When I was young, I would come home from school to see a short commercial called “Bowling for Dollars”. Men and women would roll their bowling balls down the alley once or twice to get up to a hundred dollars, according to how many bowling pins they knocked down. I never considered whether the owners of the bowling alleys, who were paying for the ads, rigged the pins so they would be less likely to fall over. The intent was to get people to come to the bowling alley, play a few games, eat some food, drink some alcohol, play jukebox songs, play arcade games, and shoot pool. “Bowling for Dollars” was more about getting dollars than giving dollars.
Later, as cable TV spread, so did TV evangelists. “Preaching for Profit” was blatantly overlooked, even though most took in a million dollars every day. Often, these evangelists went from near-poverty to living in millionaire mansions, only to be convicted of fraud. Today, a new form of “Prosperity Gospel” is preached in many mega-churches and on the internet. Prosperity preachers are the same as the TV evangelists of the 1980s and 90s.
Peddling the word of God for profit is nothing new. Paul and the other apostles saw this in their lifetime, too. Verse 17 says, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.” The Greek word that Apostle Paul used for peddling for profit was commonly used to describe a bartender who watered down their liquor and sold it at the same price as the best-quality liquor. False preachers corrupted the word of God with the intent to get rich.
I stand before God stating that not only have I not grown rich, but I have not taken in any donations, except for less than $30 several years ago, even after 30 years of online service. The website is ad-free, and I do not collect and sell people’s personal information. No subscription is required.
