"TITHING" IS
NOT FOR CHRISTIANS
-by Andrew
Strom.
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~revival/lie-4.html
-The fourth
article in the series on "The 9 Lies of Today's Church".
The word
"tithe" literally means 'a tenth'. Today it is used as a Law in many
churches to force Christians to give one tenth of their income to
the church. Many are told that they are "robbing God" if they do not
give at least this much to the institution they attend each Sunday.
How ironic
that most preachers today preach almost nothing but "grace, grace,
grace" except when they preach on Giving - when suddenly they feel
free to load people with condemnation and guilt. For some reason
this seems to be the one subject where they "lay down the law". I
wonder why? The fact is, in many places the church machinery relies
on this law to force people to give and keep the whole 'machine'
churning along.
But is
Tithing a New Testament practice at all? Is it really for
Christians, or is it part of the Old Covenant? Is there really a law
in force stating that all Christians must give ten percent? Or are
we supposed to be "cheerful givers" - simply giving whatever God has
placed on our hearts?
You may be
surprised to learn how little the word 'Tithing' is even mentioned
in the New Testament. In fact, there is no actual Scripture telling
CHRISTIANS to tithe at all. There is one NT Scripture telling
PHARISEES to tithe. But in all the letters of the apostles to the
church, they never say that this was for Christians. And in the
entire book of Acts (-a history of the first 30 years of the Early
Church) there is NOT EVEN ONE mention of tithing. There are plenty
of examples of people giving money "from the heart", but NO MENTION
of tithing. Isn't that interesting?
Yet people
will often quote the words of Jesus to the Pharisees as though this
tells CHRISTIANS to keep tithing. But it doesn't. Here is what Jesus
said: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cummin.
But you have neglected the more important matters of the law -
justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the
latter without neglecting the former." (Matt 23:23, NIV).
Notice that
Jesus refers to these things as "matters of the law". That is what
they are. They are matters of the Old Testament Law - not part of
the New Covenant for Christians. Jesus Himself referred to them that
way. And notice who he was talking to in the above passage. He was
talking to LAW-KEEPING JEWS who were still under the OLD COVENANT.
(-The New Covenant would not begin until Jesus died and rose again).
So what Jesus was saying was right - FOR THEM. But not for us - and
not for now.
Yet the
Tithing proponents seize on the phrase: "You should have practiced
the latter without neglecting the former." The reason they seize on
this is because it is the ONLY Scripture they have in the whole New
Testament that even vaguely pushes Tithing! And yet it is talking to
Pharisees!
Let me be
clear here. This is their BEST New Testament Scripture on the
subject. They have almost nothing else. And it is talking to
PHARISEES. And it clearly states that Tithing is a "matter of the
law". How dare these people apply this Scripture to today's
Christians? We are not under Law. The Bible tells us that. What a
gall these people have - making people feel guilty about an Old
Testament Law, just so they can get more money out of us. How
disgraceful.
"You are not
under law, but under grace" (Rom 6:14). "But if you are led by the
Spirit you are not under law." (Gal 5:18).
In fact, the
only other passage that really focuses on Tithing in the New
Testament underlines this very point. At the start of Hebrews 7
there is a passage referring to tithing in the Old Testament. It
clearly states that tithing is part of the Old Law (v 5). And then
it goes on to say: "The former regulation is set aside because it is
weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better
hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God." (Heb 7:18-19).
The point
that is being made here is that the Old Covenant was a covenant of
"regulations" (like HAVING to give one tenth) but the New Covenant
is a covenant of the HEART. And we are to give out of a heart
overflowing with the love of God. -NOT because we are "forced" to
give one tenth! The Old Law is gone. We live under a New Covenant
today.
Now another
major argument that the Tithing people use is that "Tithing came
before the Law". They use the example of Abraham and Melchizedek
(Gen 14:18-20). Therefore, they say, it still applies to us today.
Well, I have
one simple question for these people: Isn't it true that
CIRCUMCISION came before the Law also? (See Gen 17). And everyone
knows that Circumcision is treated as part of the Old Law that has
been done away with. It is the same with Tithing. No difference at
all.
As we have
seen, in every New Testament Scripture tithing is clearly spoken of
as being part of the "OLD LAW". It is not part of the New Covenant
at all. How shameful that it is being used today to manipulate
Christians into giving ten percent to church institutions. How sad
and totally unscriptural.
As former
pastor Bruce Lengeman states in his article 'The Raping of the
Tithe': "The title sounds harsh, but I believe it is fairly accurate
due to the damage done by the erroneous teaching of the doctrine of
tithing... Plain and simple, the doctrine of tithing as it is
commonly taught in the contemporary evangelical, or Bible-believing
church is twisted exegesis!"
SO HOW THEN
SHOULD WE GIVE?
Today when it
comes to 'Giving' we are often preached-to out of Malachi 3 in the
Old Testament, which tells the Jewish people to "bring the full
tithes into the storehouse" and says that they were "robbing God"
and they were "cursed" if they did not do so. (Mal 3:8-10).
Modern
preachers love to equate the 'storehouse' with their own church(!!),
so that they can apply this Scripture to themselves. But the reality
is very different. As Bruce Lengeman states: "The 'storehouse' of
Malachi has no likeness to the church structure of today. The
storehouse was neither a place of assembly, nor a place of worship.
It was merely a storehouse for tithed goods to be distributed to
Levites, who had no inheritance, and also to widows, strangers, and
orphans."
How very
different to the guilt-trip that we are hearing today!
And when we
get to the Book of Acts we find that indeed MOST OF THE MONEY that
came in actually went to feed and clothe the poor and the widows. In
fact, it was a common practice for the Christians to sell any spare
possessions and lay the money at the apostles' feet, for
distribution to the poor. (See Acts 4:32-37). What love these people
demonstrated! And this was true giving "from the HEART", not from
some "LAW" that told them how much to give.
There is also
plenty of support in the New Testament for giving to those who
minister the gospel. (See 1 Cor 9:13-14, 1 Tim 5:17, etc.) But there
is a far greater emphasis on giving to the widows and orphans.
What I
believe God would have us do today is be led by the Holy Spirit in
our giving. Find ways to give to the poor and the widows in an
effective way. (-For instance, some Christian charities like 'Open
Doors' support persecuted Christian widows in Islamic countries,
etc). Also find effective Christian ministries to give to.
In many ways
the 'local church storehouse' concept is a deceptive fallacy. The
fact is, there was no such thing as "church buildings" in the New
Testament anyway, so how could that be the 'storehouse'? We need to
give where God leads us - with a truly cheerful heart.
As one of my
readers wrote to me recently:
"You sent an email about 2 months ago that convicted me that giving
was to be based on the New Testament model - giving cheerfully as we
purpose - instead of being under the law. Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law. I have found that since I give cheerfully
whenever Father shows me to give that I have had my socks blessed
off.
I was always
giving 10% to my local church and never seeing any great results. I
became convicted that my worship leader needed the money so out of a
strong conviction to give it to him I did so. I found that suddenly
at work my sales went through the roof. Before I was doing so poorly
I was close to losing my job. I know the only difference is
following the Holy Spirit and doing what He tells me with my money
based on the New Testament example."
AMEN!!
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