Tithing is a commanded biblical principle: God requires us
to return a tenth of the blessing that He gives us back to Him. In this post, I'll begin to show how we ourselves are to become a tithe to God. First of all, I'd like to give a very basic overview of what tithing is, why we are commanded to do it, and what we are supposed to learn from it (for a slightly more detailed discussion, see Tithes and Offerings.)
Tithing reminds us
that all things belong to God and that we have nothing by our own might. God commands us to tithe because He wants us to stop and think about Him every time we get
paid.
In
today’s world, tithing is a simple process: when you get paid, you simply set aside 10% of your money
and give it to the Church to do the work of God, which is preaching the gospel
and caring for Church members spiritually and physically. For the Israelites, tithing took more preparation and thought than it does for us since most people were farmers. Tithe was paid in the form of raw goods: crops and animals rather than money. For most of us, our money stays in the bank until we transfer it into someone else's bank account, but the Israelites would have had to set aside the appropriate quantities of their livestock and harvest to give to the Levites. With
animals in particular, God made it clear that they couldn’t just wait until the
end of the year to pick out 10% of the animals to be a tithe – they had to do
it as soon as the animals were born:
Leviticus 27:32And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD.
Every animal that was born was literally walked under a shepherd's rod, and every tenth one was dedicated to God immediately as tithe. Likewise, we shouldn’t wait until the end of the year to
look back, see how much money we've made, and then scrounge up 10% of the total to give
to God – we should be diligently setting aside tithe FIRST – before we even think about spending any of it on
anything else! Neither should we be reluctant to give tithe, but eager to please God by keeping His
commandments.
Thus far, I have said nothing new or surprising - everyone
knows that God commands us to tithe and that we should be happy to give it. But
did you know that God is also keeping a tithe to Himself?
Ezekiel 20:37-38I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
This scripture and the previous one on tithing are the only verses in the entire bible that describe the idea of “passing under the rod.” If we dwell on this concept, we get two complimentary and powerful meanings by considering these verses together.
First of all, the connection that I have obviously been working towards up to this point is that God is setting His people aside for Himself - that He is passing us under the rod as a tithe to be His own special people, just as the Israelites were required to pass every animal under the rod and dedicate the tenth to God.
Secondly, consider that the primary usage of the word "rod" is as an instrument of correction and punishment. Passing under the rod is clearly symbolic of God separating the people, but for what purpose? If we look closely at what is said in Ezekiel 20:37-38, God is talking about separating the righteous from "the rebels" and "those who transgress against" God. Those who don't obey God incur God's wrath because of their sin; therefore, God is effectively passing His wrath (rod) over His people that are spared from punishment!
With the Passover having been only two weeks ago, it occurred
to me that passing under the rod is functionally equivalent to saying that
God’s rod passes over us. Furthermore, it says that God would pass them under the rod and bring them "into the bond of the covenant." By keeping God's commandments through faith and participating in the Passover, we become a special people to God:
Clearly, God is setting aside His people. In the next post, I hope to go into more detail on the connection between this concept and Passover, as well as what it really means to be one of God's "special people, zealous for good works."Titus 2:12-14Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE pays the Biblical tithe today.
ReplyDeleteLeviticus 27:30-33, Numbers 18: The First Tithe - a tenth of crops and animals and commanded to take the tithe to the Levites.
Deuteronomy 14:22-27: The Second Tithe aka The Festival Tithe - a tenth of crops, plus add to that the firstborn animals, and take for the yearly feast.
Deuteronomy 14:28-29: The Third Tithe aka The Three-Year Tithe aka The Poor Tithe - a tenth of crops, kept at home, and invite the Levites, widows, orphans, stranger to eat.
Now, tell me. Which of the above three tithes commanded by God does anyone follow today?
The ONLY people in the Old Testament that were commanded to tithe were those who INHERITED THE PROMISED LAND WITH EVERYTHING ON IT. They got the land, house, animals, crops, etc. ALL FREE AND CLEAR. No mortgage payment or rent to pay. And THEY were commanded to tithe on the crops and animals and take it to the Levites who INHERITED the tithe INSTEAD OF the promised land with everything on it. No one else tithed. Wage earners did not tithe. Jesus didn’t tithe. Paul didn’t tithe. Peter didn’t tithe.
It's plain to see in the scriptures that the tithe was the TENTH, not the first.
The Bible CLEARLY SHOWS that the tithe ENDED at the cross in the Book of Hebrews. In the first nine verses of Hebrews 7 the words tenth or tithes appears SEVEN TIMES. The ONLY place in the Bible, after Calvary, that tithing appears is in Hebrews 7.
Hebrews 7:5 (KJV) “And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:”
Verse 5 is the first occurance of the words COMMANDMENT and LAW.
Hebrews 7:12 (KJV) “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.”
Hebrews 7:18 (KJV) “For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.”
The word COMMANDMENT in verse 18 must be referring to the word COMMANDMENT in verse 5 which is referring to the tithe.
Therefore, the COMMANDMENT to TITHE was disannulled.
Hi Gary, thanks for the comment. It appears that we have a sharp disagreement about tithing, so allow me to clarify. I don’t want to get bogged down in the minor points that you started off with, so I’ll go after the meat of your argument against tithing in this first post and then follow it with a second post dealing with some of the preliminary statements that you made.
ReplyDelete“The Bible CLEARLY SHOWS that the tithe ENDED at the cross in the Book of Hebrews. In the first nine verses of Hebrews 7 the words tenth or tithes appears SEVEN TIMES. The ONLY place in the Bible, after Calvary, that tithing appears is in Hebrews 7.”
This reminds me of a lawyer trying to win a case with only circumstantial evidence. The context of Hebrews 7:1-10 is demonstrating the superiority of Melchizadek to the Levites. The author accomplishes this by virtue of the fact that the Levites, through their ancestor Abraham, paid tithe to Melchizadek; therefore, the priesthood of Melchizadek is better than the priesthood of Levi because Levi, through Abraham, tithed to Melchizadek.
Much to the contrary of your statement that "the bible CLEARLY SHOWS that tithe ENDED at the cross,” our own Savior, Jesus Christ, said that not even one stroke of a letter would pass away from the law until HEAVEN AND EARTH also pass away (Matthew 5:17-18). As far as I can tell, that hasn't happened yet - and Revelation 21:1 substantiates my view.
“The word COMMANDMENT in verse 18 must be referring to the word COMMANDMENT in verse 5 which is referring to the tithe.”
You are reading this into the text because of your bias against the practice of tithing. The ENTIRE DISCUSSION of Hebrews 7 up to this point is that there must be a CHANGE of the priesthood from the order of the Levites to the order of Melchizadek because Christ was not a Levite. Since the law of God cannot "pass away," a "change" of how the law applies is needed in order to substantiate Christ's role as a priest. There is still a priesthood (of Melchizadek) and the command to tithe (to the priesthood of Melchizadek.) The commandment that was disannulled was the one that says that only Levites could be priests. Indeed, this causes a CHANGE in tithe: it now no longer goes to the Levites, but to Christ.
Lastly, consider that abolishing the Levitical priesthood would not affect the 2nd or 3rd tithe at all - they would still be used to keep the feasts and to help the fatherless and widow.
Now, as promised, some of the less meaty, but still important, problems that I see with the statements in your post.
ReplyDelete“NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE pays the Biblical tithe today…. Now, tell me. Which of the above three tithes commanded by God does anyone follow today?”
On this point you are simply wrong – I myself pay the biblical tithes – all 3 of them. Furthermore, I am not alone: there are a number of churches that teach that all 3 of these tithes are commanded for Christians today. For example, the United Church of God, of which I am a part.
“The ONLY people in the Old Testament that were commanded to tithe were those who INHERITED THE PROMISED LAND WITH EVERYTHING ON IT.”
I have multiple issues with this statement.
First of all, you are making the assumption that only agricultural products were tithed on. God never made this distinction – you have (incorrectly) inferred it from the fact that the commandment on tithing says to tithe on the increase of the land and the herds. Israel’s economy was primarily agrarian since everyone had inherited the land; therefore, it makes sense that God would then frame tithing in the context of crops and livestock. If I were a gold miner, would I not tithe on the gold that I took out of the ground? If I am a fisherman, would I not tithe on the fish that I took out of the river? Your definition of tithe is far too narrow, as it doesn't even include these two obvious cases.
Furthermore, the promised land with its crops and resources is not the only thing that God has ever given someone. In fact, EVERYTHING that we receive comes from God, which is why we are required to tithe on the increase of everything that we gain - including money.
Additionally, the livestock were not part of the land, so equating tithe with the inheritance is a moot point altogether. Anyone who had sheep in Israel, whether they had an inheritance or not, would be required to tithe on the increase of their flock, even if they had bought the sheep themselves from Gentiles in another country (i.e. sheep that were not part of the inheritance that God had given in the land.)
"No one else tithed. Wage earners did not tithe. Jesus didn’t tithe. Paul didn’t tithe. Peter didn’t tithe."
Jesus Christ kept every point of the law perfectly. He was born to a man of Judah in the promised land. Even under your own narrow interpretation of who tithed on what, I know from Matthew 23:23 that Jesus would have tithed even on an herb garden: He told the Pharisees not to neglect the tithe of their spices. Also, Paul definitely would have tithed – in fact, when he went before the Sanhedrin, he made it clear that he was still keeping all of God’s commandments (Acts 23:1), which would have included tithe. Also, Peter was a fisherman - not a "wage-earner," as you put it. In any case, all of this is moot because of my prior argument: they would have paid tithe on ANYTHING that they received because EVERYTHING that they received came from God. The situation is unchanged for us today.
“It's plain to see in the scriptures that the tithe was the TENTH, not the first.”
You’re misconstruing the point that I made in the article. If you want to get technical, then I suppose that if I earned 9 pennies then I wouldn’t feel compelled to give one to God before earning the 10th (although I would do it anyway). The point that I was making is that they could not wait to designate the tithe. For example, if 10 sheep were born one week and 10 sheep the next, then it would NOT be acceptable to wait until the next week to pick out 2 of them to give as tithe – the tithe had to be designated as the animals were born (or, more accurately, as they were passed under the rod, since it would become difficult to know the actual order of birth if you had a large herd).
I'm sorry for the length of my responses, but I refuse to let any incorrect statement go unchallenged, lest someone think that I implicitly agree. Additionally, it's always great to review and examine what the bible teaches!
You are full of "would haves" and assumptions. There is no scripture showing that Jesus ever tithed. There is no scripture showing that Paul ever tithed. There is no scripture showing that Peter ever tithed. Tell me - just how would Peter have tithed on the fish? Would it have been every tenth fish caught? Could he have redeemed the fish like the farmers could redeem the crops?
ReplyDeleteGod spelled out His tithe. In every case, God commanded the tithe be on FOOD from crops and animals, NEVER on income or money. The farmers had income (and money) when they SOLD their crops and animals, but tithing was not on income.
Many say that in Biblical times they didn’t have money and that the economy was based on bartering of goods and services. That is not so. The Bible shows they not only had money, but that money was used as a common way of doing business.
According to the International Bible Encyclopedia, the days of mere bartering ended before the days of Abraham.
Here are just a few examples from The Word to show they did, in fact, use money in Biblical times.
The tithing law itself proves they had both money and a marketing system for buying and selling their crops and animals (Deuteronomy 14:24-26).
THE PURCHASE OF LAND WITH MONEY BY ABRAHAM - Genesis 23:15-16
THE PURCHASE OF LAND WITH MONEY BY JACOB - Genesis 33:19
JOSEPH WAS SOLD TO THE ISHMEELITES FOR MONEY - Genesis 37:28
A MONEY OFFERING TO BE USED FOR THE SERVICE OF THE TABERNACLE - Exodus 30:14-16,
USING SHEKEL OF SILVER TO VALUE A RAM - Leviticus 5:15
THE FOLLOWING VERSES REFER TO WAGES: Genesis 29:15, Genesis 30:28, Genesis 31:7-8, Genesis 31:41, Exodus 2:9, Leviticus 19:13, Malachi 3:5, etc.
In order for money to be an exchangeable equivalent for other commodities in today’s society, there must be a standard in place. Likewise, the Old Testament also had a set standard both prior to the law and during the law. A reference to a pre-law standard is in Genesis 23:16.
Leviticus 27:25 – Every value is to be set according to the sanctuary shekel, …
In addition, 2 Samuel 14:26 shows that the weight standard for the shekel was set by the royal standard. No matter which era in history is studied, there existed a standard for the weight of precious metals.
Money was also used throughout the law. For example, God’s people gave money to support the tabernacle (Ex. 30:14-16; 38:24-31). There are many other examples that illustrate money’s place within the written law and indicate that money was indeed a part of everyday life. Exodus 35 provides such an example.
Exodus 35:5, 21-22 – From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze;
And there are many more examples to show that money was used for everyday transactions well before the Levitical tithe.
There is absolutely no scripture teaching tithing after Calvary. None.
Isn't it odd that even though Abram gave a tenth directly to Melchizedek, the king/priest, that some Christians think they can give directly to God by giving it to their pastor?
I find it quite offensive that pastors have appointed themselves to be the receiver of what belongs to God. After all, the pastor says the tithe belongs to God. Then he appoints himself to receive the tithe!!!
God never gave any pastor or church permission to receive his tithe. God commanded His tithe be taken to the Levites, FOREVER, in Numbers 18.
Since the tithe belongs to God, if a pastor accepts it isn't he stealing it from God?
You can furnish NO scripture to support tithing on income. You can furnish NO scripture to support tithing today. You can furnish NO scripture to show where God ever gave any pastor or church permission to accept His tithe.
History proves that no Christian Church taught tithing on one's income until 1870.
ReplyDeleteYou error when you say that Jesus tithed because He kept all the laws. Today, one can keep all the laws but still not file an income tax return if they didn't meet the filing requirements.
God defined His tithe in Leviticus 27:30-33 and gave His ordinances in Numbers 18. Show me where either God's definition or His ordinances have changed. In order to show they have changed, you must be able to show what they changed to, IN THE SCRIPTURES. You can't rewrite the commands and ordinances yourself.
You have absolutely no scripture to back up your position.
Unfortunately, I will have to wait until I have more time to sit down and answer these assertions one at a time. Here is a brief summary of what some of those points are:
ReplyDeleteWhat you have effectively done is set up a straw man in the form of money being used in ancient Israel. This is wholly irrelevant to the discussion of whether or not one should tithe on their income.
I find your use of Abraham tithing to Melchizadek ironic, considering that he actually gave a tithe of everything he had, including his money.
Concerning pastors, remember that "the laborer is worthy of his wages." MOST pastors in the world today abuse that principle by taking the tithes to bankroll an extravagant lifestyle, and this is outright wrong. The ministry should humbly accept a modest salary from the tithes, and the rest of the tithe should be committed to doing God's work, which is preaching the gospel to all nations and teaching and caring for the disciples that are made as a result of that preaching.
History is limited only to what was recorded. The true Church of God has NEVER been affiliated with the Catholic church, and we have very little record of it until more recent history.
I assure you that I will provide a fuller accounting of your words as well as scriptural proofs of my positions in the next couple of days. Thanks for the input!
Let’s look closely at Abram’s tithe. First, the goods that Abram gave the tenth from didn’t even belong to Abram:
ReplyDeleteGenesis 14:21 (KJV) - And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
Notice in verse 21 the king of Sodom didn’t ask Abram if he would give back to him the people, but rather said GIVE ME the people and keep the goods for yourself. The way that is worded indicates that the king of Sodom was claiming that the people and the goods belonged to him, but he offered the goods to Abram.
It would normally have been the custom that the victor owns the spoils, but normally the spoils would have belonged to the enemy. In this case, Abram was RECOVERING goods belonging to the King of Sodom.
NOTE: The king of Sodom had an original right both to the persons and to the goods, and it would bear a debate whether Abram’s acquired right by rescue would supersede his title and extinguish it; but, to prevent all quarrels, the king of Sodom makes this fair proposal (v. 21).
--Should the Church Teach Tithing by Dr. Russell Earl Kelly, pages 24-25
Genesis 14:22-24 (KJV)
22And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
23That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
24Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
Notice in verses 23 and 24 Abram also acknowledges that the goods belonged to the king of Sodom. But the king of Sodam offered that Abram could keep the goods for himself. Abram declined the offer. He didn’t want man to take credit for his wealth. By not accepting any of the goods for himself, Abram was putting all his faith in God to provide for him rather than man.
Therefore, it is clear that both the king of Sodom and Abram acknowledged that the spoils of war did NOT belong to Abram, yet he gave a tenth of the spoils to King Melchizedek. This would seem that Abram did something wrong, if not even illegal, but Biblical historians agree that it was custom in Abram's day to give the king a tenth of the war spoils. Had Abram not given the tenth, he would have gone against custom.
Conclusion: Abram did NOT give a tenth of his income, or his wealth. Abram gave a tenth of the spoils of war that didn’t belong to him and declined to keep the goods offered to him. That is NOT an example of tithing for Christians to follow today. By declining to keep any of the goods for himself, Abram showed his faith that God would provide. That is the example of faith that Christians should be following. Furthermore, the law did NOT require a tenth of war spoils to be given, so to say that tithing was before the law and then in the law is not true. What Abram did was NOT even codified into the later law.
Wow! This conversation is long and intense and as a passing reader I do not feel the need to make remarks on the entire discussion; however, I can say that it is clear from Gary's most recent post that he needs to brush up on his Old Testament studies. To say that the Law was not even in effect at the time of Abraham is, well, WRONG.
ReplyDelete"Furthermore, the law did NOT require a tenth of war spoils to be given, so to say that tithing was before the law and then in the law is not true. What Abram did was NOT even codified into the later law."
The Old Testament is very clear on the fact that Abraham kept the Law. Just because it was not written down and given to Israel until later is completely irrelevant and nullified in the following passage about Abraham:
Genesis 26:4,5
"And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."
Furthermore, in the entire previous explanation of Abram giving tithe there is no reference to Genesis 14:20--
"And he gave him a tithe of all" ???
This verse was written before there was any talk about the goods from the war. Clearly, you would need to rationalize and then disregard that statement to make a well thought out argument.
Great topic! Keep them coming! I particularly love the "passing under the rod" analogy! I always learn so much from your blogs...just fantastic!
Gary,
ReplyDeleteI feel that you are in error about the scriptures in so many different ways that it is difficult to have this discussion with you without first laying the proper foundation. Furthermore, you have presented arguments with different sets of starting assumptions, which makes it difficult for the layperson to jump in and understand where you are coming from. In the interest of allowing this discussion to benefit others fully, it will be helpful for me to treat your fundamentally different arguments separately in order to isolate the relevant points. In particular, I’m going to deal with the notions that (1) tithes are commanded for Christians today, (2) tithes are not just commanded to go to the Levites, and (3) that one should tithe on their income – not just livestock and crops.
In the interest of keeping the comments for this article on topic – namely the separation of God’s special people and the connection that this has with Passover – I’m going to withhold further off-topic comments on whether Christians should tithe or not until a later series of posts that will be specifically on this topic. You have shown me that this is an area in which clarity is greatly needed, and so I am eager to write about it for the benefit of all.
In the meantime, this will be the last comment on the topic of whether Christians should tithe until I am able to write more in-depth articles about tithing and to thoroughly address your main arguments, so that we may have this discussion in its proper context. For now, I will point out a few of the problems that I have with your more recent statements, although I will continue to keep it brief.
“There is no scripture showing that Jesus ever tithed”
I didn’t state that there was – I merely gave Jesus’ position on the issue of tithing from His own words. Your premise here is that Jesus wouldn’t have had any agriculture or livestock to tithe on; however, EVEN under the assumption that these are the only items that should be tithed on, you cannot state authoritatively, as you did, that Jesus never tithed because there is also no scripture stating that Jesus didn’t tithe. As a quick counterpoint, I would say that there is not one scripture stating that Jesus ever offered a burnt offering – yet we know that He must have because He kept the commandments, which state that a man must bring an offering 3 times a year (Deuteronomy 16:16).
“There is absolutely no scripture teaching tithing after Calvary. None.”
This is the same logical fallacy as your argument that no scripture shows Jesus tithing. Consider the fact that there is also absolutely no scripture teaching that you should honor your father and mother after Christ’s death. None. This statement proves nothing about whether we should honor our parents, and, in much the same way, your statement proves nothing about whether we should tithe. The underlying issue is whether or not the Law of God has been “disannulled” as you put it. I’ve already demonstrated the law of tithe was not specifically disannulled in Hebrews 7, as you claimed earlier, and I will also show that NONE of God’s law has been abolished – only modified to allow for Christ to be the High Priest.
“Just how would Peter have tithed on the fish?”
ReplyDeleteScripture shows that their fishing was done with nets, not poles. Peter would have tithed on fish the same way that a farmer would have tithed on grain – he would have set aside (at least) two-tenths of whatever came up in the net just as the farmer would set aside the appropriate amount of whatever he reaped in the harvest. I am surprised that you didn’t realize this as you posed the question.
“God never gave any pastor or church permission to receive his tithe. God commanded His tithe be taken to the Levites, FOREVER, in Numbers 18.”
For clarification, it does not say specifically that the tithe is to be given to the Levites forever. Rather, it says that the heave offerings of all of the holy things would be the Levites’ forever and that the Levites would perform the work of the tabernacle forever. The obvious definition of “forever” in this context is that it is conditional on the service of the Levites in the tabernacle – otherwise, God is a liar because this does not take place today. Before you get too excited that I have said that something in the law is conditional, remember that there has been no disannulment of any of the law of God, only modification to allow a priesthood that is not from Levi.
“Since the tithe belongs to God, if a pastor accepts it isn't he stealing it from God?”
Since God chose to change the priesthood from Levi to Melchizadek, do you really assert that WE are now more entitled to God’s tithe than the pastors who serve us in God’s name? As I stated before, there is much evil done by men who falsely claim to be God’s servants and abuse the tithe given to them, but that’s a separate issue.
On the story of Abraham and Melchizadek:
As the previous commentator points out, your chronology and interpretation of the story of Abraham and Melchizadek is quite wrong – Abraham “gave a tithe of all” before any discussion of his interaction with the King of Sodom there, and there is no indication that this was restricted to the spoils of war. In fact, the entire discussion that you give concerning Abram and the King of Sodom is a straw man – the fact that the goods that Abram recovered belonged to the King of Sodom is irrelevant because the tithe that Abram gave was not restricted to these goods. Also, as the commentator demonstrated, the fact that Abraham is said to have kept the commandments indicates that the commandments (i.e. the law) were in existence at that time, even though the covenant had not been made with Israel. The fact that Abraham gave a tithe of his wealth is confirmed in Hebrews 7, and to say otherwise invalidates the argument that the author of Hebrews is using to make the point that he is making there.
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ReplyDelete