Survey Reveals Which Pastors Get Paid Most

John D. Baptist »

Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:03 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 2

I really don't think that the job of a pastor should be something which provides a very high salary. Jesus said that you have received freely, so give freely. He said: Blessed are the poor. In the Epistle of James it says: woe to you who are rich. Paul said that an overseer (bishop) should be a man who is not greedy for money. Paul worked with his hands to make money which he preached the gospel, so that he would not be a burden to his new converts. And tithing is not commanded once in the New Testament. In fact Paul said that people should give as they have purposed in their hearts, whatever that may be. So I don't understand why these men are making so much money, plus getting an expense account, plus a free house owned by the Church, in many cases. Their salaries would not bother me so much if I didn't hear so much about tithing. Tithing, tithing, tithing. In the Old Testament the tithe was for the priestly tribe of Levi, which made up about 10% of the population. And only farm products were tithed. But the tithe was nailed to the cross, just like the rest of the Old Covenant Law. The original Baptist Church never preached tithing. John Smyth and Roger Williams were dead set against tithing. It wasn't till after the Civil War that the Baptist Church started to preach tithing. I make $30,000 per year and I can't afford to buy a house, and these guys who are making much more, plus getting all these benefits are telling me to give them ten percent of my gross income? Sounds absurd when men tell me to give them 10% of my gross, or God will curse me, or I'll be living in sin. What a way to fleece people. Its a way for idiots to make money. Just tell other people that they have to give a lot of their cash to you, or God is gonna punish them. What happened to Christian liberty? What happened to the Lord who helps the poor and cares for them? Jesus didn't have a place to lay his head and his kingdom was not of this world. But these men, who say that they are in the world, but not of the world, are living it up. Maybe small time pastors don't make that much, but what about guys like John Hagee, Billy Graham, Ravi Zacharias, Joe Stowell, etc? They make a ton of money. Hagee makes about 1 million bucks per year. Billy Graham makes over $400,000. What do these men do that they deserve so much? I thought that what we really deserved was death and hell, and its only by God's grace that we are saved from it. I thought all things belong to God, and its onlly that He lets us use the things he has. So why do these men "deserve" so much? What is it that they really do? I thought the gospel of Jesus Christ was free.