Financing the Vast Expanse of the Kingdom of God

By Carl Wells

Financing the Vast Expanse of the Kingdom of God deals with practical ways in which--surprise!--the kingdom of God can be expanded in dramatic fashion, using money. The book hints that this is a desirable goal. The author also clearly believes that a vast expanse of the kingdom of God is possible--leading his family and friends to worry about his mental stability.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781463490607

Carl Wells

Carl Wells enjoys living in Southern Indiana, in what might be described as Flyover Country, except that almost nobody flies over.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1.

The Heart is the Key

Chapter 2.

Who’s On First?

Chapter 3.

God’s Covenant of Grace

Chapter 5.

Developing a Generous Spirit

Chapter 6.

Fabian Giving

Chapter 7.

Developing Generosity in Other Ways

Chapter 8.

Be a Snake in the Grass

Chapter 9.

Evangelizing the World

Chapter 10.

Our Children and the Tithe

Chapter 12.

A Strange Sort of Fun

Appendix I.

A Prayer

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Other Books by the Author

This book is dedicated, with much affection, to those Christians who—rightly or wrongly, wisely or unwisely, sanely or insanely—believe in, hope for, and work for the vast expansion of the kingdom of God on earth, and who put their money where their mouth is.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Malachi 3:10

Introduction

The subject matter of this book is rather limited. The title indicates the main focus: how we can finance the vast expanse of the kingdom of God.

The title is probably confusing to most of my readers. You may have picked up, or better yet, purchased the book because the title is so odd. Gotcha!

After all, we know that there cannot be a vast expanse of the kingdom of God until Christ comes again at the end of history. At which time no financing will be necessary.

Only a tiny handful of Christians believe that there will be a dramatically large increase of the kingdom of God on earth before the end of history. This irresponsible handful are frequently called postmillennialists. The word has a certain logic, though their theory is chuckleheaded. They are saying that Jesus Christ’s return to earth will come after (post) a long stretch of time in which the rule of Christ visibly and dramatically increases in world history (the millennium).

This is totally and completely nuts, of course, since there’s not the slightest shred of biblical evidence for such an idea. Nevertheless a few people claiming the name of Christ have, throughout history, believed in the postmillennial fairy tale, and have tried to defend their position from the Bible. For those in search of a good laugh, examine some of the ridiculous stuff you will find in the footnote to the Introduction somewhere at the back of the book.* That’s what the asterisk is for—to point you to the footnotes.

However, since my readers have a right to expect basic honesty from me, the time has come for me to admit: I am a believer in postmillennialism. I am, as my Christian acquaintances call me, no doubt with great affection, postmillennial hippie scum. I’m not proud of it. It’s caused me to be put in a place—a sort of a home, as Bertie Wooster would say—where I can get regular help. In fact, this book was written at the recommendation of my psychiatrist at that home. His theory was that writing all this down would cause me to see the foolish impossibility—he was too polite to say insanity—of such ideas. I took his advice and over the course of many weeks wrote it all down and typed it up neatly (well, moderately neatly). He read it, termed it a pathetic cry for help, and strongly recommended against publication. (And they still won’t let me out of here despite the fact that I, like Norman Bates, wouldn’t hurt a fly.)

Despite my psychiatrist’s opinion, I have moved forward toward publication at my own expense. I know I’m not cured, but I don’t pretend to be.

Should a sane Christian consider reading a book about an insane idea? Well, possibly not, but I would contend that if the sane reader can scrape off the irresponsible drivel about the kingdom of God becoming large on earth, the book may make some helpful points. The book is largely about how we can develop a generous spirit, and so may be of some practical value to the garden variety, sane Christian.

Developing a generous spirit, and exercising that generous spirit in the way one uses his finances, is only one aspect of how the vast expanse of the kingdom of God will come about (according to the postmillennial theory, that is). Even postmillennialists recognize that there are many other virtues that need to be developed by Christians if we are to see Christ’s kingdom advance in a powerful way.

According to Paul, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23), and no doubt we could list numerous other virtues—humility springs immediately to mind—that God tirelessly plugs, over and over again, in His supernatural word to mankind, the Bible. He is at least consistent, and doesn’t mind repeating Himself.

This book won’t have much to say about those numerous other virtues. It will focus primarily on developing a generous spirit, and even more specifically, on developing a generous spirit in regard to handling money. The reader will kindly—generously—note that I understand that there are many other vitally important virtues. This book is just not about them.

Chapter 1.

The Heart is the Key

Christianity is a religion of the heart. (This is a point sometimes well made by my former pastor, Bill Roberts. This proves I don’t sleep through every service.) God stresses that Christianity is a religion of the heart so often that it seems impossible that we should miss the point. However, we’re good at missing points, so it probably won’t hurt to make the point again here.

Jesus Christ told us, ‘For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders’ (Matt. 15:19). This echoes Proverbs 4:23, where we are told, Watch over your heart with all diligence,/For from it flow the springs of life.

We are also told by Christ to love God with all our heart, along with all our soul and all our mind (Matt. 22:37).*

God wants us to get our hearts right with Him. When we do that, good things will fall into place.

Our obedience, for example, will begin to fall into place, when our hearts are right. He wants our obedience, but He wants it to come from a grateful heart which loves Him and wants to please Him.

We sometimes bring forth an outward obedience in which the heart is not much involved. Other people are watching, so I need to watch what I do. God is awfully picky in regard to sin X, so I’ll grudgingly give up