Driscoll Has Not Been Educated on Godly Principles or Scriptural Context

Pastor Mark Driscoll, senior and founding pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, has publicly and repeatedly asserted that government welfare, basic income, and the redistribution of wealth are “ungodly.” 

He frames these claims as biblical truth rather than his own personal interpretation.

The researching of his personal beliefs belittle scripture, and shows the following:

Key Elements of His Statements

Driscoll heavily publicized these specific views on his social media accounts, presenting his economic positions as rigid biblical doctrine rather than political opinion:

• Opposition to Handouts: Driscoll directly declared, "Basic income is ungodly. Redistribution of wealth is ungodly. Giving money to people who aren't working is ungodly."
• Government Assistance: He applied this rule to federal assistance programs, arguing that COVID‑19 stimulus payments and federal student debt relief were inherently ungodly. He insisted that individuals who owe money should simply get a job, earn income, and pay off their debts independently.
• Theft Accusations: In related sermons on economic policy, Driscoll claimed that citizens who vote for political parties intending to tax others and reallocate wealth are committing theft and violating the Ten Commandments.
• Forced vs. Voluntary Giving: He distinguishes government intervention from religious charity, asserting that personal generosity is biblical, but “forced redistribution” by a government to fund socialism or communism is not supported by scripture.

Driscoll would benefit from attending a serious theological seminary—one that actually " preaches Jesus "—because his interpretation here is not rooted in the Bible we all read. It is rooted in his own ideology, and it is nowhere to be found in THE WORD OF GOD.

1) The TITHE Itself Refutes Driscoll’s Claim

It is evident Driscoll has never understood the tithe in its true biblical meaning. The tithe was mandated by God as a form of redistribution of wealth (see Exodus 16 and 2nd Corinthians 8). The gathering of manna was a divine distribution system for those who had nothing, and the tithe functioned as a structured redistribution of resources among the people.

Malachi 3:10 states:

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

This scripture has been misinterpreted for years, especially among evangelicals and Word of Faith / Full Gospel manifest destiny circles. If they ever read Malachi 2 first, they would see that Malachi 3:10 was directed to the PRIESTS, who were responsible for distributing what was in the storehouse to those in need. Basically they were stealing from the people's portion in the STOREHOUSE, and God told them to put it back.

The priests were taking the best of the people’s tithe (in modern terms, taxes) and keeping it for themselves.

God’s command was essentially: 

PUT. IT. BACK. 

The tithe of the tithe—10% of the 10%—was designated for temple/priest upkeep. He told them to stop taking what was not theirs, and that He, God Himself, would be their highest and utmost blessing.

The people were doing what they were supposed to, and the priests were stealing that which was meant for redistribution so that “he who had much did not have too much, and he who had little had no lack,” according to the Order of Melchizedek, king of Salem, under the Abrahamic covenant.

There is not one instance in Scripture where God required people to 'get a job and earn money' in order to eat. That is a human system, not a divine mandate. 

"He who does not work shall not eat," came from the Apostle Paul, not God.

But even Paul, who lived off what he could get from the people he came in contact with, did not mean that if you don't work, you starve to death.

It meant -AT THE TIME- that there was work to do to help with the Kingdom principles of spreading the gospel of Christ, and the people who were THERE AT THE TIME were not pulling their fair share of the work that needed to be done--during his time. That was not the 

No one in their right minds uses that scripture (2nd Thess. 3:10) as an excuse not to clothe and house and feed people in need. If you don't need it, don't rob those who do.

To reinterpret scripture in a way that justifies letting people starve just because they don't have a job or can't afford food with the job they have—especially when the government wealth in question comes from taxes paid disproportionately by the poorest and most low income among us—is what is truly ungodly, "Pastor". 

You are too old, "Pastor," not to know better than to lie on or about God or scripture, which says the exact opposite of what you teach.

Direct Warnings Against Exploiting the Poor

• Proverbs 22:22–23: Warns explicitly not to rob the poor or crush the needy, because the Lord will take up their case and punish those who exploit them.
• Proverbs 14:31: States that whoever oppresses a poor person insults their Creator, while being generous to the needy honors God.
• Ezekiel 22:29: Condemns extortion, robbery, and the abuse of the poor and needy as part of national corruption.

God’s Defense of the Vulnerable

• Psalm 12:5: God rises up to protect the oppressed and the needy from those who malign and rob them.
• Jeremiah 22:16: Defending the rights of the poor and needy is described as what it truly means to “know” God.
• Malachi 3:5: God warns that He will be a swift witness against those who defraud laborers, widows, and the vulnerable.

And there is much more there to glean from the Bible about exploiting, mistreating, and robbing the poor and those in need. They have no requirements or mandates by God to work in order to eat--and sadly, the things that are For Sale in the grocery stores now, shouldn't be. 

God didn't charge them a penny for the fruits, the vegetables or even the bottled water they sell, and they should not be making a profit from any of it.

One would be inclined and induced into believing that the rich are actually jealous of the poor, and as such, maybe they should be driven into poverty by the Hand of God and made to take the place of the poor, since they have such dire issues with those who have nothing, or barely nothing.

Furthermore, the Bible does not speak of socialism or communism—these are modern made- up political Americanist communist and fascist terms that come from today's Romantic philosphies, not godly words of enjoinment. 

Likewise, “rugged individualism” is not biblical. Neither is taxation, which historically has never been portrayed as godly.

When Jesus (Rome called Him) said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s…” He referred to the coin bearing Caesar’s image. Today’s currency bears the images of U.S. stater political forebears and the phrase “In God We Trust”—but the “god” referenced is clearly not the Almighty God in Heaven, but the figures whose faces appear on the money.

Scripturally, a government “under God” has no business taxing people unless those taxes are used for the care of the people themselves. If taxes do not support the citizens who pay them and their families in need—especially the sick, widowed, elderly, and children who are theirs to care for—then what purpose do they serve?

Too often, taxes fund wars, self-celebrating monuments, sports stadiums, luxury Qatari jetliners, and pet projects -like Golden Ballrooms- that benefit only the wealthy through hedge funds and equity financing, all paid by the same taxpayers they seek to deprive of representation of their government.

The only scripturally defensible purpose for taxation is redistribution so that “he who has much does not have too much, and he who has little has no lack.”

This is what makes Driscoll’s teaching not only unscriptural but fundamentally out of alignment with God, or, as he states "ungodly".

The Bible Judges the Interpreter

Scripture teaches that the way a person interprets the Word reveals more about them than about God.

Hebrews 4:12:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two‑edged sword… and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Driscoll’s interpretation reveals his own heart far more than it reveals scripture. And “ye shall know them by their fruits.” Rotten fruit comes from a rotten root, and the tree that bears it is fit only for firewood.

In Matthew 21:18–22 and Mark 11:12–25, Jesus curses a barren fig tree—an enacted parable of judgment against religious hypocrisy and fruitlessness. Driscoll’s teaching fits that pattern.

As for those in the House of the Lord, you can safely turn your back on Driscoll’s spiritual importunity and impropriety without fear or shame.

He is thoroughly wrong in his assessment of scripture.

The Government’s Responsibility

A government that collects taxes must care for its citizens. 

If it refuses to care for the people who fund it—including the poorest—then it has no moral right to collect taxes at all. The original Tea Party’s cry (not the ungodly Tea Party headed by Sarah Palin, late of Obama's time in office) was NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. 

It spoke to Great Britain about demanding taxes of people it did not represent. That egalitarian principle has not changed more than a century later.

A government cannot tax people it refuses to represent in all manners of life.

Representation of the government must benefit the people it governs as much as it benefits the government itself.

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