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This is Part VII 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).

Does God ask Israel to bring all the Tithes and offerings into the storehouse, or treasury, or granary, so that there will be “tithes and offerings in Mine house?” No. God says so, “that there may be meat in Mine house?”  We know that they did not bring the tithes and offerings into the holy place of the tabernacle. Only bread was kept in the holy place. The “bread” in the holy place was a type of something future just as everything that happened to Israel and all of their tithes, offerings and ceremonies were a type of something future (I Corinthians. 10:11). One must indeed be spiritually blind who cannot see that the “bread” in the holy place foreshadows “The True Bread of Life—Jesus Christ.”

Ask a pastor of any church, “How do I obey the prophecy of Malachi to stop “robbing God of His tithes and offerings?” He or she will tell you to write a tithe check in the name of the church, for 10% of your income (plus an offering), and that check will then be deposited into the church bank account.  Then ask these same pastors or clergy what kind of blessings you will receive for obeying this practice by providing your tithes.  They will probably tell you stories where people received huge amounts of material goods and even huge amounts of more money. This is their interpretation of God “opening the windows of heaven and pouring out a blessing” simply because you paid your tithes.

Is this really how God wants us of the 21^st Century to apply Malachi’s prophecy to our lives recognizing that this prophecy has absolutely nothing to do with tithes of money to the Church?  Does God even suggest somewhere in this prophecy that there isn’t enough “money in His house?” Is Jesus Christ coming back to judge these “priests” because the “people” failed to bring tithes to the storehouse so that there would be money in God’s house? Is it a lack of money that concerns God in this prophecy? No, it is both the people and the priests who have corrupted themselves according to this prophecy. Remember, God holds the priests to a much higher standard and therefore they receive the greater condemnation. There appears to be two groups of judgments in the Malachi prophecy:

“Behold I will send My Messenger…But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Malachi. 3:1-3).

“And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:5).

Members of the clergy make most people think that the only thing of value in the Book of Malachi are the three verses on “robbing God” and “receiving a blessing.” There are four chapters in Malachi.  Here are a few additional things in Malachi:

“You offer polluted bread upon My altar… if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil…” (1:7-8).

“And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you… I will curse your blessings… Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your face…” (2:1-3).

“But you have departed out of the way… ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi… therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people…” (2:8-9).

“Behold, I will send my Messenger… But who may abide the day of His coming… He is like a refiner’s fire…And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi… that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (3:13).

“And He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (4:6)

To summarize Malachi, the Priests despised God’s name, and their sacrifices are blind, sick and lame. And so God says He will not even accept their offering. The people provides tithes but the quality of their tithes was of an unacceptable quality. But was it this poor quality of sacrifices that really angered God? Not really. The sick and lame sacrifices were a symptom of a much larger problem. It appears that God used their polluted sacrifices only as a physical, visual illustration to show them their sins and polluted hearts. For much of the remainder of this book, God unfolds their many sins and weaknesses.

PART VIII TOMORROW

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This is Part VI of the article 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).

Where did this unscriptural law of Christian tithing come from in the first place?  Here is a bit of history from the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Tithes in Christendom—The earliest authentic example of anything like a law of the state enforcing payment appears to occur in the capitularies [ecclesiasticals] of Charlemagne at the end of the 8^th or beginning of the 9^th century. Tithes were by that enactment to be applied to the maintenance of the bishop, clergy, the poor, and the fabric of the church. In the course of time the principle of payment of tithes was extended far beyond its original intention. Thus they became transferable to laymen and saleable like ordinary property, in spite of the injunctions of the third Lateran Council; and they became payable out of sources of income [not just farming and herding, but other trades and occupations and salaries paid in the form of money] not originally tithable.” (1963, volume 2, page 253, ‘TITHES’).

Here is how tithing got back into the Church after being absent for nearly five centuries:  “As the Church expanded and various institutions arose, it became necessary to make laws which would insure the proper and permanent support of the clergy.  The payment of tithes was adopted from the Old Law…The earliest positive legislation on the subject seems to be contained in the letter of the bishops assembled at Tours in 567 and the [canons] of the Council of Macon in 585.”—The Catholic Encyclopedia.

They “extended” their base of tithe collecting to eventually include all forms of income. All Christian scholars know that although money was in wide use in ancient Israel, it was never a tithing commodity. But modern Christian pastors don’t want tithes of goats or oil or corn—they want money. There is a Word to the “shepherds of the sheep,” and it is the very same message that God had for the Levites in Malachi:

“My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.” (Jeremiah. 50:6).

Most Christians are not aware that many are being lead astray by their spiritual leaders.  It is the book of Malachi that today’s clergy uses as their main authority for promulgating the doctrine of “Christian tithing.” Christian tithing means that everyone must give 10% of their gross income or they will be “cursed with a curse.” Usually we hear only three verses of Malachi quoted by those attempting to justify Christian tithing from this prophecy.

Here are the “cursing” verses:  “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” (Malachi 3:8-9).

Here is the “blessing” verse: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).

The interpretation of these proof texts by some clergy are: Rob God of His ten percent of your income and be “cursed,” or pay God ten percent of your income and be “blessed.”  Why does some clergy use “scare tactics” to support tithing demands?

Who is really cursing whom in the Malachi prophecy?  Does God really say, “You are cursed with a curse” as stated in Malachi 3:9?  This surely sounds as if God is doing the cursing!  But have you noticed in your King James Bible that the word “are” is in italics? That means that the word was supplied by the translators and was not in the original manuscripts. Remove it, and the verse says: “You cursed…” rather than “You are cursed…” Thus, this verse could say “With a curse you curse Me, and Me you are defrauding—the nation, all of it.”

We must always keep in mind that when the Bible says “tithes” it means products from the land—as grains and cattle.  But when modern clergy says “tithes,” it always means money.  Because the clergy prefers to be paid in money, it became necessary to change the Biblical use of the word “tithes” to include money.  And if “money” can now be shown to be a tithing commodity, every Christian of every occupation is now required to pay ten percent of his or her income to the Church.

PART VII TOMORROW

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This is Part V of the article on the 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).

Of the hundreds of laws contained in the first five books of the Bible, why is it that in addition to the Ten Commandments, “tithing” is the only other law that modern pastors and other clergy try to retain?  As previously noted, they retain it in name only because the only similarity between Moses “law of tithing” and “Christian tithing” is the ten percent. Christian tithing was never practiced by the New Testament Church.  In fact, God doesn’t need or want ten percent of anything we have. God wants one hundred percent. Christ died for all of us, and He wants all of us, not just a percentage!  God doesn’t want our money; He wants us!  We are already bought and paid for in full by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.  We are now to live on a standard far above what we ever knew before Christ called us to become new creatures in the spirit. This can only be done through the Holy Spirit. Our flesh is profiting nothing.

“Yet you are not in flesh, but in spirit, if so be that God’s spirit is making its home in you” (Romans 8:9).

The Apostle Paul was not called to “baptize,” “circumcise,” or “collect tithes.” The kingdom of God is not food and drink.  If we must give something to God, something physical, we should follow what Paul says in Romans 12:1-2:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove that is that good and acceptable and perfect, will of God”

Paul tells us in II Corinthians 9:7 that:  “Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

We should be very careful not to give to televangelists or others who peddle the Word of God for money, and the amount of money they extort from the public is huge. Exactly, what do they do with all that money?  Is the majority of the money collected used for feeding the sick, comforting the homeless, and other ministries, or for their own personal gratification?

“Never have SO MANY… accomplished SO LITTLE … with SO MUCH!”

Paul tells us in Acts 20:35: “to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.”  We should also give to the fatherless, the orphans, the strangers, the widows, the poor, the needy, the homeless, and the beggar on the street, as God gives the means to us.  We should also give to reputable charities if we are able and to our family members, relatives and others in need.

Jesus’ followers did not pay a tithe to Him from farm products or herds; neither did His followers pay Him ten percent of their income. “Christian tithing” is actually a contradiction of words.  As Christians, I believe that we have been sold a “bill of goods” into believing that “Christian tithing” is a Scriptural command from God Himself and can easily be found and supported in the pages of Scripture.  I have not found any such evidence.

Pastors and other clergy teach Christian tithing as needful; they teach it as though it were a divine, compulsory law.  There is no such thing as a “Christian tithing law” in the New Testament Scriptures. It is heresy (e.g., belief or opinion contrary to Christian doctrine.)  Pastors and other clergy warn Christians that failure to pay this 10% tithe will cause them to be “cursed with a curse!”

There is Scriptural evidence that no such law or custom as Christian tithing was taught or even practiced by the apostles.  As previously mentioned, if it was so significant that one could be cursed for not engaging in it, why didn’t Jesus or even the apostles teach it?  The epistles are completely void of any such tithing custom or law.  Gentile converts were never taught to tithe.

In Acts 15, we find outlined what the apostles all agreed was necessary for the newly converted Gentiles to practice, and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tithing was not included.  However, one of the very first legislated duties taught to Christians by pastors and other clergy today is that they must tithe ten percent of their income to the Church.

Tomorrow, we will learn where Christian Tithing came from in the first place.

PART VI TOMORROW

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