Psssst ........Wanna Buy A Scam?.....

 Online scams are big in the news these days. We hear of all sorts of things from Nigerian princes who want to use your bank account so that they can store their money until they can escape some perceived regime, to fictitious emails telling us that we have a parcel that couldn’t be delivered and we have to click onto a link to claim it. We get photos sent to us of someone posing as an attractive person telling us that they want to meet us. Or we get phone calls informing us that we are supposed to have been involved in an accident or we need new double glazing.

All these things share one thing in common. They all want access to your bank account. But, scams are not a new thing.

Back in the 1980’s Christians, Preachers and Pastors were telling us not to buy household cleaning products manufactured by a company called Proctor And Gamble with Fairy Liquid, Head And Shoulders, Pampers all being amongst the most well known products. The manufacturers of these products were involved in a heavy advertising attack against them with claims that the company were heavily involved with devil worship. Rumours even went so far as to say that the Managing Director of the company was on a popular U.S. TV show, “The Phil Donahue Show”, and admitted it all. Although several people admitted to seeing the show, no one has ever found any recording or scheduling relating to it. Proctor and Gamble spent many years trying to fight off the rumours and clear their name. The source of this rumour was believed to come from some people who sold products from a competitor called “Amway”^{(Source -1)} .

Reversed Lyrics, also known at the time as “back-masking” -  were another scam. The idea being that some song lyrics were recorded in a studio then the recording was reversed and used in the background of the music tracks. I had conversations with people about this, I listened to sermon tapes of Preachers saying it was all real. It was nothing of the sort. The evidence seems to have came from two sources. Clever marketing executives who wanted to promote their own products and gullible listeners who wanted to believe that there really was something hidden in the background. With song titles like AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell”, Iron Maiden’s “Number Of The Beast” and The Rolling Stones “Sympathy For The Devil” being considered to fuel the rumours. Things even went so far that a Gospel singer/songwriter called Randy Stonehill wrote a song called “Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?”. This was also recorded by Cliff Richard.

So, with all the scams and rumours regarding household products and recording and music sales going around you’d  think that the church  had a busy  enough time of  it. However, the scams didn’t stop there. We had scams from inside the church too.

Preachers were on TV and radio and were known as “Televangelists”. They were claiming that if you could reach out and touch the TV screen or the radio speaker that something miraculous might happen. And if nothing happened then you could send them some money for special meaningful prayer to be said for something. Or you could perhaps buy their book and receive a “special blessing”.

Then we had the preachers who claimed that they knew the exact date of Jesus’ return. They claimed that you were to sell your house and await Jesus’s imminent return. Ofcourse, you were to give your money to the church. Jesus never came to them.

The Bible records some instances of people who tried to extort money. Acts ch8 tells us of when the Apostle Philip went to preach in Samaria. Shortly afterwards Peter and John met up with him and they encountered a sorcerer called Simon who tried to buy the power of the Holy Ghost.

Acts Of The Apostles ch8 reads...

 ⁽¹⁸⁾And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the  Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, ⁽¹⁹⁾saying, "Give me this power also, that anyone on whom Ilay hands may receive the Holy Spirit." ⁽²⁰⁾But Peter said to him, "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! ⁽²¹⁾You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. ⁽²²⁾Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

Ofcourse the whole thing about these scams is based around someone apparently having something that you want - healing, a blessing, a promise, or some apparent hidden secret - and you having something that they want – your money.

But you can’t bargain with God. For we don’t have anything that he wants – except our love. That’s all. Nothing more. Just to acknowledge Him as Our God and Saviour. So why not just take a few seconds out and acknowledge Him for saving us. For this world can offer us nothing that would compare with His love and certainty.

Psalm 95 reads…

⁽⁶⁾Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
⁽⁷⁾For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture
And the sheep of His hand.

 

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⁽¹⁾  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/procter-gamble-satan-conspiracy-theory