A number of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching at a bible seminary. My students were hungry for the word of God, and I was constantly searching for ways to challenge them to fall more in love with Jesus. I wanted them to become voices for revival in the Church. I was taking their history class. I quoted a gentleman’s statement to them, to explain the entire history of Christianity in a short phrase. I said,
“Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy;it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise. Now its spread the world over as Multi National Corporations and is customised under various Choice brands”
Hepzibah, the youngest student in the class, raised her hand. I could not imagine what her question might be. I thought the little vignette was self-explanatory. The church started as a fellowship in the first century. They were a small group of men, gathering in houses without any brand names. They were mere fellowships. Then as Christianity moved among gentile nations, it was seen as philosophy. Under Roman Catholic umbrella it became a giant institution. In Europe, it developed its own festivals, calendar, dressing style, worship style, and other cultural aspects. As it came to America, we set up management bodies in churches, treasurers, church programs and calendars were fixed for the entire year, and so on.
I acknowledged Hepsibah’s raised hand, “Yes, Hepsibah. What is your question?“
She asked me “Are you saying church nowadays, is an enterprise and Mega-Corporations?“
I said, “Yes! The church is like a business house!“
She asked me again, “But isn’t church supposed to be a body?“
I said, “Yes it is body!”
She continued, “When a body becomes a business, is not that prostitution?“
The room went dead silent. For several seconds no one moved or spoke. We were stunned, afraid to make a sound, because the presence of God had flooded into the room, and we knew we were sinners standing on holy ground. All I could think in those sacred moments was, “Wow, I wish I’d thought of that.” Hepsibah’s question changed my life. For six months, I thought about her question at least once every day. “When a body becomes a business, isn’t that prostitution?“
There is only one answer to her question. The answer is “Yes, The Churches we all attend is everything but not a mere simple fellowship. The simplicity is lost. Church of our days is a body which does business, – a business of exchanging prayers and blessings for them who give money. We write their names in our books and registers. We do praising at 4:00 AM early morning and 10:00 PM at night, for only those families who donate monthly tithes. The church doesn’t give communion to them who are not its members. It doesn’t marry children who are not its regular tithe payers. The church doesn’t bury the dead bodies of them who are not its customers. Church has its own version of CEO, director and managers. It extends its service to them who pay regularly 10%, instead of serving people out of pure love and kindness. The church is populated by believers, who got their names registered in its membership register because they wanted blessings in life, business, and prosperity. They married Christ for money! They married him for the chief seat in Zion. They came to TPM because they heard prophetic promises that claimed to make them feel good and chosen one. We at TPM need to ask the question, are we lovers or prostitutes?
I was pondering Hepsibah’s question again one day, and considered the question, “What’s the difference between a lover and a prostitute?” I realized that both do many of the same things, but a lover does what she does because she loves. A prostitute pretends to love, but only as long as you pay. Then I asked the question, “What would happen to members who stopped paying to TPM church pastors?” As I reflected on the answer, I realized that once you stop giving tithes, “saints” will start warning you about the curse of not tithing regularly. They will say some disease will strike you or your family as a warning message from God that you have forgotten the money you used to send to me. Saint’s love for you will start to vanish. You will feel neglected. They will love other believers who are richer and who pay more. They who donate more will be given more time and importance.
I remembered the incident I heard from workers discussing among themselves. Elder brother in-charge of local faith home was saying to the elder sister,
“That Wilson guy came for prayer from us last month. I prayed for him and said you must start attending our church to get healed. When he got comfort after our prayers, he stopped attending our church, and went back and started attending his independent pastor. Let trouble strike him again and he would come running to people with white clothes for prayer. Then we will not pray for him. He doesn’t come to our church. Why should we waste our time on them who don’t come to our church?”
I remembered that so many people had been believers of our assembly in the past. Then as they left, their names disappeared from the list of the church, which was used for prayer and praise. Today if you happen to look at the list of believers, you will no longer find their names. They do not pay tithes to “saints “. Their names are forgotten! Their families do not know where they are. All the love TPM church showed them in those years, (some thirty years before) is vanished as smoke vanished.
Are we a body which is called as the lover of Christ, or are we a body which operates on principle on which business houses operate. Do we extend our services out of charity & kindness, or are our works of ministry limited only to our regular customers? Remember prostitute will not be seen in heaven. She can deceive men but not God. Apostle Paul espoused a chaste virgin unto Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). A chaste virgin, undefiled by doctrines and dilutions, stands on mount Zion.
The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn
Rev 18:15 (After the destruction of Mystery Babylon)
Very well written article.
One question “Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship” – what is the evidence for this location (called as Palestine as the starting place) – Is this name (of the place) mentioned anywhere in the New Testament or one of those places where the fellowship happened for the first time is in modern or ancient day Palestine?
Wow…Welcome Anonymous after a Long time.
What we see as the nation of Israel now, was called Palestine before 1948. Historically, the first appearance of the term “Palestine” was in 5th century BC Ancient Greece when Herodotus wrote of a “district of Syria, called Palaistinê” between Phoenicia and Egypt.
In 135 AD, the Greek “Syria Palaestina” [a] was used in naming a new Roman province from the merger of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea after the Roman authorities crushed the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Till the formation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, the newspaper which we call as JERUSALEM POST now, was called THE PALESTINE POST.
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Excellent article, makes you stop and think how easily we the laity have been exploited by these self righteous parasites…oops should we say Prostitutes.
Dear Admin,
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article. The question posed by Hepsibah is an eye opener. I am still to recover from this revelation. All glory to God that He is proving every day that my leaving TPM was the right decision. I left TPM on doctrinal grounds and the articles in this site affirms that the doctrines of TPM are built on SAND and not on the ROCK (Jesus).
Yes I have faced and witnessed umpteen times all the side effects (as mentioned in this article) of not giving money in the form of tithes and offerings to the white clads.
A very worthwhile article, hoping that TPM emissaries Calvin Sam, Koilmani Stephen Daniel, Vik Gyant, Gloria and others come up with suitable defence to shield the “prostitution” done by TPM
@…”Today if you happen to look at the list of believers, you will no longer find their names. They do not pay tithes to “saints “. Their names are forgotten! Their families do not know where they are. All the love TPM church showed them in those years, (some thirty years before) is vanished as smoke vanished.”
Excellent 347 th EPISODE presentation with a series of hard blow of punches in a typical boxing ring in the very beginning of the new year!
I recall one particular incident that enabled me finally drove away from attending the assembly. This issue actually happened just before I bid good bye to this ‘BEAST’ in the year 2019.
After A.Matthew took over the reigns, it seemed that all worker brothers/sisters incharges, were under clear instructions to follow a certain modus operandi in order to see the un-interruted flow of funds/tithes should take place from the believers hands . After all it was their hard earned sweat and blood.
Here is the latest trickery that was adopted.
Under the guise of conducting AREA prayers meetings, a new format was generated where in the particular AREA believers had to fill up format by giving their house address/phone number etc,etc. Also ..they were required to mention the time by which the local workers would visit their homes ( that means house visiting time ..They would not visit suddenly …the believers had to commit the time that enables these worker sisters to visit the believer houses.
A new ploy indeed discovered by the centre incharges.
The likes of SamSunder and the similar henchmen like others who always wish to be under the good looks of C.P A.Matthew, they must have devised this plan of taking the signed formats from the believers.
Scroll further down for a more surprise matter.
If the signed formats were not received by the worker incharges of that particular assembly, their(believers family ) names would not be uttered in the F.H daily praising list,and when their names were not invoked thus in the praising time,the HEAVEN also would not accept them.( these were the actual words uttered by that local assembly worker).
Look at the worst way of the Clergy of threatening the poor laity by introducing the novel systems and procedures.!
That means they can go to any extent of applying the tactics of threatening the believers to extract the money by hook or crook.
Such is the present state of collecting the funds from the poor laity.
I was thinking of posting this modus operandi process to this blessed site all along during the past one year or so,but due to no CONTEXTUAL opportunity was available I could not do But now this EPISODE provided ample opportunity to refer about this GREAT HARLOT’S ways to achieve its goals.
I can even post the typical FORMAT COLUMNS into this site so that every body would be well informed about the evil designs of this ‘BEAST’.
I safely preserved that BLANK FORMAT in my archieve.
Actually this had started in 2015 at Irumbuliyur HQ. From my knowledge this should have been suggested by Pas.G.Manasseh. As known by everyone, both GM and AM were in good terms until his end.
As far as I remember, they had asked in the form the details like ‘Believer’s name, address, Time for visiting, Family members and their occupation, date of salvation, date of baptism, date of Holy Spirit baptism, etc.
They also had released a booklet of prayer points, praising points along with the list of believers name to everybody at IBR HQ.
This is very true.
The TPM Minister visits my house in exactly 3 months. I wonder how he keeps up the schedule to fine-tune it to a 3 months schedule. I deduced that he had a time table and a register against which he notes the date.
He does not really care about us. He just asks us how we are doing, and we reply that we are fine. He sits there for 5 mins and stands up to pray. Surely such tax collectors can be avoided.
For all these years I never thought that serpents comes in white.:(
They do come. Look at this. 🙂
Though they look harmless, they are as poisonous as the others. 🙂
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@Meha……..
Happy to receive good and valuable inputs from you.
Still,there are a lot more things remained that we need to contribute to this blessed site like translation work into various dialects of Indian languages. This itself forms a great gospel work..Any spiritually good thing should be confirmed by more than two or three WITNESSES is perfectly fine under the present gambit where we face daily aGlorias a.k.a James/Elinas/Manju Warriors/Calvin Sams/and the similar binamy names.( we just can not recollect many other names….they flicker and go….they flicker and go…….,it is a sheer waste of time searching for their names).
@Anonymous …..
The following matter serves you as you asked for the evidence for the location.
I copy paste this web page matter exclusively for you.
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“From its outset, the paper held significant influence in Palestine, particularly with the “British personnel who ran the Mandatory government,” recalled Gabriel Zifroni, editor of then-rival newspaper Haboker. British servicemen and women stationed in the region were regular readers of the Post. Circulation grew throughout the region as copies were sold in Cairo and Alexandria, and the paper had a strong readership in all of the Palestinian cities, both Jewish and Arab. The Post even maintained a bureau in Beirut for some years.The Palestine Post was not, however, immune from the tragedies faced by the state in its earliest years. On Sunday February 1, 1948, mere months before David Ben-Gurion declared Israel an independent state, tragedy struck the Post. Arab terrorists parked a stolen army truck packed with half a ton of TNT in front of the newspaper’s offices on Rehov Hasolel (Rehov Havatzelet today) near Zion Square in the center of Jerusalem. An hour before midnight, as the paper’s offices were busy trying to put out the next day’s edition, a huge explosion rocked the building.Palestine Post employee Mordecai Chertoff recalled the incident earlier this year. “There were two or three immediate deaths,” Chertoff said. “There was another guy who walked out and disappeared. Nobody could figure out what the hell happened to him. He walked home to the Bukharan Quarter barefoot. He was in shock,” he recalled in a Post interview. But the paper refused to be shut down, even by a devastating attack that destroyed much of the paper’s office and printing presses. The staffers who weren’t injured made their way to managing-editor Ted Lurie’s house where his wife first comforted the shocked employees and then immediately put them back to work. “All right, now get over to Lipshitz Press, we’re putting out a paper,” Atara Lurie told them, according to Chertoff. “The newspapermen came, shlepping typewriters, and we sat and wrote the paper from memory,” he said. The paper printed a condensed edition that morning, but was back to running at full steam by the end of the week.Two years after the bombing on Rehov Hasolel and the establishment of the State of Israel, a young employee of the Post named Meir “Mike” Ronnen went to speak with editor Gershon Agron. As he recalled the story in an interview with this paper in 2008, Ronnen asked Agron why the publication was still called The Palestine Post. The editor responded, “What do you mean? We’ve always been called Palestine Post,” to which the young employee retorted, “Yes, but there’s no more Palestine.” After ruling out “The Israel Post,” “Ronnen suggested a name that everyone liked. The next day, without any public announcement, the paper began running a new masthead, “The Jerusalem Post.”… The new name stuck and has become a lasting household name throughout Israel and the world.