"I feel to share a couple testimonies from other brethren which I believe will prove both edifying and instructive to those who read. The first is from brother Bob Torango. “I’ll never forget the time that I preached in a big-time church in Downy, California. This was in the early 1970’s and I was preaching the sons of God and restitution message at a little store-front church. It turned out that the people from the big church down the road started to hear the message and packed the little place out. After about a week of this, the pastor of the big church paid me a call and asked me to come to his church since most of his people were attending my services anyway. I prayed about it and the Lord told me to go. I was scared to death! T. L. Osborn was supposed to be following me the next week, and I hadn’t ever preached to so many people at one time in my life. Like John, I was viewing all of this with great admiration (Rev. 17:6). All the musicians were very professional, the people all dressed sharp, the pews were padded, the carpet was luxurious, the pastor and his wife looked like movie stars. I was in awe!"
"I proceeded to preach for a couple nights and about the third night the pastor got me alone in his study. He started out by telling me that He knew I was preaching sons of God and reconciliation and that he believed in this message himself, but he couldn’t risk preaching it from the pulpit because he would lose his church. He then told me that he would like to sponsor me to start preaching on the big-time circuit, but I had to get some gimmicks incorporated into my ministry. He asked me if I couldn’t start some orphanage somewhere just so I could present it to the people as something to give to, the understanding being that the money would never reach the fake orphanage, but would be used for my own needs. He said that he admired my ministry and that I had great potential on the ‘circuit’ of large churches he was affiliated with, but I had to do a lot of work on my offering taking. He said he would be willing to train me in the art of getting money out of the people, and before long I would be driving a big fancy car just like him and all the other big-time evangelists. Needless to say, I shut my meeting down with him and told him he wouldn’t have to worry about losing his church because he had lost it already, along with any decency he might have had!"
"When I left that office I was so sick I had to struggle to keep from throwing up. MONEY! More preachers have sold their souls for it than any other single thing. The reason is simple. MONEY in itself is not evil, such as an act of fornication, drunkenness, and other vices. Everyone needs MONEY and therein lies the subtleness of its seduction. Don’t think I wasn’t impressed with the splendor of that church, because I was! I actually thought God was going to allow my ministry to reach more people and that the message of life could be heard and believed upon by the masses. Along with this I got to thinking that maybe I deserved to live a better lifestyle, since my wife and I had struggled with our finances for so many years; and after all, the laborer was worthy of a greater hire. My eyes were fixed on the wonder of the Whore, and I was finding all kinds of justification for getting connected to the CIRCUIT! As a young evangelist, it was the invitation to the big dance, an offering of the big enchilada, and I could have arrived at the top of the world!"
His testimony continues in the link: