Chapter 3
C. Deceitful statements.
Note: The word deceitful means, “not honest; deceptive; misleading.” (Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary)
The Faith Promise Giving system is filled with deceit; that is, deceptive and misleading statements.
1. Misleading statement #1 — Saying that a Faith Promise Offering is not a pledge.
Note: Churches that use the Faith Promise Giving system usually say that making a pledge is wrong. Oswald J. Smith says this about it: “I do not believe in pledges. I have never taken up a pledge offering in my life. What is the difference, you ask, between a pledge offering and a Faith Promise Offering? All the difference in the world.”
“A pledge offering is between you and a church, between you and a missionary society,
and some day the deacons may come along and try to collect it, or you may receive a letter
asking for it. In other words, YOU CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR A PLEDGE OFFERING.”
- Oswald J. Smith
Now, he continues on with his statement, “A Faith Promise Offering, on the other hand, is between you and God. No one will ever ask you for it. No official will ever call on you to collect it. No one will ever send you a letter reminding you of it. IT IS A PROMISE MADE BY YOU TO GOD, and to God alone. If you are unable to pay it, all you have to do is tell God. Give Him your excuse and if He accepts it, you are free. You do not have to pay it. That, I say, is a Faith Promise Offering.” (A Faith Promise Offering, by Oswald J. Smith) (Bold letters added for emphasis). Most churches that use the Faith Promise Giving system, basically repeat Oswald J. Smith’s definition in somewhat their own words. Here is one: “To the question, ‘Is a faith-promise the same as a pledge?’ this was the answer given, ‘No. Faith-Promises are not pledges. A pledge is horizontal, i.e. made to a church, society, charity, or other worthy cause. The Faith-Promise, by contrast, is vertical, i.e. made to God as an act of faith. An effort is normally made to collect the pledge. No attempt is ever made to collect a Faith-Promise. If at the end of the promise period (usually one year), the person is unable to fulfill his/her faith-promise commitment, the matter is wholly between the person and God. Frequently, to emphasize this personal transaction between an individual and God, churches will record faith-promises anonymously.” (Globe Missionary Evangelism http://www.gme.org/giving-fpg.shtml)
Who made up their definition of the word pledge? That is exactly how people twist Scripture,
by making words mean whatever they want them to mean. Here is the recognized definition of the word
pledge: “a binding PROMISE or agreement to do or forbear” (Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary).
a. II Corinthians 8:21 says, “Providing for ____________ things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.”
Note: That verse is found right in the context of dealing with money.
b. 1 Peter 2:12 says, “Having your conversation ____________ among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
Note: Please notice that the word promise is used in the definition of the word pledge. “a binding PROMISE or agreement” A pledge is a promise that you are going to do something. Here is part of Oswald J. Smith’s definition of Faith Promise Giving, “It is a PROMISE made by you to God, and to God alone.”
According to all accepted rules of language and grammar, making a Faith Promise Offering
is definitely making a pledge. To try and argue otherwise is just being plain deceitful.
What is the purpose of being deceitful in this matter? There is only one purpose — to get people to promise to give more money. Here is the testimony of Oswald J. Smith himself, “I have gone to many a church that has been opposed to a pledge offering, but as soon as I have explained the nature of a Faith Promise Offering, all opposition has disappeared.” (A Faith Promise Offering, by Oswald J. Smith) Churches seem to be opposed to the Faith Promise Giving system, until they hear a deceitful presentation telling them that it is not really a pledge — when, in fact, it is a pledge.
1. Misleading statement #1 — Saying that a Faith Promise Offering is not a pledge.
2. Misleading statement #2 — Saying that you are not held responsible for the amount that you set as your Faith Promise Offering.
Note: Their whole basis for saying that a pledge is unscriptural, is because they say it is binding upon you — some one or some organization could come after you to collect it. Here is what Oswald J. Smith said, “A pledge offering is between you and a church, between you and a missionary society, and some day the deacons may come along and try to collect it, or you may receive a letter asking for it. In other words, YOU CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR A PLEDGE OFFERING.” He goes on to say, “A Faith Promise Offering, on the other hand, is between you and God. NO ONE WILL EVER ASK YOU FOR IT. No official will ever call on you to collect it. No one will ever send you a letter reminding you of it. It is a promise made by you to God, and to God alone.”
As a Christian, when you make a commitment you should
KEEP YOUR WORD — whether anyone comes asking for it or not.
a. Proverbs 11:3 says, “The __________________ of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.”\
b. Proverbs 19:1 says, “Better is the poor that walketh in his __________________, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.”
c. Proverbs 20:7 says, “The just man walketh in his __________________: his children are blessed after him.”
What kind of reasoning is it to say that you should not make a commitment to certain ones,
because they may come after you to collect; but that it is okay to make commitments to others,
because they will not come after you? That is certainly not Biblical reasoning.
Note: The whole case for saying that you are not held responsible for what you commit to giving as a Faith Promise Offering, is now seen to be a very misleading statement. We now pick up with Oswald J. Smith’s last statement, and show you how the end (the fine print) shows the opposite to be true. “It is a promise made by you to God, and to God alone. If you are unable to pay it, all you have to do is to tell God. GIVE HIM YOUR EXCUSE and IF HE ACCEPTS IT, YOU ARE FREE.”
If God accepts your excuse you are free? Why do you need an excuse at all, if there is nothing binding
about the Faith Promise Offering? If God accepts your excuse you are free? Free from what?
How can there be a penalty for not fulfilling the commitment, if there was nothing binding about it?
What you are seeing now is double-talk, and deceit, plain and simple. One thing is pushed and pushed — “Commit to giving a Faith Promise Offering, because you are not held liable if you cannot pay.” But at the very end, the fine print says a totally different thing. Remember what Oswald J. Smith said? “YOU CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR A PLEDGE OFFERING” “A Faith Promise Offering, on the other hand, is between you and God. NO ONE WILL EVER ASK YOU FOR IT.”
Is God in the category of being a “no one?” The statement is deceitful, in that it first tells you
that NO ONE will ever come asking you to fulfill your promise. “No one” means NO ONE
— not man, not angels, not God. But then it tells you that if you do not fulfill your promise,
you can tell God why, and if he accepts your excuse, you are free. That is pure deceit.
1. Misleading statement #1 — Saying that a Faith Promise Offering is not a pledge.
2. Misleading statement #2 — Saying that you are not held responsible for the amount that you set as your Faith Promise Offering.
3. Misleading statement #3 — Strongly insinuating that promises made to God are not as binding as promises made to man.
Note: Listen to Oswald J. Smith’s statement again, “I do not believe in pledges. I have never taken up a pledge offering in my life. What is the difference, you ask, between a pledge offering and a Faith Promise Offering? All the difference in the world. A pledge offering is between you and a church, between you and a missionary society, and some day the deacons may come along and try to collect it, or you may receive a letter asking for it. In other words, YOU CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR A PLEDGE OFFERING.” A Faith Promise Offering, on the other hand, is between you and God. No one will ever ask you for it. No official will ever call on you to collect it. No one will ever send you a letter reminding you of it. IT IS A PROMISE MADE BY YOU TO GOD, and to God alone. If you are unable to pay it, all you have to do is tell God. Give Him your excuse and if He accepts it, you are free. You do not have to pay it. That, I say, is a Faith Promise Offering.”
Oswald J. Smith says that between the two systems there is “All the difference in the world.”
The difference that he strongly emphasizes is the part about being held responsible for
commitments made to man, but he definitely minimizes that aspect in relation to making a
commitment to God. Is that true? That we should be more fearful of commitments made to man,
than commitments made to God? Actually that is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches.
a. Luke 12:4,5 says, “And I say unto you my friends, Be not ____________ of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear ______, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”
b. Malachi 1:6 says, “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine ____________? and if I be a master, where is my ________? saith the LORD of hosts unto you...”
c. Malachi 1:8 says, "And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy ________________; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts."
d. Ecclesiastes 5:4, 5 says, "When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: ______ that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not ______, than that thou shouldest vow and not ______."
e. Ecclesiastes 5:1,2 says, "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy __________, and let not thine heart be __________ to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few."
f. Matthew 12:36,37 says, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give ______________ thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy __________ thou shalt be condemned."
The Bible clearly warns us to be very careful to fear God above anyone, and to be very careful
as to the words we utter before Him. That is the exact opposite of what Faith Promise Giving teaches.
It teaches that pledges to man are more fearful than commitments to God.
1. Misleading statement #1 — Saying that a Faith Promise Offering is not a pledge.
2. Misleading statement #2 — Saying that you are not held responsible for the amount that you set as your Faith Promise Offering.
3. Misleading statement #3 — Strongly insinuating that promises made to God are not as binding as promises made to man.
4. Misleading statement #4 — Saying that a Faith Promise Offering is not a commitment to a local church, but only to God.
Note: Consider Oswald J. Smith’s statement again: “A pledge offering is between you and a church, between you and a missionary society, and some day the deacons may come along and try to collect it, or you may receive a letter asking for it. In other words, you can be held responsible for a pledge offering. A FAITH PROMISE OFFERING, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS BETWEEN YOU AND GOD.”
If these faith-promises are not pledges, (because they say “A pledge is ‘horizontal’, i.e. made to
a church…”), then why do the churches who practice Faith Promise Giving record the pledges?
What could possibly be the purpose of having people fill out cards as to how much they are promising to give to God? If it is truly between God and the person — not between the person and the church, then why does the church need to know the amount? There are only two possible answers for that. The first possibility is that the church just wants to boast over the amount that its people promised to give to God. Although that may sound foolish to the average church member, that is exactly what often happens in the conversations that pastors have with one another. Amongst pastors, it is sometimes quite a matter of boasting, as to the size of their Faith Promise Giving. It is a subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) way that pastors try to show other pastors that the blessing of God is upon their ministries.
a. David made the mistake in getting puffed up over numbers, and was judged for it, in I Chronicles 21:1-4, 7,8 “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to ____________ Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab…. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have ____________ greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
Note: Although a lot of boasting is done as a result of tallying up the totals from Faith Promise Giving, there is another factor that is even worse.
It is plain dishonest to say that Faith Promise Giving is not a commitment to
the local church (as opposed to saying it is only a commitment to God), because in truth,
it is, and every pastor knows it. Local churches depend upon those figures to plan their
budgets — whether for Faith Promise Missions, or for Faith Promise Building programs.
So, in fact, the local church is depending upon those offerings to be received.
Many churches only take on new missionaries after their Faith Promise Missions Conference each year. Why at that time? Because they wait to see how much money the people promise to give, and they take on missionaries according to that amount. Why play games that the pledges are not being made to the local church? They are. In fact, if a church member moves during the process of the year, he is encouraged to still send his Faith Promise Offering back to the local church where he made such a promise. If the promise was made only to God, then it would not matter at what local church the money was given — it would still go to God.
In spirit and in truth, local churches collect pledge cards (Faith Promise Cards), because they are
depending upon that money and those commitments made. There is something wrong with a way
of raising money, when you have to be deceitful to do it. Faith Promise Giving has all kinds of
deceit that commonly goes along with it — and church leaders know it. Why is it used, then?
Because it raises so much money. Listen to Oswald J. Smith again: “I would never go back
to the cash offering. With a cash offering I could only get a very little, BUT WITH A FAITH
PROMISE OFFERING I CAN GET MUCH.” (A Faith Promise Offering, by Oswald J. Smith).
b. I Timothy 6:10 says, “For the ________ of ____________ is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
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