Is Tithing For Today?

So, does that mean when I was 12 and cut my first yard for hire and made 2.50 and tithed 25 cents, my tithing days were fulfilled? After all I tithed once!

 

What does the sacrifice of Christ have to do with tithes?

 

So, then, are we to assume that you do not give to your local congregation? Do you give under 10% or do you give over 10%?

The Archangel

 

No, Abraham already "fulfilled" the tithe for the Melchizedek priesthood.

No, Jesus' one-time sacrifice as a priest after the order of Melchizedek was final, and Abraham's one-time tithe to Melchizedek functioned as a confirmation of this priestly order.

The Levitical tithes were necessary to sustain the limited, physical lives of the order of Levites who received a portion of the tithes as their food and the rest for the priests. The priests also used part of the tithes from the Levites as food and the rest for burnt offerings.

Because the offerings were constant and perpetual, so the tithes were necessary to sustain this imperfect priestly practice. Jesus performed the ultimate sacrifice of Himself once for all time.

Heb 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Heb 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

Jesus is seated in the heavenlies. His priestly function is powerful and effectual to save His people to the uttermost. His priesthood is not after the law of a carnal commandment: perpetual imperfect sacrifices and perpetual need for a supply of food through tithes. His perfect priestly sacrifice is perfect and needs no tithes:

Heb 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
Heb 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
Heb 8:3 For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
Heb 8:4 For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
Heb 8:5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Heb 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

The Old Covenant tithes were directly related to the function of the Levitical priesthood, which was merely a shadow of what Christ would do on the Cross. The tithes were only from landowners, only of crops and livestock (not money or even of fish caught in the sea), and were given from the people only to the Levites, who in turn gave the best tenth of these to the priests.

To say that New Covenant believers are required to offer tithes is indirectly to argue the following:
1. That church ministers--and not Christ--succeeds the function of the Levites and priests, which the Bible never says.
2. That tithes come from net/gross/gross+benefits monetary income--earned wages--which the Law never codified. Wage earners existed under the Old Covenant and they worked for landowners. They did not tithe of the money they earned; only the landowners tithed of the increase of the crops and livestock that they grew and raised per year.
3. That the intricate system of tithes in the Old Covenant that was commanded is somehow irrelevant to the discussion. The Israelite landowners had to follow a seven-year cycle and a Jubilee cycle:
a. Every first, second, fourth, and fifth years, a tithe went to the Levites and another was used for the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem where the tithers ate them.
b. Every third and sixth years, a tithe was laid up in community storage for the Levites and poor.
c. Every seventh year was a Sabbath year in which were no harvest gatherings and NO TITHES.
d. Every fiftieth year--the year of Jubilee--after seven of these cycles, debts were forgiven and servants were freed. There were also NO TITHES.
4. That the New Testament teaches tithing for the New Covenant, which it does not.

It all boils down to this: either we are required to tithe exactly according to the rules spelled out in the Mosaic Law, including the timing, the substance, the source, the recipient, and the action, or we are not at all. You can give 10% of your salary to a church (which is a good thing), but you simply cannot insert this action where the Bible says "tithe" and claim to be following it. Period.

 

I give cheerfully and abundantly. Giving and tithing are not synonymous terms. You cannot call the act of giving money "tithing." That is not what the Bible means by "tithe."

 

You didn't have any tithing days to fulfill. It's good that you gave, but you were under no obligation to tithe anything in the first place.

 

So would you say that you are giving above 10%?

The Archangel

 

I do agree with the fact that God does not need anything I have and God only wants offerings from a cheerful giver. To my knowledge I have not met a cheerful give who does not give a tithe at minimum, anything under that is classified as greed. That is my take.

 

From our income tax forms, we gave between 12 and 20 percent over the past few years. None of it was a tithe or "a tithe at minimun". How could it be tithe since it was all money (which God prohibited as a tithe); only livestock and produce were allowed as tithe. Our giving was all money offerings given cheerfully.

 

I place in the offering dish what I purpose in my heart to give as proscribed by Paul in his epistle to the Church at Corinth. I give willingly and cheerfully that which I am able to give.

 

Really? You have cheerful givers in your congregation who bring their livestock and crops to Church? That is what the tithe is, it was never money.

 

And again, I ask,

How many that are being taught their money is to be tithed are given back a portion of that money by the clergy on the day that they give it?

After all, the Biblical tithe was to be eaten not just by the Levite, but also by the one who brought the tithe.

It is sad that many pastors will put their congregations under a law that was never given by God, nor authorized by Him. They teach the congregation the Lord requires them to tithe, and yet, they themselves do not adhere to the regulations that God set forth concerning the tithe. There is never a year where the tithe is not collected, there is never a sermon where the pastor tells the congregation to take their tithe to the poor and the foreigner that is living in the city. And the 'tither' is never given a portion of his or her tithe back on the day that they tithe.

I do believe God will hold many pastors accountable for their adding laws where no law was authorized. They very well could be cursed as the Levites of Malachi 1-3 were.

 

Malachi 3:8-10 was all about the priests robbing the tithes from the Levites. The entire book of Malachi is addressed to the priests, not the people. Follow the pronouns.

See Nehemiah 10:37-38, 13:1-14, and Malachi 1:1-3:18. The ministries of Nehemiah and Malachi overlapped and Malachi was written during the time that Nehemiah was away reporting to the king of Persia about the rebuilding project (Nehemiah 13:6-18).

The priests were robbing tithes from the Levites and feeding Tobiah, Israel's enemy in a storehouse chamber of the Temple.

 

Thanks, AresMan.

 

Yes, thanks.

Many a flock has been fleeced and made merchandise of not only from the false docrine of tithing, but more specifically 'over and beyond the tithe' burden.

 

OK. That's good. But, do you give sacrificially?

The Archangel

 

While Malachi was most likely a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, the book is addressed to all Israel, not only the priests/Levites.

Malachi 1:1 "The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi." (Emphasis mine).

Malachi 3:

[6] “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. [7] From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ [8] Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. [9] You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. [10] Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. [11] I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. [12] Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.
(Malachi 3:6-12 ESV)

Certainly there was a problem with the priests/Levites. But to say that the book is only addressed to them is not correct. Obviously, Malachi had the every-day people in mind.

The Archangel

 

A good article (.pdf) from D. A. Carson that pretty much sums-up were I am.

http://www.hpbcglobal.org/pdf/2007_Sermon_Notes/Notes_2007-11-18am_Is_Tithing_Biblical.pdf

Blessings,

The Archangel

 

If the people were wise enough to recognize a pastor who makes disciples and one who does not then there might be many without jobs and they would have to think about what pastoring truly is.

 

He was not saying the whole nation had robbed Him. He was saying that the Levites have robbed Him by their robbing the whole nation.

The Levites were robbing God, the nations were not. Notice in Malachi 3:5, God said He would come against them in judgment. Why? Partly because they were oppressing the widows and fatherless and were turning the stranger aside from his right. It is clear, it was the Levites who were doing the robbing.