In the religious world today we have some preachers and church leaders who are preaching
and teaching that the scriptures in Malachi 3:8, 9 applies to the church today,
"Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?
In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation."
While i do believe that tithing is a good example
of how we should set aside the first fruits of all our income in order to help support the work of the gospel and kingdom
of God, i do not believe that the church in the New Testament had any command or instruction given by the apostles or
the Lord Jesus Christ to continue the practice of tithing as it was performed under the Old Testament Law.
What they have done (knowingly
or unknowingly) is they have pulled this scripture out of it's context. God told the prophet Malachi to deliver
that message specifically to the nation of Israel at that particular time because tithing was made part of the Law of Moses
in the book of Leviticus 27th chapter. And we know that the Law of the Old Testament was based on curses if you disobey
and blessings if you obeyed the laws and ordinances God gave to Moses for the children of Israel to keep. Contrary
to what these false prophets are teaching, the apostle Paul specifically warned the church in the New Testament against
being brought back under the bondage of the Law. We should not use the works of the Laws of Moses as a means
of being justified or declared righteous in the sight of God.
"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, THE JUST SHALL
LIVE BY FAITH. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, CURSED
IS EVERY ONE THAT HANGETH ON A TREE: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that
we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Galatians 3:11-14 KJV
How can a person be saved if they put themselves back under
the bondage of keeping the Law as a means of being justified in God's sight? The Holy Scriptures make it clear that
if you believe that you must keep one of the requirements of the Law (such as tithing) in order to be justified or declared
righteous in the sight of God, then you must keep all of the requirements of the Mosaic law in order to be justified and declared
righteous in the sight of God. Jesus Christ alone paid the price for our justification and He is our righteousnous in
the sight of God. You cannot be saved if you believe Malachi 3:8, 9 applies to the church today:
"Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you,
that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that
he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law;
ye are fallen from grace." Galatians 5:1-4 KJV
There is nothing wrong with tithing (which means to give one tenth of your income to the work of
the gospel), but it is not the only method that one can use to give to the kingdom of God. The bible teaches that we should give
the first fruits of all our income to the Lord. Some church leaders have deceptively made it a law or church commandment
and will tell you that if you are not tithing then God will not bless you financially and that you are under a curse, this
is not true.
In 2009 I had a meeting with the pastor of a local church that I had been a member of for about
a year. I was concerned and had questions about some of the things that I saw going on at the church and about
a message that the pastor preached where he stated that some members of the church were not being blessed financially by God
because they were not "tithers". My wife and I went to the private meeting with the pastor and assistant pastor.
The pastor began to attack me calling me a "hypocrite" and saying that I was not qualified to question him.
He then pulled out my records of what I had given to the church during the year and stated that I had not been giving as much
as I should have been giving. Finally, he angrily told me that I was not welcome to come back to his church in the future.
I asked to be taken off the role as a member and my wife and I did not go back anymore after that.
According to
the Scriptures in the New Testament of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Himself said:
"Give, and [gifts] will be given you, good measure, pressed down shaken together and running
over will they pour into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you
deal out - that is, with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others - it will be measured back to you."
Luke 6:38 Amplified Bible
Jesus said,
"Therefore
if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift
before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
Matthew 5: 23, 24 KJV
Why did'nt Jesus say that
we should bring our tithes to the altar?
The Bible states what pure
religion is in God the Father's sight:
"If anyone thinks himself to be religious (piously observant of the external duties of his faith) and
does not bridle his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person's religious service is worthless (futile, barren).
External religious worship [religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God
the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself
unspotted and uncontaminated from the world." James 1: 26, 27 Amplfiied Bible
Job was a righteous man according to the Bible who
was blessed by God with riches and prosperity but, there is no mention of him tithing in the Bible. King Solomon who
is generally thought of as being one of the wisest men in the Bible (aside from Jesus Christ) and he also wrote the Proverbs
which are found in the Bible, however, there is nothing said about tithing in his writings. Although he did write on
the subject of prosperity and giving and had this to say:
"Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So
shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." Proverbs 3: 9, 10
KJV
If God meant for tithing
to be a commandment for the church, then why is there no instructions given by the Lord Jesus or the apostles to do so? It
would seem reasonable that if tithing was a command that the church was supposed to continue to practice as it was done
under the Law of Moses then there would be at least one example in the New Testament of Christ or one of His disciples paying
tithes. It is a fact that they did go to the temple and worship often. Why is there no example of any of
Christ's disciples paying tithes? Jesus told John that He needed to be baptized to set the example for all those
who would follow Him so why is there no example of Jesus paying tithes if it were a command or law that the church should
continue to obey as it was done under the Law of Moses?
In the book of Acts we read of the begining of the early church but, there is no examples of anyone
tithing. We do know that they had money because we read that Judas Iscariot was the treasurer of Jesus and the disciple's
group.
"...Now
he did not say this because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief; and having the bag (the money box, the purse
of the Twelve), he took for himself what was put into it [pilfering the collections]." John 12: 6 Amplified
Bible
Jesus said,
"I was with you daily in the temple [porches
and courts] teaching, and you did not seize Me..." Mark 14: 49 Amplified Bible
"Therefore those who accepted and welcomed
his message were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls...and they sold their possessions (both their landed
property and their movable goods) and distributed the price among all, according as any had need. And day after day
they regularly assembled in the temple with united purpose, and in their homes they broke bread..." Acts
2: 41-46 Amplified Bible
The apostle Paul was responsible for writing much of the instructions and commands
of the Lord Jesus for the early Christian converts in the New Testament. He, among the rest of the twelve apostles of
the Lord, would have been uniquely qualified to discuss the subject of tithing because he was a Pharisee before he was
converted to Christianity by direct revelation from God while on his way to persecute Christians. The Pharisees were
a religious group who prided themselves in their strict observance of the Law of Moses. They were the ones who criticized
Jesus about breaking the law of the Sabbath when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath day. Jesus had this to say about
the Pharisees:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith:
these ought yeto have done, and not to leave the other undone." Matt. 23:23 KJV
The reason why Jesus
told them that they should not "to leave the other undone" (meaning that they should have been tithing) was because
at that time Israel was still under the Law of Moses and God's new covenant with His people was not yet established.
The Lord Jesus had not yet suffered and been crucified on the cross at Calvary to offer Himself as the payment for our sins.
"[Christ, the Messiah] is therefore the Negotiator and Mediator of an [entirely] new agreement (testament, covenant),
so that those who are called and offered it may receive the fulfillment of the promised everlasting inheritance-since a death
has taken place which rescues and delivers and redeems them from the transgressions committed under the [old] first agreement.
For where there is a [last] will and testament involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a
will and testament is valid and takes effect only at death, since it has no force or legal power as long as the one who made
it is alive." Hebrews 9:15-17 Amplified Bible
Many of the apostle Paul's letters were written
to Gentile believers in Christ who would not necessarily have been familiar with the Jewish laws on tithing, as well as the
other laws and ordinances of the Mosaic covenant. If tithing was to be continued as it was under the Mosaic Law, then
why did'nt Paul have anything to say about it in his letters to the churches??? He had nothing to say about the
subject of tithing, however, most ministers today preach and teach tithing and believe that Malachi 3:8,9 applies to the New
Testament church. Also, it is interesting to note that the one reference to tithing in the New Testament where it is
addressed to believers in Christ is in the book of Hebrews. The writer to the book of Hebrews is unknown because it
does not say who wrote it. In all of the apostle Paul's writings in the New Testament he acknowledges that
he is the one writing the letter. We are not given any command to continue tithing in the book of Hebrews.
Tithing is discussed in this letter in relationship to who our High Priest is (Jesus) in the New Testament
compared to who Melchizedek (High Priest) was in the Old Testament. Because the letter to the Hebrews was written
to new Jewish converts to Christianity they would have been familiar with the Old Testament story of Abraham and Melchizedek
and the Law of Moses. The book of Hebrews is obviously written to help the new Jewish converts to the Christian
faith better understand and comprehend who Jesus Christ is and this book of the Bible will especially helpful now in
these last days as God is bringing the Jewish people and the nation of Israel as a whole back into the focus of His redemptive
plan for the church. God has promised that He will "remove the blindness from Israel's eyes so that they will
be able to know that Jesus Christ whom they (in the past) rejected is both Lord and Christ, the Saviour (see Romans 11:17-32).
In his instructions to the early church, the apostle Paul made it
clear how the Christian is to give:
"Let
each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion,
for God loves (that is, He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful
(joyous, prompt-to-do-it) giver - whose heart is in his giving." II Corinthians 9: 7 Amplified Bible
Some church leaders will try to teach you that you
must give in order to be blessed but, the Word of God tells us that we are already blessed because of our faith in Jesus Christ
and so we give because we have already been blessed and God promised that He would:
"And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance,
so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require
no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation]...And [God] Who provides seed for
the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing and increase the fruits of your
rightiousness [which manifests itself in active goodness, kindness, and charity]...For the service that the ministering of
this fund renders does not only fully supply what is lacking to the saints (God's people), but it also overflows in many
[cries of] thanksgiving to God." II Corinthians 9: 8-12 Amplified Bible
The apostle Paul told the early church plainly that our hope
and expectations are laid up in heaven with Christ Jesus and that the rewards for our service to God will be manifested unto
us in the resurrection when Christ returns.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ...That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth...In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His Own will...ye were sealed with that holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His
glory...That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus." Ephesians 1:3-2:7 KJV
However, the prosperity preachers will say that if you are a tithing Christian you are supposed
to be rich and have an abundance of material possessions and enjoy the finer things in life and the pleasures this world has
to offer. They will vainly point to Abraham as an example of what God wants to do for all His children; because God
made Abraham rich they will say that you are supposed to be rich also, but what does Jesus say
about this type of theology?
"Will
any man of you who has a servant ;lowing or tending sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and
take your place at the table?...Even so on your part, when you have done everything that was assigned and commanded you, say,
We are unworthy servants [possessing no merit, for we have not gone beyond our obligation; we have [merely] done what was
our duty to do." Luke 17: 7-10 Amplified Bible
The apostle Paul warned the church at Philipi about those who live their lives not for the gospel
of Christ but, do live lives in the self-indulgence and pleasures this world has to offer.
"Brethren, together follow my example and observe
those who live after the pattern we have set for you. For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell
you even with tears, who walk (live) as enemies of the cross of Christ (the Anointed One). They are doomed and their
fate is eternal misery (perdition); their god is their stomach (their appetites, their sensuality) and they glory in their
shame, siding with earthly things and being of their party." Philippians 3: 17-19 Amplified Bible
It is clear that we must follow Christ's example
in how He lived and also the apostle's doctrine gives us instructions and commands on Christian conduct and behavior.
Paul the apostle said,
"As
you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union
with and conformity to Him...See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so
called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's
ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings
of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah)." Colossians 2: 6-8 Amplified
Bible
For more info on this very important subject please read the chapter
in my book titled, "Gospel of prosperity or cloak of covetousness".
