Ok, here is part 3 (of 4). In all honesty, I don't think my emails made him think one bit, but they really challenged me and caused me to grow a lot more confident in my belief that CBC's "give to get" Faith Harvest period (and their basic view on giving) is flat out wrong and deceitful.

7. Jesus himself said you should expect a return on your giving, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."  This would be a tough one to refute. It is plain and simple. If you give, IT WILL COME BACK TO YOU. This applies to all areas of your life as we have discussed in the law of reaping and sowing, and again in context, will also apply to things you give materially.

Pastor X, you need to look at the context of this scripture. It is not talking about money. It is a context of his disciples paying the price of being prophets of the Gospel (vs. 23,26) who will suffer rejection from their enemies. But how are they to react to the persecution? By sacrificial love: Giving even to your enemies (v27) and "everyone who asks you" (v30) mercy, forgiveness and even food - and then, hopefully but not always, receiving back the same from them.

"Receiving back from them" is similar to Jesus words, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." (Matthew 5:7). Do merciful people always receive mercy in this life? No, but when will they receive it? The context implies in the next life (v23).

Also, as an interesting side note, in the same context he condemns the rich (v24) and well fed (v25).

8. All of the being said, THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT of all of this is to understand the motive of WHY we would want to be blessed. Paul made it clear that our motives should never be for selfish gain, but for blessing the Lord, others and extending the kingdom. AGAIN, please understand our heart and motive is to see people blessed SO THAT they can bless others and see the kingdom of God advanced. There is great honor and noble rewards to those that desire to see others who are need helped. God blesses us so that we can bless others. This truth applies from Genesis to Revelation.  We teach this biblical truth, so that we might have the resources to reach out to the thousands of people monthly that are less fortunate. God forbid that we, you, or any other Christian would teach that God blesses us to build a haven for ourselves on earth, but the kingdom of God. Hence, we are proud of both our teaching and motives in believing God for our finances.

Can you show me how you back this up?

I would like to challenge you in two ways:

1. If you all believe this so much, why don't you just encourage the saints at CBC to give their money directly to the needs of the community, instead of to CBC? They should still receive the return for their investment. If the principle is true it should work even if they don't give the money directly to the Church. (I have never heard anyone from your pulpit tell the congregation to just "give". It has always been in the context of "give money" and "to this local church".)

2. If CBC truly believes in the guaranteed results of the Law of Divine Retribution then they shouldn't have to put so much pressure on the congregation to fund their debts and programs. They should have the faith that after they have given what they have to give, God will automatically add it all back and then some.

I would have more confidence in your teachings if I saw you leading by example. Instead Frank says things like "If we don't have any money above the tithe we can't: help the community, open other campuses, give out food boxes. If we're poor how do we feed the poor? How can we do that if we don't have anything to give?" This is the exact opposite of what you teach your congregation to believe. Don't you feel this quote implies that you want to reach the lost after you help yourself? This example is not found anywhere in the Bible. As a matter of fact, the Bible says NOT to give money to the rich - those who already have it! "He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich-both come to poverty." Proverbs 22:16

In my opinion, Frank should have his own "Faith to Receive" and have the attitude that says "We are just going to give the churches tithe and offering money to whatever cause and believe in God to bring in the funds". Then, if this principle works, you will have more than enough to "help the community, open other campuses, and give out food boxes… " Without that, it looks like a double standard. What do you see?

I know that CBC began by sowing a roughly $65,000 "seed", this is a great start and thank you for doing that (I am not trying to ignore the good that you do). The problem for me comes when Frank says that a lot of the Faith Harvest money you receive will go to CBC's personal needs. It seems to cheapen your "gift" when you know you will be receiving all that and more back from your own congregation. Does this make sense?

In my opinion it violates the "spirit" of sowing and reaping you proclaim so strongly to others. Jesus gave up everything for us, not so that we can have a "rich" life, (I know you never come out and say "give and you will be rich" but what else are we supposed to believe if, based on your thoughts here, we give money we will get more money back?) but Jesus sacrificed so that we can spend eternity together. There's your blessing.

Additionally, there are so many warnings throughout the Bible on riches; they are dangerous thing to "have". The more we have the less we will rely on God and that is a scary thought. I am not claiming that the Bible says "riches are inherently evil", but what I am saying is that as I read the NT most, if not all, of what I read are continuous warnings against greed, materialism and the love of money! Why is this Faith Harvest teaching appearing to me to be so different, as a whole, from the teachings of the New Testament?

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