If You Don't Have The Money... Borrow It!

Does this sound like wise financial advice? Does this sound like a good way for a Christian to live? If you just borrow the money when you don't have it, then you will end up with at least two problems. Your first problem will be that you still need to pay the money back. Your second problem is that the interest will take away more and more of your available money as you borrow more and more.

Nevertheless, borrowing is certainly a very big thing these days, including among many Christians. Some Christians borrow because they are only looking at the "here and now", hoping perhaps to "keep up" with others around them and show how "God is blessing them".

Others see borrowing as a quick fix for their financial problems. With those bills coming due, borrowing often seems the easiest way out of their financial problems. Yes, it might seem to work out in the short-term, but it just ends up creating bigger financial problems down the line.

Nevertheless, borrowing can be a problem for churches as well as for individual Christians. Churches usually borrow money in order to pay for their building projects. This is often called, "The Mortgage". This mortgage is a form of borrowing, with many of the same problems for churches as borrowing provides for individuals.

One problem for churches is that there is generally an interest payment due as well as the principal due each month. This means that someone is making a profit from the church when it pays this interest expense, often an unbeliever. Some of the money that Christians given in tithes and offerings therefore ends up going to wicked unbelievers instead of going to the work of God, supporting with God's money whatever wicked sins the creditor might happen to be "into" at the time.

Even in cases where a Christian is the creditor, the Mortgage can still create problems. One problem is that a Christian creditor often becomes dependent on this monthly cash flow of loan interest and principal from the church. Such Christian often become more concerned about "their money" than about souls. In most cases, this means that such creditors tend to favor the preacher preaching soft, lukewarm sermons instead of hot, reproving, rebuking and exhorting sermons. The great fear hear is that some lost, wicked "tither" might stop his or her tithing and leave, putting into possible jeopardy those precious monthly loan payments. The love of money is truly the root of all evil!

Such a godless "fear of man" is in fact a major snare for most preachers in today's apostasy, even for those preachers who are not pressured by creditors to preach in a wickedly lukewarm, Laodicean fashion. The reason for this is that such preachers already know that hard preaching against sin can often drive out wicked lost church members, possibly making it harder to come up with those monthly loan payments.

Often such preachers then succumb to the temptation of the Devil to stop preaching hard against sin. Usually such a preacher will then justify himself, claiming that it is "prudent" and "financially justified" that they openly rebel against God and refuse to "reprove, rebuke, and exhort" through fiery God-glorifying preaching. After all, they must "save their church", (rather than save the people in the church who need to get saved and therefore need such "hard preaching" against their sins.) Like a fish caught by the hook in a worm, these preachers then because a "good catch" for the Devil and then "convert" to the Devil's agenda by helping to send people to Hell by their willingness to preach against sin.

There can be other problems related to borrowing within a Church. One problem is that the purpose for borrowing in the first place is often the wicked, Satanic sin of ministerial pride. For example, a preacher might try to buy a church building that his congregation really does not need and really could not afford. Although there are exceptions, often the reason for such an attempted building project or church building purchase is to exalt and "lift up" the preacher in the eyes of his ministerial friends. Although such wicked covetousness and sinful pride is a very bad reason for borrowing money, this often ends up to be at least one of if not the primary reason for such borrowing by church leaders.

Sometimes, this wicked covetousness and pride of pastors, deacons or other church leaders can cause them to make very financially unwise decisions - decisions that often involve the borrowing of money. For example, a period of high inflation or "real estate boom", (such as happened during the late 1980's), is the very worst time to buy an existing church building. Such a building would be overpriced because of the run up in real estate values at the time. Also, the high rate of interest would be "locked in" for years with that decades-long mortgage. As was illustrated by the life of Balaam, the "love of money" can often cause preachers to do some rather foolish (and very wicked) things because they care more for their own egos than for Jesus and the Bible.

Another problem caused by church borrowing is that there is the assumption that a certain amount of money will come into the church's coffers each month. In turn, a certain number of "regulars" and church members must put this money into the plate each week. Nevertheless, "church splits" are a fact of life for most churches. Those leaving in such a church split will have a difficult time getting another building, since their tithes and offerings have already gone into the original church, leaving them without the money to buy such a building. Those who stay in the original church are also hurt financially because they must now "cough up" more money each month the "cover the mortgage".

Often the pastor of the original church will then blame those who left during the church split for the financial troubles now ensuing in his church, such as the big problem of how to pay for the mortgage. Nevertheless, such a preacher was usually the very one who had pushed originally for that very same mortgage, a mortgage which could not have been easily paid for with the church's "core people". He had incorrectly assumed when he signed the mortgage that a certain number of people would come each week and put a certain amount of money each week into the plate. As someone once said, "Never assume"!

You see, those that are left after a church split are the "core people" in a church. (The core people are those who would not leave unless they were "shown the door" and therefore forced out of the church against their will by the pastor himself or by one of his deacons.) If you buy a building or have a building built with money expected from "non-core" people, then you have assumed that church splits never happen, an assumption which is very foolish indeed. (Some preachers who have already experienced such a church split, nevertheless still assume that it will never happen to their church again. Never assume!)

Sometimes, a deacon or other "responsible" leader will try to "cover up" or otherwise cover for the sin of a pastor or other church leader who, for reasons of covetousness and pride, bought "that building" (or had one constructed) even though the church really could not afford it, (i.e. the "core people" could not pay for it.) The Bible says that those who cover their sin will not prosper. Nevertheless, this does not stop some pastors and/or deacons from trying!

Such a deacon or other church leader might then try to "lean on" the people, trying to "extract" as it were "blood from a turnip" from the core church members, (i.e. from those who remain after the church split.) Sometimes, such a leader might then tell those who can not "cough up" for those increased offerings to do so anyway. Such a leader might say to such church members something like this: "If you don't have the money, then borrow it!" The idea is to make the people to borrow from their own futures in order to cover for the sin of the pastor or other church leader who had wickedly signed for the mortgage and so directly placed the church in financial jeopardy.

An obvious problem with such a borrowing effort is that, unless the church grows, the core people in a church with such a mortgage will, over time, be laden down with more and more personal debt. (They effectively transfer the church's debt to their own personal debt by borrowing money to pay for the church's mortgage.) This personal debt over time causes the church members to be less and less able to give more money to the church, since they would be paying for more and more personal interest. This problem is then aggravated by the lack of a tax deduction for such personal credit card interest payments, (unlike payments to the church for mortgage interest). This in turn causes financial distress in the personal lives of such church members, as well as more financial problems for the church over time.

Soon enough, this "water hole" will dry up, leaving the deacon or other church leader with the same old loan repayment to pay back, but now with a people less able to "cough up" to pay it. You cannot squeeze blood out of a turnip!

Borrowing has been often been described as "usury". The Roman Catholic Church has been very wrong on many, many things. Nevertheless, they were right to forbid the loaning of money for "usury" (interest) during the Middle Ages. Such borrowing of money has caused many people so much trouble throughout history. It still does today. Even though whole industries, such as the Real Estate industry, are based on such "usury" borrowing, such borrowing is still generally "bad business" for both the individual and for churches which engage in this practice. It is both bad financial practice, and the root of many, many evils.

Ands how about you? Do you borrow? Are you even worried about your own future? Well, you should be. The Bible says that what a man sows, that he will also one day reap. You have sown sin, in fact lots of sin. God will require it of you. You must pay for your sin one day. God knows what sin is written in your ledger, in his books in Heaven, because He wrote all your sins down Himself in those ledger books. He will require payment for your sin at the Great White Throne Judgment after you die.

God has in fact been writing down every sin you have ever committed. God will read out loud your sins from those books at the judgment. You have been sinning on the "Sin Now, Pay later" plan. You will be required to pay for your sins in that Great Day of Judgment. You will pay for your sins by spending all eternity burning night and day in the flames of Hell.

God though has provided you with an alternative method of payment for your sins. God sent his Son, Jesus, to die on a Cross to pay for your sins. His death on that Cross is sufficient to pay for all of your sins. Nevertheless, there is one requirement - that you turn from your sins and come to Jesus. Trust Jesus to pay for your sins and He will pay for them. It is just that simple.

Most people will be in Hell one day. Most people will be in Hell because they will not burn from their sins and come to Jesus to have Jesus pay for their great debt of sin. Most people will end up paying for that debt themselves in the flames of Hell. Will you be be in Hell one day?

Why not come to Jesus and have Him cover your sins in His precious blood? Why not have all of your load of sin taken from off of your shoulders? Why not have inner joy and peace in your sin-wracked soul? Why not spend all eternity in a mansion in Heaven rather than in the flames of the Lake of Fire?

Now is the day of salvation. Now is the acceptable day. Come to Jesus today while you are able. Do not put it off. Do not wait for a "more convenient hour". This is no better time than right now to trust Jesus and get saved. If you put it off, hoping to commit "just a little bit more sin", then you will almost certainly spend all eternity burning night and day in the flames of Hell. Satan is the one one trying to get you to put off salvation. Resist Satan and he will flee from you. Come to Jesus. Trust Jesus, and may God bless you as you do it!

How to Become Eternally Wealthy

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