I have only been to one church where the pastor did not give numerous annual sermons on tithing. He was a great man of faith who prayed that God would provide the finances they needed. He never felt like he had to lie to the congregation out of insecurity and lack of faith to try and raise funds. I would venture to say that almost all pastors preach and teach the ten percent tithe principle. It is probably the most bastardized teaching of all from the Scripture. In this country especially, everything has to be quantitative. Growth, numbers, bigger buildings...equals "success" and to achieve this "success" it requires enormous sums of money. Hence, pastors are under great pressure to grow the church, which in turn leads them to preach a completely unbiblical principle to ensure the money keeps flowing.
Part of the problem is a lack of understanding of the "big picture" that the Old Testament presents to us. The Old Testament is a grand picture of who the Messiah is and what he will do for us. In other words, it all points forward to a day when all will be fulfilled in the person of Christ. The Israelite community was a Theocracy (government by God) and as such they had The Law, which was codified into three categories: civil, ceremonial and moral. Altogether there were 613 "laws" that Israelites were expected to obey in obedience to Yaweh (God) and as a sign to all pagan nations that they serve Him alone. It is stated clearly in Nehemiah 12:44 that the Israelite community was to bring the tithe to the storerooms of the Temple in the "portions required by the Law." This was one of the 613 laws that they were to follow. Now, I ask a simple question. How can you take one law from the Old Testament and bring it forward to the modern day and leave all the other 612 laws behind? Planting a field with two kinds of seed and wearing clothing mixed of two different fabrics was also part of the Law (Leviticus 18:19). Some pastors will quote "that God never changes" (Malachi 3:6) and therefore the tithe is still binding as commanded. Well, again I ask, if that is true, don't we need to also be obeying the other 612 laws, not just one that happens to serve an agenda?
As part of the "big picture", one needs to understand that the tithe was meant to feed and provide for the needs of the Levites who served in The Temple as priests because that was their full-time job so to speak. They were not planting and harvesting, so the community provided for them with the tithe (Deuteronomy 14:22-29). Now, another point is that the tithe was not money, it was a tenth of all the livestock and crops. It was then brought to a literal storehouse in the Temple. Now, the Temple represented the place in which the Spirit of God dwelt in the Holy of Holies, which was a room that was separated from the rest of the Temple by a curtain and only the High Priest could enter there to make the sacrifices called for by the ceremonial law (Hebrews 9:7).
The New Testament tells us much about the fulfillment, in the person of Christ, of all of this. All Christians are now a part of the spiritual temple with Christ as the Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19-22). He is the High Priest that once and for all entered the Holy of Holies and made the final sacrifice so that we may now enter as a kingdom of priests and Glory in the presence of God via the indwelling Spirit (1 Peter 2:5 and Revelation 1:6). Collectively, we are The Church, the Ecclesia, the called out ones. We basically all serve as Levites now in the spiritual temple witnessing for Christ and preaching the Gospel. The tithe at this point in New testament times, after the fulfillment of all by Christ, is represented as provision given by Christ and others in the body of Christ amongst one another. It can take many forms, but has NOTHING to do with giving money to a man-made church organization. The pastor is not the priest serving in the temple church building for which we need to bring tithes to support. That is complete allegorical nonsense! Period. As for righteous obedience to the rest of the 612 laws, which was unattainable and led to disobedience and sin and had to be absolved by the sacrifices of the priests at the Temple...Jesus provided the complete fulfillment of all The Law (Romans 10:4 and Matthew 5:17), bought us righteousness through his ultimate sacrifice and we now live with a "clean slate" in the eyes of God when we repent and accept Christ as Lord and Savior.
We most definitely are supposed to give and be generous to those in need, but we are told to do so as God leads us and to do so with a cheerful heart (2 Corinthians 9:7). My own personal opinion is that God will judge us all in the end for giving so much money to churches to squander on buildings, lights, printing, payroll...when so many are left suffering. I remember a lady in Florida attending a huge church I attended who lost her husband to a heart attack and was left with two small children. She approached the churches' benevolence committee and asked for help. They paid her mortgage for three months, which was a drop in the bucket of what she needed, and at the same time pastor was giving sermon after sermon on tithing ten percent to help fund their new 5 MILLION dollar building project! That is reprehensible, yet so common in the church. I would much rather give my money to my next door neighbor to help pay his electric bill because he lost his job, than give it to a church to waste on payroll, lights,cameras...
Malachi. This is the preacher's favorite book to preach from on the topic of tithing. We are told we are under a curse and robbing God if we are not giving our ten percent. We are told if we just open our tight fists and give money to the church that the floodgates of heaven will be opened and we will be financially blessed (Malachi 3:7)... That is utter nonsense! To apply the verse that way to the New Testament Church is to do violence to the context of the verse. The verse is a literal command to the Israelite community to bring their tithes and offerings to the literal storehouse at the literal Temple to support the work of the Levite priests. To view this verse any other way or to try and wrench it out of context and somehow make it allegorically applicable to New Testament believers is wrong. Yet, every Sunday somewhere that is what Christians are told by their pastors. I'm going to be charitable and say it is pure ignorance rather than a blatant misuse of the principle to support an agenda. So, there you have it. If you feel compelled to give ten, twenty, thirty percent of your income to the local church, then do so. If you feel like helping feed people in foreign countries or help with missionary outreach, then do that. But, under no circumstance feel obligated to tithe ten percent to the church. Next up, the "big question" we all ask. Why does God allow suffering if He is an omniscient, omnipresent, loving God?
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