Your feelings about faith promise giving?

Who is this "dh" you keep referring to in your posts? Is it your spouse (husband)?

I would not read anything into these things breaking down. Sometimes things break down all at once. It doesn't necessarily mean anything.

I am not sure what you mean by "faith promise giving."

 

dh means darling husband.

Does faith promise giving mean, by faith you promise a certain amount of money? Is that a one time giving, or on going, for a special project (building, or church repairs, whatever), or for a certain ministry?

 

I don't know whether that is faith or gullability, to be honest. Nothing in scripture teaches us to step out blindly and presume God will provide.

To make a promise and fall into unexected shortfalls is not a sin nor breaking of a promise. I feel one must take care of family needs first and then give as you can to the church needs.

Just my opinion.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Well, not being married (though I was before I was a believer), I guess I'm out of the loop on slang for spouses.

Thanks for the explanations. :wavey:

 

I agree with our friend Jim.

 

Where do you find scriptural support for "faith promise giving"?

When I was in K.C., it seems there was a man in a charismatic church that had obligated himself to give a certain amount to a building program. The man was a pharmacist. He cut the active ingredients in doses of cancer drugs in a scheme to come up with the several hundred thousand dollars he had promised.

The church got the money and many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cancer patients got inferior treatment. Many certainly had their lives cut short.

I think it is a better idea to simply make a commitment to give regularly, according to your means, and look for opportunities to give more should they arise, and you are able.

peace to youraying:

 

She didn't make a commitment to give something she didn't have. She only promised to give in response to what God had blessed her with.

peace to youraying:

 

Your things breaking down is not necessarily a sign from God, things like that happen to everyone. But it would have gotten my attention as well, even though I would never know for sure or say dogmatically it was some kind of sign.

But you don't need a sign in order to test something, to try it Biblically. This practice is not Biblical and is foolish on its face. To promise what you don't have is a form of dishonesty, it would seem. To put the onus on God to make your foolish promise good, would seem to be a form of tempting God.

We live at a time in church history where error is rampant. Discernment is nearly dead. Try everything. Test everything a church does. Test everything a church declares. Test everything your pastor/preacher says. Test everything, according to the Word of God.

What He says is absolute. But only what He says.

~~~

 

"Faith promise giving" is a modern-day fund raising system. It goes beyond pledging. According to it, a person is supposed to promise on faith to give a sum of money that he or she does not have (nor expect to have) and have the faith that God will supply it so he/she can give it (seemingly presuming that if you make such a promise "in faith" that God is obligated to "cough it up" for you). This is more than an apostle required, as Paul said that God would accept according to what a man has (II Cor. 8:12).

The proof texts often used by those who promote the faith promise system are scriptures stretched beyond meaning. To begin with, the system is built on a faulty foundation. There is no New Testament teaching of two ways of giving: tithes which are owed to God, and offerings over & above the tithe which are not owed but freely given. All we have belongs to God. We are stewards of it all. Even the Old Testament tithing proof text (Mal. 3:8) states that the robbers of God were robbers "in tithes AND offerings." How so, if only the tithe belongs to God?

Faith promise giving violates the principle of giving "out of that which ye have (II Cor. 8:11)" This principle rules out pledging and/or promising what we do not have, and faith promise giving is exactly that -- promising to give what you do not have. God accepts our gifts according to what we have, not according to what we do not have (II Cor. 8:12).

Secondly, faith promises violate I Cor. 16:2, which teaches us to give as God has prospered us. God only asks us give out of that with which He has blessed us. Faith promise giving asks us to give that we hope or expect God to bless us with.

Faith promise giving denies us the prospect of giving sacrificially, as did the Macedonians (II Cor. 8:14). While seemingly calling for sacrificial giving, the faith promise system actually promises that God will supply extra funds to you in order for you to keep your pledge to Him. David said, "Neither will I offer...that which doth cost me nothing (II Sam. 24:24)."

To make a faith promise to perform a certain amount of giving for a year, when we know not what shall be tomorrow (Jas. 4:13,14), seems an act of foolishness rather than an act of faith...

...may we cheerfully give out of what we have as God prospers us, and leave off the faith promises.

 

Good post. This is often used in "word of faith" churches. They use the manipulative approach pretty well with this...they often speak of "sowing the seed of faith" or some garbage like that.

Also...it would seem that if one is giving to God in order to get temporal "rewards" as many WoF and "faith-giving" folks push, that kind of ruins the whole approach behind God loving a "cheerful giver." It becomes more like "God loveth a selfish giver."

Also...this approach automatically assumes that negative events (such as car breakdowns, sickness, etc.) are automatically "punishments." (Often, for not sending in your check, or a large enough one...or even not doing a credit card "love gift" (!) ). That is patently unscriptural...but then again, so is the Word of faith "theology" (read: Heresy).

 

I agree with most everything you wrote, but I disagree with this. In my experience, faith promise IS sacrificial giving. Unfortunately, also in my experience, many do not meet their faith promise because they didn't have it to give.

Personally, I'd rather not make a promise and not be able to keep it.

The church most known for giving (of the ones we've visited/attended) is one that doesn't preach "tithe" or "faith promise". They give a TON to missions and they're not a rich church. I find all of that interesting because the churches that I know who push tithing and faith promise don't give much.

 

This may be something that is not applicable in all cases, but I concluded it based on what some people have written and some people who practice it have told me. All who practice faith promise giving may not believe the same way.

According to them, this is money they would not have had unless they had promised to give it as an offering. They are claiming to be only a conduit -- they ask for it for missions, God gives it to them and they give it to missions. So they are saying this is something completely outside their regular finances and regular giving.

I suppose one could argue that is sacrificial giving in some sense that it would help them out financially if they chose to keep it instead of giving it to missions. So they are sacrificing by giving it to missions instead of keeping it. I think of sacrificial giving more as taking money out of something that you have intended for something else. For example, someone could buy $100 dollars in groceries for himself, getting steak, etc. Instead he buys $50 in groceries, eats rice and beans, and gives $50 away. To me, the faith promise giver is saying he has $100, promises to give to missions above that $50 that he doesn't even have. So God gives him the $50, he gives it to missions, and he still has the $100 to spend on groceries. This is what I understand people who have talked to me about faith promise giving are saying. Perhaps a crude example, but maybe this will help explain the difference I'm talking about.

Again, everybody may not mean this in the same way it has been explained to me. But the promising is an issue regardless.

 

That sounds like the stuff TV millionaire personalities [I will not call them preachers] are spewing, especially "the name it and claim it crowd" or the "Word of Faith heretics". Paul Crouch and his wife have grown rich spewing such stuff. So you see what I think about it.

There is much in the Bible about giving but there is nothing about this type of giving. That is acting as if God is Santa. You know, if you are good Santa will give you lots of goodies. I have heard these whacko's on TV say "send me $1000 and God will repay many fold". Nonsense!!!!!!

 

To my way of thinking it is when a man takes a pastorate for $30.00 a week, a house and donated foods.

In one church I even got a dozen eggs each week in a jar already broken and shell free. Will that be one spoon or two?

Cheers,

Jim

 

My yolk is easy, my burden is white.