Friday, March 20, 2026
Much of Western Christianity has by deception followed the examples of Roman Catholicism regarding the building of churches large and small. Over the centuries such projects plundered people of incalculable sums of money called tithes and offerings. But never did the apostles of Christ hold fund raisers, convene tithe challenges, hold building campaigns, nor twist Scriptures in order to pilfer funds from those who don’t have it to give for the raising of church buildings. I have come to believe that pastors who pursue such building campaigns desire making a name for themselves in the public’s eyes, while masking it as for God. Roman Catholicism exampled this pursuit of self-glory and after the 16th Century Reformation many Protestant leaders followed suit as divisions and traditions birthed many denominations, but all with their costly buildings.
The point I make today is that despite the exhausting sums raised and spent on church buildings, Christian churches are in decline and many are being repurposed as Islamic mosques. That’s not good. Christian churches are closing at a rate of about 15,000 per year and being repurposed for another use or an Islamic mosque, exampled here, here, here, here, here and here, though a few of those closures yielded another church. It’s a sign of the times, a sign that even non-religious secular people can discern the fake smoke and mirrors of the modern church, their conscience bearing witness How is this Christian, it’s showmanship Hollywood-styled mega-churches for the last forty-five years with celebrity pastors who entertain with sensationally charged and flowery messages enticing young impressionable minds who think Is this real Christianity?
People want an authentic biblical faith, not one fashioned after pleasing the world. And it’s the children of the Boomer Generation who discern the fakery of what many churches offer today, refusing to conform just because leadership is popular. And my Boomer generation (taught to believe church leaders) believed just what we were told to believe. But for some like myself the blinders came off about the start of the 21st Century when God’s Spirit opened my eyes. I was stunned as to what the evangelical church had become. The switch to worldly liberalism came through hip and smooth-speaking pastors of high profile mega-churches enticing lesser-known pastors to covet what they saw, and covet they did, even buying with tithe and offering monies so-called success plans of mega-churches! Many Boomers were swept to embarrassed silence through sensational and euphoric performance hailed as pleasing God. Salvation faith in Christ was made to appear popular, patriotic, and flashy, without need for humility or self-denial, nor counting the cost, repentance and confession. And to a large degree the same remains today.
The decline of Christianity is real, meaning true Christianity, not the salesmanship Christianity of modern churches. Referring generally to taxes we’ve all heard the saying “It’s easy to spend someone else’s money”. Well, that’s not only true of our government which squanders literally trillions of dollars, but it’s also sadly true of many church tithes and offerings. Imagine you had hundreds or thousands of people bringing ten-percent of their hard-earned money to you and put under your control every week, every month and year. Imagine the possibilities. It’s that easy unearned money that’s led thousands of minsters to convince their Board of Deacons to allow them to convince pew-sitters to fund building campaigns with the amenities of worldly apparel, latte stations, video and audio book sales, Hollywood lights, special effects for on-stage talent, fake smoke machines and more. It’s also produced much embezzlement of tithes and offerings. Israel also gave herself to the ways of the world and God gave “her a certificate of divorce” (Jer. 3:8). “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off” (Rom. 11:22). [My emphasis] A very clear but largely unheeded warning for today’s church.
The gospel of Jesus Christ holds the answer to eliminating fiscal and spiritual abuse of pastoral headship if it’s honored accordingly. Here are a few examples. “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison” (Acts 8:3). “Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ” (Rom. 16:5). “The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house” (1 Cor. 16:19). “Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that is in his house” (Col. 4:15). “I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). “to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house” (Philemon 1:2). [My emphasis] The very obvious recurring truth is that the church of the living God was held in a fellow believer’s house. Just as the gospel of Christ was not only intended for people of those First Century church planters and congregants, it’s also biblically applicable for believers today.
The house church is a safeguard against fiscal and spiritual abuse, as accountability is visibly close. Today the tithe is corrupted by pastor’s controlling free money given them for funding what they want while they’re drawing a salary even higher than the area’s average. The word tithe is used only twice in the New Testament, Matt. 23:23 and Luke 11:42, and both times in a highly negative rebuke by Christ Himself. If you want to know the true biblical meaning of the tithe, read Deut. 14:22–29. Further, it’s a biblical truth that God hasn’t changed the tithe from what He instructed ancient Israel at Deut. 14:22–29 which affirms that passage for today. You may be shocked to know that the God-commanded tithe gives two-thirds of it to you and your family, and the remaining one-third is given for “the stranger and the fatherless and the widow [that they] may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do” (Deut. 14:29), being altogether opposite of the tithe today.
One Scripture pastors wrongly use in deceiving pew-sitters to bring the whole tithe to the church is found at Mal. 3:8–10. It says “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what ways have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in My house. And try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’” Israel was under a curse because she didn’t tithe based on Deut. 14:22–29 and the result was a great lack of food for “the stranger and the fatherless and the widow [that they] may come and eat and be satisfied”. Israel had become worldly and selfish, consuming the whole tithe themselves, without concern or provisions of food for the stranger, the fatherless and widows. It’s time the true church meets once again in fellow believers’ houses to God’s glory and honor.
My second book “ON EAGLES’ WINGS” explains in detail how to know Christ and find God’s Bozrah sheepfold of safety and place of provision for the last 1,260 days of the great tribulation.
Marlin J. Yoder
