The Tithes
Recently I start to hear calls for donation drive and sometimes even entire sermons have been dedicated to this issue, and not only in my church. And I hear them using the same phrase during their pleading for money, preaching over and over again, GOD loves cheerful giver. This phrase become almost like a slogan and like proverb for them. So, I took a look at the Bible to find out what it actually means.
The phrase was taking out from 2Corinthains 9.6-7
It seems to me that Paul, like in the number of other of his writings kept the same theme, and in this particular case his theme was about money at all, but about good deeds of faith in the name of the Lord, of which he sometimes presented himself as an example, rejecting money completely out of the ministry of Christ, as the Christ Himself and his apostles did, and as all their early followers have done.
At least on two occasion Paul proudly mentioned that he by doing his trade of making tents, not only supported himself financially and materially, but also able to support and his companions in ministry, and by this he set a good example for all godly conscience people to do the same. He mentioned the number of time that he never been a financial burden to any one or to any church.
This phrase of Paul about cheerful giver does not related to donation of money or to tithes in any way as the church using it in their favor. The church twisted and edited the meaning of Paul words and his entire theme of self-reliance and self-support, to sufficiently provide for yourself and for others and not idling, and to avoid reliance purely on money or on the help of the church in the missionary work for Christ.
Concerning tithes, I found about 14 places in the Bible, some of which does not specify the context of tithes, but some does, and here some of them:
Deuteronomy 14.22-24.28
22.You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow which comes out of the field every year.
23.And you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your GOD, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first-born of your herd and your flock, in order that you may learn to fear the Lord your GOD always.
24.And if the distance is so great for you that you are not able to bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your GOD chooses to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your GOD blesses you,
28.At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town.
Deuteronomy 26.12
12.When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
2Chronicles 31.5-6.12
5.And as soon as the order spread, the sons of Israel provided in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field, and they brought in abundantly the tithe of all.
6.And the sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah, also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their GOD, and placed them in heaps.
12.And they faithfully brought in the contributions, and the tithes, and the consecrated things, and Conaniah the Levite was the officer in charge of them, and his brother Shimei was second.
Nehemiah 10.37-38
37.We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine, and the oil, to the priests at the chambers of the House of our GOD, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the rural towns.
38.And the priest the sons of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the House of our GOD, to the chambers of the storehouse.
Nehemiah 12.44
44.On that day men were also appointed over the chambers for the stores, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions required by the Law, for the priests and Levites, Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who served.
Nehemiah 13.4-5
4.No prior to this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the House of our GOD, being related to Tobiah,
5.had prepared a large room for him, where formerly they put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the utensils, and the tithes of grain, wine and oil, prescribed for Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
Matthew 23.23
23.Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you tithe, mint, and dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: Justice, and Mercy, and Faithfulness, these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
(1Samuel 15.22) (Psalm 51.16-17) (Proverbs 21.3.27) (Ecclesiastes 5.1) (Hosea 6.6) (Isaiah 1.11-20) (Jeremiah 6.20) (Amos 5.21-24) (Micah 6.6-8) (Zechariah 7.2-4.9-10) (Matthew 9.13, 12.7, 23.23) (Mark 12.32-33)
Luke 11.42
42.But woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithe of mint and rue ("rue - from its thick and fleshly leaves". KSB, Greek Dictionary of the New Testament, page 57), and every kind garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of GOD, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
As it clear indicated above, tithe has nothing to do with money, but had been collected from the field and from animal stock and given to Levites as their food while they serve the Lord, and excess of it have been given to the poor.
By analyzing the statements above, I can clearly see the hypocrisy of the church on this issue, similar to that as they have done with many other statements of the Bible which they reshaped, bend, and twisted in order to meet and to fit their own standards, doctrines, slogans, dogmas, and the most of all greed for money.
But I believe that instead of collecting something that are not tithes and shamelessly passing donation plate up to the nose of people, church actually has right to collect a certain tax for its up-keeping and maintenance, but not for payroll to anyone who serve in the church, and shall not collect 10% from their members.
The monetary tax was established at the time of Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon, later Herods Temple, to keep it in good shape, but again, not for the payroll to the priests or any other servants of the Temple as it became common practice in todays churches.
Concerning Abraham and Melchizedek king of Salem, Abraham gave him 10% of his booty, not money, because Melchizedek was a priest of GOD Most High. Today we dont have such priests, we have Jesus Christ as the high Priests of GOD, and He does not need or collect any money from anyone, but the only thing He truly need and expecting from us are the Justice, Mercy, Faithfulness, and Love for Him and for one another as it mentioned above, and to follow His commandments and statutes, and these are His tithes that He expecting from us to collect.
Alex
Recently I start to hear calls for donation drive and sometimes even entire sermons have been dedicated to this issue, and not only in my church. And I hear them using the same phrase during their pleading for money, preaching over and over again, GOD loves cheerful giver. This phrase become almost like a slogan and like proverb for them. So, I took a look at the Bible to find out what it actually means.
The phrase was taking out from 2Corinthains 9.6-7
It seems to me that Paul, like in the number of other of his writings kept the same theme, and in this particular case his theme was about money at all, but about good deeds of faith in the name of the Lord, of which he sometimes presented himself as an example, rejecting money completely out of the ministry of Christ, as the Christ Himself and his apostles did, and as all their early followers have done.
At least on two occasion Paul proudly mentioned that he by doing his trade of making tents, not only supported himself financially and materially, but also able to support and his companions in ministry, and by this he set a good example for all godly conscience people to do the same. He mentioned the number of time that he never been a financial burden to any one or to any church.
This phrase of Paul about cheerful giver does not related to donation of money or to tithes in any way as the church using it in their favor. The church twisted and edited the meaning of Paul words and his entire theme of self-reliance and self-support, to sufficiently provide for yourself and for others and not idling, and to avoid reliance purely on money or on the help of the church in the missionary work for Christ.
Concerning tithes, I found about 14 places in the Bible, some of which does not specify the context of tithes, but some does, and here some of them:
Deuteronomy 14.22-24.28
22.You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow which comes out of the field every year.
23.And you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your GOD, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first-born of your herd and your flock, in order that you may learn to fear the Lord your GOD always.
24.And if the distance is so great for you that you are not able to bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your GOD chooses to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your GOD blesses you,
28.At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town.
Deuteronomy 26.12
12.When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
2Chronicles 31.5-6.12
5.And as soon as the order spread, the sons of Israel provided in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field, and they brought in abundantly the tithe of all.
6.And the sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah, also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their GOD, and placed them in heaps.
12.And they faithfully brought in the contributions, and the tithes, and the consecrated things, and Conaniah the Levite was the officer in charge of them, and his brother Shimei was second.
Nehemiah 10.37-38
37.We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine, and the oil, to the priests at the chambers of the House of our GOD, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the rural towns.
38.And the priest the sons of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the House of our GOD, to the chambers of the storehouse.
Nehemiah 12.44
44.On that day men were also appointed over the chambers for the stores, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions required by the Law, for the priests and Levites, Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who served.
Nehemiah 13.4-5
4.No prior to this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the House of our GOD, being related to Tobiah,
5.had prepared a large room for him, where formerly they put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the utensils, and the tithes of grain, wine and oil, prescribed for Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
Matthew 23.23
23.Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you tithe, mint, and dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: Justice, and Mercy, and Faithfulness, these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
(1Samuel 15.22) (Psalm 51.16-17) (Proverbs 21.3.27) (Ecclesiastes 5.1) (Hosea 6.6) (Isaiah 1.11-20) (Jeremiah 6.20) (Amos 5.21-24) (Micah 6.6-8) (Zechariah 7.2-4.9-10) (Matthew 9.13, 12.7, 23.23) (Mark 12.32-33)
Luke 11.42
42.But woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithe of mint and rue ("rue - from its thick and fleshly leaves". KSB, Greek Dictionary of the New Testament, page 57), and every kind garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of GOD, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
As it clear indicated above, tithe has nothing to do with money, but had been collected from the field and from animal stock and given to Levites as their food while they serve the Lord, and excess of it have been given to the poor.
By analyzing the statements above, I can clearly see the hypocrisy of the church on this issue, similar to that as they have done with many other statements of the Bible which they reshaped, bend, and twisted in order to meet and to fit their own standards, doctrines, slogans, dogmas, and the most of all greed for money.
But I believe that instead of collecting something that are not tithes and shamelessly passing donation plate up to the nose of people, church actually has right to collect a certain tax for its up-keeping and maintenance, but not for payroll to anyone who serve in the church, and shall not collect 10% from their members.
The monetary tax was established at the time of Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon, later Herods Temple, to keep it in good shape, but again, not for the payroll to the priests or any other servants of the Temple as it became common practice in todays churches.
Concerning Abraham and Melchizedek king of Salem, Abraham gave him 10% of his booty, not money, because Melchizedek was a priest of GOD Most High. Today we dont have such priests, we have Jesus Christ as the high Priests of GOD, and He does not need or collect any money from anyone, but the only thing He truly need and expecting from us are the Justice, Mercy, Faithfulness, and Love for Him and for one another as it mentioned above, and to follow His commandments and statutes, and these are His tithes that He expecting from us to collect.
Alex