Hucksters

Someone observed to me recently,  “You know Ray, you really seem to have a thing about Churches, you’re always on about them !”  

I thought about that comment ….   and realised that we are all at different stages on the journey …  and have had different experiences,  and varying degrees of insight !

As you may or may not know, my wife and I had spent 25 years in what proved to be, and that was generally described by the hundreds who have left and moved on from there,  as  … a legalistic, authoritarian,  controlling assembly, under the guise of a  ‘holiness’  ministry, that specialised in making a person feel condemned -  no matter what we did, no mater how much we all read and prayed, attended, worked, served  - it felt like it was never enough to please God … or the leaders there.

After eventually leaving,  or rather extracting ourselves from there,  I decided to look around the local Church scene, and visited most of the reportedly ‘alive’ assemblies in our city, over a 2 year period. 

And it was most enlightening I can assure you ….. and revealing !

As a result of my religious ‘adventures’,  and having heard approximately 8,000 sermons, my current view point is simply this  … 

that there is A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM  operating, that has developed over the past 2000 years plus, (some call it  the  ‘PRS’  -  the ‘PRESENT RELIGIOUS SYSTEM’), that is absolutely foreign to Jesus exemplary life and what he died for.

It was and is, a system of religion that he came up against, run by professionals, called Pharisees in his time, but who are now called by various other religious Titles (frequently ‘Pastor’ in the Western world)

And that this System of Religion, operates on the same principles …. now as then.

In general terms …..   structured,  hierarchal,  self-empire building,  self-serving,  usually legalistic,  number conscious,  programme oriented,  denominations   ……  in a word -  religious clubs, operated and run by professional  ‘Christians’ and charismatic styled performers, generally still using the Old Testaments 10% ‘tithe’ to keep in business.

And just whose kingdom are most of the leaders building, I keep wondering?   God’s or their own?

And as I keep reading  ‘the Book of Books’, it seems like I am constantly seeing beyond the usual topics, to passages that reveal this subtle SYSTEM of RELIGION first instituted by Cain, then continued and developed down through the ages, and that stir me so.

Believe me, I don’t ask for these insights, but they keep on coming none–the-less  …

And I keep on writing what I see ….. revealed within Scripture …. about what I now recognise that is every much a  ‘system’  as any other system devised by man  – the ‘PRESENT RELIGIOUS SYSTEM’ ! 

And also,  I realise that … to each of us  -  He gives us our own personal giftings  .….         May I ask  -   what  is  yours ??

HUCKSTERS  

Listening to Radio Rhema the other day, a scripture reading caught my ear ..

but in another version from that I am familiar with.

We are not like those hucksters – and there are plenty of them – whose idea of getting out the Gospel is to make a good living out of it

2 Corinthians 2 : 17    Living New Testament

Wowwww  indeed  I thought   …. Who wrote that ??

Well it was Paul actually, about 2,000 years ago

hucksters – and there are plenty of them …..   in his day and age surprise, surprise !

so what is ‘a huckster’  I thought ?

My Oxford English Dictionary says  - ‘a mercenary’  -  those doing something with a motive for   m o n e y   ……  interesting !

and there are plenty of them    said Paul

he saw and recognized them, and wrote about them ….  publicly, for all to read and to be able to recognise and identify them !

So, I compared a few other versions / translations of this verse

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ….  

Revised Standard version

For we are not, like so many, as hucksters, tavern keepers, making a trade of peddling God’s word – short measuring and adulterating the divine message; but as men of sincerity and the purest motive, commissioned and sent by God, we speak His message in Christ, the Messiah, in the very sight and presence of God

Amplified version

So there’s really nothing new under the sun as they say !

PROFESSIONAL   CHRISTIANS   indeed !

As it was back then,   so it still is today ….  by my perception

It was Jesus problem, and it continues in a fallen materialistic world.

MONEY    AND    THE MESSAGE     DON’T MIX

When they do  :

the Ministry          becomes a Market

and Preachers         become  Peddlers

and Hucksters abound !

I read that Jesus had to borrow a penny to illustrate a sermon   Matthew 22:19

And that Jesus with his 12 disciples who knew all men’s hearts, actually put Judas –

A THIEF  in charge of  ‘the bag’  – their purse     John 12:6,   13:29

Imagine that today – if your Accountant was a thief, and in charge of your funds !

And you not only knew it, but actually endorsed him in that role !

That’s how much Jesus cared for money -  their funds.

To knowingly allow  A THIEF  to look after their common funds …. incredible !!

Someone has estimated that about 25% of Jesus words were about ….  money

And so many of his parables were likewise

Probably one of the most well known and quoted Bible verses is that … we cannot serve 2 masters – God and Mammon (the Syrian god of Riches)  we must either love One and despise the other,   or the other way round !    Matthew 6:24

Jesus cleansed the temple twice,  and accused the professional religionists of his day … you have made MY HOUSE   a   DEN OF THIEVES   Matthew 21:13  

The Pharisees constant questioning of Jesus was about …. taxes, money, inheritances

They were covetous  Luke 16 : 14    and it showed up in their speech  a plenty

And we are enjoined  to beware of covetousness  Luke 12:15

And to realise that it constitutes …  another God, or,  idolatry in Gods sight 

Ephesians 5:5

(A thought occurs -  of all the obvious sins that are preached against, I’ve rarely heard ‘covetousness’  or ‘avarice’  included, and yet in a materialistic society, they would have to be the most common and widespread, including amongst religious  leaders ! )

Jesus knew to keep his mission and the funds separate !

I recall hearing that Billy Graham the Evangelist only took a modest salary from his organization …. he left the business side to others.  Instead he concentrated on his  message and his ministry, to great effect.

Paul said that he coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel … and that the Ephesians knew how he worked with his hands (as a tentmaker Acts 18:3) for his necessities, and those who were with him  Acts 20:33, 34

So …    PROFESSIONAL   CHRISTIAN   LEADERS    

I suggest that you    G E T   A   R E A L   J O B       

like Paul and the rest of us !

And so lessen the numbers of  the many  HUCKSTERS  that still abound today !