SCAM-OLOGY

When we think of individuals who are faithful in spending consistent time in personal study and in Bible classes learning about God and his relation to man, the word “Theology” might come to mind. The word “theology” is often defined as the study of God and his relation to man.

Well, unfortunately, there are some individuals who study the Bible with not so much the intention to learn about God, but with the intention to learn how to scam people; hence, we have created the term “scam-ology” to represent what people are doing when they study things of a religious nature for the purpose of learning how to scam people.

Scam = to commit a deceptive act in order to fraudulently obtain something from someone (e.g. to trick a person out of their money, or goods, or labor, through some scheme).

Those who study theology and become expert in some area of theology are called “theologians.”

It follows that the person who studies scamology and becomes proficient in some area of perpetrating scams would be called a “scamologian” (or a “scamologist” if you prefer)

What we should endeavor to do as Christians is to strive not to even give the impression of being a scamologian.

Let’s start by observing some unsolicited mail that was received by a member of the Holiness.com support team.

Incident#1 Questionable Unsolicited Mail

A member of the Holiness.com support team received unsolicited mail from a church with questionable fundraising tactics. The mail package starts out with a testimony of a woman who used the paper “prayer rug” that was enclosed in the envelope to receive her blessing of almost fifty thousand dollars (US currency). The letter goes on to promote how you can get such things as money, prosperity, true love, and etc. by using the prayer rug. The letter admonishes that you are to follow their specific instructions for using the “prayer rug” and that you must do so in the next 24 hours. They say that the reason for following their instructions in the next 24 hours is because timing is important to God.

The package makes declaration with certainty that someone connected with the address receiving the package will be blessed through the prayer rug. The church seems to be guaranteeing one of the blessings for the recipient of the prayer rug. The church gives a list of good blessings to chose from. Don’t misunderstand, Holiness.com does believe in the Holy Spirit working through Christians to affect miraculous blessings for his people:

I Corinthians 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

However, looking at how the envelope was originally addressed and the codes on the address, the envelope resembles one of those mass mailings sent out to everyone in a specific postal zone to advertise some sale at a department store. We’re not saying that using a reverse directory (which anyone can purchase) to send out information to everyone in a city to promote a church is wrong, in and of itself. But, when a church promises blessings to a home, simply using a computer generated mailing sent to thousands of homes, would it not be advisable to consult the Lord as to who he specifically means to receive such a prophetic word of forthcoming blessing.

Holiness.com is not saying that God is incapable of sending a prophetic word to an entire city of thousands:

Jonah 3:1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

However, talking with other persons it was determined that “prayer rug” envelopes were sent to a fairly broad geographic area, including one city notorious for its wickedness, not so far from San Francisco, California.

But, the materials in the envelope never make any of the blessings it is dangling in front of the reader contingent upon doing God’s will and living righteously; one need only learn how to correctly work the prayer rug to get God’s blessings poured out on his/her home, family, and finances. The materials make no distinction as to whether one should quit his/her sinful life and stop living wickedly; according to the letter, if you follow their “prayer rug” steps, you too can have God give you things such as love, joy, and peace. Oh, and of course, if you want God to bless your finances, you’ll need to send the church a seed. Not just any seed, you need to send them your best seed. No, they’re not talking about salted sunflower or pumpkin seeds; they intend that you send them as much money as you can.

To be sure, the love of God, God’s joy, and God’s peace are not given to those of the world; it is given to those who accept and follow Christ:

John 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

So, we see that the joy, and love, and peace of the Holy Spirit is implanted in Christ’s followers, not the ungodly.

Yes, God does send material blessing on all of humanity, the wicked and the righteous:
Matthew 5:45b ...for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

But this in no way means that the unrighteous have access to approach God in prayer in the way those who follow Christ, as dear obedient children, have free access to commune with God and make their request known to him.

I have heard of sinners trying to have a prayer life with God, but you have to remember that unrepented sin will always stand in the way between God and a sinner. And, I have even heard of a sinner committing wickedness such as asking the preacher to send up prayers for luck on an upcoming gambling trip to the casino. Of course, the godly preacher refused to do such a thing.

The one prayer that any sinner should be praying is not for cars, and money, and houses. The sinner should pray the prayer of repentance: asking God to forgive him/her and cleanse him/her from all unrighteousness.

In any case, at least one of the steps included with this “prayer rug” envelope seem very suspect.

It is not so much that we have a problem with a church sending a rug to someone to kneel on as a symbol of one’s association with a particular ministry, and the power with which God is operating through that church.

We do see precedent in the Bible for using an inanimate object as a symbol of association with a Christian whom God works miracles through.

Acts 19:11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

This is not witchcraft or the illusionist tricks of so called magicians. God who was demonstrating his power to heal through the laying on of the Apostle Paul’s hands, also chose to heal people who would in faith receive a piece of Paul’s clothing or a piece of cloth that had been in contact with Paul. Of course, this Bible passage is not saying that the cloth had intrinsic power of itself. Paul touching, maybe even praying over the cloth, and the person (possibly not able to get to Paul in person) receiving the cloth in faith as a symbol of acceptance of the power of God working through Paul moved God to heal the infirmed. God worked many miracles using Paul as a means of certifying that the Gospel of Jesus Christ which Paul preached is without a doubt the truth.

Indeed, there are those who do not live a holy life, yet try to use prayer cloths (and prayer rugs and etc.) as if they were some sort of juju (e.g. magical charm), to manipulate the power of God however some mere person sees fit. This is a dangerous tactic to attempt with God’s power. The only power of God that an unsaved person should be calling upon is God’s soul-saving power that can deliver a person from his/her sinful life.

Acts 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

I don’t see where these seven sons of Sceva even proclaimed to own Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, yet they thought they would try and imitate what Paul did in casting demons out of people by calling on Jesus over a demon possessed man. The result was that they simply made the demons in the man angry. The demons then drove the man to beat the seven men so badly that the clothes where whipped off of them. The spiritual realm is real and nothing to play games with. We see in verse 19 that many people seeing that demonic power is real and that God’s power is far superior decided to stop dabbling in magic (which we know is of Satan). They were so serious about turning to God that they brought their many books of spells and incantations and publicly burned them so that they, nor anyone else, could try to use them again.
(If you’re still using good-luck charms and saying phrases to bring you good luck, repent and destroy anything that is of luck, astrology, magic, or voodoo, etc.)

The person receiving the “prayer rug” is supposed to go into a room alone. One is then supposed to turn off the television and radio. You are then to kneel on the prayer rug or spread it over your knees. The prayer rug is supposed to be touching both knees. This experience is supposed to make you feel like you are kneeling before God at the altar inside a big church full of blessings. The letter goes on to say how the next 24 hours are critical. After kneeling on the prayer rug (or placing over your knees), you are instructed to place it in a Bible, at the specific scripture provided by the letter. If you don’t have a Bible, you are supposed to slide the prayer rug under your side of the bed (if possible) over night; if you cannot, then they say it is okay. The next morning, this church requires that you get the prayer rug out of your house and back to them.

Here’s the most disturbing thing about the prayer rug: one is instructed to stare at a picture of (according to the church) Jesus. Let me explain that the prayer rug is really a large piece of thick paper with a lot of eye catching designs painted around the edge. In the center is a fuzzy/blury image of a man with a beard and a thorny headdress. The eyes on the image of the man are drawn in a particularly blurry fashion. The drawing reminds me of pictures teachers sometimes show in psychology or science class to demonstrate how the brain can see different things in a drawing depending on where your eyes focus and depending upon what shapes or images the teacher suggested you should be able to see in the drawing. I said all that because the church sending the prayer rug says that one of the things you are supposed to do is to stare at the eyes of the drawing (whom they say is Jesus); you are to focus and concentrate on the eyes until you see them opening and looking back into your eyes.

Now, if this don’t sound just like the shameless optical illusions of the kind magicians perpetrate in cheap nightclub acts, then I just don’t know what to tell you.

In all the literature accompanying the prayer rug there is no mention of how to accept Christ, nor explanation of Christ’s primary purpose of saving sinners from sin and reconciling them back to God. One is simply taught the supposed sure-fire steps of how to work the rug in order to get your wishes accomplished – somewhat like the mythical “genie in the magic lamp.”


In the next case we will observe how people were made to feel that they had been the victim of a scam in the middle of a Christian conference.

Now you might be correct in saying that the following incident does not reflect a scam, but the end result is that you have people who felt as though they were victimized and scammed due to manipulative techniques employed that resemble those used by scamologists; so, that would at least merit our refraining from using the tactic perpetrated by the Christian leader below.

Incident #2

Several thousand clergymen and other official delegates of a particular church affiliation were convening in a large convention arena. The objective of this particular day’s setting was for the purpose of deciding on key matters related to this particular Christian affiliation. Those who were accompanying official delegates, or were in anywise interested in the matters being discussed and decided upon, who were not clergymen, nor official delegates, were invited to be seated in bleachers to the far rear of the very large conference arena.

The session went on for some hours as the clergyman, seated in chairs on the ground floor of the arena heard presentations and discussions on important church matters.

During this session, the folks in the bleachers at the rear of the arena sat patiently waiting for the proceedings to conclude. There were hundreds of people in the bleachers, many of whom were family members or church members of those on the ground floor of the arena conducting business.

Well, when the session was almost over, one of the highest ranking Christian leaders on the stage spoke loudly into the microphone and requested the hundreds of people in the bleachers of the arena to come down out of the bleachers and come to the opposite end of the huge arena to receive prayer.

The hundreds in the bleachers were bewildered by the request as it was quite inconvenient and awkward to have everyone come down out of the bleachers and across the arena to receive prayer. Many who did not wish to receive prayer simply sat quietly while others who did want to receive prayer by means of “the laying on of hands of the elders” began to carefully make their way down, out of the bleachers.

At this point, the Christian leader began to get somewhat agitated, demanding that everyone must come down to receive prayer. After much pressuring and coaxing, the Christian leader was able to get pretty much everyone to climb down out of the bleachers and make their way across the arena. The people congregated together in the large aisles between the large sections where clergyman were still seated.

Those standing in the aisle waited, expecting to be directed to the podium to receive prayer from the Christian leader at the microphone or one of his designees. At this point, the Christian leader then tells the hundreds of people standing in the aisles to turn to the person next to him/her and pray with that person. The prayer went on for a short few moments. Many of the people wondered why they were not directed to simply pray for each other while they were up in the bleachers.

All of a sudden, the ushers began whipping out large offering baskets (they were really like plastic trash cans). The ushers stationed themselves in the exit aisles between the podium and the several thousand seated clergymen; those standing in the aisles were now herded down the aisles in front of the seated clergymen where men with buckets were stationed to take offerings from those who had been forced to come to the front of the convention hall on the pretense of receiving prayer.

There was a strong smell of psychological manipulation at that point. Look at the elements:

1) forcing people to walk across the arena for the stated purpose of receiving prayer
2) forcing the people to stand in front of the pastors and elders and bishops of the organization
3) whipping out big buckets to take an offering in plain view where those who do not walk forward and give offering will be observed potentially by thousands.

You be the judge whether this is the most honorable and proper way to raise an offering.

Those honored with the responsibility of collecting and management of offerings in the Lord’s house should be ever so careful in how the offering is collected. I am reminded of the sons of the Old Testament priest by the name of Eli. The book of First Samuel tells us that Eli’s sons executed such scandalous practices in the taking of offerings that people began to despise bringing offering to the Lord. This is an awful thing for people to despise participation in God’s sacred services.

Under the Old Testament system of animal sacrifices, God had Moses establish specifically how the sacrifices were to be offered to God. God even designated a portion of specific parts of the sacrifices for the adequate sustenance of the Old Testament priests (see Leviticus - chapter 7). The sons of Eli seemed not to have regard for the instructions God had given through Moses and began to abuse the people by forcing the people to give them offerings that were not meant for the priests to have.

I Samuel 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.
13 And the priests' custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand;
14 And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither.
15 Also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.
16 And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth; then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.
17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.


No matter what church position we occupy, no matter how high the ecclesiastical responsibilities assigned to us, we are never, ever to abuse even the smallest of God’s children. God looks on it very seriously when we behave so improperly toward Christians as to tempt them to turn away from the church. See what Jesus said:

Matthew 18:1-6
18:1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

So, if you are responsible for receiving offerings from your brothers and sisters in Christ, be ever so careful how you do it, for you may be invoking the displeasure of God on yourself due to how you are handling the saints of God.


Incident #3

Don’t mean to make you overly suspicious, but I would like to point out the fact that their were true prophets in the Old Testament, and there were many false ones; there were true prophets during New Testament times and there were those the Bible speaks about who were false. So, we are not to be shocked to the point of forsaking the gospel because today there still exists both the true and the false.

2 Peter 2:1-3
2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

In the third verse where it says “through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you...” the many greedy false prophets of our day are being accused for their willingness to say almost anything to get their hands on your money.

Scamologist will sometimes concoct the most bold schemes to appear that they are operating under the power of God and to thereby win the trust of Christians. I am thinking of one instance in particular where an older church woman was attending a service being conducted by man who supposedly exhibited supernatural gifts during his services.

Prior to the service, the supposed man of God privately spoke with the older church woman obtaining information about her and her family and a terrible hardship she was currently enduring.

Well, during the service, the supposed man of God called the woman forward, not acknowledging that they had met and began to act as if by supernatural means that God had revealed this woman’s circumstance and the trial she was going through to him – information the woman had told the man in private prior to his public display of his so-called spiritual gift.

Yes, there are those who God has given supernatural ability to see the hidden things in people’s lives in order to encourage them to stand firm and trust in God. But, the man described above was only running a scam. By making the people at the service think this man had some supernatural gift, the man apparently was hoping to gain the people’s confidence in order to manipulate them into giving large offerings of money.

Incident #4

It is not always those in leadership positions who are taking advantage of others in a financial way. I have seen occasions where ungrateful lay members were being ministered to year after year by a faithful godly pastor. These lay persons expect the pastor and the local church to be there at their beck and call, yet these persons are extremely stingy when it comes to giving for the financial support of their local church and essential support staff (e.g. the pastor).

This attitude of a person being stingy towards God’s house and those who minister therein goes all the way back to the Old Testament:

Malachi 3:9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

God said this to his people because they were not bringing tithes and offerings to his house that he had ordained for the support of the temple.

Still today, we have some stingy lay persons who want all the blessings from God and want their local ministers to teach; preach; pray; marry; bury; baptize; oversee the food distribution; run the orphanage; hire and manage support staff for the church; and so on, and so on. Yet, they have the audacity to begrudge the pastor receiving a comfortable salary wherewith he can see after the earthly needs of his wife and family? We’re not doing the church and a godly pastor a favor by our consistent and faithful financial support; it is actually our godly responsibility to be faithful and consistent in our giving. If we begrudgingly hold back in giving what God means for us to give, yet expecting God’s blessings and expecting the local church to be there to minister to our needs, we are robbers and thieves; or, put another way, we are scamologists.

It is simply fraudulent to join a church and receive the rights, privileges, and spiritual blessings as a member, knowing that you will not do your fair share to support the ministry.

Some church folk make excuse for not giving as they ought to by saying that their pastor is not a very good pastor; and so, they feel justified in not giving as they should. Well, the question arises as to why you would risk your family’s spiritual well being by placing them under a pastor who is doing a poor job at ministering to your family’s spiritual health.

It is a horrible thing that lay people sometimes treat their pastor worse than a dumb farm animal. The most inexperienced farmer knows that you have to feed the chickens if you want to receive eggs. And, he also knows that he must feed his ox, if the ox is to have strength to pull the wagon, or plow the field. Yet, we have some lay members who are by no means homeless, starving, nor destitute, who would begrudge giving to support the pastor of their local church who so faithfully ministers to them.

1 Corinthians 9:9-13

9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?

10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

The reaping or receiving of “your carnal things” referred to in verse 11 is talking about the Apostle Paul’s right to receive from them material sustenance because of how he has labored among them and has been such an effective spiritual blessing to them.

It is true that the Apostle Paul was willing to work in order to support himself during certain soul winning missions. But, this does not negate the principal that a flock should desire to share with their pastor in like kind as God has blessed the flock materially. No, I am not advocating that a handful of poor farmers who attend a church feel compelled to build their pastor a 30 room mansion. On the other hand, a church with hundreds of average middle class working folk would seem very mean to begrudge giving a salary or support of some sort to their pastor’s living expenses.

So, let’s conclude this article:

There are many great ministries; and the godly ministries that have blessed you really need your support. But, we have to acknowledge that there are also numerous scamologists who sit up late at night studying how they can influence your emotions to defraud you. Know most assuredly that scamologists are very skillful and will go to great lengths to trick you out of money, or goods, or labor.

I am reminded of what Jesus said in the tenth chapter of the book of Matthew:
Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Be wise and endeavor not to fall prey to scamologist.

And, never use scamology.

Never presume to give out prophecies simply to advance your personal position or profit.

And, give liberally to those who have blessed you spiritually.