First fruits and Offerings: a correction and rebuttal

Few things annoy me than poor exegesis and sloppy hermeneutics.  As a firm believer in the NT conceot of the priesthood of all believers, It bothers me when preachers open up the Bible, and through a mix of proof-texting and semantic manipulation, make the Scriptures say something that they were not intended to say.

This happened last week at the church my family and I attend here in Coatepec, Veracruz.  Usually, the Sunday morning preaching is quite good.   Last week, however, there was a guest preacher from Tamaulipas.  This preacher crossed many lines in sermon, mixing in mis-interpretation and mis-application with many good points, making it a difficult sermon to challenge or question.  He would make a solid assertation on Christian life, and then follow it with an erroneous one.

Indeed, the overall message of his sermon was one worth preaching.  He preached on the importance of the "Offering" in the Christian's spiritual walk.  Sadly, he fixated soley on the financial aspect of offerings, wholly misinterpreted scripture, and at his altar call, ahd successfully manipulated a great number of people into making a promise that I honestly doubt most of them will keep.

He began in Genesis, with Cain and Abel, and his explanation on this was solid.  Pointing out that it was not what Cain offered (ground provisions) but the quality of his offering.  Abel offered his first fruits and the best of each.  Scripture seems to indicate in the passage that Cain simply offered whatever he had handy, not necessarily his first and best.  And that was the problem.

From there, this preacher jumped to Ezekiel 44:30.  How he got there, I am not sure, but this is where he began to derail.


And from there it just tended to get worse.

He read Ezekiel 44:30 to the congregation and then told us that "the priests in this church are the pastors."

What!?

He just equated the contemporary office of Pastor with the role and office of the Levitical priests.

Shame on him!

Hebrews 8 explains that the Levitical priesthood is absolete, as it was part of the old covenant.  Verse 6 points out that the ministry of Jesus is superior to that of the priests (such as those mentioned in Ezekiel 44:30), and verse 13 says that the priesthood is obsolete because of the work of Jesus.

Therefore the pastors are most certainly not the same as priests.  There are no more priests with a valid warrant since the Cross.  Jesus Christ was the final in that line (Hebrews 7).

From here the preacher made two valid assertations: 1. That offerings are for the work of God, and 2. that Offerings should be the best we have to give.  I wholly agree.

From Ezekiel 44:30, he moved on to Romans 11:16, which he cited completely out of context.  He used this verse to say that if a person gives their first fruits (first paycheck, first commissions, first crop, etc), then this act sanctifies the year to come, and all earnings thereof, and these will be multiplied.  While that is what 11:16 says when standing alone, it is NOT what it talks about in its greater context.  Paul is talking about taking the Gospel to the Gentiles.  This verse is not intended to imply that giving one's first fruits guarantees a sanctified year, and increased prosperity.  What does make an offering holy is the intent with which it is given, and the attitude of the giver (see the story of Cain and Abel).  Never does an offering guarantee future wealth or prosperity.

From Romans 11 he moved onto Luke 21, where Jesus offers a commentary on the quality of the offerings given.  Here he gave a very poor explanation of the offering box, and describes Jesus and the 12 as standing right near the box, watching everyone put in their offerings.  I do not see in the text where it says that this is what Jesus was doing.  In fact, the text seems to imply something quite different, where Jesus, from a distance observes the act of offering.  Then he discussed the rich young man whom Jesus tells to sell everything, accurately pointing out how people tend to put their possession sahead of the work of God.

From here he returned to his assertation that offerings equate to greater blessings to follow.  However, the only sort of offering he discussed was financial.  The root of evil is the love of money, but the root of blessing is not offering.  This assertation does not exist in scripture.  Then he said that if the congregants want their 2012 to be blessed, they should give their first fruits.  Prosperity Gospel Alert!   

Offerings are born in the heart.  If one gives his/her first fruits to recieve blessings, then blessings will not be received.  If one gives to glorify God, then God will bless accordingly (but not necessarily proportionately).

Here he accurately asserted that the only guaranteed investment is the Kingdom of God.

Then he did an altar call, calling forward all those in the congregation who were willing to commit to give their first fruits to the congregation.  Many went forward, but many stayed in their seata.  When he saw that a great many stayed in their seats, he pushed, encouraging people to come forward, and said "look how generous these people are", as though to say, "don't you want to be generous like them" or "don't be cheap, come forward and commit."

I truly pray that each of the people who went forward honours their commitment, lest they great a commitment they made to God.

Then, before praying, he said that the firstfruit offering "Sanctifies" the people who make it, and their year too.?!?!?!  Judaizer Alert!  

We as Christians are not sanctified by anything we do, give, or sacrifice, but wholly by the blood of Jesus Christ.  Gal 2:21.  We are not Jews, and our sanctification does not depend on a sacrificial system.

When we can get our schedules to align, I intend to take the church's pastor for coffee.  I hope that the opportunity presents itself to express my concerns over this sermon delivered by the guest speaker.   Please pray with me that if it does, that the pastor's heart and mind be open to what the Bible has to say, and guide him to make some sort of correction from the pulpit.

To close, here is a beautiful song of worship that expressess accurately the sentiment of offering from the believer: 

God bless!

Lord of the Starfields

For many years, I have played on worship bands and led congregational music in the churches I have attended.  Currently, I am uninvolved in this ministry, as my family and I have recently moved to Mexico, and I have yet to be invited to join our new congregation's music ministry except on a one-off basis.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed and feeling somewhat impatient about this.  I have had to remind myself repeatedly that it is not in my time but in God's.  In the meantime I am reflecting heavily on my practice as a Christian musician and the role that I play in the congregation's communion with God.  Overtime some of these thoughts might make their way onto this blog, and I covet your feedback.  I have been encouraged to gather them in one spot, either to create an article or hand-book on church music, drawing on my experience in multiple denominations, cultures, and roles.

Doubtless you have heard this week about the enormous solar flares that lit up the northern hemisphere with amazing displays of Northen Lights.  Had I been in Edmonton, I would have driven out to the country with my family and my camera to enjoy this phenomenom, and spend some time marveling at the wonder of Creation and God's handi-work.  However, I am in Mexico, and the Auroras were not visible here. : (

Nonetheless, I have had time to ponder this and remember a great song by Canadian singer-songwriter, Bruce Cockburn.  I introduced this song to a congregation a few years ago, and took some flack from a few congregants, some who objected to the quazi-secular source (although Cockburn is a professing Christian, albeit very Liberal in his views), while a few others thought it sounded panthiest.  Most however, quite liked the song, and our worship band included it in our repetoire a some times since.  After having written it, Cockburn said in an interview that "I wanted to write something like a psalm".  Here is the song.  Take some time to ponder it, and the amazing greatness of God the Creator, the Ancient of Days, and the "Lord of the Starfields".

FYI, this is part of the "Cool Licks" portion of the Blog, as mentioned in the title.  Cheers!

Coatepec, the falls, The Fall

I live in a small city in Mexico called Coatepec, in the state of Veracruz.  Coatepec is a very picturesque location, with a near-perfect climate (at least for someone like me, who originally hails from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Coatepec is one of those parts of Mexico that makes me wonder why there aren't more expatriot Canadians and Americans here.  It has very little violence, a comfortable climate (as mentioned), cheap real estate, beautiful scenery, awesome coffee, great food, and is a short drive one one of the most culturally important cities in the country, Xalapa.

It has many beautiful towns around it, too.  The closest is Xico, renowned for its bread, Toritos, colonial architecture, and the Cascadas de Texolo.  Here are a couple pictures I took on my last visit to the cascadas.

As a Christian, places such as the Cascadas are a firm reminder of the awesome creativity of the Creator.  I often wonder how beautiful the world must have been when it was new.  It must have hurt God terribly to impose the consequence of sin on the world, and on humanity too.  His awesome creative work, marred, and ruined because of one simple, seemingly insignificant act of disobedience.  But I guess that is that point, that no disobedience is insignificant, and no sin small.   Each sin helped drive the nails through Jesus' hands.  Thank God it does not end on the cross.










One of the greatest hymns written in the past centuries, and still sug around the world, in many different languages is "How Great Thou Art" (click the link for some of the song's history).  Its lyrics in English say:

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!




Amen.  
God bless you, dear readers, and I hope your travels bring you to Coatepec and the surrounding area.

Welcome

What will you find here?  You will find thoughts on life and death, thoughts about God and humanity's relationship with the Divine, you will find links to other bloggers and websites that pique my interest, and hopefully yours too.  And finally, you will from time to time find me waxing on about music, because there is probably nothing else in my life that I dig so consistently and fervently as good music.

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read this.  To get you started, here is a link to a news story that I read today, that as a foreigner living in Mexico, really troubled me.  It is in Spanish (sorry if you don't read Spanish), from one of the nation's leading newspapers:
www.eluniversal.com.mx%2Fnotas%2F825549.html&h=UAQE9FN3H