Forgive me for not having your “certified professional money and finance minister’s” approach to this subject. I will settle instead to abide by the words of Christ my Prophet in Malachi 3:10; I will continue to follow the humble, godly example of Abraham as he met Christ the King in the King’s dale; the example set by Jacob in gracious devotion to the God who revealed Christ the Priest to him at Bethel; the example of generations of the people of God through the Old Testament economy as they worshiped God from the heart with their tithes and offerings; recognizing that these OT things were written for my learning and guidance (1 Cor 10:11) as I seek to be a “cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7) and support the cause of the gospel today.

The Lord’s Tithe (Levitical tithe) was NEVER on income or money. ONLY on God’s increase of the seed and animals.

Being Spirit led, I find myself giving far more than a mere tenth of my income. I am not against giving, I am against teaching of a mandatory tithe, or even using the tenth as a minimum or guideline. There is no “tenth” teaching in the New Testament.

Pastors have a right to be paid for their services, and this should come from gifts given to the church.

As far as throwing out the command given in scripture, no one is following any one of the tithing commands given in scripture. Man changed God’s Word from tithing on crops and animals to tithing on man’s income, and from taking the tithe to the Levites to taking the tithe to the church. This was done in 1870.

Give, give, and then give even more, if you are able. We can’t out give God. Giving is in my heart. I have sacrificed many times by giving to someone in need rather than use the money for myself. I teach generous, sacrificial giving.

If Christians are properly taught giving and financial stewardship, I believe they would actually give much more than many do today.

You have not answered the points I made and instead return to insist – based on the ‘custom of the day’ – that “Abraham did something wrong if not even illegal” in giving Christ/Melchisidec what he did. Your attitude to Abraham’s interaction with the Son of God beggars belief! This view makes the Saviour complicit in a crime by accepting as an act of worship, what you allege, is stolen property!

“Nowhere in the scriptures did the priests tithe” – weren’t they Levites too? The Levites tithed (Numbers 18:26, Nehemiah 10:38)

“Since the tithe belongs to God, if a pastor accepts it isn’t he stealing it from God?” – Haven’t you read 1 Corinthians 9? Money offered to God is used to support the work of the gospel ministry? The minister of the gospel, by God’s command based on his provision for oxen (v9) and on his provision for the Levites/priests of the Temple, is to be supported by the giving of saints to God. I’m afraid this rather facetious, and somewhat pathetic question shows you in a very poor light.

Looking at your ‘ministry’ I can only assume that you have been grieved by the many financial abuses perpetrated by men who call themselves pastors etc. In many ways I would agree with you in that. I do not believe that tithes should be paid directly to a pastor. However, God’s people support the work of the gospel by their tithes and offerings and the pastor is paid suitably from that. In fact the principle of the OT model does carry over into the NT – but then you ignored what I said about that too! That is the model God has always used to finance His work.

I fear that you have fallen into the snare of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Many so-called Pastors today wickedly abuse their position for financial gain. You want to remedy that by denying the existence of tithing. That is the wrong way! It will never to do to correct the abuses of evil men by removing the command that God has given.

Let’s look closely at Abram’s tithe. First, the goods that Abram gave the tenth from didn’t even belong to Abram:

Genesis 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.

Since the scriptures don’t give any other example of Abraham giving a tenth, we can’t make up some and call it Biblical. We also can’t say that Jacob ever tithed ACCORDING to the scriptures. We also can’t say that Jesus, or Paul, or Peter ever tithed according to the scriptures. We can speculate all we want.

The ONLY example given in the scriptures of tithing before Moses is Abram. ONE example of giving war spoils that according to the scriptures, in Abram’s own words, didn’t belong to him. To say that is a Biblical principle for all times makes no more sense than picking out any other ONE example before Moses and call it a principle for all times. Abram’s tithe wasn’t even carried forward into the law.

Nowhere in the scriptures did the priests tithe, and in the New Testament, born-again believers are a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD.

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 or his gifts. 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?

It seems you know rather more than the rest of us on this subject! “Jesus didn’t tithe”, “Paul didn’t tithe”, “Peter didn’t tithe”. What kind of ex-cathedra knowledge is this?

Nor can you insist that Jacob didn’t tithe. I rather incline to the view that he kept his vow. However, that is not even necessary to the point I was making that Jacob – before Sinai regulation was enacted – recognized that it was an appropriate response to the mercy of God who revealed Christ to him. I think it likely too that what Abraham gave to the Lord on that occasion he did have a legitimate ownership claim to, and that it wasn’t the spoils of war, for he took nothing of what he had recovered. Oh, and the Levites tithed too, Numbers 18:26, Nehemiah 10:38 so it wasn’t just a matter of them getting their share of Canaan.

It seems to me that you base your dismissal of the tithe on the fact that it isn’t referred to specifically after Calvary. How many other things that God has stated in His word that are not referred to post-Calvary do you dismiss? Perhaps you should take a leaf out of Paul’s book in 1 Corinthians 10:9-11 where he deliberately uses a Levitical regulation and applies the principle of it to guide God’s people in their duty to give to cause of God to support the ministry of the local church. After all, as Paul states in that passage: “the things that were written aforetime were written for our learning” – even right until the end of the age.

It is clear from the New Testament – especially from 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 and other passages that Paul expected the believers to contribute financially to various branches of the work of God even as part of their weekly assemblies. His words in this passage at least suggest a specific calculation being employed to determine how much to contribute. There is a clear responsibility resting on God’s people to give financially to support the cause of God. The only specific guidelines ever given in that matter may be summed up in the words of Malachi “tithes and offerings”. I am quite happy to take my guidance on this matter from the clear statements of God on the subject even when they are found in the Old Testament Scriptures so full of the Christ of the new covenant.

Leviticus 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.

Abram gave a tenth of war spoils that didn’t even belong to him.

There is NO scripture to show that Jacob ever tithed. He only made a VOW which contained conditions that God had to meet before Jacob would give a tenth. There is no scripture to show that Jacob ever did, in fact, give a tenth of anything.

There is no teaching of tithing in the scriptures after Calvary.

The surrogate righteousness of Christ imputed to His people is indeed an important part of the gospel as is the demand for a holy obedience to the Law of God in the lives of believers. However, the purpose of this little article was just to deal with the language of I Cor 15:1-4 and is therefore limited in its scope. These issues are dealt with in other articles and sermons which I hope you will read and enjoy.

First I wish to thank you for your scriptural stand in revealing the false gospel that has in these last days swept so many away into perdition, and is now doing so, even as I write. May God bless and strengthen you in your labors.

Second, I’m sure it is only an oversight, but because of the widespread attack on God’s Moral Law in these times (Matt24:12) I thought it good to point out that your article says little or nothing of Christ’s fulfilling God’s perfect Law for us, as a part of His obedience, in working a perfect righteousness to be imputeted to us, in addition to his death on the cross in payment for our sins.

I am sensitive to this, not only because Matt 24:12 emphasizes the importance of Lawlessness in the closing days, as a part of the great “apostacia”, but the “man of sin”, the antichrist, is literally, as you know, the “lawless one” 2Thes8, and, of course, “sin is lawlessness” 1Jn3:4.

My sensitivity is heightened because having spent many years in dispensationalism, Christs death, and justification by faith alone were taught, but Christ’s keeping the Law perfectly for us, as a part of the perfect righousness imputed to us was deemphasized, and the Law as a “schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” and as a rule of life, was totally denied. I was saved by grace alone out of this error by the Spirit of God, “when the commandment came, and I died”, inspite of the anti-Law teaching to which I had been exposed. Interestingly, while I broke many of the commandments, and felt a conviction for them, He never came with great power until I had broken the commandment I had been taught as a Child, totally apart from this church. I believe this was done to emphasize the importance of teaching the Moral Law as a means of conversion, for Ps 19 explicitly states, “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the Soul”.

Thus, the Law, supposedly being for the Jews, and not for the church, was never taught in the church where I was fed false doctrine for years, and sin was thus never seen in it’s infinite enormity, the fall and human nature never seen in it’s total depravity and continuance today, and as a result, the Gospel never seen and felt in it’s infinite, blessing, glory, mercy, and grace, alone. Man’s pride was never seen as it is, and thus never properly humbled, and so a cheapened grace and gospel taught without power to save.

Please do accept these comments in the love and encouragement they are offered, not as criticism, but as the “filling up of a deficiency”, and in the knowledge of my own infirmity and need.

In Him,
gerry