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The "tithe" is a subject that is doctrinally
central to many institutional “church” organization
leaders. Those denominations that can get their
members to actually bring in a full 10% of gross
income can create very powerful forces far beyond
their strength in numbers. The top "tithing"
sects, according to an article published some
years ago in Christian Ministry, are interestingly
what Evangelicals would term "cults."
The Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and the World
Wide Church of God were the leading givers.
The fourth is the Assemblies of God. According
to Newsweek at that time, most church members
give far less than 10%, with most giving under
2%. Not surprising is the fact that the poor
give a higher percentage of their income than
the “rich.” USA Today wrote that families earning
less than $10,000 gave 5.5% of their income
to charity (not necessarily to “churches”).
Families earning between $50,000 and $60,000
gave only 1.7% of their earnings.
In
this article, we will see that, while many "church"
fund-raising organizations, Christian financial
counseling ministries, radio and television
ministries, et al, tell us that not paying the
tithe is robbing God, the reality is that those
who put the tithe upon Christians are, in fact,
the ones who are doing the robbing based upon
a false theology. Not one example can be produced,
from scripture, of the early Church lavishing
back upon themselves their own giving through
tithing in support of buildings and programs
that benefit the giver. Even more difficult
is the idea of the Old Testament "tithe"
directly benefitting a man-made organization.
A parellel simply does not exist anywhere within
the biblical texts. None of this is intended
to convey the idea that a group does not have
the right to have a building in common, where
they can gather for praise, teaching, and other
activities. However, pouring the primary portion
of one's giving (with the idea of the giving
being synonymous with giving to God) into an
institution that absorbs most of what is given
into its own expenditures and luxuries, does
create theological/doctrinal problems that cannot
be so easily denied by anyone who looks upon
such things in accordance with Paul's instruction
to "prove all things." As we go through
this article, keep in mind the above statistic
that the poor far out-give the rich.
The
tithe has been introduced to the Body of Christ
using 3 main tactics.
1)
Sowing guilt and shame into the Body of Christ
by quoting verses like Malachi 3:8 (What devoted
Christian wants to rob God? The net effect of
sowing guilt has been to extort money from the
Body of Christ, thereby robbing the Body of
the joy and blessing of giving as God leads.
This tactic ignores Paul’s instructions to the
church in 2 Corinthians 9:7.)
2)
Blaming the "laity" for the financial
troubles in the Body of Christ by telling the
Body they are not blessed by God because they
do not tithe while pointing at Malachi 3:10.
(In so doing, believers are challenged to tithe,
with the promise that God will bless them (not
if, but) when they do. Such giving is not out
of love for God, but out of selfishness. It
implies a reward for works, which contradicts
Ephesians 2:8-9.)
3)
Another equally successful tactic involves placing
upon the mind and heart of the hearer positive
affirmation rather than guilt, but such misapplication
of scripture does not always work out to the
benefit of the giver. (Positive affirmations
almost always ignore the harsh reality of life
in a fallen world, thereby infusing into the
thinking of many that seemingly good works always
call down God's blessing because of the promises
given to the nation Israel. This, of course,
is a false hope, not because God does not bless,
but because we were told long ago that we will
suffer in this world because of our testimony
of Christ Jesus.
As
a result of these points, we can come to a couple
of valid conclusions:
-
The Apostles did not teach the Gentiles
to tithe. Acts 15:1-31 records a dispute
over circumcision that arose in the Gentile
church at Antioch. Several false brothers
had attempted to require Gentile (non-Jewish)
Christians to be circumcised. Paul and Barnabas
sharply opposed the false brothers and traveled
to Jerusalem to discuss the issue of circumcision
with the other apostles. In Jerusalem, they
reported the miracles and conversions among
the Gentiles. The apostles were filled with
joy over God’s work there, and they agreed
that circumcision was not a requirement
for salvation. Following the meeting, the
apostles and elders in the church at Jerusalem
sent Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch with
a letter of welcome to the Gentile Christians.
The essential text of the letter is found
in Acts 15:28-29. It reads: "It seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to
burden you with anything beyond the following
requirements: You are to abstain from food
sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the
meat of strangled animals and from sexual
immorality. You will do well to avoid these
things. Farewell." The apostles did
not want to burden the Gentiles with Old
Testament practices and/or principles that
not even Moses himself followed! The proof
is in their letter to the Gentiles and the
fact that the apostles did not impose the
tithe upon them.
-
Let us suppose, for the sake of argument,
that Jesus had commanded us to continue
tithing. It would be appropriate, then,
to use the tithe to feed the priesthood
as originally purposed. Who then is the
priesthood? Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:5 and
9 that every believer is a priest! Hebrews
5-8 also teaches us that Jesus is the only
priest that we need. However, the institutional
"church" has borrowed from the
Old Testament model of the Levitical Priesthood,
thereby establishing a new priesthood (ordained
clergy) that is separate from the rest of
the Body of Christ. The division between
the clergy and the so-called "laity"
is not Biblical. (Is this the doctrine of
the Nicolaitan’s that Jesus says He hates
in Revelation 2:6? Jesus did not establish
the ordained clergy – He chose fishermen
and tax collectors to preach His gospel.
Neither did He establish division in His
church, He desires unity (John 17:20-23).
The apostles did not set up an ordained
clergy – they chose men full of the Holy
Spirit and wisdom to serve the Body ( Acts
6:3, 1 Timothy 3). This man-made division
between "clergy" and "laity"
has effectively served to divert the offerings
of the Body of Christ away from the people
it is intended to bless and the offerings
are most often used in ways contrary to
the will of God. The net result has been
starvation and financial bondage for many
believers, and the real priesthood – the
whole Body of Christ – has not been prepared
to carry out Christ’s command to preach
the gospel to all nations! The early Church
had a much better understanding of Christ’s
intent to care for the needs of the Body
of Christ than we do today. The proof of
their caring for each other can be seen
in Acts 2:44-47 and Acts 4:32-37, where
the Body of Christ shared everything, and
through their giving, they eliminated poverty
and indebtedness. In fact, Acts 4:34 says
"there were no needy persons among
them!" Taking up offerings to feed
the Body of Christ was common in the early
church. In Acts 11:27-30, the Gentile church
at Antioch took up an offering for the believers
in Judea who were experiencing a time of
famine. Can you imagine a church today taking
up an offering for a cross-town rival?
This
may shock many Christians who have been in “church”
for a long period of time, and feel they know
the Bible pretty well, but it is hoped that
the following statement encourages the reader
to "see for themselves" that it is
100% Biblically true. The tithe, as
taught by most Christian denominations as being
10% of gross or net income, is not contained
anywhere whithin the pages of the Bible!
Many Christian publications say that those who
do not tithe are robbing God and will suffer
curses for not doing so. We will use one of
them as an example of what Scriptures and reasoning
is usually used to support the idea that the
“church” is full of God-robber's; that is, people
who do not tithe ten percent of their income.
A booklet entitled Tithes, Offering, and Alms
states:
- "Today,
many churches do not teach tithing because
they do not want to drive people away. In
reality, they are robbing God's people of
their blessing. When tithing is not taught,
they are allowing their people to ignorantly
rob God. By this they allow the devourer to
have free access to their people. Then the
church and the people wonder why they are
not being blessed. When God's people return
again unto God, He will return unto them as
He has promised."
(We
will not mention the author of this work. Perhaps,
in the future, he will see the foolishness of
what he wrote. Therefore, we will withhold his
name, hoping repentance is forthcoming.)
In
one small paragraph, this man condemned entire
congregations who do not tithe to the devourer.
As long as people do not tithe, he says, they
have turned their backs to God, and He cannot
bless them. They are God-robbers! This booklet
is very typical of publications like this. They
all refer to the same handful of Scriptures
to justify their position. We will use this
one as an example of which Scriptures are used
to support their view, and then show how these
Scriptures have not only been grossly taken
out of context, but even these Scriptures out
of context do not support the teaching of tithing
being 10% of income. We will then study the
history of tithing in the Old Testament, the
early church view on the subject, and what we
believe is the correct Biblical view on giving.
While
the booklet "Tithes, Offerings, and Alms"
deals with more than just the tithe, we will
only focus on the tithe since that is the subject
at hand. Those who teach that Christians are
obligated to tithe can be categorized into two
main groups; 1) those who say we are still under
the Mosaic, Law or portions of it; and 2) those
who say the tithe is a "principle,"
based upon its allegedly being a part of the
Abrahamic Covenant, which is pre-Mosaic. The
idea is that the Abrahamic Covenant is the covenant
of faith, which is still binding upon believers,
and, therefore, the tithe is still in effect
for Christians as a “principle for giving.”
Let
us deal first with the pre-Mosaic tithe fallacy.
This teaching is used by ministries who
have taught that the Mosaic Law was done away
with, and therefore cannot be put upon Christians.
They are correct in this view. We cannot get
into this subject fully because it would take
up too much space, but a handful of Scriptures
might be helpful to those who disagree on this
point. (See 2 Cor. 3:11,13; Hebrews 8:13; Gal.
4:21-26; more fully, all of Galatians and Hebrews.)
Briefly,
the Old Covenant was a two-sided agreement between
Israel and Yahweh, where Yahweh would bless
them (as a nation) if they kept their part of the agreement,
and He would curse them (as a nation) if they did not. It
was an all or nothing package. A person was
not allowed to turn this agreement into a smorgasbord,
picking and choosing what suited one's religious
tastes. They could not choose what to keep and
what to throw out. James 2:10 tells us that
"whosoever shall keep the whole law, and
yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all."
Historically,
almost all denominations of Christianity have
taken portions of the Mosaic Covenant, christened
them, and added them to the New Covenant. Without
being aware of it, this has made most Christians
guilty of the whole Mosaic Law (which says all
must be kept) while at the same time rejecting
grace because of mixing it with a covenant that
no longer served a purpose for those under the
New Covenant. The fact that most denominations
of Christendom have not understood this vital
point has caused us to unknowingly reject "grace
through faith," the very power of the New
Covenant itself. What is tragic is that most
Christians are not even aware of this "falling
away," which has been going on for hundreds
of years. Most denominations have mixed the
Mosaic Covenant instituted by Moses with the
New Covenant, which is the Law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 8:2) One covenant
brought death (and always will), the other brought
Life. If you believe any of the Old Covenant
is binding to a believer in Christ, read what
Paul has to say in 1 Corinthians Chapter three,
verses four through eighteen, about the cornerstone
of the Mosaic Covenant, that is, the Ten Commandments.
This should cure anyone of binding themselves
to the "ministry of death." The consequences
of this mixture have been catastrophic. A careful,
non-biased survey of church history from a non-Christian
bias should reveal what this mixture has caused.
While this paper is not about Mosaic Law versus
Grace, the subject had to be touched upon
somewhat.
Before
we continue, however, let us review some valid
points. Burdening the Body of Christ with the
tithe requires twists and reinterpretations
of scripture, some of which can include:
1)
The tithe must be imported from the OT law of
Moses to the new covenant of grace by Christ’s
blood, which is an evil mixture no man can perpetrate
without creating grave problems within the framework
of his own theology.
2) The tithe must be redefined from "flocks,
herds, fruit and grain" to "money"
and often "time".
3) The storehouse must be translocated from
the temple in Jerusalem to the local "church"
building, which is mostly ludecrous since we
all know that most do not store up anything
for hard times, or for the needy.
4) The Body of Christ must buy into the ordained
"clergy" class as the "new priesthood,"
thereby having replaced the Levitical priesthood
as the rightful recipient of the tithe.
5) The Body of Christ must forfeit their own
priesthood, and therefore buy into the notion
that they are the weak "laity," stuck
in the vortex of "perpetual sheepdom".
6) Those who believe the tithe to be a "spiritual
principle" on account of it predating the
Law (as allegedly exemplified in the lives of
people like Abel, Abraham, Jacob, et al) do
not realize they are portraying a system of
inconsistent interpretation.
Part
2 of The Tithe
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