Does God Require People To Tithe?
Jewish people were the only ones required, under the Old Testament law, to bring [not pay] tithes to the storehouse (granary) of the tabernacle or temple (Nehemiah 13:5; Malachi 3:10).
That segregated denominated building you mistakenly call "church" did not even exist when the Book of Malachi was written, some 400 years before Christ.
That name tagged building you erroneously call "church" has never been and never will be "God's granary" or God's "storehouse" to store grain for temple offerings.
That denominated building you wrongly call "church" did not exist during the first 400 years of the church age. Believers in the early church met in each others homes not as different denominated churches, but as a unified body with Christ as its head (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2; Acts 8:3).
And our Father God, the same loving God who incarnated as Jesus and went to the cross to save us, does not put a curse on His people, for any reason, let alone because of money.
Only Levite priests were sanctioned by the scripture to receive tithes [Numbers 18:21,26-28; 2nd Chronicles 31:5-10; Nehemiah 10:38; Hebrews 7:5]. Pastors, evangelists, preachers, religious and "church" organizations are not scripture sanctioned to do so.
The tithe was never, ever money. It consisted only of cattle, grain and produce [Leviticus 27:30-32, Deuteronomy 12:17; 14:22-23; 2 Chronicles 31:5-6; Nehemiah 10:37, 13:12; Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42].
Oh I know that people are guilt ridden by the money-hungerypreacher saying; "Abraham tithed before the law.
Abraham tithed only once...there is no record that he ever tithed again...and not from his vast wealth but from Sodom and Gomorrah's wealth which he'd recovered in battle (Genesis 14: 14-24). He did so voluntarily, not under any threats of a "curse" by God. He never tithed in His whole life again and he was very rich (Genesis 13:2,6). And yet God promised to bless him, not curse him (Genesis 12:3).
More likely than not, you are not Jewish and since there's no temple in Jerusalem, since we no longer live under the law, but under grace, and since the clergy are nor Levite priests, should you tithe to them or their denomination? Furthermore, since tithing was given under the law, if you try to "tithe", do you not reject God's grace, do you not fall from grace, and are are you not obligated to keep the entire Old Testament law [all 613 commandments] in order to have right standing with God? (Galatians 5:3,4)
It is living under the law (which includes "tithing") that will put a curse on you (Galatians 3:10). There are no curses under God's Grace (Galatians 3:13-14; Ephesians 1:3).
There isn't one scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, that commands anyone...Jew, Gentile or Christian...to PAY 10% of one's salary to a band of money-hungry-mongers.
Now if you choose to be fleeced that is up to you...but you have no Bible mandate to submit to such fleecing.
Christ had perfect chance to lash out against tithing as some so called Christians do but He didn't. He was against a lot of things that the Pharisees did but this wasn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact He commended them for it. He said these ought ye to have done. But what He was against was leaving the other things undone.
Those of us who have the true grace message realize that everything we have belongs to God and that the tithe is just the starting point. We are not bound by just 10%. We don't give because it is law but we are like Abraham who 400 years before law was given felt need to return back back to God a portion of what He had entrusted us with. Under grace we realize that we are not owners but just managers.
Under grace we don't give out of law but out of management.
It is true that under grace we are not cursed for not giving 10% but it doesn't mean that under grace there aren't any consequences as modern day false grace movement teaches.
Christ gave a parable in Matthew 25 about our obligations under Grace.
Jesus explained that in God's economy, those who make good investments on His behalf will be given more, and those who fail to increase the resources on loan to them will have them taken away.
Many in body of Christ have given 80 and 90 % and God have blessed them for it. Others on occasion including myself have with holden and God blew upon it and blew it away. (Haggar 1:9)