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This is Part VIII of the article on Tithes, entitled,  “Is Tithing a Biblical Requirement Today.” Because of the extensive Biblical research involved, it will be posted in 15 Parts.  Although this subject may be controversial, the Bible tells us to, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15).  “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32).

Peter describes the New Testament church in the latter days:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you” (II Peter 2:1-3).

Everything that happened in the Old Testament was a type of future, spiritual things.

“Now ALL these things happened unto them for examples: and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Corinthians 10:11).

Malachi is no different. The people of Israel tithed sick, lame, and diseased animals to Levi. The Priests took those evil beasts and offered them as sacrifices to God. The reason that the people and the priests offered sick sacrifices is because they themselves were sick and polluted with sins. Isaiah describes them well:

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more, the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it…” (Isaiah 1:4-5).

Here is what the purpose of the tithe was:

“And the Levite, (because he has no part nor inheritance with you), and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do” (Deut. 14:29).

In their tithe messages, pastors and other clergy do not teach the following:

• The tradesmen, who made the baskets for harvesting, did not tithe.
• The cobblers, who made the shoes for the servants of the field, did not tithe.
• The carpenters, who made the wagons used for harvesting the fields, did not tithe.
• The potters, who made the jugs for carrying water to the servants in the fields, did not tithe.
• The women, who made the garments for the field-workers, did not tithe.
• And certainly, the servants who worked in the fields for wages, did not tithe.

Here are the facts on the Biblical teaching of tithing:

ONLY LANDOWNERS TITHED

ONLY PRODUCTS OF THE LAND WERE TITHED

ONLY LEVITES COULD RECEIVE THE TITHES

TITHING WAS A LAW OF MOSES

CHRISTIANS ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES

GIVING IS VOLUNTARY

The New Testament teachings on giving are simple and involve the heart and not a law:

“…freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8b).

“Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you turn not thou away” (Matt. 5:42).

“Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over…” (Luke 6:38).

“I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

“But this I say, He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver” (II Cor. 9:6-7).

“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and worse than an infidel.” (1 Timothy 5:8)

How should church bills and expenses be paid if the people don’t tithe?

Why don’t pastors ask their congregation to contribute toward paying the church expenses rather than intimidating them with the curse of Malachi?  It may be because those who teach false doctrine to exact money illegally from their congregation apparently do not have enough faith to trust their people to contribute voluntarily out of love.

Most pastors see two options:

1. Teach that people will be cursed if they don’t tithe ten percent of their annual income;  or
2. Trust God in faith to provide the money from voluntary gifts given from the heart.

Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to declare that “God loves a cheerful giver” (II Corinthians 9:7).  Why doesn’t Paul mention the words tithe, tithes, or tithing in any of His epistles?  Why doesn’t Peter, James, John, or Jude mention tithing in any of their epistles?  Why didn’t the early Christian Fathers mention tithing as a doctrine of the New Testament Church?  Why are thousands of evangelists, theologians, teachers, preachers, and clergy people teaching their congregations that if they don’t tithe ten percent of their income, God will curse them with a curse?

PART IX TOMORROW

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Cain’s 9-9-9 Tax Plan is so radical because of the potential impact on taxpayers. Currently, nearly half of the taxpayers do not pay income taxes but pay their share of payroll taxes which amounts to 7.65 percent of wage income. Cain’s plan eliminates the earned-income tax credit which is intended to lift working Americans out of poverty. Many of these workers currently receive tax refunds.

On paper Cain’s plan promises a tax cut but millions of lower-income Americans would face tax increases. People in high tax brackets, 28 percent and higher, would likely see big tax cuts because the Cain plan also eliminates estate taxes and capital gains taxes, which mostly affect higher-income people.

The bottom line is that Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan raises taxes on 84 percent of U.S. households, according to an independent analysis released recently, contradicting claims by Cain that most Americans would see a tax cut.  The Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, says low and middle income families would be hit hardest, with households making between $10,000 and $20,000 seeing their taxes increase by nearly 950 percent.  Households with the highest incomes, however, would get big tax cuts. Those making more than $1 million a year would see their taxes cut nearly in half, on average, according to the analysis.  Middle American households making between $40,000 and $50,000 would see their taxes increase by an average of $4,400, the report said. Those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would see their annual tax bill go up by an average of $4,326.

Cain disputed the analysis during the Las Vegas GOP presidential debate but acknowledged that although taxes would increase for some, taxes would decrease for most.  “It does not raise taxes on those that are making the least,” Cain said. ”  “The reason that our plan is being attacked so much is because lobbyists, accountants, politicians, they don’t want to throw out the current tax code and put in something that’s simple and fair,” Cain said. “They want to continue to be able to manipulate the American people with a 10 million-word mess.”

President Obama recently told ABC News that Cain’s tax plan would impose a “huge burden” on middle-class and working families. The President said Cain’s plan would make sure the wealthiest pay less and replace that revenue with a sales tax hitting the less well-off.

Cain also said his plan would initially raise as much money as the current tax system but do it more efficiently, leading to economic growth, which would produce higher tax revenues. The Tax Policy Center analysis agreed that the plan would initially raise about the same amount of money as current tax policy, about $2.55 trillion in 2013.  The Tax Policy Center compared taxes on U.S. households under current tax policy with those imposed under the Cain plan. In using current tax policy, the analysis assumes that the Bush tax cuts would be extended through 2012 by President Obama.  The center did a separate analysis that assumed all the Bush-era tax cuts would expire at the end of 2012. Under that scenario, Cain’s plan would still impose higher taxes on 77 percent of U.S. households, the report

When pressed for the name of his economic adviser, Cain recently admitted that Rich Lowrie of Cleveland was his “lead economist” who helped develop the 9-9-9” plan. “He is an economist, and he has worked in the business of wealth creation most of his career,” Cain said.  However, according to Lowrie’s Linked-In profile, he has a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from Case Western Reserve University, not economics. In an email, Lowrie, said he did not consider himself an economist, just “senior economic adviser” to the Cain campaign.  I wonder is Lowrie played the SimCity game in coming up with the 9-9-9 plan?

Is Herman Cain a viable Presidential candidate for the Republican Party?  Probably not even though he is leading in many of the polls.  In my view, the Republican Party is in such disarray that a satisfactory candidate has not yet emerged and Cain is currently just an alternative to Perry, Bachmann and Romney, but that’s just my take.

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One of the rising stars in the Republican Party appears to be Herman Cain.  He is the former chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, and former chairman and deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.  In 2004, Cain ran for the U.S. Senate in Georgia and sought the Republican nomination facing Mac Collins in the primary. Collins tried to paint Cain as a moderate citing Cain’s support for affirmative action programs.  Cain argued that he was a conservative, noting that he opposed abortion except when the mother’s life is threatened. Cain finished second in the primary.

Cain recently made several statements that, in my opinion, will further prevent him from achieving the Republican nomination as its presidential candidate.  For example:

His idea for an electric fence on the Mexican border
Cain recently said that if he was elected President, he would put an electric fence on the Mexican border that would kill illegal immigrants trying to cross. Cain later insisted he was joking but after meeting with Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Cain flip-flopped again revisiting the border fence idea saying that, yes, “it might be electrified.”

His foreign policy
Cain says he’s a businessman, not a career politician. But his lack of foreign policy experience has enabled some uncomfortable interview moments.  On a recent issue of “Meet the Press,” Cain didn’t know how to respond on the “neoconservative movement” even though it was the standard behind the Bush administration’s insistent foreign policy. “I’m not sure what you mean by neoconservative,” Cain told host David Gregory. And on Fox News Sunday earlier this year, Cain seemed confused by the controversial and well-known idea of the Palestinian “right of return” to Israeli territory. Cain said, “Yes. They should have a right to come back if that is a decision that Israel wants to make.”

His SimCity tax problem
Cain’s most familiar policy proposal is his 9-9-9 plan which calls for a flat 9 percent corporate, income, and national sales tax.  Cain’s plan, however, is almost exactly the same as the default tax plan in SimCity 4, a 2003 computer game in which a player is the “mayor” of a fictitious city.  So much for creativity.

His theory about who killed Jesus
December 2010, Cain described Jesus as “the perfect conservative” in a column he wrote for RedState. “He helped the poor without one government program. He healed the sick without a government health care system. He fed the hungry without food stamps.”  “For three years He was unemployed, and never collected an unemployment check.” Then, Cain said, he was sentenced to death by a “liberal court.”

His plan to ban Muslims from his cabinet
Cain stumbled earlier this year partly due to the negative publicity he got when he said he didn’t want Muslims to serve in his administration. Cain “walked it back” a bit when he said that he would insist that Muslims, but not people of other faiths, take an oath of loyalty to the U.S. “That’s not discrimination. It’s called trying to protect the American people,” Cain said, as quoted by CNN. “This nation is under attack constantly by people who want to kill all of us, so I’m going to take extra precaution.” After a flurry of criticism, Cain “walked back” his comments again.

His willingness to negotiate with terrorist
Recently Cain had to retract his remarks regarding his comment that he would free every Guantanamo Bay detainee if it meant saving a single American soldier.  “I could see myself authorizing that kind of transfer,” Cain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. After an avalanche of criticism, Cain reversed himself, saying: “If I said that I spoke in error. Maybe I didn’t understand the question.”

Cain’s “claim to fame” apparently came as a result of his “tea party” rhetoric and his simple tax reform initiative.  As you probably know, Cain’s “9-9-9 tax reform plan” has three taxes:  a 9 percent income tax, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent federal sales tax.  The first two resemble cuts because payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare would be repealed.  The sales tax would be in addition to existing state sales taxes.

PART II TOMORROW

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