Before tackling this article, please read the following:

Pringle Mocks Corrector

More Christians in his church should tell Phil Pringle to “stick to the bible”. The topic of money is a common message preached at C3 Church. While we do not hear the faithful gospel preached of Christ and Him crucified, it is impossible to escape C3’s ten minute money-grubbing message. People need to face the facts. Phil Pringle has an unhealthy obsession with money and making up fables.

He clearly does not put his faith in God. Rather, Pringle puts faith in his works and finances. Question Pringle’s prosperity gospel and there is a good chance you will be labeled, criticised, ostracised, demonised or even isolated by the leadership. The tithe doctrine specifically is Pringle’s golden calf. In the past, the tithe has been called by C3 leadership the “foundation” or “cornerstone” to every believers life.

This false doctrine is both binding and destructive. This keeps poor Christians in C3 stuck in their poverty. This false doctrine has divided families and churches. Still, Phil Pringle conveniently refuses to examine the historicity and the biblical truth of the tithe. This doctrine helps no one except the false and deceptive ministry of Phil Pringle. Yet he insists Christians must tithe.

In a Sunday night sermon titled ‘Financial Excellence Part 2’ (22/05/2011), Phil Pringle slandered (blasphemed) God. He did so by putting words in God’s mouth. Pringle unashamedly went out of his way to mislead his congregation on his false tithe doctrine. Phil Pringle invented his own theology to convince and intimidate his congregation to continually financially support his ministry.

Before you read and listen to this segment of Phil Pringle, we wish to warn you of following deceptive  methods false teachers like himself use on Christians.

WARNING 1: Always hold the pastor accountable to the words he uses. If he his playing with words, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM.

WARNING 2: If a pastor is wrongfully confusing what God is saying to what he is saying, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM.

WARNING 3: If a pastor does not read the biblical text to justify his  claims, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM. (i.e., if he tells you a biblical story and hi-jacks the biblical narrative for his own means.).

WARNING 4: Always check what the pastor is saying in the NAME of God to what God actually says in His Word.

WARNING 5: Always make sure that the Pastor is using biblical reasoning to teach you and NOT emotional manipulation (e.g., guilt, group intimidation).

Below, Pringle breaks all the rules of how a pastor should teach, behave and rightly approach biblical texts.

PRINGLE PLAYING WITH WORDS

In the below transcript you will see Pringle mislead the congregation by calling his financial insights to the bible a “bible study”. How can Pringle call what he taught a “bible study” when  he never read the texts in Joshua and Genesis? He never even gave biblical references. This was not a bible study. (A bible study actually involves the pastor explaining what the bible means by reading it and handling the contexts of what is said correctly.)

Throughout the below segment, Pringle kept redefining what the tithe was in very obscure ways. He does this to convince Christians that the tithe is biblical. Ask yourself: is the tithe continually defined by Pringle as ‘a tenth’ or something else? Does it keep changing itself meaning to suit Pringle’s theology or agenda?

PRINGLE PLAYING ‘GOD-AND-SWITCH’ AS IN ‘BAIT-AND-SWITCH’

To actually grasp what Pringle is doing in this segment of teaching, please watch the video at the bottom of this article (one minute in).

Good preachers clearly distinguish when God is speaking through the scriptures. They make sure that their voice is separate from God’s so no man is confused between a man’s words and God’s Word. Not so with Pringle. Pringle at one point speaks as though God is saying something through the scriptures. However, the listener can get easily confused over either God or Pringle speaking to you.

It was incredibly difficult to transcribe this video. In particularly when Pringle said,

“If you give me that [Jericho] then the rest of the land is yours. That’s the first fruits, that’s the tithe. That’s the tree in the garden for Adam.”

Was Pringle telling us this or was he telling us this is what God was saying in the book of Joshua?

PRINGLE AVOIDING THE BIBLE AT ALL COST

Using the books of Genesis and Joshua, Pringle starts arguing his case for the tithe. He AVOIDS reading these texts to support his argument. Instead, Pringle hi-jacks the narrative, lies about God saying things He never said and makes stuff up according to his personal pet theories.

If Pringle read out Genesis 2-3 or Joshua 6-8, then any hearer would realise that the tithe is not even mentioned in these ancient documents. You don’t think Pringle knows this? And what he says isn’t new. The sermon ‘Financial Excellence’ is based off his book ‘Keys To Financial Excellence’. His teaching has been expanded and extracted from his book ‘Keys To Financial Excellence’:

Pringle’s Curse Attack Gets A Wiki-Whack

Phil Pringle not only makes up his own theology in regards to the city of Jericho being a tithe, he also teaches that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil is the tithe. Once again, if anyone was reading Genesis 2-3, they would see that Pringle is not honest in handling the God’s Word.

PRINGLE’S MESSAGE

Below is part of the transcript we just critiqued and the video.

“So here’s the Lord saying, “You’re robbing”. You’re taking something that belongs to God. It’s the tithe. You’re sticking it in your pocket. [Inaudible] Bless me. It aint gonna happen.

There’s a guy called Achan in the scripture. And look- If I’m stirred up about anything to do with this message, it is this point I’m making right now. Because, here’s the thing, Achan- does anybody know who Achan is? Achan?

Ok. Here’s the picture. Real quick little bible study.

Joshua comes to Jericho. God says, “March around the thing- seven days. Seven days, seven times. Shout. PHEOW! The whole thing will collapse. But,” he says, “that city is the tithe.”

“Don’t touch anything in the city.” It belongs to God. The whole lot. It was ‘under the ban’ was the literal words. Devoted to destruction. “If you give me that then the rest of the land is yours. That’s the firstfruits, that’s the tithe. That’s the tree in the garden for Adam.”

It’s the firstborn of every animal born on the earth. It’s the first. It’s the tithe.
‘kay. So everybody does it.

“Phew! Don’t touch it! Don’t touch!” Achan sees a big lump of gold. He says, “I’ll take that”. Puts in his back pocket. Goes into his tent. Digs a hole. Puts it in. Hides it in a couple of garments. [Inaudible.] Digs a hole. Hides it.

The next- they’re ready to go to the next town, Ai. Little town. A-i. That’s a little name, three thousand people, bam! Just go up there. Josh is- says ‘Oh, we wont even send the whole army up. We’ll kill these guys in no time at all’. Bam! So he goes up. They get defeated.

Israel gets defeated. About thirty seven of their own soldiers die. Achan doesn’t. One of the soldiers. He doesn’t. They come back. Josh is on his face. He says, “God! How did that happen? We took Jericho with big thick walls! Then we got beaten at Ai, by a nobody group!”

God says, “Somebody took the tithe.”

He says, “What do you mean?” He says, “You gotta find out who did this.” So they find out. Do a little investigation.
“Achan. What are you doing?”

“Woah!” … This is why I’m stirred up about it. Because it’s not about just me individually. It’s about the whole church. I’ve a corporate responsibility to the entire Kingdom of God. To the whole body of Christ.” Phil Pringle, Ps Phil Pringle: Financial Excellence Part 2, http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/ps-phil-pringle-financial-excellence-part-2, Sermon (PM), 22/05/2011.

Below you can watch him say this in the snippet about one minute in.

PRINGLE LYING TO PEOPLE ABOUT GOD

Phil Pringle has a shepherds responsibility to handle God’s Word correctly and NOT lie and slander God and His word for financial gain. If anyone did do a “bible study” reading Joshua 6-8 while Pringle preached, they would notice Pringle made up things God never said.

God didn’t say,

“that city [Jericho] is the tithe.”

God did not say,

“If you give me that then the rest of the land is yours. That’s the firstfruits, that’s the tithe. That’s the tree in the garden for Adam. It’s the firstborn of every animal born on the earth. It’s the first. It’s the tithe. ‘kay.”

When Joshua consulted God in regards to his military losing the battle at Ai, God did not say to Joshua,

“Somebody took the tithe.”

Phil Pringle is making God say and teach things God never said. In other words, Phil Pringle is blaspheming by taking the Lord’s name in vain.

Firstly, this false teaching of the tithe goes against the heart of the Father, goes against Jesus and His finished work on Calvary and the Holy Spirit. Why? It is through Christ we find blessing and freedom away from the curse and condemnation of death, God’s Law and His wrath. As Christians we do not receive the Holy Spirit, God’s promise and blessing by our works. The entire letter to the Galatians makes this case. This is blasphemy no matter which way you look at it, again taking the Lord’s name in vain.

PRINGLE USING INTIMIDATION AND CROWD CONTROL 

Pringle lets his emotions run in this portion of his talk. His tone is accusative against Christians for not tithing. If you watch further beyond the transcript, he starts personally confessing his works and his faithfulness to the tithe.

This does not stop Pringle teaching to his congregation that if individuals aren’t tithing, they are accused by God of “robbing,” cursed by God Himself and blocking the progress of his C3 church movement. This is This is why he says,

“I’m stirred up about it. Because it’s not about just me individually.”

The onus is on non-tithers to do what Pringle says or else. His lies mixed with his intimidation is in our opinion bullying. It is of our opinion he is using misleading tactics to force non-tithers in his congregation to tithe, using his own congregation against them. Think of it this way. After this sermon, how would members react to people who say they don’t tithe? After this sermon, do you think non-tithers would dispute this teaching against other members? Do you think they will feel isolated and alone in their thoughts on this matter?

Overall, this is a good example how a false teacher would teach and behave behind a pulpit. Phil Pringle’s false message and deceitful methods are clearly evident in this sermon.