Tithing and Giving
The church confuses tithing with giving. Tithing is a tax upon the nation of Israel. Tithing is not a commandment in the New Covenant. The command to give in the New Covenant is to give with a cheerful heart and no set amount is given as it was in the Old Covenant. To understand tithing, it is helpful to understand Israel and how she was set up.
Ancient Israel was a theocracy with God as the leader. Israel, like other nations, had laws governing civil and criminal behavior. These laws were given to the Israelites by God. Within these laws, Israel had a taxation system that supported the Levites, the temple and the widows and orphans. Part of the Israelites sheep, their crops and other income went to support the Levites. The Levites were appointed by God as His representative in governing Israel. The Israelites were also commanded to give another ten percent yearly in support of the nation’s religious festivals. All the large events took place in Jerusalem and everything had to be prepared for the feasts and the holy days in Jerusalem. There was another ten percent every third year of which went to the poor and widows. Tithing was an ancient income tax system commanded by God. It was a system that funded the government, the religious activities and welfare for the widows and orphans.
There were a few other smaller tithes so in all, it totaled about 23-25 percent of an Israelite’s income.
When the church tries to put Christians under the tithe, they are, in essence, attempting to institute a tax upon Christians. We are already taxed by our government wherever we live. The Israelites were taxed by their government, a theocracy.
God has commanded, in the New Covenant, to give with a cheerful heart. There is no set percentage that a Christian is to give. Principles are given in the New Covenant about how a believer is to give. Christians are to help one another through contributing to the needs of one another, giving is be from the heart and not compulsion. The tithe was compulsory and mandatory much like our system of taxation. In the New Covenant, the amount to give is to be decided in one’s heart (2 Cor 9:7).
The church is not under a system of taxation. The nation Israel was under a theocratic government and therefore under a system of taxation, the Tithe!
For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, (2Co 8:3 ESV)
Related Posts
Just found your blog from a comment you left on Sharp Iron. Love your blog.
I know of a small church here in my local area in which the Pastor never preaches about tithing, and get this: He never passes around an offering plate. He reached the same conclusion you have.
He does tell those in his church to give their time, money, and whatever else they have to help others. The people of the church started a soup kitchen, clothing closet, and other programs to help the community around them.
Here’s the amazing part. The amount of time and money that comes in to fund these programs far exceeds anything that came in when they were taught tithing as a command.
The other amazing part is the pastor sometimes goes months at a time without any monetary compensation at all because when people try to give him money he will direct it to one of the programs that need help the most.
I agree with you so much on this! My parish is heavily seeking tithes, and I understand that it costs money to run a parish, but I volunteered for many things when I moved here and have not been contacted by one single person. I’m not working right now-so I wanted to give my time. I guess I feel a little sad about it.
It’s really unfortunate that churches are seeking what was a taxation upon the nation of ancient Israel. If they want to tax their members, they should use the whole system of taxation, you just can’t cherry-pick what you want and leave out the rest.
I’m sorry that your church is not using your skills in what you have volunteered for. I think that this is applicable to a lot of churches, not just yours. There’s so much that we can offer but some churches are only looking at the money instead of talents/gifts of their members.
You are probably right. A lot of people are out of work and would like to volunteer since money is even tighter.
I feel absolutely drained. I haven’t been myself online lately. I was in the religion section and saw a post about a girl who saw a movie and doubted her faith…I just read the one post…I didn’t know it was a sucker post for a staunch atheist blog. I ended up becoming really angry and just cutting off ties…and now..I am being harassed by this person and her friends. My blog has been full of angry, hateful things and I have had to moderate–when I don’t really like to.
I’m normally cheerful and amiable, but this is making me cranky. I’ll go to confession over losing my temper and I will probably feel some peace about it. I wish I could go to mass tomorrow. I really love the Eucharist-it makes me feel peaceful–and I really need that right now.
It is amazing how negative people can suck the life out of you-even on the internet.
I’ve decided to check out about pages and make sure this doesn’t happen again. I feel bad b/c I was angry at the atheists and lost my temper with a girl of another faith–I was already angry and I should have just left the computer.
Hi, since you’re on WordPress, you can block her IP address so you don’t have to moderate and all her comments will go into your spam.
I know what you mean about getting angry over internet comments. I used to belong to discussion boards and finally quit because of not only how other people behaved but I got caught up in it as well. I won’t do that anymore and I won’t let someone on the internet get under my skin like that. I can only control what I do, not what they do.
If I were in your shoes, I’d block her IP address so you can get your blog back to the way you want it.
In Christ,
Thanks, I think I am at the point you got to when you decided it wasn’t healthy for you. I have blocked all the other Ips but I made the mistake of deleting her last comment before adding it…so I’m just waiting for one to show up. I think she will leave me alone now that I have reported her for harassment on another forum.
Your avatar makes me want some tea or coffee right now:)