eph.4:14).

2. Brother Love appealed to the greatness and mercy of God to justify his tithing doctrine, not correctly applied Scripture. He even appealed to Jesus being a merciful Savior willing and able to forgive non-tithing. Truth is mixed up with error. Jesus IS merciful, loving and forgiving. But tithing is NOT a commandment to New Covenant Christians, and is nowhere commanded to the church by any apostle. Jesus told the Jewish Pharisees UNDER THE LAW that they should continue to tithe their garden herbs, with no mention of money (Matt.23:23). Jesus forgives mean-spiritedness and stinginess of heart, but how can Jesus forgive non-payment of tithes if He never ordered NT believers to tithe to begin with? It’s the ravening thieves in the pulpit who need to ask Jesus’ forgiveness for stealing, not non-tithers! Whenever a preacher

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ministers false guilt, he’s denying the power of the Blood of Jesus to sanctify souls and make them righteous.

3. Brother Love presented himself as one who praises Jesus to the utmost. That’s like a burglar hiding behind an innocent baby to avoid being shot. The devil hates Jesus, but doesn’t hesitate to hide behind Him to avoid criticism! Get thee behind me, satan!

4. Brother Love has all his bases covered. Unscrupulous preachers know that some “laymen” have SOME Biblical knowledge, but count on the fact that John Q. Pew-warmer has to go to work every day and can’t spend endless hours digging out ALL the facts in Scripture. So sooner or later, the “theological experts” will be able to trip the wise-guy “non-ordained” Bible student up and get that one to give in and give more! Brother Love admitted that some had figured out that they were priests under the New Covenant, and since OT priests did not pay tithes, they shouldn’t have to either. But Brother Love insisted that “out of love” NT believers should “go the extra mile” and tithe anyway (where does the NT teach that you can keep any unscriptural doctrine “out of love”?) Because Brother Love praised the goodness of Christ in the same breath as he taught his bad doctrine, it would make Christians feel like crumbs if they stood on God’s truth and rejected his lies. This is called doing a “snow job”. Remember those old black and white TV sets where you’d get “snow” on the screen and couldn’t see the whole picture? All some Christians can see is the preacher’s fake whiteness, not the grunge underneath his indoctrination.

Even the demon-possessed damsel of Acts 16:17 knew how to say good things about Jesus in order to achieve satan’s purpose. The devil doesn’t even mind if God’s people give away ten per cent of their hard-earned cash to their preachers so long as it serves his purpose. And what is Satan’s purpose? To get us back under the old Law and its condemnation.

5. Throughout his sermon, Brother Love heaps condemnation on the parishioners and reminds them that they are of an inferior status to “professional ministers” (there’s no such thing as divinity degrees or seminaries in the early NT church). The preacher abuses God’s love and forgiveness to soften them up so they’ll accept blame for an act (non-tithing) which is not a sin under the New Covenant. By having Brother Love remind his flock of their OBLIGATION to tithe the devil binds them to a burden God has not placed on them. Satan uses the preacher to fill God’s children with false guilt and He uses his false ministers to bring them back under the Law. The whole book of Galatians and much of Romans is devoted to Paul’s effort to set his brethren in Christ free from religious bondage. There is NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and walk in the Spirit (Rom.8:1). Brother Love insists that his people owe him an ongoing debt of ten per cent of their paychecks. But believers are instructed by God to owe no man anything but to love one another (Rom.13:8). Believers are not to give out of necessity (obligation, or HAVING to give), but out of love to REAL needs in the Body of Christ (2 Cor.9:7).

6. Brother Love makes believers feel ashamed for spending their hard-earned money to properly care for their own personal needs. He tries to make them feel they are being selfish by doing this. Paul, one of the chief apostles, said that he labored to provide for his own needs as well as those of others (Acts 20:34). Today’s ministers of deceit won’t stoop so low as to earn their own bread with their own hands, even when they have lots of time on their hands to do fun things. They want others to slave in order to provide luxuries for them. Predatory preachers hunger for the

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widow’s mite. They expect elderly people, the poor and the sick to do without so they can indulge their own dreams and lusts.

7. Brother Love downplays the priesthood of every believer, saying that “laymen” do not minister at the altar like so-called professional ministers. There are no laymen in the Body of Christ, and the word isn’t even in the Bible! Brother Love grudgingly admits there is a priesthood of all believers, but he demotes them from full-fledged priests to being the counterparts of Old Testament Levites, who did the menial chores of the Tabernacle. Ordinary Levites ranked beneath the actual priestly clan of the Tribe of Levi. Being under God’s judgment for sins of their ancestors, subservient Levites could not directly approach God’s holy things (Ezek.44:10-16). Instead, they had an outer court ministry as being doorkeepers and housekeepers for the Tabernacle, while the priests held the most honorable position.

Much confused teaching is going on about “spiritual Levites” (why don’t preachers spiritualize the OTHER eleven tribes of Israel too?) All priests belonged to the tribe of Levi, but not all Levites were priests, just like all Alabamians are Americans but not all Americans are Alabamians. NOT ONE NT scripture says that paid professional ministers outrank other sons and daughters of God in His Royal Priesthood. Hebrews 4:16 says we can now come boldly before the Throne of Grace. Far from being inferior to paid preachers, all God’s children can enter the very Throne of God! Old Covenant Levites could not enter into the Holy of Holies, only Aaron the High Priest. We are made one spirit with Christ the Lord (I Cor.6:17). So when preachers try to pry tithes out of you, they’re trying to get them out of Jesus Himself! And when you pay them you’re agreeing with their lie that professional ministers outrank you and stand between you and your Lord. You’re denying your spiritual union with Jesus, the only High Priest of the New Covenant.

8. Many Protestants poke fun at Catholics for confessing their sins to a priest who stands between them and God. But Brother Love urges those who commit supposed sins to confess them to HIM, so he can give them the same absolution a Catholic priest gives to Catholic parishioners! Scripture teaches that there is only ONE mediator (go-between) between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim.2:5-6). So just like Catholics go to their human priest and say: “Bless me, father, for I have sinned”, the Protestant parishioner will agree with their preacher that they are guilty of sin, real or imagined, and will depend on their preacher to make things all right with God again. Brother Love claims money tithes from his people because he’s their “spiritual father”. Jesus said to call no man on earth your father, because you have ONE Father, who is in heaven (Matt.23:9). Jesus is the ONLY High Priest of the New Covenant (Heb.7:26). When preachers take tithes and “first-fruits offerings”, not only are they denying that Christ fulfilled the Old Law and its types and nailed them to the Cross of Calvary (Col.2:14), they’re usurping Christ’s position of preeminence over His people!

9. Brother Love paints God as a mean bill-collector who will shut off the lights in a Christian’s life if he doesn’t pay his tithes. God’s sons are turned into fearful, cringing slaves. Instead of setting preachers over God’s people as tax-collecting lords, Jesus said that the greatest among the Christians would be the one willing to be a servant (Gk. doulos, bondslave). Instead, predatory preachers (not all preachers) tend to make slaves out of their congregations by demanding tribute from them.

10. Brother Love mixes truth with error when he correctly states that Paul declares his right to financial support because he’s serving the Lord full-time. But Paul does NOT ask for any kind of tithes, or even mention the word “tithes” in I Cor. chapter 9. Paul merely states that he has a right to eat and drink (even so-called “laymen” have

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a right to such charity). It is a sin to be stingy with true ministers of the Lord who need support you’re able to give them, but it is also a sin to tithe when God teaches you that you’re free of the Old Law and its curse (Gal.3:10).

11. Brother Love perpetuates the false class system of clergy-laity distinction in the Body of Christ, which began in the early Middle Ages long after the death of the Biblical apostles. Jesus taught that we were to all relate to one another as brethren (Matt.23:8). Paul, far from demanding ten per cent of everybody’s paycheck (that would have made him wealthy) taught EQUALITY of well-being within the Body of Christ (2 Cor.8:14). In your own body, your foot doesn’t starve your hand so it can have more nutrients than it actually needs. God doesn’t want the “professional minister” driving a Rolls Royce while the poor widow starves. The worst swindlers (like Brother Love) don’t care if the poor widow cuts back on her cat chow and winter heating to “finance the work of the Lord”. Jesus lambasted preachers who devoured widows’ houses and warned them they’d go to hell for it (Matt.23:14; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47).

12. Brother Love plays on parents’ guilt by telling them that they’re setting a bad example for their kids if they don’t tithe. What parent wants to fail their own children? Preachers know their cash cows have cash calves who grow up to be a new crop of money trees to be picked from.

13. Brother Loves teaches that Malachi 3:8 is God’s rebuke to Christ’s New Testament Church. WRONG! The entire book is addressed to sinful Levitical priests and “sons of Jacob”, not the sons and daughters of other nations (see Malachi 2:1 and 3:6). Old Covenant Law was given to Israel ONLY (Lev.27:34; Psalms 147:20). God didn’t order non-Israelites to keep His kosher food laws. Israelites were allowed to feed foreigners meat that had died of natural causes, rather than being slaughtered (Deut.14:21). It was even okay for God’s people to sell such road kill meat to the Gentiles to eat. Now, if God didn’t command Gentiles to keep His dietary laws, then why would He have expected them to keep other Old Covenant laws, such as tithing?

14. Brother Love teaches a ten per cent standard of surrender to God. Well, if God needs ten per cent of your money (He already owns you and all you have), then what about other areas of your life? Does God only own ten per cent of your love, devotion, talents and time? If preachers are so eager to grab ten per cent of your paycheck then why don’t they demand ten per cent of the veggies in your garden (the true Biblical tithe)? They’re after other kinds of lettuce!

15. Throughout his sermon Brother Love insinuates that people who don’t tithe don’t love Jesus. In this way he puts a spirit of shame and guilt on them, which is spiritual voodoo. What Christian wants others to doubt his love for Jesus? So when the plate goes around, more goes in, which supposedly reflects love for Christ instead of the greed of the preacher!

What IS Satan’s sneakiest tithing lie? That disobedience to an unscriptural commandment (tithing on wages to non-Levites in the Age of Grace) is a sin which needs God’s forgiveness. Soul-damning lies can enter the church clinging onto the coat tails of the most profound truths. It’s the lying, stealing thieves in the pulpit who should weep between the porch and the altar for their sins, as in Joel 2:17).

What spiritual misery merchants are doing today is forcibly breaking into the tender souls of God’s people to overcome them with waves of emotion, which has been generated not by the Holy Spirit’s conviction for sin, but by polished, professional

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preaching and musical manipulation. That’s spiritual rape of the Bride of Christ, plain and simple.

Satan’s most dangerous lies are shrouded in misapplied scripture.

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Prophetic MessageDigging up Dead Traditions

Gen. 4:3-7; Mark 7:1-13; Luke 18: 9-14; II Cor. 11:14; Gal. 5:1-3;Eph. 2:8-9; Col. 2:4-10; Jude 3

Yea, saith the Lord of the Harvest, a lot of stubborn weeds have been planted over the centuries by religious authorities unwilling to let My people walk in the liberty Christ died to provide for them. Traditions of men, no matter how deeply entrenched they may be, or how long they have been accepted as gospel truth in My Church, are unacceptable in My sight. They have the taint and the odor of fleshly works on them. Even as Cain disregarded My clear instructions on how to properly approach My presence, religious systems and traditions of men have discarded My original divine order for worship, fellowship and service and set about building structures of their own, to replace the foundations laid by the first apostles. Religious pharisees unwilling to accept My Word at face value and unwilling to believe that My Work on Calvary is totally complete, will preach a false formula of: Christ’s best efforts+lots of religious activities+observance of men’s vain traditions+lots of money=salvation. How like the devil, to add flowery religious fibs to My Word. How very subtle he is about it. If tithing, enforced fasting, and frantic evangelizing to get people to sign pledge cards is essential to maintain your salvation, then My Work on the Cross is incomplete, and My intercessions for you in heaven as your High Priest are insufficient. Instead I shouted from the Cross: It is finished! Some legalists try to control My people with perfumed guilt-inducing techniques, such as saying: "If you really loved Jesus, you’d do it anyway." But who are those self-appointed judges to tell anybody that any tradition of men must be observed, or their love for Me can be called into question! I said: "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. I DID NOT say: "If ye love Me, keep the traditions of men, so as not to rock the boat." "Unity at any price" is a flowery religious fib of satan, who goes about as an angel of light seeking whom he may devour. The devil is very very religious, and he often buries My truth under a big pile of misapplied Scripture. My people are not to be auctioned off back into legalistic slavery to the vain traditions of men, just to avoid troubling waters polluted by long-standing lies! I feel like a farmer battling to dig up the enormous stumps of ancient trees deeply entrenched in hardened soil and stubborn to remove. The soil is clogged with dry, lifeless roots of vain tradition which impart no life; roots planted by pharaoh pharisees out to serve their own ends, who care not that they have tangled up the soil beneath their feet and turned it to shifting sand. I cannot sow My good seed in the hearts of My people unless I first clear the ground of the weeds of men so it can receive the life-giving Word of God to bring forth fruit into the Kingdom of God.

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SINKING FAST

IS FASTING GOD’S KEY TO VICTORY?

Some swear by fasting as being THE key to God’s heart. Fasting can either be a planned period of abstinence or it could simply be the result of an extended prayer session where the need is so great and prayer takes on such intensity that hunger is forgotten for a time. Such times would include periods of personal crisis, grief, or interceding for others to be delivered from satan’s power. Fasting should not be done to “beat yourself up” for being imperfect. Some believers are so sin-conscious they are not Son-conscious. Some give lip service to the all-sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice even as they strive to add their own suffering to “make up the difference.” Even if a Christian insists they need to supplement Christ’s own sacrifice with self-inflicted suffering (fasting) of their own, then it begs a few questions: How much self-denial does it take to get God to answer your prayer? If you’re only praying for five dollars, is five minutes long enough? Does God charge a higher fee if you want a new car? What if you need a thousand bucks for a plane ticket to go visit a sick relative? Will God be satisfied if you only pray ten minutes, or does He expect you to fast a whole week because it takes more faith to get a grand than five bucks? And if so, does God expect you to fast all food and liquid and subsist on water to increase your bodily suffering, so you’ll accumulate extra suffering credits to pay for the miracle? Some Christians object that since the Old Testament saints often fasted, we have to as well. But an example is not a command. Fasting is NOWHERE commanded in the Law of Moses, except that it is strongly implied as a Day of Atonement practice. Most of us are NOT Jews, and even if we were, to keep the Day of Atonement the Biblical way you’d have to offer animal sacrifices on a stone altar and completely abstain from work (Lev.23:27-32). Failure to keep ALL these stipulations results in being DESTROYED from among the people of God. You can’t pick one practice out as binding without observing the rest. Many insist that we need to do our fair share of suffering to demonstrate our worthiness to be Christians, and that’s why we have to fast. But ask any Christian who has gone through heart-rending trials, or even been persecuted for their beliefs. A very few have even been martyred for their faith in Christ. That’s quite enough suffering, I think. And who’s to decide how much suffering is enough to buy favor with God? Either our standing with Him is by grace through faith in Christ, or the Bible didn’t really mean what it said about salvation being a FREE gift. Not of works, lest any man should boast (Rom.5:15,16,18; Eph.2:9). Fasting, like “seed-planting”, “praising for miracles”, positive confession, etc, gets glory which should rightfully go to Jesus alone. Does fasting instill humility? NO! Putting faith in “a fasted body” is like a beauty contestant who starves to win. But it is Christ alone Who opens the Way into the Holiest Place (Heb.10:19). Fasting, like eating, is a bodily function. Most everyone goes a few hours a day without eating. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (physical) (II Cor.10:4). Confidence must not be put in the flesh (Phil.3:3). Fasting was an old Jewish religious custom. Scripture does not attribute fasting to the earliest saints, such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses was the first faster in Scripture. When he received the Law on Mt. Sinai, he didn’t eat or drink for 40 days and 40 nights (Deut.9:9).When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he found the Israelites committing idolatry. Moses angrily broke the stone tablets of the Law, then went back up the mountain. Moses REPEATED his fast, for a total of 80 days (verses 15-19)! Moses was SUPERNATURALLY sustained! No one can live much longer than three days without water. Very few, if any, could survive 80 days without food. Two months without food led to necrosis (bodily decay) in Irish hunger strikers whose breathing had not yet ceased. Religious tradition motivated the ritual fasting of the Pharisees, not Scriptural command. Fasting was never given as a church ordinance by the Biblical apostles. It

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is not even recommended! Even under the Law, only one regular fast was commanded by God: the Day of Atonement, when Israelites were commanded to “afflict their souls” (Lev.23:26-32). But zealous Jews thought they’d help God out by imposing more fasts. Several fasts were added to the Jewish calendar BY COMMANDMENT OF MEN: the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months of the year (Zech.8:19). They commemorated such national tragedies as the destruction of both Temples on the ninth of Av. One fast was done in remembrance of a political assassination, that of Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:25). Although God never sanctioned those extra fasts, religious leaders thought “holiness” should be harder to achieve. The proud Pharisee who thought he needed no repentance fasted twice weekly (Luke 18:12). So much for praying for DAILY bread (Matt.6:11). Speaking of daily bread, if regular fasting was demanded of first-century converts, why did needy widows of the church receive a DAILY distribution of food from deacons (Acts 6:1-2)? Jewish Pharisees would fast each Monday and Thursday. The only time a Pharisee felt okay about breaking this pattern would be if a religious feast fell on a Monday or Thursday, or if he were attending a week of wedding celebrations. During a wedding feast, all ritual fasting was suspended. Did Jesus command His church to fast? In Matt.6:16-17 Jesus says “when”, not “if” ye fast, as many point out. But Christ was addressing Jews who lived under the Old Covenant. They already fasted regularly. Why Jesus tolerated this fasting is hinted at in Chapter 23. In Matthew 23:2 Jesus said of the learned interpreters of Jewish Law: The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. *****They proudly presided in Moses’ place as Law giver. They added their own “oral traditions” (burdens) to the written Law.

VERSE 3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.***Here is a key to understanding why Jesus okayed the fasting already practiced by His Jewish listeners: Christ encouraged reasonable submission to those who “sat in Moses seat”. But that was before the old Mosaic ordinances were nailed to the Cross of Calvary (Col. 2:14). Jesus did not veto the Jews’ obedience to expounders (expanders) of Mosaic Law, but He did not want them to “do after their works” of hypocrisy and religious pride.VERSE 4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.***Jesus called extra religious requirements OF MEN heavy burdens and grievous to be borne. Christians have been eaten up with needless guilt over a harmful heresy going around: “The longer you starve your body, the quicker your hunger for Jesus will be satisfied”.

“sANctOREXIA” sounds like a deeply spiritual doctrine but beware! The devil is a religious imposter! FAITH is the key to pleasing God, not fasting (Heb.11:6). Even Eastern mystics “fast for miracles”.

Hebrews 13:9: Be not carried about with divers (diverse) and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats (dietary restrictions), which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.* * * *The Book of Hebrews teaches faith in the all-sufficiency of Christ. Its tone is sometimes stern towards negligent believers. But fasting is NOWHERE mentioned in Hebrews as being a duty of discipleship!

Matt.23: 5: BUT ALL THEIR WORKS (including fasting) THEY (the Pharisees) DO FOR TO BE SEEN OF MEN: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.

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In certain passages Jesus addresses MOTIVE. He said not to invite your own kindred (or rich people) to dinner, lest they reward you in this life (Luke 14:14). Rather, invite the sick and the poor. Jesus is not forbidding us to eat Thanksgiving dinner with our relatives! He’s saying: Don’t forget the poor! I’m reminded of that NEVER-PREACHED-ON (I wonder why?) tithing passage in Deut.14:22-29 which states the true purpose of the tithe. It was used to provide food for a party of Thanksgiving before God at the annual feasts of Israel. The Feast of Pentecost and The Feast of Tabernacles were joyous occasions when the Levite, the stranger (foreigner), the fatherless, and the widow in Israel would feast in the Presence of the Lord with those who brought tithed agricultural products to their place of worship (Deut.16:9-15). Jesus okayed the Pharisees’ tithing of garden herbs, even while reprimanding them for omitting the weightier MATTERS OF THE LAW: justice, mercy and faith (Matt.23:23). Did Jesus say Gentile Christians must tithe today? No. Tithing, like religious fasting, was performed by Jews UNDER THE LAW AND BEFORE THE CROSS. Church Age believers are NOT under the authority of those ancient doctors of the Law who dictated twice-weekly fasting. We are under grace, not under the Law (Rom.6:14). If Christians must fast, and fasting is spiritually beneficial, then why didn’t the early church apostles write more scripture on its spiritual merits? I couldn’t find any! Why didn’t they devote more time to teaching pagan converts about this alleged key to all the blessings of heaven? Why didn’t Peter, Paul or John ever rebuke anybody for not logging sufficient fasting days? If fasting is the great problem solver and blessing bringer it’s cracked up to be, then those apostles did their converts a great disservice by keeping mum on the subject! Whenever God ordained times and seasons for feasting, sacrificing or other rituals, God left no detail to speculation. Exodus Chapter 12 specifies which days the Passover Feast must be held. God says that some people qualify to keep the Passover, but others don’t (foreigners and hired servants). God orders unleavened bread to be eaten. God instructs how to cook the lamb, and how to dispose of leftovers. If Matt.6:16-18 commands Christians to fast, it breaks God’s earlier pattern of specifying “who”, “when”, “where”, “how”, “how long”, and “how often.”. Jesus’ listeners already knew what their particular fasting tradition was when they heard Him tell them to “appear not unto men to fast”. Jesus wanted their fasting, like their almsgiving (Matt.6:3-4) to be a private matter between themselves and God. How can today’s Christians “appear not unto men to fast” when everyone is talking about how hungry the big church fast is making them? The Pharisees would deliberately appear miserable, to get people’s sympathy and admiration. Jesus said that would be their only reward. In Matthew 6:1-2 Jesus urges humility “when thou doest thine alms” (give to the needy). Jesus did not decree that everyone in all circumstances must give alms. According to the Jewish Talmud, a poor man was not required to give alms out of his meager subsistence. Jesus was telling people that when they did hand out alms, not to act like the Pharisees did. Likewise, in Luke 14:13-14, “when” is used again in the same way as it is in Matt.6:16: WHEN, not IF, you fast. This time Jesus tells His listeners WHEN you prepare a feast (an especially nice meal for social interaction), call the poor, the blind and other unfortunate folks instead of those in a position to repay you. Now, if Matthew 6:16-18 is a commandment for Christians to fast, then this other “when” passage must be interpreted in the same way! Throwing a fancy dinner party for the poor is a COMMANDMENT you break at the risk of His displeasure, even if you’re financially unable to do so. No, Jesus is addressing the issue of a RIGHT ATTITUDE in doing things His Jewish listeners were doing anyway, not commanding all Christians everywhere to fast or throw feasts. Some scriptures are addressed to specific individuals, rather than having a universal application. Jesus told a healed leper to “shew himself to the priest” and

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offer a ritual gift (Gr.doron, sacrifice) (Matt.8:1-4.) Jesus also commanded the healed leper TO TELL NO MAN. Does that mean we must offer animal sacrifices today and keep it a secret when we are healed? Jesus asked the rich young ruler to go and sell all that he had (Luke 18:22). Jesus did not ask Zacchaeus or Jairus to sell all their possessions. Matt.6:16-18 doesn’t say how OFTEN each person must fast. Once a lifetime? Once a week? Can you have juice? It wasn’t clarified whether fasting must be done without food and water night and day, as the Jews did in a time of danger (Esther 4:16). David sometimes fasted till sundown (Judges 20:26; 2 Sam.1:12; 3:35). Is that okay? That’s similar to how Muslims keep their month-long Ramadan fast. They fast by day and feast by night. It wasn’t clarified whether expectant mothers, children, or sick and elderly Christians must fast to be faithful. Nowhere does Scripture command Christians to reserve specific day(s) of the week for fasting, or pick their own days. Christians who “covenant” with God to fast on certain days come under a law of “observing DAYS and months and times and years” (Gal.4:10). Every time “fast day” rolls around, the believer might worry that if he doesn’t keep the “spiritual disciplines”, God might discipline (punish) him. That’s fear, not grace (Rom.8:15).

I’ve read various pieces on how to properly break a fast, reflecting on the fact that no rules about fast-breaking are given in Scripture! Even when the fast is “over”, people are made to feel guilty if they don’t “show discipline” in resuming the eating of food. “Discipline” (prolonging the misery) means just nibbling on a bit of fruit, etc. for a couple of days. This really amounts to continuing with the fast in a modified form, as approved “fast-breaking foods” have few calories. Eating anything more than that for awhile is said to repel the sweet Presence of God the faster strove so hard to achieve during His fast. I do know that prolonged communion with the Lord, whether fasting is involved or not, is very refreshing to the soul. Being afraid to spoil that sparkling clean sense of spiritual intimacy with Jesus by ending the fast is a lot like giving being reluctant to ruin that just-brushed feeling by using your teeth to chew your next meal!

But that’s nonsense, isn’t it? IN Matthew 15:11 Jesus said food does not defile people (make them ritually unclean). It is SIN in every form which alienates God’s Spirit, not the presence of food in His Temple (our body)! God doesn’t mind meat (food) being present in His House. Just refer back to good old Malachi 3:10! Where it concerns the resumption of eating after a fast, everybody’s needs are different. Weak, watery foods might not suffice for some. David’s men found a young Egyptian slave who had fainted in the wilderness after being deserted by his master for being too ill to travel. The lad had gone without food and water three days and three nights. David did not offer the Egyptian just a teaspoon of yogurt. David fed him bread, dried figs and raisins, all energy-dense foods, so that his “spirit came to him again” (I Sam.30:11-12). Some caution that if you immediately go back to a normal diet you’ll only undo all the benefits of your fast, so better keep your fuel tank on fumes, or God’s hands are tied, where getting your miracle is concerned! I thought God was mightier than that! He upholds the entire weight of this earth WITHOUT anybody fasting and praying that He’ll continue to do so! God is well able to bear our burdens too! As for the body being an inherently evil thing to be punished for Adam and Eve’s sin, that’s an age-old heresy. Adam ate the fruit out of a heart of disobedience, so sin originated in Adam’s heart. The seat of sin is the heart, not the stomach (Mark 7:18-23)! Worship proceeds out of the regenerated spirit of man, not out of our intestines, gall bladder, liver, stomach, etc.

Try telling someone who is ravenously hungry from a three-day fast that he (or she) will lose the reward of their fast if they break that fast with something delicious! That is an ascetic (body-punishing) attitude and falls into the “taste not” and “commanding to abstain from meats” category (Col.2:21; I Tim.4:3). Once you feel

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within your spirit that God has sent His answer, why should you continue to go hungry? Rather, you ought to rejoice and eat your meals with gladness (Acts 2:46). The early believers ate their food with gladness, not guilt!

Esther lived under the Law, in the days before “the way into the Holiest” (see Heb.10:19) was opened through the blood of Christ. In great fearfulness she begged God for mercy on her people, knowing that her nation was under divine judgment (exile from the Promised Land) as punishment for idolatry committed by earlier generations of Israelites. Esther had no access to the promises of the New Covenant. Esther couldn’t even go to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer up sacrifices for her sins. During that historical period, the destroyed Temple would be rebuilt by a few returning exiles under Ezra and Nehemiah, but Esther had no access to the rites of the Old Covenant. All Esther could do was cast herself on the mercy of Almighty God. Sin had not yet been finally dealt with through the once-for-all offering of Christ, so it would have been understandable if Esther had trembled at the thought of how angry the sins of Israel made God. Although she was the queen, Esther was a virtual captive in the court of a heathen king who did not observe Mosaic Law. Esther might very well have feared that despite her own good character, her own prayers might be rejected by God! But the emergency her nation faced called for bold action. Some wicked official of the King was threatening to wipe out all the Jews in the King’s domain. Esther pleaded with God to spare her people destruction. After her very mournful three-day fast, she attended two banquets where wine was served (Esth.5:6-8; 7:1). Despite the terrible national emergency worrying her, Esther did not extend her abstinence beyond the predetermined three-day period (Esth. 4:16). Although Esther dined on delicacies with the King, she still got her miracle from God. The Jews were spared destruction. Her enemy Haman and his murderous henchmen were hanged.

Overloading the digestive system after a fast is very unwise, but if you FEEL hungry, eat whatever you feel you can tolerate, keeping in mind that lots of water is essential to refresh the system.

Understanding the Complete Picture

Jesus’ warning against religious pride is the dominant, recurring theme of Matthew 6:1-18. Jesus warns that almsgiving, praying and fasting must not be done “to be seen of men”. Christ was addressing Jews who lived under Mosaic Law, not Grace. If you keep part of that passage as a law you must keep it ALL. Jesus tells fasters not to look unhappy. He instructs them to “anoint your head with oil”, another Jewish custom not universally observed. So if you must fast in response to this passage, you must get the oil bottle out too. In Matt.9:14-17 John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus why His disciples don’t fast like they do. Jesus immediately links fasting with mourning. Jesus compares fasting to old wineskins which cannot contain new wine. They’ll burst. Jesus says it’s useless to patch up an old garment with brand new cloth. It will tear. Fasting is a perfect tissue match with Old Covenant legalism, not New Covenant liberty. Jesus wasn’t trying to patch up old Jewish customs to hand them down to the church! Jesus says that the children of the bridal chamber cannot mourn while the Bridegroom is with them. But the days would come when the Bridegroom would be taken away from them, and then His disciples would fast. In the days between Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection, His disciples did mourn. Their joy returned when Christ rose again (Luke 24:52). Many believe that since the Bridegroom hasn’t returned for us we must fast. True, Jesus is not among us in His resurrected, glorified body. But He is continually with us in Spirit. We are spiritually united to Christ by faith (I Cor.6:17). So how can we say the Bridegroom is not with us? Jesus Himself said, just before His return to heaven:: LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE EARTH (Matt.28:20b). If

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you are filled with the joy of the Lord, why should you fast? That’s like getting married in a morgue! The normal Christian experience should be “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Pet.1:8). Some think that only when Jesus is PHYSICALLY present with His people (in heaven or at the Rapture) will they no longer have to fast. There are a couple of flaws in this assumption. Even when Jesus walked the earth, He did not tell disciples of John and the Pharisees to stop fasting just because He was physically present with them. But Jesus did tell them that mourning was inappropriate for His own disciples while the Bridegroom was with them (Mark 2:19). Jesus did not object to religious Jews continuing their fasting customs. But Jesus did not order His disciples to fast. The key question is: Is the Bridegroom with us or not? You believe He is only if you take Matthew 28:20b at face value. Even when Christ comes again, His glorified body will be a literal flesh and bone body (Luke 24:39). Jesus’ perfected body is awesome. It can vanish, and can even pass through walls (John 20:19; Luke 24:31). But Jesus’ glorified body will be limited to one geographical location at a time. Whenever Jesus sits on His glorious Throne in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3), He will be physically absent from saints ruling in other parts of the earth. Jesus will ALWAYS be spiritually present with each of His loved ones (Matt.28:20b). The best way to picture God’s omnipresence (being everywhere at the same time) is to think of millions of people viewing the same TV program at once. God is able to reach and teach billions of souls simultaneously. Christ our Bridegroom is spiritually present with us NOW, even though the marriage ceremony of Jesus to us, His Bride the Church, is yet future (Rev.19:7). “The children of the bridal chamber” are widely assumed to refer to Church Age believers. But Christians, corporately, are Christ’s actual Bride. The wedding guests and the Bride cannot be one and the same! The Greek word for “children” in Mark 2:19 is “huios”. This word is used in a wide variety of applications in the New Testament. According to comments in Strong’s Concordance, “children of the bridal chamber” can be interpreted as “friends attending a wedding.” John the Baptist called himself the Bridegroom’s friend, or, the groom’s best man (John 3:29). Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:14: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I (not the Pharisees) command you. Toward the end of Christ’s earthly ministry, He told His disciples that He would henceforth (from now on) call them His friends instead of His servants (John 15:14). But at no time before the Cross did Christ refer to His Twelve disciples as a church. Jesus didn’t even call the Seventy a church (Luke 10:1-24). But Christ did say “I WILL (future tense) BUILD My church in Matthew 16:18. Only in one other passage does the word “church” (Gr. ekklesia) appear before Jesus’ crucifixion, where He addresses disciplinary problems which would arise once the church came into existence (Matt.18:15-17). Before Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, His disciples were still spiritually unregenerated and living under the Law. Like John the Baptist and other Old Testament saints, they were still “friends of the Bridegroom”. After His resurrection, Jesus breathed upon His disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). I believe it was then that they were spiritually born again (I Pet.1:23). I also believe that the Holy Ghost, not fasting, empowered them for Christian service at Pentecost (Luke 24:49). Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples didn’t include fasting! Jesus told them to tarry (wait) in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on High (Luke 24:49). Many assume that Christ’s followers fasted all ten days they waited for the Spirit in the Upper Room, but a plain reading of Scripture doesn’t support this (see Acts 1:12-14; 2:1-4). The disciples continued in prayer and supplication (no mention of fasting in this context). Pentecost was the birthday of the Church. Before Pentecost there was no church, just a band of disciples. When they were baptized into the one Body of Christ, they were spiritually united to Him (I Cor.6:17;12:13). They became members of His

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betrothed Bride (2 Cor.11:2)! This is a much closer relationship to God than that enjoyed by Old Testament saints. Before Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary made spiritual regeneration of the disciples possible, they were among the GUESTS of the Bridegroom, the ones Jesus referred to when He said, “In those days they will fast”. Throughout his epistles Paul speaks of the Church as the body and BRIDE of Christ (SINGULAR, not plural), though it is comprised of many members. In the Book of Revelation, the church is not mentioned again after Chapter 3, until the very end when she reappears as the Bride of Christ who has made HERSELF (singular) ready(Rev.19:7). The children of the Bridechamber are PLURAL, not singular. Jesus was not ordering His Bride to fast. Jesus prophesied that His disciples would fast for sorrow of heart when He was violently taken away from them. Isaiah 53:8 speaks of the Messiah being “taken from prison and from judgment”. Translator’s notes in the margin read: “He was TAKEN AWAY by distress and judgment”. Psalms 102:24 speaks of the coming Messiah: I said, O my God, TAKE ME NOT AWAY in the midst of my days. Christ was to be taken away by a violent death, and His disciples would sorrow greatly. But their sorrow would be turned into joy when Jesus rose from the grave (Luke 24:41; John 16:20; Acts 2:46). Old Testament sinners are sometimes commanded to humble themselves with fasting, but nowhere in Scripture do people fast to celebrate their normal condition of joy in the Lord. I’ve heard of people going on “thanksgiving fasts” to show gratitude to God. But that’s akin to monks whipping themselves to achieve religious ecstasy through self-humiliation . It is said that St. Malachy, the Irish monk who had a vision of all the popes who would ever live, was taught that self-inflicted suffering would bring him closer to God. Malachy beat his body and slept on boards. Such severe treatment of the body is discouraged by Colossians 2:20-23 as being a poor way to subdue the flesh. It’s almost as if some saints think that the unmerited gift of Jesus’ joy isn’t fitting for a proper sour-faced religion. Suffering-obsessed believers are still saddled with a sin nature. They think they don’t deserve to be happy this side of heaven. So they punish their own bodies to stay sad, in keeping with their lowly earthly estate. Beware of false religious mysticism. Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor.11:14). Why do some people think God enjoys “sacrifices” of self-inflicted suffering? Failure to “live a fasted life” could lead to guilt feelings for “depriving God of a sweet-smelling sacrifice” He supposedly delights in! But Christ is the ONLY Sacrifice we need to stay right with God! Adding our own efforts to Christ’s finished work on Calvary is deadly to faith. Falling from grace results from putting ourselves under a yoke of legalistic bondage (Gal.5:1,4). The early church has often been called “a fasting church”, and that’s supposedly why there were lots more miracles in those days. But could it be that those miracles happened more as a result of a heart full of love than from an empty stomach? Acts 2:44-45 and Acts 4:32-35 shows how greatly Christians loved one another in the beginning. They walked their talk. They would even sell their valuables to provide for needy brethren, so that there was none among them who lacked for life’s necessities. In the very beginning of the Church Age, the poor were tenderly cared for, not neglected . Can you imagine that happening today? Instead, Christians are taught that “successful” saints swim while those who don’t apply “God’s Seven Keys to Prosperity” sink. “Seeds of faith” are sent to rich TV preachers instead of being used to relieve poverty in the church. Helping a poor struggling family is a much greater love gift to God than starving on a fast. Isaiah 58:7 makes it clear that what God really wants is to see the hungry fed, the naked clothed and the homeless housed.

Acts 2:42 says: And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Verses 46-47: AND THEY, CONTINUING DAILY WITH ONE ACCORD IN THE TEMPLE, AND BREAKING BREAD FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE, DID EAT THEIR MEAT WITH

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GLADNESS AND SINGLENESS OF HEART, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved***. No mention of fasting in those verses. The early Christians shared meals in each others’ homes with gladness, instead of keeping mournful fasts. The apostle James was reputed to be a strict adherent of Mosaic Law, and very Jewish in His devotional practices. James allegedly spent so much time praying on his knees that he developed calluses on them like a camel’s. In his epistle James rebuked Christians for failing to prove their love in practical ways. He rebuked believers for talking dirty. He rebuked them for double-mindedness. He rebuked the rich for being proud and greedy. James rebuked Christians for fighting among themselves. But he never upbraided anybody for failure to fast! James, that most legalistic of Christ’s apostles, never once commands, or even mentions, fasting in his epistle. James did urge sinning, double-minded believers to “be afflicted, and mourn and weep” (James 4:8-9). Such an attitude of deep sorrow for sin could involve fasting, but fasting isn’t mentioned even there. Instead of urging more fasting to refine your faith, James exhorts believers to do more than just pray when a brother or a sister is hungry for DAILY food (James 2:15-16). Feed them! James tells Christians how to handle certain situations (James 5:13-14). If a believer is afflicted, he is to pray (no mention of fasting). If he is merry, he is to sing psalms (not go on a thanksgiving fast). Anyone sick is to call for the elders of the church and have them pray over him and anoint him in the Name of the Lord. James does not command the elders to fast and pray, just pray. If fasting were such a critically important issue, why didn’t the apostles mention it more? Except for Paul’s “fasting oft” (going hungry because of persecution, etc.) not much is said about fasting in the epistles. These doctrinal letters to the churches NEVER bind fasting on believers! The apostles never specify how severe a fast has to be, how long it should last, how often a fast must be undertaken, etc. In I Thes.5:14-22 Paul gives a list of things faithful Christians are to do, including pray without ceasing, or staying in a spirit of prayer. No mention of fasting in that list. If you fasted without ceasing, you’d get to heaven faster than the preacher at the potluck!

Some point out that the apostles sought God’s counsel with fasting (Acts 13:2). The urgency of the apostles’ need for God’s guidance took priority over all earthly concerns as they sought God in prayer. Yet it is also true that during the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, the Jewish disciples still clung to some of their old ways. In Galatians 2:11-14 Paul rebuked Peter for refusing to eat with Gentile believers, out of fear of legalistic Jews. Even more significantly, in Acts 18:18 the Apostle Paul shaved his head and made a vow in the Temple after the manner of the Old Testament Nazarites, who would cut their hair when their period of consecration was finished (Numbers 6:18).

Some time after Paul shaved his head as part of his vow-keeping ritual, he went up to Jerusalem to attend one of the Jews’ three yearly religious festivals (Acts 18:21). Does this mean that we have to to follow Paul’s example and travel to Jerusalem to keep the Jewish High Holy Days? In his epistles Paul never commands anyone to “go up to Jerusalem” to literally keep the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. We spiritually keep those days. Jesus is our Passover Lamb, of whom we spiritually partake every day (John 1:29; John 6:48-58). Pentecost, which came fifty days after Passover, was the day the wave sheaf offering (first ripening sheaf of grain) was presented to the Lord by the Jewish High Priest (Lev.23:15). The Holy Ghost (the Spirit of Christ, the Bread of Life) fills believers like He did on the Day of Pentecost (Mark 1:8; Acts 2:1-4). The Feast of Tabernacles commemorates the years the Israelites dwelled in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land (Lev.23:33-44). We abide in Christ, our Living Vine (John 15:1-10).

In Acts 15:24 the apostles clearly state that circumcision (and Law-keeping) is not required of Gentile converts. Yet Paul circumcised Timothy out of fear of offending the Jews (Acts 16:3). Later on, Paul stood his ground and refused to also circumcise

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Titus (Gal.2:3). The apostles did not teach circumcision to their Gentile converts. They did not teach them to make Old Testament-style vows or keep Jewish rituals. And they did not require tithing and fasting. Even if the apostles had made fasting a condition of Christian discipleship, they would not have assumed that a non-Jew raised in an idolatrous, party-going culture was already familiar with fasting. That convert would need to be taught about fasting and its merits from scratch. The apostles’ council of Acts 15 was held to determine whether Gentile converts to Christ had to adopt Jewish laws and customs (that would include fasting). Even James, who was zealous for the Law of Moses, sat on this council (Acts 15:13). In verse 28-29 the apostles spell out what they, AND THE HOLY GHOST require of the Gentiles, besides faith in Christ and walking in the Spirit. Only that the new converts abstain from sexual immorality, the consumption of blood, and meats strangled or dedicated to idols. The old wine of Jewish legalism was replaced by the New Wine of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom.14:17). The closest I found to a fasting commandment in the epistles was I Cor. 7:5, and it wasn’t even a commandment: Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer (some early Greek manuscripts omit fasting); and come together again, that satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

VERSE 6: But I SPEAK THIS BY PERMISSION, AND NOT OF COMMANDMENT.

The Christian is not commanded by Scripture to fast. But neither is he commanded to eat when he feels no need to. Faith, not food intake or lack thereof, determines the quality of a believer’s service to God.

I COR.8:8: BUT MEAT (FOOD) COMMENDETH (approves) US NOT TO GOD: FOR NEITHER, IF WE EAT, ARE WE THE BETTER; NEITHER, IF WE EAT NOT, ARE WE THE WORSE.

Whether we eat or don’t eat, it doesn’t affect our standing before God. You are free to eat and you are free not to eat. But if you decide to abstain from food and/or drink during a season of prayer, don’t look upon fasting as adding to Christ’s own redemptive work on Calvary. He meant what He said: It is finished (John 19:30).

Can Fasting Make You a Miracle Worker?

Fasting can induce a “God owes me” attitude. If some non-faster easily obtains the very blessing the faster prays for but doesn’t receive, this can cause resentment and envy which could imperil the faster’s relationship with God. God is not obligated to grant requests which oppose His express will or violate His Word. The penitent King David fasted for seven days, begging God to heal his ailing infant son, who was born of his adultery with Bathsheba. But no miracle happened. God did not spare the child’s earthly life. David’s men asked David why he started eating again. David said there was no point in continuing to fast (2 Sam.12:23). God had already given His final answer: Someday David would go to where his son was, but his son would not return to him. Fasting, however hard or long, can never purchase one solitary benefit from the Hand of God. Some justify compulsory fasting by saying Jesus did it. But what does the Bible really say about how Jesus ate? The lifestyles of Jesus and John the Baptist are contrasted in Matthew 11: 18-19. John “came neither eating (bread) nor drinking (wine), so people said John had a devil. Jesus “came eating and drinking” so Jesus was called a winebibber and a glutton. BOTH men drew criticism! People noticed that

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Jesus didn’t habitually fast. Jesus’ enemies twisted that fact to discredit Him. If Jesus had eaten barely enough to keep a fly alive, the “winebibber and glutton” allegation would be as ridiculous as calling a lion a vegetarian! John was a frequent faster (ascetic). Jesus wasn’t. John lived on locusts and wild honey (Matt.3:4). Locusts are grasshoppers, though some airbrush John the Baptist’s bugs by saying they were really locust pods (carob). Carob is a cocoa substitute. Did Jesus live a “fasted life”? He sacrificed His all for us, even His very life. But scripture records only ONE occasion where Jesus went without eating for a prolonged period: The fast in the wilderness, where He ate nothing for forty days and nights, and was tempted by satan (Matt.4:1-5). Christ was supernaturally sustained by the Word of God (verse 4). AFTER Jesus finished the fast He felt hungry (verse 2). Eating DAILY was Jesus’ normal practice (Matt.6:11). He even feasted with despised social outcasts and sinners (Matt.9:10-11; Luke 5:30). The Pharisees upbraided Christ for dining with tax collectors and other scoundrels. They criticized Jesus for freely enjoying His meals instead of fasting often. But did Jesus’ eating and drinking, even in the company of sinners, diminish His miracle ministry? No. Unless hindered by other people’s unbelief, Christ enjoyed total success in His healing ministry (Mark 6:1-6; Luke 4:40). Devils were cast out. The dead were raised. Blind eyes were opened. Deaf ears were healed. While John the Baptist languished in prison, he heard about Jesus’ many miracles. These mighty signs and wonders proved that Jesus was the Jews’ long-awaited Anointed One (Gr.christos) (Matt.11:2-6). John the Baptist was among the greatest of mortal men born under the Old Covenant (Matt.11:11). John was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15). John was specially anointed by God to call the nation of Israel to repentance (Luke 1: 16-17; 3:2-18). John ate grasshoppers and honey, and only enough to keep going. But if fasting were the key to a mighty miracle ministry, John the Baptist should have healed many more people than Jesus, because he did much more fasting than Jesus and His disciples. But it was Christ, the One Who “came eating and drinking” Who performed those supernatural works of God. John had a wonderful prophetic preaching ministry (Luke 1:76-77; 3:1-18). But NOT ONE miracle is attributed to John by Scripture! John called Jesus Someone Who was mightier than himself, One whose shoelaces he was unworthy to untie (Luke 3:16). Christ would increase, while John was to decrease (John 3:30). If going hungry could work miracles, every fashion model could empty hospitals and raise the dead! If fasting makes miracles happen, then why did people travel over rough terrain to GO TO JESUS for healing in the Bible? They could have just prayed and fasted at home to get healing from God! Ephesians 6:10-18 speaks of the warfare of the Christian believer, and the spiritual armor of that warfare. Verse 17 describes the Christian’s Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Verse 18 exhorts Christians to pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, with perseverance and supplication for all saints. Some think “supplication” means “fasting”. But “supplication” (Gr. deesis) simply means “a prayer of petition”. If fasting is such a powerful weapon against satan, why is it not even mentioned in Ephesians Chapter 6? It is the Word of God and prayer in the Spirit which bring victory, not physical hunger. Some think prayer in the Spirit must include fasting, even if they aren’t one and the same thing. But I Cor.14:15 indicates that prayer in the Spirit is praying in tongues. Paul says: What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.***Prayer and singing with the understanding are distinguished from prayer and singing with the spirit, which cannot be understood by the natural mind.

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Just before Christ’s crucifixion, He ate (Luke 22:15). I don’t know about you, but if I thought I was about to get killed in that way, I wouldn’t be ABLE to eat! After supper, Jesus fought his hardest prayer battle ever in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was an agonizing ordeal for Jesus, as He fought against the very strong survival instinct built into every living creature, so He could go to Calvary for you and me. Jesus won that battle WITHOUT FIRST FASTING, strengthened by an angel (Luke 22:43). Ultimately it is God Who gives the increase (harvest) for our labors here below (I Cor.3:6-7). Fasting is not a cure-all for spiritual weakness. The key to victory is abiding in Christ and having His Word abide richly in us (John 15:7). We are to look unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith (Heb.12:2). If Jesus finished it, what can we possibly add to it to improve it?

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Is Fasting Essential for Godliness?

Fasting is not mentioned in Scripture before Moses, Giver of the Law. Religious fasting is not attributed to such righteous men as Abel, Noah, Enoch, and Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. While Moses was up on Mt. Sinai he neither ate nor drank for forty days and forty nights. When he came down with the tablets of the Law, Moses discovered sin in the camp of the Israelites. Moses broke the stone tablets. Immediately after dealing with the offenders, Moses went back up the mountain to intercede for the people of Israel for forty more days and nights, and to receive a second set of tablets inscribed with the Commandments. Both times Moses did without food or water, for a combined period of eighty days (Deut.9:9; 18)! Moses had to have been supernaturally sustained by God, because no one can live more than a few days without water. Irish hunger strikers have gone blind and suffered bodily decay after two months without food. They had begun the process of dying. Most lay in a coma at that stage. But Moses, who fasted for nearly three months, was strong enough to walk back down that rugged mountain after both sessions in God’s Presence! Obviously, Moses did not abstain from food to “mortify his flesh” as is taught today. None of Christ’s apostles command fasting or teach on its merits in their epistles to the New Testament churches. Simon Peter, one of Christ’s chief apostles, was a Jew, who would have been familiar with Judaism’s fasting tradition. Peter has much to say about patient endurance of suffering and persecution. But not once does Peter ever recommend “crucifying the flesh” through fasting. He doesn’t even mention fasting in his writings.

What were some of Peter’s teachings on growing in faith? My own comments follow.

2 Pet.1:1: Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ.* * *Many fast to “mortify the flesh” (a Catholic doctrine). They do this in hopes their “sacrifice” will generate mountain-moving faith which moves the Hand of God. But Peter does NOT say we obtain faith by fasting for it. Faith is freely given to us solely through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Verse 2: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.* * *We obtain the grace of God and peace with Him through the knowledge of our God, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ (John 20:28). Old Covenant saints were saved through the mercy of God, but they were kept in conditional salvation through righteous works (Ezek.18:15-17). They were obligated to keep the Law of Moses, which would have included keeping the fast on the Day of Atonement (Lev.23:26-32), which was the ONLY regular fast ever commanded by God in the whole of Scripture (later, other fast days were added by the legalistic Pharisees). Old Testament saints performed many righteous works to stay on good terms with God. But we live under the New Covenant. It’s not about what we do, it’s about what Christ has ALREADY done on our behalf. We aren’t saved through our own works, lest any man should boast (Eph.2:8-9). We don’t earn God’s grace and peace through fasting or any other human work.

Verse 3: According as his divine power hath given unto us ALL THINGS that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:* * * “Hath given” is PAST TENSE! God in Christ has ALREADY given us ALL THINGS pertaining to life and godliness. Why fast to try to convince God you deserve spiritual blessings you ALREADY possess in Christ Jesus?

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Verse 4: Whereby are GIVEN unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.* * *Fasting is touted as THE way to “get closer to God” and escape the corruption and lusts of this world. But Peter makes it clear that it is through the promises freely given to us by God that we are able to do this!

What is Peter’s definition of a godly life?

Continuing with verse 5: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue (Gk. arete, moral excellence); and to virtue knowledge;

Verse 6: And to knowledge temperance (self-control); and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

Verse 7: And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (Gr. agape, brotherly love).

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fasting is not listed here as being important to achieve fruitfulness in the knowledge of Jesus. Beware of fasting books which promote fasting as being the price you must pay for closeness to Jesus. The devil will use anything, even something seemingly meritorious, to distract you from what has already been done for you and given to you through the sacrifice of Christ. Far from subjugating the self nature, reliance on fasting or other religious works will surely inflate the self nature with the satisfaction of being able to move God’s heart through self-effort. Religion resents the grace of God and lampoons it as being “cost-free Christianity”. Legalists think Jesus’ easy yoke and light burden must be made more challenging. The fact that all genuine converts of Christ (not superficial believers) have already surrendered their lives to Christ at the Cross is disregarded by religious legalists. Like proud, hard-working folks who fall on hard times and refuse to take food handouts, legalists would rather die than accept charity without helping to pay for it. Not even from Jesus Who paid their spiritual bills two thousand years ago. Even as they punish their own bodies to prove how humble they are, religious ascetics want to save their own dignity by paying God their own two cents’ worth of sacrifice. So they rush up to God’s Throne to present their own offering of “crucified flesh” to the Father. Rejoicing in their own great achievement, they shove aside their own High Priest and Intermediary Christ Jesus, Whose precious Blood has already been accepted by God as being more than sufficient to purchase all the blessings of the New Covenant. Unmindful of the once-for-all offering of Christ, they beg the Father to reward them with favors in exchange for their own “sacrifice”. This is a surefire way to fall from the grace of God, and the devil is well pleased. Attempts to earn God’s blessing through fasting or other “sacrifice” is akin to the way Catholics in South America still go on pilgrimages in honor of “the Virgin”. Some will either crawl up a rocky mountainside on their knees, or tread up toward the faraway shrine on their bare feet, suffering great pain. Overzealous Catholics perform such “penances” to purge sin out of their lives and make themselves more fit for heaven. This doesn’t testify to being justified solely through faith in Christ or a believer ALREADY being seated with Him in heavenly places (Rom.5:1; Eph.2:6-9). Nor does a sad ascetic religion accept that Christ’s own Sacrifice of Himself is sufficient before God the Father, and that through the ONE offering of Christ He hath ALREADY perfected forever those who are sanctified (Heb.10:14). Jesus was actually made a sin offering on our behalf so that WE might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor.5:21)! When self-inflicted suffering is performed to sanctify the

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soul and “take it deeper”, it is a denial of the soul-sanctifying power of the precious Blood of Christ. Those who crawl out from beneath the covering of the Blood of Christ and burrow deep into their own works find it’s hard to see the light of day and dig their way out! A lying religious spirit can take you so deep you’ll drown in deception.

Is Fasting a Basic Instinct of Conscience?

Romans 2:14: For when the Gentiles (non-Jews), which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.

Verse 15:Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

Paul said that even Gentiles never taught the Law of the Lord already know instinctively what is right and wrong. Unless a person is totally demented, he knows deep down inside that it’s wrong to treat someone else in a way he wouldn’t want to be treated. Even an unconverted person can get a warm, fuzzy feeling of satisfaction by pitching in to help rebuild a neighbor’s home which was destroyed by fire. Even an unbeliever knows it’s wrong to take a new shirt from the store without paying for it, and only a real crumb would swindle the man who saved him from drowning. Most unbelievers know it’s a sin against humanity to steal food money from a poor old lady walking down the street. Instinctive awareness of The Golden Rule is what shapes the ethics of most unbelievers who have a conscience. People stopped at random on the street might say, when asked why God should let them into heaven: “I follow the Golden Rule, so I’m a pretty good person.” This shows ignorance of the real truth, but it also shows that most people have a conscience to some degree, though it’s a conscience marred by the Fall of Adam. Unless there is extreme sorrow for sin (as in the case of the Ninevites in Jonah 3:5), natural conscience doesn’t usually prompt a nonreligious person to fast, or bring conviction for failure to do so. Unconverted persons are very unlikely to forget earthly hunger long enough to engage in an intense prayer session, unless they are in serious enough trouble to plead with God to get them out of it. Aside from neglect of eating due to long intercessory prayer for others, religious fasting has nothing to do with the Golden Rule: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, which is whole Law and the Prophets (Matt.7:12). Unless I eat in front of someone who’s grieving, or my meal deprives someone else of food, or I eat to harmful excess, my conscience isn’t violated by the act of eating.

Beware of Religious Legalism

Noah is the common ancestor of all humankind, Jews and Gentiles alike. After the Flood, Noah offered up a burnt offering unto the Lord. God commanded Noah’s family to replenish the earth’s population and have dominion over the animal kingdom. God gave mankind permission to eat meat (for the first time), forbade them to eat blood, and instituted capital punishment for murder. God gave no commandment for Noah to fast. The first Scriptural mention of fasting was Moses’ miraculous abstention from both food and water. Moses’ fast totaled eighty consecutive days, or two back-to-back periods of forty days each, up on Mt. Sinai (Deut.9:9,18). Under normal conditions, it is scientifically impossible for any human to live more than a few days without water. God gave Israel, not Gentile Christians, the ONLY regular fast day in Scripture: the Day of Atonement, when the children of Israel were to “afflict their souls” in repentance (Lev.23:26-31). Jewish “doctors of the Law” doctored up God’s Law by

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adding several other yearly fast days, without God’s authorization. The Pharisees started fasting twice a week, and required it of their disciples for holiness. Jesus said our righteousness had to exceed that of the Pharisees (Matt.5:20). Did He mean we had to fast three days a week instead of two? That can’t be the right interpretation, because Jesus Himself “came eating and drinking” (Luke 7:34). Religious Jews criticized Jesus’ disciples for failure to fast, but Jesus defended them (Matt.9:14-17).

Christians are forever asking each other: “How many days a week must I fast to be better than the Pharisees? Can I have juice?” etc. But the real question should be: Were the Jewish Pharisees REALLY divinely appointed to set the minimum standard of righteousness for 21st-century Gentile Christians? The Pharisees “helped God out” by “improving on” His clearly stated requirements, not only in fasting, but countless other areas: washing hands like a pre-op surgeon before eating, counting your paces as you walked on the Sabbath Day, avoiding mirrors on the Sabbath, etc. Far from being more righteous than anybody else, the Pharisees SINNED by adding extra requirements to God’s Holy Word (Deut.4:2)! The Pharisees play foul ball by moving God’s goalposts! God asked the Jews for just ONE regular fast day per year, not dozens of them. God’s Law is perfect (Psalms 19:7). If it ain’t broke, for Pete’s sake, don’t fix it!

Jesus had a bone to pick with those fasting scribes (doctorers-up-of the Law) and Pharisees, who “sat in Moses’ seat”. But Christ defended their earthly seat of authority in the Jewish community by saying in Matt.23:3: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works (their hypocrisy): for they say, and do not.

This is one saying of Christ which doesn’t directly apply to us. While we can INDIRECTLY apply that by being law-abiding citizens, we are not under the authority of those ancient doctors of Jewish Law who commanded regular fasting.

The self-righteous, fasting Pharisees were the only sinners Jesus ever “chewed out”. I suspect Jesus got mighty irked at them for tampering with the Law of God and turning it a miserable mess of petty rules and regulations, and a heavy yoke on the necks of God-fearing people (Matt.23:4; Acts 15:10)

My conclusion: If you want to be better than the Pharisees, piece of cake. Don’t add anything to the written Word of God! Really, though, none of us can meet God’s standards of righteousness on our own merits. As one old hymn goes: our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ love and righteousness. Our hope rests in Christ alone, and in His own spotless record of righteousness, which bestows upon us God’s free gift of eternal life (Rom.5:17-21) New converts to Christ are so radiant with the thrill of what Jesus has done to save them that “going on a fast” is the furthest thing from their mind. Many new converts had never heard of fasting until someone more “spiritual” warns them that fasting is required by God to stay on good terms with Him. Only when a religious legalist insists that fasting is binding on Christians today does fasting become entrenched in a new believer’s conscience as a requirement of righteousness, in contradiction of Acts 15:28-29. At the very first church council, the apostles decided not to lay the burdens of Judaism on non-Jewish converts. That includes fasting. One of the four restrictions placed on the liberty of Gentile believers was to refrain from eating blood, which was also prohibited to descendants of Noah. The glow of a new convert’s precious relationship with Jesus might last for several weeks, bright and shiny as a brand new penny. But someone “deeper in the Lord” has just informed the new convert that in order to “go deeper with Jesus” God expects you to fast regularly (regular fasting originated with the proud Pharisees). If you don’t “live a fasted life” to honor the One Who “came eating and drinking” (Matt.11:19; Luke 7:34) you’re no real Christian at all, and might as well go back to the hog pen of the world. It doesn’t take long for the new believer’s joy of salvation to tarnish as he allows himself to be “discipled” by some modern Pharisee who’s been “in the way” (in God’s way) for a long, long time.

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Many point out that in Matt.6:16 Jesus said WHEN, not if ye fast. But Jesus also said in verse 2: WHEN thou doest thine alms. Jesus was addressing Jews living under the Old Covenant, who habitually fasted because the Pharisees taught them to. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving were three major pillars of the Judaism of Jesus’ day. Interestingly, prayer and giving alms (charity) to poor people continued to be widely taught to the early Church. But early apostolic instruction on fasting is conspicuous by its absence. Much of today’s “deeper” teaching on fasting comes from Catholic mysticism or New Age philosophy, not from the Bible. Rightly dividing the Word of God is important. MOTIVATION is just as important as the act performed. Jesus said in Matt.6:1: Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. A note in the center of my Bible translates that usage of “alms” as “righteousness”. Since salvation by grace through faith was not taught in the period before Christ’s crucifixion, many Old Covenant Jews might have given alms to help them keep their righteous standing with God (for the sake of doing it, or out of necessity, as in 2 Cor.9:7). Giving was taught to the church as a loving RESPONSE to obvious needs in the community, but not as a means of keeping salvation secure. Under the Old Covenant, a Jew’s righteousness was composed of his record of righteous acts (Ezek.18:5-9). In the future Tribulation Period, the Church Age, when salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone, will be over. At that time, an individual’s good WORKS, or lack of them, will once again play a big part in determining final salvation (Matt.25:31-46; Rev.14;13). Jesus was teaching Jews still under the Law how to “do their righteousness” with a humble attitude so they wouldn’t lose their reward from the Father. Christ was correcting the hypocritical example set by the Pharisees, not ordering the Church to fast. If Matt.6:16 is to be taken as a commandment for all Christians to fast, then an even-handed application demands that verse 2 also be taken as a commandment for all Christians to give alms, even the poorest of Christians. My own belief is that Jesus was simply correcting the leaven (false teaching) of the Pharisees, who would give alms, pray and fast in such a public manner that others would admire and praise them for their big “sacrifice”. Besides a few examples of fasting in the Book of Acts, and a couple of places where Paul mentions his “fasting oft” in the context of suffering lack due to persecution, there is only ONE teaching verse in the epistles which touches on fasting:

I Cor.7:5: Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that satan tempt ye not for your incontinency (lack of self-control).

Biblical scholars disagree as to whether the earliest Greek manuscripts contain the word “fasting”. But if during a season of prolonged prayer, husbands and wives agreed to stay separate, other earthly concerns would certainly be set aside as well. However, Paul makes it clear in verse 6 that he is speaking “by permission” not by commandment. Even here, there is no apostolic command to fast.

My Personal Recollections

When I was first filled with the Spirit in 1970, my joy was brand new, totally untarnished by deception of any kind. At first I enjoyed most everything about church, the singing, the rejoicing, the teaching of the Word, the operation of the Spiritual Gifts, the testimonies. Then I learned about fasting, and how fasting could touch the heart of God on your behalf. Yet I had the most gnawing suspicion: One of the things in this scenario of heavenly church joy just doesn’t fit in with all other elements of this atmosphere. Even if we felt great exuberant joy in the Holy Ghost and there was no “sin in the camp”, we were encouraged to fast, privately and at

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least a few times a year and before every church conference. I thought, That’s not asking too much, church fasts aren’t called very often, and it’s the least I can do. I devoured religious magazines which extolled the fasts of great saints of the past, like Esther and Daniel, and how spiritual fasting made them. No mention of the fact that the salvation of Old Testament saints was maintained through faithfulness to Mosaic Law. They were not joined to Christ as His Bride as we are, they were not sealed unto salvation with the Spirit of promise, or seated in heavenly places like the Church. I now realize it is error to put Old Testament burdens on people made free by the Spirit of Liberty in Christ Jesus, or to forget the vast difference between how people approached God under the Law and during the Church Age. Without realizing it I began to veer into dangerous waters. I got the notion that God couldn’t bless our church conference unless the yearly fast took place. It now occurs to me that at least in a small way, we were caught up in a RITUAL of “observing days and times” (see Gal.4:11), just like the yearly fast on the Jews’ Day of Atonement. It was with great hesitation that I shared this, because God has been so very good to all of us, and I have nothing but good things to say about Him. If there’s ever any deficiency, it lies with imperfect humans, not with God. Much was made of the power of fasting to empower prayer. But looking back, I recall only ONE miraculous healing taking place at that church in the several years we spent there. This particular miracle didn’t even happen during or after any fasting period: A certain lady decided to confess to God that she preferred to stay on disability rather than go back to work, so she hadn’t really persevered in prayer to receive divine healing for her lame leg. Well, she repented, and guess what? She decided to remove her brace in the lounge behind the sanctuary. She made a grand entrance into church, running like a teenager and praising God! I do give God the glory for what I call the “quiet miracles” He gave us everyday. He protected all of us from danger and provided for us in time of need. But the question remains: Would God have blessed us just as much (or maybe even more) at the church conferences if we hadn’t fasted to try to bring more of the supernatural element into them? This lady who did get healed didn’t labor in fasting and prayer to receive it. She didn’t even agonize in prayer over her lame leg. If anything, she held the attitude that it wouldn’t be all that disastrous if God DIDN’T heal her! The disability checks would have been her consolation prize. I began to think that if I had a REALLY big request to make of God, I’d better sacrifice my morning Pop Tart and storm the gates of heaven. Up in the church prayer room, I’d pace back and forth and whip myself up into a state of spiritual euphoria (the “get high on Jesus deception”). I thought fasting would get me higher than praying with a burger under my belt. I began to associate that giddy, light-headed feeling with God’s love and Presence. I’d get depressed when I didn’t feel so ecstatic. I now believe those “downers” I experienced happened because I lost sight of God’s FREE grace, and the fact I couldn’t purchase favors from God. As for fasting to show how sorry I was for sin, I lost sight of the compassionate God who didn’t want me to beat myself up for my personal imperfections. When Christ answered a question about fasting in Matt.9:15, He immediately linked this practice with mourning, not with any occasion of joy. Not one fast in Scripture is ever performed to celebrate the joy and blessings of the Lord. Jesus Himself says fasting is inappropriate when the “children of the Bridechamber” (wedding guests) are rejoicing. And if that’s true, then how much more is fasting inappropriate when His own beloved Bride, the Church, is filled with the Joy of Jesus! The Bible commands us to “rejoice evermore” (I Thes.5:16). I Thes.5:14-28 contains a long list of ways the Christian is to live out His love for Jesus. Fasting is missing from this list. That alone should tell you something.

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FAST WITH YOUR MOUTH SHUT!

Two ladies knelt at the altar to prayOthers were coming in

It was a special prayer meeting dayTo help them more souls to win

Sister Bea, as smug as can beFeasted her eyes on Sister Lenore

Lenore wore a size fourteen at leastWhile Bea wore a petite size four.

Hello again, it's Bea, dear LordI came my petitions to bring

I pray certain saints will sacrifice moreAnd brave a bit more pain.

I came to pray in a fasted stateSo You could Your blessing outpourCertain others are feasting today

Her hungry eyes bored through Sister Lenore.

I thank You, dear Lord, that I've grown so wiseHere are just a few of my gems

I've got a large heart but kept a small sizeChrist's Bride must stay slim for Him!

How can we move massive mountainsIf we can't control our own flesh?

Discipline calls for calories countin'And learnin' to eat less and less.

Bea's "prayers" grew louder and louderLenore heard the worst of her words

When Lenore left she looked much sadderAll that altar ammunition sure hurt.

Sister Mary appeared mighty peevedWhen she learned how Lenore had been scorned

I hope you're proud as punch, Sister BeaYou made a real meal of your fast for the Lord!

You never took time to know LenoreI've known her for twenty-odd years

She stays up real late to pray to the LordHer prayers are well-seasoned with tears.

Lenore lost her sister six years agoAnorexia drove her to her grave

Lenore's dad died of a sudden strokeLenore doesn't know if he was saved.

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SINKING FASTDAY TWO OF THE CHURCH FAST…

Lenore's blood sugar is all shotIt makes her feel faint to fast any meals

Her car almost crashed before she could stopWhen she blacked out at the wheel.

Lenore must not let much time go byWithout a snack to keep her levels up

I know she seems to be a big sizeBut giving up driving was even more tough.

Bea's comments could not have been colderLenore could ask the Lord to heal her

I'm sorry Lenore lost her sisterBut fasting's a burden we all must shoulder!

This week we're doing our special fastTo make us meek and the devil weak

Not many saints through the battle lastWe fast as we fight, others feast and retreat.

I still feel fine, let's discuss the deaconI'll share a request with you

Pray for the deacon, his faith has weakenedHis wife's acting worldly too.

Her jewelry's too bright, she got high on wineOld Joe smokes stogies again

So many sick saints with a reprobate mindBen's livin' in unspoken sin.

I phoned Lenore her soul to exhortShe's making too many excusesRegretfully to the Lord I'll report

That to fast she steadfastly refuses!

Something's the matter with that fat pastorHe's big as a whale and this fast won't help

He'd sell his soul for a seafood platterHis lard will fuel the fires of hell.

I caught him with a bucket of chickenHe swore he'd picked it up for his kids

He always hangs around the church kitchenThroughout this fast he's sneaked tidbits.

That Twinkie junkie is worse than LenoreHe pops diet pills and vacuums food inThat pastor's not fit to serve the Lord

That man is a walking mountain of sin!

Fasting has made me sharp as a tackI see sin more clearly and know what to pray

Pastor is under satan's attackPray that he'll turn from his wicked way!

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Praise the Lord for this fruitful fastMy food I didn't miss at all

It brought satisfaction and that's a factAs bountiful as any banqueting hall!

Three weeks went by and no LenoreWhy wasn't she sitting in her usual place?

Had Lenore really turned her back on the LordAnd left Bea's church to search for God's grace?

Mary called up Lenore one dayOnly to hear she was going away

Toxic fumes of hypocrisyDrove Lenore out permanently.

When Mary saw Bea she shook her headYour fast sure was fun, but look what you've done

Praying to God from a heart long deadAs you feasted on others and not on the Son.

Daily you dined on pastor pieYou skipped your meals and licked at Lenore

Because you're blind you think you're just fineI doubt we'll see Lenore any more.

She's gone now, Bea, thanks to your workWe're finally rid of Sister Lenore

She's taken her full figure out of churchShe won't be coming back anymore.

One distant day Bea came to receiveRewards for works done in her life

Surely my fasting, my tithes and good deedsWill testify I fought a good fight.

Barely saved through the trial of fireThe smell of smoke to her garments clung

Bea watched a sister whose weight had been higherReceive God's praise for a job well done.

Humble at last Bea thought of her fastsHer thoughts weighed upon her mindIf only I'd valued the things that last

If only I'd been more kind!

I should have kept my big mouth shutBut I fed on the flesh of my sisterAll my fasting feasts got burnt up

And her weight of glory got bigger.

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Spiritual Dangers of the Bridegroom Fast

The Bridegroom Fast has infiltrated the church. Some think you aren’t very spiritual unless you torment your body…and enjoy it! Our awareness of Christ, the Bridegroom, Who is physically absent from us, should allegedly make us want to shut ourselves up in a tiny “prayer closet” and starve ourselves so we’re one step closer to death and His sweet embrace. We should feel only contempt for food and earthly comforts so we can concentrate ONLY on Jesus, Who by the way, was called a winebibber and a glutton (Luke 7:34). Jesus never committed sin of any kind, but this charge would have been ridiculous if Christ had habitually starved Himself to become more spiritual. What if Bridegroom Fasters treated earthly marriage the same way?

* * * * * * Celeste, a dreamy, misty-eyed woman, has just married Travis, the man she adores. As they set off on their honeymoon her bridegroom takes her out to a fine restaurant. As she looks longingly in Travis’ eyes, he asks what she’d like to eat. “Nothing, darling,” she sighs. “You’re all I need. I don’t need food. Just take me to the motel room.” “Have it your way, but I gotta eat first,” Travis shrugs. He orders a big bucket of chicken with free soda refills. He longs to share this fine dining experience with his bride, but she won’t have anything, not so much as a Diet Coke. “This is such a solemn occasion,” Celeste chokes. “My heart sings with sweet exultation. My soul is being lifted up on eagles’ wings as I consider all you gave me, my beloved.” Travis looks up from his voracious munching and mumbles, “What’s that about wings and gravy? Here, have some chicken wings and gravy.” It’s one weird honeymoon. Day after day the bridegroom tries to have a good time, but he’s worried about his poor anorectic wife. All she does is nibble a few crackers in the motel while concentrating only on him. “Just being with you is enough,” Celeste insists. “Nothing’s important to me but your sweet caresses. How can I eat at a time like this?” Instead of going out with Travis to the Nascar Races, Celeste hides herself away in their motel room, wringing her hands and crying about her faults and failings and how she doesn’t even deserve him. Travis wants to go walking with Celeste to go see the the pretty beach, but all Celeste wants to do is kneel by the bed, beating her breast and wailing, “Oh, how glorious to discover how ugly I am on the inside, and to bask in the heavenly splendor of this bed with you, humbled by the revelation of my disgusting imperfections. No, I will not leave this sacred place. Nor will I eat tonight. How can I eat when you’re with me? Food distracts me from our sweet kisses. Shall I pollute the temple of my body with food when I’ve devoted it to you? Oh, how blissful to wallow in the shame of the revelation of my own worthlessness! How sublime, to attain to this level of self-abasement! O my beloved, I’m so ugly, and your love moves me to tears.” Travis shakes his head. What on earth is she driving at? “Huh?” he finally says. “What kinda fruitcake notions are goin’ through your head anyway? Who said you were too ugly for me to marry? Ain’t I the best judge of who’s fit to marry me? As for me, am I so ugly it makes you sick to look at me? Is that why my love makes you cry. Woman, don’t I do enough to keep you satisfied?” “But I want more of you! I don’t need any food, honest!”“If ya don’t wanna eat, suit yourself,” Travis shrugs. “There’ll just be more for me. Women, can’t never figger ‘em out!”

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The bride decides to continue to “live the fasted life” after the honeymoon to show her love for the confused fellow. Travis thinks she’s flipped. Before they got married and he became “her beloved bridegroom”, she was okay. Maybe Celeste had been in some sort of cult and never told him about it, and now she’s suffering flashbacks. Something’s eating at Celeste, but whenever she tries to explain, Travis can’t make heads nor tails of it. So he decides to give her a week to pull herself together while he does all the farm chores. The poor gal, she’s so love-starved she’s too weak to get off the couch and take care of the house. Finally he comes in from a day of harvesting corn. He’s pooped and decides he can’t carry the load all alone anymore. He takes one look at her and says, “You still layin’ on that couch?” “Yes, Travis! I’m sick, sick from the love deep in my heart!” He lays his hand on her forehead. “You’re cold as ice, no fever. Maybe we oughta call the doctor.” “No doctor can cure me of the love I have for you, Travis. I’m sick with a love that’s deeper than the deepest ocean and higher than the highest mountain. You don’t know how it makes me ache with longing for you while you’re out in that barn feeding the chickens. Kiss me, my beloved. I want more and more of you!” She reaches out to pull him closer. He steps back and says, “We done enough huggin’ and kissin’. Now git up, Celeste. It’s time to come down to earth and pull your weight around here. Git in that kitchen right now and fix me some supper.” “But I can’t! When I try to stand up my head starts spinning. See how love for you affects me? Why, things on earth don’t matter anymore. I’m starting to see the glories of the world beyond, and your face is growing brighter and brighter.” “That’s just the western sun shinin’ through them curtains.” Her eyes glisten with worshipful tears. “Oh, honey, it’s sheer bliss just lying here and beholding your lovely face.” The man knows she’s not all there. “What’s up with you anyhow? You act like it’s a sin to eat. You barely nibble enough to hold body and soul together. Let’s go rustle up some grub so you can git strong enough to git up off that couch and do something useful around here. I’ll do the cookin’ tonight. I’ll fix us a nice big steak.” “No, really, my love, I don’t need food. All I need is you. I’m afraid if I eat a good meal, you’ll think I don’t love you enough and I won’t feel you here with me anymore.” He looks at her real funny. “What are you on, anyway? That’s crazy! Hey, I know why you’re actin’ this way. You’re on some crazy diet to stay skinny for me, ‘cause you worry I’ll run off with a skinnier gal if you eat. Why do you feel so insecure in my love? I hate seein’ you like this. You look like you’re half dead.” “But that makes no difference to our love.” “Well, it does make a difference to me! You’re so moonstruck you’re useless! Nothin’s gettin’ done around here. I’ve been eatin’ my own lousy cookin’ every single day and you ain’t had the strength to get up off of that couch and wash them dirty dishes pilin’ up in the sink. There’s too much work around here for one man. There’s clothes to wash, butter to churn, bread to bake, hogs to slop. Now go in that kitchen right now and put some of that lovin’ in your cookin’ or I’ll bed down in the barn tonight.”

* * * * * *That brings the lovestruck Celeste back down to earth. Some well-meaning “marriage expert” had told this woman that eating is an act of guilt and shame, and to keep her husband’s love she has to act as if all she needs is the air that she breathes and his sweet love. But her spiritualized, romanticized eating disorder didn’t sweeten her romance with her bridegroom. He never demanded that she torture herself to keep his love. He was there to nourish and cherish her, not to starve her. His love is a

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practical love, played out in real life, not in Cloud Koo koo Land. The bridegroom wants to fellowship with his bride at the kitchen table, not just in the bedroom (prayer room for the Christian seeking closeness with Christ). Many deluded dabblers in Christian mysticism are like misguided marriage counselers. Even if there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the relationship the Christian already enjoys with his/her Heavenly Bridegroom, Christians will try to convince them that they need to fast to improve it. Imagine a sinner gets saved when the Gospel is preached at some church. He’s the only one in the building who lets himself feel happy. Everyone else is sour-faced. Even those who have been born again are beating their breasts with shame and sin-consciousness. The baby believer might feel like going out with his new Christian friends after the service for a meal to celebrate the joy of his salvation. But they’ll glumly tell him the REAL way to celebrate his joy in the Lord is to fast, and fast often. Otherwise Jesus might be scared away by the presence of food in his stomach. Jesus was the same guy religious authorities accused of being a winebibber and a glutton, the one Who came eating and drinking (Matt.11:17-19). The same Guest Who turned water into wine at a wedding (John 2:7-11). Jesus taught His disciples to pray for their DAILY bread, not their occasional bread (Matt.6:11; Luke 11:3). How can food drive His sweet Presence away! Song of Solomon, penned by a rich king with lots of leisure time to spend in his garden of love, is considered by many to be a picture of how Christians should relate to a practical Savior, Who provided real wine for a wedding feast instead of ordering the guests to fast when the refreshments ran out. Song of Solomon, objectively read, is a spicy romance. But the lover in the Song of Solomon told the bride they must go and check on how the crops were coming along. They could find love even in the business of daily living (Song 7:12). Instead, adherents of Christian mysticism fixate on those verses which depict the girl’s lover as a flighty, here today, gone tomorrow character (Song 3:1-3). And why did the lovesick Song of Solomon girl lose her lover and have to hunt for him? Because she broke her fast with a Mars Bar! Is Almighty God, Creator of the universe, so frightened of food that he heads for the hills when he smells supper cookin’? My Bible says that God will never leave or forsake us (Heb.13:5). ALL scripture is divinely inspired and good can be derived out of reading it (I Tim.2: Christ didn’t just feed the five thousand a bunch of uplifting words. He fed them real bread and fish. Even after He rose from the dead He provided literal fish for His disciples. He even cooked their breakfast (John 21:1-13). Viewing food and the act of eating as sinful, or a necessary evil, springs from Gnosticism, a pagan philosophy which declares all matter to be evil and only spiritual things to be good. Anything can be abused through excess, but throughout the Bible food is repeatedly declared to be God’s blessing. A year or so after I got filled with the Spirit some family started going to our church. This couple was deep into spiritual mysticism. The woman would screw up her face as she knelt at the altar and make soft wailing noises. She never prayed any other way. The man would choke up and cry and lament his sinfulness. They took pride in getting up at five every morning to do their sad prayer ritual, thinking they were expressing joy in the Lord and “going deeper” (off the deep end?) into Jesus. When their weepy, sad prayer mannerisms started spreading in the church, the pastor stepped in to stop it. This couple was trying to change the atmosphere in our church. Satan was using religion to sneak in some legalism and religious bondage. The man didn’t take kindly to constructive criticism and the family left. Failure to rightly divide the Word of Truth brings Christians under unnecessary religious bondages. For example, when Jesus commented on the Pharisees’ tithing practices in Matt.23:23 , He was addressing JEWS UNDER THE LAW, not Gentiles. And when He preached on fasting in Matt.6:16-18, likewise He was addressing JEWS

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UNDER THE LAW. Christ did not come to teach the Gentiles how to keep Jewish traditions correctly (including fasting). In fact, Christ rebuffed one desperate Gentile woman who pleaded for Him to heal her daughter. Jesus did heal the child because of the woman’s faith. But He said that He hadn’t even been sent to anybody but the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Matt.15:24). If Jesus’ teaching on fasting binds fasting on non-Jewish believers under the post-cross New Covenant, then we must also literally obey His instructions on keeping other Jewish customs.

Matt.8:4: And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Jesus commanded the healed leper to go to the priest for ceremonial cleansing. This wasn’t a quickie procedure. The complicated, drawn-out ritual involved several days of washings, shavings, pigeon offerings, etc. If we must follow examples like this whenever we’re healed, there’s a problem. There’s no Levitical priesthood around, and Christians aren’t supposed to offer animal sacrifices. In Paul’s day, the infrastructure for keeping that particular command of Christ was still in place, even though the New Covenant had just come into effect. The Temple was still standing, and the Levitical priesthood was still functioning in Jerusalem. Apparently it took Paul awhile to realize that Christ no longer expected His people to follow Mosaic rituals He had fulfilled in Himself. Paul told Christians to follow his own example (I Cor.4:16; 11:1). In Acts chapter 21 Paul got a visit from some legalistic Jewish Christians who were still hanging onto the Old Law. They insisted that Paul join them in making an Old Testament-style vow. These Judaizers were real kill-joys who went around making sure nobody stayed free in Christ for very long if they ever did get free. They wanted reassurance that Paul still kept the Law of Moses and all its rituals. To keep the peace, Paul shaved his head and offered an animal sacrifice in the Temple, even after his own conversion. Is that an example we Gentiles should follow today?

Acts 21:23: Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; 24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. . . . Verse 26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Peace gained by compromising God’s truth isn’t worth the price. Not long after that, Paul was captured and spent years in prison. Legalism always brings bondage. Interestingly, verse 25 of that same chapter reads: AS TOUCHING THE GENTILES WHICH BELIEVE, WE HAVE WRITTEN AND CONCLUDED THAT THEY OBSERVE NO SUCH THING, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.* * * *Paul, who offered up an animal sacrifice in the Temple, exempted Gentile believers from Jewish customs. That would include religious fasting. Some say since Daniel fasted we have to fast too. But Daniel also kept kosher food laws and prayed three times a day facing Jerusalem. What Christian does these things today? What about two fasts the apostles held? They are found in Acts 13:2-3 and Acts 14:23. These JEWISH disciples, who had always fasted as part of their religion, were

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transitioning from the Old Covenant to the New. Paul’s freedom manifesto, the book of Galatians, hadn’t even been written yet. No mention of religious fasting after Acts, only periods of hunger Paul suffered due to poverty. The most reliable Greek manuscripts do not even contain the word “fasting” in I Cor.7:5, where husbands and wives are not to withhold sex from each other unless they agree to do so during fasting and prayer. Even if “fasting” is in the original Greek. It can’t be construed as a command to fast, unless you also maintain that Paul was commanding the couple to abstain from sex, which he definitely wasn’t doing.

Acts 15:7: And when there had been much disputing (argument), Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no difference between us and them, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH* * * * * (not fasting). 10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 BUT WE BELIEVE THAT THROUGH THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WE SHALL BE SAVED, EVEN AS THEY. Verse 19 Wherefore my sentence is, that WE TROUBLE NOT THEM, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: 20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. Verse 28 FOR IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST, AND TO US, TO LAY UPON YOU NO GREATER BURDEN THAN THESE NECESSARY THINGS; 29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

I find it significant that the Holy Spirit REPEATS this information at least three times, to emphasize that Gentile believers are NOT under Jewish Laws and customs. So why do Christian leaders contradict the Holy Ghost Who said NO SUCH THING (Jewish religious traditions) should be practiced by Gentile converts, and NO GREATER BURDEN than those four necessary things is to be laid upon them? Being expected to torment your own body (or tithe) IS a greater burden than those four necessary things. Because fasting didn’t make the Holy Spirit’s short list of NECESSARY things, fasting must be UN-necessary. Otherwise, He would have had the apostles teach converted Gentiles about it, who may never have practiced it before coming to Christ. This apostolic conference would have been the perfect time and place to bind fasting on Gentile believers. Throughout Paul’s ministry the Judaizers (“Christian” enforcers of Jewish laws and traditions) were a thorn in his side. Paul circumcised Timothy to keep them happy. But he later stood his ground and refused to also circumcise Titus.

Galatians 2:3: But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: 4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily (in a sneaky way) to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: 5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

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Galatians 6:12: As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13 For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.* * * *There’s fleshly satisfaction in keeping religious rituals. 14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.* * * *Your spiritual life becomes a tangled mess when you dilute the grace of God with works. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.* * * *Religious works can cause a believer to stop relying on Christ alone for justification before a Holy God.3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.* * * *Observe one Jewish law or ritual, you’re obligated to keep them ALL!4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.* * * *Reliance upon religious works of any kind to keep God happy can make you fall out of the grace of God and imperil salvation.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.* * * *Nowhere does Paul ever recommend fasting as a way to melt the heart of God. NOWHERE!

If fasting’s so vital, why didn’t the apostles warn believers not to neglect a practice which prioritizes your prayers on God’s “to do” list? Where in scripture does Paul teach on fasting and its merits? Did Paul ever say that you have to starve your body to prove how hungry you are for Jesus? How many miracles does this apostle attribute to fasting? Not one! And that goes for all the writings of Peter, John, James, and Jude. Never do they prescribe fasting as a way to recharge your prayer batteries or zap demons. Satan is more frightened of a heart full of faith than an empty stomach. One preacher racked up 100 fasting days in one particular year, but he didn’t see satan tuck tail and run. No apostle ever tells you to fast to spank yourself for sin. If fasting’s so all-fired important, why are the epistles so silent on it? Fasting, like tithing, has been imposed on God’s people without authorization from the apostles, builders of Christ’s church. How can fasting bring you closer to any Jesus, if He already dwells in your heart by faith, and you are actually one spirit with Him (Eph.3:17; I Cor.6:17)? Even pagans starve their bodies in order to detach themselves from the things of this world and contact the spirit realm. Fasting to weaken the body’s grip on the soul so you can soar up into the heavenlies is a pagan doctrine of devils. The apostles NEVER taught this!

Col.2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 Which all are to perish with the using;) AFTER THE COMMANDMENTS AND DOCTRINES OF MEN? 23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Only the Word of God, RIGHTLY DIVIDED and applicable to New Covenant believers, is binding on us today. Religious fasting to rack up Brownie points with God is a deception of satan, although it may sometimes be necessary to postpone a meal to get urgent praying done.

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Immediately after asking the confused Colossians why they’re still observing carnal ordinances (touch not, TASTE NOT, handle not) Paul asks them why they are conforming to the commandments and doctrines of men. Commandments not to touch or taste food came not from God, but men, the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Some say since many early Christians fasted, we have to fast too. But many early believers came from Jewish homes and had always fasted. Anyway, an example is not a command. Jesus makes it clear the Book of Revelation is written only TO THE CHURCHES. In fact, He repeats “TO THE CHURCHES” seven times so they’ll get the point (Rev.2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). During His earthly ministry Jesus ministered to Jews who still did religious things like tithing, fasting and animal sacrifice. He wasn’t binding these practices on the church, which didn’t even exist yet. But the Holy Spirit addresses Revelation to the church and no other group. Jesus sternly rebukes several churches in Revelation chapters 1-3. For laziness, fornication, adultery, idolatry, lukewarmness, you name it, they’ve done it. But NOT ONE REBUKE FOR FAILURE TO FAST! Jesus commands backsliders to “be zealous and repent”. In the Old Testament, God sometimes commands backsliders to rend their hearts with sorrow and fast. But Jesus does not command these believers to go without food, just repent. Some maintain that because our Heavenly Bridegroom is not visibly with us, we must fast, based on Christ’s own words.

Matt.9:14: Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? 15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

Jesus immediately links fasting with mourning. He never associates it with rejoicing. Drummed-up depression is out of sync with the joy of the Holy Spirit. The disciples mourned after Jesus was killed. The Tribulation saints will, most likely, mourn because of constant distress and danger. But after Jesus’ Resurrection His disciples REJOICED, even after He ascended back to the Father (Luke 24:52). They didn’t fast and cry when He went home. At Pentecost, Christ came in His fullness of His Spirit to dwell in the hearts of His people. He is with us always (Matt.28:20). Fasting “because the Bridegroom is not with us” is denying what Jesus said about ALWAYS being with us. When Jesus returns to rule Planet Earth, He will have many glorified saints stationed on the other side of the globe carrying out various assignments for Him. Then, as now, Christ will be constantly with them in Spirit. But it will be impossible for Jesus to physically be everywhere at once with everybody at the same time. So the argument that we must fast because the Bridegroom isn’t physically with us doesn’t hold water. If we have to fast just because Christ isn’t physically by our side, that would also apply to this Millennial scenario: If Simon Peter were ministering in San Francisco while Jesus was in Jerusalem, he would have to fast because at that moment in time his Heavenly Bridegroom wasn’t physically in California! Paul said it was possible to be present somewhere in spirit while being physically absent.

Col.2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. 5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I WITH YOU IN THE SPIRIT, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

Paul even tried, convicted, and sentenced one Christian criminal when He was physically absent from the “courtroom”:

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I Cor.5:3:For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Paul didn’t say he wasn’t with them, just because his body was far away. His spirit was there. How can this be so? The Spirit of God within us is not limited to time and space, as our bodies are. At conversion, we dwell in Christ and He dwells in us (John 14:20; 2 Cor.5:17). That Mind of Christ within us knows all things, even if our natural intellect falls short (I John 2:20). Sometimes Spirit-filled believers pray in the Spirit for unknown people and situations in far-off lands, as the omnipresent Holy Spirit detects their needs. If we are actually spiritually united with Christ the Lord, how then can we say Jesus (the Bridegroom) is not with us? If you confess that Christ is the Son of God, God dwells in you and you in Him, and in Christ is the FULNESS OF GOD (I John 4:15; Col.1:19; 2:9). To take the point to its logical conclusion: If we are filled with ALL the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19) and ALL the Spirit of Christ dwells within us, then so does His nature as Bridegroom of the Church! Obviously if the Bridegroom aspect of Christ is missing from us, then He does NOT dwell in us in all His fullness. Old Testament saints were not spiritually united with Christ during their mortal lifetimes. They could easily lose their salvation (Psalms 51: 11-12). In fear and desperation they fasted to reach out to a God far away in heaven, although they were aware that He made Himself known in the earth (Psalms 73:25). Our experience of God is different from theirs. Why is it that legalists give lip service to founding all church doctrine on “grace through faith alone”, but then they burden the people of God with “spiritual disciplines” never taught in any New Testament epistle? To bind fasting on New Covenant Christians, you must do the same as you do with tithing: Import it from the Old Testament or the Gospels. Technically speaking, the Gospels (the earthly ministry of Jesus) transpired during the closing days of the Old Covenant, when Jews lived under the Law and non-Jews were the odd men out. Why do I believe Jesus lived during the Old Testament? Because the New Covenant didn’t take effect until after Jesus died on the Cross and rose again. Because animal sacrifices were still required of believers and Jesus Himself told a healed leper to offer the sacrifice for healing required by Moses (Matt.8:4). Jesus never commands believers to offer animal sacrifices today. So why would He order Christians to fast, when He didn’t even make His own disciples fast during the closing days of the Old Testament (Matt.9:14; Mark 2:18)?

Scripture places Jesus’ earthly ministry firmly under the Dispensation of Law, the Old Testament.

Galatians 4:4:  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, MADE UNDER THE LAW, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Mark 2:20 and Luke 5:35 are often used to prove that Church Age believers, who comprise the Bride of Christ, are required by Christ to fast. Again, a right division of Scripture is called for here. For centuries Jews awaited a Messiah. a mighty Deliverer, who not only would save them from foreign occupiers but Who would be the Bridegroom of the Nation of Israel. When John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of the Bridegroom to the people (Jews) they knew what he was talking about because

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they’d been taught to pray for such a Deliverer. Those Jews weren’t hoping for the coming of a Bridegroom of the largely Gentile Church we have today. They didn’t even know there was going to be a Church Age standing between them and the Kingdom Age, where the Jewish Messiah would rule over all the earth. The people understood John to be talking about be the Bridegroom of Israel in the person of their long-awaited Messiah. Even during Christ’s earthly ministry He said He was sent only to Israel (Matt.15:24). The Church, the Bride of Christ, was a Hidden Mystery which did not come into being until after His death (Col.1:27). Christ was not ordering His Bride the Church to go on a fast to show her joy in being spiritually with her Bridegroom (the Bridegroom Fast heresy). That’s nothing but New Age religion sneaking into the church. Even pagan religions believe in the Bridegroom Fast, though they call it something else. It’s weird and unnatural to fast out of a joyful heart, and there is no precedent for this type of “joyful” fast in scripture. Jesus Himself said it was unfitting to fast at a wedding celebration (Matt.9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34). This pretty much contradicts the Bridegroom Fast heresy which teaches believers to fast to celebrate intimacy with the Lord. One fasting proponent wrote a blog where he pointed out that it was part of Jewish tradition for both bride and bridegroom to fast in the days leading up to the wedding ceremony. So it follows we have to fast while we wait for Jesus to get us. Now to shoot some holes in that theory. To begin with, the apostles made it very clear in Acts 15 that we Gentiles are NOT to observe Jewish laws as part of our faith. And even if we did have to keep the Old Law, Scripture NOWHERE commands brides-to-be to fast before their wedding ceremony. That’s a manmade cultural TRADITION of the Jews, not a Biblical law! Only “it is written” is binding on us, and only those things applicable to believers of this Church Age. Since when do Gentile believers in Christ have to act like Jews? Why do so many “charismatic” churches think they must import elements of Judaism into Christianity to “enrich” and “deepen” their Christian experience? I used to think it made my faith come alive when the preacher spiced up his sermons with references to Jewish customs and gave them a spiritual interpretation for the church. Oh, how deadly satan’s deceptions are! Before you know it, Jesus Himself is no longer enough.

Titus 1:14: Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and COMMANDMENTS OF MEN, that turn from the truth. Mark 7:7: Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 2 Cor.11:3: But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the SIMPLICITY that is in Christ.

Col.2:18-23 describes practices that are harsh on the body but do nothing to make us more spiritual. Verse 18 plainly warns us that we can LOSE OUR REWARD if we let others beguile us into such spiritual bondages. We can lose the victory of knowing who we are in Christ by succumbing to social pressure to fast or perform some other difficult “spiritual discipline” as proof of our love for Jesus.

Yet another problem with the assertion that we must fast in the days before the Appearing of our Bridegroom is this: Jesus made it clear that no one knows the day or the hour of His appearing for the Church. The Jewish bridegroom and his wedding procession usually came very suddenly to collect the bride, and the engagement

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could last up to a whole year. THE BRIDE DID NOT KNOW when that torchlit bridal procession would appear to carry her off to the wedding canopy. She simply didn’t know if he would come in four months, six months, or ten months! What if she starved herself to death because she thought he could come any minute, and he took forever to come for her? Re that blog: BOTH bride and bridegroom fasted before the wedding, but I just can’t quite picture our Bridegroom Jesus going hungry in heaven while saints and angels freely feast from the fruit trees!

The ONLY regular fast day required in scripture was commanded to ISRAEL ONLY (see Lev.23:27, 29). Fasting isn’t specifically mentioned even here. But the Jews understood it to mean you could not eat on that particular day. There are other examples where God commands the Jews to tear their garments and fast in penitence for sin. Some Christians insist that we should feel continuing humiliation over sin, even if God removed those sins as far as the east is from the west. But if you’re going to keep the fasting part, why not tear your clothes also? Other fasts were added by Jewish leaders who wanted to improve on God’s requirements, to make themselves seem holier. Fasting was the traditional JEWISH way of expressing sorrow for sin, deep desire for divine guidance, fear, or any perceived need to humble oneself before God in a way that’s harsh on the body. It was NEVER practiced even once to try to attain to greater heights of joy in the Lord! I counted just 20 usages of the word “bridegroom” in scripture, covering both Old and New Testaments. In every case that word was associated with great joy. Except for times where God was judging Israel for sin and He said He’d take away the joyful voice of the bride and bridegroom, among other judgments. Another case is in Joel chapter 2 where God commands everyone, including newlyweds, to gather to fast and pray to avert a locust plague. Unless you’ve backslidden so bad you feel like you’ve come out from under the covering of the Blood of Jesus or you feel threatened with other calamity and you lose your appetite, I see no case at all for fasting, and no need to fast at all in conjunction with our Heavenly Bridegroom.

Isa. 61:5: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

Ancient Israel pictured God as being their nation’s Bridegroom. This gave rise to rejoicing, not the sadness of fasting. Jesus, Who habitually associated fasting with mourning instead of joy, and was accused of not doing much of it Himself, said it would be more advantageous for the disciples if He went back to heaven because He would send the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). Jesus said He would not leave His people feeling like orphans. The Holy Spirit can be with every believer at the same time ALL the time, whereas Jesus in His physical body couldn’t. Even after Jesus went back up to heaven there was great rejoicing among the disciples.

Luke 24:51: And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

Jesus was not physically present with them when the disciples DAILY went from house to house, not only fellowshipping and praying, but eating together (Acts 2:42-47).

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Oddly enough, there is NO mention of fasting in the daily routine of these early disciples. They were so happy they knew no better than to rejoice and to eat their food (not fast from it) with gladness. In Mark 2:20 and Luke 5:35 the key crucial question is: WHO is expected to fast when Christ is NOT with them? THE CHILDREN (Gk. huios, sons) OF THE BRIDECHAMBER! Remember the context. In most Gospel passages Jesus is addressing Jews under the Law. With the sole exception of preaching to some Samaritans after meeting the Woman at the Well, Jesus never preached to crowds of non-Jews. Only a few times do you read of Him helping some Gentile individual, and even then only on account of their great faith. Jesus is answering a pointed question put to him by the JEWISH scribes and Pharisees: Why do John the Baptist’s disciples fast often, but your disciples eat and drink freely? Jesus (Who enjoyed eating Himself, as Luke 7:34 and Matt.11:19 strongly implies) replied that you can’t expect the children (sons) of the bridechamber to fast while the Bridegroom is with them. The phrase “son of” was a common Hebrew idiom. To be a son of something was to possess the characteristics of that particular thing. Examples: “the son of peace” (Luke 10:6), “son” of consolation (Acts 4:36), “son” of perdition (John 17:12). “Sons of the bridechamber” are wedding guests. The guests and the bride are not one and the same! John the Baptist will be “friend of the bridegroom” (best man) at Christ’s wedding to the Church (John 3:29). John will be there as an honored guest, but John will not be part of the Bride. All the Old Testament saints and the Tribulation martyrs will be among the guests. Most believers will be killed during the Tribulation Period. While they’re on earth suffering under the Antichrist, it will be a time of deep sorrow and trial. Gross darkness will cover the earth, and there will be NO brightness in it because Christ, the Light of the World, will be absent during that time (Isa.60:2; Amos 5:18, 20). Like Old Testament saints, Tribulation saints will have to endure to the end to be saved (Matt.10:21-22). Their salvation will depend on their own WORK of faithfulness in time of terrible trial, rather than “grace through faith” as we know it today. While salvation is not gained through human works in the present age (Eph.2:8-9), Christ will only grant survivors of the Tribulation entry into His earthly Kingdom IF they’ve performed specific good works (Matt.25:31-46). ). In that sense they’ll be earning their salvation, though everyone gets into heaven only through the Blood of Jesus (Rev.7:14). In that day God will once again emphasize the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, as evidenced by Christ’s referral to “all nations” (Gentiles), and God’s calling out men from specific tribes of Israel to do a work for Him during the Great Tribulation Period (Rev.7:4-8). God says that today there is NO difference in His dealings with people of different nationalities (Rom.10:12). The Bridegroom will, in a very real sense, be absent from those believers on earth. While they’re suffering privation and persecution on earth, He will be in heaven enjoying the Marriage Supper of the Lamb with the Church, His Bride. Living Tribulation saints will not be in heaven for the festivities. The Bridegroom will not fill Tribulation saints with the spiritual refreshing of “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory”. These saints might be relieved God forgave their sins but they will NOT overflow with the joy of the Lord. Their earthly life will be a sorrowful, precarious one. Salvation through grace by faith alone was not experienced by Old Covenant saints who had to win eternal salvation through faithfulness to God’s Commandments, rather than being sealed in assurance of salvation. Further proof that the Tribulation saints will live in a different dispensation is this: Christ prophesied that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against His church (Matt.16:18). Notice in the same verse Christ says He WILL BUILD (future tense) His Church. It did not exist before the Cross. Daniel prophesied that the Antichrist would “wear out” the Tribulation saints and defeat them (Dan.7:21, 25). Here you see a great dispensational difference: Embattled, overpowered saints populate the Tribulation Period, not the victorious church, the Bride of Christ. Contrast the miserable

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condition of the overpowered Tribulation saints with the way the apostle Paul speaks repeatedly of “the church” sitting in heavenly places with Christ Jesus (Eph.1:3; 2:6), and the way God ALWAYS causes us to triumph (2 Cor.2:14). If we’re ALREADY seated with Christ in heavenly places, why is it necessary to fast to “enter into deeper intimacy with the Lord”? NOWHERE does Paul or any other apostle teach that fasting will exalt you to heavenly places or bring you closer to Jesus. If you’re a Christian you’re ALREADY spiritually united to Him. Jesus warns in John 9:4 that the NIGHT (time of dense darkness) will fall during which time no one can work (at bringing in the harvest). This speaks of the Tribulation Period, when God will authorize angels to preach the everlasting gospel (Rev.14:6). Angels aren’t working as evangelists today, during the Church Age. In both Mark 2:20 and Luke 5:35 Jesus says that in THOSE DAYS they (the wedding guests) would fast. WHICH days? Many assume Jesus is talking about the Church Age, the present day. But which other days might He be talking about? Here is another context where Jesus speaks of THOSE DAYS:

Mark 13:17 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains: 15 And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house: 16 And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. 17 But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in THOSE DAYS! 18 And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. 19 For in THOSE DAYS shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.* * * *Here, Jesus echoes Daniel’s prophecy in Dan.12:1 about the coming time of unprecedented trouble.20 And except that the Lord had shortened THOSE DAYS, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

Repeatedly Jesus speaks of the days just preceding His Coming. His Second Coming is different and distinct from the Rapture, where He comes FOR His saints before returning WITH His saints to rule over this planet. Jesus prophesied a terrible time of trouble that would be worse than ever before, to hit this earth during THOSE DAYS. I believe Jesus’ use of the term THOSE DAYS also refers to the time Tribulation converts to Christ will not feel any inner assurance of victory and just might afflict their souls in fasting to try to get God to take pity on them. Possibly they will see frightened Jews fasting, who have historically done this in time of great danger, and Gentile believers in Christ will also fast. Also, believers won’t be allowed to buy and sell without the Mark of the Beast and will, most likely, go on FORCED fasts like Paul did when he had nothing to eat. Remember when you were a tiny child and the electricity went out during a storm, and there you were standing in the dark, scared and trembling at the thunder and lightning? You didn’t see your mom anywhere. Then you saw her coming toward you with a candle telling you not to be afraid. You felt reassured not only by her presence but the light she was carrying in her hand. How scary it will be when all gladness and brightness, loving, caring and sharing is gone out of society and satan runs rampant in the earth! Only the saints’ faith in the promises of scripture will help them persevere in the face of brutal persecution and severe trial. The Light of God’s Word will be the ONLY brightness in the hellish darkness of the Tribulation Period. The lights won’t come back on in the earth till Christ, the Light of the World, comes back with His Bride the Church, who have Him dwelling in their hearts through faith. If Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, and we are one spirit with Him, how can He be absent from us? Unless you ignore verses like I Cor.6:17 it’s impossible to say He is not with us. Matt.28:20 promises that Christ will ALWAYS be with us. One blogger

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wrote that’s the very reason Christians ought to fast, contradicting Christ’s own words that it’s improper to fast when the Bridegroom is with you. Jesus NEVER says you ought to fast to celebrate intimacy with Him. That’s unbiblical spiritual mysticism. Satan sneaks lies into Christ’s church by trying to improve on what Jesus has already done for us and given us. Far from being pleasing to God, such an attitude says Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself was inadequate and He didn’t give us enough blessings to get us spiritually high. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! One reason I believe that Christ the Bridegroom will be absent from the earth during the Tribulation Period is 2 Thes.2:7. He who prevents the Antichrist from coming on the world stage will be taken out of the way. Once the Spirit of Christ indwelling the Church is gone from the earth, Antichrist will make his appearance. Only in His office of bringing men to Christ will the Holy Spirit still be present in a grossly darkened earth. Persecuted, fearful, hungry Tribulation saints will feel like God Himself has withdrawn from earth to let the devil do his dirty work unhindered. After a long period of misery and mournful fasting, those who end up being killed by the Antichrist will go to heaven to join the other guests at the wedding feast. I get the impression that many saints fast and do other unpleasant things to themselves because they feel a lingering sense of shame for sin. Our sin has ALREADY been dealt with at Calvary. My Bible says we are actually made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor.5:21). How did God do this? By dumping ALL our sins on the Lord Jesus so He could bear them to the Cross. NOT by our fasting to earn this freedom from shame and guilt! Some object that Paul fasted so we must also. In 2 Cor.6:5 and 11:27 Paul lists his “fastings” (periods of hunger due to poverty) among many other miserable trials he suffered: shipwreck, beatings, character assassination, thirst, an unbearable workload, etc. Paul did not impose these sufferings on himself as a spiritual exercise. He went hungry because other Christians were either too poor or too stingy to take care of him. The Philippians were extremely poor. But the wealthier Corinthians failed to minister to Paul’s needs when they could easily have done so.

I Cor.4:8: Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. 9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. 11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

In this passage Paul contrasts the wealth of the Corinthians with the miserable conditions he and his co-workers suffer. These affluent, selfish Corinthians were just like the materialistic “King’s kids” of the modern Prosperity Movement. Every man for himself and if you’re poor…tough luck. It’s your own fault. You can STARVE!!! Fasting to punish the body resembles various Roman Catholic penances practiced by those who try to earn heaven through personal suffering. It’s akin to whipping yourself in a monastery or crawling on gravel up the mountain as you count rosary beads. The false doctrine of finding joy in self-inflicted suffering has sneaked into the Charismatic church.

I Cor.5:7: Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Jesus is the ONLY sacrifice we need! Christ died on the Cross long before you even thought of being born. In John 19:30 Jesus Himself said: IT IS FINISHED! Why won’t believers believe this?

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Fasting is Spiritual Leaven

If you wish to "go back to your Jewish roots" as a Christian, you must fast, that's part of the package. Paul warned the church about devious men who wanted to pollute the Gospel of Grace with religious rituals of the Old Jewish Law. Those who depend on religious works to help them keep right with God often don't know any better. Nothing we do or say enhances the value of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. If anything, reliance on your own works can make you fall from grace (Gal.5:4). Some Christians feel like freeloaders if they let Jesus pay for their salvation all by Himself. When believers don't feel Christ's torture on the cross is enough to keep them on good terms with God, they'll fast to "share in Christ's sufferings" to make up the difference. That's a religious crutch which lets Christians at least pay the tip so they'll feel better about themselves when Christ settles their sin bill. Some boast about how humble fasting makes them, even as they brag about doing it. But it's even more humbling to know someone else took the rap for your sins. It's humbling to say "Jesus paid it all, and I can't even chip in two cents to help Him keep me out of hell." Long ago I thought a faster's prayers were worth more than the prayers of those who came to prayer meeting after a good meal. Immediately after I received the Holy Spirit, I felt a joy inside I’d never, ever experienced before. Then I learned a doctrine that stuck out like a sore thumb from all the teachings of the Bible that sustained this feeling of joy. I had received the Promise of the Father (Luke 24:49), the Blessed Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus said would empower all who received Him (Acts 1:8). In Luke 10:19 Jesus gave His disciples power over ALL the power of the enemy, and these men did NOT fast at the time Christ bestowed this authority upon them (see Matt.9:14; Mark 2:18). In verse 20 Christ said wicked spirits ARE (present tense) subject to those he was speaking to at the time. And this occurred BEFORE Pentecost, with NO mention of the disciples having to fast to gain this power over the forces of evil. Not even before they were baptized in the Holy Ghost in Acts 2! In fact, Christ’s non-fasting disciples rejoiced that wicked spirits were already subject to them.

Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. 18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. 19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.* * *If fasting had been a prerequisite for being able to tread on serpents and scorpions, surely Christ would have added that condition right here in this context! HE, not fasting, empowers His people to live in victory over demonic forces.

Yet even though I had a wonderful Baptism in the Holy Ghost, I was taught that Christians needed to do something IN ADDITION TO receiving the Holy Ghost to have power over all the forces of the enemy. FAST! If going without food could defeat satan, every anorexic on earth could raise the dead and cast out devils! I’ll address one objection many would make that scripture DOES say fasting is necessary to cast out devils. Matt.17:21 says: Howbeit this kind (of demon) goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. However, Bible scholars dispute whether Matt.17:21 is even in the original Greek manuscripts, or whether it was added in later centuries when fasting legalism crept into the church. Some Bible translations contain a footnote stating that this particular verse is not included in some manuscripts. Others place the verse in brackets, indicating that it is of doubtful authenticity. In a parallel verse, Mark 9:29, some Bible versions do not contain the words “and fasting”, which indicates they could have been inserted later by translators. If that’s the case, it should just read that PRAYER is necessary to drive

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out the most resistant demons. Jesus prayed before He raised Lazarus from the dead. Obviously that was one of the hardest miracles He ever performed. But there were other times when Jesus simply COMMANDED the dead to rise again instead of praying, as in the case of Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:55) and the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-15). Nowhere does it state that Christ fasted before raising Lazarus from the dead. He PRAYED, and then commanded Lazarus to come forth (John 11:41-43). One problem with this idea that fasting being necessary before Christians have power over demons: How hungry do you have to make yourself before Jesus’ promise that you ALREADY have power over ALL the forces of hell kicks in? The very fact you have to wait long enough for meal-skipping to affect your BODY in order to strengthen your SPIRIT shows that for at least two or three days you DIDN’T possess power over ALL the forces of satan! Suppose satan got his licks in BEFORE your blood sugar had time to crash and the power of fasting gave you power over him? That waiting period would be a window of opportunity for the devil to do his dirty work! In most cases where Jesus cast out demons, Christ doesn’t pray for His Father to do it for Him. Just like Jesus COMMANDED the dead to rise again, He simply ordered the demons to leave, which isn’t the same as praying! Apparently Jesus expected His disciples to do like him and just TELL those demons to get lost. Yet when a burden is too big for us to handle, we need to PRAY to God for extra help. You don’t have to buy God’s intervention through self-imposed suffering like the prophets of Baal tortured themselves when they begged their false god to send a miracle (I Kings 18:28). But you don’t have to eat if the prayer need is urgent and you feel the strength to press on till the job is done. If you are in the thick of a battle with satan, it would be just as ludicrous to break for lunch as a cop pausing in the middle of a shootout for a doughnut break! Grabbing a snack would distract you from your intense prayer session. Christians get mixed messages from the pulpit. They’re taught that Christ is all their righteousness, and ALL their sins have been washed away as far as east is from west, and they have a righteous standing with God. True! But they’re also taught that they’re so rotten and depraved inside that they need to fast to “humble” their sin nature and gain God’s favor. This is contrary to Colossians 2:21-23 which teaches that treating the body harshly doesn’t make you any holier. I devoured “deeper life” magazines and went off the deep end, thinking I could never beat up on myself or “repent” enough to please God. This spiritual voodoo teaches Christians that just like the alabaster box containing the perfumed ointment which anointed Christ, their souls need to be “crushed” in order to release the life of Christ. Despite God’s promise that as He is so are we IN THIS WORLD (I John 4:17). Despite the scripture which says we are made the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor.5:21). But legalists still insist that Christians need to “be refined in the fire” to make them good enough to face God after they die. This heresy is taught nowhere by the apostles, founders of the Church. This notion is no different from the Catholic teaching that your own suffering contributes toward your salvation, and if you aren’t “holy” enough when you die you need to go to Purgatory to suffer more pain before God will let you into heaven. I call this idea of contributing your own suffering (of any type) to help buy your ticket to heaven “Supplemental Suffering Salvation”. If you fast to help Christ atone for your sin, it’s “Matching Funds Fasting” or “Residual Fee Fasting”. Those who teach fasting to create a sense of shame for sin believe that if a Christian isn’t already afflicted with some horrible trial to keep his joy under restraint, he should make his own body a “living sacrifice” by starving himself to “deny the flesh”.

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Or, Deep-End Life teachers teach that you must fast to “enter into the Holiest Place” with God in the spirit, losing all consciousness of the things of earth (this could be dangerous for a busy mother!). Funny, but the book of Hebrews teaches that we are brought into the Holiest of All through the blood of Jesus, not fasting (Heb.10:19). Although the Book of Hebrews teaches that only ONE sacrifice, that of Christ Himself, is sufficient (Heb.7:27; 10:12), fasting advocates warn you that unless you “make your body a living sacrifice” by starving it and forcing it to burn itself for fuel, you don’t really mean business with God. Jesus NEVER taught such devilish doctrines! Making your body a living sacrifice (Rom.12:1) means you consecrate the members of your body to do God’s will and prevent your body from giving in to fleshly lusts which war against the soul (I Cor.6:20; I Pet.2:11). Thanks to weird ascetic doctrines floating around the Body of Christ, I struggled so hard to “improve” on what I’d received from God that I made myself miserable. My joy started feeling like a tarnished penny. Because I didn’t have supernatural heavenly visions like Paul’s out-of-body experience, I felt like a failure! All my singing, all my floor-pacing and praying, all my “sacrifices” to money-hungry preachers, all my missed meals and confessing of (often imaginary) sin, and I still hadn’t been raptured off the earth in a blaze of glory. I still had to think about “earthly things” day in and day out. Before long I lost a vital awareness of the love of God. Instead of achieving greater glories of ecstasy, I felt deep grief in my innermost being. The devil started making me worry that I’d committed the Unpardonable Sin, and sometimes I wasn’t even sure what that was. It took me YEARS to become firmly persuaded that my guarantee of going to heaven was rock-solid. Eventually I realized that even if I never skipped another meal or paid another “seed-faith” offering till the day I died, it wouldn’t make God love me any less. Many glum-looking Christians think they aren't serving the Lord unless they're constantly suffering some type of “sacrifice” to keep Him happy. People swear by fasting as being good for your health, God's way of getting slim. If that's your true motivation, might as well just call it a diet instead of a fast. But apart from the fact that excessive fasting can ruin health, there is another reason it can be harmful in that area. I suspect that religious fasting, like all other legalistic things done to gain or keep God’s favor, might be the devil’s way of taking Christians out from under the protection which comes from solely relying on the merits of the precious blood of Christ. Since legalism brings Christians back under all the curses of the Law, that would partially explain much of the poverty, depression, spiritual oppression and physical sickness in the Body of Christ. Whatever you do to please God, always examine your motivations. Ask God to help you to steer clear of anything that is not of faith, for if your religious practices stem from a religious spirit of fear instead of faith, they are of sin (Rom.14;23). Some Christians think food is prayer poison. But Jesus said it's what comes OUT of your mouth that defiles you spiritually, not what goes into it (Matt.15:11). One preacher wrote that if you want an answer to prayer, you should be happy to sacrifice to help bring it about. Is extra sacrifice really necessary to please God?

Psalms 40:6: Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Heb.11:5-6: By faith (not fasting) Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.6 But without faith (not fasting) it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

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Hebrews 10:10: By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:12 But this man, after he had offered ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOR EVER, sat down on the right hand of God

You can't approach God's Throne on the merits of fasting. Just because you drive past Dunkin' Donuts without stopping, do you seriously think God equates that so-called sacrifice with the torment His Son suffered on Calvary? Does that uneaten doughnut purchase a single favor from the hand of God? Failure to rightly divide the Word of Truth brings Christians under unnecessary religious bondages. When Jesus commented on the Pharisees' tithing practices, He was addressing JEWS UNDER THE LAW, not Gentiles. Likewise, when He preached on fasting, He was addressing JEWS UNDER THE LAW. Christ did not come to teach the Gentiles how to correctly keep Jewish traditions (including fasting). In fact, Christ rebuffed one desperate Gentile woman who pleaded for Him to heal her daughter. Jesus did heal the child because of the woman's faith. But He said that He hadn't even been sent to anybody but the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Matt.15:24). If Jesus' teaching on fasting (Matt.6:16-18) binds fasting on non-Jewish believers under the post-cross New Covenant, then we must also literally keep other Jewish customs He commented on.

Matt.8:4: And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. Jesus commanded the healed leper to go to the priest for ceremonial cleansing. This wasn't a quickie procedure. The complicated, drawn-out ritual involved several days of washings, shavings, pigeon offerings, etc. If we must follow this example whenever we're healed, there's a problem. There's no Levitical priesthood around, and Christians aren't supposed to offer animal sacrifices. In Paul's day, the infrastructure for keeping that particular command of Christ was still in place, even though the New Covenant had just come into effect. The Temple was still standing, and the Levitical priesthood was still functioning in Jerusalem. Some point out that Christ said “when you fast”, not IF you fast in Matt.6:16-18. Jesus was addressing Jewish listeners who regularly fasted in their devotions, not Gentile believers of the Church Age. If this passage binds fasting on church people, then Matt.5:23-24 must also be interpreted as a command for Christian believers to bring a gift (Gk. doron) to a literal altar. Depending on the context in which it is found, this Greek word can mean either a gift of any kind, or an animal sacrifice. Contrary to modern televangelist teaching, money was never sacrificed on the Temple altar, only edible things. Monetary contributions were deposited in a treasury box. Most would agree that Christ does not command Christians to offer up literal animal sacrifices today. Matt.5:23-24 and Matt.6:16 have something very important in common: Christ was teaching His Jewish listeners to do JEWISH things God’s way, with the proper attitude. Jesus wasn’t commanding the Church to fast anymore than He was commanding them to offer up a bullock on the church altar! Fasting advocates cite King David, Queen Esther, Daniel, Anna and other Old Testament (before the Cross) fasters as proof we must fast under the New Covenant to please God. Old Testament saints lived under an inferior covenant, whereby they approached a Holy God feeling very unworthy and fearful of His wrath. God says we can come BOLDLY before His Throne of Grace, with no mention of fasting being

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necessary to prepare you for the trip (Heb.4:16). Fasting appears NOWHERE in this deeply spiritual epistle. In Acts 20:22 Paul tells the brethren that he feels BOUND IN THE SPIRIT to go to Jerusalem. Paul had previously bound his soul with a vow (Acts 18:18; Num.30:6). Paul felt forced to go to Jerusalem to fulfill that vow. Something is wrong here. Paul could have asked God to FORGIVE (RELEASE HIM FROM) THIS DEBT of Mosaic law-keeping (Matt.6:12) in order to allow him to live in Christian liberty instead of legalistic bondage. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of liberty, not bondage (2 Cor.3:17). Despite Paul’s teaching about “submitting to one another” he ignored the warning of God’s prophet. Paul went against his brethren’s counsel NOT to go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-12). Paul told Christians to follow his own example (I Cor.4:16; 11:1). In Acts chapter 21 Paul succumbs to pressure from legalistic brethren to go to Jerusalem to fulfill his vow in company with others who would go through the same ceremony. Going back to the old ways of worshipping God was very sternly warned against in the Book of Hebrews, written at a later time by an unknown author. Those Judaizers were real kill-joys who went around making sure nobody stayed free in Christ for very long if they ever did manage to get free. They wanted reassurance that Paul still kept the Law of Moses and all its rituals. To keep the peace, Paul shaved his head and offered sacrifices in the Temple, even after his own conversion. Is that an example we Gentiles should follow today?

Acts 21:23: Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. 25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.* * **Paul, who offered up animal sacrifices in the Temple, exempted Gentile believers from Jewish customs. That would include religious fasting. Paul doesn’t teach fasting, or even recommend it, in any of his epistles. Even the legalists who pressured Paul to keep Temple rituals agreed that Gentile believers don’t have to live like Jews. Verse 26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Apparently it took Paul awhile to realize that Christ no longer expected His people to follow Mosaic rituals He had fulfilled in Himself.

Instead of defending His own Christian liberty before the legalistic Jewish brethren, Paul kept his Temple vow. Paul sailed to Jerusalem, where Jewish leaders were waiting to capture him. Paul went through a Mosaic purification ceremony and made offerings for himself and each of his brethren (Acts 21:26). Paul had been a believer in Christ for some time when he did this! Paul’s action amounted to a public denial that He had ALREADY been purified by the Blood of Christ and that Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself was sufficient. Notice in Numbers 6 to see how complicated it was to keep a ritual vow, and all the offerings which had to be made. Part of the process was to offer PEACE OFFERINGS. This was totally wrong, since Paul ALREADY had peace with God through Christ (Rom.5:1). Jesus IS our Peace (Eph.2:14). Paul pacified the legalists by going through this ceremony. But peace gained by coming back under the Law isn't worth the price. Not long after that, Paul was

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captured in “the city which is in bondage” (Gal.4:25). He spent years in prison. Legalism always brings bondage. Peter and James, the most legalistic of the apostles, agreed that Gentiles don’t have to act like Jews or keep their customs.

Acts 15:7: And when there had been much disputing (argument), Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;9 And put no difference between us and them, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH* * * * * (not fasting).10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?11 BUT WE BELIEVE THAT THROUGH THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WE SHALL BE SAVED, EVEN AS THEY.Verse 19 Wherefore my sentence is, that WE TROUBLE NOT THEM, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.Verse 28 FOR IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST, AND TO US, TO LAY UPON YOU NO GREATER BURDEN THAN THESE NECESSARY THINGS;29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Significantly, the Holy Spirit REPEATS this information at least three times in the Book of Acts, to emphasize that Gentile believers are NOT under Jewish Laws and customs. So why do Christian leaders contradict the Holy Ghost Who said NO SUCH THING (Jewish religious traditions) should be practiced by Gentile converts, and NO GREATER BURDEN than those four necessary things is to be laid upon them? Being expected to torment your own body (or tithe) IS a greater burden than those four necessary things. Because fasting didn't make the Holy Spirit's short list of NECESSARY things, fasting must be UN-necessary. Otherwise, He would have led the apostles to teach converted Gentiles about fasting, who may never have practiced it before coming to Christ. This apostolic conference would have been the perfect time and place to bind fasting (and tithing, Sabbath-keeping, etc.) on Gentile believers. Some say since Daniel fasted we have to fast too. But Daniel also kept kosher food laws and prayed three times a day facing Jerusalem. What Christian does these things today? Many Christians fast (or claim to), but how many brag about wearing burlap robes like fasting Jews did in the good old days? Catholic ascetics “doing penance” would often wear scratchy undergarments, sleep on boards, do without adequate blankets in the winter, crawl over pebbles up the mountain to shrines, counting their rosary beads as they went. Nuns and monks would whip themselves as well as fast. OT Jews threw dirt over their heads, went barefoot, tore their clothes, wore sackcloth and shaved their heads. Christians who insist on fasting should wonder why they neglect these other practices. What about two fasts the apostles held? They are found in Acts 13:2-3 and Acts 14:23. These JEWISH disciples, who had always fasted as part of their religion, were transitioning from the Old Covenant to the New. Paul's freedom manifesto, the book of Galatians, hadn't even been written yet. Some quote 2 Cor. 6:5 and 11:27 to prove that Paul practiced religious fasting even after he received his revelation about being set free from the Law. But these fastings were mentioned with other miserable ordeals he suffered, like beatings,

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stonings, character assassination, lack of clothing, thirst, freezing cold and shipwrecks. Paul did not impose these periods of starvation on himself as a “spiritual discipline” to become more “Christlike”. Paul lacked food in the same sense he lacked (fasted) clothing. Paul no more deprived himself of food as a “spiritual discipline” than he deprived himself of warm clothes in the winter. The REAL Christ came eating and drinking, see Matt.11:19 and Luke 7:34). Paul endured FORCED FASTS because of poverty. The most reliable Greek manuscripts do not even contain the word "fasting" in I Cor.7:5, where husbands and wives are not to defraud each other unless they agree to do so during fasting and prayer. That's the only possible mention of devotional fasting after Acts, and it's not even a command to do it! Paul endured these “fastings” partly because other Christians were either too poor or too stingy to take care of him. The Philippians were extremely poor. But they did what they could to help Paul. But the rich Corinthians failed to supply Paul’s needs when they could easily have done so.

I Cor.4:8: Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

Paul contrasts the wealth of the Corinthians with the miserable privations he and his co-workers suffer. These affluent, selfish Corinthians were just like the materialistic "King"s kids' of the modern Prosperity Movement. Every man for himself! Even under the Old Law, fasting is commanded on only ONE day of the year: the Day of Atonement (Lev.16:29-31), and even here fasting is only IMPLIED. The Day of Atonement scriptures simply command an Old Covenant Jew to afflict his soul. Several other fasts were added by Jewish doctors (doctor-uppers-of) the Law to improve on God’s requirements to make the religious life of a Jew a more challenging experience. Christians who insist on regular fast days (or any fast days at all) are not following apostolic teaching in this, but the example set by legalistic Jews who fasted twice a week to prove how spiritual they were (Luke 18:12). ONE fast by Christ is recorded in scripture, and there’s no mention He ever did any fasting with His disciples. Throughout Paul's ministry the Judaizers ("Christian" enforcers of Jewish laws and traditions) were a thorn in his side. Paul circumcised Timothy to keep them happy. But he later stood his ground and refused to also circumcise Titus.

Galatians 2:3: But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily (in a sneaky way) to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

Galatians 6:12: As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.13 For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.* * * There's fleshly satisfaction in keeping religious rituals.

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14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.* * * *Your spiritual life becomes a tangled mess when you dilute the grace of God with works. The old and the new don’t mix (Luke 5:36-38).2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.* * * *Religious works can cause a believer to stop relying on Christ.3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.* * * *Observe one Jewish law or ritual, you're obligated to keep them all.4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.* * * *Reliance upon religious works of any kind to keep keep God happy can make you fall out of the grace of God and imperil salvation.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.* * * *Nowhere does Paul ever recommend fasting as a way to melt the heart of God or make miracle-working easier. NOWHERE!

If fasting's so vital, why didn't the apostles warn believers not to neglect a practice which prioritizes your prayers on God's "to do" list? Where in scripture does Paul teach on fasting and its merits? Did Paul ever say that you have to starve your body to prove how hungry you are for Jesus? How many miracles does this apostle attribute to fasting? Not one! And that goes for all the writings of Peter, John, James, and Jude. Never do they prescribe fasting as a way to recharge your prayer batteries or zap demons. Satan is more frightened of a heart full of faith than an empty stomach. One preacher racked up 100 fasting days in one particular year, but he didn't see satan tuck tail and run. No apostle ever tells you to fast to spank yourself for sin. If fasting's so all-fired important, why are the epistles (doctrinal letters of the apostles to the churches) so silent on it? Fasting, like tithing, has been imposed on God's people without authorization from the apostles, the founders and builders of Christ's church. How can fasting bring you closer to Jesus, if He already dwells in your heart by faith (Eph.3:17) and you’re already one spirit with Him (I Cor.6:17)? Even pagans starve their body to contact the spirit realm. Fasting to weaken the body's grip on the soul so you can soar up into the heavenlies is a pagan doctrine. The apostles NEVER taught this! If fasting were a valid Christian doctrine, the apostles would have given specific instruction on the correct way to carry it out. This would have involved a bunch of rules and regulations: How to fast within strictly regulated parameters to protect health, how to fast to induce heavenly visions, whether sick people, expectant mothers or children had to fast to please God, whether you could have juice or crackers before bed, the correct way to begin and end a fast, and how to avoid feeling self-righteous like the proud Pharisee in Luke 18:12. Religious fasting is a CARNAL COMMANDMENT OF MEN, taught nowhere in the Pentateuch (five books of Mosaic Law). In the wilderness, God provides manna for the Israelite to eat seven days a week, instead of expecting them to fast part of the time (Ex.16:22-23). Fasting doesn’t appear as a national custom of Israel until you reach the HISTORICAL books of the Bible, and even then it is invariably a response to something NEGATIVE, such as being under God’s judgment for sin or some national emergency. Unless you’re in some similar sorrowful predicament and don’t feel like eating, why should you fast, if even Christ Himself said it springs from a mournful spirit, not a joyful one (Matt.9:15). Self-generated sorrow is not part of our abundant life in Christ Jesus!

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Imitating the fasting customs of Jews under judgment is just as silly as going out to the hallway to take a paddling with the kid who “cut up” in class, even though you’ve done nothing to deserve it! Recently I read an account of a young child who allegedly went up to heaven in a vision. She saw lots of beautiful things up there prepared for God’s people. She saw streets of Gold. She saw the wounds of Christ. The little girl saw the Virgin Mary timidly hiding herself behind some mysterious door. Mary was crying copious tears because people pray to her instead of to Jesus (I thought you were set free from the spirit of heaviness in heaven and there’s no sorrow there!) I didn’t see much wrong with the vision until Jesus allegedly said, in effect, that believers lose their salvation if they “don’t like to fast”. Well, if you’re honest about it, God didn’t design us to enjoy feeling weak and hungry. God didn’t design Adam and Eve to take pleasure in starvation, or He wouldn’t have provided so many fruit trees for them and told them they could eat FREELY from them (Gen.2:16). What “Jesus” said is open to interpretation. Did He mean certain Christians were backsliders because they fasted but didn’t enjoy doing it, or did He mean they didn’t fast, period? You don’t have to actually like doing an unpleasant job in order to get it done. Lots of folks drag their dead carcasses out of bed every single morning and put in a grinding day at a tiring, boring job, and they do a great job because they’re afraid the boss might fire them. I’m sure there’s a lot of Christians think they have to fast to get to heaven and they make themselves fast so they’ll get there. There was a lot of nebulous mysticism in the entire vision. “The Lord” says certain rewards and crowns are prepared for those who praise Him the way He wants them to. There is a crown of rejoicing (I Thes.2:19). But how do you determine whether or not the praise you offer up meets God’s high standards, especially if your religious practices are motivated by fear you’ll land in hell for not doing enough to keep him happy? Praise offered up to earn or keep God’s favor is faith in works-based salvation, and it’s deadly to grace! Just the same as religious fasting or tithing. If you have to work for it to earn it or keep salvation, it ain’t a free gift no more, just wages for WORKS (Rom.11:6). Apparently the “Jesus” in the vision is punishing certain Christians for failure to keep a practice (fasting) which none of the apostles taught on in their letters to the churches. And even if He did expect it, what criteria would you use to determine whether your fast was long enough, or harsh enough, or broken the right way in order to please Him? And how do you force yourself to enjoy tormenting your own body so “Jesus” won’t complain that you don’t enjoy the suffering? What constitutes a passing grade in Fasting 101? God gives no such guidelines anywhere in the Bible! Whenever such spurious visions are given to adorable children who love Jesus, people just might be more inclined to accept without question everything they see or hear in the vision. But sound apostolic doctrine based on the WRITTEN Word of god TO THE CHURCHES is to be our guide, not some cloudy, dreamy vision where the “Jesus” figure makes it clear that salvation is kept by works of religion.

If the books of Romans and Galatians repeatedly teach us we’re not under the written Law of Moses, then why should we be under the traditions of JEWISH sages who made the Jews fast as an act of devotion to God (Mark 7:9)?

Col.2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;22 Which all are to perish with the using;) AFTER THE COMMANDMENTS AND DOCTRINES OF MEN?23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.* * *Modern translations help clarify the meaning of this verse. It might seem wise to treat the

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body harshly and drum up a little (false) humility, but that does nothing to “kill the flesh nature”.

Only the Word of God, RIGHTLY DIVIDED and applicable to New Covenant believers, is binding on us today. Religious fasting to rack up points with God is a deception of satan, although it may sometimes be necessary to postpone a meal to get urgent praying done. Immediately after asking the confused Colossians why they're still observing carnal ordinances (touch not, TASTE NOT, handle not) Paul asks them why they are conforming to the commandments and doctrines of men. Commandments not to touch or taste food came not from God, but men, the Pharisees of Jesus' day. Some say since many early Christians fasted, we have to fast too. But many early believers came from Jewish homes and had always fasted. Anyway, an example is not a command. IN THE BIBLE, does Jesus rebuke Christians for not fasting enough? Jesus makes it clear the Book of Revelation is written only TO THE CHURCHES. In fact, He repeats "TO THE CHURCHES" seven times so they'll get the point (Rev.2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). During His earthly ministry Jesus ministered to Jews who still did religious things like tithing, fasting and animal sacrifice. He wasn't binding these practices on the church, which didn't even exist yet. But the Holy Spirit addresses Revelation to the church and no other group. Jesus sternly rebukes several churches in Revelation chapters 1-3. For laziness , fornication, adultery, idolatry, lukewarmness, you name it, they've done it. But NOT ONE REBUKE FOR FAILURE TO FAST! Jesus commands backsliders to "be zealous and repent". In the Old Testament books of the Prophets, God sometimes commands backsliders to rend their hearts with sorrow and fast. But Jesus does not command these believers to go without food, just repent. We’ll examine one of the most commonly-used scriptural arguments for the fasting doctrine. In both Mark 2:20 and Luke 5:35 Jesus says that in THOSE DAYS the children of the bridechamber would fast. Modern English translations help clarify the meaning of “children” in this verse as meaning wedding GUESTS. A commonly used Jewish idiom was “son” or “child” of something, which means someone displays the characteristics of a particular thing, as when Christ called James and John “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). In Luke 9:54 you see what Jesus meant by this. James and John had thunderous characteristics in their nature, as they showed by asking Jesus if they could call down fire on an inhospitable Samaritan village. Jesus also called the evil Pharisees children of hell (Matt.23:15). The Pharisees acted like they belonged there, just like the children of the bridal chamber behave like proper wedding guests. He spoke also of a “son of peace” (Luke 10:6). If a peace-loving man lives in a home you’re visiting, let your greeting of peace remain on that person. If not, take it back. Christ said that after He is taken away, the “children of the bridechamber” (the wedding guests) would fast. If everyone was supposed to fast, why didn’t Jesus simply say, “After I go back to heaven, ALL righteous people will fast” instead of saying “when the Bridegroom is taken away the children of the bride chamber will fast”? Some would still insist that this predicted fasting was to be done by Christians of the Church Age. But the word “children” in the KJV, however you interpret it, is PLURAL, not singular. Throughout the epistles in ten different scripture verses, the Church, the Bride of Christ, is spoken of as being ONE body (Eph.4:4;5:25-32). There is a huge difference in how Old Covenant believers and New Covenant Christians relate to Christ. The OT people of God were a CONGREGATION of individual Israelites gathered together for Temple worship. But they were NEVER viewed as being ONE spiritual Body indwelt by God’s Spirit, and having Jesus as their spiritual Head.

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Before Christ became the Bridegroom of the Church, He offered to be the Bridegroom of Israel. The Jews often referred to their expected Messiah as the Bridegroom of Israel. That’s why John the Baptist spoke of the Bridegroom to Jews (John 3:29). John was the last of Israel’s OT prophets (Matt.11:13; Luke 16:16). John introduced Jesus to Israel, not the Church (Luke 1:80; 3:16). But Israel as a nation would reject their Messiah. Christ, their rejected Bridegroom, was taken away from them. Where it concerned unbelieving Israel, Jesus did not promise that He would still “be with them always” after He went back to heaven. I believe that after the Jews stoned Stephen God turned His attention from Israel to the Gentiles. God retracted His offer of the Kingdom to Israel, fulfilling Christ’s warning that the Kingdom would be taken away from the Nation of Israel and given to others (Matt.21:43). At the close of the Tribulation, the Jews will mourn when they realize they killed their true Messiah (Zech.12:10). This would probably involve fasting. After the third chapter of Revelation, you never hear from the Church again, for she is in heaven. But you read much about the trials of non-raptured Tribulation saints still on earth. In Rev.19:7-8 the Church, as the Bride of Christ, reappears, and to HER (singular), is granted that she be arrayed in raiment clean and white. The next verse, verse 9, says ‘Blessed are they (plural) who are called (invited) unto the marriage supper of the lamb’. There is ONE Bride and many guests. Ask any wedding planner. The wedding guests and the Bride are not one and the same. John the Baptist fasted all the time, but he performed far fewer miracles than Jesus. He will be the friend of the bridegroom, or Jesus’ Best Man (John 3:29). John and countless other Old Testament saints will be the wedding guests, not the actual Bride of Christ. Other wedding guests, the martyred Tribulation saints, will not be part of the Bride, either. They will become converted after the Church, the Bride of Christ, is raptured to heaven. Having been martyred by the Antichrist before the Second Coming of Christ, they will join the wedding party in heaven as GUESTS of the Bride and Groom. All the mournful fasting they did on earth will be forever over. These particular guests will become converted after the Church, the Bride of Christ, is raptured to heaven. People automatically assume Jesus is talking about the Church Age, the present day, when He says “in those days they will fast”. But Jesus must have meant the TRIBULATION days, because when He speaks of THOSE days, it is usually in the context of that terrible period of history.

Mark 13:17 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains: 15 And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house: 16 And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. 17 But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in THOSE DAYS! 18 And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. 19 For in THOSE DAYS shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.* * * *Here, Jesus echoes Daniel’s prophecy in Dan.12:1 about the coming time of unprecedented trouble.20 And except that the Lord had shortened THOSE DAYS, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

Repeatedly Jesus speaks of THOSE DAYS as being the days just preceding His Coming. His Second Coming is different and distinct from the Rapture, where He comes FOR His saints to take them to heaven before returning WITH His saints to rule over this planet. Jesus prophesied a terrible time of trouble that would be worse than ever before, to hit this earth during THOSE DAYS. I believe Jesus’ use of the term THOSE DAYS also refers to the time Tribulation converts to Christ will not feel any

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inner assurance of victory and just might afflict their souls in fasting to try to get God to take pity on them. Possibly they will see frightened Jews fasting, who have historically done this in time of great danger, and Gentile believers in Christ will also fast. Also, believers won’t be allowed to buy and sell without the Mark of the Beast and will, most likely, go on FORCED fasts like Paul did when he had nothing to eat. Despite Christ’s promise to be with us always (Matt.28:20), some insist we still have to fast because our Heavenly Bridegroom is not visibly with us. Must Jesus be always PHYSICALLY in our presence in order to say we don’t have to fast? When Jesus returns to rule Planet Earth, He will have many glorified saints stationed on the other side of the globe carrying out various assignments for Him. Then, as now, Christ will be constantly with them in Spirit. But it won’t be possible for Jesus to physically be everywhere at once with everybody at the same time. So the argument that we must fast because the Bridegroom isn't physically in our presence doesn't hold water. If we have to fast just because we can’t see Jesus with our literal eyes or touch Him with our physical hands, that would also apply to this Millennial scenario: If Simon Peter were ministering in San Francisco while Jesus was in Jerusalem, he would have to fast because at that moment in time his Heavenly Bridegroom wasn't physically in California! Paul said it was possible to be present somewhere in spirit while being physically absent:

Col.2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I WITH YOU IN THE SPIRIT, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

Paul even tried, convicted, and sentenced one Christian criminal when he was physically absent from the "courtroom":

I Cor.5:3: For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Paul didn't say he wasn't with them, just because his body was far away. His spirit was there. How can this be so? The Spirit of God within us is not limited to time and space, as our bodies are. At conversion, we actually become one spirit with Christ the Lord (I Cor.6:17). That Mind of Christ within us knows all things, even if our natural intellect falls short (I John 2:20). Sometimes Spirit-filled believers pray in the Spirit for unknown people and situations in far-off lands, as the omniscient, omnipresent Holy Spirit detects their needs. If we are actually spiritually united with Christ the Lord, how then can we say He is not with us? Old Testament saints were not spiritually united with Christ during their mortal lifetimes. In fear and desperation they fasted to reach out to a God far away in heaven. Our experience of God is different from theirs.

Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

Jesus immediately links fasting with mourning. He never associates it with rejoicing. Drummed-up depression is out of sync with the joy of the Holy Spirit. The disciples mourned after Jesus was killed. But after Jesus' Resurrection His disciples REJOICED,

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even after He ascended back to the Father (Luke 24:52). They didn't fast and cry when He went home. At Pentecost, Christ came in His fullness of His Spirit to dwell in the hearts of His people. He is with us always (Matt.28:20). Fasting "because the Bridegroom is not with us" is downplaying (or denying) what Jesus said about ALWAYS being with us. Interestingly, Jesus in His role of Savior will still be at work on earth to save people after the rapture. Otherwise, there would be no Tribulation saints. But Christ in His role as Heavenly Bridegroom WILL be absent from the earth after the Rapture because our Bridegroom will be in heaven with His Bride the Church celebrating the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Today the life of a Spirit-filled believer is characterized not only by righteousness, but by great peace and joy (Acts 2:46; 4: Rom.14:17). Tribulation saints will do their best to walk righteously before God, like Old Testament saints did. But how can they be full of joy, knowing they might any moment weaken and take the Mark of the Beast out of fear? How could they overflow with joy, knowing plagues and famines are sweeping the earth, and they might be slaughtered at any time? Those who persecute these particular believers will be totally sold out to satan and irretrievably doomed to hell be because they will have taken the Mark of the Beast. Persecuted Tribulation believers won’t even have the consolation of hoping that their courageous death might soften the hearts of their evil persecutors to lead them to Christ. More than likely, the agents of Antichrist will be a whole lot scarier than the Roman tyrants who threw early Christians to the lions. In the Bible, fasting is ALWAYS associated with sorrow for sin or reaction to some other kind of stressful event. Jesus never told believers to fast to celebrate their normal condition of joy in the Lord. But yes, there WILL be a time when sorrow will be far more appropriate for believers than joy, and that will be the dark, deadly Tribulation Period. Those who repent AFTER the Rapture will be saved by the Blood of the Lamb as we are today. But unlike us, they’ll be KEPT in salvation through their own faithfulness in performing good works (see Matt.25:31-46). Contrast this precarious, CONDITIONAL salvation experience with Paul’s firm assertion that our salvation is “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph.2:8-9). Other conditions the Tribulation saints must fulfill in order to earn the right to keep their own salvation: They must “endure” or “hold out to the end” (Matt. 24:13). They must do their best to keep God’s commandments (Rev.14:12). And they must not, under ANY circumstances, accept the Mark of the Beast (Rev.20:4). Even believers who take this Mark out of fear of starvation or torture will lose their salvation because scripture warns that if ANY man takes this Mark, they’ll be forever doomed (Rev.14:9-12). Notice, believers in Christ are NOT exempted from this terrible warning! Even if the Antichrist were to torture them beyond all endurance! The Tribulation will be a terrible time of tremendous stress, sorrow and fear of falling away for believers, not a time of great joy in the Lord like that experienced by Church Age Christians who received the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. Why is it that legalists give lip service to founding all church doctrine on "grace through faith alone", but then they burden the people of God with "spiritual disciplines" never taught in any New Testament epistle? To bind fasting on New Covenant Christians, you must do the same as you do with tithing: Import it from the Old Covenant or the Gospels, when Jesus okayed the tithing of garden herbs (Matt.23:23). The Gospels (the earthly ministry of Jesus) transpired during the closing days of the Old Covenant, when Jews lived under the Law and non-Jews were the odd men out. Why do I believe Jesus lived during the Old Testament? Because the New Covenant didn't come into effect until after Jesus died on the Cross and rose again (Heb.9:15-17). Scripture places Jesus' earthly ministry firmly under the Dispensation of Law, the Old Testament:

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Galatians 4:4: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, MADE UNDER THE LAW,5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Fasting has nothing to do with Christian joy and celebration in Jesus. Fasting is a perfect tissue match with “the leaven of the Pharisees” (Matt.16:6,11-12), who were the ones responsible for adding extra fast days to the Jewish Calendar, unauthorized by God. Purge out the old leaven of religious legalism. When yeast is first mixed into bread dough, it's barely detectable. But yeast blows bread dough up to three times its original size. Just like human hearts puff up with pride when they think God is impressed with their religious works. Leavened bread dough looks stable and substantial, but exert a little pressure on it and the whole thing caves in. People who swap their rock-solid faith in Christ for religious legalism will see their impressive religious lives cave in when the devil puts pressure on them. A little religious leaven puffs a believer’s heart up into the sin of relying on his own works to keep him in right standing with God, instead of putting faith ONLY in Christ. This is what it means to fall from grace, a very dangerous thing indeed.

I Cor.5:7: Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Jesus is the ONLY sacrifice we need! Christ died on the Cross long before you even thought of being born. In John 19:30 Jesus Himself said: IT IS FINISHED!

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FASTING FOR FAVOR

Many of God’s precious children are struggling to earn favors from Him through self-denial and fasting. And if their personal circumstances improve after the fast is finished, they will tell everyone what fasting has done for them. See, fasting makes me healthier, see, fasting makes me skinnier, see, I have won favor with God through fasting. And in the process God’s Son and His benefits, hard-won on of the Cross of Calvary, are relegated to the background of consciousness. Rather than treating fasting as an UNBROKEN STRETCH OF PRAYER, fasting is exalted to the primary means of softening God’s heart to persuade Him to give a person's prayers first priority on His "to do" list. There is a time for earnest prayer, whether you eat during the prayer time or fast during it. But fasting must never degenerate into a hunger strike to force God’s hand. We must continue with God the same way we began: receiving good things from Him by grace through faith, not as wages for works. Many saints of all sizes regard their bodies as a loathsome thing, promising God that they will eliminate as much flesh as possible through fasting, because their material bodies are unspiritual and unholy. That is the spirit of Gnosticism, an ancient heresy the early church warred against. Gnosticism holds that all matter is nothing but a necessary evil. Another popular belief of the second century, A.D., Montanism, emphasized frequent, rigorous fasts as a remedy for weak human nature. But to say the body is evil is a lie of satan. The body should not be regarded as a nuisance which has no spiritual significance. Our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost (I Cor.6:19). That alone sanctifies them and makes them holy. We need our bodies to carry us around to do God’s will in the earth while we’re here. Our bodies might not be perfect, but they’re a blessing and while they should not be over-indulged, they should be properly cared for and nourished. If our body is God’s Temple, how can it be called an evil thing? Jesus died for ALL of us! Adam And Eve ate the forbidden fruit and brought God’s judgment upon themselves and all mankind (Gen. 3:1-19; I Cor.15:21-22). Some fasting proponents imply that since it was Adam’s physical appetite that brought ruin to the human race, eating is just a necessary evil which should be kept to a minimum. And when eating IS done, it should not be done with enjoyment. But Adam’s sin did not lie in the act of eating, as such. Before the Fall, Adam was free to eat all he wished of every other tree of the Garden except the forbidden one. The root of Adam's sin was rebellion and lust for power, not a yearning to kill hunger pangs. It was a mind of rebellion, not a hungry stomach, which induced Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit. Many saints are at war with their own bodies, thinking that the material of their body is evil and responsible for the original sin committed by Adam. But the sin proceeded from Adam's heart, not his stomach. I believe Adam sinned the moment He decided to take the fruit. In that split second between the time Adam decided for sin and against God he fell from God’s favor. It was only after that sinful decision was made that his arm reached for the fruit, his hand took it, and his mouth ate it. Adam was no longer circumcised in heart, separated as holy unto the Lord. It is circumcision of the heart which pleases God and leads to holiness, not the starvation and neglect of the body. One fasting proponent wrote that a piece of apple pie is a bigger hindrance to God’s relationship with a believer than the devil! Religious ascetics often whip themselves with “deeper truths of God” they “glean” from their Bible study. Heresy springs from Scripture yanked out of context, or applying to the Church verses directed to those under the Law of Moses. Even applicable truth taken to extremes or exalted way out of its proper place becomes heresy. For fasting to be enthroned in such a high doctrinal position, something else must be dethroned and put in a lower

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position in the believer’s life. And that important something is dependency on the grace of God in Christ Jesus, Who alone is THE Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Fasting is mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the three synoptic (similar viewpoint) gospels, but not at all in the Gospel of John. All four books speak of Jesus’ miracles and point to His salvation, but John’s gospel stands out from the other three as a treatise on the divine nature of Jesus. These facets of Jesus’ nature are especially emphasized in John’s gospel: Who Jesus IS to His people, and how those who are born of God spiritually relate to Him. The other three gospels focus more on what Jesus DOES, and how He teaches people to act out their devotion to Him in practical ways. If fasting is such an important SPIRITUAL duty, then why do the words “fast”, “fasted”, or “fasting” never appear even once in the most spiritual gospel of all, the Book of John? Nor does “fasting” ever appear in John’s three doctrinal epistles. God is tired of guilt being heaped on people who eat instead of fast. God’s own Son "came eating and drinking (Matt.11:19), though ONE fasting period (forty days) is attributed to Him in Scripture (Matt.4:1-4) . Not once in God’s Word do the New Testament Apostles actually command Christians to fast at all, but they allowed the saints to settle that issue between God and themselves. God’s people are given a list of things they must do, such as pray without ceasing, rejoice evermore, and be filled with the Spirit (I Thes.5:16-22). Fasting appears NOWHERE on that list of commands. As in the case of whether or not Sabbath observance or tithing is required of Christians, it’s a good idea to make sure regular fasting is an actual Biblical commandment, before subjecting yourself (and your family) to its stresses and possible health risks. While sacrifice in our Christian life is sometimes necessary, sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice is never commanded by God under the New Covenant. We are free from the need to observe legalistic rituals (routines), the “weak and beggarly elements” referred to in Galatians 4:9. It is not God’s will for church leaders to impose fasting as a commandment. That is irresponsible and risky. Some of God’s people have already done without good things in their lives because of satan's attacks. Their soul is already humbled by privations, and they feel too emotionally fragile to endure the additional emptiness of a lengthy fast. Unless God gives supernatural strength, they might suffer clinical depression or even panic attacks if they stop eating for too long. Others may be on medication which requires them to eat. Some might be diabetic. Others might have metabolic disorders or be recovering from eating disorders. Some of God’s people are too ill to fast and must eat to keep their blood sugar from plunging. Many Christians are always on crash diets to lose weight and they feel weak anyway, and would suffer from cutting their calories to zero. A very few, and I don’t know who those impoverished people are, might even be underweight or chronically malnourished. Who’s mean enough to tell those people that if they don't fill their personal fasting quota to earn it, God won't hear and answer their prayer? Even the priests of Baal tried to buy their own god's favor through suffering (I Kings 18:28). What stinks to high heaven is the superior attitude of believers who are puffed up with pride about the fasting days they log. They imagine God keeps meticulous records of all the Hershey Bars they gave up for special seasons of self-denial, as they strove to prove that they were better than their pleasure-loving brothers and sisters. The sweet treat they get for their self-denial is to go brag about it to the other saints. But if they’re looking for the praise of men they already have their reward (Matt.6:16). Skipping meals during a season of prayer is to be done discreetly, without boasting about it (Matt.6:16-18). The same principle of doing something PRIVATELY between you and God applies to giving money, or personal prayer (Matt.6:1-4; 5-8). God knows when you feel like your back is up against the wall and you forget all other issues to be alone with Him. And after a long, hard battle with satan is won, it

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is very offensive to God when people tell the prayer warrior, "If only you had been fasting regularly all along, you wouldn't have had to be so desperate about it right now." But has it ever occurred to such a judgmental hypocrite that the vast majority of the time, that dear one might have a merry song in his or her heart because they can sense the love of their Bridegroom caressing their souls? How, then, could it be appropriate for that one to mourn in fasting? Unless a just-married couple spent their wedding night in prayer for God to intervene in an unforeseen emergency, would they fast on their honeymoon, or would they feast joyfully together? What if a non-fasting Christian is so spiritually discerning that he or she can already see by faith their Bridegroom coming just over the horizon of time? If you can see your loved one coming toward you, how can you be sad enough to go round with a mournful face and afflict your happy soul? The most dangerous thing about fasting error is to lay the law down upon yourself or others. Religious legalism is like New Year’s Resolutions. Beware. There’s a fuzzy line between goal-setting and legalism. To say "I shall never again eat on Wednesday" is to open the door for satan to lay a snare of condemnation for you. What if the Lord leads you to witness to someone over lunch on a particular Wednesday? Are you going to tremble in fear of God’s retribution if you violate what has become a law and eat on Wednesday? Even if you “vow” to “fast without fail” just one day a year, every Thanksgiving, the principle of legalism still holds true. Temperance is a Christian virtue, but keeping your teeth out of the turkey won’t give your prayers wings to fly. Don't try to add your own contribution to Christ’s finished work on the Cross. We are saved by grace through faith in His Blood, period. If you fast, give alms, sing in the choir, or knit socks to try to earn or keep God’s approval, it is dangerous territory you're on. You have fallen from grace and have strayed back into the bondage of imperfect law-keeping and reliance upon self, not the Savior. So the very "self" you are so anxious to "crucify" is what you depend upon to provide faithful performance to gain power with God, and that is a hazardous trap of certain self-condemnation. Beware of the spirit of anorexia masquerading as something holy (sanctorexia). It is a wasting obsession, which saps a saint's joy and vitality. So many of God’s saints feel so superior as they fast frequently and watch their own flesh fall away and the scale numbers drop. Many Christian women in their 20’s and 30’s look much older because frequent fasting saps their bodies of vital nutrients. Even their once-joyful countenance becomes a sour, shrunken mask of painful piety. When such folks carry out their daily devotions they look like they’re getting a whipping instead of actually enjoying the Presence of their Heavenly Father. It is because they have lost the joy of their own salvation and the sweet savor of the Bride's perfume of ecstasy has turned to the sour stench of death and decay. Fasting is a work, just like alms-giving, praying for others, meal preparation, singing in the choir, and countless other activities; some of which may be permissible but not mandatory. Beware of pride, or a “God Owes Me” attitude. Whenever you depend on works to keep you in God’s favor, it is an insult to His Son's finished work on your behalf at Calvary. It is saying that what Jesus did in His own dreadful suffering is insufficient and God requires much more in order to accept you. In adding works to grace as the object of your faith, grace ceases to be grace (Rom.11:6). You are saying that Christ lied when He said: "It is finished".

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A WEIGHTY MATTER

Nehemiah 8:10; Matt. 5:28; Luke 16:15; 22:28-30;Romans 14:3-4; 2 Cor. 4:7; Galatians 4:8-9; I Timothy 4:3-5

When will God's people learn that to keep their priorities in line with what He specifically put His Church into this world to do, and stop wasting His time trying to get Him to hallow the twisted cultural values of this world? God's House is meant to be a refuge from the oppressions of the world, not a promoter of them. Many women use the excuse that they’re fasting for spiritual reasons, (or for health) but the REAL reason is they want to get pin-thin to attract more men! When will God's people realize that He did not create every woman to look the same? There are differences in height, bone structure, skin tone, and musculature, even within the same racial groupings. And_are you surprised_ He did not design all women to be tall and willowy! Those who break this cultural beauty edict are not suffering from some demonic affliction which needs to be cast out by prayer and fasting! Satan has taken a perfectly sound concept_healthy eating habits_and distorted it to use as a weapon against women and girls in particular. He has convinced worldly women that the heavier they are, the less they’re worth. Hollywood actresses are setting the trend, defying even death to make themselves ever thinner; just so their popularity will not die. Good health is far less important to these vain women than being able to count their ribs. Although it is natural that women’s forms mature out of early childhood, society pressures them to defy nature itself and strive to reverse their own maturation. Satan wants women to look like starving boys! Satan’s original lie: Eat from the forbidden tree, and you’ll gain in prestige. His current lie: DON’T eat, and others will respect you more. His aim is to distort the image of womanhood in revenge for the verdict and judgment of the Garden of Eden, which cost HIM status. He hates to see women energetic and feminine-looking, as God intended for them to be. He knows people can’t focus on more than one issue at a time, so he drives the worldly woman to worry so much about her “fat” that she never spares a thought for her eternal fate. The devil keeps her fixated on her body image and other people’s opinions of it. Above all, he is delighted with the current attitudes of vainglory and self-obsession which motivate the trend-setters of this wicked end-time culture. It is bad enough that the beautiful, the popular and the wealthy have grabbed all the best things of the earth for themselves and shoved aside the humbler souls, saying: “This is OUR world, get out of our way!” But it is not to be so in God's church. Certain individuals were noted for their physical attractiveness in Old Testament history (2 Sam.14:25). But they were praised BY MEN on the basis of their looks, not God. In this dispensation, just as He always has, God takes pleasure in working through humble vessels full of the Glory of the Lord, that the excellency may be of Him and not of the flesh. A strange new doctrine is taking shape in God's Church, one never ordained through the mouths of prophets or apostles: Girls, get skinny for Jesus! Its principal tenet: In order for a female saint to qualify as an overcomer, she must first subdue her flesh; that is, eliminate as much of it as possible. These misguided women interpret God's Word to mean that the more meat they banish from their bones, the more acceptable they are to Him . Thus, a woman’s body is seen to be her greatest spiritual foe, something to vanquish via dieting. No corresponding sacrifice is demanded of the male believer, except for when church fasts are called. God didn’t write one set of rules for women, and another for men. Where in God's Word does it stipulate that men are saved by grace alone, but His daughters grow closer to Him by starving themselves to resemble pre-teen girls; or worse, the current “lollipop look” , a stick figure topped by a ‘too large’ head?

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One TV preacher is so solidly built no chicken coop within a thirty-mile radius feels safe from him. Yet he bellowed from his pulpit against women who gain weight after marriage. But who is HE to claim the moral high ground? This particular pulpit pilot was unfaithful to his first wife, then remarried another woman. I think that's a much greater sin in the sight of the Lord than munching on a Hershey Bar! Jesus set a precedent when He drove out the money-changers and merchants from the Temple. These carnal men were using His House to carry on with the commerce of this world. Likewise, the diet industry is pressuring women of the Western World to think they need their products, telling even normal-weight women that they need to slim down till they’re gaunt. When a woman finishes a plate of food, it is seen as greed. If she were ladylike, people think, she would only just nibble at her plate. Eating is now perceived as an act of guilt and shame, even by God's own people who have been hoodwinked into adopting and sanctifying the devil’s values. While corrective measures may be necessary when people’s health is at risk, the quest for an elusive body shape can become an idolatrous obsession! The last thing a wounded woman needs is to have the hang-ups of this world thrust upon her again once she enters the church door. If all the women talk about is "being beautiful enough to represent Jesus" that's finding fault with God's creation. We should look well groomed and eat healthily, but we are to be Christ-obsessed, not self-obsessed. Dieting for Jesus is NOT to be made a requirement of women’s discipleship! Weight loss is NOT to be used as a yardstick to measure gains in spiritual growth! And thinness is NOT to be made the measure of spirituality! God's Church is meant to be a place where souls damaged by the lies of the devil are mended. Many new converts come to Him with a lot of baggage heaped on them by society. They see themselves as ugly rejects who failed to make a nice niche for themselves in this perverted world. Often, a person will not come to Christ at all until he is thoroughly fed up with “the way things are”.

Big Bigotry

When I lived in California many years back I visited a “radical” Christian church which teaches you must perform lots of good works and continually mourn over your human weaknesses in order to stay saved. One of the most sickening scenes I ever witnessed in any church happened there one night. A visiting speaker invited people up for prayer. One (very large) man went up to ask prayer for a bad leg. Hmmm….now there’s one sin a self-righteous Pharisee can sink his fangs into! Instead of seeing a fellow human being created in God’s image, all that beady-eyed “evangelist” saw was a fat guy who ought to be ashamed of himself! The preacher told the man he was sure his weight was to blame for his bad leg, and he needed to ask God’s forgiveness for being big. So in front of everybody present, the man had to repeat a self-flagellating “prayer of repentance” composed by that religious bully. Think about it. What if some skinny teenage girl had gone forward to get healed of muscle atrophy, hair loss, weak bones and bleeding gums? Would the preacher have automatically accused the girl of starving herself, or would he have showered tender-hearted sympathy on her? Would the alleged anorexic have had to publicly “pray” for forgiveness for non-eating, even if her symptoms were caused by a rare metabolic disorder? Bigots can be very inconsistent. It is a SIN to judge men’s hearts by their outward appearance (John 7:24; James 2:1)! If the fat man was a true believer in Christ, Scripture says this about him: He is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor.5:21). Period. The Bible makes no exceptions for race, color, gender, or…size, which in today’s warped world, happens to be the last acceptable bastion of prejudice. Before assembled witnesses the preacher made that man wallow in a hog pen of guilt, but there is NO CONDEMNATION to those in Christ Jesus. Until the Rapture changes everyone into beauty kings and queens, Christians come in all shapes and sizes. Christians are not

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like a pack of eggs, all white and weighing exactly one ounce! Most eggs are brown where I live, but they’re just as tasty as white ones! Weight gain (or loss) usually has to do with simple math, not morality. I’ve known some people who can watch TV all day long and eat like a horse, but never gain an ounce. Normal people don’t have to pig out to gain weight. All it takes is consistently taking in just ten (10) calories more per day than you expend to put on one pound in one year. That doesn’t make God love you any less! What the preacher made that poor man repeat was an outrage: “I am a glutton,” along with other rub-your-nose-in-it “confessions”. Not one word was asked by that spiritual butcher about the man’s overall health, or whether he was depressed or just needed a brother to just love him as a person! He got treated like a dirty dumpster by a beady-eyed bigot just because he didn’t have a bod that “glorified God”. Larger people are stereotyped as stupid and lazy, too thick-skinned to have feelings. Some try to overcome their cosmetic handicaps through a jolly personality which can laugh off any insult. But many people, whatever their size, have been kicked around so much they’re fragile as glass and think they need some preacher’s approval to justify their own existence! If that poor guy had been aware of his own value in the sight of God, instead of groveling in front of that jerk he might have given him a stronger confession and walked out. I guess I didn’t have much self-esteem then, either. I’d been programmed to believe the widespread lie that preachers, as “God’s anointed” are beyond rebuke as being the Big Chiefs, while us poor peasants parked out in the folding chairs are just extras in God’s Kingdom. After the big man sat down, I went up to tell the preacher I’d just gotten home from a bus trip and they’d lost my luggage, so would he please pray that I’d get my stuff back? As if picking on the fat guy wasn’t enough emotional candy for the preacher, he sneered and asked: “Sister? Do you serve the Lord?” I didn’t voice my thoughts, which went like this: I work like a slave everyday and when I get home, I’m dead. When do I ever get time to ‘do a big purpose in life’’? What a loaded question! I said something like: “I think so” (at least I prayed everyday, tired or not). He replied: “Sister, I serve the Lord, and I NEVER lose MY luggage when I travel. God takes good care of His slaves.” Does that smell of a “Job’s comforter”? His words fit his theology, because he called himself God’s slave, not His son! He’d taken a big bite out of that fat man to punish him for an outward flaw that was visible to the naked eye. Now that preacher wanted to have ME for dessert, so he searched my heart for something to criticize. Even if I WAS better-looking than that preacher (at least I didn’t have a sour-looking face), most likely I didn’t “do as much for God” as he did, so there was something else he could chew on! I should have told that preacher it’s easy to be “spiritual” and serve “the Lord” when you’re living off other people’s loot and don’t have to serve cranky customers day in and day out, so until you’ve walked a mile in my worn-out work shoes, buster, you’ve got no room to criticize ME! But the fat man did get the worst of it. Even if it WAS his fault of for being big, was that rude preacher so without sin that God picked him to humiliate others before the whole assembly? While it’s unhealthy to devour twice as many calories as you need, “biting and devouring one another” just might be equally offensive to God (Gal.5:15). Today’s typical institutional church reflects not Christ, but the world and its values. Immorality and divorce abound. Where’s the outcry in the Body of Christ about THOSE sins of excess?

Even Christians lust for glory and gold (James 4:1-6). That’s what “success” is all about. Give to get, confess you’re blessed, pricey suits, loads of loot, detox and Botox can fix just about any sin under the sun that’s worth worrying about. Only cosmetic sins can cripple a Christian’s progress. Inward flaws can be airbrushed away as lovable human quirks. But being poor, plain or plump is unforgivable!

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Oddly enough the New Testament has much more to say about greed for money than greed for a bucket of chicken. It says virtually nothing about outward beauty being a prerequisite for “representing Jesus”! Where’s the big outcry in the Religious Establishment about the rampant divorce rate in “church leadership” and preachers’ big appetite for women, fancy cars, money, mansions and power? So long as the preacher’s rich and thin, that kind of gluttony doesn’t merit mention, even if it does condemn a soul to the devil’s barbecue pit in the world to come! Like a nodding sheep I let the preacher pray for the recovery of my lost luggage, but I should have put confidence in God only, not in some professional “pray-er”. That preacher made my skin crawl just being in his presence! Instead of exuding the sweet fragrance of our Savior, some “ministries” give off the odor of a rotting skunk! How could someone so unlike Jesus possibly claim to be His representative? I’ll NEVER let any arrogant preacher look down his nose at me ever again! Those days are gone forever! I wish I’d had the guts to stand up for that fat man and tell that preacher that God is more worried about people being “sinny” than staying skinny. Since that phony Pharisee was into self-humiliation as being a cure for sin, whether real or imagined, what better penance could there have been for somebody like him than to take the same medicine he forced down other people’s throats! I’d have suggested a public confession that went something like this: “Please pray for me, saints. I’m a guilt peddler who pounds repentance into people I know nothing about. I’m a glory glutton who brags about my blessings. I’m a vicious vulture who feeds off the failures and faults of others. I’m a skinny scoundrel with a Texas-sized ego that constantly needs feeding. I’m a bitter little bully with a withered heart. I need to cut bigger people down to size to make ME feel bigger! Maybe there’s something to be said for eating and it isn’t such a big sin after all. If I kept my mouth busy on a burger or a bucket of chicken, at least I wouldn’t be binging on my big brother. So, y’all please pray for me that I’ll never again open my mean old mouth unless it’s just to eat. If I kept my big fat mouth shut the rest of the time, I’d do far less damage to the Kingdom of God! Can y’all say ‘amen’!” May the good Lord hasten the day that proud preachers who know all about everybody else’s sins become humble enough to see their own.

Dieting to Incite Lust Millions of God's children all over the world are have to depend on Him to keep daily food on their tables. Christ's main concern is to meet the needs of people who call upon Him in faith, that the Father might receive Glory. He is busy about the work of saving lost souls and seeking out His lost sheep. While millions perish for want of spiritual and natural food, image-obsessed women worry that they will eat the same luscious, abundant food their husbands so readily indulge in. And no, God doesn't excuse carnal husbands for staring lustfully at skinny girls on the street just because their wives are having a hard time getting their figure back after childbirth. God counts that lustful look as adultery, regardless of the excuses men make for it. Sadly, even some of God's daughters diet not for health and optimum vitality, but to make men lust after them. A svelte figure gained through grueling diet and exercise is viewed as a prize which must be shown off to eyes both male and female, married and unmarried. This turns the woman into a temptress who traps the male into breaking Jesus’ admonition not to look lustfully upon a woman (Matt.5:28). Fitness achieved through fasting can bring the same temptation to carnal pride. How vain, for a woman to boast of the many days of fasting she's endured to gain a gaunt figure which supposedly is “a good testimony for Jesus”, and to brag about the heavenly reward she expects to get for such self-denial. This is a pointed dig at her sisters who eat normally and are not so thin. In God's eyes, it is a far greater sin to indulge in self-exaltation than to polish off a whole box of chocolates in one sitting!

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Next time your big sister comes over for a hug don’t say anything to make her feel small.

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God’s Kingdom Don’t Run on FatII Sam.1:12; 3:35; Romans 14:17; Col.2:16,20

One day the four pillars of the church decided to hold a fast before the coming church revival. Sister Sarah would impose the most rigorous fasts upon herself, while the other three ladies were more laid-back about it. Sarah was the eldest of the four, and the most domineering. She was very religious but had a tongue like sandpaper. The fast would take place this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they all decided. Each day the four would meet in the church sanctuary to storm the gates of heaven and encourage one another in sisterly love. Sarah would neither eat nor drink during that period. Flora Belle would drink only water and diet Coke. Bessie Mae might indulge in a yogurt drink if she felt too faint. But Elsie said her fasting practice was strictly between her and God and she only had to answer to Him. Sarah frowned at Flora Belle and Bessie Mae. “Jesus MIGHT have drunk water while he fasted for forty days, but I doubt there were any Coke machines out in the wilderness. My word, Bessie Mae! Jesus didn’t have yogurt in the wilderness. I presume you don’t have yogurt while you’re fasting, Elsie?” “No, Sister Sarah, and I don’t drink Diet Coke during a fast, either.” "Good," Sarah smiled primly. "I knew you'd be in agreement with me on this, Elsie." On the second day of their fast the four ladies were kneeling at the altar in the sanctuary. Sarah felt like she was wilting, and her throat was dry as parchment. Her concentration drifted and she felt miserable. But she was proud of her self-discipline as a stalwart soldier of the Cross. Her head wobbled sleepily as she pleaded with God to reward her for her suffering and self-denial. Sarah asked the Almighty why their pastor hadn't been man enough to make the rest of the church fast too. "If You had to depend on the menfolk to undergird Jubilee Tabernacle with their prayers," Sarah let God know, "this place would cave in like a house of cards." Hearing that, the other three prayer warriors fought to stay properly solemn as they prayed earnestly for the salvation of souls and healing of the sick. It was just past eight o’clock in the evening, though the summer sun was still softly shining. Sarah knew that Elsie had just dropped her husband off at his AA meeting and she might already be back home. The four ladies had agreed to pray privately at home the rest of the day after daily group prayer in the sanctuary, but Sarah wanted to discuss a few things alone with Elsie. Sarah knew that Elsie's home phone service had been cut off recently, so she tried to reach her on her cell phone. All Sarah got was a recorded message which indicated that Elsie had switched it off. Sarah decided to drop in on her anyway. As she drove down the Beltline Road, humming a praise chorus, she passed Hog Heaven Barbeque. Something caught her eye. In the front of the parking lot was a scratched-up, dented, rusty old van with red-checked curtains in the windows. It looked like Elsie's van. Driven by curiosity, Sarah turned her car around and entered the Hog Heaven parking lot. She parked and prayed for self control. As she walked into the restaurant the sumptuous smells made her mouth water. But she must stay strong. Lo, and behold, seated near the entrance was Elsie, hands folded and head bowed over a

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pork barbeque sandwich, potato salad, and baked beans. She even had a Seven-Up on the side. “For shame!” Sister Sarah cried. “You've got the nerve to say grace over that meal in front of the window, where all the world can see you!” Elsie looked up. “And why should I be ashamed to give God thanks in front of the whole world? Why did you come in here, anyway, unless you're hungry too?" “You were supposed to be fasting, and you know it!” Sarah snapped. “I said I would fast three days, not three nights," Elsie said. "If you’ll read your Bible, you'll find out that sometimes David himself would fast just till nightfall. I had a great prayer time today, and I did feel the power of God." Sister Sarah pursed her lips primly. "You might feel it even more keenly if you would fast as I do. I don't eat at night. I go to bed hungry and let my calorie deficit build up. That makes me even more keenly aware of my hunger and dependency on the strength of the Lord. You're pampering your body, Elsie, but we're called to punish it into submission. Besides, the sun hasn't set yet, has it?" Elsie gnashed her teeth and set her sandwich down. She had no appetite for confrontation. "I was gonna wait till the sun finished going down at nine o’clock, but I felt a migraine coming on and anyway, I’m not into all this legalism.” “You are SO undisciplined! You aren't willing to humble your soul before God! You aren't willing to suffer even a little to show God how desperate you are for answered prayer!” Sister Sarah seethed. She felt like yelling, but didn’t want everybody looking at her. “Suffering?” Elsie retorted. “Oh, I’ve done plenty of that! I've already cried my fair share of tears, what with Ray stumbling in the house drunk night after night. Then we had that trouble with the neighbor kids setting our tool shed on fire. Five hundred dollars down the drain. Then our phone got cut off because we can't afford it anymore. We can barely keep up with the rent. So I know what it means to feel desperate if anybody does! Last November Ray went to work drunk after an all-night spree and said something crude to a female supervisor he doesn't like. So Ray lost his job and we lived on beans for five weeks till I could earn some money helping slow students with their homework." "Even so, it's still hard to make ends meet. Last year we got a free Christmas turkey from some church in the rich part of town, but you can't imagine how embarrassed I felt having to buy my grandkids' presents at the thrift shop. Then Ray had that liver operation and lost all that weight, worrying me sick. Not to mention the bills his insurance wouldn't cover. Now, Sister Sarah, If you think I haven’t done enough suffering to keep my dirt-poor soul humble, you're wrong! Oh, I’ve done without lots of things, and if fasting from food earns us credit in God's payroll book, then fasting from happiness ought to do that as well. Not that I'm being nosy, but why did you come to Hog Heaven if you’re doing an overnight fast?” “Well, I saw your car, and the Bible does teach us to exhort one another to faithfulness in doing good works. I am sorry, though, that you've had to endure so many trials." Was that a twinkle Elsie saw in Sarah's eye? Elsie could see right through her. “Well, now, after all I just said you’ve got plenty to chew on, Sister Sarah…even though you aren’t eating. I've struggled with liberty versus legalism all my life, and I'll be the first to admit I've done a pretty lousy job earning God's favors and answers to prayer. But if what Jesus accomplished on the Cross of Calvary wasn't enough to pay for all God's benefits, I doubt my hunger pangs would make up the difference." Sarah gave her a beady-eyed frown. "If I were you, Elsie, I wouldn't bother to show up at our prayer meeting tomorrow. You can be sure I'll tell the others how sumptuously you've been faring behind our backs!" Sarah left Hog Heaven in a huff. She felt dizzy and her head hurt from hunger and dehydration. She roared down the road, misjudging her distances and hitting the gas pedal too hard. She turned a corner without slowing down and blew a tire. She got

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a ticket from a passing policeman. Had satan set a speed trap for her? Sarah wondered. If only she'd minded her own business instead of stopping by Hog Heaven, she wouldn't have gotten mad and gotten a fine and flat tire. Elsie cried all the way home. Ray came home from his AA meeting and asked what was wrong. "Oh, nothing," Elsie sniffed. Then Ray asked what he could do to make her feel better. Maybe he could take her out somewhere. The revival was now underway, with soul-stirring music and powerful preaching. How thrilled Elsie was when her husband came along to the first meeting with her and got saved when the altar call was given. She’d been praying all week for Ray. And as an added bonus, some young people from the local college came to church and got saved. Elsie had the time of her life praising the Lord for answered prayer. At the following midweek service Sarah stood up to testify. She looked peaked and testy. “God gave me the strength to do without water and food for three days and nights. I fasted and prayed for my lazy husband to get out of his Easy Boy Recliner and come to the meeting with me and get saved. But that big reprobate never did. Oh, well, this trial of patience will only serve to strengthen my faith. I didn't see the answers I prayed for during the revival, but God is bound to reward me for suffering for His sake. There are certain individuals,” she said pointedly, “who sell their heavenly heritage for a bowl of bean stew, and they receive nothing from God. They’ve got plenty of lard on their bones but they won’t sacrifice one ounce of it for the Kingdom of God. Instead of lifting up their cross, they pick up their knife and fork. Now I’m saying this in love. As I found out a few days ago when I was out driving, spare tires come in handy. But they're for cars, not for people. Some of you could stand to fast a whole month and get rid of the spare tire around your middle." Feeling pleased with herself Sarah concluded: “Y’all pray for me that I can continue to be a bright and shining example to all my brothers and sisters here.” A certain man stood up and gave all the glory to Jesus for saving his soul. He gave God thanks for giving him such a beautiful wife. He praised the Lord for every cotton-pickin' ounce of her, and said it was her deep-down beauty which had led him to Jesus. Eyes aglow, Elsie stood up. “Saints, when I was younger I went on lots of diets. I'd tell myself I couldn't eat this and I couldn't eat that. I'd starve for most of the day, then eat a light supper and tell myself I couldn't eat another bite till next morning. That's a law I laid on myself. And when some of you fast, you think, "I can't let a single calorie pass my lips till the clock and calendar says my fast is over. And if I do, God might punish me, or at the very least He won't meet the need I brought to Him in prayer. A diet is a law and a fast is a law. I know praying is more important than peeling potatoes, but are we under law or under grace? Jesus cried from the Cross: "It is finished! How much of our heavenly inheritance is still unpaid for and we have to make up the difference with our own suffering? Maybe I weigh a little more than some of you, and maybe I spend more time in the kitchen than at the altar," she said, looking over at the skinny Sarah. “But I saw plenty of answered prayers this week. My husband found the Lord, and we all just heard him testify to his love for Jesus, and how the Lord helped him swear off the bottle for good. Not only that, God blessed Ray with a brand new job he likes better than the last one, praise the Lord. Our nephew told us a bunch of his college friends are finding Jesus. And as for Ray, it was the Living Bread of God's Word that reached him for Christ, not the meals I skipped. The Kingdom of God runs on the Oil of the Holy Ghost. It don’t run on fat.”

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THREE REASONS MIRACLES ARE SCARCE

So many modern Charismatic churches long to see miracles occur on a scale described in the Book of Acts. I have been in places where people seriously ill would go up front to be prayed for by ministers eager to pray for them. All around me I would hear intercessors pleading earnestly with the Lord to do some wonderful work of healing for His honor and glory. Whenever people left the service unhealed I would be left with this thought: Why don't perfect miracles of healing occur each and every time the saints petition the Lord for them? Wouldn't it be in God's best interest if getting the sick healed weren't such a long, drawn-out struggle? Any lost people in the vicinity who heard about paralytics or blind people instantly receiving their healing would surely rush to the altar to surrender to such a mighty, powerful Jesus! That isn't necessarily the case, though. You only have to read the gospels to find out that Jesus still suffered plenty of opposition and contended with a lot of unbelief, even though He succeeded in healing lots of sick folks. Jesus even raised people from the dead. Many believed on Him because He raised up Lazarus (John 12:9-11). But this only further inflamed the hatred of His religious enemies, who wanted to kill both Lazarus (the proof of the pudding) and Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees and corrupt priests of the nation wanted to be the final authority in matters of faith. They would continually set traps for Jesus to get Him to say something so they could twist His words. Religious law interpreters of His day took away the key of knowledge and hindered others from entering into life (Luke 11:52). At the time of Jesus' first coming, God could not yet usher in the Messianic Age of Israel and bring full deliverance to Israel as a nation. Jesus wept because His nation would be swayed to reject their own King, Who would have sheltered them from dangerous days ahead (Luke 19:41-44). The opposition of Jesus’ foes even extended to denying evidence of His resurrection so people would not believe in Him. The corrupt religious leaders paid bribe money to soldiers to claim that Jesus’ body had really been stolen by his disciples (Matt.28:11-15). Those greedy blind leaders of the blind had too much power and prestige to lose by letting their people know the real truth. Because God's revelation in Christ was warred against and rejected at that time in history, only believing individuals, not the entire nation of Israel, would find salvation in the immediate future. The literal earthly messianic kingdom promised to the Jews through the prophets would have to wait. The Gentiles would first be given their chance to receive Jesus as Savior. Not many years after Christ’s crucifixion, the Roman general Titus and his legions destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 A.D. Had the Jewish nation not been deceived by lies, they might have received their King during Christ’s earthly ministry and been protected from that awful destruction. No wonder Jesus wept over Jerusalem. If He were physically present in the earth today, wouldn’t He also weep over all the corruption and deception going on in the institutional church? Suppressing God's truth doesn’t bring a blessing. It always brings bad consequences and great loss. I asked the Lord about a certain church which had a great beginning but no longer exists. Why, I wondered, didn't everyone see more signs and wonders during the lifetime of that particular church? I was given three principal reasons:

1. LACK OF LOVE Surprising, because going to this particular church felt like being in a family. The sisters would hug the sisters and the brothers would hug the brothers. People would invite each other over to visit in their homes and get to know one another well. There were lots of smiles and sweet greetings. It sure did beat the stiff formality of other churches. So long as the church was small and people were generally of the same opinion in most matters, there was total harmony.

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But the real litmus test of love comes when love is confronted by difference of opinion. One missionary family was sent out from this church to a Caribbean Island with the assurance their needs would be faithfully met. The missionary met another minister who held some views different from the pastor's. The pastor ordered the missionary to sever all ties with this man's ministry, but the missionary could not do it on principle, because he felt that he had been led by the Lord to this other person for fellowship. Abruptly and without warning, this man and his family were cut off from further fellowship and relationship with the home church. As the church grew, divisions crept up between the leadership and the other saints. The people were told to do things which worked a hardship on their family lives, such as join in a 24-hour prayer chain. Only problem was, the church was far too small to support that project adequately. In a church which taught and sang about liberty in the Spirit, little legalisms crept up, such as being forbidden to watch TV, no wearing of jewelry, etc. The poorer Christians (many were jobless at the time and struggling) were warned about financial responsibility and "not mooching off the saints". One couple walked out of that meeting in protest, right after those words were uttered from the pulpit. People's giving began to be recorded, though all offerings were taken "anonymously" in a box in back of the church. People who paid “tithes” and offerings in cash instead of checks were sometimes suspected of not giving at all! One brother hired a crew of painters from the church and defrauded them on their wages. Instead of acknowledging the rift he’d caused in the congregation and his need to repent of his theft, his sin was quietly covered up. But sin, like yeast, only multiplies when it is buried (Gal.5:9). Repentance is the only remedy. These days it's the victims who are urged to repent for getting upset at the offender! Those who are sinned against are told to "just let it go". But does that make for true reconciliation with born-again believers who ought to know better and still refuse to repent? Compassion is called for, but those who defraud their brothers and sisters are warned by the Word of God (I Thes.4:6). Faith is a key component in seeing healings or other miracles happen in your church. But faith works by love (Gal.5:6). Love is defined by how it behaves, not by how it smiles. When you're a young believer, you can easily think that just because the atmosphere in church is friendly, informal and relaxed there must be love. But love does no ill to its neighbor (Rom.13:10).

2. LOOKING UNTO MEN RATHER THAN GOD Everybody loved the pastor and sought his approval. His happy, down-to-earth personality was a real asset to him. Whenever any of the young believers had a question about the Word of God or any issue of daily life, he could be depended on for a sensible answer. It was almost like having Jesus Himself there, we felt. At that point in time we would have felt cast adrift if we didn't have him there to depend on. You can reach the point where you wonder where you'll get the word of the Lord from if a highly esteemed spiritual leader were to vanish from your life! There is a fine line between properly esteeming your leadership and beginning to lean on them too much. The problem got even messier when "Brother Bill", the elder, came along (the same one who was later sent off as a missionary). Brother Bill had a more relaxed approach to life than the pastor. He was as humble as a little child. He wasn't into a lot of legalism. We even spotted a Christmas tree in his home, which was frowned on by the pastor, who didn't believe in Christmas. Many of the young people liked to talk with Brother Bill between services. After a while, some people detected a spirit of jealousy in the air. It's easy to think that miracles MUST happen because your leader is so wonderful a person, so devout and prayerful, that God just has to relent and do some major-league miracles in your midst. We young people went out street preaching with the pastor one day. He preached his heart out as we sang faith choruses. We prayed for

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a crippled man but nothing happened. I felt so let down afterwards, but knew it wasn't due to any lack of zeal on the pastor's part. The line between Jesus and the minister in the pulpit can easily blur if you're not careful. It's so much easier to put your faith and trust in that which can be seen, but God is a jealous God Who will not tolerate any rivals (Exodus 34:14).

3. BURYING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TITHE I realize this is a very prickly topic within the church, and at first glance it seems like the Tithe would have little to do with God's willingness to work miracles in the congregation. But perhaps "bondage" is the key link between the two concepts. Healing brings freedom (Luke 13:12). When you enforce any type of sacrifice upon the congregation as a binding duty, New Creatures set free by Christ are brought back under servitude. This can lead to falling from grace (Gal.5:4). That means you look unto your own works to maintain a right relationship with God rather than the finished work of Christ on the Cross. When church leaders force their flock to tithe on money, they bind their finances to an ongoing debt, even though Scripture commands Christians to "owe no man anything but to love on another"(Rom.13:8). Some might think it does no harm to re-impose just one tiny little law, and you can still be free of all the other Mosaic ordinances if you like. But it simply doesn’t work that way. The Law of Moses is a package deal, and you can't just pick and choose the ordinances you like and reject the rest as being made obsolete by the New Covenant. The tithe was for Israel only and given by Moses from Mount Sinai (Leviticus 27:30-34). The final verse of Leviticus states that these laws were given specifically for the Children of Israel. It takes only ONE link to bind your liberty to the Law of Moses! Though the tithe be just one ordinance of hundreds which constitute the Law of Moses, it is a slender iron chain which binds the believer to the rest of the big iron mass of the Law behind him, so that he is no longer truly free. Being under the Law brings a curse, not deliverance and healing (Gal.3:10-13). "But it's only ten per cent!" some will object. Why make such a big fuss about it anyway? Well, part of the issue has to do with what people do with what they know. God can have compassion on the ignorant, but those who KNOW that they are in error and do it anyway are in hot water with God! The man who “knew not” was beaten with few stripes (Luke 12:48), but he still suffered because of his ignorance! And the one who DELIBERATELY did wrong got a far worse whipping in the end! It's one thing to teach a dodgy doctrine because you genuinely believe it to be true, it's another thing to harbor a doctrine you KNOW is not true. Being sincere in preaching error doesn't make it right, but deliberately peddling error as truth is far worse. That is hiding the key of knowledge which could open the door to spiritual liberty for a believer in Christ! Cherry-picking and distorting Scripture for personal gain is an ugly, inexcusable sin in the sight of God! Pity poor, trusting Joe Blow out in the pews who doesn't suspect he's having the wool pulled over his eyes as he gets threatened with God's judgment for non-tithing! If you DELIBERATELY knowingly bury truth which could set God's people free, you're no better than the believer who keeps his mouth shut when he ought to be telling somebody about Jesus! The believer who keeps quiet might be scared some tattooed biker will beat him up for witnessing to him. But the seminary-educated preacher who DELIBERATELY hides the real truth about the true Biblical tithe only keeps quiet because he's afraid of losing income. Perhaps it bothers a preacher's conscience less to take ten per cent from his congregation than it would if he asked for twenty or thirty per cent. More than one type of Biblical tithe was taken in ancient Israel, even though tithes were levied only on agricultural produce (Deut.12:17; 14:22; Neh.10:37). Scholars disagree on some obscure details, but there were actually three tithes paid by herdsmen and farmers in ancient Israel: One tenth of all the agricultural produce of Israel (the Levitical Tithe) was given to the Levites (Num.18:21). Out of the remaining 90% of the crop, still

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another tithe (the Festival Tithe) was set aside to be eaten by the worshippers themselves at at annual festivals in Jerusalem (Deut.14:22-27). And a special tithe (the Poor Tithe) was taken every third year to feed hungry orphans, Levites and widows (Deut.14:28-29). Opinions range from between nineteen and twenty-three per cent as that part of a farmer's entire crop that was set aside as tithes. So why don't preachers ask for nineteen or twenty per cent instead of just ten per cent of churchgoers' income? Because it would empty the pews in a hurry, that's why! Money taken by deceit is fraud. Theft is theft, regardless of the amount conned out of the gullible. Like some preachers do today, Elisha's servant Gehazi could boast that he touched neither the glory nor the gold when God did a wondrous work. But Gehazi did touch the silver! Silver is worth only a fraction of gold's value. In II Kings Chapter 5 a certain Syrian army captain, Naaman, is afflicted with leprosy, the worst disease of that era. Only a miracle can cure Naaman of a disease which slowly destroys the body and would turn him into a social outcast who must be driven out of society to die a slow, withering death among other lepers. Naaman has in his household a little Israelite girl who had been captured from her homeland to become a personal servant for his wife. The little girl feels pity for her master and tells her mistress about Elisha, a great prophet in Israel, who would be able to heal him. Word of this gets back to Naaman. Naaman contacts the King of Israel, who is unable to do anything for him. But eventually Naaman finds out about the prophet of God who can work wonders. To make a long story short, Naaman (somewhat reluctantly) follows some very odd instructions from Elisha and is healed of his leprosy. In gratitude, Naaman offers Elisha a huge reward. He is prepared to pay a huge amount of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothes to express his thanks to the prophet. But Elisha turns the reward down (how many modern preachers would turn down such a nice love gift)? He will take neither the glory nor the gold for the great thing God has done. But Gehazi, Elisha's cunning servant, has other plans. Surely God wouldn't mind if he took just a little…and his evil deed could be covered up. So Gehazi runs after Naaman as he starts on his trip home. Gehazi tells him something's just come up. Two sons of the prophets have just arrived on Elisha's doorstep and they sure could use a talent of silver and two changes of garments. Naaman is surprised, but feels like he's getting off easy nonetheless. Go ahead, he says, and take two talents of silver. So Gehazi had the loot delivered to a secret hideaway where Elisha wouldn't find it. And even if he did, so what? It's only a tiny fraction of what the Syrian owned. Just take a tiny fraction, even if God didn't command that it be taken. What harm could possibly come of it? Aren't ministers of deceit still doing that today? Well, Elisha couldn't be bought. He had principles. God told him all about it. Not only did greedy Gehazi end up with a little of the Syrian's loot, but a lot of that same sickness the Syrian had been healed of. Naaman’s joy and gratitude toward God must have been boundless, but ever after questions must have nagged at the back of his mind: Just why had Elisha firmly refused any material reward, only to do such a sudden about-face? Had Elijah’s God been unable to foresee the arrival of two needy visitors? Had He been forced to go back on His Word and depend on Naaman’s resources to meet their needs, because He had no other options? Were there, after all, limits on the power of the God of Israel, just like the gods of the Syrians? Or was this change of heart really Elisha’s idea, and a mere resort to situational ethics? Did the Word of the Almighty change like the wind? Because of greedy Gehazi, Elisha’s testimony could have been unjustly tarnished. Worse yet, the perfection of God's ways might have been diminished in the eyes of the Syrians.

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The apostle Paul didn’t hide God’s truth under a bushel basket to make himself richer. Boldly Paul says in Acts 20:27: For I have not shunned (avoided) to declare unto you ALL the counsel of God (not just Paul’s favorite parts). I’m not saying honesty will automatically bring healing and deliverance to and through the Church, but think about it. Would Paul’s ministry have been nearly as successful in doing the works of his Master if he had acted contrary to his own Master and deliberately deceived babes in Christ by withholding vital truth and selling them false doctrines?

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GRACE AND LAW DON'T MIX

Some legalists find a ready loophole to justify their mixed gospel of works and grace in their interpretation of various Scriptures. They threaten New converts with being cut off when they continue not in God's goodness, as in Romans 11:22. But what they mean by that is this: you'd better measure up to THEIR interpretation of what constitutes goodness. You can be more assured of staying saved IF you go out witnessing with our team each and every Saturday. IF you "win" at least one person to Christ per year (or other specified time period). IF you fast at least two days per month (or more frequently if you can). IF you maintain a certain appearance that meets our standards of holiness. IF you tithe all your money great and small into our collection plate, because you should support the place you're being fed first. IF you do this and IF you do that it will be proof positive that you really LOVE JESUS and are staying on the trail that leads to heaven. People are swayed by the PHYSICAL APPEARANCE of the tithe teacher. If he preaches behind a tall pulpit, wears a pricey suit and tie, stands at least six feet high, looks as imposing as a funeral director, and brags about going to ceme…I mean, seminary, most Christians will just take the man’s word for it that they have to tithe, and will just ignore his misapplication of all the scary curse scriptures he digs up out of the Old Covenant. But what if some guy in jeans and T-shirt also gave a talk about tithing, in an informal setting where everybody sat around in a circle in folding chairs? What if this guy presented strong scriptural PROOF that tithing is not for today? Just because of his humble appearance most Christians wouldn’t be as quick to believe him as they would the starchy seminary graduate in the thousand-dollar suit. God isn’t impressed by the religious show going on today in His Name. The apostle James was very practical in his definition of holiness. James 1:27 says: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James gave us a simple, no-nonsense definition of how to properly live the Christian life. It takes the grace of God to be in the world and still remain untainted by it, but true holiness doesn't just say "don't do this", it puts feet to its love. It goes out and helps those who are suffering or in need. But even good works can impart a false sense of superiority or security. Good deeds can be done to “be seen of men” (Matt.6:1,5). Even acts of charity can be performed out of fear, rather than springing up from the Life of Christ within. Good deeds done in the energy of the flesh nature are a slippery slope. Religious acts done to impress God can be superficial at worst, and be a source of self-sufficiency and pride even when they are performed well. Some people think they have won large numbers to Christ within a short period, and find it hard not to brag about it. But how many new "converts" say an insincere prayer just to placate a friend or relative, then six months down the road they return to the hog pen of sin and show no further interest in the things of God! What needs to be brought to people's attention is something out of fashion these days: a revelation of the awfulness of sin in the sight of God and the need for repentance. Some think that all Jesus ever focused on is love and making people feel more positive about themselves. But in Luke 13:3 He says: "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." As for fasting, it's strictly between an individual and God. No apostle ever commands the early Church to do it, yet you are free to refrain from eating if you feel a need for uninterrupted, intense prayer. A good comparison would be a soldier in the middle of a battle. If the battle heats up he doesn't usually stop and start dinner, but concentrates only on the warfare at hand. If a New Covenant believer refrains from eating for a time it should not be seen as keeping a compulsory

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religious ritual, otherwise that's straying back into the area of law. Regulations which have to do with "touch not, taste not, handle not" are not for the New Covenant believer (Col.2:20-23). The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom.14:17). Nowhere in the New Testament does Christ or any of the apostles ever rebuke born-again believers for failure to fast, not even in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, when Jesus rebukes several churches for things they've neglected to do. Among the seven churches of Revelation are some spiritually sick ones, including the Laodicean Church, which is often compared to the pleasure-loving, materialistic churches of today. Jesus rebukes the Laodiceans for being lukewarm toward Him, and for boasting about their riches and self-sufficiency. If ever a sorry bunch ought to be exhorted to call their wayward church to a fast this one should be it. Jesus warns them to be zealous and repent but He does not order them to fast to outwardly demonstrate their repentance, as so often happened in the Old Testament. Christ is far more interested in what is going on inside of the Laodiceans’ hearts than whether or not they skip a few meals to prove they are good religious people. Then there's the do's and don'ts of everyday life. In my younger days I was part of a church where liberty in Christ was preached, but there were unspoken standards to observe, which were just short of being considered laws. Mixed bathing was improper. Jewelry was frowned on, though some of the sisters wore a wisp of makeup. Television was darkly frowned on by the pastor, and back then, you didn't even have the excuse of hooking it up to a DVD to watch your favorite preachers! Christmas was a no-no. The pastor's wife always kept her skirts the "proper length", not too colorful and just below the knee. If one of the young girls wore her skirts above the knee the pastor's wife hinted they should wear their skirts longer (very sensible advice). After I met my husband he said he liked me in ankle-length skirts, which suit my artistic temperament to a tee. But the pastor’s wife thought I overdid it and once again pointed to the just-below-the-knee standard. A couple of other women in the church liked the longer skirts, too. One girl even made the pastor's wife gasp because she wore pant suits! The pastor’s wife did wear her hair long (and up) for awhile, but later she “took her liberty” and wore it shorter than a lot of men did. So did her daughter. We visited many churches together as a group. One church insisted that women wore head scarves during services. In another church about half of the women wore them, the others didn’t. At our church, it made the pastor feel uncomfortable to see them because they were legalistic. Some of the churches were against mixed bathing (ours was) The head scarf church saw nothing wrong with the sisters wearing swim suits in front of the brothers. It makes me wonder why some activities are virtual sins in similar churches and perfectly all right in others. Why do some churches avoid other people’s legalisms like the plague only to make up their own legalisms? Talk about a pick-and-mix bag! To this day I wonder if the pastor of my first church ever read all the scriptures I've studied on tithing. He was the one with the formal religious education and must have come across those never-mentioned Scriptures (no other preacher ever mentioned them either). He cited literally hundreds of Scriptures from the pulpit, from both Testaments, and I would sit in the pew taking copious notes as if my spiritual life depended on it. But the pastor definitely didn't read this Scripture where GOD instructs a worshipper what to do with money from the sale of tithed farm produce:

Deuteronomy 14:26: And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household.

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Besides refuting the (manmade) doctrine that drinking wine is a sin, this one verse throws a monkey wrench into the notion that it's wrong for the worshipper to eat the tithe! According to Scripture, that's all you COULD do with the true Biblical tithe. Not only did the worshipper himself eat some of the tithe, but it was also for the feeding of the Levite, the widow, the stranger and the fatherless (Deut.12:17-18;14:29). How eye-opening it was to me that Deuteronomy 14:26 actually encourages the worshipper to buy wine or strong drink with the tithe money! But all the churches we were affiliated with frowned on alcohol of any type, though, in John Chapter 2, Jesus’ very first miracle was to turn water into wine at a wedding feast. One of the choruses we sang was “There’s wine and oil in Zion”, yet the consumption of literal wine was held to be a sin in our church. To this day I wonder how those preachers I knew in my youth, who went to Bible school and taught us out of every book in the Bible, could have skipped over those passages which show how Israel really tithed and the fact that the Lord encouraged the Israelites “out in the pew” to buy strong beverages for themselves with money from the sale of tithes! No sir, I never ever heard Deuteronomy 14:26 preached on in my entire life! I get the feeling our pastor was very reluctant to differ in doctrine from the mother church in Texas. Once, in the course of his sermon, he read this passage to us: II Thessalonians 2:1-12. Only he skipped right over verse 7 which says: "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he that now letteth (restrains) will let (restrain) until he be taken out of the way. This verse occurs in the context of the future appearing of the Antichrist, explaining that Someone is acting as a Restrainer holding him back until He is taken out of the way. Once the Holy Spirit in His office as Restrainer of the Antichrist is taken out with the Church at the Rapture, then the Antichrist will be free to make his appearance on the world stage. II Thessalonians 2:7 lends support to the doctrine of the appearing of Christ for His saints at the Rapture (I Cor.15:51-53; Thes.4:13-18). God has not appointed the Church to suffer the wrath of the Tribulation Period (I Thes.5:9). The mother church in Texas did not believe the whole Church would experience a pre-tribulation Rapture. They believed that only the most spiritual saints (the firstfruits) would escape the Tribulation altogether. That speaks of earning the Rapture through works, rather than being delivered from the outpouring of God's wrath upon a sinful earth through the merits of Christ alone. Christians must take care how they build upon the foundation God has laid in their lives, but earning the Rapture through personal piety is inconsistent with the clear teaching of Scripture that our salvation comes only by grace through faith in Christ's finished work on Calvary (Eph.2:8-10). Good works come out of our relationship with Christ; they don't cause the relationship or earn that relationship. Having begun our walk with Christ in the Spirit, are we then to perfect ourselves through fleshly self-effort (Galatians 3:3)? The pastor taught us that we should become strong in the faith so we would be able to stand when the Antichrist was revealed. We were to remain sober and vigilant and be on the lookout for signs of Antichrist's coming as the condition of the earth deteriorated. But Scripture does not teach us to look for the emergence of Antichrist. Nowhere does the Bible give Church Age believers instructions on how to survive the Tribulation Period (e.g. storing extra food and purifying irradiated water, or how to stay alive and reasonably well during the outpouring of the plagues of Revelation). Instead, the Bible teaches us to look for the Blessed Appearing of Christ for His saints (Titus 2:13). Many believe that only the "holiest" believers will be raptured to heaven (the Partial Rapture Theory), but how small some people's idea is of how good holiness has to be to satisfy God's demands! As the heavens are higher than the earth, so much higher are God's thoughts than the thoughts of puny, petty human beings (Isa.55:8-9)! How inadequate each and every one of us are to measure up apart from abiding in Christ, our Living Vine. The branches of a grape vine don't struggle to

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bring forth grapes. They’re certain to produce grapes if they remain in the vine drawing life from it sap (John 15:4-5). Some secular workplaces offer insurance policies where the boss contributes some and the employee contributes the rest of the cost of the policy. That's just what a lot of Christians try to do today. They try to “match funds” with Jesus, Who alone paid the entire penalty for our sins. Legalists say: "God wants you to do YOUR part. It's not an easy ride to heaven. Christ died for you, but unless you live for Him the best way you know how, you won't make it to Glory. One popular “Scripture” is: God helps those who help themselves. But that commonly quoted “Scripture” isn’t even in the Bible! People's best efforts at imitating Jesus just won't cut it. Jesus paid the ENTIRE price for our redemption. He shouted "It is finished!" as He gave up His last breath for you and for me on the Cross of Calvary (John 19:30). Jesus didn't say He only made the down payment and we had to make up the rest. In fact, whenever we try to impress God by keeping religious laws of any kind we have fallen from dependency on the Grace of God in Christ (Gal.5:4). Keeping a long list of do's and don'ts in order to impress God deals a death blow to true saving faith in God's one acceptable Sacrifice for sin, Christ Jesus. In Luke 18:9-14 two men approach God in prayer. One of them is very sure God sees him as a perfect, upright, moral man who has done no wrong. Just imagine what he might say if he spoke like your everyday modern man in the street: "I thank thee, God," he starts off piously. "First off, I thank You that I'm not so bad as this wretched slob standing next to me. I fast not one, but TWO days a week, and I ALWAYS pay my tithe on time. I even surpass what the written Law actually commands us to tithe on. I tithe on my Wall Street profits. I tithe on my tulips. I even tithe on my CD collection. Just look at this sorry tax collector here who had the gall to appear in this holy place. He ought to hide his head in shame! What does HE have to offer you that I don't?" And the proud Pharisee sticks his tongue out at the poor sinner standing downwind from him. All the sinner can do is cast himself upon the mercy of the Lord. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" he cries. And guess who God counts as righteous in his sight? The Pharisee who goes around looking miserable and hungry twice a week for the admiration of men, or the man who has nothing to offer God except the sacrifice of a broken heart and a repentant spirit (Psalms 51:17)? It was the one who cried out to God with empty hands to receive who was granted mercy and justified rather than the one rich in his own so-called good works. Based on scripture viewed from the perspective of the New Covenant, I am led to believe that compulsory tithing is a sin in the sight of God because it brings the believer back under bondage to the Law and its curse (Gal.3:10-12). Rather than bringing a blessing, tithing to men spiritually damages both the payer and the receiver in these ways:

1. Paying tithes denies a believer’s own priesthood in Christ (I Pet.2:5,9). Old Covenant priests did NOT tithe on money or anything else!

2. The tithe receiver (“spiritual Levite”) is actually playing “altar priest”, although there were NO literal altars in New Testament churches until error crept into the church and elements of the Old Covenant were mixed with the New. The early Christians’ only altar was Christ’s heavenly altar, upon which SPIRITUAL sacrifices were offered by faith. The early church met chiefly in private homes (Rom.16:5; I Cor.16:15,19). Only Aaron, the High Priest, could receive that particular tithe (the Levite’s tithe to the priesthood) destined for the Temple, their “House of the Lord”. Tithe-collecting preachers are really guilty of impersonating the ONLY High Priest of the New Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb.7:24-28). That is a dangerous sin to have to answer to God for in the Judgment!

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Depending on fasting, tithing, traditions, “sacrifices”, etc., is a mine field of spiritual traps. Only Christ in us can truly please the Father (I Cor.15:10; 2 Cor.3:5). Nothing else can ever meet God’s holy standard of perfection!

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FASTING, FAITH AND FOOLISHNESS

Just for fun, let’s begin with a little trivia quiz:

The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of:

(Choose One)

a. those whose stomachs are empty for Himb. those whose pockets are emptied for Himc. those whose singing is perfect for Himd. those whose heart is perfect toward Hime. all or none of the above

Answer found in (II Chron. 16:9).

Now let’s crack open those Bibles some more and ponder a few interesting points. In I Thessalonians 5:12-22 Paul delivers God’s exhortations to believers. One of them is to pray without ceasing (verse 17). But Paul does not tell them to fast without ceasing. In fact, fasting appears nowhere on that list of commands. Paul did not say that every prayer must be accompanied with fasting, or even that fasting makes you outstrip all the rest spiritually...although fasting without ceasing will surely get you to heaven faster than everyone else! In Luke Chapter 2 Anna the prophetess prays and fasts both night and day, departing not from the Temple of God. What a godly woman she must have been. But I don’t dwell day and night in some church building. I must perform many mundane physical tasks. I must shop, cook, wash and clean, and work at my computer. I need energy to do all those things and more, so I can’t fast most of the time like Anna did. If I punished my body like an ascetic I would be too sick and weak to get out of bed. When I was a young girl with fewer responsibilities I enjoyed the euphoric feeling of detachment from “the things of earth”. I just couldn’t understand why other church folks, who had to toil and sweat every day for a living, had so much trouble with fasting. One friend of mine wrecked her health trying to sacrifice as many meals as possible, and still go to a job every day. She felt guilty whenever she tried to eat normally, because there were so many needs out there in the world to fast and pray about. Above all, she wanted to get closer to God, and thought fasting was the price she had to pay for this. Believe me, if she had kept it up, she would have gotten closer to God than the rest of us...by dying and going to heaven! She wouldn’t listen to anybody until she had a dream where she was holding a baby in her arms that was pitifully crying: Why won’t you feed me? God showed her we must take care of the bodies He gave us. While we live in this world we need our bodies to carry us around and do things. You wouldn’t get very far if you didn’t put gas in your car, would you?

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Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn (Deut.25:4). Is God more concerned about the well-being of oxen than that of his own people who must work hard most days? There have definitely been times when some mother has gone on a fast, but still had to prepare her family’s meals. But if the chef of the household decides to fast, he/she should not have to sit at the table and glumly watch everybody else chow down on T-Bone steaks and brownies while she sits at the table with water and a toothpick. Without going hungry, the family could show consideration for a fasting mom (or dad) by eating things which don’t pamper the palate (Dan. 10:2). I read of one woman who wanted to get healed at a special meeting. So she prayed and fasted 3 days to prepare herself to receive God’s blessing. But it didn’t pan out as she expected. The zealous woman didn’t receive her healing at that particular meeting but a sinner who hadn’t even fasted for one hour got healed. The woman got pretty steamed about it. After all, hadn’t she EARNED her healing by fasting for it? In 2 Cor.6:5 Paul speaks of his frequent fasting, but fasting is listed with other miserable trials he suffers, among them beatings and shipwreck. Some scholars believe that the “watchings” and “fastings” in this context aren’t deliberate religious exercises performed by Paul, but are sleep deprivation and hunger caused by persecution and hardship. Just before “watchings”, “tumults” (tossing to and fro) and “labours” are mentioned. Paul suffered shipwreck at least three times (2 Cor.11:25). After one particularly violent storm at sea, the ship was broken up and Paul had to swim for his life (Acts 27:21-44). Adversity in Paul’s life often made eating and sleeping impossible (Acts 27:27-36). Paul’s basic needs weren’t always met by church contributions. In 2 Cor. 11:9 Paul tells the Corinthian church that when he was “present among them and wanted” (lacked), other brethren from Macedonia sent him support. The Macedonians were poor. But they contributed to Paul’s ministry (2 Cor.8:1-6; 11:9). By contrast, the Corinthians were materially affluent (I Cor.4:8). Paul NEVER should have gone without having his basic needs met while he labored among the well-to-do Corinthians. Paul had to toil at a secular occupation just to eat, so he would not be “chargeable to any of them” (I Thes.2:9). It wore Paul out. The longer hours you must work, the fewer hours are available for sleep and rest. It didn’t take the First Century church long to begin to lose the fervency of her First Love for Jesus and the brethren, spoken of in Rev. 2:4. Jesus said in John 13:35: By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another. Acts 2:45 and Acts 4:34 speak of the sharing that went on in the earliest days of the church, and how that there was no one among Jesus’ followers who lacked for basic necessities. Yet Paul and his associates sometimes went without basic bread even as they ministered spiritual food to the rich Corinthian church! How many modern preachers would go on ministering in a place where nobody cared that they had to go on a forced fast for lack of adequate support?

Some Practical Suggestions

Many Christians have lived victorious lives without ever going on a fast. Some find fasting more of a hindrance than a help, because it creates the temptation to self-sufficiency and spiritual pride. Fasting can sap a Christian’s energy and leave him lethargic. Ask any dieter. A long stretch of feeling hungry can cause irritability. Fasting can sour the disposition, rather than conveying the love of Christ to others. Fasting can lead to a works mentality which takes a believer’s focus off the grace of God in Christ. Delaying meals to concentrate on prayer (as opposed to deliberately tormenting the body) should happen only within the framework of New Covenant Christian liberty (Gal.5:1). Some believers might want to snack during a day-long prayer meeting,

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others might think it an unwise distraction to stop for refreshment. The same principle of Christian liberty would apply in controversial areas such as whether or not to observe a special day unto the Lord, or whether it is okay to enjoy an occasional glass of wine. Let every person be fully persuaded in his own mind (Rom.14:5). There are a wide range of opinions on what constitutes a fast, whether it has to cover whole days or just a number of hours solidly devoted to prayer. Some say your abstinence must cover at least one overnight stint before it counts as a fast. But there are occasions in Scripture when someone fasted just until nightfall, as David did in II Sam. 1:12 and 3:35. The important thing is to PRAY in the Spirit and spend as long a session as it takes till you feel deep down in your heart that you’ve won your victory in the heavenly places and that particular season of prayer is finished. God is not standing over you with a calendar and a stopwatch. Once your assignment in the prayer room is done, it’s done. If you choose to abstain from eating during a special season of prayer, use sanctified common sense in breaking your fast. If it lasted more than a day or so, it might be a big shock to your system if you resumed eating by having a triple bacon cheeseburger with Jumbo Fries and a Jumbo Shake! Everybody’s different, but if your digestive system feels sluggish, it’s best to begin with light meals; perhaps some fruits, stewed prunes, light soups, or even yogurt or eggs if you crave protein right away. For quick energy, nothing beats a handful of raisins, the perfect Biblical food! Everything we do, whether eating or forgoing all earthly activities to concentrate solely on prayer, is to be done for the glory of God, not out of some dark motive (I Cor. 10:31). Regardless of how spiritual something you do seems to be, whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). In that context Paul addresses one of the biggest moral dilemmas of his day: Is it wrong to consume foods which are dedicated to idols before being offered for sale in the market place? Some early Christians thought eating such food wasn’t a big deal, so long as they gave thanks to God for it, since an idol isn’t a living thing anyway, and there is only one God. But if they ate the controversial entree, viewing it as a thing devoted to idols rather than as a blessing given by God, their eating was not of faith, but of sin.

I Corinthians 10:31 speaks of eating to the glory of God. I Timothy 4:3-5 says that God created food, and nothing is to be refused if thanks is given for it. These verses are in the middle of a list of doctrinal errors introduced into the Church by seducing spirits which lead people astray from God’s truth: Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats (foods), which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Far from being a necessary evil, food can be sanctified (made holy) by the word of God and prayer! So who is to tell me that eating properly (not excessively) is a gray area if not a downright sin, and only fasting is holy unto the Lord! Besides, the above scripture says God made that food for us to eat! Colossians 2:16 says: Let no man therefore judge you in meat (food), or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days. If anybody (however subtly) questions your love for God just because you’re about to sit down to a sumptuous meal, just tell them God treats His kids real good, and He’s just spread a table before you in the wilderness of this world, so you aren’t going to insult your Heavenly Host by turning it down. He satisfies your mouth (not just your soul) with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Psalms 103:5). You’ll grow old in a hurry if you starve your body of key nutrients too often. Years ago I read a newsletter put out by one ascetic group. They often requested prayer for health problems different ones of them had. I wondered why God would allow such dedicated servants of His to be sick so often...till I found out that they seldom ate proper meals and fasted most of the time, subsisting on tomato juice!

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Well, I’ve got news for them, man shall not live by tomato juice alone! You can’t rob your body of key nutrients day after day after day and still expect to fend off illness. Joel Chapter Two was one of that group’s favorite source scriptures, but they focused only on the section (verses 12-17) where God commands His people to sanctify a fast to cry out to Him to forgive them for their sins. In the context of that scripture the Israelites were in danger of having their food supply gobbled up by a locust plague. God wasn’t trying to starve those people by demanding that they fast themselves to death; He wanted to insure their spiritual well-being, and one fringe benefit of this would be to keep them from starving in the future. Far less emphasis was given to verses 24-26. which promise an abundance of food and WINE for God’s faithful people. Why focus only on the fasting and forget the wheat, wine and oil? If part of a verse applies, it ALL applies! Whenever the wheat, wine and oil part is mentioned by those who preach on Joel Chapter 2, they are always applied in a spiritual way to the church. That helps prevent prickly questions, such as: Why would God bless His people with wine back in OT times when Christians are told wine drinking is now a sin? The wheat, wine and oil CAN be viewed as deeply significant types. Jesus is our wheat (Bread) of Life (John 6:31-35). We enjoy the New Wine of the Spirit (Acts 2:13). We keep our lamps full of the oil (anointing) of the Holy Spirit (Matt.25:4). But why aren’t legalistic teachers more unbiased in the way they “carry over” elements of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant? If the wheat, wine, and oil of Joel Chapter 2 are always spiritualized in applying them to the church, then why is the fasting part always taught as being LITERALLY binding upon the church? Why can’t fasting also be taken as being spiritual, rather than literal? Is it not enough to spiritually fast from sins of the heart which dishonor God? Passover was the most important Jewish High Holy season. But instead of killing and eating a literal Passover lamb, eating matzo (unleavened bread), and ridding our homes of literal leaven (yeast), Paul admonishes Christians to KEEP THE FEAST by getting rid of the leaven of malice and eating the bread of sincerity and truth (I Cor.5:8). If Passover is to be kept only spiritually by Christians, then it follows that KEEPING THE FAST (Day of Atonement, see Acts 27:9) is to be done only spiritually today, in abstaining from evil. When do you ever hear the preacher order the congregation to fast from filth on TV, impure thoughts, selfishness, lust, etc.? That’s the kind of fasting needed in the church today, the only kind that makes a difference in the eternal soul of man. I remember feeling mortified if, during a church fast, I absent-mindedly ate a potato chip or a jelly bean. I would fear that I had “driven away the sense of God’s Presence” by failure to keep my calorie intake on zero. It would be years before I became one hundred percent convinced that our closeness to God rests entirely on faith toward Christ in the HEART, not an empty feeling in the stomach! Jesus Himself says in Matt.15:11, to those still living under the Law: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Eating is often seen as a necessary vice by ascetic Christians, and a very unspiritual activity. But eating, as such, does not defile us! Only gluttony or damaging the temple of the Holy Ghost by living on junk food might make food intake a spiritually harmful thing. Although God did call for a fast to meet a national emergency in the Book of Joel, it is wrong to use this scripture to put a fasting law on the people of God and make them feel guilty for eating. If God wants most believers to eat just barely enough to sustain life, why would He promise the fasters in Joel that they would “eat in plenty” in Joel 2:26? If you insist on applying every single thing in that chapter to modern believers, why not thank God for blessing this year’s wine vintage also and raise a glass of wine to celebrate? Although it is much more of a blessing to read this section in a spiritual light and thank God for the Holy Oil of His Anointing, the New Wine of His Spirit, and for His spiritual Bread, the Lord Jesus Christ, which are far better!

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But most likely the ancient Israelites to whom this passage is primarily addressed took the prophet’s words literally. Though their sins were covered by repeated animal sacrifices till the coming of Christ, they were not yet spiritually born again as we are today, and their inheritance was the literal Land of Israel. They lived under a CONDITIONAL covenant, where they were responsible for meeting God’s terms in order to receive material blessings. So long as they loved and served the Lord they could expect God to bless them with rain in due season, in order that they might enjoy literal, visible blessings, the fruit of that Land He’d given them: wheat and wine and olive oil to help them live long, healthy lives in this earth. Although you can interpret scripture from a spiritual perspective and get richly blessed that way, this passage in no way teaches that you cannot serve God unless you “live a fasted life”, as many ascetics insist. Even under the Old Covenant, God promises His people in the Book of Joel that they would eat in plenty, not be put on short rations!

Fasting Does Not Guarantee Valid Supernatural Experiences

The enemy can be oh, so, subtle, the way he uses religious practice to sneak a bit more error into the Body of Christ. If the body is starved of basic nutrients long enough, hallucinations or even visions can be induced. Even New Agers and eastern mystics fast to help detach themselves from the material world and tune in better to the invisible realm of spirits. Just because a Christian has fasted a long period of time does not validate the vision induced by the fasting, or mean it is of the Lord. Jesus fasted forty days and nights to prepare Himself for His mission. During that time satan showed Christ a vision of all the kingdoms of this world and told Him how He could get the rulership over them by taking a convenient shortcut which bypassed the Cross. But the Holy Spirit was watching over Jesus and Jesus didn’t fall for the devil’s lie. Jesus would not accept satan’s lying vision as God’s reward for His protracted fast. satan even appealed to scripture to try to get Jesus to fly off the pinnacle of the Temple to test God’s willingness to protect Him. Oh, the devil is the most religious being you’ll ever meet. If a saint fasts for any length of time and says afterward: “God showed me a brand new doctrine because I fasted for a long, long time,” you’d better take a second look at the “new revelation”. If the “deeper truth of the Word” deviates from orthodox Christianity as taught by the original apostles, or if it supplants the Lordship of Christ, it comes from satan. Fasting does not confer automatic doctrinal infallibility upon a saint. We receive what God imparts solely through His grace, through the merits of Christ alone, not as wages for suffering through a long fast. Christ’s work on the Cross is a finished work, and we can’t contribute our two cents’ worth to make it any more complete than it already is (John 19:30).

Does Fasting Make a Person Holier?

Not necessarily, otherwise every anorectic person on earth would be a saint! Unless the time normally spent eating is spent instead in calling upon the Name of Christ in heart-felt faith and repentance (whenever necessary), fasting is useless. Fasting can become a spiritual snare by lessening a saint’s dependence on Christ. We are sanctified through Jesus alone, and by the Spirit of God (I Cor.6:11). It’s possible to fast and still be out of fellowship with God while doing it. Fasting does not guarantee access to God’s Presence or a right relationship with Him. Only the precious Blood of Jesus brings us those blessings. Fasting does not restore us to right relationship to God once it is broken. On one occasion King Saul ordered all his troops to fast until they’d finished fighting a long, hard battle and defeated the Philistines (I Sam.14:24-45). But Saul’s son Jonathan had not heard his father’s order, and ate some honey he found in the forest. Despite their hunger, the men of Israel managed to win the

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battle. Afterward Saul tried to inquire of the Lord about future military action, but got no response. Someone must be to blame for God’s refusal to commune with him, Saul reasoned. So lots were cast to find out who had offended the Lord. Jonathan was taken in the lot. Jonathan confessed to eating the honey, out of ignorance. He said their victory might have been even greater had the men not fought the battle on an empty stomach. Too hardened to humble himself before God, Saul shifted the blame to someone else instead of first examining his own heart. He implied that the Lord had refused to give him guidance because his son had broken the decreed fast. Saul’s approach to placating God was essentially no different from the way the prophets of Baal tried to get the attention of their own god by slashing themselves with knives (I Kings 18:28). If Saul supposed it would endear him to God to make his troops fight an all-day battle on an empty stomach, it didn’t work. Saul felt humiliated before the people because God no longer recognized him as a great leader. God would not appear at Saul’s beck and call to answer Saul’s questions. So Saul had to take his frustration out on somebody. His fasting had only made him more irritable. Saul was mad enough to kill Jonathan, his own son, to save his own dignity. But the people would not let Saul do it. Still, Saul had foolishly cursed anyone who ate that day, and told Jonathan he would “surely die”. What did poor Jonathan do to deserve a dad like that? Jonathan’s reprieve was short-lived. Jonathan died in battle in I Samuel 31, along with those who had kept that particular fast. God had already made up His mind on Saul in I Samuel 13, the chapter just before Saul called for his army to fast to try to gain back God’s favor. The problem with Saul’s fasting was this: It wasn’t accompanied by heartfelt repentance for disobedience. Fasting is no substitute for obeying God's orders. In I Samuel 13 Saul got tired of waiting for Samuel to arrive, so he tried to offer up a sacrifice himself, contrary to God’s explicit instructions. In doing so, Saul had, in effect, rejected God as Supreme General of the army of Israel. Imagine how the prophet Samuel felt as God gave him the sad assignment of informing Saul that he had been rejected from continuing as king. It must have felt like waving a red flag in front of a bull, but Samuel obeyed God and delivered the message. Saul’s carnal fast didn’t soften God’s heart in Chapter 14. Keeping an empty religious observance was not good enough to patch up Saul’s relationship with the Lord. Saul’s token act of humility didn’t change Saul’s heart. Saul’s rebellion against God eventually led to his murdering a whole city of priests and their families. Saul took vengeance on them because Ahimelech, the High Priest, had given David a few loaves of stale bread and a sword as he fled from Saul’s wrath (I Sam. 21:1-9; 22:11-19). One commonly cited example of a non-fasting reprobate is Esau. Hebrews 12:16-17 exhorts us not to be like that profane person Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his own birthright. Even Esau’s tearful repentance was not enough to regain the birthright he’d so cheaply sold. The sad story is told in Genesis 25:29-34. Jacob, Esau’s brother, was cooking up some lentil stew when his brother Esau returned empty-handed from hunting. Esau was very hungry. Perhaps Esau thought Jacob was just joking, but Jacob offered to sell the stew to Esau in exchange for the birthright of the oldest son. Esau agreed and accepted Jacob’s hospitality. So Esau’s sin is commonly held to be that he ate when he ought to have been fasting. But it goes deeper than that. Esau was no man of faith. He had no respect for his birthright as the elder son of Isaac, son of Abraham. Esau did not do what God would have expected of a righteous man, which would have been to keep on walking past the temptation and not look back. Esau might have felt faint from running after game he never caught, but instead of looking unto the Lord to give him strength to get past the temptation of the pottage, he trusted in that ill-gotten pottage to renew his strength. Esau’s heart was set on earthly things, not on the God of His fathers. Had Esau fled that temptation and gone elsewhere to get a meal, it would have been no sin. Esau’s sin lay not in eating the food but in the way he got it. His transaction

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with Jacob was the fruit of a perverse heart attitude which caused him to cast contempt upon his own birthright. If, as some believe, Esau’s sin lay in non-fasting, what about Jacob, the son who DID get the birthright? At the time of Jacob’s deception of Esau, does the Bible depict him as a man of faith? Was he much better morally than Esau? Did Jacob fast and pray to persuade God to give him Esau’s birthright? Most likely not. Instead of waiting on God to fulfill His promise, Jacob resorted to deception and trickery to get what belonged to another. Jacob did eventually become a man of faith, though. He wrestled all night to get God’s blessing (Gen. 32:24-30). So Jacob went on at least one vigil (night spent without sleep) but nowhere in Scripture does it say Jacob ever went on a fast. Even if Jacob was fasting at the time he cooked the stew, it was still a sin to tempt someone else to sell something eternally precious for a mess of pottage. Esau sinned but Jacob sinned too in being his tempter. Jacob broke the tenth commandment (Ex. 20:17), although a wily guy like him might wriggle out of that one by saying that particular law wouldn’t be set in stone until the time of Moses! Jacob was no angel. Jacob had sins of his own which needed atoning for. Did God choose Jacob over Esau because Jacob fasted? No. God chose Jacob over Esau before either of them was born or could rack up any good works. It was by God’s predestination that Jacob was chosen instead of Esau (Rom.9:10-16). God had the foresight to know that while Jacob had a shady beginning in life, he would eventually own up to his sins and become a man of faith. The Lord searches the wide expanse of the earth looking for a heart full of faith, not for an empty stomach (2 Chron.16:9).

The Punished Plane

All day long, Turkeybird Airlines was plagued by complaints from consumers for passenger delays, lost luggage, etc. Everybody, from senior management to ticket staff was absolutely furious with the passengers. But they dared not punish the passengers…at least, not in any obvious way. Not only was the airline angry with the passengers, they were hacked off because the plane had come in the wrong color! How to punish both the plane and the passengers at the same time? Piece of cake! Take all refreshments off the plane, but, make the plane fast as well. That’ll learn ‘em! Maybe a bit of self-denial would make the passengers finally learn patience and gentleness, and the plane would get so thirsty for kerosene it would change its true colors from red to snow white and soar higher than it ever did before. It was a hot, sweltering day. To buffet the flesh of the ornery passengers, the bleu cheese buffet in First Class was cancelled. The air conditioning was deactivated. No staff showed up to assist passengers or clean the plane. The loudspeaker struck a note. Then a sweet voice announced that an unforeseen delay in takeoff had occurred. It would be at least three hours, maybe more, before the plane taxied down the runway. So could everyone please be patient? Babies began to wail. Hot, smoggy air seeped through the plane door, left open just a crack to prevent the passengers from suffocating. People walked up and down the aisles, swearing a pigsty was more sanitary. Some hollered: “Where’s the plane people? I need a Coke!” The pilot nodded sleepily over his cockpit controls, wondering why, nine hours later, his plane had failed to fly on the power of the patience produced by an empty fuel tank. Why wasn’t this fast working meekness in the impatient passengers? If only they’d stop screaming and change their attitude, this plane could soar higher and faster than ever before. Oh, well…

Attitude is Everything

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If you give anything, glaring and with gritted teeth, whether it be money, sacrifice, or a day of fasting, it is not a service of faith. Rather than being a sweet savor rising to the Throne of God, it stinks in the nostrils of God. At best a season of forced fasting might be just a hunger strike to get what you want out of Him. You think you’ve swapped that day’s meal ticket for the privilege of "writing your own ticket with God", and your self-imposed suffering obligates Him to wait on you hand and foot to repay you. With such a mean-spirited attitude you might as well break out the Ben and Jerry’s and scarf down the whole pint. Love must be the motivation for every service we render unto the Lord, or it is unacceptable, no matter how self-sacrificing your "spiritual discipline" seems to be. Speaking of discipline, it can have a negative connotation, in that it feels like punishment sometimes. Prayer and Bible reading are disciplines, in that they are to be faithfully and consistently done, but they can be pleasant things, so long as the Christian doesn’t feel tired. Deep knee bends and getting up early to go to a job you hate would be unpleasant disciplines. A little boy might be “disciplined” by setting him in the corner for “time out”, but what if he looks up at you and says defiantly: “I might be sitting down, but inside I’m standing up!” Some people stare at the clock and the fridge while fasting. A lot of good it does them! They might be appearing to do something spiritual, but on the inside they’re already eating the pepperoni pizza in the freezer!

The Sabbath As a Discipline

If fasting from food can be interpreted as a discipline (something to be faithfully done) so can the Sabbath Day, given by God to the Israelites. Once a week, EVERY week, for the rest of their lives, the Children of Israel had to abstain from work of every kind (Jesus later relaxed the rules, by healing on that day). That meant no cooking, no washing, no sawing in the toolshed. If a woman found a gray hair in the looking glass she couldn’t pull it out till the Sabbath was over. Walking more than 3100 feet was held by Jewish rabbis to be a violation of Sabbath restrictions. A whole day off from work, just imagine! Not just a day off from the old grind at the mill, but a day off from waxing the floors, making lunch sandwiches, cleaning the bathroom. But even if a Jew wanted to do something fun, like carve a new flute, he wasn’t allowed to, even if the office WAS closed for the day. Many Israelites must have kept the Sabbath only outwardly, while on the inside they were planning some new work project to earn their next shekel. Did regular observance of a day of fasting from work make these people holier in their conduct than heathens who didn’t keep the Sabbath Day? Paul plainly says in Galatians 2:16: By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. If keeping a mandatory law given by God couldn’t make a person holier, how much less would keeping a manmade law of regular fasting make someone more saintly on the inside!

Isaiah 58:3: Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou (God) seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge (notice)? * * * God’s answer: Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors (oppress your workers).

VERSE 13: If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable, and shalt honour him (God), not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.

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A common thread runs through the fasting and Sabbath-keeping of the Jews. It was possible to do it not as unto the Lord, but in such a way that it could serve a person’s selfish interests instead.

The record of history shows that ritual fasting from food and Sabbath keeping (fasting regularly from work) did NOT purify the hearts of the Children of Israel. The tribes of Dan and Ephraim, especially, fell into gross idolatry (calf worship, etc.). In 722 B.C. the northern ten tribes of Israel reaped the reward of generations of idolatry and rebellion against God. They were carried away by Assyria and became known as the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. Later, a similar punishment for idolatry befell the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin when they were carried into exile by Babylon. God was not fooled by outward observance of fasting and the Sabbath.

If the OT Sabbath-keeping of Isaiah Chapter 58 was not passed on to the mostly Gentile church by the apostles, then clearly, neither was the fasting tradition of Isaiah Chapter 58 passed on to Christ’s New Covenant Church.

Brother Harvey’s Cleansing

The church I attended in my youth would always hold an three-day fast to prepare for its annual church convention. Every saint worth his salt was expected to participate, except the ill and expectant mothers. Once the fast was over I couldn’t help but wonder if we might see more miracles at the convention services because we’d done our bit to “earn” them. I saw Brother Harvey, a laid-back church elder, sitting in the grass, sunning himself. Contentedly he sighed, “Ah, nothin’ like a good old fast to clean your insides out.” How that shocked me! All our holy church fast was to “Brother Harvey” was a detox diet (that hadn’t even been invented back then)! Did Harvey fast just because he was an elder and the pastor expected him to do it? Not a word from Harvey’s smiling lips about how abstaining from food helped him soar higher into heavenly places! Was a clean colon enough of a reward for Harvey? EX-lax might have done the trick even better.

Fasting: A Carnal Ordinance of Men

That memory persuades me like no other that “going on a religious fast” (as opposed to neglect of eating as a by-product of fervent prayer) is a carnal (bodily) ordinance OF MEN, much the same way that male circumcision and fasting from work on the Sabbath Day are carnal ordinances given by God to different groups of believers living during dispensations BEFORE THE CROSS. Both Abraham and his son by Hagar, Ishmael, got circumcised on the same day, along with male slaves “born in his house” (Gen.17:23). It does not say whether the cutting off of a little of their flesh was accompanied with any religious instruction. Even if it were, circumcision is still a carnal (bodily) ordinance. Abraham was justified (made righteous) by “believing God” even before His circumcision (Gen.15:6; Rom.4:3,9-10). What about Ishmael, who also got circumcised? In Genesis 17:18, right after he underwent that operation, Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee!” Ishmael and his mother were loved and cared for by God, but Scripture hints that Ishmael may not have been a particularly pious person. An angel told his mother that he would be a “wild man” at odds with his neighbors (Gen.16:12). Ishmael mocked Isaac at his weaning party. So he and his mother were banished from Abraham’s camp (Gen.21:9-16). Circumcision, like other carnal observances, does not change the heart.

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Hebrews 9:9: Which (the wilderness tabernacle) was a figure (representation) for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that COULD NOT MAKE HIM THAT DID THE SACRIFICE PERFECT, as pertaining to their conscience;VERSE 10: Which stood only in meats (foods) and drinks, and divers (different) washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

The “time of reformation” is already past! Christ has already offered Himself up for us! What further “sacrifice” could God demand? Notice, the Old Law was all about food and drink ordinances, washing, etc. During a fast, the body takes a break from assimilating food. All eating, both plain and pleasurable, is forbidden. On the Sabbath Day, the bodies of observant Jews get a rest from work. All work, both vocational and hobby, is forbidden. The key concept is “forbidden”. “Forbidding food” or “commanding to abstain from meats” fits in with the Old Law, not our New Covenant of Grace (Col.2:21; I Tim.4:3).

Are Christians Commanded to “Live a Fasted Life”?

Even some non-religious people “live a fasted life” and that life tends to be a short one. My younger brother suffered from anorexia. Adam viewed all food with suspicion, as a necessary evil. What little he ate he went outside and ran off after he ate it. Then when cancer struck, he had no strength to fight it and died shortly thereafter. It is a demonic deception to think food is only a necessary vice, to be shunned by those who truly love the Lord! Nobody’s got the right to hold you up to some bizarre standard of how to impress God! God has called us to love one another, not heap condemnation on each other! That’s the devil’s job! Let Jesus be your example, not some self-righteous ascetic who is trying to pay for his ticket to heaven by his own suffering! Jesus taught His followers to pray: Give us this day our DAILY bread, (not our occasional bread!) Again in James 2:15-16: If a brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Some supersaints think the body is nothing but a crude cocoon which will someday be shed, so it should be neglected anyway. A selfish believer might cop out of his responsibility to show compassion to the hungry by saying: "Rejoice, brother, that’s a sure sign God wants you to fast." Then his eyes might rake up and down the body of the poor saint and then he might go on to say: "It wouldn’t hurt you to shed a few pounds anyway. And fasting is such good discipline for the flesh. So count it all joy, brother." Or, that Scrooge in sheep’s clothing might sanctimoniously say that it must be the hungry believer’s fault that he’s in need, and His Heavenly Father is giving him a whipping for some sin in his life. The hypocrite might tell his hungry brother that “until you get your heart right with God, and learn to hunger for spiritual things first, nothing would be solved if I bailed you out of this mess.” He could even quote Proverbs which warn against sloth, and that those guilty of it will go hungry in the winter. The hypocrite might smugly say that it would be “going against the sovereign will of God” to “interfere”, and if he provided a can of beans to feed his hungry brother, he would be “hindering God’s “work of purification” in his life. And once the door is shut on the hungry saint, the smug dispenser of wisdom can hurry back to his own dinner. Whether he eats or fasts, that hypocrite cares little whether God’s hunger for having the hungry fed, the naked clothed, and the homeless housed is satisfied (Isaiah 58:7). Significantly, food was distributed to poor widows DAILY by deacons of the First Century Church (Acts 4:35; 6:1-2). It is often said that elderly Christian women should fast and pray frequently like the Jewess Anna in Luke 2:36-38 (who lived under Law

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and was awaiting the Messiah). If elderly widows must fast like Anna, why would the church go to such lengths to provide food for them DAILY? In I Timothy 5:1-16 Paul tries to prevent the church’s welfare program from being abused by those well able to support poor relatives. Paul lists some good works poor widows supported by the church should perform. Verse 5 admonishes widows to continue in supplications (petitions to God) and prayers night and day (no mention of fasting). Verse 10 mentions other practical way widows can show their love for Christ (hospitality, washing saints’ feet, raising children, works of charity, etc). No mention of fasting there, either!

Legalistic Fasting Leads to Bondage

God spoke to my heart two examples. A child works so hard on a special project to please his beloved father he forgets to eat and drink for many hours (not necessarily days). The father is very pleased by his child’s single-minded devotion. But the father would not want his child to do without his food and drink every single day. He would not want him to think he must suffer in order to earn his love. That is bondage, not faith. The other example God gave me is found in I Kings 18:28, where the priests of Baal are so desperate to make their god Baal hear them and answer their prayers they cut themselves with knives till they bled. Some saints think that God won’t pay any attention to them unless they suffer enough to earn it, so that’s why they fast all the time. If we must suffer to get a blessing out of God, nothing is more convenient than fasting. It leaves no visible marks (except looking hungry) and it’s much more civilized than whipping or stabbing yourself. I’ve known some who hold one big fast after another, and scarcely give their body a break in between. But such an extreme obsession with fasting begs a question: Every time some new prayer request prompts a fast, did the Lord put that burden on them, or could people occasionally be controlled by a religious demon of bondage masquerading as the Holy Spirit? Know what makes me 100% sure that one brother I knew crossed the fine line between godly zeal and bondage? He said something like this: "The world eats, but our food is to do our Father’s will." He was misapplying something Jesus said in John 4:34, where Jesus has just spent time ministering to the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus’ followers have just returned from town with groceries and are begging Him to eat something (it was probably lunchtime). But He says: "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work." Jesus thrived spiritually on accomplishing the will of His Father, as all of us do. He was so intent on satisfying this woman’s spiritual hunger that His own physical hunger was not at the forefront of His consciousness. But that is not to say Jesus never felt the need to eat, or considered eating an unspiritual vice which spiritual giants can easily dispense with. Now here’s a shocker: One of the first things Jesus did after His resurrection was to cook breakfast for his disciples ( John 21:9-14), and it was around that breakfast campfire that Peter reconciled with Jesus after denying Him three times (verses15-19) . Jesus didn’t scowl at Peter and tell him he had to fast in sack cloth and ashes and flagellate himself with chains to prove himself worthy of being restored to His friendship. Wonder of wonders! Immediately after being reunited with Jesus Peter ate breakfast (which means break a fast, not begin one!). And right after his meal Peter was immediately reinstated as a full-fledged apostle of Christ. Jesus was practical as well as spiritual. He fed hungry multitudes with literal bread, as well as with spiritual bread. He said in Mark 8:3: If I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for divers of them came from far. Now, if as the aforementioned preacher implied, spiritual food is all we need, then why didn’t Jesus just dismiss the crowd to walk home solely on the strength of

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the spiritual bread He had been feeding them for three solid days? Why did He bother to feed them barley bread also? Because Jesus provides for the total needs of our total being. He is the Redeemer of our body, not just of our soul (Rom. 8:23). If God feeds the sparrows, He will feed us also (Matt. 6:26). Our Heavenly Father knows we need food, drink, and clothing (verses 31-32). If natural food were unnecessary Jesus never would have said our Father knows we have need of it! How dangerous, designating our God-given need to eat as an activity fit only for worldly folks, as if nourishing our bodies were in the same league as snorting coke or popping E’s. Swearing off nutritious meals in favor of asceticism sounds oh, so, spiritual, but it really springs from a lying religious spirit of bondage. Satan’s ministry is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). If he can’t kill us, he’ll at least try to slow us down by robbing us of vitality and destroying our health. Your body stops feeling hungry after 3 or 4 days of abstinence (normally). You can easily think that your feeling of light-headedness and detachment from reality is a spiritual mountaintop which is a much better place to abide than breaking your fast and resuming the “carnal” part of living the Christian life. Satan can masquerade as the Voice of the Lord and try to make you think you never need to eat again, because “you’re just a bit closer to heaven” by weakening the body, and “you’re entering into the death of Christ” that way. But satan specializes in religious deception. He knows you’re way too smart to do drugs or commit adultery. He has to be far more subtle about destroying you. It was a religious lie satan fed to Eve in the Garden of Eden when he told her she could enter into a higher state of awareness by eating the forbidden fruit. Beware of swallowing “Christian” mysticism that can make you go off on a dangerous tangent! That is one of the signs of an unbalanced religious cult. Perverting the practice of fasting is satan’s way of sanctifying anorexia and turning our basic biological need to eat into a base act of carnality, laced with guilt. But a believer can be just as close to the Lord at the dinner table as he is at church, because at both places glory can be given to God for His faithful provision of both material and spiritual nourishment. I see food as a gift God gives His children, not as a vice. I am not called to the ascetic life. If I were, God would not have helped me become a fairly decent cook, or helped me to perfect many recipes. I am called to glorify God in the kitchen, just as I strive to glorify him when I speak or write of His wondrous goodness. ONCE Jesus endured a forty-day fast in the wilderness, to prepare Him for greater challenges to come. But Jesus did not stay in that wilderness. Nor does Scripture say that Jesus ever repeated that fast. His cousin John the Baptist lived in the wilderness and he fasted all the time. He was called by God to that life, but not everyone has the same calling (Rom. 12:4). John ate only enough grasshoppers and honey to keep himself alive. The eating habits of Jesus and John the Baptist are contrasted in Matt. 11: 18-19 and in Luke 7:33-34. Jesus’ enemies accused Him of excess in food and drink. I think they said that because they compared Jesus, Who ate and drank in moderation at wedding feasts, with John, who never went to parties, hardly ever ate, and never touched wine. Next to John, just about anyone would look like a glutton! Now if fasting were the thing that makes us righteous, John the Baptist would have been more righteous than Jesus, because John did much more of it. Instead John says to Jesus in Matt. 3:14: I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me? Some Christians are too ill to fast. The closest they could come, if they wanted to join in a church fast, would be to forego tasty foods (Daniel 10:2-3). One person I know is hypoglycemic and must eat a snack every three hours or risk fainting. Few people on earth love Jesus more than this woman does. God doesn’t say to her: "If you can’t pay, don’t bother to pray." Fasters’ prayers don’t get “fast-tracked” over other prayers prayed in faith. JESUS already paid our first class postage! If God ordained the “spiritual discipline” of fasting, then why did He provide food EVERY DAY for the Israelites, even enough for the Sabbath, instead of sanctifying the Sabbath as a fast day (Ex.16:4-5)? For that matter, why didn’t the disciples just

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mortify their bodies and abstain from eating till the Sabbath Day was over instead of breaking it and picking grain in a field to satisfy their hunger (Matt.12:1)? There WAS no weekly “fast day” in the days of Moses! The Pharisees started that tradition under LAW, and we don’t need to continue it under Grace!

Don’t Destroy the Temple of the Holy Spirit!

Abstinence during a time of intense spiritual warfare might sometimes be necessary, but frequent fasting robs the body not only of calories (fuel), but of protein, which is utilized by the body to repair damaged tissue and form healthy new cells. Excessive fasting robs the body of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and sometimes even adequate water. If done too severely or frequently, fasting readjusts the basic metabolic setpoint of the body and puts it in a starvation mode (like yo-yo dieting). My anorectic brother survived for years, though he was painfully thin. Adam ate his meals from a saucer or a teacup, afraid to use a normal-sized plate! I lived clear across the country, so I wasn’t around every day to watch the flesh drop away from his bones. No one could get through to Adam. He died at the young age of 37. Since the body thinks its very survival is at risk, the body will become much more efficient with calorie expenditure when it is regularly starved of key nutrients. The “fasted” body goes into survival mode. It will tend to hoard every calorie consumed instead of burning it for energy. Fasting can ruin your basal metabolism (rate at which calories are burned). Those who try to go back to eating normal meals like their friends and family after a long period of “living the fasted life” discover that their bodies are very slow to burn calories, although they may keep active. Some frequent fasters I knew tended to have a pale, waxy complexion and prematurely lined skin . As in the case of crash-dieting (daily calorie intake of 1000 or below), all systems non-essential for personal survival are the first to shut down when severe fasting is practiced. A very few fasters (I knew just one, personally) flirt with death in order to “get closer to the Lord”. This particular girl stopped having her monthly period for a couple of years. She worried that she might never be able to have children. In time she moderated her fasting habits and through prayer, was healed. She went on to marry and have a large family. When more calories are expended than ingested, the first energy source drawn upon by the body is glycogen (a carbohydrate compound) in the liver. Theoretically, fat would be the next thing burned by the body. But whenever fasting is combined with inactivity (like dieting without exercise), muscle cells might be the next to go before fat reserves are drawn upon. And if the body is “buffeted” long enough, and has exhausted all its other power sources, it might even begin to eat its internal organs. Gums might bleed from lack of key nutrients, particularly vitamin C. Teeth and hair might begin to fall out, as the body’s most important organs, the brain and the heart, take priority in distributing what little nourishment is still circulating in the bloodstream. The skin loses its glow and vitality. Some Irish hunger strikers reportedly suffered blindness before death took them. Wasting away of muscle tissue and organ damage does not open the Way to the Holiest of all. Only the precious Blood of Jesus does that (Heb.9:8-15; 10:19-20)! Fasting carried to extremes becomes a satanic heresy destructive to the Temple of the Holy Ghost. Deliberately destroying God’s temple will probably provoke Him to anger, not sweeten your relationship with Him. The Deeper Life deception justifies religious fasting by saying that the weakness brought on by depriving your body of nutrition makes it possible for God to sustain you with His strength, which brings Him extra glory. By the same reasoning, you can break your foot with a hammer and plead for God to supernaturally help you walk in your self-induced weakness! That’s like snake handlers giving God an opportunity to protect them from the hazards of self-induced snakebite. God has ENOUGH

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opportunities to show Himself strong on our behalf because there is always some area in our life where we need His help. We don’t know about every possible danger that could come our way. We aren’t smart enough to solve every possible problem that could pop up. God protects us in thousands of ways we don’t even know about. Fasters DELIBERATELY crash their blood sugar and deplete their energy levels on the premise that as long as they’re eating, they’re strong as Superman and God isn’t getting enough glory and might get put out of a job. Actually, starving yourself to give God a chance to shine is a form of tempting God, “putting God to the test”, which is forbidden in Scripture (Deut.6:16). You decide to starve yourself, then expect Him to supernaturally empower you to run dangerous equipment at work or fly a plane safely. I Corinthians 3:17: If any man defile the temple of God; him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. * * * * *”Defile” as used in this context is explained in marginal notes as meaning “to destroy”. I looked this use of “defile” up in my Strong’s Concordance and found that the Greek word used here is phtheiro, which means “to shrivel, or to wither, or to spoil, through any means”. The temple of God can be wrecked through debauchery or excess (in most cases that’s how it happens). But it can also be destroyed through the shriveling, withering effects of severe asceticism. I’ve seen plenty of pale, anemic-looking Christian women who look older than their years. Fasting does make you fashionably thin, but regular loss of nutrients can ruin the metabolism, sap a woman’s energy, wither muscle tissue, cause premature graying, and wrinkle the complexion. Fasting (done to excess) accelerates aging and can help cause depression. Far from being a necessary evil, Scripture refers to our body as a holy temple of God!

Beware of Legalistic Bondage in Fasting

Even under the Old Law there was only one day of the year when God said His people were obligated by law to fast, except for times of national emergency: the Day of Atonement, a time of national sorrow for sin. Even then fasting was only IMPLIED because God told them merely to “afflict their soul” (Lev.23:32), and if you were eating prime rib, obviously you wouldn’t be afflicting yourself. Other annual fast days were added later BY COMMANDMENT OF MEN (oral traditions added to the written Law). Those extra fasts were NEVER authorized by God! By contrast, you’ll see quite a number of days where God commands the Jews to FEAST in His honor! Whenever God called the nation of Israel to fast and seek Him (in time of national sin or emergency), He expected them not only to appear in His Presence to pray, but to set aside during that time their daily occupations. How many hard-working Christians have felt pangs of guilt just because they had to relax the rules of their church fast in order to keep from collapsing on the job! And if you have to operate heavy machinery at work, it can be downright dangerous to you or your co-workers to diminish your mental alertness with fasting! Fasting goes hand-in-hand with mourning (Matt. 9:15). There are times we pour out our heart in sorrow or desperate prayer to God, and it is then we forget about food and its preparation. It is possible to receive strength from above when we are focused solely on the Lord and shut out the things of earth. When we realize that in and of ourselves we are poor and empty creatures (Matt.5:3: Rev.3:17-18) we remember that our sufficiency is of God (2 Cor.3:5). But contrary to one fasting myth. If self-starvation really were the key to greater reliance on God, than by logical inference, the consumption of food would make us feel like Popeye the Sailor Man who can whip a whole army after eating his spinach. NOWHERE does Scripture teach saints that they need to starve themselves to realize that God is their strength! That’s a Catholic doctrine from the Dark Ages, along with all the other penances Catholics taught to help people earn their way to heaven.

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Unless the Lord, according to His plan and purpose, calls someone to the ascetic life, eating properly is to be the norm, not the exception. In Psalms 28:7 David sings: The Lord is my Strength and my Shield. David sings of his rejoicing, and he didn’t say it took self-starvation to believe God was His Strength. If you’ll read through the life of David, his only recorded fasts happened when his child was dying (because of David being under judgment for sin) or when David mourned the defeat of the Israelite army and the death of King Saul. All of his fasts commemorated very sad, negative events, not his joy in the Lord. Nehemiah 8:10 says: The JOY of the Lord is your strength. Jesus always associated fasting with mourning, never with joy (Matt. 9:15). If we are strongest in the Lord when we are most joyful (and not fasting), how can the drummed-up sorrow of a fast generate the joy of the Lord? Some Christians think all eating is a very unspiritual thing, and in order for a day to be holy they must fast upon it. But Nehemiah doesn’t tell his listeners to fast. Instead he instructs them: Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah urged the people of God to eat and drink good things on a holy day when God’s Law was being read to the people. Such an activity would be classified by most as a RELIGIOUS or WORSHIP activity, which ought to be accompanied by solemn fasting instead of what Nehemiah told them to do: Do NOT be sorrowful, and enjoy the best foods and beverages. The logical implication is that if those Jews were supposed to be sorrowful instead of joyful, Nehemiah might have asked them to fast instead. That example is Old Testament, some will say, and the Way to Life demands greater sacrifice. It’s true that the early Church had to suffer much and sacrifice much. But they were also full of the joy of the Lord. Some folks think fasting is THE key to God’s power, just because it causes considerable discomfort. But God lives in the praises of His people (Psalms 22:3). I believe that when you are full of the joy of the Lord it is a sure sign God’s Holy Anointing of Power rests upon you. Personally I have found two other practices even more powerful in obtaining answers to prayer: Praying in the tongues of the Spirit and praying the Word of God (tailoring my English prayers according to what the Bible has to say about God meeting my particular need). When God breathes life into His written Word through the unction of His Holy Spirit, it’s dynamite! I read one article which stated: You read about lots of fasting in the early Church, but no eating in the early Church. Wrong! Acts 2:46-47 says of the early Church (who, by the way, spent much time in the Temple, like Anna of Luke 2:37): And they, continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as who should be saved. Paul, who often suffered deep privations, declares in I Timothy 6:17:God gives us richly all things to enjoy (not fast from to prove how spiritual we are). Some Christians think that you must fast to get people saved, but the early believers, who ate together often, won plenty of people to Christ. Why? Because the glorious Love and Joy of Jesus drew those people like a bee goes for honey. If the early Christians had gone around looking like they’d subsisted on nothing but sour lemon juice, how many sinners would have been drawn to join them and get the same blessing they had? Precious few, I think! I think the absence of LOVE in the church drives more sinners away than the presence of FOOD in the church kitchen! There will be eating in the Millennium, and lots of it. In Luke 22: 28-30 Jesus commends those who have stood by Him during His trials. He promises His people a great reward for their faithfulness. A kingdom has been appointed for them in which they will eat and drink with Him at His table in His Kingdom. If eating were nothing more than a necessary evil, to sustain temporal life, why would Christ promise His

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disciples that they would dine with Him at His own table once they are resurrected to everlasting life in immortal bodies? Bodies which, by the way, will not require natural food to keep them running! All true believers are invited to the great Marriage Supper (not Marriage Fast) of the Lamb spoken of in Revelation 19:9. Those who attend will be present in their resurrected, immortal bodies, not their old carnal ones. And I don’t expect to sit at Jesus’ table with just a glass of water and a toothpick . Another Scripture passage which points to Millennial eating is Ezekiel 44: 1-3. This passage speaks of a gate of the Holy City which has been sealed shut and is only for the Prince, the Holy One (Jesus) to enter. This prophecy of the sealing of the Eastern Gate in Jerusalem was fulfilled in 1517 by Suleiman the Magnificent. This Turkish ruler was certain he could prevent the Jewish Messiah from entering the Holy City by doing this. For added measure the Muslims also placed a cemetery in front of the Eastern Gate, thinking that this would surely deter the Promised One from someday entering into the Holy City. But that will pose no problem for Jesus. Either He will order His angels to unseal the Eastern Gate or He will simply pass through it the same way he was able to penetrate solid walls and locked doors to visit His disciples after His resurrection (John 20:19, 26).

But what does this passage have to do with eating? Plenty. The ruling prince of the area will appear in that city gate to eat bread in the Presence of the Most High as an act of worship (Ezek. 44:3).

One church I know of does loads of fasting but precious little loving. If you as a visitor go to that church, why, they’ll hardly even speak to you. After the meeting they’ll just gather in their tight little cliques and ignore you. Then they wonder why their church doesn’t grow much, and visitors quit coming after two or three visits. You can starve yourself to death and even give your body to be burnt in the service of Christ, but if you don’t have love in your heart, brother or sister, all your “sacrifice” will amount to nothing (I Cor. 13:3). God is far more concerned with the content of a person’s heart than the lack of contents in his stomach. Even if your stomach is as hollow as the Grand Canyon your prayers will get no answer if your heart is empty of faith and love. To sum it up: Is your faith in Christ Jesus and His Grace, or is your faith in fasting? It isn’t the emptiness of our stomach that moves God to act on our behalf, but the faith in our heart.

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Fasting: a Weak and BEGGARLY Element

In Galatians Chapter 4 Paul addresses the problem of Christians living in bondage to weak and beggarly elements (rudiments) of the world ( (Gk. stoicheon, elementary principles), which “Judaisers” had tried to impose upon them. Paul takes issue with legalistic Christians who are still so bound to Judaism and its old customs that they try to bind these religious rules onto baby believers. These “weak and beggarly” elements are what you’d call the elementary ABC’s of religious observance, man’s effort to please God through faithful performance of ritual. But Paul would have none of it. In verses 5-7, Paul tells the Galatians that they have been adopted as sons into God’s family. They aren’t pitiful beggars who must perform rituals to get God’s attention and earn his mercy! Gal.4:9: But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements (ABC’s of Jewish legalism) whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?Verse 10: Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years (that would include regularly fasting like the Pharisees, who fasted each Monday and Thursday). Verse 11: I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Paul doesn’t commend the Galatians for doing their best to be good religious people. He rebukes them for forgetting that they are sons and returning to the begging bowl of religious rituals. I’m reminded of professional beggars in my part of the world. Some Eastern European immigrants send their women and children to beg in front of stores, looking sad and wearing old clothes. Old Testament saints clung to outward forms of religion, to prove their faithfulness to God so God would take pity on them and come to their aid. Old Covenant believers didn’t know from one day to the next whether they would retain God’s favor. Their fasts were usually motivated by grief, sorrow for sin, or fear of danger. As they fasted, they would seek God with a sorrowful face. Many of them would throw dirt on their heads, tear their clothes in grief, or wear sackcloth to show deep humility. In this way they humbled themselves and fearfully approached God to BEG Him for mercy. The Old Covenant was an inferior covenant (Heb.8:13). The UNCERTAINTY and precariousness of a believer’s continued salvation was one of its many drawbacks. People approached God in great fear and trembling, uncertain as to the outcome. Reverence toward God must always be maintained in the heart of the believer, but now we can enter BOLDLY into the very Presence of God through the precious Blood of Jesus. We don’t need to come to God with a long face, fasting, throwing dirt on our heads, wearing a burlap sack and walking barefoot up to a distant shrine. We come to God as His dear children, not as pitiful outcasts holding out a begging bowl. Fasting is a “weak and beggarly element”, like the wearing of sackcloth and ashes (Daniel 9:3). The Prophet Daniel did the best he could to intercede for his people, considering he lived under an inferior Covenant and the Jews had lost their Temple, along with all its ceremonies. Pray reverently and earnestly like Daniel, but remember this: Daniel lived under the Old Covenant and we live in the Church Age. Our New Covenant is a far better covenant established upon far better promises (Heb.8:6). We are made one spirit with Christ by faith (I Cor.6:17). God has ALREADY blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (Eph.1:3). We are already seated with Jesus in Heavenly places (Eph.2:6). Daniel did not enjoy these blessings during his lifetime.

During Jesus’ ministry, and even before the beginning of the New Covenant, wicked spirits were made subject to Christ’s disciples. Demons could be cast out through the imparted authority of Christ, Who has all power over the forces of darkness (Luke 10:19-20; I Pet.3:22). Daniel did not have this power and authority, since Christ’s earthly ministry had not yet begun, Jesus had not yet sealed satan’s defeat on the Cross, and the New Covenant had not been ushered in. Instead, Daniel prayed with great mourning, depending upon mighty angels to push back demonic

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forces so his answer to prayer could arrive (Daniel 10:13). Daniel lived under the Old Covenant. He did not have spiritual authority to cast down powers of darkness. There were occasional miracles of healing before Christ came, but not one example of any demon being cast out through prayer.

Daniel was a very wise, godly man. So godly Daniel received assurance from God of his own resurrection (Dan.12:13). Daniel was mightily used of God, despite the fact fundamental elements of Jewish worship were no longer available (the destroyed Temple, animal sacrifices, pilgrimages to Jerusalem for Feast Days, etc). But Daniel was not spiritually born again through the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). Daniel was greatly beloved of God, but he was not a member of the Body of Christ (see I Cor.12:27). We enjoy spiritual blessings Daniel didn’t have under the Old Covenant. We can pray in the tongues of the Spirit, Daniel couldn’t, because the Spirit had not been poured out yet upon the Church (I Cor.14:2,14-15).

Although we have all these great spiritual blessings at our disposal, many insist our prayer experience should be exactly like that of Daniel. Many copy Daniel’s “21-day fast” (the Daniel Fast) by subsisting on plain peas, lentils and beans, etc. I tried doing this in a time of great trial, but no miracle breakthrough came to resolve the situation. The Daniel Fast is much less severe than total fasting, but it bears some similarity to the Catholic Lent season, which forbids certain foods to be eaten, contrary to I Tim.4:3. If eating bacon instead of beans sabotaged prayer, surely the apostles would have mentioned this in their writings!

Daniel lived under the shadow of God’s judgment upon his erring nation, which had been taken captive to a heathen land. Christ had not yet come to make final atonement for the sins of Israel. The Israelites couldn’t even pacify God’s righteous wrath with animal sacrifices anymore. No wonder Daniel prayed with great fear and trembling, even with shame because of the sins of his ancestors. But things dramatically changed at the Cross. Jesus won for us not only redemption from sin, but unimaginably great spiritual blessings, including being sealed in salvation with the Spirit of Promise (Eph.1:13). Even Bible prophecy proclaims our final victory and satan’s ultimate destruction. But some pray as if the final outcome were in doubt, as if Jesus hadn’t already defeated satan on Calvary. Those bound by ascetic practices call themselves rotten sinners who are unworthy to beg God for mercy, though Scripture proclaims that Christian believers are made the very righteousness of Christ (2 Cor.5:21), and there is NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and walk in the Spirit (Rom.8:1). Although we highly esteem Daniel’s godly example, our prayer life can’t exactly mirror his.

Dependence on fasting is very inferior to prayer in the Spirit. Prayer in the Spirit looks not upon our own human inadequacy, but unto Jesus alone, Who is the author and the FINISHER of our faith (Heb. 12:2). We can stand on the promises of God already freely given to us by the grace of God in Christ. Such prayer isn’t dependent on outward form and ritual. If anyone insists on fasting the way Daniel did, then wearing sackcloth and ashes and confessing the sins of your ancestors is part of it! Regular fasting seems like a respectable way to get God’s attention. But it was the Pharisees who invented weekly “fast days”, not God! It’s very safe to say that nobody can prove out of his Bible that God ordained regular weekly fast days, or ordered any other regularly scheduled fast besides the Jews’ Day of Atonement! Sometimes people in the Bible fasted in times of sorrow or danger, but never in times of joy. NOT ONCE did God ever command fasting to be done to “bring the power down” in church, or to keep a Christian’s joy under restraint!

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Tithing and Fasting F(laws)

Jesus said a tree is known by its fruits (Matt.12:33). What are a few of the fruits of the modern tithing doctrine and other “sacrificial” giving gimmicks promoted by preachers today?

1. By resurrecting tithing, one of 613 laws of Moses and coming back under it, tithe-collectors sabotage Jesus’ action of nailing Old testament ordinances to His cross (Col.2:14). Tithe collectors bring Christians back under the whole Law and back under its inherent curse (Gal.3:10).

2. Tithing causes financial hardship and loss of time together for poor families who must take extra jobs to be able to tithe and still survive. This has a ripple effect. There are only 24 hours in a day. Less time is available for child training and family devotions (Prov.22:6). Less parental supervision makes the child(ren) more vulnerable to bad influences from the world, as the children’s peer group rushes in to fill the vacuum left by parents who work most of their waking hours. Instead of pursuing after God and His will, poor people must chase after the dollar to be able to pay bills and still tithe. They are forced to forget Christ’s instruction to “take no thought” for the needs of tomorrow (Matt.6:34).

3. When parents aren’t able to do a second job, they are forced to choose between bringing in “God’s” tithe or adequately providing for their families. When they cave in and pay tithes (or even offerings) out of what is needed to care for their kids, they are going against Jesus’ warning against making a ‘corban’ (ritual gift) out of what should go to family support (Mark 7:9-13), thus making void the Word of God through observance of manmade traditions. When people use money to pamper rich preachers instead of providing for their own household, they automatically make themselves infidels, according to I Tim.5:8.

4. When blessings for tithing fail to materialize, it can shatter a believer’s faith in God’s faithfulness. Despite the fact Malachi 3:8-10 was addressed to Old Testament Levites, not to New Testament believers. It’s the ignorant (or deliberately deceptive) PREACHER, not God, who promises Christians blessings for tithing on money, which God never commanded in either testament. Failure to prosper after tithing makes it easier for satan to tempt the believer to doubt all God’s REAL promises!

5. Instead of getting a windfall by falling for the preacher’s “Breakthrough With My Last Buck Blessing” gimmick, those who give to the rich only fall into deeper poverty (Prov.22:16). I’m speaking from experience here. It feels like God is ignoring your prayers for financial deliverance, when even out of ignorance, you “plant a seed to meet your need”. Even a “sacrificial widow’s mite” gift of your last five dollars won’t make God change His mind about being true to that warning in Proverbs. God doesn’t endorse a false gospel of satan with blessings. He hates being treated like a slot machine!

6. Tithing worsens the rich-poor divide in the Body of Christ. The “standing” of families in church depends on faithful “tithing”, contrary to James 2:9. An unscriptural clergy-laity division among believers is reinforced through tithes being paid by “pew Christians” to “spiritual Levites”. Non-tithers can be

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excluded from the most exclusive church cliques as big tithers are given star treatment.

7. Non-tithers are often forbidden to “minister” in church, contrary to I

Corinthians Chapter 12. Spiritual gifts of poor Christians can be ignored, and their personal ministry disregarded because non-tithing is perceived to be a fatal flaw in their relationship with Jesus. Although NO ONE is EVER commanded to tithe by the apostles or rebuked by them for failure to do so!

8. The priesthood of all believers (I Pet.2:5,9) is weakened as “leadership” assumes the role of Old Covenant priests and collects an unscriptural money tithe. Tithing under Grace is garbagey theology cooked up by the money-hungry religious Establishment. Preachers call themselves “spiritual Levites”. But most members of the tribe of Levi DID pay tithes in the Old Testament (Num.18:25-28). And they paid them to Aaron the High Priest. The actual priesthood did NOT tithe. We are priests under the New Covenant (I Pet.2:5,9). Jesus is the ONLY High Priest of our covenant (Heb.7:20-28)! And we are made one spirit with Him through faith (I Cor.6:17). So how can we rank lower on God’s totem pole than pulpit preachers? Anyone who collects tithes today from God’s Royal Priesthood (regular believers) is a fraud usurping Jesus’ position as High Priest of the New Covenant, even if he is doing it out of ignorance!

9. Even as they accuse non-tithers of “failing God” and “disobeying His Word”, tithe collectors ADD TO the Word of God compulsory “sacrifice” which was never demanded by the original apostles, contrary to 2 Cor.9:7 and Deut.4:2. Sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice is NEVER demanded under the New Covenant! Jesus made ONE SACRIFICE forever, and it is ENOUGH in the sight of God (Heb.10:10-12).

10. Tithe enforcers LIE to God’s people about His merciful, loving nature by painting a grim picture of Him as one who demands continual sacrifice and hardship to “prove your love for Jesus”. Jesus Himself prefers MERCY to sacrifice (Matt.9:13). Like the wicked Pharisees, greedy preachers prefer sacrifice to mercy. They condemn the guiltless by making a sin out of failure to keep monetary tithing, a LAW OF MEN imposed on Christendom by the Roman Catholic Church long after the death of the apostles.

11. Tithe-collecting corrupts a preacher’s motives. Honesty might be the best policy, but it doesn’t always make a guy richer in this world. Money is a highly addictive temptation, just like drugs or gambling. Knowledge of the truth doesn’t automatically set preachers free from serving mammon instead of God (Luke 16:13). Even those who discover the truth through careful unbiased study of God’s Word might continue to take tithes out of greed or to beef up the church budget, hoping pew Christians never wake up to the truth.

12. Tithing is a very dangerous doctrine. It robs believers both materially and spiritually. Putting confidence in this dead work of the Law to please God (Col.2:14) carries with it the risk of falling from the grace of God and losing salvation (Gal.5:4).

13. Tithing under the New Covenant means someone must collect the tithe as God’s representative and place himself or herself between you and Christ as a surrogate Old Covenant priest! That’s mixing the two covenants and creating “another gospel”, expressly forbidden by the Word of God, and which carries a

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terrible curse (Gal.1:8-9)! Christ is the ONLY Mediator between God and man (I Tim.2:5). Anybody pretending to be a Levite so he could take tithes from the people (or perform any other function of a Levite) would formerly have been struck dead by God (Num.1:51).

14. By misrepresenting God as a vengeful tax collector, tithe enforcers ruin the relationship between God and ordinary Christians. Pew Christians are robbed of their peace with God (Rom.5:1) through threats of divine retribution for failure to keep this false doctrine of men (Ezek.13:22a; Rom.8:15; Gal.5:12).

15. Money gives a heady feeling of power. Like heroin it is highly addictive and people will do dishonest things to get more and more of it. The power to siphon off wealth from the weak leads to pride and abuse of the poor. Powerful, rich preachers count on their listeners’ ignorance and use it to fill their hearts with fear in order to extort more and more money.

16. One crowbar used by the worst of the worst is fear of committing the Unpardonable Sin. Such unscrupulous snakes love the Ananias and Sapphira story in Acts 5:1-5. Christians are told that either they cough up the cash or God might strike them dead like he did those two! That terrible tale works like a charm for tithe-collectors so long as verse 4 is skipped over. Ananias’ land, and the money from the sale of that land, belonged to HIM, not the church. Ananias’ sin lay in lying to the Holy Spirit, plain and simple. Tithing is neither mentioned nor implied in the context!

What are some possible fruits of legalistic, ritual fasting (as opposed to skipping a meal or two during a period of intense, uninterrupted prayer)?

1. Fasting can be seen as a supplement to Christ’s Sacrifice of Himself for us on Calvary, done out of a feeling of HAVING to do it (like “giving out of necessity” in II Cor.9:7), to “stay on God’s good side”. This is contrary to salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Any religious ritual, however costly or unpleasant, performed to earn or keep God’s favor is a sacrifice offered up in vain. God isn’t pleased with it. Reliance upon religion instead of Christ carries with it the danger of falling from grace and forfeiting salvation (Gal.5:4).

2. Some rely on fasting to “purify” the soul. We are purified and sanctified not through personal suffering and “sacrifices”, but only through the ONE sacrifice of the precious Blood of Jesus alone (Heb.10.14; I Pet.1:2,18-19).

3. Fasting can be performed as a penance (a Roman Catholic doctrine) to punish oneself for sin, when sincere repentance and faith in the Blood of Christ ONLY are needed for being made right (justified) with God (Rom.5:1; I John 1:9).

4. Fasting can be used as a bargaining chip with God to try to get what you want out of Him, in the same way the priests of Baal inflicted suffering on themselves to try to win their god’s favor (I Kings 18:28).

5. Pride in “keeping the flesh under subjection” can cause feelings of superiority over non-fasters (Luke 18:12). Religious rituals can minister pride, not humility.

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6. Confidence can be put in weakened flesh (Phil.3:3) to win spiritual battles, much the same way a sumo wrestler puts confidence in his strength and bulk to beat an opponent.

7. Compulsory fasting forbids good things God created for our enjoyment (I Tim.6:17). “Commanding to abstain from meats” belongs in the category of “touch not, taste not, handle not” ceremonial ordinances which are no longer applicable today (Col.2:21; I Tim.4:3.) Putting ourselves under religious restrictions (non-eating) on certain predetermined days is NOT part of our Covenant of Grace. It is Law.

8. “Covenanting” with God to ALWAYS keep certain day(s) of the week as a “fast day” or for any other kind of religious activity runs the risk of failure and condemnation for breaking a self-imposed law. It means that you are BOUND to abstain from eating as a religious duty, just because the earth has rotated on its axis seven times since the last “fast day”. Routine fasting is a form of “observing days and times” as in Galatians 4:10.

9. Preoccupation with fasting can cause a neurotic fear of accidentally ingesting a tiny amount of food on “fast day”. If a tiny bit of food is ingested before a long-awaited sunrise or sunset (your choice) ends a particular fasting period, a profound feeling of failure or sorrow could turn your “mountaintop experience” into terrible fear of God’s punishment. Sometimes that fear is subconscious, but it is there. Why? Because you’ve left the Promised Land of God’s free grace and gone back to the land of fearful bondage, and deep inside your spirit senses this. The fruit of religious legalism is FEAR (Rom.8:15). Prematurely “breaking your fast” through an absent-minded nibble or sip of something can cause fear of “driving away the Spirit”. God will never leave nor forsake His children (Heb.13:5).

10. A negative attitude toward food and eating can arise by designating these earthly concerns as selfish or carnal, although Jesus taught people to pray “Give us this day our DAILY bread (Matt.6:11). Jesus fed the crowd literal bread after feeding them spiritual bread (Mark 8:1-9). Far from extolling the virtues of the “fasted body” as being God’s ideal, Jesus was unwilling to send his listeners away fasting (verse 3), lest they faint on the way home. If fasting confers supernatural strength and power, then why did Christ need to feed them natural as well as spiritual bread? Jesus plainly says that things we eat don’t spiritually defile us (Mark 7:15). Whether we eat or don’t eat doesn’t affect our standing before God (I Cor.8:8). We are not to judge one another in matters of meat and drink (Col.2:16). The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17). God’s Kingdom is a feast of spiritual blessings, not the absence of stew in your stomach!

11. Frequent fasting can sap a believer’s general health and vitality, as well as cause depression and a souring of the disposition. Joy attracts lost souls to Christ much more than appearing miserable in fasting.

12. “Sanctifying a church fast” can make those unable to fast (the ill, expectant mothers, etc.) feel guilty, because the verb “to sanctify” implies the fast is holy and MUST be observed by ALL. “Sanctifying a fast” is an Old Testament concept (Ezra 8:21; Joel 2:15), done by Jews under the Law in time of personal or national crisis. Not one incidence of “sanctifying a church fast”

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occurs in the New Testament, not even when the whole church banded together and prayed for Peter to get out of jail (Acts 12:5).

13. Many feel OBLIGATED to fast because of examples found in the New Testament. But we are no more bound to keep fasting, a Jewish custom, than we are bound to copy Paul’s example of shaving his head for a ritual vow (Acts 18:18). Only what is SPECIFICALLY COMMANDED TO THE CHURCH is a duty for New Testament believers. Just two cases of fasting occurred among the apostles in the Book of Acts when they were praying about sending out missionaries (Acts 13:2-3;14:23). The apostles were Jewish men still attached to some of their old customs, like “going up” for Jewish feasts (Acts 18:21) and Paul’s religious vow-keeping. In the KJV, Cornelius the centurion is recorded to have fasted, but ancient Greek manuscripts differ on whether the word “fast” was originally included in Acts 10:30. Some texts read merely that Cornelius was observing the Jewish hour of prayer (the ninth hour, or three o’clock). As a “devout” Gentile “God-fearer” (even if he wasn’t a full-fledged proselyte) Cornelius might have fasted even before his conversion to Christ, as a Jewish custom of personal piety. Acts 10:2 mentions Cornelius’ frequent alms-giving, a typical Jewish act of piety. In verse 4, an angel appeared to Cornelius and said his prayers and his alms (no mention of his fastings) had risen up to God’s Throne as a memorial. In another case, Saul did not eat or drink for three days after being temporarily blinded by his vision of Jesus (Acts 9:9). It is unclear whether Saul, a recently converted Pharisee who would have habitually fasted like other Pharisees (Luke 18:12), deliberately refused nourishment, or simply couldn’t eat and drink due to shock. Significantly, in verse 11, where the Lord appeared in a vision to Ananias and instructed him to go minister to Saul, the Lord mentioned Saul’s praying, not his fasting. Other than these isolated occasions NO OTHER CASE of religious fasting (only periods of hunger due to hardship or food shortage) are recorded in the New Testament.

14. Keeping a compulsory church fast burdens some more than others. Salaried church leaders are free to pray and fast all day without extra responsibilities to distract them or tire them. They can enjoy a “more spiritual” environment than those who must fast (and barely pray) in a hectic, unedifying secular workplace. Some people must work strenuous or highly repetitive, fast-paced jobs during “fast days”. Health and safety can be jeopardized as fatigue sets in while running heavy machinery, lifting, etc. Such people cannot stay focused on prayer all day. Their boss pays them for their time at work, and expects them to stay focused on doing their job.

15. Ritual fasting alters a believer’s relationship with God. When a believer is first saved, his entire focus is on the redeeming love of Jesus, and how Christ loved him enough to die for him as an unmerited act of love. In his heart burns a fervent “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Pet.1:8). It feels like a spiritual honeymoon. But once legalism creeps into the life of the believer, the glow of divine joy begins to fade from his countenance and an agonizing fear of “losing out with God” eats at the back of his mind. Instead of continuing to rejoice over what Jesus has done and glorying in it, the Christian begins to think: God will only work mightily in my life if I show myself worthy of it through a life of continual “sacrifice”.

16. However subconsciously, some believers think God ENJOYS seeing us suffer and we have to pay for His favors (or make amends for our sins) in fasting

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installments, much like a child thinks he pays for his pranks in spanking installments!

17. Some think that unless they “fast for miracles”, their prayers won’t be answered and they will get nowhere with God. But does fasting prompt God to pour out more miracles? John the Baptist and his disciples fasted much more often than Jesus and His disciples (Matt.9:14). Jesus “came eating and drinking” (Luke 7:33-34). But NOT ONE miracle is attributed to John the Baptist personally, though John did much more fasting than Jesus! Some Christians think that unless they fast for three days (or other period), they dare not even try to pray “the prayer of faith” to defeat satan. In Luke 10:17 Jesus’ team of seventy disciples reported back to Him, rejoicing that even the demons were subject to them THROUGH JESUS’ NAME (not through fasting). Jesus gave His non-fasting disciples power over ALL the power of the enemy (verse 19). This happened even before Jesus’ death on the Cross, and before the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, and before the inauguration of the New Covenant! If Christians must first fast in order to defeat the powers of darkness, then the focus is taken off Christ’s own victory on Calvary and put onto us and our ability to “storm the gates of heaven” on the fumes of our own weakness. If God’s power doesn’t kick in until we reach a “fasted condition” three days after the beginning of our abstinence, then it follows that for at least one or two days we DIDN’T have power over ALL the power of the enemy, contradicting Christ’s own plain words! An example in point: Raising someone from the dead is one of the mightiest possible miracles which can be performed in this world. In Acts 20:7-11 Paul the Apostle met with some disciples on the first day of the week to BREAK BREAD (eat) not to fast. Paul preached so long to them that a young man sitting in the window fell asleep. He fell a long way down and hit the ground hard, resulting in death. Notice that Paul didn’t call for the brethren to stop their communal meal and fast a couple of days before attempting to raise the young man from the dead. Both before and immediately after this miracle, Paul ATE! If fasting is essential for miracle-working, then why didn’t the Christians “get serious with God” enough to start a fast to “bring down the power”? Because Paul knew He ALREADY HAD the power of the Living Christ inside of him, and he couldn’t increase this power by contributing his own two cents’ worth of suffering!

18. Non-fasting Christians are made to feel like “drop-outs” in the School of Faith, carnal fence-sitters who are digging their own spiritual graves with their knife and fork. They are often told that those who fast will receive the greatest rewards in heaven, while non-fasters will barely make it in. But NOT ONE incident of fasting is recorded in the Bible before Moses. Fasting in service to God is not attributed to such righteous saints as Seth, Noah, Enoch, Abraham and Isaac. Without his first fasting to earn it, Enoch walked with God (walked uprightly before His God) and was taken by God without first dying (Gen.5:24; Heb.11:5). Walking with God requires dying to the old selfish nature of sin, but it does not require self-starvation. The only other person recorded to have escaped physical death is Elijah, who DID go without food for a time, in I Kings 19:8. Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel. He was hiding in the wilderness and was heavily discouraged. An angel appeared to Elijah and fed him a meal. The angel did not tell Elijah to fast to defeat his discouragement. Empowered by that food, Elijah was able to continue his journey to Mount Horeb for forty days. Elijah did not deliberately starve his body for “self-mortification”. He was supernaturally empowered to draw strength from what he had already been fed. One

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normal meal would sustain a person for several hours, and maybe even a whole day. Just imagine hiking across the USA without stopping to eat, your body still fueled by the spaghetti you ate forty days ago! A normal forty-day fast would put the body in “starvation mode” and cause it to eat its own tissues for survival. Scripture plainly says Elijah went in the strength of bread eaten, not in the weakness of a religious fast.

19. Satan knows believers can’t focus on more than one thing at one time. When good things happen, fasting can easily get the glory due to Jesus alone. In an of itself, fasting has no eternal merit. In order for one thing to take the primary place in a believer’s faith and practice, something else (faith in Christ alone) must take a lower seat at the table.

20. Fasting gets blown out of proportion through the current “Hunger for Jesus” craze, which seems oh, so spiritual, but teaches that we only grow closer to God through personal suffering (a lie of satan). It is implied that only through “dying to” our own personal well-being and depriving our bodies of nutrition can our hunger for the Life of Christ be satisfied. This springs from Gnosticism, an early heresy fought against by the apostles. Gnosticism holds that all matter is inherently evil and only the invisible is good. Thus Christians are encouraged to “crucify their flesh” and become ascetics “so more souls can be saved.” If this is true, then why did the Son of Man “come eating and drinking” (Luke 7:34)? That is the example Christ set for us. Why is that verse overlooked by those who teach fasting as a binding obligation for Christians? Through promoting sad asceticism as God’s highest will for His children, satan makes the Christian life seem more like a funeral than a joyous celebration of our Risen Lord. But natural and spiritual nourishment do not necessarily conflict with each other, any more than an eggshell is evil just because the yolk is more important.

21. “Fasting for self-mortification” is something Jesus never practiced Himself, or any of his disciples. ONCE Jesus abstained from food for a prolonged period. Throughout his forty-day abstinence, Christ was supernaturally sustained by the Word of God (Matt.4:4). Only AFTER His fast was finished did Christ feel hungry (verse 2). To imitate Jesus’ long fast perfectly, you would need to do like He did and be able to convert the Word of God into fuel usable by the human body! Far from being ascetics, Jesus and his men ate and drank freely (Matt.9:14; 11:19). Fasting to “mortify the flesh” is a doctrine which crept into the church long after the first apostles died. It became a popular “discipline” in Catholic monasteries, practiced by nuns and monks who struggled to “crucify themselves” to achieve higher levels of “spiritual ecstasy” and closer “union with Christ”. (They also beat their backs with little whips to “get closer to God”). Through faith in Christ alone we are ALREADY joined to Him spiritually (I Cor.6:17).

22. Far from increasing spiritual awareness, fasting can FOOL you! There is a fine line between our yet-unperfected soul, which interacts daily with this world (I Pet.2:11) and our spirit, that already perfected part of the Christian where God’s Spirit resides (Rom.7:22). Once hunger pangs fade during a fast, a floaty, lightheaded, detached feeling can take over. This euphoric state can be mistaken for receiving a deep anointing of the Spirit of God. The soul can be positively influenced by the spirit, even as a sick body can depress the soul. Our soul can and does respond to the deep, restful joy which comes from our spirit. But beware of getting carried away with the counterfeit. “Getting high on Jesus” is a SOULISH concept, a popular buzzword used to

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convert hippies to Christ in the early 70’s. You can get thrilled by a religious meeting where there is a big-name preacher and a bombastic music band. But if the preaching and singing was pure professionalism without the power of the Spirit, the thrill doesn’t last very long, even if that service left you feeling like you could whip old satan with one hand tied behind your back. But just let the boss chew you out the next day, and you’ll crash back down to earth in a hurry! I’ve experienced this myself: It can be a rainy day in our “Doubting Thomas” soul, but perpetual sunshine in our faith-filled “spirit man” because God is fellowshipping with us continually there. Even when we feel “down in the dumps” we are still spiritually united with Christ.

23. Fasting to “get the anointing” is a doctrinal error never taught to the Church by Jesus or any apostle. If fasting could bestow special anointing on Christian believers, Scripture is strangely silent on this point. NOWHERE in the New Testament are believers ever told to fast to get a greater anointing from God. Sick people aren’t even instructed to fast for their healing! The word “anointing” appears only THREE times in the New Testament. In one context (James 5:14) “anointing” is done with olive oil that is poured on a sick person as elders pray over him to get well. The other two incidences of “anointing” both appear in the same verse: I John 2:27, where John speaks of the anointing (Gk. chrisma, unction) which believers have ALREADY received in full, which anointing teaches them all things. This refers to the fullness of the Holy Spirit, given as God’s Gift through the prayer of faith, not fasting (Acts 8:15-17; Rom.5:5).

24. Fasting is sometimes (consciously or subconsciously) used to “help the faster

enter into the death of Christ” by bringing him or her “just a bit closer to physical death and the Glory World”. But whenever the Christian is instructed to mortify or crucify anything, it isn’t his arms or legs, it’s his old carnal nature, and its evil affections and lusts (Rom.8:13; Eph.4:22; Col.3:9). Fasting is often touted as a means of achieving greater personal holiness, but NOT ONCE in all his writings does Paul ever recommend fasting as a good way to “enter into the death of Christ” or “kill the flesh”. Col.2:23 discourages the notion that harsh treatment of the body gets rid of sin. Paul never once recommends fasting as a means of “hearing more clearly from God”. Even shamans, Eastern religions practitioners and New Agers rely on fasting to tune out the physical world and tune in more clearly to the world of spirits. We must not “learn the way of the heathen” (Jere.10:2).

Christians are rebuked for many faults and sins in Scripture. But, interestingly, NOT ONCE is anybody ever rebuked in the New Testament for failure to tithe or fast! We are to follow Jesus, God’s perfect Example for righteous living, not sentimental religious tradition. Jesus did not “buffet His body” through ritual fasting. So why would He expect His followers to do that to their own bodies? Christians are exhorted by religious zealots to cheerfully bear the burden of tithing and the “spiritual discipline” of fasting to “prove their love for Jesus”, but who laid these burdens upon them, God or men? God commands Christians to “owe no man any thing but to love one another” (Rom.13:8). Why, then, would God contradict Himself by saying that “pew Christians” owe much more than love to “pulpit ministers”, i.e. an ongoing debt of ten per cent of all earned income, perpetually payable each and every week until Jesus comes again? Did God ever demand that New Testament believers “live a fasted life” (slowly starve) to prove how hungry they are for Jesus?

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Acts 15:28: For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you NO GREATER BURDEN than these necessary things:VERSE 29: That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Regularly paying some preacher ten per cent of your paycheck (especially if you’re poor) or starving your body as a religious ritual IS a greater burden then those four “necessary things” required of Christians by the Holy Ghost! Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt.11:30). We are God’s children, not abject, cringing slaves of religious bondage. Ours is a glorious liberty (Rom.8:21; Gal.4:31).

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Prophetic Word

Don’t Go Around BraggingI Kings 18:28; Micah 6:8; Matt.5:20; Luke 11:52; 18:9-14

Don’t parade your goodness before men to seek praise and admiration from them. It was the haughty Pharisee who pointed at his chest with pride and prayed thus from his darkened heart: “Lord, I thank thee that I am better than other men. Not only do I abstain from evil deeds, I fast twice a week. You owe me a great deal of thanks for that. I bet this sinner standing next to me is a real glutton and drunkard.” Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This saying has filled many with fear that if they don’t fast twice weekly or more, they aren’t exceeding the righteousness of the Pharisees. But the key truth is this: Did I Myself require twice-weekly fasting, or did the Pharisees impose it upon themselves? “It is written” ought to be the guide for the definition of righteousness, not manmade traditions added to the Scroll of the Law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Even under the Old Law, fasting was required only on the Day of Atonement. Extra fast days were later added to the Jewish liturgical calendar BY COMMANDMENT OF MEN. The religious legalism I see in My church is like a rancher who asks his hired hand to go brand his prize bull. But the cowpoke goes the extra mile for his boss, reasoning that his boss is paying him well for making the animal miserable. So he inflicts even more pain on the bull by castrating it. Proud of himself, he goes to collect a windfall paycheck for doing more than it was his duty to do. But all he gets from his boss is a chewing out and his walking papers, not money. Why? Because the rancher required obedience and faithfulness of the cowpoke, not the infliction of needless pain. The Pharisees were little better than the priests of Baal who slashed their own flesh with knives to impress their demon god with their suffering. Those Pharisees were not accounted as righteous because they added extra requirements to My Law. I never gave them the authority to sit in Moses seat, so as to lay grievous burdens upon My people. The scribes and Pharisees acted as barriers to keep people from entering into life. They tried to keep My Kingdom an exclusive club which had such strict rules to keep that only a few could qualify for membership. In order to accomplish this, they raised the hurdle between Me and My people higher, so that many potential converts and “common people” turned away from Me in defeated frustration. The Pharisees seized Moses’ seat by force because it appeared to be vacant, and SOMEBODY had to keep My people under a heavy yoke! The so-called interpreters of the Law ADDED to that Law and made it a grievous burden to bear. In so doing, they took away the key of knowledge of the Most High Who said: “He hath shewed thee O man what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Not only did the renowned doctors of the Law take away that precious key of knowledge, they used it to shut the door of the Kingdom to prevent the humble from entering in. The Pharisees’ so-called “righteousness” was all external pretence, not internal reality. They were all sham and no substance. I see the same thing going on today, religious legalists sitting in Moses’ seat and legislating new laws about standards for the observance of “ouchy” areas such as fasting, giving, and sacrifices of all sorts. A modern misconception is this: Those Pharisees were so holy and blameless it would be near-impossible to exceed their righteousness. Don’t deceive yourselves, My people! If the Pharisees were so holy, why did Christ give them a verbal thrashing about their wicked pride, their hypocrisy, and their inner uncleanness painted over by supposed good works? What kind of holy person devours widows’ houses and makes a convert twice the son of hell as themselves? No, you can’t exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees in your own

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strength, even if the righteousness of the Pharisees was just a farce. In My sight, all of humankind is equally worthy of hell apart from the saving Grace of My Son, the Lord Jesus. But the legacy of the self-righteous Pharisee lives on and on, even in this Age of Grace. There are saints spare of flesh but bloated with pride that they have trained their own bodies not to need daily bread. A few are so “spiritual” that they forego eating regular meals and fast most days. They look disdainfully at others and say: “If you really loved Jesus and cared about the Kingdom of God you’d lay down your fork and lift up your cross.” My, how My kids love to lay guilt trips on each other! John the Baptist would have been considered an ascetic saint. He shunned most human contact, except what was needful for My service. Like Daniel did for three weeks, he “ate no pleasant bread”. But John ate in this austere way all the time, even on non-fasting days. Never would you spot John at a wedding feast or other festive occasion. John had no use for insincere ceremony. He kept his distance from a Temple “beautified” by King Herod with Hellenistic designs. He steered clear of the corrupt Temple priesthood. Scorned by other Jews for being bizarre and “having a devil”, John abstained from all the legitimate pleasures of life, mourning for an Israel gone astray from their God. His consecrated life was a rebuke to the hypocrites of Israel who depended on outward ritual to make them acceptable to Me. In order to hear My Voice more clearly, John ate little and cloistered himself in the wilderness, away from society’s corrupting influence. But John’s cousin Jesus served Me by mixing freely in society to reach out to others. He was even accused of being a winebibber and a glutton, just because He would often dine with sinners who needed his help. Whether the food was rich or plain, Christ would partake of it with a clear conscience after giving Me thanks for My provision before all assembled at the table. There were occasions when Jesus fasted, but unlike John the Baptist, eating meals was the norm rather than the exception. Yet I accepted both men as My righteous servants; Jesus because He is My spotless devoted Son, and John, because He acknowledged his own need to be made righteous by Christ. How tragic, the way My children form splinter groups and reject each other over points of practice irrelevant to personal salvation! I don’t expect everyone to be each other’s mirror image in all aspects of life. Let each Christian accept that each saint has his own particular calling from Me. Let My people learn to love, not just tolerate, one another in the Bond of the Spirit, so long as key doctrines pertaining to salvation and personal holiness are faithfully observed. If you feel the need to persevere in prayer without pausing to eat, then you may refrain from eating. But continue to give me thanks, just as those who eat freely give me thanks over their meals. But don’t heap scorn on somebody else who feels the liberty to eat instead of fast. Some people MUST eat every day, because of medical concerns or because their jobs are so strenuous. Those who join you in your prayer campaign but cannot fast through to its end can use practical wisdom without coming under bondage. They might limit their intake to very basic snacks, not out of legalistic compulsion, but only as a gesture of consideration toward you, so as not to distract you from your intense praying. I will not condemn them for being unable to function for 2 or 3 days on an empty stomach. If you wish to fast, you may, but beware of the self-righteousness of the laborer who was called first to work in the vineyard. At the end of a long day of heat and stress, he felt that he deserved a much bigger reward than his fellow laborer who was hired last and was spared the same degree of wear and tear he himself suffered. While riches and success can induce great pride in a saint, so can suffering and self-denial! No one ever got to heaven by outshining someone else, only through the all-sufficiency of Christ to redeem him from his wretched lost condition. Yet I see so many who boast that their body is a lean, clean machine which can go from strength to strength even though their stomach is always sitting on empty.

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But all I can see is their hearts are sitting in a Pharisee’s seat full of pride, and they’ve got no room to boast. Some starve their body so much they confuse the anointing of the Spirit with a dangerous psychosomatic euphoria, which dissipates after awhile. It is then the “spiritual giant” falls from his mountain top with a crash, both emotionally and physically. Satan has lured many saints to an early grave by causing them to associate food with sin, and making them fear I’ll punish them for not “filling their fasting quota” for the week. If there was a week during which they skipped fasting to celebrate a festive occasion or entertain guests, they would feel guilty and try to “make it up” the following week out of fear. It is then fasting becomes a heavy yoke and a demonic obsession, a religious eating disorder. In the hands of ill-advised, immature, reckless individuals, fasting, like a narcotic, can be lethal. Fasting can never purchase one solitary benefit, however small, from My hand. There is an inbuilt spiritual hazard in regular fasting. Reliance upon fasting as a regular religious work performed to buy My favor can cause you to fall from My grace, just like tithing, religious circumcision, animal sacrifice, observance of Sabbath rituals, or performing religious “penances” prescribed by some human clergyman. If you have trouble with fasting, just forget it. Fasting for fasting’s sake is a mere religious rite, NOT a virtuous addition to what My Beloved Son suffered for you on Calvary. Concentrate on prayer in the Spirit, which is infinitely better. Faithful prayer is discipline enough for saints who are tempted to think only on worldly things. I won’t even count it a sin if you feel premeditated fasting is unhelpful and never do it again. So long as your prayers are offered up with earnest faith in My faithfulness and you seek Me without unnecessary distractions, that is acceptable with Me. I require continual prayer and consecration, not the emptiness and rigor of self-starvation. I’ll go so far as to say I DON’T REQUIRE YOU TO FAST AT ALL ANYMORE! YOU’RE FREE IN CHRIST JESUS! I am letting My people out of their bird cages of religious legalism, to allow them to soar like eagles in heavenly places! Just respond to Me in love and obedience toward the Living Word, the Christ in you, and enjoy Me! As in the case of unscriptural tithing of money, compulsory fasting under the New Covenant is a legalistic bondage I didn’t ordain and don’t endorse. I didn’t die to set you only 80 or 90% free, but COMPLETELY free! It takes only one slender chain to bind you to the Old Law. Remember, religion is a cruel mistress and a very seductive one. You have only one Master, Christ. Ritual religious fasting of any kind is a bondage of fear, not an act of faith. DO NOT ADD EXTRA REQUIREMENTS TO WHAT IS COMMANDED THE CHURCH BY MY SPIRIT THROUGH THE BIBLICAL APOSTLES. I am about to appear for you in the air, so now is our time to rejoice and be glad, not to mourn! Spend whole hours in meditation on My Word and in deep prayer for others as well as yourself. Pray in the prayer language I have given you. Fasting is a permissible thing, not a compulsory act. Fasting is not the be-all and end-all of Christian experience. You can crack a nut with a rock, you don’t need to blow it up with dynamite. Many deeply spiritual saints call fasting dynamite for moving mountains in spiritual warfare, but that same dynamite can shatter their health when carried to extremes, or when it becomes an occasion for pride and an end in itself. Your true goal ought to be a heart full of faith and dependency on Me and empty of self-sufficiency. That is what I am searching the earth to find, much more than an empty stomach sticking out with pride!

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Why Not Enforce OTHER Jewish Penances?

Funny how Christians are SELELCTIVE about which Old Covenant practices they insist are still binding in the spiritual lives of believers, even as they profess belief in the ALL-SUFFICIENCY of Christ’s suffering for them on the Cross. Christians justify compulsory religious fasting by (correctly) stating that God sometimes commanded the Nation of Israel to fast when they fell into sin, or when their nation was under attack. But what else did God command them to do?

Isa.22:12: And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: 13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die. 14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Verse 14 reflects God’s disappointment that the inhabitants of Jerusalem didn’t do certain things when the Persians invaded their city. God would never forgive them for throwing doomsday parties when they should have been doing some major league mourning. The words “fast” or “fasting” do not appear here, but verse 13 strongly implies those Jews were expected to stop eating. Other than this passage, the Book of Joel (where God commands the Jews to fast because a locust plague is threatening them with starvation) is the ONLY other context in all Scripture where God specifically commands fasting to be done on any day other than their annual Day of Atonement. Jer.36:6 mentions something to be read in the Lord’s House on THE (singular) fasting day, which obviously would have been the Day of Atonement when Jews were expected to afflict their souls. Yet religious Jews fasted many other days on their own initiative, or Jewish leaders commanded their people to fast. But it is debatable whether God inspired all those extra fasts, or whether a deceiving religious spirit was behind many of them. Some fasts lasted several days. Other fasts lasted until nightfall, after which it was okay to eat (Judges 20:26; 2 Sam.1:12; 3:35). Many Christians would find such a “sacrifice” laughable since you don’t have to go to bed on an empty stomach. In every single case, without a single exception, those OT Jews fasted because of something negative. They were overwhelmed with sorrow, fear, or a feeling of utter helplessness in the face of a major challenge or emergency. They NEVER fasted to show their joy in the Lord or to try to enter in to greater spiritual ecstasies. The word “fasting”, though strongly implied, does not appear in Isa.22:12. But two other things are commanded here: BALDNESS AND WEARING SACKCLOTH! If fasting is so important that God won’t forgive you if you don’t do it, surely the apostles to the churches would have mentioned that minor point, and surely they would have equally enforced baldness and sackcloth as binding on believers! Think of it, it doesn’t specifically say that God refused to forgive those people for not eating, but He did refuse to forgive them for failure to shave their heads and wear burlap! In the OT OUTWARD works of contrition were much more important than they are under the New Covenant. Now, the Old Man of sin is reckoned as dead and there is an INWARD transformation into the likeness of Christ. Our spiritual rebirth into the Body of Christ gives us a new identity as children of God to replace our old identity as rebellious enemies of God living in sin. Next time your pastor chews out the congregation for failure to fast, show him Isa.22:12 and ask him why he doesn’t shave his head to show sorrow for sin. Why doesn’t the congregation wear sackcloth and dust themselves with ashes like Daniel did?

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I think it would have been a much greater sacrifice for a Jewish woman to shave her head than to skip meals for a day. Women generally wore their hair long and it would have taken years to grow it back! In Daniel chapter 9 Daniel not only fasts, he throws ashes on himself and wears sackcloth. Also, Daniel repents for his ancestors’ sins as well as his own. Despite the fact Daniel had zero control over the actions of his forbears. I find it difficult to understand why Daniel needed to repent for something somebody else did before he even thought about being born! Interestingly, while God commands His people to shave their heads in Isa.22, He specifically forbade His priests to shave their heads in Lev.21:5. Also, God forbade ALL the Israelites to cut the hair on the sides on their heads (Lev.19:27). So it makes me wonder if this commandment in Isaiah to make themselves bald was an aberration, instead of something God would normally demand of His people. In like manner, it could be construed that the Jews’ extra fasts should not be viewed as things God originally intended for them to do. Sin and its consequences disturbed the normal course of the Jews’ lives and made them feel compelled to fast and carry out all these other miserable expressions of sorrow and fear.

In Micah 1:8 the prophet laments the idolatry and other sins of his nation. He expresses his distress this way:

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

Imagine some Christian pastor following this example to show his church people how much he hates sin. If any preacher stripped naked and ran down the church aisle wailing and howling like an animal, he’d be hauled off to the crazy house! What did God command affluent women to do in Isaiah 32:11?

Tremble, ye women that are at ease (have it made); be troubled, ye careless (carefree) ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins (waist).

Really now, what if this scripture were as literally enforced as OT admonitions to fast? What if all the spoiled rich ladies in church stripped their clothes off and ran around stark naked except for a burlap belt around their waist? The pastor would be even more faithful to watch over his flock and that church would get a red hot reputation! The Jews often tore their garments when they mourned and fasted. If this practice were literally enforced and people tore their tops, church would turn into a den of iniquity. More men would show up at the next Big Church Fast in hopes of getting a glimpse of some female cleavage! The ONE place where NT believers are commanded to mourn and weep instead of rejoice is James 4:9 where James commands backsliding believers to be afflicted, and mourn and weep. James commands backsliding believers to be heavy-hearted instead of joyful. Contrast this with Paul who says: Rejoice evermore (I Thes.5:16). Paul went so far as to say he ALWAYS rejoiced even in times of sorrow, which sounds contradictory until you consider that man is a 3-part being: spirit, soul and body. Your soul can be down in the dumps about the troubles of this life while your perfected spirit is still full of joy. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal.5:22). It is against God’s will for anyone to deliberately try to squelch their joy in the Lord in order to put on the Church Fast mourning act. The ONLY time Paul recommended mourning was when the Corinthian church needed to disfellowship an unrepentant adulterer whose sins they were trying to overlook (I Cor.5:2). Though he was the most legalistic of all the apostles, James, a VERY strict Jew, does not mention fasting or order anyone to shave their head or cover their head

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with ashes. When a Christian is in unbroken fellowship with the Lord Jesus and living in the Light, he does not have to mourn over sins. His sins have been washed away by the Blood as far as east is from west (Psalms 103:12). Even David, who lived under the Law, held this testimony in his life. Punishing your body for “sin in your life” shows a lack of faith that you really have had all your sins washed away by the Blood of the Lamb. That’s just as weird as forcing bitter medicine down your throat if you’re well. Ever since Pentecost, OT legalism has been steadily creeping into the church in one form or another. But if one OT penance is binding upon Christian believers they ALL are!

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Heb.10:6:  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law

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Let’s Make a Deal, I’ll Skip a Meal

Ever wonder what church would be likeIf Christians stopped starving and did more loving?

Isn’t God tired of the pushing and shovingThe greed, the hatred, the sin inside?

Fast from the sinWelling up from within

Feed the poor and walk in the Light.

Harry the Pharisee said to the LordMy debt to You I must repay

Let’s settle this thing the easy wayI’ll fast to prove that You I adore

I’ll sacrifice fatOn Your altar, plus cash

How could You ask for more?

So let’s make a deal, I’ll skip a mealI’ll starve while others feast

For that You’ll shower blessings on meChristians will know my religion’s real

‘Cause I’ll look thinnerAnd come out a winner

In church I’ll be a big wheel.

So what if I don’t love my brotherSo what if I don’t feed the poor

So what if I kick him out the doorTo face life out in the weather‘Cause he can’t pay his rentAnd he don’t have one cent

‘Cause his job flew off like a feather?

I’m a Christian landlord saved by graceSee, Lord, I’ve starved two whole days

So don’t You owe me a little praise?My mansion in heaven’s a fancy place

But I don’t give a damnAbout that poor man

Who’s sound asleep on the hay.

I’m Hector, a Christian house painterI know Scripture like a pro

I teach dumber saints how to growI fast at the altar, but look at me later

I do a quick jobI spray on cheap slop

Why do a good job for lost sinners?

I hired four men from my churchWho couldn’t tell Hebrew from Greek

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I showed them magnificent charityI needed their help to do my work

So I gave them a jobThey weren’t paid a lot

But they got more than what they were worth.

Christmas was coming, I needed the cashHeaven and earth I searched for cheap paint

Two bucks a can which I hated to payI watered it down to make it last

One man protestedHe said God detested

The way I sprayed on cheap crap.

I told that feller to watch his tongueI was the one who’d studied a lot

I was the one walking closest to GodThey must obey me till we were all done

Those dumb customersThey’re all worthless sinners

Hurry, get done, grab the money and run!

The weather got cold, my profits were lowI skimmed off the cream to live like a king

When lunchtime came I had everythingSandwiches, cookies, man, what a load

The men nearly starvedOne said, have a heart

Give us a cookie, we’re hungry and cold.

I couldn’t believe he was asking METo share MY cookies free of chargeI told him to fast if life was so hard

I told him he had to bring his own treats That man gnawed his knuckles

While I ate and chuckledMy business wasn’t no charity.

This other feller, he had a nerveHis wife was expectin’ a baby

But that didn’t get houses painted more quicklyHe asked for a quarter so he could call her

I said there ain’t timeYou won’t git a dime

You ain’t here to goof off, just work!

That thorn in my side didn’t think I was rightHe threw down his paint brush and quit

I knew lots of Bible without doing itAt least that’s what he told me that night

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Heck, what did he know?My words were like gold

When I stood up in church and testified.

I got to go to seminaryI was the brightest bulb in the classI’ll find ways to make money fastTill they lay me in the cemetery

God blesses go-gettersAnd nobody’s better

Than the brainiest Bible teacher, ME!

So now I’m back at another church fastSo what if I refuse to repent?

It ain’t enough to fast from sinIt’s harder to fast from fries and Big Macs

When my stomach’s hollowThat shows enough sorrow

Fasting makes me a holy man.

So let’s make a deal, I’ll skip a mealO Lord of love in heaven above

So long as my tummy’s feelin’ roughYou’ll turn a blind eye to all I steal

You’ll pour out Your blessingsOn all that I’m getting

No matter how hurt others feel.

So long as I sacrifice fatGod don’t think I’m all that bad.

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Prophetic Word

Fasting is of Fear, not the Rest of Faith

When satan turns the pressure up it’s natural for My people to feel squeezed inside and desperate for a solution. But don’t go thinking you won’t get any answers from Me unless you suffer to earn it first. The priests of Baal cut their own bodies and tortured themselves to placate their cruel god and try to win his favor. Some fasting is motivated by deep, gut-wrenching fear that you won’t be found deserving of the miracle unless you torment your own body. Others fast because their preacher told them fasting is necessary to “pray the prayer of faith”. Despite the fact that NOT ONCE in all their epistles to the churches did any of My apostles ever teach fasting is a necessary component of effective prayer. In the apostolic epistles to the mostly Gentile churches, fasting isn’t even mentioned or encouraged as a powerful weapon of the Spirit which fortifies the prayer lives of My people. Jesus touched on fasting when He taught JEWS who were used to doing it and had been raised to think it was a requirement of service to God. Jesus taught His listeners to observe whatever the Pharisees commanded, because the Pharisees sat in Moses’ seat of authority as lawgivers (Matt.23:3). These men dictated twice-weekly fasting as proof you were a devout Jew (Luke 18:12). But Neither Jesus nor the apostles ever taught converted Gentile Christians to start fasting or doing any other difficult works Jews habitually did to try to prove their devotion to God. Jesus told healed Jewish lepers to obey Moses’ commandment and go through a special cleansing ceremony which involved various washings and sacrifices (Luke 17:14). Jesus did NOT command healed Gentiles to do such a thing. The apostles forbade anyone to teach converted Gentiles to keep Jewish religious customs (Acts 15:24). Preachers who force Christians to act like OT Jews are subverting their souls and shaking them loose from the stabilizing foundation of faith in Christ alone. You are not living under the Old Covenant, during which time people continually feared they might lose their salvation because of personal sin. The people who lived during Christ’s ministry did not have the newness of the Life of Christ inside of them to lead and guide them and help them overcome satan. Old Covenant saints were still dead in trespasses and sins waiting for the Lamb of God Who would take away their sins ONCE AND FOR ALL, and sanctify them once and for all. Before Christ was sacrificed on the Cross, My ancient people had to repeat cleansing and sacrifice rituals every single year in remembrance of the sins they’d committed throughout the past year since the previous sacrifice (Heb.10:3-14). So it was proper and fitting for these people to mourn over their sins which had to be remembered year after year. The ONLY fast the Law commanded was the Day of Atonement Fast, when My people were required to afflict their soul and mourn over the sins they’d committed. The penalty for refusing to fast on that day was severe. The guilty party would be cut off from being included in the nation of Israel. NOWHERE does Jesus or any apostle ever warn NT Christians of any penalty for failure to fast. If you were under threat of punishment for non-fasting and the apostles failed to warn you about it in Scripture, then they would be guilty of failing to pass that warning on to you! Jesus ALWAYS associated fasting with mourning, never with joy as some Christians do today (Matt.9:15). It is highly improper for a Christian who is full of My joy to try to force sorrow on himself to appear more “spiritual”. I see many believers who I set free in the Spirit bind themselves back up, wailing and mourning at altars to banish

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feelings of joy they feel guilty for feeling. That is a false religious demon at work. My joy makes you strong (Neh.8:10). Yet instead of teaching My people to be glad in the Lord, many preachers sadden their hearts by making them feel ashamed for the exuberance they manifest in their lives about all I have done to heal, deliver and bless them. It’s all about CONTROL. People who are miserable want you to be miserable too. It’s a form of spiritual bullying to be told you’re in danger of going to hell unless you put on a sad face, fast and cry all the time. Just because some respected preacher teaches you that being a Christian is a miserable business and you’ve got no right to act happy till you get to heaven, don’t believe it! An empty stomach doesn’t empty the heart of sin or fill it with faith and love. Some of the most dedicated fasters refuse to feed the poor or deal kindly with their neighbor. They refuse to fast from sin. Which do you think would delight me more? To see you suffer through a marathon fast or feed people who are going hungry because they’re out of work? Fear of having their prayer rejected or put on the back burner of My “to do list” motivates many Christians to fast or do something else to “offer up a sacrifice” to move My hand on their behalf. In the back of their minds they imagine a god hungry to see his people suffer, just like many are hungry to watch some entertainment on TV. I’m not like that, My people. Fasting, unless it “just happens” because you don’t want to be distracted by earthly things during prayer, is largely motivated by FEAR, not faith. Fear that My Son’s sacrifice on Calvary isn’t enough to purchase your miracle from My Hand. Fear I might punish you if the rest of the church fasts but you eat. Fear that I won’t think you love Jesus enough if you don’t impose this extra suffering on yourself. Fear of what other Christians might think if they fast a couple days a week but you don’t believe you’re required to do it. Fear that satan will get stronger and steal your victory in Christ unless you starve your own body. Fear that you’ll “drive the anointing away” if you eat, even though I have promised never to leave you or forsake you, and have promised that My gifts and calling are without repentance. Fear that if you don’t look haggard and hungry or beat yourself up with self-reproach that you aren’t worthy of My Kingdom. Fear that you’ll never “conquer the your carnal sin nature” unless you faithfully starve yourself, contrary to Colossians 2:23 which teaches that punishing your physical body is of no value in conquering the sin nature. If fasting was able to defeat the devil and move mountains, My dearly beloved people, the apostle Paul would surely have mentioned those important points in his treatises on spiritual warfare. Not only would he have given fasting an honorable mention in his epistles, he would have heavily stressed fasting as an essential part of the Christian’s life. PAUL DIDN’T EVEN RECOMMEND FASTING, NOT ONCE! As he took his leave of a group of beloved Christian brethren, Paul was able to say that he had faithfully shared ALL my counsel with them (Acts 20:27). Read all his epistles to the churches. Where does Paul stress the need for fasting to accompany prayer to achieve victory over satan? Read the epistles of John, who talked endlessly about love. If John thought fasting played a vital part in loving your neighbor, surely he would have mentioned it. Read the writings of Peter and Jude, who hated sin and denounced it in the church, not just the world. Not one mention of fasting being necessary to overcome sin and the devil. Read James, the most legalistic of all the apostles. Fasting doesn’t appear in his epistle at all. Not even once! It’s not what YOU do to earn My favor that counts. It’s how you respond to what Christ has ALREADY done on your behalf that brings you victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.

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Heb.4:3: For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

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