Jagoon:

@tonye t
Why are you wasting your time on this tithe issue? It as already been clearly established on this forum several times that tithing is not a true christian doctrine a it was introduced to christianity as a result of greed on the part of preachers thru distortion of scriptures.

Jagoon:

If it is relevant to christianity, how come the apostles who were given the mandate by christ to establish christianity never preached or taught their converts to tithe? Why was tithing introduced to the churcg 500 years later by the catholic church? Also read hebrews 7:5-18 tithing was outlawed and condemed for the christian belivers. It is men that have successfully forced tithing into christianity it was never part of it when Jesus and the apostles established christianity.they also warned against false teachings not taught by them from the jewish religion. Surely tithing is a good example of such false teachings.

Answer to your no.1 question is,

In the Kingdom issues, there are some issues which are of more priority than the others, like Jesus stated clearly in Matt.23:23, now when you go out to win souls to Christ do you preach to them about offerings, fasting and/or about administrative issues of the church? i ask you. But rather you tell them about the salvation Christ came to give man, you tell them about the origin of Sin and what its consequences meant for man until Christ came to redeem us, you tell them of man's eternal existence and so on and so forth. Now that is the weightier part of the Law of Christ (called Grace) without Justice, faithfulness and righteousness and such no one can get his /her soul redeem.

But when you give your life to christ, you now belong to a family (called the "Church" and where Christ is the head and God the Head of Christ, in this new family its expected that Standards, ordinaces and precepts must be followed in other for things to be in orderliness and decency like Paul mentioned. you dont just go into the church and start misbehaving and misleading hence things are kept for us to follow. Now that is where things like Offerings, Titheings,Giving, Fellowshipping, Prayers/prophesying, fasting and more comes in. All these things are meant to edifiy the church and bring us into oneness in communion.

If you read Paul's account to churches, you'll come to see that Churches were mostly practised in Homes major reasons was the persecution she received back then, later began in halls of houses, cathedrals and towers. well all that are story for anther day. so you see because the Apostles never mentioned it doesnt mean it was abolished, it was simply not a much issue to the soul as the matters of righteouness, godliness and the likes.

From the passage you quoted from Heb.7:5-18 i cant seem to find any verse not even a line relating to the abolishment of tithe, but simply the transference of ordinances by reason of the new priesthood change.

i explained it here better , just click HERE

‘Tithing Is Legal’—Pastor Ighodalo
June 08, 2009 11:06, 842 views
Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of the Redeemed Christian Church of God tells KEMI AKINYEMI that the retention of tithing in Christianity is valid.



Q: What really is the principle behind tithing?
A: Well, you know the spiritual controls the physical. And what happens in the spiritual determines what basically happens in the physical. When God created the earth, He wanted man to do certain things–to worship Him, to fellowship with Him and to obey Him among other things. And when He decided to set the Israelites apart, He set aside, amongst them, a certain tribe, called the Levites. They were people who were set aside of the 12 sons of Jacob. They were not supposed to do any work at all. So, the original thinking of God was that a tithe of a person’s income would be set aside to do God’s work. The original gift that God wanted man to give back to Him was something that they called the first fruit. The first known evidence of the first fruit was in Genesis 4, where Abel brought the first fruit of his flock to God. That first fruit that you give to God is evidence to God that you accept Him as your God; that you put Him first, that you know that everything that you have is from God and that He is your God. So, that is the principle of first fruit. It is an offering of thanksgiving for what God has done for you. The tithe is similar. The tithe is also evidence that in this new income that you have earned before you spend the money at all, you give a tenth of it to God. It also means that you will worship and serve God and acknowledge also that He is your source.

Q: Is the payment based on time or income?
A: The regularity is not based on time. It is based on income. Every income that you earned, you pay the tithe of it. Even the bible says that even the gifts that you get, you pay a tithe thereof. These days, that is not totally practicable. But in everything that you earn, you give a tenth to the Lord Almighty.

Q: So, what is the major medium of payment in these days?
A: These days, it is cash. But originally, it was based on what your land produced. If you were a farmer that planted corn, you would give corn. If you were a cattle rearer, you would give cattle. If you were a wine maker, you would give of your fruits. And what happened then was that you would be the one to take the tithe to the Priest in the temple. Now, there was a time when the priest was a bit far from where you were. Then you would change it into money and take it to the priest. And even when you get to the temple, you may decide to buy any animal or good of your choice and present it to the priest and leave it there in front of him.

Q: But to whom is the tithe supposed to be paid?
A: Well, the tithe is given to the priest. And it belongs to the Levites. The Levites are like the people who work in the temple or the church. They are like a family. They don’t do anything. They didn’t farm. They didn’t do any husbandry. They didn’t have any land. So, they lived off those tithes. That is their sustenance. They themselves took a tenth of the to the High Priest. The priest would then distribute it among the Levites, who would give a tenth of it to whoever their own priest was. Again, you can also give the tithe to the widows, the poor, the fatherless, the destitute and so on. The essence of it is that none will lack. You know that God will not come down to eat or spend money. So, tithe is for the maintenance of those who do the work of God, who prayed, burnt incense, worshipped and fasted on behalf of the children of Israel.
Q: Given the fact that the institution of priesthood has been abolished, how come tithes are still being paid in the church?
A: The position of priesthood has not been abolished. You still have a priest. Your pastor is your priest. He is the man who intercedes on your behalf with God. He is the man who teaches you the principles of God. He is also the man who, sometimes, hears a message from God for you. He is your pastor and priest. So you still have people who do more of God’s work for you and on your behalf. What you are trying to say is that everybody can be a priest in that, you also have direct access to God yourself. That is true because in the past, what happened was that it was only the priest and the High Priest who could enter into the temple or the holy of holies. But now, Christ has come and has been crucified, so everybody has access to that holy of holies. That is true. But you still have people who stand in that gap. These are people who do the work of God, more full time or more of their time than any other people. So, they still stand in the position of the priest.

Q: It is believed that some preachers harp more on the principle of tithing than other scriptural principles like salvation, deliverance and righteousness?
A: Well, I don’t agree with you. Most preachers that I know or I associate with emphasise salvation and then preach tithing. What we try to do is to teach the whole gospel of Christ. And the word gospel means good news to the people. It is good news of a change of circumstance or situation. But the principle of Christianity is that there must be salvation, and this is found in John 3 verse 3. And salvation simply means making a definite commitment to God, giving Him your life and promising to serve Him throughout your life. It can then be extended into receiving the Holy Ghost baptism and all that. But it is a commitment to serving God and living according to God’s principle. That is salvation. First of all, you must be saved before you now begin to obey the laws of God. And tithing is one of those laws. Most pastors that I know talk first about salvation and then teach about tithing, deliverance, holiness, righteous living, healing, wisdom and other life transforming principles. They teach the full gamut of the gospel.

Q: Do you think the law of tithing has been wholly accepted within the church?
A: Most churches, especially the Pentecostal churches, have accepted tithing. People tithe most of the time, but you will always find one or two people who don’t, or who don’t tithe regularly. And that is not because they don’t accept it. It is either they are forgetful, lazy or they have pressures of money, and they would rather quickly use the money for something else before paying their tithes. But basically, most Pentecostal Christians do accept it. And even Orthodox Christians accept it too, because they teach it in their churches as well.

Q: Did the Scriptures record any of the apostles paying tithes?
A: Well, because it is not clearly recorded there, doesn’t mean it wasn’t preached or practised. Jesus Christ Himself spoke about tithe. That shows clearly that Jesus Himself accepted and knew and paid tithes. Besides, it was a Jewish custom. It wasn’t something that you repeated. Everybody accepted it. And you need to know that all the Apostles were Jews. They did their work according to the Jewish custom. For instance, when Jesus was born, eight days after, his mother and father brought Him to the temple. And they gave a sacrifice of two turtle ducks and one pigeon, which was the required sacrifice if you have a male child and if you are of low income. If you are from a rich family, you will bring a goat, a sheep or even a calf. So, these were Jewish customs. It wasn’t worth repeating to the audience of the day. And wherever the Apostles went and they taught Christianity, they also taught their people some of these Jewish customs. So, it was handed down. And really, in the Bible, tithe was not something you kept repeating in terms of teaching. For instance, you never heard David repeating that he was paying tithes. And you never heard Solomon repeating that he was paying tithes. But we all know that Solomon gave a sacrificial offering. But it was taught first in Leviticus, repeated in Deuteronomy, taught in Proverb Chapter 4, taught also in Malachi and Jesus made mention of it in the New Testament.

Q: Can one’s refusal to pay tithes amount to committing a sin?
A: More or less, yes! It is a sin. It is disobedience, and disobedience is sin. So, when you don’t pay tithe, you are in disobedience and you are in sin. And it is such that you will see the consequences of the sin because your finances will be affected. It has happened to a lot of people like that.




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Comments (7)
1. Patrick Agbobu
12 June 2009 18:06
We should stop deluding oursleves, prayer does not change anything, it only changes the person who prays. We should stand up very tall and ask ourselves, what is the way forward for Nigeria? We should reorganise ourselves and our piorities. Nigerians are too vain and we love greatly material things. We always ask for and look for what we want and not what we need. We have the worst roads and we want to use state of the art latest cars, which we do not have the capacity to service. Our women are seen on okada with the latest disigner bags. We commit frauds and 419 and end up spraying the money to show off. Most of the so called political players have criminal records that can stretch 10 miles, amongst them are drug barons, assasins, kidnappers and what have you. Most of our religious prechers are very fraudulent. Most of our Paramound Rulers or Kings, or Obas etc. give the best chieftaincy titles to the most dubious persons in the societies as long as there is money to shower on them. Thieves and very dubious and questionable individuals are hailed and showered with prases by sycophants who form the majority. No body is asked even by ones parents the sourse of his or sudden wealth. This can not be allowed to continue and no prayer can save us from these bad behaviours. our founding fathers, Dr. Azikiwe, Chief Awolowo, The Saduana of Sokoto, Tafawa Balewa, Okpara, Macauley, just to mentioned a few did not live these types of lives we are living today. In their days we had constant electricity, good and safe roads, functional hospitals and schools etc. Instead of improving on the work these noble men and women did, we are sinking futher and futher into oblivion.
2. Chidi Ezeakolam
13 June 2009 03:25
Ighodalo you are a 419 pastors. God is waiting to punish all of you defrauding people who are seeking to know him.
Go and study your bible very well as St Paul directed Christians “study to show yourself approved….a workman…”. Tithe started in the bible when the Jews had no political leadership but spiritual leaders. It was a form of taxation. Trace it very well throughout the bible you will see that the emphasis of tithing dropped when kings were established and taxation became in full force. You fraudulent pastors always refer to the comments of Micah but never stated that the founder of the church did not pay tithe even as he recognized the importance of high priest. JESUS paid TAX not tithe and he never directed his followers to pay tithe.
3. Chiedu Enebeli
17 June 2009 15:45
Thank you pastor Ighodalo for speaking the truth.People use their common sense(sense knowledge) to analyse God, but God’s ways are not our ways.Tithing is Biblical and a commandment which nobody should debate or argue about.Every born again child of God should be a thither.I will like to appeal to viewers/commentators to mind their language and stop making mockery of their destiny by insulting genuine men of God that speak the truth.People shuold understand that the truth remains the truth no matter who is saying it.God bless you Pastor Ighodalo
4. Chiedu Enebeli
17 June 2009 15:49
Thank you pastor Ighodalo for speaking the truth.People use their common sense(sense knowledge) to analyse God, but God’s ways are not our ways.Tithing is Biblical and a commandment which nobody should debate or argue about.Every born again child of God should be a tither.I will like to appeal to viewers/commentators to mind their language and stop making mockery of their destiny by insulting genuine men of God that speak the truth.People shuold understand that the truth remains the truth no matter who is saying it.God bless you Pastor Ighodalo
5. Sholarger
18 June 2009 15:00
@ Chiedu Enebeli , young man or old man whichever one it seems.
If you feel agrieved by someone’s comment, don’t be too harsh on them , it might be that they interviewer has not conveyed their whole message. Now if it concerns a Pastor or someone that calls himself a Pastor, never call them 419. You might have just placed a curse at a department of your life for calling him 419. What if what he said was inspired by the spirit of God or God spoke to him ??
you dont know and can not be too sure , so keep calm and avoid unnecessary curse in the name of passing comments.
perharps you need deliverance now , who knows.
Take care and njoy ur life
6. Sholarger
18 June 2009 15:01
sorry the previous message was for Chidi Ezeakolam
@ Chidi Ezeakolam
young man or old man whichever one it seems.
If you feel agrieved by someone’s comment, don’t be too harsh on them , it might be that they interviewer has not conveyed their whole message. Now if it concerns a Pastor or someone that calls himself a Pastor, never call them 419. You might have just placed a curse at a department of your life for calling him 419. What if what he said was inspired by the spirit of God or God spoke to him ??
you dont know and can not be too sure , so keep calm and avoid unnecessary curse in the name of passing comments.
perharps you need deliverance now , who knows.
Take care and njoy ur life
7. Chidi Ezeakolam
20 June 2009 02:30
Chiedu Enebeli, I don’t even care about the language you may deem appropriate or not. Are you sure you are not one of them? I am not afraid of any mischievous thought or opinion in the name of curse since it does not leave your mouth, Any way the same bible told us “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free”. I stand by my words. Any pastor or persons preaching of tithe is fraudulent. As a tent maker after leaving legal profession, St Paul paid tax NOT Tithe. I am convinced that any person led by the spirit of GOD knows this truth. If you are smart enough, you could have convinced me or other readers that Jesus Christ, St Paul, or Peter or any other apostle paid tithe. But you did not

Gentle me:

@Tonye-T

for once i have been able to see someone who could start up and say something so true of titheing. Tonye-T thank you, u just opened my eyes to know titheing better now. maybe titheing is not a bad idea only that its been badly exploited

thank you

Matt 23:23
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Mr tonye -t ,I think the bold part says it all,tithe was part of the jewish law.

When Jesus made that statement,he had not yet died ,so tithe and other jewish rites of the law were still valid.

The only way you can validate tithe in contemporary christianity is to show where in the Bible tithe was practised after the death of Jesus christ.

tonye-t:

@Chukwudi and Jagoon,

If you are very sincere with yourself and unbiased in issues of the scriptures, kindly show to me where it was stated in the OT of titheing being a LAW plainly. If you can , then believe me i'll succomb

tonye-t:

@Chukwudi and Jagoon,

If you are very sincere with yourself and unbiased in issues of the scriptures, kindly show to me where it was stated in the OT of titheing being a LAW plainly. If you can , then believe me i'll succomb

chukwudi44:

@tonye-t

I only explained to you the heresy of tithing in today's christianity.
I went further to prove to you that the Apostles never practised tithing as christians.

To end the matter why don't you post a bible passage wher christians(not jews) paid or were asked to pay tithes.

I think that should solve the problem ,you can also biblically show me how you arrived at monetary and monthly tithing

KunleOshob:

@chukwudi44
I just read through your posts and I see you have been putting up a strong fight for the undiluted truth as regards the defunct practise of biblical tithing now corrupted by crooks and charlatans out to make a quick buck. May God bless your effort in revealing the truth to these lost souls who are being defrauded and raped by so called men of god in the name of tithes. I have been away from NL for a while due to business pressures, I hope to be back to join in the battle to redeem lost souls who think they can bribe their way to salvation through crooked preachers and pastors.

KunleOshod, my friend and brother, no one is putting up a fight talk less of a strong one NL hasnt become a battle ground, its a forum to discuss and not to fight ok?, anyways nice to see you come around, your comment to Chukwudi44 as i understand,is still on the ground that titheing is bad simply not because Jesus never commanded but because some charlatans are abusing it, which draws us back to the fact i have been making here all the while that "just because something is over-exploited and abused hasnt mean it was bad from its original intention. May God bless your business and hope you come back real soon.

Mad_Max:

@chuckwudi44
You make tons of sense. But it's hard for people to let go of deeply-held beliefs, however false. Imagine tithing for years and believing the love and grace of God is conditioned on that,and then learning tithing is irrelevant and at no time required for Christians; in most cases, the best-case scenario is, they acknowledge tithing is unChristian, but continue the practice anyway,because they don't want to 'risk' finacial failure. Never mind that some tithe for years with no discernible difference in their finances, and some tithe and have more because they work hard for it, but still ascribe their financial success to tithing. Some of the richest people on earth aren't Christians and don't tithe, and they get wealthier and wealthier. We are called to give to the poor, and to help orphans and widows and others in need of our help. We are not caled to tithe and our finacial prosperity doesn't rest on it. But everyone's entitled to their beliefs and if they want to tithe even when they realise they don't have to, it's their money and their affair.

Non-Jews, Christians or no, were never under the law in the first place. The OT laws are for Jews and is part of their cultural and religious heritage, not to mention one of the foundations of a religion different from Christianity: Judaism. Christ rescued JEWS from the law,because it was to Jews that the laws were given. We're 'gentiles' , partakers of the salvation of Christ. Jewish laws have absolutely nothing to do with us. What Christ preached, and all he stood for, are what is ours. Unless you're a Jew, the OT has very little to do with you, and tithing nothing at all. That's the problem with importing the culture that sprung a religion along with the religion instead of separating the two.

Jagoon:

@bobbyaf
I thought you were actually more intelligent ang knowledgeable than all the hubris you wrote above. I wouldn't even bother to respond to heretic staements you made cos enough has been written on this forum to prove that tithing today is a fraudulent practise which as extremely very weak sciptural basis amd is preached on the basis of distorted scripture. That is apart from the fact that hebrew7:5,11,12&18 make it clear that tithing as been done away with becos it is a weak useless and fraudulent practise.

(5) And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham