blank
search-icon
Blog

The ‘First Fruit’ SCAM!

A woman holds 03 July 2007 in Accra a wa

 

If you have a father who you trust to protect you, bless you, provide for your every need and has many mansions paved with silver and gold – is it not ambiguous of him to ‘order’ you to give all your money to him as an act of faith to see if he would not provide for you in the future bearing in mind that you have to eat, clothe, shelter and fix weave?

Some (majority) of pastors search the bible, looking for quotes that can be used to make merchandise of men. The year is almost coming to an end and some overzealous churches have started giving envelopes to collect ‘first fruit’ in January. First fruits I got to know is the salary/wages of the first month of a new year. So, after paying tithe every month/week, sowing seeds for any and everything I want God to do for me – then in January, after counting down the days to payday as some people do after squandering all their money to celebrate Christmas, they should give the money to the pastor as first fruits – this is daylight thievery now.

Church-goers are now required to hand over to Pastors their entire January salaries in the name of first-fruits. This makes the first-fruits more profitable than the tithe; which is just a tenth of your salary and that is actually meant for the church (just in case you didn’t know). First-fruit is a far more rewarding scam because the money is specifically addressed to the pastor. If this giving is taught effectively, a pastor can make good money at the beginning of every year. Imagine a situation where the pastor gets the January salary of every single member of his congregation. Depending on the size of his church, he can make enough money to last him a lifetime.

Someone categorically told me first fruits is like “sowing a seed” so that God will make the giver rich (oh, so it’s still sowing of seed with a fancy name). Doing a very quick mental calculation, an adult in Africa always giving first fruit offering every year for 15 odd years and you’re still not rich, then there is something very wrong somewhere. Shouldn’t we be giving aid to other countries with all our richness?

Most of these churches claim they are New Testament churches because they are under ‘grace’ – so why are they requesting for first fruit when it’s not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament that the church is required or even encouraged to give a “first fruits offering.”

Like tithing, giving to the church is left up to an individual believer. Pastors who insist on collecting first-fruits in the churches of today are nothing but thieves. I’m a Ghanaian and not an Israelite because first fruits were required of them as thanksgiving to God for giving them a land flowing with milk and honey (to the best of my knowledge). If milk and honey was flowing these days, who would work?

There are better terms/ways to collect ‘special offering’ than to insist, cajole, and threaten people to give. The way armed robbers steal from people is no different from the way some of these churches ‘force’ monies out of congregants. An armed robber will take your money with a gun in his hand: the pastor will take your money by quoting the bible.

Is cologne or cufflinks not enough to give a pastor? This money collection business is seriously becoming unbecoming. Tithe I don’t even see top, then first fruit…..!



READ ALSO: Refused A UK Visa? CLICK HERE FOR HELP

CLICK HERE to subscribe to our daily up-to-date news!!

POPULAR POSTS

LATEST NEWS

MORE FROM Blog

No related posts found...

Leave a Reply