Money and the Mouth

We have all heard the expression, “Put your money where your mouth is.” These words have been used to draw some into a wager or to challenge a person who professes one thing and does something else. There is a husband and wife in the Bible who did not put their money where their mouth was and as a consequence they were made to attend their own funeral. Ananias and Sapphira had to leave church, feet first (Acts 5:1-11). This couple promised they would give the whole amount from the sale of personal property and lied about how much of it they were giving to the church. It was highhanded hypocrisy, attempting to appear to be what they were not. We dance to the devil’s tune when we put on the mask of generosity while hiding dishonesty. Think about what this means. Selfishness can masquerade in pious talk, prayers, and church attendance. It is no small thing to give lip service to the greatest story ever told and at the same time love money more than God.

God has made it abundantly clear how we are to love Him with all our money. The Book of Proverbs (application of the Law) tells us that wisdom is better than money (Prov. 3:13-15), that our money is to honor God (Prov.3:9), that money must be acquired in God-pleasing ways (Prov. 10:4-5; 13:11; 11:1-2) and money must be handled with care (6:1-5; 27:24-27; 11:24, 25). The Gospels reveal the special attention Jesus gave to monetary matters. “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and money” (Matt. 6:24). “Seek first His kingdom, and these things (food and clothing) shall be added to you” (Lk. 12:31). “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:19). The Pharisees presented themselves as devoted to God, but Jesus knew they were lovers of money (Lk. 16:14). For this reason the damning effect of greed was a regular topic in the Savior’s sermons. The church of Jesus Christ is given explicit directions in how to use money to support the work of God. Christians are to give systematically, regularly, proportionately, and voluntarily to their local church (1 Cor. 16:1-4). Every believer, no matter what their income, is to have a plan of grace giving. God provides for us. We manage these provisions by His wisdom and give proof of our love for God by our spending, saving, and giving.

But we must come back to the responsibility of putting our money where our mouth is. It is possible to know what the Bible teaches about money and still be sucked into the quicksand of materialism. There are sins that must be confessed and repented of if we are to be faithful managers of our money: the refusal to work and provide for our family, impulsive buying, the use of shopping to keep us happy, spending more on entertainment, pet food, and vacations than we give to our church, letting personal debt decrease the amount we give to God’s work, failure to plan our giving, failure to save and plan for emergency giving, being bitter while we give generously, failure to support our local church, relying on feelings (“inner promptings”) to determine how much we should give, making investments and major expenditures without praying and seeking wise counsel, allowing our possessions to become more important than people, envying those who have more than we do, pursuing get-rich-quick schemes as the answer to our money problems, lack of contentedness with what we have. Sin must be tracked down and killed or it will choke out our love for God and the generous giving habits that should characterize people who are on their way to heaven.

As we clear the debris of our own sinful patterns, there are ways we can invest for the eternal glory of God. With an eye on the future we invest in people. One day, money will be gone, but we can have “friends for eternity.” We are to take into account the many opportunities God gives us in this life. If we don’t give as we should when we have very little to give, we reveal where our hearts really are. God is to be our Master not our money (Lk. 16:1-9). With these spiritual realities ensconced in our lives we can make some needed resolutions. I resolve that as a glory-bound child of God I will give generously and faithfully to my local church. I will seek the best counsel I can get regarding financial planning. I will create a discretionary fund from which I can give to emergency needs for missionaries, humanitarian concerns (disaster relief, etc.), and other gospel ministries. I will review my standard of living for the coming year and determine where there are ways to free up more money for giving. I will commit myself to eliminating interest- bearing debt that is limiting my ability to give more. I will quit robbing God by making excuses as to why I can’t give what rightfully belongs to Him. I will figure out my pretax income and, if I am not already, begin to give at least 11 percent.

You may want to determine other resolutions regarding your giving. The most important thing, however, is to examine your heart, life, and checkbook to make sure that you are putting your money where your mouth is. There will come a time when we will stand before Jesus Christ and give an account to Him. Are you preparing for that final audit?

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

A Great Work to be Done

There is a great work to be done and God has given His church the command to do it. The growth of the human population in the last half of the twentieth century was unprecedented. There are more lost people than ever before on this planet. More people were born in the last quarter of the twentieth century than in the whole history of mankind prior to 1973. One thing this means is that three out of four people have never heard with understanding the way to life in Christ. Even more tragic is the fact that half of the people of the world cannot hear the gospel because there is no one near enough to tell the good news about Jesus Christ.

What is our responsibility to a world filled with so many people without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? For an answer to this question we must visit again the commission of Jesus Christ to His disciples, which is also a mandate for Christians in the twenty-first century. Matthew 28:19, 20 is the logical summation of the purpose of the first book of the New Testament canon. Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. To go and make disciples of all the nations is also the logical summation and natural outflow of the character and plan of God. It has been said that, “the apostles became missionaries not because of a commission but because Christianity is what it is and because of the indwelling Holy Spirit who is an outgoing and witnessing Spirit.” In other words, these verses at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, popularly knows as the Great Commission, are not the reason we are compelled to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel. We as Christians are to have an evangelistic outreach mentality because of who God is and what He is doing in this world. We live, as God’s children, to carry the gospel to all the nations in order that the blind may see, the deaf may hear, and the dead rise from their spiritual graves to experience life in Jesus Christ.

The commission of Christ to His church is based upon the authority given to Him by the Father. Jesus possesses divine crown rights because of His successful work of redemption. He has authority because He is King and He is King because He is the crucified, risen, and exalted Lord. Through Jesus’ authoritative teaching, His right to forgive sins, and His reception of homage due God, He asserted His crown rights. The Lord Jesus Christ in His person, work and position is the authority for Christian missions. This guarantees His absolute control of all opportunities for missionary service (Rev. 3:7; Acts 14:27). Jesus Christ holds the reign of human government in His hands. He never stands helplessly before “closed” mission doors. He opens as He pleases. He can remove the most stubborn dictator and the most determined opposition. Jesus Christ has the keys! The church can therefore move forward confidently to make disciples of all the nations through the baptism of new converts and indoctrination in the whole counsel of God.

What must we do then as Christ’s people? Those who are raised up by the church to do cross-cultural evangelism ought to be given our vigorous and sustained support. When young people from our church want to go into the good work of global missions we need to be alongside of them encouraging them every step of the way. This kind of partnership in world missions requires loyalty to one’s church. Christians who walk away from a Bible teaching, missions-focused church and their monetary responsibilities place an extra load upon those they leave behind. The problem of disloyalty has been a besetting sin of the baby-boomer generation. The consumer mentality of the culture has put a shopping cart in the hands of countless Christian families. When a church no longer “meets one’s needs” off they go to find something else. But the church-switchers must not dissuade us. We can experience more of God’s enablement for generous giving to our Grace Promise plan. Our computers and the marvel of the internet highway provide the opportunity for regular contact with our missionary family. We can intercede for the persecuted church around the world and other needs that present themselves to us.

I have often been inspired by the example of John Wesley. The founder of the Methodist church was a fervent servant of Christ. Every bit of his five feet two inch frame was consumed with a passion to spread the gospel. He would get up at 4:00 a.m. and ride seventy-eight miles on horseback to preach in the next town. One close observer of Wesley’s life has said that “He (Wesley) has generally blown the gospel trumpet and rode twenty miles, before most of the professors, who despise his labours, have left their downy pillows.” Wesley’s zeal for Christ was indomitable. His prayer, “Lord, let me never live to be useless,” was answered. He preached his last sermon at age eighty eight in 1791, the year he died. May God inspire us as a church with Wesley-like tenacity in carrying out the Great Commission in our generation. There is a great work to be done.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Half Full or Half Empty

It has been said that an optimist believes that a glass is half full and the pessimist says it is half empty. Personalities do seem to shade off in one direction or the other. Some people can be too negative (“No, you can’t go”) and others are inclined to be more optimistic (“It’s all right. You can go. Have a good time.”). This is an over- simplification. All of us have a tendency to look on the dark side of things from time to time. But to be called a theological pessimist invites a discussion. Those of us who are dispensational premillennialists have been tagged by some as being “pessimillennialists.” This usually comes from postmillennialists and others generally opposed to dispensational theology. Some definitions are in order at this point. A dispensational premillennialist believes that a time of great tribulation will precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of his thousand year kingdom on earth. Included in this understanding of the end times is the belief that there will be widespread apostasy (a turning away from known truth and embracing error) in the professing church. Postmillennialists, to the contrary, think that Jesus Christ will return after the Millennium and, therefore, adopt a more optimistic view of this present age. They see the world as becoming better and better as the gospel of Christ is spread all over the world.

How does this impact one’s understanding of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and the mandate to make disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:19, 20)? The dispensational premillennialist is accused of being gloomy in his outlook on the future and allows social problems to go unaddressed. One well known evangelical has been recently quoted as saying (in reaction to Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind novels), “There is not evidence that we should be anything but optimists.” In order to support his plea for more optimism about the future he argues that, among other things, there is more democracy in the Middle East than there was three years ago. Not only is this contradicted by deeply rooted anti-Jewish terrorism in the Middle East, such a view fails to contend with the Bible’s teaching regarding the state of the world before Israel’s Messiah comes again.

Where does the Bible lead us in this matter of the nature of the last days (that time from the ascension of Christ into heaven and His coming again)? Jesus gave the signs of the end of the age in what is known as the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24 & 25). It is not a cheery picture. The Day of the Lord, beginning after the rapture of the church (1 Thess. 4:13-5:11) and including Christ’s advent and His kingdom, will be a dark day indeed. Wars and rumors of wars, false prophets, famines, and earthquakes are just a few of the final groanings of a world under God’s wrath (Rev. 6:17). Jesus, at the conclusion of a parable on the value of persistence in prayer, asks the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Lk. 18:8). His point is that believers will be an ever-increasing minority as this age moves closer to its consummation. This is not an optimistic picture of spiritual conditions in the world before Christ returns. The Apostle Paul warns of a coming apostasy and a widespread revolt against God which prepares the way for the appearance of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3). In his two letters to Timothy Paul forecasts the later times as being filled with doctrines inspired by demonic powers and growing moral corruption (1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1-9). And all of these dire warnings do not take into account what the Book of Revelation tells us about the seals, trumpets, and bowls of divine wrath.

How does the New Testament’s sobering picture of the end times bear upon the commission of the church to make disciples and plant churches (Lk. 24:47, 48; Acts 1:8)? Biblical realism attaches itself to a grand optimism. Christ is coming back. The chord of hope plays sweetly in the song of the world’s redemption (Rom. 8:18, 19, 23). This world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the Christian’s hope is in Christ (Col. 1:15; 1 Pet. 3:15). The fact that, according to premillennialists, world peace and improving moral and spiritual conditions are not on the last days radar screen should not turn Christians into passive pessimists. The apostles of Jesus Christ carried the banner of the cross up to the gates of hell. They were not deterred by an idol-loving world. We, like they, are to be ambassadors of Christ calling the world to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).

We come back full circle to the question. Are we to be theological optimists or pessimists? The church of Jesus Christ is to be realistically optimistic. We know what is in store for this world, but that is not to be an excuse for moving into gated Christian communities. The bugle call is not one of retreat, but for advance into the nations of the world doing works of mercy, loving our neighbor, and giving the invitation to worship the Son of God. The King is coming. Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church