Page 56 - The Church and Education PDF Pro

1. Once a church enters into debt transaction, they owe a lender the repayment for the loan. And just
as a slave, they must give up all freedoms. The church becomes a slave to the repayment. And quite
often, the cost of repayment may prevent the church from supporting missionaries or financing new
ministries that God may be leading the church to enter into.

2. Another problem with debt is that it presumes on God. When the church borrows money, they are
actually borrowing the money based on future contributions to repay the loan. The questions the
church must ask are these: “How do you know that God will provide in the future the same amount of
income He is presently providing.” “How can you obligate God to provide future funds to repay the
debt?”

God is under no obligation to pay debts. Nowhere in Scripture does God promise to pay debts. He
promises to meet your needs, not your debts. By entering into debt, you are in a sense telling God that
HE MUST provide the money you have obligated yourself for by entering into debt. You are presuming
upon God. Not good!

James 4:13–14 Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year
there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”

3. A THIRD PROBLEM with debt is that the borrower almost always charges INTEREST to
obtain a return on his investment. So in the process of borrowing and repaying, you are not
only repaying the amount of your debt, but also must pay the interest required. Huge sums
of believers’ money go to meet interest payments. This money could be used to further
God’s kingdom rather than Satan’s. Many churches spend more on interest payments than
on giving to foreign missions!

Proverbs 14:29 He who is impulsive exalts folly

Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another, for he
who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Romans 8:13 “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law.”

Nehemiah 5: 3-5 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get
grain during the famine.” 4Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax
on our fields and vineyards. 5Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though
our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our
daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards
belong to others.”

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