[b][/b] [Original Purpose of God’s Total Plan] Exod. 19:5 Now therefore, if you will obey
my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then you shall be a peculiar treasure to me
above all people, for all the earth is mine. Exod. 19:6 And you shall be to me a
kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
These are the words which you shall speak
to the children of Israel. [Temporary Purpose of God’s Total Plan] Num. 18:7 Therefore you and your sons
with you shall keep your priest’s office for
every thing of the altar, and within the veil;
and you shall serve: I have given your
priest’s office to you as a service of gift:
and the stranger that comes near shall be put to death. [Re-establishment of God’s Original
Purpose] 1 Pet. 2:9 But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar
people, that you should show forth the
praises of him who has called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light-- 1 Pet. 2:10 Which in time past were not a
people, but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now
have obtained mercy. The New Covenant doctrine of the
"priesthood of believers" is yet another
important doctrine that abolishes tithing
practices. In order to prove this statement,
it is necessary to retrace the history of the
concept of priesthood. Each of the following italicized quotations is from the
New Scofield Reference Bible notes at First
Peter 2:9. "Until the law was given the head of each
family was the family priest (Gen. 8:20;
26:25;31:54)." The patriarchs were nomadic herdsmen
who moved wherever pasture was good.
They would live under the jurisdiction of
any number of pagan warlords such as the
Egyptians, Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites
and other Canaanites. Although they might occasionally pay taxes to the local priest-
king, the family head was the family priest.
Each man built his own altar and offered
sacrifices directly to God for himself and for
his family. Since there was no social
structure by which to help the poor, each family priest took it upon himself to aid
those who were less blessed than himself. "When the law was proposed the promise
to perfect obedience was that Israel should
be to God a ‘kingdom of priests’ (Exod.
19:6); but Israel violated the law, and God
shut up the priestly office to the Aaronic
family, appointing the tribe of Levi to minister to Israel, thus constituting the
typical priesthood (Exod. 28:1)." In other words, the Levitical priesthood, like
the entire Old Covenant, never was God’s
ultimate purpose for Israel. Even before the
Ten Commandments, the ordinances, and
the judgments of the law were given, God
had declared his ultimate desire for Israel to become a "kingdom of priests" (Exod.
19:5-6). However, instead of progressing from the
family-head priesthood to the priesthood of
every believer, Israel proved itself unworthy
and forfeited God’s originally purposed
universal priesthood. The Levitical
priesthood was actually a digression because of Israel’s sin in worshiping idols
while Moses was away receiving the Ten
Commandments. This sad story is found in
Exodus 32. The result of Israel’s sin was the
limited Levitical priesthood with its death
decree on any who would dare "come near" to sacrifice to God directly."Speak to the
children of Israel, that they bring me an
offering; of every man that gives it willingly
with his heart you shall take my
offering" (Exod. 25:2). "And you shall take
the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of
the tabernacle of the congregation" (Exod.
30:16). What would have happened if Israel had
not sinned in making and worshiping the
golden calves? The sequence of events is
not difficult to imagine.One: Israel would
have immediately become a "kingdom of
priests," fulfilling Exodus 19:5-6.Two: If all were priests, then all would inherit land
equally. Tithes would not replace land
inheritance.Three: Since there would be
millions of priests to assist Aaron and his
family, none would be gone from home
long enough to require sustenance from tithing.Four: The tithing ordinance of
Numbers 18 would have never been
enacted. Five: The servant duties performed by the
non-priestly Levites would be shared by all
priests from all of the people.Six: Freewill
offerings and the temple shekel would
provide sufficient funds. This was God’s plan
before the Levites were chosen to substitute for all of their brothers (my speculation). "In the Church Age, all Christians are
unconditionally constituted a ‘kingdom of
priests’ (l Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6), the distinction
which Israel failed to achieve by works. The
priesthood of the Christian is, therefore, a
birthright, just as every descendant of Aaron was born to the priesthood (Heb. 5:1)." Tithing is not mentioned in the book of
Exodus which assigned priestly duties only
to Aaron and his sons, but did not detail the
system or assistants. Since three priests
could not possibly handle millions of
worshipers, logic dictates that a more involved priesthood would follow. In God’s
original purpose, this "more involved
priesthood" was a priesthood of every
believer (Exod. 19:5-6) to draw near to him.
However, when Israel sinned, this purpose
was temporarily replaced by the Levitical priesthood and the tithing ordinance of
Numbers 18 was enacted to support them.
Therefore, tithing was only enacted as an
ordinance of the law after God had replaced
His national priesthood purpose with the
very limited priesthood of the Levites. Consequently, since tithing was not an
ordinance of God until the Levites replaced
the universal priesthood concept, there is
no valid reason to believe that tithing
should exist under the Christian concept’s
return to God’s original purpose for the universal priesthood of believers! The
believer-priest now stands in the same
position today in which God originally
wanted all Israel to stand in Exodus 19:6. "The chief privilege of a priest is access to
God. Under the law only the high priest
could enter ‘the holiest of all,’ and that but
once a year (Heb. 9:7); but when Christ died,
the veil, a type of Christ’s human body (Heb.
10:20), was rent, so that now the believer- priests, equally with Christ the High Priest,
have access to God in the holiest (Heb.
10:19-22). The High Priest is corporeally
there (Heb. 4:14-16; 9:24; 10:19-22)." Not only does the believer-priest replace
the Levitical priests, he has the same
privileges as the Aaronic high priest. The
Aaronic priesthood definitely preceded the
Levitical system and the tithing ordinance.
Although the extension of this concept to abolish tithing seems odd to most of us,
this is because we have constructed a
system of salaries, buildings, and
dependencies beyond that which is taught
or implied in the New Covenant. While the
Apostle Paul was a very great evangelist who established many house churches, he
worked as a tentmaker for his sustenance
and never seriously complained. In fact, he
preferred it that way. (See the chapters on
First Corinthians 9 and Acts 20.) "In the exercise of his office the N.T.
believer-priest is a sacrificer who offers a
fourfold sacrifice: (1) his own living body
(Rom. 12:1; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; Jas. 1:27; 1
John 3:16); (2) praise to God, "the fruit of
our lips giving thanks to his name to be offered continually (Heb. 13:15; cf. Exod.
25:22, ‘I will commune with you from above
the mercy seat’ (3) his substance (Rom.
12:13; Gal. 6:6, 10; Tit. 3:14; Heb. 13:26; 3
John 5-6); and (4) his service, i.e. ‘to do
good’ (Heb. 13:16). Second, the New Testament priest is also an intercessor (Col.
4:12; 1 Tim. 2:1)." It is important to realize that, in the New
Covenant, Christ is the high priest, and every
believer is a priest (1 Pet. 2:9-10; Heb.
10:19-22; Rev. 1:6). The primary teacher of
the church is neither priest nor preacher,
but the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17; 16:12-14). God said "I will put my laws into their mind
and write them in their hearts" and "no
longer will a man teach his neighbor"
because "all shall know me" (Heb. 8:10-11). The believer-priest is at the heart of the
New Covenant! Instead of priests being
responsible for teaching the Mosaic Law,
every believer is responsible for his or her
own spiritual seeking after God’s will. Every
function performed by the Old Covenant priest who received tithes is NOW
performed by every believer-priest. Again,
the believer-priest, and NOT the pastor-
teacher, replaced the Old Covenant priest!
What this truth does to the Mosaic Law
ordinance of tithing should be self-evident. The "pastor-teacher" of the New Covenant
church fills an entirely new office not found
in the Old Covenant rules for priests (Heb.
7:14-15). This office does NOT exist because
of Mosaic Law provisions, but functions
under principles of grace and faith (Heb. 7:16). Since the connection is not linear
(straight-line), there is no Scriptural
justification for shifting law-tithing from
Old Covenant priests to the pastor-teachers.
In fact, there is Scriptural justification for
not transferring the tithe obligations from Old Covenant priests to New Covenant
pastor-teachers (Heb. 7:14-19). Also, tithing
is not included in the list of qualifications
for elders and deacons in Timothy and Titus. The New Covenant pastor-teacher has more
in common with the Old Covenant prophet,
and, later, the rabbi, than its priest. Many
Old Covenant prophets were not Levites.
They ministered by faith, depending on
God’s provisions and their own hands at a trade. Therefore, it is erroneous to act as if
the New Covenant pastor took up where the
Old Covenant Levitical priest left off and is,
therefore, due the priest’s "tithe." One final important comment must be
made about the doctrine of the priesthood
of believers. The earliest church fathers and
church historians give ample evidence that
there was no distinction between the laity
and clergy for almost two hundred years. When this non-distinction was lost, when
the clergy evolved into a superior hierarchy,
when the local bishop was transformed into
a ‘bishop-priest,’ when the doctrine of the
priesthood of believers was pushed out of
the way --then a full-time paid clergy began to emerge in church history which
opened the way for tithing to re-enter
much later in support of an unscriptural
exclusive "priesthood" in the church.
Unfortunately even most Protestant
churches treat their preachers and pastors as "priests" by expecting them to perform
most of the priestly functions for the laity. While there is nothing inherently wrong
with a full-time paid clergy supported from
free-will offerings, the original advocates of
tithing in the church (such as Cyprian) did so
on the false premise that the priesthood of
believers had been replaced by an Old Testament equivalent of the priesthood and
its rituals.