May 2011
The message being
reviewed this time is the last one in a series that was delivered by Mr.
Huizing on the subject of ministry. The series is called, The M’s of Ministry. This message, says Mr. Huizing (and we presume
this comment applies to the whole series), is mainly for ministers. We listened
by CD.
Mr. Huizing, Family of
Faith, Ministry and Money.
Summary: (He introduces the message
with a speech on hard work, the balance of graces and talents, character and
anointing, and the kind of ‘word of faith’ that should be preached.) Now today
we want to talk about money. Money is a huge thing. Amen? But pastors don’t
want to leave the wrong impression, as if they might benefit from the tithe. My
answer is, ‘Why don’t you get over yourself.’ Both Testaments show that the
tithe went to the workers of ministry. It’s not meant to make you comfortable,
necessarily. I like what Joel Osteen says, “In order for a preacher not to be
money-minded, he has to have lots of it.” You might need some more workers. You
might have to get the message out. That’s where the tithe goes. It takes
finances to bring some of the ministry gifts in. So it is helpful for you as a
pastor to talk about money. Can I hear an Amen or a grunt? (He goes over Luke
16.11, and comments on its context.) The riches here might just involve people.
One reason for money is to build relationships. Some people stop at having
needs met. But how about using money to build relationships in order to take care
of your future? Let’s talk about Abram in Genesis 14. Abram got some riches out
of this war. And Mel showed up. He refused what the king of Sodom Israel
Remarks: In his introductory speech
Mr. Huizing speaks on the necessity of a clear, well defined sermon. Too bad he
doesn’t take his own advice. This message, or motivational talk, is just one
big messy forty-minute blob. He quotes 2 Timothy 15, the verse about the
minister’s high work ethic. But then he goes on in the spirit of what the verse
after that condemns, “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will
increase unto more ungodliness.”
Acceptable comments in Mr. Huizing’s message are
few. Faith and works do go together. God knows the intent of the heart. Graces
and talents must be well balanced in order to bring about a pastor’s maximum
expression. But who on earth doesn’t already know such things? And remember, he
is addressing ministers mainly. There is no real teaching from Scripture here.
There is nothing close to what one might call maximum expression here. This man
actually says that there is an element of ministry that has to do with work! To
use an expression of his, ‘This is quite something.’ The statement divulges to
us just how foreign the concept of work is to this man. You see, ministry is
not work, per se, but work is in it somewhere. This is what he means. Mr.
Huizing is just another prosperity preacher who doesn’t do his job, and
consequently, has such a shallow, narrow grasp of the word that he continually
adverts to the same biblical texts to teach false lessons from. Whatever
lessons he pretends to get straight from a careful study of Scripture are just
careful contortions to teach his unbiblical brand of ‘word of faith.’ In the Bible
the ‘word of faith’ (Romans 10.8) is declared to be a confession concerning
Jesus that is rooted in the belief of, or confidence in, his resurrection from
the dead, which gospel is the way of salvation. Mr. Huizing declares his ‘word
of faith’ to be ‘name it and claim it.’ He actually says this. We’re surprised
but glad that he’s so candid about it! His attempt to support this erroneous
doctrine is as weak as they come; that is, that the animals became Adam’s
property after he named them. Adam was commanded to ‘subdue’ the animal kingdom
and to give appropriate names. But there is no connexion to be found in Genesis
between naming and owning animals. This word of faith of his is not rooted in
Genesis and does not exist as a biblical principle. The biblical word of faith
involves confession and faith regarding the death and resurrection of Christ
for our salvation. Mr. Huizing’s word of faith is a verbal claim on something
that you want, which is usually some material thing, most frequently money.
That’s ‘quite something.’ One word of faith looks up to Jesus to be possessed
of him for salvation from sin; the other looks down to possess the things of
earth that sinners are in the habit of indulging in to their own destruction.
One word of faith is the gospel to be saved by; the other is nothing but lust
that conceives to bring forth sin and death (James 1.15.) Word of faith of the
charismatic sort appeals to persons who are easily drawn away when tempted, who
then become enticed to launch out into lusty lifestyles. And that is a lusty
lifestyle to be obsessed with naming and claiming these things of earth to
satisfy one’s base desires on! Furthermore, if a person tries to name and claim
Jesus as his Saviour by such an empty avowal, that person will be sorely disappointed
on the day of death and at the last day, for faith needs more than a verbal
utterance of what one wants in order to be saving. Not all who call Jesus Lord
will be saved. Jesus himself teaches this. A person who simply iterates his
wants does not get them, not in the spiritual realm anymore than in this
natural world. Once you believe in the charismatic kind of word of faith, you
will begin to sift every sacred Scripture verse through the funnel of what you
want. All teachings, whether from didactic letters or inspirational histories,
will then seem good to you only in so far as they are made to speak on and
confirm an already decided upon worldview of financing your little kingdom on
earth. No text is too sacred for prostitution unto this purpose by men like Mr.
Huizing and his ‘word of faith’ idols. The LORD God is ready to ‘trouble’ such
men just as certainly and surprisingly as he troubled Achan for taking the
Babylonish garment (Joshua 7.) Like the men who ‘rose up before Moses’ and were
swallowed up in the earth for it (Numbers 16), these are in danger of being
swallowed up in hell for rising up against the gospel of Jesus Christ. The
supporters of Korah did not escape judgment for their complicity in Korah’s
rebellion (16.35.) It is foolishly optimistic to suppose that supporters of
this false word of faith will escape the same wrath of this Old Testament God
who is the same today as yesterday. Let the reader understand (and we do not
say this except by studious familiarity) that these inferences just made are no
different from applications that are commonly found in the works of John
Bunyan, who was, it could be debated, more acquainted with Scripture than any
other man in his day, which day is now famous for having had so many men who
understood the Bible comprehensively. We
do not claim one tenth of Bunyan’s genius, indeed none at all, much less a
fraction of his dedication, knowledge, and holiness. But in handling the word
here we have not gone astray from the very hermeneutic used by him in speaking
to the wayward professors of 17th century England
As is common among prosperity preachers who share
pulpits, it doesn’t matter how much their doctrines clash so long as money is
kept at the center. Mr. Johnson says you don’t have to tithe; Mr. Huizing begs
to differ; but they both stay bent on begging money. You will no doubt find
disparity, also, concerning what each believes the doctrine of Christ, sin, and
salvation to be. But this matters not one bit to preachers of crooked finance,
so long as they have money at the core. Mammon is not only their center, but
their first and last, their love, their all. If Mr. Huizing and Joel Osteen are
correct, that a preacher must have lots of money in order not to be
money-minded, then Jesus was wrong when he said you can’t serve both God and
mammon. Most preachers are going to have to be money-minded (which is to serve
mammon) in order to have lots of money. You can’t serve both mammon and God
together. Jesus was correct. And Mr. Huizing is the servant of mammon. A better
rule than Osteens’s would be for each minister to take Jesus’ advice in Mark
10, and “sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor…and come, take up the
cross, and follow me” (verse 21.) This would be a terrible cramp in Mr.
Huizing’s style and plan, though. But we would be encouraged if he went only so
far as to be “not greedy of filthy lucre” (1 Timothy 3. 3.) This verse, after
all, is written especially for
ministers. (About Mr. Johnson, see our previous analysis for this church.)
Conclusion: Relationships with God and men are built on monetary
influence. In a nutshell, this is the message of Money and Ministry. The ministry of Jesus Christ, in contrast, is
all about selflessness and sacrifice, not influence through financial
connexions. The ministry of Jesus’ followers is of this humble, modest hue,
also, which is particularly evident in the book of Acts. Can anyone imagine the
apostle Paul standing before souls in peril of hell to teach on influencing
one’s future by financial deals? “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!”
(1 Corinthians 9.16.) A real preacher has too much fear for his own soul to
preach anything for his gospel except Christ crucified. Fear of God through
fear of preaching ungodly, this is what real ministers experience and what Mr.
Huizing is entirely empty of. Hugh MacKail, the 17th century martyr,
could say, just before his execution, that “he averred that he was less
cumbered about dying than he had often been about preaching a sermon!” (Jock
Purve’s Fair Sunshine, p. 21.) Is Mr.
Huizing ‘cumbered’ at all about what he preaches? Donald Cargill, another
martyr of the same era, declared, “when setting his foot upon the ladder to go
up to embrace the bloody rope…’The Lord knows I go up this ladder with less
fear, confusion or perturbation of mind, than ever I entered a pulpit to
preach’” (Ibid. p. 55.) These men feared the pulpit more than death; Mr.
Huizing fears it not at all. They feared even while preaching Christ crucified,
the real gospel message; Mr. Huizing fears not to preach babblings and
counterfeits. There is no fear of God before his eyes (Romans 3.18.) With his
tongue he has used deceit (verse 13.) His great fear is not to have lots of
money. The church-growth (marketing) method passed on in this message to
ministers is this: preach on money; then by the proceeds ‘gifted’ people can be
brought in; and by their influence even more people and more proceeds can be
gained. It’s just a clever money-building circle. God gets the heart part,
remember that. But guess who gets the master-card part? Conversely, how are
churches built up in the Bible? Churches are built up by the grace and Spirit
of God when the death and resurrection of Jesus are preached to sinners who must,
if they would go to heaven instead of the hell they presently stand condemned
to, repent of their carnal, greedy, earthy, selfish, filthy ways. We do not
shrink from suspecting that a pastor is unsaved who sins only so much as to
call Melchizedek ‘Mel,’ especially since he admits that Melchizedek may be the
pre-incarnate Christ! Would a Christian who thinks Melchizedek is Christ call
Melchizedek ‘Mel’? But we have so much more on Mr. Huizing than this that we
can literally (or ‘clearly and unequivocally’ as the politician would say) pronounce him unsaved, just as if we
were ordained to say it. ‘Name it and claim it’ is not the biblical word of
faith, and it’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ, nor even a part of it. Persons
must be thoughtless about the Bible and stubborn in themselves to believe that
a holy God ordered such a system, for according to that system God exists to
satiate the lusts of sinful men, which is the same as having God the servant of
sin. God will repay for dishonor like this! And it will be a guiltless revenge
arising from the same Spirit who decided to no longer tolerate the saucy sins
of Sodom
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