TITHE

YOU CAN TITHE AND STILL BECOME BROKE

SINCE MOST CHRISTIANS ARE NOT CHRISTIANS WHY ARE WE SURPRISED THAT THEY LIVE AND WALK IN THE FLESH AND DO THE WORKS OF THE FLESH AND DON'T LIVE AND WALK IN THE SPIRIT? AND DEAD CHURCHES DEVOID OF MIRACLE SIGNS AND WONDERS PRODUCE DEAD PEOPLE.YOU CANNOT GIVE LIFE TO OTHERS IF YOU YOURSELF DON'T HAVE IT. YOU CANNOT LEAD OTHERS ANY FURTHER THAN YOU HAVE GONE YOURSELF. AND MOST PASTORS ARE HIRELINGS WHO ONLY KNOW SLIGHTLY MORE THAN THE SHEEP AND HAVE A FORM OF GODLINESS BUT DENY IT'S POWER? AND FINALLY YOU CANNOT SOLVE A PROBLEM UNTIL YOU ADMIT THERE IS A PROBLEM. AND DECEPTION AND DENIALS IS VERY COMMON AMONG PROFESSING CHRISTIANS!

Many of God’s people have given money away from wrong reason or have sowed it into the bad soil of false ministries and have received back from God nothing in return. We must be wise with what we do with our money, talents, and blessings that God entrusts us with and not just give it a con man who comes along, even if he is a preacher!  Just because people tithe to a certain church or ministry doesn’t mean that they will not be robbed by that ministry. We have an example of this in the financial crash in 1999 of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, resulted in the largest collapse of a religious financial institution in the nation's history resulted with many elderly sheep robbed, hurt and devastated. The fact was that most of sheep were "tithers" and many didn't understand how God would allow them to be robbed.

Through the '90s, brochures extolled BFA's "Biblically based" investment plans, and urged faithful Baptists to "do good by doing good," becoming "bolder stewards of their God-given resources." Helpful salesmen made house calls." The Baptist Foundation pamphlets stated:

BFA's Biblically-based stewardship perspective...

"Stewardship Investing" through the Foundation is a TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY TO BE FOUND FAITHFUL ABOVE and BEYOND the TITHE TO YOUR LOCAL CHURCH...

Do good while doing good...IT'S WISE STEWARDSHIP IN ACTION...

Don't let your retirement dollars fly away! In the complex and changing world of today, planning for retirement is CRITICAL. WE CAN HELP you ACHIEVE YOUR RETIREMENT DREAMS (NIGHTMARES).

If you are living on a fixed income, you certainly want to be ASSURED OF THE STABILITY OF YOUR INCOME STREAM...Call us today...You'll learn firsthand about the UNIQUE MINISTRY and EXCELLENT SERVICE WHICH CAN BE YOURS WHEN YOU PUT YOUR "TRUST" in the Baptist Foundation of Arizona.

Touching hearts and lives AS THE DREAM IS REALIZED.

"Up close and personal" service. Our Financial Services Representatives will GLADLY come to your home or place of business to handle a transaction for you. In addition to our three offices, we also provide "SATELLITE" OFFICES IN CHURCHES throughout Arizona...

We re-invest your money, and THE PROFIT we earn GOES to further such ministries as Christian education, care for children and senior adults, missions and new church starts...

...NOT ONE BFA client has ever lost one penny of their investment or interest they earned...

WE HAVE A PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF PRUDENT AND PROFITABLE OPERATIONS...Profitable for whom!)

EACH YEAR, AN INDEPENDENT AUDIT of BFA is CONDUCTED BY ONE OF THE LEADING ACCOUNTING FIRMS IN THE NATION.

We know that for most of you, our common ties to the churches are one of the most important reasons you invest with BFA, CFP, and NCV, AND THOSE SAME TIES CAN HELP CARRY US THROUGH THESE DIFFICULT TIMES.

But the reality was that the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, a subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest protestant denomination in America, used Southern Baptist pastors and former pastors as sales representatives to rob 13,000 mostly elderly Christians by promising high returns, the security of church backing, and the chance to help Baptist charities. It was nothing but a fraud and a big Ponzi Scheme.  As recounted by The Wall Street Journal, many of the foundation's investors were elderly churchgoers "attracted by the foundation's offer of above-market returns on promissory notes and other investment products, and by its mission of using earnings for good works, such as building churches and nursing homes for the poor. The foundation had become a Ponzi scheme, needing to raise tens of millions of dollars to pay the high returns it had promised to earlier investors. According to the lawsuits, a key reason why the scheme lasted "as long as it did ... was that accounting firm of Andersen continued to certify the foundation's financial statements and dismissed multiple warnings by individuals that the foundation was defrauding investors." The foundation was organized to raise funds for Southern Baptist–related charities. However, it has contributed only about $1.3 million to such groups over its half-century of operation. By contrast, in 1996 BFA spent $16 million on staff salaries and $329,000 on staff automobiles. It also invested in a long series of shaky loans and dubious real estate deals, primarily with companies controlled by members of its board.

God’s house today is His people who are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to do good to all men especially those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10) and we are not to rob them by any means. The Top 10 scams[i] as listed by the North American Securities Administrators Association, ranked by the organization in order of prevalence or concern are:

1. Unlicensed individuals, such as life insurance agents, selling securities.

To verify that a person is licensed or registered to sell securities, call your state securities regulator. If the person is not registered, don't invest.

2. Affinity group fraud.

Many scammers use their victim's religious or ethnic identity to gain their trust --knowing that it's human nature to trust people who are like you --and then steal their life savings. From "gifting" programs at some churches to foreign exchange scams targeted at Asian Americans, no group seems to be without con artists who seek to exploit others for financial gain.

3. Payphone and ATM sales.

In early March, 25 states and the District of Columbia announced actions against companies and individuals -- many of them independent life insurance agents --that took roughly 4,500 people for $76 million selling coin-operated customer-owned telephones. Investors leased payphones for between $5,000 and $7,000 and were promised annual returns of up to 15 percent. Regulators say the largest of these investments appeared to be nothing but Ponzi schemes.

4. Promissory notes.

Short-term debt instruments issued by little-known or sometimes non-existent companies that promise high returns --upwards of 15 percent monthly --with little or no risk. These notes are often sold to investors by independent life insurance agents. In Indiana, 18 elderly investors lost some $1.4 million in a promissory note scam. An 80-year-old woman lost her life savings of $324,000. Interestingly, this is the scam that has been most used in Ponzi-scheme banking in Eastern Europe, notably Albania and Romania.

5. Internet fraud.

Scammers use the wide reach and supposed anonymity of the Internet to "pump and dump" thinly traded stocks, peddle bogus offshore "prime bank" investments and publicize pyramid schemes. Roughly half the states have Internet surveillance programs that watch for fraud or investigate investor complaints.

6. Ponzi/pyramid schemes.

Always in style, these swindles promise high returns to investors, but the only people who consistently make money are the promoters who set them in motion, using money from previous investors to pay new Investors. Inevitably, the schemes collapse.

7. "Callable" CDs.

These higher-yielding certificates of deposit won't mature for 10 to 20 years, unless the bank, not the investor, "calls,'. or redeems, them. Redeeming the CD early may result in large losses --upwards of 25 percent of the original investment. In Iowa. for example, a retiree in her 70's invested over $100.000 of her 97-year-old mother's money in three "callable" CD's with 20 year maturities. Her intention, she told her broker, was to use the money to pay her mother's nursing home bills. Regulators say sellers of callable CDs often don't adequately disclose the risks and restrictions.

8. Viatical settlements.

Originated as a way to help the gravely ill pay their bills, these financial interests in the death benefits of terminally ill patients are always risky and sometimes fraudulent. The insured person gets a percentage of the death benefit in cash; investors get a share of the death benefit when the insured dies. Because of uncertainties predicting when someone will die, these investments are extremely speculative.

9. Prime bank schemes.

Scammers promise investors triple-digit returns through access to the investment portfolios of the world's elite banks. Purveyors of these schemes often target conspiracy theorists, promising access to the "secret" investments used by the Rothschilds or Saudi royalty. In North Dakota, state securities regulators are alleging a small group of salesmen, including a local pastor, used religion and family ties to bilk investors out of $2 million in a prime bank scam.

10. Investment seminars.

Often the people getting rich are those running the seminar, making money from admission fees and the sale of books and audiotapes. These seminars are marketed through newspaper, radio and TV ads and "infomercials" on cable television. Regulators urge investors to be extremely skeptical about any get-rich-quick scheme.

WALTER KAMBULOW
VICTORY MINISTRIES