God channel , Your view on "sowing seeds"

CCCP

hello , firstly I would like to state that I follow Christ, so let there be no doubt as to my intentions here.

I was flicking around the stations on the skybox the other day and came across the God channel, where I witnessed a "minister" or whatever they call themselves asking people to donate at least 100 dollars, or if they wish to donate more then in multiples of 10, ie 1000, 10000 etc.

He suggested that in order to prove ones faith one should "sow a seed" that would be difficult for them to give.

Now I was appalled by this, THE LORD DOES NOT CHARGE MONEY to people in order for them to receive his blessings and love, although it seems the god channel would preach otherwise.

I looked at several other "Christian" networks and found this "seed" thing was actually quite widespread. How dare they ask for money for their TV channel from people by telling them that "the lord is telling them to do this in order to prove your faith"!

I dearly hope I am not alone here,

Please fellow followers of the lord, tell me your not buying into this garbage!

opinions?

PDN

In my view they are money grubbing charlatans.

But, in the same way that professional wrestling exists, there are evidently people who are prepared to watch crap and even spend their money on it.

Seaneh

Right up there with the "prosperity" churches. Absolute bunch of gangsters.

People like Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Frederick K. C. Price, Paul Crouch, Kenneth Copeland, Rod Parsley etc.


They preach that the best way to prove your faith in God is to give money to their churches, and by doing this God will bless you. They also guilt people by implying that if you are sick or poor or depressed or unemployed or whatever it's because you don't have enough faith in God and he is punishing you for it.

Makes em kinda sick when I think about these people in their million dollar mansions and private jets telling poor people in their 5000 people congregations to "Give more money to God or he won't bless you".


They need to take a look at people like Francis Chan who gives 90% of his income to charitable organisations, doesn't take a wage from his church and has given every cent of his book royalties (well over $500,00) to charities that save people from human trafficking in 3rd world countries.
His church also give 55% of it's income (offerings etc) to charities and uses the other 45% to pay full time staff members wages and overheads like insurance, electricity etc.

antiskeptic

When I see the likes of Hinn doing his stuff, the phrase "did we not cast out demons in your name" springs to mind.

Jester Minute

That's a manipulative scam.

Watch EWTN instead - they make the odd request for money, but you can watch all their content for free and never donate a penny! They rely on genuine Divine Providence not manipulation.

(It is good to donate to EWTN and I recommend it!)

prinz

Seaneh wrote: »

People like Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Frederick K. C. Price, Paul Crouch, Kenneth Copeland, Rod Parsley etc...

:pac: Intentional or what? Scam artists.

Although I have seen some good stuff on the God Channel (I think), is that the station where they show the short sketches/plays by a young theatre group - could be Canadian I think, each with a moral lesson? I found that enjoyable one day.

santing

Would selling Mass cards not fall in the same category?

PDN

santing wrote: »

Would selling Mass cards not fall in the same category?

Or selling indulgences?

Jester Minute

To see the biblical foundations for indulgences, see the Catholic Answers tract A Primer on Indulgences:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Primer_on_Indulgences.asp

Myths about Indulgences
http://www.catholic.com/library/Myths_About_Indulgences.asp

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

philologos

Sowing seeds to me would be totally different to a collection of money. A sowing of seeds would be finding an opportunity to share the Gospel and using it at least in my thinking of what this would mean.

Manach

PDN wrote: »

Or selling indulgences?

Well, at least we got St. Peter's built thanks to those contributions. Though I think some minor monk in Germany had an issue with it and vandalised some door or other .

philologos

Manach wrote: »

Well, at least we got St. Peter's built thanks to those contributions. Though I think some minor monk in Germany had an issue with it and vandalised some door or other .

Why wouldn't one have a problem with it? It's the same problematic error that Simon Magus got himself into in Acts chapter 8:

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

The notion of acquiring spiritual gifts by financial might would render God as being motivated by the same thing which the world is motivated by.

PDN

Manach wrote: »

Well, at least we got St. Peter's built thanks to those contributions. Though I think some minor monk in Germany had an issue with it and vandalised some door or other .

I'm afraid the story that Tetzel's indulgences were to pay for St. Peter's is a bit of a Protestant urban legend.

Apparently historians reckon it was more to do with the Archbishop of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg. Getting the approval of the Pope for his appointment to Mainz had been expensive, and left Albert with some rather humungous debts on the IMF scale of things. So the indulgences were more part of a four year plan to reduce the deficit and put the Archbishop's finances on a more sustainable basis.

PDN

Back on topic, a while ago a troll posted this youtube link and I had to delete it because it breached the instructions for that particular thread. Nevertheless, I thought it was witty enough, and relevant enough, to post here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRMmn1DNJi4

For those unfamiliar with the cultural references, Hillsongs is a large church (20,000 Sunday attendance) in Australia. Although not up there with the worst of the moneygrubbers, and my dealings with them over the years have been very friendly and positive, they do operate a very slick commercial operation to market their music.

Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian satirical TV comedy show that isn't known for pulling its punches!

Seaneh

PDN wrote: »

Back on topic, a while ago a troll posted this youtube link and I had to delete it because it breached the instructions for that particular thread. Nevertheless, I thought it was witty enough, and relevant enough, to post here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRMmn1DNJi4

For those unfamiliar with the cultural references, Hillsongs is a large church (20,000 Sunday attendance) in Australia. Although not up there with the worst of the moneygrubbers, and my dealings with them over the years have been very friendly and positive, they do operate a very slick commercial operation to market their music.

Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian satirical TV comedy show that isn't known for pulling its punches!

The video is kinda missing the point. Hillsong as a church pump most of their revenues into charities and foundations that they support in their community and in the 3rd world. Most of their musicians take a small wage but some take none, Brooke Fraser-Ligertwood takes no income for example and lives off the money she makes from her solo commercial career.
I only know this Because I know a few people who worked with or are memebers of Hillsong in London and Sydney.

Lovely people they are too.

Splendour

PDN wrote: »

I'm afraid the story that Tetzel's indulgences were to pay for St. Peter's is a bit of a Protestant urban legend.

Apparently historians reckon it was more to do with the Archbishop of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg. Getting the approval of the Pope for his appointment to Mainz had been expensive, and left Albert with some rather humungous debts on the IMF scale of things. So the indulgences were more part of a four year plan to reduce the deficit and put the Archbishop's finances on a more sustainable basis.

Sadly it's not an urban myth at all;the money raised by Tetzel from selling indulgences did indeed go into the coffers of the Catholic Church and the building of St. Peters, although Tetzel's selling methods were later condemned by the church.
Albrecht of Brandenburg was allowed to keep half of the money he raised from selling indulgences to pay off his debt. The rest of it went into the building of St.Peters.

Back to the OP though-I don't have any of these Christian channels but have seen bits here and there. Whereas I don't mind these channels requesting money from people per se, I think their methods, like Tetzels, can be very persuasive and extreme and quite frankly, not very Christian.