Please give me your thoughts: Is Tithing required by the New Testament?

1. Tithing is not "Old Covenant" it is scripture.
2. The "whatever is not repeated should be deleted" principle for reading the bible is not supported in scripture.
3. In Malachi 3 God states that withholding tithe is "robbing God".
4. Christ said in Matt 5 that His mission is not to abolish the Word of God.

in Christ,

Bob

 

Where is the temple you take every 10th lamb under which your rod strikes?

 

Tithing

TaliOrlando:

Tithing is law. All you need to tithe is a calculator. Giving is a gift (or effect of grace) for a born again believer who is "alive unto God" (Rom. 6:11).

Ye are not under law, but under grace. (Grace: divine influence on the heart)

You choose what will influence your giving: the Spirit of God or math. If the Spirit is telling you to tithe then tithe. But beware that the influence to tithe is most likely to be from those who will have other laws to impose on you later: no drinking, smoking, working (or playing) on Sunday, dancing, eating pork, where to send your kids to school, what to wear, what version of the bible to use...

Tithing is much easier. Paycheck X .10 = Sunday "offering". You have been called unto liberty. Liberty may sound great (and it is) but it will require way more of you than you may think.

Be prepared for the onslaught of comments that will be coming. For a preview look at the other topics. It will be the same thing over and over. The best one has already been used: you don't want to rob God do you? The actual robbing is being done by those who are trying to take as their spoil (as in booty in war).

Col. 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

God bless you for looking into this. Pray for guidance in sorting out all the counsel you will be getting. Trust God.

 

TaliOrlando,

Do a search on BB for the thread called 'Tithing, What's the Big Deal?'. That thread shows you many reasons why the New Testament Believer is not required to tithe. The main reason is Peter's explanation found in Acts 15... it will put one under a yoke of bondage.

 

I agree with standingfirminChrist. BUT...out of love we should be giving a lot more than 10%...every chance we get. The early believers sold EVERYTHING they had and brought it before the Apostles to be shared with those in need. Can you imagine that happening in todays church?

 

No. Are you posting from a public library, because you sold your computer-- as well as your house car(s), stocks, 401K plans, et al-- and laid the money at some "apostles'" feet? Or why do you bring that up?

 

Believers today need to give cheerfully (hilariously), not grudgingly (complaining) or of necessity (you must give 10% or suffer the curse of God); for God loveth a cheerful giver.

 

Tithing was a necessity in the Old Testament. The 11 tribes of Israel were required to tithe to the Levites so the Levites could eat. This is because the Levites could own no land according to Law.

The Levites were to take a tithe (10%) of their tithe to the High Priest. Now, if you wish to be under the yoke of bondage of Mosaic Law, and your pastor is a Levite, then by all means tithe. If he is a High Priest, then he is to be alloted 1%, not 10%.

But if you are going to stay under that yoke of bondage, then you better adhere to and follow the other 612 laws as well. For if you are guilty of one, you are guilty of all. Tithing even 10% would be of no merit in God's eyes if you do not follow all the Law. ..Are you able to do so? I know I am not.

Tithing was always food, it was never money.

 

The following paragraphs are from the book Living Prayer by Metropolitan ANTHONY (Bloom):

"If you believe that prayers for the living are a help to them, why should you not pray for the dead? Life is one, for as St. Luke says:'He is not the God of the dead but of the living' (20:38). Death is not an end but a stage in the destiny of man, and this destiny is not petrified at the moment of death. The love which our prayer expresses cannot be in vain; if love had power on earth and had no power after death it would tragically contradict the word of scripture that love is as strong as death (Song 8:6), and the experience of the Church that love is more powerful than death, because Christ has defeated death in his love for mankind.It is an error to think that man's connection with life on earth ends with his death. In the course of ones's life one sows seeds. These seeds develop in the souls of other men and affect their destiny, and the fruit that is born of these seeds truly belongs not only to those who bear it but also to those who sow. The words written or spoken that change a human life or the destiny of mankind, as the words of preachers, philosophers, poets or politicians, remain their author's responsibility, not only for evil but also for good; the author's destiny is bound to be affected by the way they have influenced those living after them.

The life of every person continues to have repercussions until the last judgement, and man's eternal and final destiny is determined not only by the short space of time he has lived on this earth but also by the results of this life, by its good or evil consequences. Those who have received seed sown as in fertile ground, can influence the destiny of the departed by prayerfully beseeching God to bless the man who has transformed their lives, given a meaning to their existence."

"Our prayer is an act of gratitude and love, in so far as our life is the continuation of something that he stood for. We do not ask God to be unjust, and we do not imagine that we are more compassionate and more loving that he is, nor do we ask him to be more merciful than he would otherwise be; we are bringing new evidence for God's judgement, and we pray that this evidence should be taken into account and that the blessing of God should come abundantly for the one who has meant so much in our life. It is important to realise that we pray not in order to convince God of something but to bear witness that this person has not lived in vain, neither loving nor inspiring love.

Any person who has been the origin of love in any way has something to put forward in his defense, but it is for those who remain to bear witness to what he has done for them. Here again it is not simply a matter of good will or emotion. St. Isaac of Syria says: do not reduce your prayer to words, make the totality of your life a prayer to God. Therefore, if we wish to pray for our departed, our life must back up the prayer....It is essential that every seed of good, truth and holiness that has been sown by them should bear fruit, because then we can stand before God and say: he has sown good, there was some quality in him which inspired me to do well, and this particle of good is not mine but his and is a way his glory and his redemption."

 

Tithing

II Cor. 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

 

As much as God has given me... the least I can do is give of my time-talents-resources. IMHO.

 

Give of your time, your talents, your resources. If that is what you ppurpose in your heart to do and do cheerfully.

But unless you are giving 10% of your cattle, flocks, and produce, you are not tithing... no matter what you call it.

And if you are tithing of those three, and are breaking any of the other 612 laws, then you are just as guilty of not tithing anyway.

James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Tell me... are your clothes of one material only? with no seams? Do you have battlements on your roof? Those are two that most readers would have to answer no to... I am sure there are more.

 

All good - all applicable in the O.T

The O.T never said "give grudgingly and of necessity -- do not purpose in your heart to be a cheterful giver".

God says that we are to Love God with all of our heart Deut 6:5 and Love our Neighbor as ourselves Lev 19:18 -- but God does not say "and do it grudgingly".

in Christ,

Bob

 

But if a person is going to 'do it' and it will be grudgingly if he does it, then shoud he do it or not do it?

 

If you are not going to Love God or your neighbor -- it does not matter whether you feel good about not doing it. It is sin -- it is not the "good fruit" of Matt 7 rather it reveals the bad fruit of a bad tree. James says "Guilty of one guilty of all" in James 2.

He does not say "oops -- shouldn't have said that -- you might feel obligated".

in Christ,

Bob

 

Can you answer a binary question Yes or No? If you can, answer this one, and if Yes, then my previous one.

 

If you are servant to tithing, you must be servant to all the law -- so says the Bible. This is why you hear many ministers say "We are not under the law. The tithe is a 'starting point' for our giving."

Well, that was true of the law as well! That doesn't get anyone out from "under that law."

Here's what does --- giving your life to the body/church and giving what the Spirit says give. This way you don't get people who can't feed their families -- like the "widow" with the "mite" in the OT -- not being able to take care of their families needs, 1Tim 3:5, 5:8. Yet I have seen this (The family had to ask the church for alms afterward but Paul said such, for example, "deny the faith.").

The best example of Christian giving is in 2Cor 8-9 -- the love offering. And, yes, we ought to pay our pastors and have a place to worship. But paid activities staff is certainly overkill as are 50" plasmas hung everywhere, etc.

And a significant amount of the tithes in the "storehouse" were for the poor, Mal 3. Today, we let gov't administer "alms" in the form of taxes as the Jewish religion used to do as both church and state to its members.

skypair

 

Tithing

The difference between giving a tithe and giving from the heart(in the sense Paul is talking here) is one needs a calculator; the other requires the Spirit.

Under the law God told the Jews to give tithes. He also told them, as BR points out to love Him with all "their" heart. Using logic, many have figured (no pun intended) they are supposed to tithe with all their heart.

This exposes the difference between law and grace. Under law God gave the command. In the better covenant, God gives everything required: Phil 2:13 "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Their is nothing wrong with tithing in the Kingdom of God. What is wrong is for me tell you that you need to do it. In so doing I would "spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

The rudiments of the world in this situation would be math and money. The Spirit is not required to multiply income X .10. People that are being lead to tithe by the Spirit are not telling other people they need to do it.

 

If you are being led to tithe, then you are to tithe produce, flocks and herds... for that is what tithe was. It was not money.

So if you are being led to tithe and are not giving produce, flocks and herbs but instead money, you are not tithing and thereby not following the leading as you claim to.