Gambling in the Church
When Did God Say Gambling Was Allowed in the Church?
We have started to hear in recent years that many churchgoers are putting their faith in the church. Well, this seems all well and good but what exactly are they putting their faith in?? Is it God or what someone has told them? The correct answer should be having faith in God alone but at some pivotal point in time, church congregants are allowing outsiders who come into the church to persuade them to invest their money into a pipe dream. This, my friends should have never happened.
In recent news, the scandalous Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and others are being investigated for their involvement in a Ponzi scheme like investment funds and gaming machines where they allowed someone to come into the church and have church members ?invest? their life savings. This also includes a mortgage schemes where members have lost their homes because an investor was invited to the church and convinced many they could reduce their home payments.
Let?s get the definition of a Ponzi schem:
?A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation because it pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. Perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to keep the scheme going.
Many of us have heard of this in the business world but it has now crept into the church, but the big question is-why?
Investing in the Church
At some point the church pastor, usually very prominent pastors with mega churches, have befriended corporations and business people to help educate or enrich the lives of their members, so to speak. The only thing about this is the pastor?s benefit of corporate affiliation and kick backs of funds are the main reasons for this. The church members rarely ever get any benefit from this; in fact, they invest hundreds of thousands of dollars of their life savings and ultimately lose it all in the scheme.
So, who can we blame for this? Well, we can blame the pastor, of course, for not having the discernment of knowing that this person would rip off their own members. There is also the possibility that the pastor has own interest of what he or she could get from it and did not have a concern about his members? welfare.
But we have to speak on the actual believer and church members for even allowing themselves to give away some or most of their life savings. For instance, many church members are just everyday people who go to work and make a living for their families. Many of them work on their jobs for 20 and 30 years and have invested in mutual funds and 401K to ensure their peace and comfort at the time of retirement. This is where investing is wise because it is coming out of their wages and into a secure holding until the 65 years or older. This is the American way and most people look forward to saving for this. What we do not understand is, how have many of the victims in the church willingly gave their savings for old age to a stranger just because the pastor or church said they could trust them? When you think about it, these people have struggled and toiled on their jobs for years and dealt with all kinds of on-the-job abuse, but they willingly lose their nest egg in a flash with one encouraging meeting with a scam artist.
Where is the discernment, for God?s sake? What are we learning in church that allows us to be blinded by the devils that come to steal, kill and destroy us? Didn?t someone receive a nudge, tug or pull from God saying ?No, don?t do this?? Unfortunately, this is exactly what many of these fraudulent investment companies are doing when they come into the church. They have been successful at scamming non believers and have found it to be lucrative to do the same to believers in the house of the Lord.
We can also blame ourselves for attending, supporting or helping create a corporate church along with all the bells and whistles which include:
- a mega church
- big screens
- praise and worship team
- mime entertainment
- hip hop for the youth
- ATM machines in the lobby
- fitness center
- coffee shop and bookstore and much more.
West Angeles Mega Church
We have become seduced by the church building and the ?new age church experience? that the devil can easily come in and manipulate us out of our money. We are leaving behind the anointing and real worship for a corporate church and a corporate body to receive corporate benefits- which, by the way, has nothing to do with Jesus and our salvation. It?s only business as usual and will require those church members to give more, not from a willing heart but as Bishop Long?s people would say ? a big church has big bills?.? We are not stating ALL mega churches conduct themselves in this manner. We do believe there are some who know how to use what God has blessed them with for his glory and the big church and fancy extravagant extras don?t change their initial intent of saving souls. As far as the others, anyone can see how they became seduced by the idea that their pastor and a stranger taking the pulpit says ?Invest in me and trust me?.
So, let?s ask the question: ?When did God say gambling was o.k. in the church? The answer to this quite simple: he did not.
In Matthew 21: 12-13, the bible states:
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. He said to them, ?The Scriptures declare, ?My Temple will be called a house of prayer,? but you have turned it into a den of thieves!?
You see, even Jesus despised gambling and the exchange of money in the church. He knew it was not God?s will and found it to be shameful and sinful. Jesus displayed much anger that day and he angrily turned over the tables to show is disgust in such disrespect these men had for the house of God. Well, Jesus remains the same and does not approve of money changers (investors, gamblers, etc).
For instance, Bishop Eddie Long encouraged his church members to invest in gaming machines that would be housed in stores in various states and they all would bet returns on the money that was collected. But just as God overturned those benches and tables in the bible, He allowed church members to lose their money in this investment because he despises gambling.
So, if you or someone you know is ?investing? in something other than the church ministry or building fund, etc. at the church, then they need to stop. Read the bible and pray for discernment regarding your church home. When you have discernment, you can instantly tell when something is not right.
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