I was sat at my desk at work one morning when it suddenly occurred to me that it is practically impossible to tithe today! Those that try desperately to promote this doctrine have indeed spoken when the Lord has not spoken. They have redefined its meaning and have succeeded in creating something very alien to Christianity and the bible as well.
When the command to tithe was given to the children of Israel, God gave them specific conditions for the collection of these tithes. It had to be the TENTH of food produce from within the land of Israel, only the Levites were allowed to collect them and they had to be offered at a place God had chosen.
Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD: Deu 12: 11
If any one of these conditions is not met, one cannot possibly tithe! And instead of obeying scriptures, pro-tithers have re-invented its meaning, lacing it up with one or two scriptural references to make it appear legit and use the tool of fear to promote it. Their main re-invention is the 10% and firstfruit rule. From scriptures, the tithe was neither. The bible says the tithe was A TENTH of crops and livestock from within the land of Israel, period! Money was never to be tithed.
And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. Lev 27: 32.
I think it is quite funny to mandate something God has not instructed us to do in scripture. This will mean placing yourself over God and becoming the authority. And this has actually become the norm in today’s church.
Many preachers go off the rails preaching their personal opinions instead of what is obtained in scripture and rather than heed rebuke, out comes the gagging order – “touch not the Lord’s anointed.” They have taken the place of God and now twist scriptures to suit themselves, deceiving the gullible along the way.
No more do noble Bereans exist in today’s church. No one is willing to go the extra mile to fully understand scripture. Instead they gather every Sunday to be lied to and deceived and their time and money stealthily stolen from them. This deceit has woven itself so tightly into the fabric of today’s church, that believing otherwise is classed as heresy.
What happened to the covenant in the blood of Jesus? Isn’t so called prosperity supposed to be the fallout of salvation? As the book of Romans puts it “ye are saved by faith not of works, lest any man should boast.” Doesn’t the tithe doctrine echo works? The book of Romans 4: 4 says further, that to him that works the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt. Are you trying to ensnare God with your tithes? Are you trying to bribe him to bless you?
I have tried to understand this doctrine by examining the scriptures provided in support of it and they keep collapsing like a pack of cards. If prosperity can be obtained by tithing and tithing existed before the Old Testament, why then did Abraham not tithe to prosper? How come he and Lot became so wealthy that the land could no longer hold both of them and this ultimately led to their separation? And as the events played out, Lot went to live in Sodom and Gomorrah and was unfortunately captured when the land was invaded. This made Abraham and his allies go in pursuit and recovered all that was plundered including Lot and his family. On his return, Abraham met Melchizedek and gave him a TENTH of all he recovered. How can we in good fate say this builds a case for tithing today? Why do we draw a none existent parallel between this event and the law to tithe given to the Israelites by God?
Some say to tithe is being obedient but I ask “obedience to what command?” where is this command that expressly mandates today’s church to carry on this discontinued Jewish practise? I am also getting sick and tired of hearing Malachi 3: 8 – 10 being used as the supporting scripture for this alien doctrine. Our laziness at reading our Bibles really shows when we quote this. Are today’s Christians physical descendants of Levi? No one even bothers to read this book from the beginning in order to gain a good understanding of what is being said! How can you watch a scene from a movie and then claim you know what the movie is about? That scene becomes relevant when you watch the entire movie, please read the entire book! The book of Malachi is not made up of only chapter 3 and verse 8 to 10. In order to understand the context of chapter 3, read the whole book!
Pro-tithers are so quick to label those who oppose the tithe as selfish and not wanting to give to God but what if they are? If God is doing the rewarding, then what is it to you? And this brings me to the very silly practise of keeping tithe records in today’s church. Com’on, if this doctrine was of God, why is the arm of flesh used to enforce it? Is God not big enough to speak to the hearts of people to make them tithe? If God can convict a sinner of his sins and cause him to repent, how come God cannot convict this same sinner to tithe after he becomes a Christian and would need the threats of an overzealous preacher to do it? It is so sad that some preachers wish they could shoot dead all who do not tithe. People are kicked out of church and dropped from church leadership because of the tithe. Isn’t this supposed to be a personal exercise between a believer and his Creator? What happened to the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?
Why are preachers encouraging members of their congregation to deny reality and live in dreamland with this doctrine? I will give a very common case study. It is very common to find that many believers have more money going out than coming in. Let’s say for instance that a person’s incoming is £1000 and his outgoing is £1200 and this is not taking into account luxuries but all necessities like feeding, bills, transportation, clothing etc. How can tithing seriously be the solution to this person’s problem? It will be a big lie to say so. The obvious thing is to get a better paying job but how can he when he has no formal qualification and recognized skills and instead of spending his time developing himself, spends all of his time attending church programmes week in week out? The tithe doctrine is his only hope of getting out of his rat race and he will definitely feel threatened if any one challenges this belief. It is a pity!
I have heard it said that it is because of the tithe that one’s kids do not fall sick, one’s property does not get destroyed and calamities do not befall one. Please! If this were true, then Jesus died in vain. The same way the children of Israel were protected when they observed the Passover in the land of Egypt; it is the same way we and all that we own are protected by the blood of Jesus. What can be more powerful that this blood? The tithe?
When it comes to this tithe doctrine, it seems anything goes. I heard that a husband assaulted his wife because she did not tithe and placed priority on tithing over taking care of his kids, something the bible finds contemptible and labels all who do this infidels! Some have even said not tithing is worse than the sin of adultery. This is another lie! The bible never grades sin instead it tells us ALL unrighteousness is sin. This is another devious plot employed by pro-tithers. What about the preachers that equate tithing to salvation, i.e you cannot go to heaven if you do not tithe? They are thieves themselves! You cannot find this anywhere in scripture.
It does not matter how hard pro-tithers try, what they end up with as the tithe doctrine is alien to scripture! It is impossible to tithe today, just as impossible as it is to try and drive a bicycle!
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