Tithing
20 min read
Tithing is the practice of giving ten percent of one's income to a church. If a preacher has ever told you that the Bible commands you to give ten percent of your income to them, you are being lied to. You can ask preachers to show you one New Testament passage that explicitly says that Christians must tithe. They won't be able to because there are no such passages. They will likely distort a passage of their choice to make it say what they want.
It's hard to find a church today that doesn't impose mandatory tithing. These churches provide special envelopes for tithing members, and some go as far as installing ATM machines in the church. They want to leave you no excuse for not tithing.
Tithing is such a sacred duty in churches that members often can't enjoy certain benefits unless they are tithing enough money. If you cannot contribute financially, the church leader will often tell you that you cannot be in a church leadership position or that you can't be part of the worship band.
Undoing the reformation
An outrage over how the Roman Catholic Church collected money was partly responsible for The Protestant Reformation of the Sixteenth century. The outrage was based on the fact that priests were selling everything that they could to the people to make money. They sold indulgences, the forgiveness of sins, and religious relics.
What tithing does is it takes us back to the financial corruption that the Protestant Reformation attempted to solve.
Recent research shows that today's rise in atheism is triggered by the fact that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power. Religions are not practicing what they are preaching. They are instead showing themselves to be institutions built upon financial corruption. People are not stupid. They see and hear what's going on in churches, and it turns them off to the message of the Bible.
Tithing in the Old Testament
Did you know that money was never part of tithing in the Old Testament? Only food products from the land were tithe-able in the Old Testament. Also, it was only Levite priests that could collect tithes. There are no Levite priests today. So why are tithes still being collected?
When it comes to Old Testament tithing, a tenth of Israel's seed, fruit, and flocks were given to God (Leviticus. 27:30–32; Deuteronomy 14:22–24; 2 Chronicles 31:5–6; Nehemiah 13:5, 12). Israel's money was not part of the tithe. The people gave a tenth to the Levite Priests to support them (Numbers 18:21–24; Nehemiah 10:38; 12:44). The Levites also gave a tenth to the chief priest (Numbers 18:25–28).
Burnt animal sacrifices were a form of worshiping God in the Old Testament. Christians still worship God today. Do they still offer burnt animal sacrifices to God? No. Then, why should they be offering tithes?
In the Old Testament, tithes were given to Levites and priests. Levites and priests were tied to the sacrificial system of the old covenant. These types of roles no longer exist in the church today. Today, all believers are priests (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6), with Jesus as our high priest. Therefore, tithing should no longer be taught today.
Since we are no longer under the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament today, tithing no longer exists. The only part of the Old Testament laws that still apply to us today are the moral standards. They are reinforced in the law of Christ of the New Testament. The law of Christ consists of loving God and loving our neighbors. Tithing is not part of the 10 Commandments, nor is it part of the law of Christ.
There are 613 laws found in the first five books of the Bible that were written by Moses. Why is it that, aside from the ten commandments, tithing is the only other law that preachers want to keep today? It's because it is financially profitable for them to do so.
Abraham and Tithing
Many preachers use the example of Abraham to teach the practice of tithing. They say that Abraham's tithing predated the Law of Moses. Their argument is that even if the Law of Moses is done away with today, tithing must still be practiced because Abraham's tithing predated the Law of Moses. These preachers will say that because Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek the priest, we should follow his example and tithe today. Is this true? Let's take a look.
This passage contains the first mention of tithing in the Bible. Abram gave to Melchizedek (a priest of God who was also the king of Salem) a tenth of the best spoils of war. Notice that this tenth was not from Abram's own possessions, but it was spoil taken from nations that had been defeated in war. There is nothing in Genesis 14 that tells us that Abram (who's name was later changed to Abraham) tithed on a regular basis from his own personal possessions.
After giving Melchizedek a tithe of the spoils of war, Abraham told the king of Sodom that he would take none of what remained for himself. Abraham allowed Sodom to keep 90 percent of what remained, while he himself kept nothing.
It is hard to imagine that this single event in history is Biblical proof that we should give ten percent of our annual salaries to preachers today. Today's preachers are not asking for spoils of war and they are not asking for it only once. They are asking for our tithes week after week, and they are not asking us to give them to Melchizedek, but to themselves. There is absolutely no correlation between Abraham's tithe and the tithing demands placed on believers today.
Jacob and Tithing
There are preachers today who use the verses above to teach tithing to their congregations. However, they rarely give church members the full picture of what is going on here.
Jacob promised to give a full tenth of all that God gave him, back to God. However, Jacob said that he would give God a tenth only if God met his specified conditions. This is certainly not a good model for us to follow today. If churches followed Jacob's example today, church members would be praying things like, "God, if you give me one million dollars, I will give a tenth back to you." This is not a proper prayer.
Jacob's example proves that God did not expect a tenth until He blessed the person tithing first. God did not expect Jacob to give a tenth of what he did not first possess. This is the exact opposite of what preachers from the pulpit demand today. They teach church members to tithe on that which they do not yet possess because they are told that doing so will earn them a blessing. Jacob would not approve of such a message.
How could Jacob give a tenth to God? No one has ever seen God, so he could not have hand-delivered it. Did Jacob give it to an angel? Angels never collected tithes. Did Jacob give it to the temple or to a church? Neither of these existed during his time. Did Jacob give it to a Levite priest? There were no Levite priests yet. How did Jacob give the full tenth that he promised to God then? There were two ways that Jacob could have given God a tenth.
When giving the people direction on how to worship him, God told the people that they could partake of the tithes and contributions they offered. They were instructed to rejoice and feast upon their sacrifices. It was a feast in fellowship with the Lord their God.
Jacob could have given God a tenth by joyfully partaking of a portion with his family in thanksgiving to God. Today's pro-tithing preachers would find such a thing scandalous because it would mean that tithes would not be going to them and their churches.
Another way Jacob could have given a tenth to God was to share it with orphans, widows, and the poor within his town. These two forms of tithing sound very different from the tithing that we hear about from pulpits today.
Will a man rob God?
This passage in Malachi chapter 3 is very well known in churches that practice tithing. Pro-tithing preachers repeatedly emphasize these verses in order to coerce people to tithe.
Pro-tithing preachers use these verses to tell people that if they do not tithe, they are robbing God and will be cursed. They wield the fear of being cursed like a gun to get people's money. These preachers then promise prosperity to whoever will tithe. They tell people that God will open the windows of heaven for the tithing person and pour out a special blessing of prosperity upon them.
Before we give in to the preacher's message, we must stop and ask ourselves what these verses in Malachi are actually about.
When studying a book of the Bible, one of the most important things to look for is who the book is addressed to. Who was the book of Malachi written to? Who did the prophet Malachi have in mind when he wrote it?
Malachi refers to his audience directly several times throughout his book. In Malachi 1:6 and Malachi 2:1-2, Malachi reveals that he is addressing the priests of Israel and the sons of Levi.
Why did Malachi choose to address the priests? It is because they were dishonouring God. In Malachi 2:2, God presented them with the consequence of their behaviour, a curse. This goes to show how wrong today's preachers are when they twist the verses in Malachi to make them be about God sending a curse on believers. God's issue in the book of Malachi is not with the people, it's with the priests.
What exactly were the priests doing to dishonour God? Let's look at a few examples.
The priests were sneering at the commands of God, saying that they were a "weariness" to them. They also brought contemptible offerings to God. Rather than bringing God the finest of animals as a sacrifice, they were bringing animals that were stolen, sick, or lame.
The priests were oppressing workers, exploiting their wages, and taking advantage of widows and orphans. They were also robbing foreigners of their rights.
Now that we have gained insight on the context of Malachi 3, we can conclude that it was the priests that were robbing God of tithes and offerings that belonged to Him. Malachi 3:8-10 was not addressed to the people of Israel, but instead to the evil priests. How can we be so sure of this?
Malachi 3:3 mentions that this chapter is about the purification of the sons of Levi. The sons of Levi were priests of the tribe of Levi. Therefore, we can be sure that Malachi 3:8-10 is addressed to the leadership of priests rather than the people. "Will a man rob God?" was not for God's people but for those who called themselves God's priests.
The proper application of Malachi 3:8-10 is to teach it as a rebuke to disobedient priests for stealing the tithes and offerings of the people.
Malachi 3:8-10 has a message for church leaders, and that message is, "How are you asking for and then spending the people's donations? Are they being used for the right purposes? Are they being used to help the poor, orphans, and widows in need? Or, are they making the church leadership team filthy rich at the expense of struggling donors?"
Tithing in the New Testament
Many preachers today say that Jesus supported tithing. However, is this true? Not at all. Jesus and his disciples never collected tithes and never asked anyone to tithe.
This is the passage used by preachers to say that Jesus supported tithing. However, what was Jesus really saying here?
When Jesus spoke about tithing in this verse, he was not talking to his disciples. He was speaking to the religious Pharisees in order to expose the hypocrisy of their rule-based religion.
The scribes and Pharisees of the time were operating their religion under the Old Testament laws. It was their duty to tithe under those laws. If they wanted to be righteous Pharisees, all parts of the Law of Moses were to be obeyed.
Today, we don't follow all of the hundreds of ceremonial rules and regulations that belong to the Law of Moses. Therefore, it would be wrong to pick out tithing from the Law of Moses and attempt to follow only that one.
The only reason that church leaders will pick tithing out of the Law of Moses and apply it today is because it enriches them.
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus is not reminding the Pharisees about a law that says to tithe their money. Jesus is reminding them about the law that tells them to tithe their agricultural produce: mint, dill, and cumin.
Some might argue that agriculture was the money of that generation. However, this is false because money was already present in society at this time.
We must be very careful not to interpret this passage as Jesus congratulating the nitpicking and legalistic observance of the tithe. If we dig deeper into this passage, we can see that it is about condemning religious hypocrisy rather than it is about tithing.
When Jesus says, "these you ought to have done", he is saying it with part sarcasm. Jesus knew that when it came to tithing, the Pharisees excelled beyond what was required by the Law of Moses. They excelled in order to boost their own self-righteous image by appearing altruistic.
Matthew 23:23 starts off with Jesus speaking woes (curses) to the religious leaders. Jesus never congratulates those to whom he pronounces "woes" to. Woes are warnings of hell. Therefore, how could this be a passage meant to teach us to tithe today?
Jesus never spoke woes to those who believed in him. He only spoke woes to hypocritical religious leaders.
Twisting this passage to say that Jesus congratulates tithing is simply incorrect. To use Jesus as a spokesperson for tithing is wrong and really questions whether pro-tithing preachers have understood anything from the Bible.
The early church
The early church faced poverty. To solve that poverty, owners of lands and homes sold them and gave the proceeds to the apostles. The apostles distributed it to each person so that there would not be a needy person among them.
There are church leaders today who will use this passage as a way to get you to bring your generous tithes and to lay them at their feet. They don't really want this to be done in order to solve poverty in their midst. They usually want this done to enrich themselves and their church. This is very different from what was being done in Acts chapter 4.
The only donations encouraged in the New Testament are those given to the poor. The New Testament encourages us to be generous in helping those in need (Acts 2:43–47; 4:32–37; 11:27–30; Galatians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 16:1–4; 2 Corinthians 8:1–9).
Another New Testament passage used to support tithing is 1 Corinthians 16:1-4.
In verse 2, the phrase "each one of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper", does not mean that those who donate will prosper, as Prosperity Gospel preachers would insist. This phrase is about each person putting something aside to donate, in proportion to their own prosperity, or according to their own income.
1 Corinthians 16:1-4 is about the collection of a one-time gift to help the poor people in Jerusalem. It is wrong to twist it and make it be about tithing ten percent of one's salary every week.
The widow that gave all she had
Many pro-tithing preachers use this passage about the widow donating all she had to the religious temple in order to support tithing. However, what did Jesus really want to teach us from his words about this widow? Learn more by reading the blog post titled, The widow that gave all she had.
Conclusion
In conclusion, neither the Old Testament or the New Testament support the idea of Christians paying tithes to preachers in the form of money today. Tithing is not the Bible's standard for giving, giving freely and giving generously is. There are no early church writings that ever make mention of tithing.
Tithing is abusive because fear is the main motivator and enriching an authority figure is the only result. It puts unnecessary burdens on believers and it puts an excessive emphasis on money.
The only way that you can make the Bible encourage tithing for Christians today is by distorting Bible passages. Modern-day teachings on tithing are the result of crafty preachers who have manipulated Bible passages in order to enrich themselves.
Do not permit manipulative preachers to make you feel obliged to tithe away your hard-earned money to them. If they threaten you with curses, saying that tithing is an act of obedience to God, expose their lies with what God's word actually says.