The Spirits Behind Pursuing Wealth by Religious Means

This false church particularly seeks to win over and manipulate the rulers and the wealthy. I would offer you a little hint: any group that aims particularly for the wealthy is probably in error. Jesus said the gospel is preached to the poor. That doesn’t mean we leave the wealthy out. But when people go for the wealthy, it’s usually not the Holy Spirit that is motivating. Thank God the wealthy can get saved. But when a church goes for the wealthy in order to use their influence, that motivation probably doesn’t come from God.

Let’s look at some of the pictures here. Again, we’re in Revelation 17, and we read verse 2, which is a continuation of the previous verse,

“With whom”—that’s the false church—“the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

There, the meaning of fornication is primarily spiritual. It’s false religion. It’s idolatry. But notice, the first people listed as going in for idolatry are the kings of the earth, the rulers, the wealthy.

And then in chapter 18 and verse 3, it says,

“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” her false teaching which brings the wrath of God and leads people into spiritual fornication. “The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”

So, again the emphasis is on the kings and the wealthy. And in a certain sense, relating to her is a means to achieving wealth.

It’s interesting in the book of Revelation how much emphasis there is on merchants. It seems that the main wealth is in the hands of the merchants. As someone that has been away from the continent of Europe for a good many years and come back, I’m impressed how business has become the number one issue. Everything else is secondary to business. What political motivation could not do, business motivation seems to be doing. In other words, uniting the nations of Europe.

If you read through Revelation, you’ll see again and again the picture of the merchants, who are supporters of this organization because it’s a source of wealth to them. Now, wealth is not wicked. Wealth comes ultimately from God. But the pursuit of wealth by religious means, in my observation, usually lands you in trouble. I think there’s a very celebrated, publicized case of a radio evangelist that’s just been in our papers, which is a very vivid example of the danger of using the gospel, or the so-called gospel, as a means of gaining wealth personally.

I have to say the so-called gospel, because I’m not going to name any organization, but I think all of you know the one I’m speaking about. Ruth and I were invited to appear on that program about two or three years ago, just before Christmas. Longer than that. Anyhow, four years ago, let’s say. We were the main, theoretically the main participants for 2 hours. The first session, 1 hour, they took more than 20 minutes to raise money by selling dolls. I had just about 11 minutes. The second session I had a little bit more. Theoretically, this was a celebration of Christmas. There was no reason to suspect any of the things that subsequently came to light. But I said to Ruth, “We will never come back here, because these people are misleading millions of people as to the real nature of Christianity. They’re giving them a totally false picture of what it is to be a Christian.”

I don’t pick on that particular individual. I pray God will have mercy on him. Maybe he has to take a hard road to the mercy of God. But I use it as a lesson for myself.