Saint Matthew's Post Office Box Churches A post office box does not a church or fellowship make... Tulsa Oklahoma

Upon having received and studied numerous material from St. Matthew's Church, I felt that I needed to communicate with this organization personally. I wrote them the enclosed letter several months ago. Instead of a personal reply, this church did not have the courtesy to respond to this heartfelt inquiriy of mine, instead kept on bombarding me with ever new ideas and methods of religious/psychological pressure that should eventually break my spirit and open my wallet for "material blessings". I found not even a hint as to how I ever might be able to get a live indivudual to respond to my concerns, not even over the telephone.

I am now at a point where I would like to share my unanswered letter to Saint Matthew's with an interested public. If you feel the contents of this letter may be suited to alert people who have similar concerns about this specific ministry, and may help in resolving, or sparing people from falling for the rip-off strategies of this "Church", please feel free to publish it. I would appreciate your comments, as well as feedback from your audience.

"Dear Brethren at St. Matthews,

I have been receiving your "Seed and Harvest" letters and I have prayerfully and diligently studied them. I repeatedly mailed you my prayer requests, however without enclosing the money you expected to be prepaid for your prayers - or "seed " as you call it. Instead, I posed some biblical questions to this effect but you never replied to my specific questions, leaving me without this most needed clarification.

At this stage of my understanding of God's Word, I believe that God's Holy Spirit is leading me now to write you this seperate letter. Technically, a comprehensive, scripture-by-scripture bible study would seem to be appropriate, but at this point please allow me to simply bring to your attention the basis - or "bottom line" - of a theological distortion I believe God has led me to reveal to your ministry, and pray that God's Holy Spirit work things out from there on according to His Will.

I can see how you have been successful with your style of evangelism for 52 years, but at the same time God is patient and loves us even when we are in error and make mistakes - and even apply His Word abusively. but He commands us to repent and obey, and LEARN from our mistakes the moment He has given us the insight into our wrongdoing.

While I fully agree with your quoting of scriptures to show the biblical "seed and harvest" principle, you quote some of these scriptures more or less out of their respective context, and as a result you end up interpreting and applying this principle from a very one-sided MATERIALISTIC perspective, rather than from it's foremost spiritual intend.

Christ's promise for "abundance", for example, can not be quoted, as you do, in terms of dollars and cents. The Lord's superior teaching, i.e. the Sermon on the Mount, is most definately NOT directed towards the asquisition of material wealth. We must first of all strive for the treasures i nheaven; God's Kingdom is not "food and drink", the heathen are after that. Christians need not worry - God takes care of our needs just like He does for the birds under the sky.

Yet, it is also true, as you correctly say: we must put God FIRST in life, the material blessings shall then be added. HOW are we to put God first? Isn't this asking much more, than just following your ritualistic instructions - a different one every time - how to pay a "seed" with an expectation, which, in my opinion, is comparable with the "faith" non-Christians have when playing lottery...?

Our obedience to God is to be one of the fruits that come from a "contrite spirit" in all aspects of the life God has given us, in order to grow in wisdom and knowledge, and therby become more and more in His intended image like jesus christ. HE paid for all our inadequasies much more, than any "seed" could ever accomplish.... Do you see the proportions I am trying to describe?

In so doing, God's superior and comprehensive will for us is to love HIM (i.e. have no other Gods besides HIM - such as material wealth), and love our fellow man as we love oursleves.

You make it look like our foremost obedience to God is in that we follow your instructions in the performance of certain rituals (which, by the way, I find nowhere in the Bible, not even as an analogy), how to place a physical "seed" (money) intop your self-addressed business envelope - as if this was the God-ordained way to get His attention to our material needs!

No doubt that many of the recipients of your mail may be facing a variety of financial and other difficulties. Under such strained conditions people tend to be more vulnerable and receptive, and easy to manipulate with some strongly formulated, compelling guidance such as yours into doing things they would normally not even think about doing under stable conditions, or as long as their commomn sense prevails.

In this regard, I found especially appalling how you dare to question "logic" in one of your instruction letters - I quote: "God's (?) instructions do not always seem logical..." - WHERE DOES THE BIBlE SAY THAT? - that "God does not always work with logic"!!
Incredible! God shows me through His very creation, that LOGIC IS HIS VERY BASIS; THE WHOLE UNIVERSE FUNCTIONS NO OTHER WAY THAN THROUGH LOGIC. It is only us human beings under the influence of Satan the Devil who wants to turn things of God around to blind us with our own selfish pursuits by placing our own faulty - that is "ILLOGICAL" - reasoning over and beyond God's superior wisdom. God is the AUTHOR of logic - and logic can therefore never be inconsistent with true faith in God- is is exactly the other way around: having faith in God IS BEING LOGIC.

God wants us to use the intellect He has equipped us with to act reasonably and logically, make wise choices. With regard to the way you apply the seed and harvest principle, God would require a man to give what he does not have or can logically not afford to give. In other words - you expect poor people to "try" God. However, Jesus our Lord and ultimate example resisted the devil when he challenged Him to leap from the temple.

We are comamnded to sow spiritual seeds. We are to be the "light" and the "salt" of the earth in order to be a living example of God's love and compassion for mankind. This is where the everlasting - and not the vanishing, corrupt material - blessings come from. By Abrahams example we must have the spirit of gratitude and give to God as He blesses us - and not the other way around. There are no strings attached to God's blessings. Offerings must come from the heart and not from a twisted arm!!!

Your religious psychology may be effective from a business-minded perspective, but is biblically unfounded. the apostle Paul clearly said, that although he had the right to live off the milk from the flock, he would rather NOT use this right where it would be a burden on his congregation. In contrast to Paul, you take advantage of simple minded and poor people in distress by applying pressure on them and justify this with the "faith" argument!

The former Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong also declared God's material blessings as being contingent upon the amount of money to be sent to his ministry without fail and as the most important criteria for exercising the kind of "living faith" that pleases God. The idea "the more you give the more you get" can easily turn into a kind of lottery game
and foster greed in the human spirit which, of necessity, will always be at the expense of genuine Christian growth in love and compassion for others. What kind of ministry is this, I ask?

There is a great deal more that could and should be discussed, but I leave it at that until know what your answers will be. Maybe you can convince me of your understanding of the Holy Scriptures - I am open to the way God will lead this discussion.

For my further personal studies and orientation, please provide me the following:

1. Objective statistics about how many of your faithful followers have admitted NOT having experienced the seed and harvest automatism you proclaim;

2. Would you also pray for me if I told you, that I have placed my seed to another Christian organization I consider effective in spreading the Gospel and alleviating human suffering around the world - such as, for example, the CBN-700 Club or others?

3. Where in the Bible does God work with "lucky numbers"? At this stage of all I know, I can only see that deceived and supersticious people who do not know, much less trust, the living God and Creator of the universe would try to compensate their lack of faith with such nonsense.

Please do not misunderstand me: One can certainly, within reason, apply the seed and harvest principle to give and receive. but our material well-being is not as central to God as some people like to see it. It is a non-deniable fact of life, that non-believers are ususally wealthier than most Christians will ever be.
They invest in real estate or the stock market; some invest wisely and get rich - with NO seed paid to St.Mathews - or inherit some millions, or they are just plain lucky playing lottery, while others are not.

God does not need our "seed" in order to bless and protect us. He does not share our inadequate human definition of "logic" - much less our poor concepts and perceptions of numberes, rituals, ceremonies, etc..

May He guide and direct you according to His perfect wisdom.

Thank you very much in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ for your attention. I look very much forward to ypour reply to this letter.

Your brother in Christ

Walter

After responding to one of the mailings from this 'ministry'we to began receiving almost daily solicitations, we decided to investigate on line. We to were suspicious of not having any information provided about what the monies are used for or other similar information that non-profit charities print. Finally the mailed from zip code is Mt. Pleasant Iowa not Tulsa OK.

Therefore we read your online reports and as you suggested, that if someone is receiving benefit spritually from this 'ministry' then so much better for them. However what is disturbing is the fact that they are using a nonprofit org us postage paid permit (No. 636) to accomplish these mailings. If it is true that millions are being generated for the owners of this service then it is not truly non-profit and in violation of federal law and committing mail fraud.

I may be wrong but I thought non-profits had to make their tax returns open to the public?

My suggestion for those who wish to be pro-active in this matter is to write a letter requesting to be removed from the mailing list and send it certified, return receipt. If the mailings do not stop we can take one of several steps;

- Do not open and mark the date received on each envelope. Then you can once a week or month send these to your congressman with a copy of your letter requesting to be removed from the mailing list.

- Or possibly to the Postmaster General for them to investigate this potential fraudulent use of a nonprofit mailing permit.

- Or send all mailings back to the Tulsa Post office box unopened once a week?

Does anyone else have any other constructive options?

This Report does not approve of Saint Matthew's, nor does the following Rebuttal, but it does not take sides, strictly in the area of Religous conviction.

Some time has gone by, but the last time researched, it was stated that the Tulsa, OK Post Master is interested and involved.

Another option to add to already helpful ones is to contact your own Post Master for insight and pointers. You can also access www.usps.gov, and complete an online Complaint Form. You will not receive an individual reply, but they respond to "high numbers", and consistent submissions.

St Matthews has a website now. If someone chooses, one can confront them directly possibly at:

stmatthews.org

Registrant:
St. Matthew Area Business Association (STMATTHEWS2-DOM)(their bold caps not mine)
P.O. Box 7973
Louisville, KY, 40257
(IF this is them)

I haven't accessed their site in a while. I found two others but will investigate further to see if these are affiliated, because this has expanded into a nationwide corporation.

You're right in that if they are a charity. Their records have to be made available to the general public, but this can vary from State to State. Their main headquarters are in California, and they might have confeniently redefined their "Business Entity" as not to be considered a charity, so that records could be sealed.

www.trinity.org is still actively involved in monitoring and updating information on Saint Matthews, if you wanted possibly more pointers or information. You can also call: 1-800-229-VICTIM for assistance or suggestions, on how to confront this organization. Warning: This is a one year old toll free number, and might have changed. All you can do is try.

Hope it works out. Get back to us if you find new information. There have been many defrauded individuals ripped-off by them.

Thank you.

Let their "tool of success" become the avenue to
their down-fall. If all of their letters of
solicitations, and all of their contents,were
returned to them, in their "no postage necessary envelope" without any contributions, their income would cease, and their postage
expenses would be tremendous. No income + big
expenses = failure. If all PC owners would
encourage their email contacts to follow this
procedure (likewise,all of their personal
contacts) it would snow-ball to the extent that
the Saint Matthew's rip-off scam would cease.

Thank you,

I am a 15 year old girl whos family is having terrible financial problems. I got a letter from the saint matthews church. I really believed everything they said. I don't understand why someone would want to do this to innocent people. I also wrote a really heart felt letter along with the envelope. I told them alot of personal things about my life and family. I think that some sort of action should be taken against people who do this. It is wrong and they are lying about as well as to God and many many other people. I really had faith in their letter and thought something really good was going to happen to me and my family. But I guess you just can't trust people these days. Not even people who are speaking the words of the Lord.

Thanks for you information, I hope others will read this.

This has been a known scam for decades.
I first heard about it in my teen years (im now 50+)... and on ripoffreport for several years.

it will not cease, because its a profitbased scam in california with the local deal being solely a maildrop.

One should only be doing local chariety related or a known person.
Me I wont do any tv preacher other than Billy Graham (not even his son) or a local only... .

Seed faith, is a fake way of doing stuff.. in theory its nice, but in reality it can take centuries to truely work as preached.

Much of the seed faith many might say 'it work's is truely accidental and coinccidental.... not per the seeding of faith.

Faith & reason should always apply.
Too many either rely too much on blind faith, or throw common sense and reason out the window on this and other scams.

JESUS CHRIST IS LOVED AND RESPECTED.

PEOPLE WHO COMMIT GREEDY, EVIL,IGNORANT SCAM IN HIS NAME ARE UNIVERSALLY HATED, REVILED AND SCOFFED.IF I HAD MY WAY, THEY WOULD NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!

I DON"T KNOW WHY THEY CALL THIS SCAM THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL BECAUSE THE ONLY ONE WHO PROSPERS IS THE BIBLE WAVING FAKER URGING YOU TO GIVE ALL THAT MONEY, YOUR ENTIRE PAYCHECK ,GIVE, JUST GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY..

AND THE POOR BRAINWASHED SHEEPLE DO GIVE,THEIR KINFOLKS AREN'T THAT FAR OUT OF THE BACKWOODS CHURCHES AND THEY HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED TO GIVE THAT MONEY...

ONLY THAT OLD TIME RELIGION HAS NOW BECOME THAT OLD TIME RIP OFF.

THIS "RELIGIOUS" STUFF HAS CAUSED SO MANY OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS NOTHING BUT HEARTACHE AND GRIEF.

ANY PERSON WHO SCAMS IN THE NAME OF RELIGION...I DON"T THINK THERE IS A PUNISHMENT HARSH ENOUGH FOR THEM!

AND I DON'T EVEN WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE EXCLUSIVE SOCIAL CLUBS CHURCHES HAVE BECOME AND THE SHULS AND SYNAGOGUES RIGHT ALONG WITH THEM...

I HOPE ST. MATTHEW CAN FORGIVE THE TRASH COMMITTED IN HIS NAME. I THINK
HE WAS THE BIBLICAL EQUIVALENT OF A CPA OR TAX COLLECTOR SO I GUESS THAT SCAM CHURCH WAS NAMED APPROPRIATELY!