Part 4: “Pastor, I’m giving you my 2 weeks notice”

I needed to speak to another brother in Christ to validate my findings on tithing. I needed to find someone who wouldn’t just spout the "party" line about tithing. You know

"Abraham tithed so that proves it was outside of the OT Law."
"The local church is the local storehouse of Malachi 3:10."
"Preachers are the spiritual successors to the Levites/Priests."
"Tithing is a spiritual principal taught throughout the bible."
(So is a blood sacrifice but Christians don’t need to do that.)

There was one brother who I was friends with that actually used his God given mind to think things through. He was one of the few that didn’t fall for the whole "Y2K Tribulation Panic" that took hold of a lot of believers in 1999. I’ll call him Bro. D to protect his identity.

I invited Bro. D and his wife over for dinner with the intent of sitting down afterwards and going through my print out and all the scriptures. I wanted him to counter me every step of the way and expose my fallacy or heresy, as some would call it. So after dinner Bro. D and I sat down and we started. I warned him that my intent was not to change his mind but for him to change my mind. When we came to the end of the print out I looked up at him and asked him what he thought. He paused and looked up at me and said, "You’re right."

Ok, I needed to regroup. Here was a brother who just validated my conclusions about tithing. I had thoughts of excommunication and inquisition all at the hands of my IFB in-laws. But here I was at a crossroads, facing the Red Pill offered by Morpheus, (No, Morpheus isn’t some sort of demonic character, he’s one of the main characters in The Matrix. A movie about . . . you know what, if you’re a hardcore IFB you’ll never watch it so never mind). So I took the Red Pill. And If I was wrong and the IFB preachers were right, I would meet up with the "devourer". (Hey, read it for yourself in Mal 3.11.) The devourer would cause havoc on my finances, cause my car engine to blow up, my washing machine to go on the fritz and my microwave oven to scorch my popcorn. Well that’s what the IFB preachers told me. So be it. I prayed and talked to God and decided on 5% of my income, and waited, . . .waited for the devourer to knock on my door.

As I waited for "devourer" (sounds like a WWF wrestling character), I continued to teach the Adult Sunday school class and lead songs in church. Then it suddenly occurred to me that I was in violation of the Church by Laws and Constitution that stated that all church members in leadership positions must tithe. Having a good conscience toward God and man, or at least trying to, it didn’t sit well with me that I was sneaking around the Pastor’s back and not tithing while holding a leadership position. Even though I didn’t believe in tithing anymore I still had agreed to these by laws when I became a member. So it continued to bug me. On the one hand I could confess and resign and be a church outcast, or I can continue to sneak behind the pastors back, or I can give an additional 5% and hold on to my teaching position. The latter option basically amounted to me "paying" if you will, to teach. I wasn’t ready to tell the Pastor what my belief was on tithing. I already had enough trouble from my in-laws. So I met with the Pastor and told him I was tired. I said that my senior year in college was tough and I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I would like preparing for the Sunday school lesson therefore I was cheating the body of Christ by not giving my 100%. All of this was true. I was burnt out and simply wanted a break. I told him I was stepping down and that I would give him 2 weeks to find a replacement for the Adult Sunday school. I would continue to lead songs if he wanted me to. He received the news kind of coldly and replied with a simple casual "Ok".

A couple of things happened after that day that hastened my departure from church. On an unrelated issue my wife sought counsel from our pastor and during the counseling session he informed her that my college education is not of God. He stated firmly that since college was responsible for taking me away from teaching Sunday School then it was not of God. So if it was not of God then what other possible source could it come from? Satan? You mean the devil is sending me to college? Paying the tuition and books? During my 4-year college career only 2 IFB brothers in the whole church actually encouraged me and told me to keep going that it will be worth it upon graduation. And neither of those 2 were the pastor. Another thing I noticed was when I stopped teaching I stopped growing. I would attend church and get preached at but I wasn’t getting taught. I felt spiritually malnourished. Every time the preacher was about to hit on something that I thought would be edifying he would default to "hell, fire and brimstone" or "serve" or "give" or "forsake not the assembling of ourselves." Instead of getting built up, I was constantly told I was found wanting. Oh, incidentally, the "devourer" never came, my car engine kept running fine, and my washing machine kept going, however, my microwave did scorch my popcorn but that was my bad.

Part 5: "Now about this KJV-Only-ism . . ."