Faith Promises, reprise

Faith Promise Giving—Is It Scriptural?

“Faith promise giving” is a popular modern-day church fund-raising system. It is different from pledging. According to idea of “faith promise,” a person is supposed to promise on faith to give a sum of money that he does not have (nor expect to have) and have the faith that God will supply it so he can give it. This is more than an apostle required, as Paul said that God would accept according to what a man has (2 Corinthians 8:12).

The Baptist Bible Fellowship was the first group which I heard promoting “Faith Promise Giving.” It did not originate with them, but they have been in the forefront of promoting the idea among Baptists. It has spilled over into Independent Baptists, Missionary Baptists, Southern Baptists, and doubtless many others. 

Notice some quotes from a pamphlet distributed by the BBFI – “A Faith Promise Offering?” by Granville LaForge. “The Faith Promise Offering is a free-will offering collected weekly in your church to provide the finances for worldwide missions (p.1).” “First, It is a promise to God. Observe carefully this is not a pledge to the church...However, may we hasten to say that your promise to God should be as binding if not more binding than a pledge to an organization.[i] Secondly, it is an act of faith. You are promising to give beyond your present ability to give...It is simply trusting and believing God to supply the amount He impresses your heart to promise (p.2).” “WHY SHOULD I GIVE A FAITH PROMISE OFFERING?...First to express loving obedience to His commands. (pp.3,4).” “How can I determine what God wants me to give? Ask God, with a submissive will: ‘Lord, what will thou have me to do?’ If you are truly willing to do His will, He will impress your mind with the amount He wants you to give. The amount He indicates may be beyond your personal ability, but remember this verse: ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’ Mark 9:23 “FOURTH, SUBSCRIBE TO THAT AMOUNT ON YOUR FAITH PROMISE CARD. (p. 8).” “FIFTH, SET THIS AMOUNT ASIDE WEEKLY AND GIVE IT...Knowing that if it is God’s will for you to give this amount weekly it then simply becomes a matter of good stewardship to give it as He has led you to promise. NOTE: God never commanded us to do something He will not enable us to do! (p.9).”

Promoters of the Faith Promise usually insist that it is based on Scripture – “The Faith Promise method of giving is described in detail for us in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, and 10 (pp. 1-2).” Oddly, no one seems to have noticed it in this text before Oswald J. Smith in the 20th century.[ii] The excerpts from this pamphlet (and many other writings that are available) show that it is a very detailed system, and, for the BBFI at least, “You are promising to do something for an entire year, fifty two weeks without fail (p. 3).” [Most Faith Promise promotions find their scripture base in 2 Corinthians 8; most want a promise made for a year; most emphasize this as a promise to God rather than a pledge to the church, implying it is not binding, but then turn around and say that a promise to God is even more binding than a pledge to the church.]

All this may sound good on the surface to some people, but what does God’s word say? 

To begin with, the system is built on a faulty foundation. There is no New Testament teaching of two ways of giving: tithes which are owed to God and offerings over and above the tithe which are not owed but freely given. All we have belongs to God. We are stewards of it all. Even the Old Testament tithing proof text (Malachi 3:8) states that the robbers of God were robbers “in tithes AND offerings.” How so, if only the tithe belongs to God?

Faith Promise Giving is inconsistent with and ultimately violates scriptural principles of giving.

Faith promise giving contradicts the principle of giving “out of that which ye have” (2 Corinthians 8:11). This principle rules out pledging OR promising what we do not have, and faith promise giving is exactly that – promising to give what one does not have. God accepts our gifts according to what we have, not according to what we do not have (2 Corinthians 8:12).

Faith promise giving disregards the instructions of 1 Corinthians 16:2, which teaches us to give as God has prospered us. God only asks us give out of that with which he has already prospered us. Faith promise giving asks us to give that we hope or expect God to prosper us with in the future (because we have made a promise to give based on it).

Faith promise giving removes the prospect of giving sacrificially, as did the Macedonians (2 Corinthians 8:14). On the one hand, the faith promise giving scheme seems to call for sacrificial giving. On the other hand, the faith promise system actually guarantees that God will supply extra funds to you in order for you to keep your pledge to him. No sacrifice, no cost. David said, “Neither will I offer...that which doth cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). The poor widow described in Mark 12:41-44 cast into the treasury all that she had, without any promises or expectations.

To make a faith promise is to promise (which is a pledge) to perform a certain amount of giving for an entire year. However, we know not what shall be tomorrow (James 4:13-14). This seems more an act of foolishness rather than an act of faith...

...Let us cheerfully give out of what we have as God has prospered us, and leave off the “faith” promises.[iii]

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[i] While on the one hand saying it is not a “pledge,” it seems churches that adopt “Faith Promise Giving” adopt the promises as part of their budget.
[ii] It is surprising how many promoters of “Faith Promise Giving” also claim to be expository preachers. The system, however, cannot be found under careful consideration and faithful exposition of the scriptures used to promote the system. Through research on the internet, I found that Faith Promise giving originated with Oswald J. Smith, a Canadian non-denominational preacher of Presbyterian background. He was also an evangelist, hymn writer, and author. Its origin is some 1900 years too late. “Dr. Oswald J. Smith was the originator of the idea of a Faith Promise offering for missions. For many years he was pastor of The Peoples Church in Toronto, Canada, where he challenged that congregation to raise $1 for missions for every $1 they spent on themselves.” – from “A Faith Promise Offering,” Oswald J. Smith, page 2.
[iii] The faith promise system is self-promoting, because it raises lots of money. It is more about what “works” than what is biblical. Oswald J. Smith, the originator wrote, “That is about the only kind of an offering I have taken up for Missions in all these years, well over a quarter of a century now—a Faith Promise Offering. I would never go back to the cash offering. With a cash offering I could only get a very little, but with a Faith Promise Offering I can get much. In our Annual Missionary Convention we never get more than $7,000 in cash, but we get a quarter of a million or more in Faith Promises.” (p. 1)