In my travels in Africa i am amazed at how Christian it calls itself but how unchristian it is!
Landa Cope wrote in an article the following..
“Money is the root of all evil!†“Filthy lucre!†Common enough ideas in the mind of many Christians today. “If you love God you will despise material gain†is a prevalent undercurrent in Christianity. “If I truly love God, I will probably be poor†is, perhaps, not taught but it is surely thought. The split thinking that creates a false divide between the spiritual and material is perhaps as glaringly obvious in this domain as any other.
God’s promises to Israel as they left slavery in Egypt were not isolated to blessings of an unseen nature. He promised He would bless them in every area of life including their crops, livestock and business. He encouraged saving in that if they would obey His teachings, they would not have poverty in their land. God fulfilled His promise. In little more than 300 years Israel moved from having abject poverty in the wilderness to being one of the wealthiest nations in its day. For most of the first two millennia of church growth economic change and development followed the spread of the Gospel. In Norway one early evangelist worked his way from one desperately poor village to another.
As he planted churches he also taught Biblical business practices and helped new converts start businesses.
Not only were souls won in Scandinavia and the rest of western Europe, but the Gospel fed an economic revolution. Moses taught that Israel was to have no poor and the early church began to deal with poverty in its earliest agendas. Moses taught that work was part of our service to God, and Paul reaffirmed this in the New Testament by teaching that believers who did not work did not eat.1 This is a far cry from the fruit the Gospel has produced over the last two centuries. Africa probably provides us with our most stark reality. In his book, “Hope For Africa and What The Christian Can Doâ€, Dr. George Kinoti, a university professor in Kenya, lays out the following crucial observations: One out of every three Africans does not get enough to eat. By 1987 55-60% of rural Africans were living below the poverty line and the rate of impover ishment
is accelerating.
Two thirds of the poorest 40 nations in the world are African, as are eight of the poorest ten nations. “Experts tell us that Christianity is growing faster in Africa than on any other continent. At the same time, the people are rapidly becoming poorer and the moral and social fabric of society are disintegrating fast.
Christianity is clearly not making a significant difference to African nations.â€
It is not uncommon today to find believers who think of money more in terms of magic they think it will produce than in terms of Biblical principles. “If I give this amount, I will get this amount back!†“God will drop provision from the sky.†“I am believing for a miracle in my finances.†Please! Understand me here. I am not against tithing. I believe God can and does perform miracles, and I believe God honors and blesses the generous heart. However, this thinking, when separated from Scripture’s overarching principles of finance, is not “Biblical†thinking; it is mysticism and something closer to magic.
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