IT IS BETTER TO WALK ALONE THAN WITH A CROWD GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!
ARE WE FOLLOWING CHRIST'S TEACHING BY THE OLD OR THE NEW COVENANTS?
STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT CHRISTIANS, DOES IT NOT BOTHER YOU HOW SIMILAR OUR CHRISTIAN CHURCH SERVICES ARE TODAY TO THE CATHOLIC MASS? NOT BY THEOLOGY, BUT THE LAITY AND MEMBER DIVIDE. CAN YOU IMAGINE STANDING UP IN CHURCH AND SPEAKING OUT IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING THE MINISTER IS SAYING WAS AGAINST THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS. A CHURCH IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A BUILDING OR AN INSTITUTION, BUT A GATHERING OF LIKE MINDED MEN AND WOMEN - A FAMILY! HAS YOUR CHURCH BECOME A "BUSINESS" RATHER THAN A PLACE TO GATHER TO LEARN ABOUT GOD?
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the biggest reason America is in the mess that it’s in today is directly due to the apathy and indifference of the American pulpit. I am reminded of what Charles Finney, the famed 19th Century revivalist, said: “If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that they very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.” Chuck Baldwin
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Have you felt disconnected from your church? Questioned the teaching that are different than the ones you were taught as a child? Is your heart sad and do you feel displaced from inside church walls?
I do - I have found alternative places to go and study the scriptures, leave the mega churches, the loud roaring bands and a mind set that prosperity is what we should be praying for when it is in the context of dollars and cents rather than our relationship with God! |
Our second President, John Adams, put it this way: “It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most wanted. For example, if exorbitant ambition and venality are predominate, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue? If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them, show their nature, ends, limitations, and restrictions, howmuchsoever it may move the gall of Massachusetts?”
WHY IS YOUR CHURCH A 501c3 CORPORATION?
There is no law anywhere that requires any church to get a 501c3 corporate contract; so the obvious question we need to ask is, "Why would a pastor/church building want to get 501c3 status?" There are two basic reasons for getting it:
2. MONEY: A "tax-exempt" status means that individuals and businesses can write off donations on their taxes and increase their own profits, which increases the frequency and size of donations and checks that appear in the offering plates.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. -1 Timothy 6:10
- TRADTION: Over the past 50 years, 501c3 has just become something that church buildings and their elders do without considering (or caring about) the consequences.
2. MONEY: A "tax-exempt" status means that individuals and businesses can write off donations on their taxes and increase their own profits, which increases the frequency and size of donations and checks that appear in the offering plates.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. -1 Timothy 6:10
The typical 501c3 churchgoer or preacher will deny this, and say the reason they got 501c3 incorporated was so they didn't have to file a federal income tax return for the church. Folks, whenever you hear a preacher or churchgoer make this excuse, you can know for certainty they have no clue what they're talking about because a church building doesn't have to file a tax return anymore than a book club has to file a tax return; in the eyes of the state, the church DOES NOT EXIST, therefore, they are in a legal sense "invisible," which means their church didn't owe any taxes, and that also means they NEVER needed tax exemption. In short, the only reason they were eligible to be taxed in the first place was because they registered their church building under 501c3, which means the state is offering "tax exemption" as payment when you give up your right to be invisible. (i.e. It's a government trap)
So that leads us right back to the question, "Why would any church building want to go get permission from the government to be exempted from a tax they didn't owe in the first place? The true New Testament church is not taxable, so why do they need "tax exempt" status? I'm not the only one who has asked these questions; even Steve Nestor, Senior Officer for the IRS, alongside many IRS employees, have all wondered the same thing:
"I am not the only IRS employee who's wondered why churches go to the government and seek permission to be exempted from a tax they didn't owe to begin with, and to seek a tax deductible status that they've always had anyway. Many of us have marveled at how church leaders want to be regulated and controlled by an agency of government that most Americans have prayed would just get out of their lives. Churches are in an amazingly unique position, but they don't seem to know or appreciate the implications of what it would mean to be free of government control." -Steve Nestor, IRS Senior Officer, IRS Publication 526, quoted by Peter Kershaw, In Caesar's Grip, self-published, 2000; See also Thomas Lake,Romans 13 In a Constitutional Republic, Xlibris Corporation, 2011, p. 9, ISBN: 9781456846886
So that leads us right back to the question, "Why would any church building want to go get permission from the government to be exempted from a tax they didn't owe in the first place? The true New Testament church is not taxable, so why do they need "tax exempt" status? I'm not the only one who has asked these questions; even Steve Nestor, Senior Officer for the IRS, alongside many IRS employees, have all wondered the same thing:
"I am not the only IRS employee who's wondered why churches go to the government and seek permission to be exempted from a tax they didn't owe to begin with, and to seek a tax deductible status that they've always had anyway. Many of us have marveled at how church leaders want to be regulated and controlled by an agency of government that most Americans have prayed would just get out of their lives. Churches are in an amazingly unique position, but they don't seem to know or appreciate the implications of what it would mean to be free of government control." -Steve Nestor, IRS Senior Officer, IRS Publication 526, quoted by Peter Kershaw, In Caesar's Grip, self-published, 2000; See also Thomas Lake,Romans 13 In a Constitutional Republic, Xlibris Corporation, 2011, p. 9, ISBN: 9781456846886
