Yep, I lost it! The next 5 minutes were not pretty. I slammed stuff around, threw a couple of items across the room. I lost my testimony in front of my office furniture and killed some nick-nacks. I regained my composure and started to think. Did God let me down? Was there something wrong with me? (be nice) I did what the preachers said to do. Was my wife wrong for wearing pants? If I burnt my wife’s britches would God change the expiration date on my rebate coupon? Slowly, I started to realize that I had been in this situation before. Back when I was a Pentecostal and seeking the "Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues" I felt this way. God wasn’t at fault back then, and I wasn’t at fault back then. The teaching was. (Doh!)
Tithing? I always took it for granted. The preachers preached it. The preachers were IFB preachers, not liberal evangelicals. Could they possible be wrong? Had I relaxed my Biblical vigil and been duped again? "Okay Lord, I’m going to hit the reset button like I do on my (then) 486DX2/66mhz computer when it locks up!" So I ran Quickverse (yes, KJV) and printed out every verse on tithing. I was going to examine each verse in its historical context, cultural context, scriptural context and spiritual context. So I started, from Genesis to Revelation. Every mention of the word "tithe", "tithes", and "tithing". From the tithe of Moses to Melchizedek in Gen. 14 to the mention of tithing by our Lord Jesus. I wanted to see for myself if it was Biblical to dogmatically mandate that a New Testament Christian has to tithe, specifically 10% of their gross income. While I would love to replicate my entire study here (not the subject of this blog) I’ll just hit the high points. (I strongly encourage the reader to duplicate this study in like manner and verify my conclusions, just remember put aside any preconceived ideas, but if you’re truly pressed for time, Google it. See link how to interpret the Bible on side bar.)
- -Abraham tithed to Melchizedek. (Gen 14:20)
- -Jacob vowed to tithe to God (Gen 28:22)
- -The tithe was standardized under the OT Law of Moses for the Jewish nation.
There were several types of tithes in many forms. They were used to support the Levites/Priests, the widows, and during certain times the tithe giver ate the tithe. (Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers) - -Malachi 3:10. God using an Israelite to speak to Israelites? True. God using an Israelite to speak to a New Testament Gentile Believer? Not True. An IFB misapplying this scripture to guilt trip a Christian into giving? Bingo.
- -Jesus spoke of the tithe when addressing the non-Christian Jews. (Mat 23:23, Luk 11:42)
Now, I knew the defense to this. Using the "law of first mention" or the fact that tithing came before the OT Law was formed, thus it’s a canon. Or as one website put it so succinctly:
"Abraham Commenced it (Ge. 14:18-20). Jacob Continued it (Ge. 28:20-22). Moses Confirmed it (Le. 27:30). Malachi Commanded it (Mal. 3:10). Jesus Commended it (Mt. 23:23). God Commissioned it (1 Co. 9:14). Paul Conformed it (1 Co. 16:2). A study of these Scriptures shows that tithing is a scriptural principle. Abraham and Jacob tithed 500 years BEFORE the Law was instituted. Moses, Malachi, and Jesus spoke of tithing DURING the period of the Law. The Apostle Paul explained tithing AFTER the Law. Christians ought to tithe!"
Yep, spoken like a true IFB.
Now, having taught Adult Sunday school for several years I did learn some Bible in the process and I remembered the "1st Preachers Conference/What to do about these crazy Gentile Believers" of Acts 15. There it was decided that the O.T. Law was not to be placed on believers. Hmm, if God wanted to be crystal clear about tithing wouldn’t this be the perfect place to jot it down? (Relax, just a question).
Then the clincher: 2 Corinthians Chapter 8: 12, 13 speaks about giving, listen to this:
"For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: "
Scrreeech! How come I never "saw" this before? Yes, I’ve read it before, but I didn’t hear it. (Hey, sounds like a good sermon title.) Interestingly enough, as I write this I Googled the phrase "Christian Giving" and found a couple of sites that skip over this passage.
Ok, I was armed with my print out. But I was scared. Scared that I would go down the wrong path, that my financial problems were going to influence my decision. So I did what I thought was best. I grabbed a brother in Christ and pulled a Joan Rivers "Can we talk?"
Next, Part 4: "Pastor, I’m giving you my 2 weeks notice"
5 comments:
Just commenting to let you know I find your story interesting. Parts of it, as well as the quotes, are already starting to sound familiar. I was raised Pentecoastal Holiness, dropped out of Bible College & the church, and then joined an IFB church about 4 years later. I like it here, but I have some of the same reservations about it that you do.
Thank you for your comments. I'll be posting my next installment this weekend. My intent is not to make someone leave the church they are in but just to make them pause and think about the teaching and attitudes that are expressed.
I love your ranting! Looks like you're waking up. I wish more people would realize that religion is 'organized superstition twisted into a business.'
From your posts, I believe that you "sincerely" study the Bible, and wish to know the truth. So in the order of being 'sincere', your usage of Scripture in this instance in neither case deals with tithing.
Acts 15 is very clearly about the Jews feeling the Gentiles had to do "something more" to truly be saved, merely because they were not Jews, and didn't understand the prophetic nature of the laws. So this is about salvation not works done after salvation.
2 Corinthians 8 is also not about tithing, but about what today we would call giving to missions or just an offering given by one church to help the needs of another church, which implies that they weren't able to take care of their own finances through their own giving. I wonder what kind of giving that was?
I appreciate your desire to use the Bible correctly, so this is just to help keep you 'honest' if you will. Perhaps you'd better find some different New Testament verses that will help you support your belief.
Mr. Knutson,
Thank you very much for an intelligent and well-mannered comment. I'm often surprised by the nature of comments Christians allow themselves to write that tends to contradict the love/holiness they claim to have. As to your comment, yes that is correct. My point is exactly that; neither of these verses bring out tithing as a mandate. Now to be sure they don't disprove tithing for the NT Church but I can't find solid dogmatic guidance that shows that we must tithe as part of the NT Church. I would have thought that such guidance and direction would have been made clear in at least Acts 15. Thanks for reading, please bear in mind it does get a bit emotional and heated due to the nature of the topic, please forgive me if I offend in later posts.
Post a Comment