Long before the days of the slick, silver-haired as well as silver-tongued televangelists there were those who found gain and personal profit from the Word of Yahweh. The account of the moneychangers in the temple is one of the most shameful and condemnatory behaviors Yahshua addressed in the New Testament. It is also one of the only times we see His anger flare into a physical response.
“And Yahshua went into the temple of Yahweh, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves,” Matthew 21:12-13.
Today’s Moneychangers
Modern examples of shameless money-changing in the temple are found in large and small congregations alike. Coffee shops and other vendors pollute church vestibules, carnivals raise cash in the church basement and restaurants and book stores do brisk business on days of worship inside some mega-churches. The justification is always the same: “This is to help fund the work of g-d.” What’s next, selling tickets for next week’s sermon?
All of this is really not surprising, considering that most of today’s Bible believers do not understand or keep the Sabbath command in any way, shape or form. The prohibition of buying (or working) on the Sabbath is not even an afterthought. Blind followers of the blind stop at the chain store on the way home from church to purchase materials for their Sunday afternoon hobby or building project after visiting the family steakhouse for lunch.
I am really not surprised with those L-rd’s-day worshipers who have strayed so far from the Torah of Yahweh. Their behavior is a foregone conclusion. What concerns me is a little closer to home.
Blurring Lines
For decades the Sacred Name Movement has been relatively free from the commercialization common in churchianity. You would never find a Sacred Name believer merchandising the Word of Yahweh. The Sacred Name standard has always been to “Freely give” all materials, or for more expensive works like Bibles or magazines, a donation to cover “costs.”
As the Hebrew Roots movement has grown in the last 15 years (springing from Christianity and adopting the Sacred Names and the Feasts), the lines between what many today call “Messianic” and Sacred Name have been considerably blurred. As one brother put it, “The Sacred Name was Hebrew Roots before Hebrew Roots was cool.”
Among the church baggage that has been brought over into this movement. i.e. trinity, oneness etc., the merchandising of Yahweh’s Word has been the most evident.
Many of these teachers beg for money, collect tithes, and then sell books and videos for outrageous prices. Some give excuses for such merchandising, saying, “Well, they have to live as well.” Such was an acquittal from an individual who was defending the cost of a $30 holy day calendar (YRM gives them away free of charge).
One “teacher” sends several e-mails a day selling or “hawking” his religious merchandise. Visit some Messianic websites and from the jargon you would think you accidentally clicked on the site of some department store. Advertising slogans like “limited time offer” or one of my personal favorites, “inventory reduction sale” pepper their promotions.
Repackaging the Truth
The Sacred Name has been proclaiming and publishing the Name of Yahweh gratis for eight decades. Recently an attractively packaged DVD expounding the Sacred Name of Yahweh was being offered for $50. The part that made my stomach turn was finding out that this is the same material the Sacred Name movement has been teaching for free.
The Word of Yahweh was never meant to be sold but freely distributed. Yahshua says in Matthew 10:8: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” One of these religion salesmen twisted this Scripture by adding the word “now” to it, saying “Freely you have received now you freely give.” (That still didn’t explain his price tag.)
Revelation 22:18 harshly denounces anyone who puts words in Yahweh’s mouth: “For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, Elohim shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.”
Dividing the Messenger
We are instructed to rightly divide the Word of truth and hold teachers accountable for their actions. The Word of Yahweh is not an avenue to wealth or personal gain but quite the opposite. The Truth of Yahweh should be a sacrifice of love and deep concern for the salvation of others by bringing them into right understanding. That was always Yahshua’s example. He never merchandised His message.
Yahshua once ran into a rich young ruler seeking salvation and claiming to have followed the commandments from his youth, but was more concerned with his “possessions” than following Yahweh: “Now when Yahshua heard these things, he said unto him, Yet you lack one thing: sell all that you have, and distribute unto the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Yahshua saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of Elohim!” Luke 18:22-25.
This ministry will always freely distribute the Word without profiting by it. Your tithes and generous offerings allow us to do that. We will abide by the same means Yahweh established to promulgate His Truth by never selling it for profit. Making a commodity of the Word is one of the most egregious of sins, utterly detestable to Yahshua, and believers must turn from those who traffic in it.
