To Tithe or Not to Tithe?

Deuteronomy 14:23-29 (NLT)

"Bring this tithe to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored, and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

Now the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored might be a long way from your home.
If so, you may sell the tithe portion of your crops and herds and take the money to the place the Lord your God chooses. When you arrive, use the money to buy anything you want-an ox, a sheep, some wine, or beer. Then feast there in the presence of the Lord your God and celebrate with your household.
And do not forget the Levites in your community, for they have no inheritance as you do.

At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in the nearest town.
Give it to the Levites, who have no inheritance among you, as well as to the foreigners living among you, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, so they can eat and be satisfied. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all your work."

People like Goodguy are only supporting that part of Malachi because that's what they are using to instill unnecessary fear into the heart of people that can't "shine their eyes".

Let me ask you (Goodguy), when did Jacob(Israel) start paying his tithe?

Joftech,

By your statement:


"The way most of these pastors talk/preach  tithe clearly shows the money is their main source of livelihood. If i am the  president i will outlaw the payment of tithes and some unnecessary levies in churches and i will see if we will still have as many churches as we have now".

... that is why you will never sit in that office of President.  Kings and Pharoahs of old, who were more profane than you could ever be, who had tried to oppose God's laws had always failed ...And not without disgrace.

"...The law of the lord standeth sure!..."

the old testament is ancient. even the new testament is old. there should be a "modern testament" with stuff that apply to human now. not "and he went to jerusalem riding on a mule". the new version should be "and he went to London riding on a mercedes". hehehe 

"and they lay down tree trunks for him" should be "and they made fireworks and confetti for him" 

Oga Donnie what gave you that impression that forcing people to pay tithes by telling them evil will befall them if they don't pay it is doing God's will.

God give things freely. Some people are so ignorant sha; they see God as someone who is selling blessing like all these pastors are doing. No wonder benny hinn was outraged when they (Nigerian Pastors) fleeced him of money he has to give proper account form.

Hiding under Malachi 3:10 to instill fear into peoples heart is something that i see as the greatest extorsion of modern time.


Jer 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.

wow, why?

Well, tithing was commanded of the Israelites as a means of supporting the priest tribe (and entire tribe of Israel comprising at least 1/12 of the country.  In fact, we know that the levites had to be more than 1/12 of Israel since Judah and Benjamin were the smallest tribes.  Further, there were three tithes, the annual normal tithe, the tithe for the annual celebration, and the jubilee tithe (every three years).  Additionally, if a person did not own a certain amount of livestock (earn a certain amount) that year, he/she did not have to pay tithes.  Further, tithes were paid in animal offerings.  If you paid with money, you had to pay EXTRA (more than 10%).  The Israelites were commanded to be faithful to this:

Why - well, if they didn't, the priest class would starve, and then they would have to do other work than as priests and thus would not be able to dedicate their full lives to his service.

Now, as christians, we don't have to tithe (in most cases).  Why, cause our pastors or whoever are in many cases PAID a SALARY.  So, they don't need our monetary support.  We were not commanded to support our preachers or pastors with tithes.  Nobody paid tithes to the disciples or Paul.  In fact, since we no longer worship under the same priest-synagogue that the Jews did, there is NOBODY to pay tithes to.  We don't have priests who collect our offers and go intervene on our behalf with God, we get down on our kness and do it ourselves.

So, summary:

1) We are not Jews, we don't worship under the same rules and places, so there is techically NOBODY to pay tithes to.
2) We were not commaded to pay tithes to those who lead us in our worship of God.  There is NO example in the new testament of Paul or the disciples collecting tithes from the christians they taught.
3) Tithes were commaded of the Israelites to support the priest class.  Most of our preachers are paid a salary and some have other jobs, therefore, we don't need to support them monetarily.
4) Even if your preacher is one that must be supported monetarily, he/she is only one person - one family. . not a tribe.  They don't need a full 10%.
5)Tithes were to be paid with livestock, if you paid with money, you got charged an additional percentage!  That would change the actual amount to 12 or 15%, not 10%.
6)Tithes were to be paid ANNUALLY - based on what you left at the end of the year.  So, if you were a cow herder, and you raised 20 cows, and needed 5 to feed your family for a year, you paid a tithe based on 15 cows, not all 20.  So tithes would technically be taken from the money you had LEFT after paying bills, food, and other neccessities, not the other way round.

Mostof the above require pretty strict interpretations of the scripture.  If you want to apply that scripture to TODAY - situations which are NOT covered by the scripture,  (AND thus not use a strict interpretation), then your interpretation of how it applies is just as good as mine, and it is impossible for you to say that you have a better idea of what God would want than me (or vice-versa).  If this is the case, I cannot say you are wrong, and you cannot say I'm not right.  If that is not the case, I'm right, and you're wrong.

Let me proxy goodguy's response:

"This scripture doesn't apply to us today.  Did I ever say all scripture applies.  Only the ones I TELL you apply count.  The rest of the bible, you should ignore."



And as nefyrn has mentioned in other posts

Not only has the current bible been shaped by the politics of the catholic church, it is incomplete.  I think I would love to hold discussions with Ethiopian christians and find out how much protestant (in this case baptist) views differ from theirs.  Its too bad so much of the early church history is lost.

then what about enigma's posts or my posts?

Enigma posts where we're commanded to tithe.  However, only in one case do we give the tithe to someone else.  The other times, we're to enjoy the tithe in the Lord's presence.  The tithe was to be given to the Levites - an entire TRIBE of people - because they had no inheritance (ie they were not a money generating people).  So, that means, if anything, a portion of my tithes should be going to people who have nothing, NOT the church.  The rest is spent on ME and MY family in the glory of the Lord.

Isn't that what God commanded for the tithes.  So, yes, I agree that we should tithe just like God commanded.  I disagree with ppl saying that tithing means I give my money to church for it to use as it pleases.

That is not a reason.  You're telling me that if the USA decides to rewrite the history books of the world, 100 years from now, everyone should listen to whatever the USA has to say about what happened?

Just because they erased history doesn't give them a monopoly on information.  If anything, its a reason NOT to listen to the catholic church's teachings.

You will definately believe what they wrote because that's what you will know nothing else than what you are reading. Before it was widely believed that the earth was flat, but now we know it's not. It will sound odd if you now go about saying it's flat, what you have there is a classical example of re-written history.


If you decide not to listen to the Catholic church then you are not a Christian. And remember power belongs to whomever has control over it.

So are you not going to believe Jesus Christ too?

Funny..!

 

 to me is goood to pay Tithe so whether u pay or u know pay bear it in mind that it is good for one to pay tithe

Have any of you consider the possibility of larceny by trick and Deception.

I think it's high time the admin close down this thread.