I received the following letter:
I found your Precepts website when Google searching for the beginning of the dispensation of grace. I liked your thorough examination and explanation of when it began. This sparked me to contact you regarding a somewhat contentious subject among members of my denomination. The question of whether tithing is required by Christians within this dispensation of grace. Many ministers would assert that Christians are required to tithe as did Abraham and use the passage of scripture where Jesus basically says to someone that they should not have left the practice of doing several deeds of which tithing was one. I apologize for not having the exact verse quoted as I don’t have it committed to memory nor do I have access to get it at this time. My belief is that under grace, when it comes to giving money to the kingdom of God, that Christians are to give out of the abundance of their hearts, not by compulsion or commandment. I see it easily as a contradiction if both positions were to be acceptable in this dispensation. Could you provide your opinion about tithing/giving of financial gifts?
Thank you for the great question. Glad you found my website, and were helped in understanding the beginning of the dispensation of grace.
Regarding tithing, we have to go back to what the Bible says about tithing. First of all, the word simply means “a tenth.” The first time we see anyone tithing is Abraham in Genesis 14:20, when he met Melchizedek king of Salem after his defeat of four kings to rescue Lot and the people of Sodom, with whom Lot was living. Melchizedek is described as “the priest of God Most High,” and Abraham “gave him a tithe of all.” The things he gave him a tithe of were the spoils of war he had just won by defeating the four kings. This would have mostly included goods carried with the defeated armies as supplies, as well as goods they had looted from former, successful campaigns.
The next time we read of tithes is in Leviticus 27:30-33.
30. And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s. It is holy to the LORD. 31. If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. 32. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD. 33. He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; and if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.’”
Here, it is clear again that the tithe is a tenth of certain things that are holy to the LORD. The things listed are crops of the field (the seed of the land), the produce of the orchard (the fruit of the tree), and animals (the herd or the flock). Of the wheat and other farm crops, nothing from the tenth was to be redeemed, or if it was, a fifth part was to be added to it. Of the animals, it was to be a straight tenth. They were not to take only good animals or only bad, but just a random tenth.
Next we read of the tithe in Numbers 18.
21. “Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting. 22. Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. 23. But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24. For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the LORD, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’”
Here we see what was to be done with the tithe. The Levites had no inheritance of land and fields to work with from the LORD, but instead they were to be given the tithes of the rest of the sons of Israel as their inheritance. With twelve tribes presenting them with a tenth of what they produced any year, if we assume the tribes are equal sized (of course, they were not really, but just as an assumption,) each individual Levite would actually end up with 120% of the produce of the average Israelite. God was making sure His ministers were well cared for. But Numbers 18 goes on to speak of the Levites’ tithe.
25. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 26. “Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: ‘When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the LORD, a tenth of the tithe. 27. And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. 28. Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the LORD from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the LORD’s heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. 29. Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the LORD, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.’ 30. Therefore you shall say to them: ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. 31. You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. 32. And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.’”
So the Levites too were to offer a tithe, and their tithe was to go to the priests of the family of Aaron. The rest of the tithe was theirs as the equivalent of what they would have gotten from the threshingfloor or the winepress, had the LORD given them lands, as He did to the rest of the Israelites. Thus the Levites were taken care of physically, so that they could concentrate on learning of the LORD and His ways to teach these things to the rest of the Israelites.
The Israelites also had a very specific place to which they were to take their tithes, as we learn from Deuteronomy 12.
5. “But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
This is reiterated in Deuteronomy 12:11.
11. then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD.
The tithe is even stated to be something you can “eat,” since it consisted of animals clean for eating and grain. We see this in Deuteronomy 12:17.
17. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. 18. But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands. 19. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
In the practical working out of this tithe in Israel, this is exactly what we see they did…bring in tithes of their food. We see them doing this very thing in II Chronicles 31.
5. As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. 6. And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the LORD their God they laid in heaps.
12. Then they faithfully brought in the offerings, the tithes, and the dedicated things; Cononiah the Levite had charge of them, and Shimei his brother was the next.
We see the same thing in the days of Nehemiah, that the tithe was produce, as we read in Nehemiah 10.
37. to bring the firstfruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil, to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God; and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities. 38. And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes; and the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms of the storehouse.
Here, we even see the tithe of the tithe mentioned that the Levites were to bring for the priests. Again, it is all about “tithes of our land,” meaning the produce of the land in animals and crops.
Malachi 3 gives us the last really significant passage regarding the tithe in the Old Testament.
8. “Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
9. You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.
10. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the LORD of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.
Those who teach tithing today love to quote this passage, urging people to “bring all the tithes into the storehouse.” By this they mean to put a tenth of your salary into the offering plate at church. Yet they ignore the next phrase, “That there may be food in my house.” This makes perfect sense, since we realize from a study of the Old Testament that the tithe WAS food. It has nothing to do with what we call “money.” I doubt anyone in church would be very happy if you put a tenth of your food in the offering plate.
The New Testament says little to change this view of the tithe. The Lord mentions the tithe in Matthew 23:23.
23. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
This is the verse you referred to earlier. Here, we see that the tithe spoken of is a tithe being paid by the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. They are tithing so carefully that they even tithe mint and anise and cummin, these spices that they would have just a few sprigs of in a spice garden. Again notice that the tithes are food! This has nothing to do with tithing money. Luke 11:42 is a parallel passage with this.
In Luke 18:12, the boastful Pharisee prays at the temple and boasts of his faithfulness in tithing.
12. “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.”
Finally, in Hebrews 7:4-10, the law of the tithe is explained by the author of Hebrews. This is a complicated argument relating to the man Melchizedek.
4. Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5. And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6. but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7. Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. 8. Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9. Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10. for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
Here, we see several important facts about the tithe reiterated for us by the author of Hebrews. First of all, a “tithe” is a tenth, and in this case it is a tenth of the spoils. Secondly, it is the sons of Levi, priests, who had the commandment to receive tithes, and that only from their brothers who came from the loins of Abraham. Melchizedek was better than Levi, our Author argues, because Abraham paid tithes to him while Levi was yet in his loins, his son Isaac not yet having been born. So it is a principle that the lesser pays tithes to the greater.
This brings us to the end of the occurrences of the “tithe” in Scripture. From what we have seen, we can make the following conclusions:
1. The “tithe” was a tenth, but not a tenth of money. It was generally a tenth of goods, either of animals or of crops.
2. The tithes were generally given to the Levites, and were their means of physical support, since they had no crops or lands of their own. The Levites, on their part, were to give their own tithe to the sons of Aaron. Thus, a tithe was something along the lines of a tax in Israel, though it was a tax of crops and animals, not of money.
As for giving today, I agree that we should give from the heart, and abundantly, as God has blessed us. Ephesians 4:28 urges us, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” II Corinthians 9:7 urges, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” Clearly, God wants us to be giving people. Yet I do not believe that anything like the tithe has been enjoined upon us today. That was something God gave to Israel, and has to do with food, with taxes, and with supporting the priesthood. It had nothing to do with supporting churches, which did not exist at the time.
Thank you for the great question. I pray that you continue to grow in your knowledge of God’s current work, and of how He would have us live today.
Keep studying the Word!
Precepts 
16 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 12, 2015 at 11:20 am
TK
What do you make of the mark of the beast, 666?
June 5, 2015 at 6:46 pm
Precepts
TK,
I am not sure what this has to do with tithing. I am reluctant to answer on this post. I posted an answer for a few weeks, and now I have moved this post to a new article entitled “What About the Mark of the Beast?” Please see that article for my answer.
Nathan
November 9, 2017 at 3:08 pm
Adebayo
Was there money as a legal tender during the dispensation of law. If there is none, then we can conclude tithe should be paid in goods and can be converted to money in this dispensation of grace besides I red it in book of Deuteronomy 14:22-26 that, these goods can be converted to money for ease of carriage.
Secondly, Abraham paid tithe to Melchizedek who is not a levite, does that not qualify pastor who has churches to collect tithe?
Please kindly respond to this as soon as possible.
Thank you for the great work you are doing.
November 10, 2017 at 7:58 pm
Precepts
Adebayo,
Your question does not have an easy single answer. What, after all, is “money”? If you mean paper money, then no, that is a very recent invention. There was silver and gold which was often exchanged for things, but they were generally exchanged by weight, so that a coin was usually designated by its weight, not its “value.” Yet much of their exchange was done on the barter system, and not with what we would think of as money.
Tithes in the government of Israel were really a form of taxes. As was the case in the whole system God set up, there was no “separation of church and state,” as we think of it today. The tithe was both for governmental and religious purposes. There was more than one tithe in Israel for more than one purpose. One tithe was to support the Levite priests, the Aaronic priests, and for the poor, etc.
The tithe you mention was actually a tithe you were supposed to spend on yourself in order to support your travel to Jerusalem for the yearly feasts. It basically was laying aside traveling provisions for the yearly festivals. This tithe was of your goods, but if it was too hard to transport them to Jerusalem, you could turn them to money and then spend it once you got to Jerusalem. We have no yearly festivals in the dispensation of grace and no Jerusalem to go to, and so this tithe is entirely irrelevant to us.
Most people who imagine they are giving tithes would have no trouble carrying a tenth of their yearly crops to wherever they go to church. There is no reason to convert it to money for ease of carriage.
Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. As the writer of Hebrews explains, he was actually superior to the Levite priests, who were authorized by God to receive tithes of their brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ is a priest after his order. No pastor today is of this order. No pastor today has anything like the authority of a Melchizedek. For anyone to claim equality with Melchizedek today would be both foolish and arrogant.
People can give a tenth of their money to whomever they wish, as they clearly demonstrate all the time. Some give a tenth at least to their local bartender. Others give that much to gambling halls. Some spend a tenth of their money on sports teams. Most people spend much more than a tenth of their money on the home they live in. Tenths can be spent all over the place. And, of course, anyone is free to give a tenth of their money away to anyone else as they see fit. There is no need for them to get permission, if it is their money.
The real question, then, is if a pastor is qualified to receive a tithe on behalf of God. The answer to this is clearly that he is not. If one was authorized to receive tithes on behalf of God, then that person would become a mediator between God and other people. I Timothy 2:5 tells us clearly that this cannot be, assuring us, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” This is truth for today only in this dispensation of grace, as this clearly was not true in the past and again will not be true in the kingdom of God in the future. This means that no man is a mediator between God and us today. No one has the right to collect money on God’s behalf. Giving money to a man is not the same as giving money to God. No man can collect tithes on behalf of God today. It is impossible to give a tithe in the Biblical sense today, for there is no one authorized to receive it.
That said, of course there are those who are authorized by churches and by denominations to receive tithes and offerings on behalf of these churches and denominations. If someone wants to give a tenth of his money to a church, then there are those like the pastor who are authorized to receive that money on behalf of that church. If someone wants to give a tenth of his money to a denomination, then there are those who are authorized to receive that money on behalf of that denomination. If someone wants to give a tenth of his money to some other religious organization, then there are those who are authorized to receive money on behalf of those organizations. But if someone wants to give his money to God, to whom should he give it? There is no one. No one can give his money to God today at all. God has not given us anyone who is capable of receiving it.
If you wish to give your money, a tenth or any other amount, to some individual or organization whom you believe is or are doing work that is beneficial on God’s behalf, then you are free to do so. But no one can tithe to God today. No one has the authority to collect it.
Nathan
January 11, 2018 at 2:15 pm
Arthur Rametsi
Priests only came from the Levites according to how God set it all up. Any priest who was not a Levite was not a priest of God and would therefore not be entitled to a tithe. In fact God would kill you if you came close to the tabernacle if you were not a Levite priest. All that changed however as soon as the Romans took over. They set up their own priests that were not Levites. They also infiltrated the Sanhendrin.
January 19, 2018 at 6:46 pm
Precepts
Arthur Rametsi,
You are quite correct that priests could only come from the Levites, according to God’s law. And the high priest could only come from Aaron’s family among the Levites, so this was an even more specialized position. Aaronic priests had a higher privilege than mere Levite priests. As you say, the tithes were for the Levites, and the Levites tithed to give to the Aaronic priests.
I do not think it was coming close to the tabernacle, but rather it was actually entering the temple if you were not a priest and had not gone through the proper cleansing ceremony, that was forbidden. Any Israelite could come close to it, as long as he did not enter it.
Killing you was God’s option. When King Uzziah trespassed into the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense, he was struck with leprosy in punishment, not killed (though leprosy might indeed have been a slow death sentence).
I do not think it was Rome who first interrupted the proper order of high priesthood. That had happened before Rome ever took over. Yet I do not think the disturbance was that they were no longer Levites. It was that the job of high priest was no longer passed on from father to son, as it should have been, but was rather appointed politically. It also was no longer a “job for life,” as it ought to have been. But I do not think non-Levites (non-Aaronites) were ever appointed priests. That would have been a much more serious violation. And I do not think God had forgotten how to strike an improper “priest” down, Romans or no Romans.
I am not sure what you mean by “infiltrated the Sanhedrin.” Do you think there were Herodians in the Sanhedrin? Certainly you did not have to be a Levite to be in the Sanhedrin. As far as that goes, the Sanhedrin was a man-made organization, and so there were no God-given rules as to who should be in it.
Your last two claims seem to me to be without historical evidence. What makes you think either of these things is true? And what exactly is your point?
Nathan
November 5, 2019 at 1:37 pm
Tonny Steven
I think tithe is what we bring to the house of God, to keep the house of God and the works of God going on, but not to inrich somebody, in the name, I am the owner and founder of this Church, so every money in this Church for me. I am the richest Pastor or man of God. Our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST didn’t fright for Riches , He did fought for Sult winning and Salvation.
December 6, 2019 at 11:09 pm
Precepts
Tonny Steven,
You are a bit confused about some things here. Paul declares most clearly in Acts 17:24:
24. God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
If God does not dwell in temples made with hands, then there is no building on earth in which God dwells or which may be rightfully termed the “house of God.” Since there is no house of God for God’s works to be going on in it, then there is no necessity for paying money, tithes or otherwise, in order to maintain it. Do you believe this? Or do you not believe that Acts 17:24 is true?
Secondly, all who know the Bible must acknowledge that there was a “house of God” in the Old Testament, and it is clearly identified as to what it was. Daniel 5:3 is one place which makes it very clear.
3. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.
The house of God was the temple that at one time was in Jerusalem. That temple was destroyed in 70 AD. The Muslim Dome of the Rock stands defiantly on the site of that house and forbids any thought of anyone rebuilding it or donating any money to the maintenance of what no longer exists. Remember that that temple was built with the permission and direction of God Himself. Yet even the human builder of that house of God, King Solomon, said, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” I Kings 8:27. Even that temple which he built could not really contain God. God stooped to allow them to call that His “house.”
Yet the tenure of that temple came to an end. Christ predicted that it would when He was talking to the woman at the well in John 4.
21. Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The hour has since come when no longer is God worshiped in the temple in Jerusalem, nor is He worshiped on any mountain of the Samaritans. Today, all must worship Him in spirit and in truth, which can be done anywhere and at any time. But to take our religious buildings today and pretend they are in any way, shape, or form “God’s house” is to defy the truth laid down in God’s Word. God does not dwell in our buildings, even if we say we are making them for Him.
Finally, you are missing the purpose of the tithe. The tithe was never to support the “house of God,” the temple. Its main purpose was to support the Levites, the priestly class in Israel. Numbers 18:21-24 makes this clear.
21. “Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting. 22. Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. 23. But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24. For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’ ”
So the point and purpose of the tithes was to support the Levites as a class in Israel. Moreover the tithes were not cash. Leviticus 27:30-32 makes this clear:
30. And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord. 31. If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. 32. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.
Tithes were of the produce of the land and of the offspring of the animals.
You can do what you like with your money, of course. You can give it to a church. You can give 10% of it to a church. But that does not mean that you are obeying anything that the Bible says about a “tithe.” You can always make things up out of your own head and call it a “tithe.” But if you want to do what the Bible says, you need to have a far more Biblical outlook and understanding of these things.
Nathan
January 27, 2018 at 9:09 am
Maurice musingo
You have well covered the issue of tithe. This tithe issue has been abused by many church leaders who have become billionaires while their members languish in poverty.
However, my question is, how do we support the church and its workers in this period of grace.
Maurice
February 8, 2018 at 7:32 pm
Precepts
Maurice musingo,
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you enjoyed the article on tithing.
I agree that some have used the idea of the tithe to enrich themselves off people who could ill afford to support their luxurious lifestyles. It is sad that anyone would misuse the Bible this way, but we see many doing it all the time.
As I expressed in one of my final paragraphs, it is still important for God’s people to be generous people. Moreover if we are going to avail ourselves of the services of a church and its pastor/leader, it is only right that we give financially to support that organization and its leader. The giving, however, should be as we purpose in our hearts to give, not some forced, legal percentage. It is good if the people in a church are kept aware of the financial needs of that church. Then, it is their job to pitch in and help this matter. I believe that people will give to support their church if they are made aware of its needs. Some might be able to give much more than 10%. Others, perhaps, will only be in a position to give much less than 10%. But all ought to give cheerfully, if they are involving themselves and benefiting from the church at all. Yet this should be voluntary, not coerced out of them with a rule that never really applied to supporting a church at all.
Keep studying the Word!
Nathan
May 14, 2021 at 2:39 pm
George
PROVERBS 27:17
As the iron sharpen another iron,so we need to Sharpen one another
May 27, 2021 at 9:06 pm
Precepts
George,
I agree completely. We as believers in Jesus Christ and His Word need to act as iron sharpening iron to sharpen each other.
Did you have a point about that verse in the context of tithing in the Bible?
Nathan
November 26, 2022 at 7:52 pm
Linwood
Just that in today’s churches, the so called men of GOD is doing the robbing by telling us that we will be cursed if we don’t give 10percent to the church.
December 15, 2022 at 9:38 pm
Precepts
Linwood,
While it is a bit dramatic to call it robbing, since no one is truly forced to give, it is certainly true that some so-called men of God are coercing people into giving to their churches by warning them that they will experience God’s wrath if they don’t do it. This is simply self-serving lies. Sometimes it might be an honest mistake, since so many take Old Testament truths and apply them to themselves carelessly in many situations, not just that of tithes. Others, it is certainly for the self-serving goal of seeing to it that their salaries are paid and their raises are well-funded.
No, there is no curse on those who do not give to the church. As I said, though, if one is going to a church and benefiting from its programs, it only seems right that one support that church by giving what one can, rather than just taking its help for free. God’s people should be generous people and eager to give. Yet it is not right to glorify giving by Biblical terms little understand and completely misapplied.
Thanks for writing. Keep studying the Word!
Nathan
November 26, 2022 at 7:48 pm
Linwood Bailey
I believe that the period of grace, we aren’t required to pay tithes as well.
December 15, 2022 at 9:29 pm
Precepts
Linwood Bailey,
It is not just a matter of requirement, but also a question of whom we would pay them to? In Israel, God appointed the Levitical priesthood, and authorized them to receive tithes from the rest of the Israelite people. This didn’t just establish the idea of a tithe, but also an answer as to whom to give the tithe to. But who has been authorized to take tithes today?
It might be that a group of people in a neighborhood get together and form a church. These people then, for the support of the church they have established, give money to it in the form of a tithe. Yet is this giving tithes to God? Is not giving tithes to an organization you created really just giving tithes to yourself? It could be that over time a group of churches form that grow into a denomination. Some people might give tithes to this denomination. Yet though none of the original founders of that denomination might any longer be alive, is this any different? If the formation of a church is far in the past, does that make giving to that church the same as giving to God?
The reality is that God would have to authorize someone to receive a tithe, like He did the Levites and the sons of Aaron. A group of church founders does not have the authority to authorize any such thing. One can pay a tithe to a church, of course, since a tithe is just a tenth. But paying a tithe to a church is one thing. Paying a tithe to God is another. There is no way for anyone to pay a tithe to God today. There is simply no one authorized to receive it. Tithes simply are not a part of serving God in the dispensation of grace.
That said, God’s people ought to be generous. We ought to be ready, willing, and eager to give to those in need. We ought to be ready, willing, and eager to give to any work we believe glorifies God. Yet we should not glorify our giving by claiming it is a Biblical tithe. This is simply not the truth.
Keep studying the Word!
Nathan