|
HomeFree videos available online
Prosperity Gospel Danger Signs
|
Old Covenant TithingThe Israelites were given instructions in the Old Covenant that they must give 10%. Following are two examples: Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 22 and Leviticus chapter 27 verse 30. Should we as New Covenant believers continue to try to obey all the Old Covenant laws? Absolutely not! If you don't tithe it is not a sin! If you are selfish then that is a sin. What about the Old Testament in general? Can we just ignore all of it? Absolutely not! Most of the laws the Israelites were instructed to follow were detailed in the first 5 books of the Old Testament. The laws were given to the Israelites for a couple of reasons. One reason was to make the Israelites totally different from every other tribe or group of people on earth. By doing this God was able to show his power and blessing when they obeyed him as well as his judgment when they did not.All the Old Testament books contain examples of timeless wisdom on how we should live. The book of Proverbs is a good example of that. As detailed and complicated as some of the laws were, Jesus Christ clarified the most important parts of the Law in Matthew 22:36-40. In addition, there are prophecies concerning many things especially concerning the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is fulfilled prophecy for one thing, that sets the Bible apart from every other teaching on gods. It is beyond the scope of this instruction to explain all the wonderful teachings in the Old Testament. It is the Old Covenant Laws that were given to the Israelites that is the issue. No Christians that I am aware of are taught to perform animal sacrifice today. I believe Bible teachers are correct in not teaching animal sacrifice. However, the Israelites were directed to do that in the Old Covenant. Examples can be found at Leviticus chapter 3 verses 1-5 and Leviticus chapter 4 verses 1-12. They were instructed to perform animal sacrifice for fellowship offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings as well as other reasons. We are not taught that we should be performing animal sacrifice today so why are we taught that we should still be 'tithing'? More on that later. There were some laws we would call harsh that the Israelites were directed to follow. Exodus chapter 21 verse 17 and Leviticus chapter 20 verse 9 teaches that if anyone curses their parents then that person must be put to death. The same penalty was given for cursing God in Leviticus chapter 24 verses 15-16. No teacher that I know of who calls himself/herself a Christian practices this today. Once again I believe that Christian Bible teachers are correct in not teaching this now. So why are Christians taught that we should still be 'tithing'? More on that later.All the laws God gave to the Israelites were important for their survival. I have only given examples of some of the harshest ones. Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 13 through 15 is one example of what God promised to do for the Israelites if they obeyed his laws. God promised many other blessings for their obedience as well as curses for their disobedience.So why don't we try to follow ALL of the laws God gave to the Israelites? Is that something we should be doing? Absolutely not! By the way, there is no separation between some of the Old testament laws. Some try to separate the 'nice' ones from the ones that are not so nice and just try to obey the 'nice' ones like the laws concerning tithing. That is not correct. Here's an excellent example of the point I am making - Deuteronomy chapter 12 verses 4 through 7 instructs the Israelites that they are to bring their tithes and their burnt offerings to the Lord. It seems that some are willing still to obey part of that sentence about giving a tithe but not the part about burnt offerings. Something is wrong with that. Either we obey all of the laws God gave to the Israelites or none of the laws God gave to the Israelites. It is not a menu that we just get to pick out the ones we want to obey. There are a whole host of things we would have to start doing differently if we really wanted to start obeying the laws God gave to the Israelites. Read some of them for yourself and you'll see what I mean. The biggest problem is that the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ would have no benefit for you since you would still be trying to obey the laws that all point to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. ( Matthew chapter 5 verse 17). Old Covenant GivingIn the section titled "Robbing God" I stated that tithing was not God's 'best'. What I mean is that tithing was not God's choice when it came time for the important task of building first the tabernacle and later the temple. Tithing was started as the way for the Levite tribe to have income as they maintained the tabernacle (also for strangers, widows and orphans) and later the temple and serviced it since they were not given any land and therefore had no other income. The Israelites failed God often and their willingness to tithe changed just as often. Tithing was instituted for the tabernacle not for a church building. There was only one place for Israelites to worship God. New Covenant Christians are not limited to worshipping God at one location, on one day of the week, and in certain prescribed ceremonies. We are free to worship God anytime, anywhere, and without prescribed ceremonies. So what does the Bible teach is God's best as far as giving money is concerned? Freewill offerings is what I maintain is God's best way of having his people give. Not tithing. This is demonstrated on at least two very significant occasions in the Old Testament and is the only way demonstrated for giving in the New Testament. What is freewill offerings? Freewill offerings is simply giving what you are willing to give. It means that there is no certain percentage involved. Everyone is asked and you just bring what you are willing to give. The leadership does not set an individual target at all. You bring the amount that you can cheerfully give. You give the amount that you can enjoy giving. That's all there is to it. I'll explain more of that in the section titled 'New Covenant Giving'. The first example of freewill offerings I want to point out is demonstrated in Exodus 35 and 36:1-7. Moses asked the people for offerings of all kinds including people using their skills to help build the tabernacle, make the decorations, weave the material, and set the precious stones that were donated. The people gave and gave and gave. They gave so much that Moses had to ask them to stop giving because the craftsmen had more than enough to finish the job! The people were giving cheerfully! The other incident I want to mention has to do with preparations for building the temple. The temple was to be the most important building in all Israel yet God did not count on tithes to build it. King David was gathering building materials and gifts so his son Solomon could get started building the temple. First, King David contributed, 1 Chronicles 29:2-5. Then he invited others to give 1 Chronicles 29:6-9 and the people gave willingly and rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders. King David and the people were not giving tithes. They gave freely and wholeheartedly. Like the first incident I mentioned, the people gave cheerfully. The fact that they gave cheerfully is important. In the New Testament, 2 Cor 9:7, we are directed to give cheerfully too. As I study tithing and compare it to giving freely, the cheerfulness comes with giving freely. Freewill giving is the way God wants Christians to give now. Robbing GodRobbing God! (Malachi Chapter 3 verses 8 -11) To me, this was the most intimidating scripture about tithing in the whole Bible. I had my doubts in the early 1980's about whether to 'tithe' or not but when my pastor quoted those scriptures I immediately started 'tithing'. It wasn’t 'tithing' for the right reasons but God blessed me anyway. I had sat down before I started 'tithing' to try to determine how much I could give to the church. I determined there was no way that I could afford to give 10% of my income - or so I thought. After having Malachi explained to me I started 'tithing' not out of respect for God but rather because I was afraid God was going to destroy all my stuff. In spite of my poor reasons, God blessed me so I had enough to pay my all my bills and 'tithe'. God was making my money stretch to cover all my needs. It was great! I used to think back often on how God brought me through those days but in the last several years I have not focused on the past as much. Instead I’m enjoying what God is doing in my life now. God blessed me as I 'tithed' because he honors faith. I was able to pay my bills and 'tithe' and I thought that was great! I made the same mistake I believe a lot of people make and that is to think that it is our faithful 'tithing' that brings us his blessings. It is our faith in him that brings some of his blessings. Some we get just because we are alive. The Bible teaches that the rain falls and the sun rises on the good and the bad so there is a certain amount of blessings everybody gets no matter if they 'tithe' or not. (Matt 5:44-45) What we need to understand is that as New Covenant believers God gave us a simple promise that if you give a little you will be blessed a little and if you give a lot you will be blessed a lot. (2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 6). When we look to satisfy our requirements to give by giving 10%, we limit what the amount of blessing we can receive from God. The promises for paying tithes under the law God gave to the Israelites are not as great as what we can receive from God as New Covenant believers. That is not to say that you have to give more than 10% in order to get into greater blessing. Remember that the intention of our heart is more important than the dollar amount we give. (2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 12) Also remember what Jesus told the woman who only gave two small coins. (Mark 12:41-44). The poor woman's gift is NOT an example for poor Christians to follow. Be sure to read The Truth About the Widow's Gift. 'Tithing' is not God’s best for his New Covenant church. Tithing was wasn't ‘the best’ for the Old Covenant church either! Be sure to read Old Covenant Giving. God through his prophets told of a time when people who were not Israelites (Gentiles, meaning the rest of us) would be given the (gospel) good news also. We were to receive a better covenant than what he had for the Israelites. We were not to be bound by the law. Galatians chapter 3 verse 13 tells us we have been redeemed from the law. We’ve been given freedoms that the Israelites did not have. For example, each one of us can have a relationship with God ourselves without going through a priest as the Israelites had to do under the Old Covenant. The average Israelite person did not have the freedom to have a relationship with God themselves. God was only active in the lives of prophets, priests, judges, and some kings. Just like the other scriptures that provided the law for the Israelites, the writers include a phrase or sentence indicating to whom they are speaking. The same is true about the scripture in Malachi. The command about tithing and the blessings too were not directed to New Covenant believers! Let’s go back to Malachi chapter 3 starting at verse 6 and read carefully. ".... descendants of Jacob,..... Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees". That tells that God is talking to the descendants of Jacob. New Covenant Christians are descendants of Jacob in a spiritual sense but God was speaking in a literal sense meaning he was speaking to the people right there at the time not many many generations later. Verse 9 continues in the same thought "You are under a curse - the whole nation of you...." New Covenant Christians are not a nation in the same sense. New Covenant Christians are referred to in 1 Peter 2:9 as a "...holy nation..." which people become a part of by rebirth (by being born again) and not by natural birth. New Covenant Christians do not have to 'tithe' in order to please God. For those of you that still have some questions about this passage then read on. Here's more evidence of what I have already stated that God is not directing any of the laws he originally gave to the Israelites to New Covenant Christians. In verse 10, God talks about opening the windows of heaven. In order to open the windows of heaven they first have to be closed! That is not the situation that New Covenant believers find ourselves in now. Ephesians Chapter 1 verse 3 says "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Many Christians either don’t realize what this means or don’t know how to have more blessings of God in their life. That’s a separate problem. The point I want to make is that the windows of heaven are not closed to New Covenant believers. A similar scripture is found in 2 Peter.
Participating in God's 'divine nature' is NOT dependent on a person's 'tithe'!! God is NOT sitting around waiting for Christians to 'tithe' before blessing them. So maybe you want to continue to hold onto your belief and say that Christians are a ‘spiritual nation’ and therefore Malachi is still talking to us now. You are certainly free to believe that. But before you do let’s look at he blessings that God promised in Malachi chapter 3 verses 10 and 11. It may seem like a great blessing but it really isn’t. To understand this scripture you have to continue reading through to verse 15. The Israelites had said that there was no point in serving God. They said evil people were prospering and serving God was of no benefit. They had stopped expecting anything from God. They did not have big expectations of a great crop. In other words, their storehouses were not very big and for those that were big, the building were not in good repair. I can’t quote scripture about the condition of their buildings but if you look at these scriptures carefully you will recognize the conditions of their hearts. Their hearts were not into serving God. In their hearts, they had determined that serving God was a waste of time. So God promised only one kind of blessing to them for their obedience to the law of tithing. He was going to bless their crops if they brought their tithes into the storehouse. We should be generous with the poor but we are not robbing God if we do not tithe. You sin if you are selfish towards those in need. Before the LawOk, so maybe you agree that Christians are not supposed to 'tithe' because of the law God gave to the Israelites. Maybe you think Christians should still 'tithe' because 'tithing came before the law'! Let's take a look at that reasoning. There certainly are a couple of recorded incidents in the Bible that occurred before the law was given to the Israelites. One was Genesis 14:17-20 where Abram, after rescuing his nephew Lot from Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, gave Melchizedek king of Salem a tenth of everything that he plundered (Hebrews 7:4). Abraham did this one time. If it is OK to use this as an example of some universal never-changing truth that Christians should be practicing today then on that premise, today's Christians should be practicing everything that occurred before the law! I really don't believe that makes sense and neither does it make sense for teachers today to just cite one thing that Abraham did before the law was given to the Israelites and attempt to make that some sort of 'God wants everyone to do it forever law.' Be sure to read The Truth About Abram's Gift!! The other incident is recorded in Genesis 28:20-22 where Jacob made a vow promising to give God a tenth of all he has if God will be with him and watch over him on this journey. I have not heard anyone teach that Christians should give God a tithe only if various things work out right. By the way, I also believe it is right not to teach that. It is the Genesis 14:17-20 verses that many use to justify teaching that Christians should be 'tithing' now. A variety of reasons are given including some who state that the king Melchizedek was actually Jesus. I won't get into that debate because whether it was or was not Jesus does not dictate what amount of giving God would be pleased receiving from you and I now. Be sure to read Study of Hebrews. Most who hold this position seem to believe 'tithing' is the right thing to do simply because it came before the law God gave to the Israelites. It certainly did but why stop there? If we want to settle this issue on the basis of time - what came first - then I think we have to continue to go back in time. The first time an offering to God by humans is mentioned is in Genesis 4:3-7. Cain brought some of the things he had grown from the soil as an offering to the Lord while Able brought fat portions from some of his flock. We are told that God was pleased with Abel's offering and He was not pleased with Cain's offering. God said to Cain in verse 7 "...If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" For sure both Cain and Able knew what they were supposed to do and that was to sacrifice the fat of firstborn animals to God. So I maintain that if we want to settle this issue on the basis of what came first then we're back to sacrificing animals. I just don't believe that's what God is looking for from us right now. I believe that what he wants from us now is clearly outlined in many New Covenant scriptures that I teach about in New Covenant Giving.
|
No
More Tithing