CHARLO, New Brunswick, September 5, 2023 – So there’s this guy who’s been dragging around a 55-lb wooden cross on wheels for the past several decades. He’s travelled all over the world with his crosses (he’s onto his third) and claims to have influenced countless people to turn back to God. Hmmm, I thought. Shades of Isaiah walking barefoot and naked for three years or John the Baptist wandering in the wilderness. Could we have a real live witness on our hands?

So I took the bait and clicked on his website. After a quick scan of the main page, what to my wondering eyes should appear but an ad for a self-published book about what the Holy Spirit had taught this holy-roller during his travels. The book also offers tips on how to evangelize. All I had to do was cough up $20 CAD and I could save myself the trouble of buying 40 years worth of running shoes, not to mention 40 years worth of aching muscles and hand blisters – the cross doesn’t carry itself, ya know!

Dang! Warm and fuzzy false prophet nearly fooled me again.

I am not against Christians making money. Jesus told us we should pray to God to give us our daily bread, which means praying for the means to pay for it. Paul made and repaired tents for his daily bread and encouraged us to work for enough $$$ to earn ours. I’m not against Christians earning money. In the world we need money, not much, but at least some.

What I’m against is Christians monetizing God’s Holy Spirit. That’s what I’m against, because Jesus taught us: “Freely ye receive; freely ye give”. Buddy with the cross on wheels should not be selling a book about what God taught him during his travels and he definitely shouldn’t be charging people for “tips” on how to preach the Word. If he wants to sell a book, he could sell one about the best kind of shoes to wear when dragging a cross across continents; he could sell a book about the different kinds of people he’s encountered or the places he’s stayed or the experiences he’s had along the way. Heck, he could even sell t-shirts or travel mugs or a miniature action figure of himself carrying a cross on wheels – anything but put a price tag on revelations from God.

Revelations from God should NEVER be monetized.

If he were genuinely sent by God, he’d know this. He wouldn’t have to be told.

I despise people selling what Jesus says should be shared for free. I despise it the way Jesus despised the moneychangers setting up shop in the temple. The Number One trait of a false prophet is asking for donations or charging money for what should be free. Every false prophet does it. Jesus says you cannot serve God and mammon. By asking for money for what should be freely shared, false prophets out themselves by clearly showing who they serve.

If Paul could take time from his preaching duties to make tents, we can likewise find a few hours here and there to carry out some menial chore that will earn us what we need to keep body and soul together while we devote the rest of our time to God’s work. Jesus never begged or solicited donations and neither should we. Anyone who asks for money in God’s name is a false prophet.

Zero exceptions.

At the same time, those who are genuinely sent by God should without hesitation and with gratitude accept any monetary gift offered them free-willingly, knowing that such gifts come from God and will bless the giver more than the receiver. We should never get in the way of people’s blessings by refusing to accept gifts given to us free-willingly. Refusing monetary gifts offered to us free-willingly is a sign of pride. Never refuse such gifts.

But never solicit such gifts, either. Never make people feel obligated to pay for God’s Word in any way, not even during a church service. Mainstream religion is the worst of the worst of the false prophets. Were those organizations genuinely sent by God, they wouldn’t need to ritualistically apportion part of the service to “giving” and “offerings”, because God would prompt people to give without being asked.

I hate the world. I hate how it operates, and I hate how religion monetizes God and Jesus. The only thing of value on this Earth, besides souls, is the revelation of God’s Truth. For it to be reduced to $20 CAD is to me loathsome, no matter how warm and fuzzy the story of the person who’s charging it.

So I was wrong about the cross-on-wheels guy being like a modern day Isaiah or John the Baptist, but I wasn’t wrong about someone like the cross-on-wheels guy being in the Bible. He’s in there, all right. He’s one of the many false prophets.