Then why did Jesus tell His disciples that if they wanted to be great in the kingdom of God, they ought to keep, and teach others to keep, the least of the law and the prophets? A commandment he later told them to teach to all new converts? (Matt 5:19-20; Matt 28:20?)
First of all, Jesus was addressing people who were, at that time, still fully under the Law, and therefore required to tithe.
Secondly, there's a difference between the moral commandments and the ceremonial Law that defined the tithe, and which Jesus later fulfilled; thus the temple veil having been ripped open from top to bottom.
Thirdly, God's Law at NO time ever required wage earners to hand over a tenth of their wages to the Levites.
If you can find any example within scripture of the people handing over a portion of their wages to the Levites, then I'd certainly like to see it.
But the main concern I have with what you say, is that you seem to be basing it on scripture, and not on prophetic hearing.
Tell you what...if you ever hear a prophetic utterance that contradicts scripture, then I suggest you rebuke the speaker for uttering heretical trash.
I hear Him telling me that attention to tithing is profitable, especially in praying for government leaders in dealing with the unsaved poor.
If the Lord instructed you personally to tithe, then do so, but don't assume His instructions to you personally are to be spoken into the lives of others in a "Thus saith the Lord," command teaching.
They are poor because they are stealing from God, and ought to be told so. They might then get convicted, test God, learn to fear Him, and then choose salvation. But meditation on tithing for deluded is profitable to help them learn their true condition, to learn that they are deluded about their salvation.
And where does scripture demand that tithing is a proof to the unsaved about their spiritual state? You didn't even discern from scripture that tithing was never practiced anywhere in the Bible as something handed over from wage earners, which describes the vast majority of us today, and yet you're going to tell us that you hear from the Lord?
Were I to gauge the integrity of your claim to having allegedly heard from God in relation to everyone else around you, I'd have to say that your having flunked one of the most basic of observations about tithing from scripture forces me to assume you're hearing the voice of your own thoughts and emotions, obviously sparked by false teaching sermons and Bible studies that have no basis in scripture for demanding that wage earners today should tithe into the coffers of organized religion on the basis of OT Law.
I know that I am saved because I heard Jesus Himself tell me so this morning.
Are you sure that was His voice. Scripture doesn't confirm that His way of assuring salvation is to hear His voice declare that to us individually.
My aim in the above statement is to clarify that not everyone hears a verbal or spiritual declaration from the Lord to know they are saved.
But, through mentoring and studying the rules and commandments for knowing what was true, by "receiving the love of the truth," He taught me what I needed to know to be assured it was Him talking to me.
Irregardless, if some voice is telling you that everyone today needs to be tithing to church organizations, then you clearly are not hearing the voice of God, because such a declaration is extra-biblical, not biblical.
No believer needs to tithe to be saved, but they must hear and know His voice.
Amen
Additionally, no believer should be handing his primary, largest portion giving to church organizations, but rather to meet genuine needs of fellow believers and those in his local community.
THAT is the example scripture shows us throughout the NT.
BTW
