Should we tithe?

snowfam said:

If I put money in the plate as it passses along the pews on Sunday morning, am I doing God's will or my pastors?
Shoul I contribute 10% of my net or gross oe should I buy groceries pay the intenet bill buy a new ipad then contribute 10% of what remains?
How come I am only allowed to give 10%, and it has to go to the church I attend?
What if I fed a starving person then only had 8% to give, would I lose my 2014 mecedes?
I am an American should'nt my tithe pay for air conditioning and a comfortable seat as well as donuts and a hot beverage before the service instead of going to those whiny Chinese Christians with all their absurd claims of prosecution?

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When you put money in the plate on Sunday morning, you are giving to your church. This money SHOULD be used for the needs of the church including benevolence, debt reduction, salaries, equipment, education, outreach. Its not just the pastor's salary. It takes money to run a church.


The 10%, well, I'm a firm believer in the full tithe and have tithed for years. That is for the running of the church to do the things above.


You can give more than 10%, no problem. We give 10% to our church and another 10% to charities we support.


“Lose your mercedes”? Seems you been listening to too many prosperity preachers. They are of the devil, do not preach the true gospel and get away from that. We've tithed for years and currently have 2 old SUVs. No Mercedes here.


Your tithe to the local church pays for the a/c and all that stuff.


I can't decide if you're serious or not here...but if you are serious, you have some mighty skewed ideas of what the tithe is for.

wow... I did not read the original post carefully enough. If I had, I would've caught the statement that the tithe is a "maximum" requirement... snowfam, where do you get that idea? There is nothing in any part of the Bible that suggests that kind of limit.

And that last part, about "whiny Chinese Christians..." uhm, I guess that's best left at the altar..... *tiptoes quietly away...*

tturt said:

If Yahweh doesn't have our wallets, we haven't submitted to Him completely.

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If Yahweh, or Jesus, has our hearts, then it should be automatic that we should "want" to "give" financially and in other ways

Kings servant said:

So let me see if I understand the point you are trying to make. If we can't keep to every single letter of the Bible then we should not even waste our time in at least trying?

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So, you don't do those thing? Let me get this straight, you pick and choose what scripture you want to follow? Choose what you like, discard what you dislike?

snowfam said:

If I put money in the plate as it passses along the pews on Sunday morning, am I doing God's will or my pastors?
Shoul I contribute 10% of my net or gross oe should I buy groceries pay the intenet bill buy a new ipad then contribute 10% of what remains?
How come I am only allowed to give 10%, and it has to go to the church I attend?
What if I fed a starving person then only had 8% to give, would I lose my 2014 mecedes?
I am an American should'nt my tithe pay for air conditioning and a comfortable seat as well as donuts and a hot beverage before the service instead of going to those whiny Chinese Christians with all their absurd claims of prosecution?

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Giving money is easier than giving our time !

Offering ourselves as living sacrifices...that is real giving.

A tithe is part of OT Hebrew law. The priest class wanted 10% in order to continue doing God's work.

Here is the kicker...

Priests figured out long ago that they hold the keys to salvation. They can have rich, comfortable, easy lives living off the backs of others. Give to the church and you will be blessed. Give not and you may be damned. Why work in the fields tending crops, livestock, etc when you can have others do it for you, as a collective?

Modern day churches use tithes to pay clergy/staff salaries (clergymen do not pay income tax in the US), utilities, equipment, etc. Some of it goes to mission work. Religion is a lucrative business.

I am not saying every church is bent on greed, nor am I saying not to give. I am saying that churches need to be auditted by its members and held accountable for the money it spends. Ask a pastor if it is ok for the church to cut his salary by 25% and see what kind of reaction you get...

Primi Agminis said:

A tithe is part of OT Hebrew law. The priest class wanted 10% in order to continue doing God's work.

Here is the kicker...

Priests figured out long ago that they hold the keys to salvation. They can have rich, comfortable, easy lives living off the backs of others. Give to the church and you will be blessed. Give not and you may be damned. Why work in the fields tending crops, livestock, etc when you can have others do it for you, as a collective?

Modern day churches use tithes to pay clergy/staff salaries (clergymen do not pay income tax in the US), utilities, equipment, etc. Some of it goes to mission work. Religion is a lucrative business.

I am not saying every church is bent on greed, nor am I saying not to give. I am saying that churches need to be auditted by its members and held accountable for the money it spends. Ask a pastor if it is ok for the church to cut his salary by 25% and see what kind of reaction you get...

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haha your not wrong .

someone mentioned when you give to the church it should be used for the expenses of the church .. etc

including debt reduction .. i am of the opinion that the debt incurred was done so through great wickedness .. oh wow did i just say that ?

they build a building bigger then required .. ran to the world with cap in hand and loaned at interest off the WORLD ..became indebted to the world .pay ..over 20+years MILLIONS of the saints givings on interest on a debt they say they were led by God to get ... while supplying their missionaries a pittance to preach the gospel and feed the poor and care for the widow and the fatherless .

huh ? say what again ?

they need to say-" right here are the costs to run the congregation ... it amount to $xxxx .xx so there are 480 member we divide $xxxx.xx by 480 and that is how much we would like you to give if you feel in the lord to help .. and ALL the rest we will use to display the goodness and generosity of the lord to preach the Good news of the kingdom of God ..
not this endless give tithe give tithe so we can waste more and more and more of you're givings on trapping and building and paying the world their interest due .

.ugh .. ugh .. no UGH .

I've donated my 10% to a charity that helps needy Jews in the former Soviet Union for several years now and I can honestly say that God has blessed my finances in a huge way.

Purge187 said:

I've donated my 10% to a charity that helps needy Jews in the former Soviet Union for several years now and I can honestly say that God has blessed my finances in a huge way.

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i know right .. but i feel pretty sure that when you gave it to that need -you did it from concern and compassion ... and you would continue to do it even if no change in your finance took place .. because having that blessing was not your motive -your motive was to love god and so do what you felt him telling you to do .. .. am i wrong to suggest that ? i think not

how to share without blowing ones own trumpet is difficult ,but for the purpose of goading others to cast of the religious bonds of the law based tithes and so free themselves to give from love for God and love for God and love for God without boundary nor limit- for the law of the tithe can bind folks to a ten percent mind set and we are not under the written ordinance of the law but under the law of the spirit of life which simply means .. to OBEY THE HOLY SPIRIT OF LIFE ..i share .

i too was lead by God .. after he broke my heart one day, as i read the scriptures from James chapter 5

Come now, you rich people! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your wealth is ruined and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your silver and gold are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You stored up treasure in the last days! 4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.[a] 5 You have lived luxuriously on the land and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter

for years i always equated those words to the fat cats .. the proverbial .."them -over there-.but that day the lord showed me it was me .. because i am rich ? no not by a long shot in worldly terms - but because having all that i need in abundance i then held back my abundance without realizing i was doing it ..
and the lord said to me the workers in the field are all those who have gone out to preach the gospel every where .. and they struggle on measly pittance eekd out from churches while churches spend their incredible wealth on mortgages for temporary building that will all be destroyed soon and not for the eternal kingdom of God ..

this revelation as he spoke to me was so profound i began to weep ..i sat there and cried and asked god to forgive me .. then i asked him to lead me where to give ..there are so many places ..
that very week my wifes workmate spoke of his sister working in turkey--short story we made contact while she was back home .. meet her ..comitted a substantial amount monthly ..i assure you it was not little -i say so only to glorify God in what happened next .not to boast .

turns out right at that time a sponser of hers had had to cease and bang .. God had us there to take up the slack

i did all this becaause i love the lord and he was teling me too so i obeyed him // and his joy came floding down over me .. thats whywe obey because when we do ALWAYS HIS JOY comes upon us ..thats whayt pauls said .. for the joy set before us ... not only the one day in the future joy of heaven .. but the present joy of the pleasure of God upon us NOW ... .

any way all that done for obedience and that was that ,we were committed to it and began doing it ..

then - a string of events took place .. the global financial crises was hitting everyone ..belts were tightening ,,bank accounts buckling down etc ,,and right in the middle of all that , my work did the impossible to astound me .. a month later i retained my job and received the biggest single pay rise ever in my whole life ... my pay jumped so much that when i sat down to calculate it - i found the lord had given me every sent of what we had committed to ..he gave it all back ..i was stunned and amazed .

but i knew one thing .. he did so, so we could seek him for the next thing to give to and no other reason .. my wife and i are learning more and more to give as the holy Spirit prompts and never say no to him .and we know even if it seems difficult - we remember the joy that awaits us and so ... we do it for the JOY set before us

but no joy awaits those who store it up unto destruction.

i pray this challenges every one to say .. Lord where do you want me to give


rejoice in the lord and again i say REJOICE

Primi Agminis said:

A tithe is part of OT Hebrew law. The priest class wanted 10% in order to continue doing God's work.

Here is the kicker...

Priests figured out long ago that they hold the keys to salvation. They can have rich, comfortable, easy lives living off the backs of others. Give to the church and you will be blessed. Give not and you may be damned. Why work in the fields tending crops, livestock, etc when you can have others do it for you, as a collective?

Modern day churches use tithes to pay clergy/staff salaries (clergymen do not pay income tax in the US), utilities, equipment, etc. Some of it goes to mission work. Religion is a lucrative business.

I am not saying every church is bent on greed, nor am I saying not to give. I am saying that churches need to be auditted by its members and held accountable for the money it spends. Ask a pastor if it is ok for the church to cut his salary by 25% and see what kind of reaction you get...

Click to expand...

Jehovah's witnesses do not get paid at all, nor do they "push" or "pressure" people to tithe, they have a discreet drop box, where one can put money in envelopes which is used for books, magazines, paying the rent and utilities and anything left over goes toward building improvements, building new churches (houses) and toward missionary work (in poor areas) but none of the church servants (elders) get "paid" it's too bad more non-denominational or secular churches weren't more like that

Now I'm not Promoting the Jehovah's witnesses church or religion, I'm just pointing out one "positive" thing about them...

Neogaia777 said:

Jehovah's witnesses do not get paid at all, nor do they "push" or "pressure" people to tithe, they have a discreet drop box, where one can put money in envelopes which is used for books, magazines, paying the rent and utilities and anything left over goes toward building improvements, building new churches (houses) and toward missionary work (in poor areas) but none of the church servants (elders) get "paid" it's too bad more non-denominational or secular churches weren't more like that

Now I'm not Promoting the Jehovah's witnesses church or religion, I'm just pointing out one "positive" thing about them...

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sounds nice on the surface of it doesn't it - but the social control pressure if one does not contribute both time and money is intense to the point when my friends we in it and .. stopped being so involved they were hurt to tears of how much cold hard rejection they received when they went back , because they had not been attending and meeting obligation.. every one actually turned thier backs and would not talk to them ..it was dead social conditioning with no love at all ... typical cult behavior .

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I will glorify you oh Lord my God my everlasting Savior for you have spoken your word from the abundance of your heart and your word became flesh and dwelt among us to make manifest your heart to us that we might know you as you know us and that we might be saved you shed your blood ..glory be unto you LORD Jesus .. for you are he who was and is and is to come and unto whom of the angels did he say .. thou art my son this day i have begotten you ? none .. for you alone oh lord are his word made flesh . thus do i praise you thus do i give you glory due unto your name .for your name oh Jesus is lifted above every name in heaven and on earth and the only name by which man can be saved .

Neogaia777 said:

...they have a discreet drop box, where one can put money in envelopes...

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The non-denominational church I go to does this. They have drop boxes by the doors. No one passes around a collection plate, no one preaches about tithing. There is no pressure. New members go to an orientation meeting and they tell you right there that if you want to give to the church, just drop your offering/tithe in the box. If not, no one will know the wiser.

Incidentally the church has paid off its construction loan already, as well as the land. Took less than 5 years. People are more willing to give when they are not pressured.

The church I grew up in used to send your offering envelopes to your house, complete with your name, address, etc on them. They would preach about tithes. They would pass around an offering plate at every service. GIVE GIVE GIVE!!! Hated that.

michaelmynameIs said:

sounds nice on the surface of it doesn't it - but the social control pressure if one does not contribute both time and money is intense to the point when my friends we in it and .. stopped being so involved they were hurt to tears of how much cold hard rejection they received when they went back , because they had not been attending and meeting obligation.. every one actually turned thier backs and would not talk to them ..it was dead social conditioning with no love at all ... typical cult behavior .

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I will glorify you oh Lord my God my everlasting Savior for you have spoken your word from the abundance of your heart and your word became flesh and dwelt among us to make manifest your heart to us that we might know you as you know us and that we might be saved you shed your blood ..glory be unto you LORD Jesus .. for you are he who was and is and is to come and unto whom of the angels did he say .. thou art my son this day i have begotten you ? none .. for you alone oh lord are his word made flesh . thus do i praise you thus do i give you glory due unto your name .for your name oh Jesus is lifted above every name in heaven and on earth and the only name by which man can be saved .

Click to expand...

sounds nice on the surface of it doesn't it - but the social control pressure if one does not contribute both time and money is intense to the point when my friends we in it and .. stopped being so involved they were hurt to tears of how much cold hard rejection they received when they went back , because they had not been attending and meeting obligation.. every one actually turned thier backs and would not talk to them ..it was dead social conditioning with no love at all ... typical cult behavior .

That's specifically why I said "i'm not promoting their religion"

But Preachers/pastors/church leaders are "supposed" to be getting paid in order to "dedicate" (like a full-time job) "all" their "efforts and energy in to doing the full-time work of the gospel, whether studying (a lot) or doing missionary work, or just counseling and advising other believers, but I find that many are not fully "living up to" this "responsibility" that is supposed to be their full-time job, that I find that (sadly) many are not fully living up to...

And then not to mention some of these television evangelists who somehow justify living in mansions, having twenty to thirty-something odd rooms for a family of four, and having two to three personal private jets (to fly them to wherever they need to go, I guess) and driving (owning) several to multiples of brand new high-end cars (most of which stay parked in their garage most of the time), I know I'm going-off now, I just don't see why some of these people can't downsize a little bit and "share" a little bit more of their wealth, (especially) if they "claim" to be "true" God fearing "Christians... And their "reasons", just to keep up with their "wealthy" constituants, I guess (Just to keep up with the Jones so to speak, ridiculous...) And defininetly not "christian"...

snowfam said:

If I put money in the plate as it passses along the pews on Sunday morning, am I doing God's will or my pastors?
Shoul I contribute 10% of my net or gross oe should I buy groceries pay the intenet bill buy a new ipad then contribute 10% of what remains?
How come I am only allowed to give 10%, and it has to go to the church I attend?
What if I fed a starving person then only had 8% to give, would I lose my 2014 mecedes?
I am an American should'nt my tithe pay for air conditioning and a comfortable seat as well as donuts and a hot beverage before the service instead of going to those whiny Chinese Christians with all their absurd claims of prosecution?

Click to expand...

Please forgive me if I'm repeating anything that was already posted. This is more of a testimony than a biblical lesson or opinion.
I don't have a Mercedes, or any other schwanky car. My house is modest. I'm not poor, nor am I rich. I have what I need and most of what I want. It is God that provides it all in the first place. Oh, I like to think that I made this life all by myself, but, really, I have what I have because God provided it. I truly believe that I have what I have because my husband and I tithe. The word "tithe" means "the tenth part". If God wants 10 cents from every dollar He gives me, then that's what I'll give.
We tithe on the gross of all income, including our income tax refunds. We consider this the first fruits of our paycheck. Yes, I know, income tax is the sum of the taxes that are taken out of our pay checks ... for the most part. But, we look at this as an offering on top of all the other giving that we do in addition to tithing.
When my husband was out of work he asked me "What do I give church?" I answered, "10% of course. We're not skimping out on God, He's never skimped out on us." So, we did. God was right when He said "Prove me." in Malachi. My husband was out of work for a few months, yet we continued to tithe what we had, and haven't fallen behind in out payments. We proved God to be the righteous provider He said He is.
I get that we're under grace, and that we're no longer under the law, but to me the commandments are there for a reason. Paul calls them our schoolmaster. What has this principle has taught this school girl? That you cannot out give God. He just keeps giving it back so that you can give it back.

Neogaia777 said:

sounds nice on the surface of it doesn't it - but the social control pressure if one does not contribute both time and money is intense to the point when my friends we in it and .. stopped being so involved they were hurt to tears of how much cold hard rejection they received when they went back , because they had not been attending and meeting obligation.. every one actually turned thier backs and would not talk to them ..it was dead social conditioning with no love at all ... typical cult behavior .

That's specifically why I said "i'm not promoting their religion"

But Preachers/pastors/church leaders are "supposed" to be getting paid in order to "dedicate" (like a full-time job) "all" their "efforts and energy in to doing the full-time work of the gospel, whether studying (a lot) or doing missionary work, or just counseling and advising other believers, but I find that many are not fully "living up to" this "responsibility" that is supposed to be their full-time job, that I find that (sadly) many are not fully living up to...

And then not to mention some of these television evangelists who somehow justify living in mansions, having twenty to thirty-something odd rooms for a family of four, and having two to three personal private jets (to fly them to wherever they need to go, I guess) and driving (owning) several to multiples of brand new high-end cars (most of which stay parked in their garage most of the time), I know I'm going-off now, I just don't see why some of these people can't downsize a little bit and "share" a little bit more of their wealth, (especially) if they "claim" to be "true" God fearing "Christians... And their "reasons", just to keep up with their "wealthy" constituants, I guess (Just to keep up with the Jones so to speak, ridiculous...) And defininetly not "christian"...

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yup . find my earlier post on it

I think we are somewhat stuck in our own culture and fail to see the wide range of economic cultures which are encompassed by the Bible. We are stuck on finances whereas in the kinds of agrarian and other economic cultures that can exist, "ten percent" can refer to energy, labor, as well as literal fruits, "first fruits".

In an agrarian setting, handing the first fruits and especially the best ones over to the priests may well have meant that these are the seeds from which the next harvest will come.

Even in my own lifetime (I am in my 60's) I have known people for whom the tithe included dedicating a child to the church. In fact, I was one of those who was expected to take religious vows. A few years ago I was talking with an Irish priest about this, how in my ethnicity it was assumed that the youngest daughter would become a nun and the youngest son a priest if none of the elder siblings chose that path. He said he knew this to be true but that for the Irish it was considered the duty of the eldest son and daughter to forsake their own interests in service to the Church.

Of course, we were talking about a culture in which the Church was far more than the local preacher on Sunday morning and the small crowd of singers in a meeting hall. It is hard to find that holy culture anywhere nowadays, but I think we may see it return as our present secular culture collapses. In fact, the Bible really is a kind of innoculation against total economic collapse and that is the true tithe, isn't it? That if we give even just 10% of what we have, God gives us all that we may need.

It is clear that if we do not give 10% to the Lord, we struggle to know His will.

Personally, I do think that what we give freely in charity is indeed part of that tithe because I cannot imagine the Lord blessing any preacher who begrudges the money anyone might spend on extra wool socks handed to some homeless people! It keeps things in perspective, doesn't it?