THE PRESENT ASSAULT ON TITHING
By Martin White

Few days ago I was told of a trending video where members of a particular church congregants walked out on their pastor in the middle of his teaching on the subject of tithe.

What’s happening to the church in Nigeria? Has the pulpit been dishonest to the pews? Have pastors deliberately robbed church people by twisting the truth? Is tithe supposed to be a New Testament practice of faith?

While reflecting on the heated debates on tithe by believers and nonbelievers, I knew that the church in Nigeria is at the same historical threshold with the American church, where intellectualism is confused for divine revelation.

We are at a point in church history where divine revelations intended to deepen the believer’s faith walk with God is only deplored as a weapon of assault against the eternal Gospel principles of Christ.

Alas, the lives of those claiming to supposedly exegete the scripture rightly now are in deep contrast with the divine revelation that they claim to know. It’s a pitiable Christianity devoid of the power of God.

We have teachers who are unable to heal headache. They’re just rumble-rousers ranting and making noise everywhere on social media. Obviously, God cannot back what is not his Word. The responsibility of the New Testament church is to preach the Gospel and to confirm the Gospel.

For a while now, I have read on Facebook with dismay scathing diatribes on tithing by some people who want to be at the forefront of disproving the legitimacy of tithing for a New Testament believer.

The grand design of the present agitation against tithe is actually to disrepute pastors and the church in Nigeria whenever the debate against tithe eventually becomes a generally acceptable truth.

The manner and way in which some pastors hitherto have threatened God’s people with hardship and difficulty in life if compliance to tithe payment isn’t regular is one of the root causes of the present discovery against it.

Actually, a believer is not blessed because he paid tithe. The believer in Christ is already blessed with spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. The very moment we were accepted in the Beloved, all rights and privileges that comes with the Gospel automatically becomes ours.

Now, the two schools of thought debating this tithe issue are as follows: 1. Tithe is obsolete because Christ has fulfilled the law. 2. Tithe preceded the Mosaic Law because Abraham paid tithe to Melchizedek before the law.

Who is Melchizedek?

Abraham met Melchizedek on his way from battle and tithed the spoils of war to Melchizedek who is said to have no beginning and end.

In actual scriptural term, Abraham’s meeting with Melchizedek was God’s proclamation of the Gospel or foretelling of a Saviour long beforehand to him, and in response to that Abraham tithed.

What does this symbolize? Let me explain.

God, knowing that he’d justify men through faith in the finished works of Christ, firstly met Abraham and preached the Gospel to him. So Abraham’s meeting with Melchizedek was actually a transaction availing him the rare privilege of seeing Christ’s day of the Gospel of faith (Galatians 3).

Jesus Christ confirmed this when he said that Abraham rejoiced to see his days; he did and was glad (John 8:56). Abraham saw Christ’s days where men would be justified by faith when the Gospel was preached to him and when his two sons (Ishmael and Isaac) where also used as the symbolic representations of the Law and Grace.

Scripturally, the sending away of Ishmael and Hagar is the actual symbolic end of the Law, while Isaac symbolic representation of the Grace era, for he was the child of promise (Galatians 4:21-31).

Now, what is the symbolism of the tithe paid by Abraham to Melchizedek? Is it the same as the tithe of the Levitical Priesthood? I will answer right away!

Tithe paid by Abraham to Melchizedek is not the same as the tithe of the Levitical Priesthood. Tithe under the Levitical Priesthood was designated as the wage for the priesthood and welfare for the poor, widow and strangers.

But the tithe given by Abraham to Melchizedek wasn’t a wage or a welfare for anybody. It was given in reception to the Gospel adumbrated to him. The Melchizedek that Abraham met typifies Christ.

Hence, Abraham’s response of tithe to the Gospel or Saviour revealed to him beforehand is an expression of his faith in that same Gospel; hence, Galatians 3:6 noted that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

This implies that whenever we give tithe as a faith response to the Gospel of Christ, we are reckoned to be of faith and children of Abraham.

As we consistently express our faith in the Gospel with our giving as a proof of our faith, the righteousness of God imparted to our spirit is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).

In this wise, the tithe or the best is not restricted to ten percent; it is from faith to faith. We give according to our faith in the Gospel. He that sows sparingly shall receive sparingly, and he that sows bountifully shall receive bountifully.

Hence, the more we give, i.e. ten percent, twenty percent, thirty percent, or forty percent that we give in faith to the Gospel, the more we reap as increase in the fruits of our righteousness (2 Corinthians 9:10).

Hebrews 7:8 says that in the Levitical Priesthood tithes are received by men who are subject to death, but in the Melchizedek Priesthood in whose order our Lord Jesus came tithes are received by Christ who lives forever.

So what then is tithe and how does Christ receive tithe?

Tithe is not one tenth as being promulgated everywhere by the church of this age. Tithe means the tenth. The word “tenth” means the top of the heap. In scripture the top of the heap actually means the best part of it.

So how does Christ receive our best response to the Gospel whenever it is preached to us? Our best response is ascertained by how we commit to the Gospel whenever the Gospel is being taught.

If Abraham gave a tenth or his best as his faith response to the Gospel revealed to him, it means that whenever the Gospel is being preached there must be a response with the tenth as a proof of our faith in it.

So who receive the tenth for Jesus?

Some months ago, a young Nigerian living in Dubai attempted to send a tithe to me in response to my teachings that has blessed him immensely but I refused it because the tithe is not a wage for any individual.

If monies are given by God’s people as their faith response to the Gospel of Christ that they’re taught, it means that the monies should be used to further the spread of the same Gospel, not to service any individual.

Every church organization must have an administrative mechanism that provide a specified wage and attend to the welfare of their pastors and church ministers. But insisting that the tenth or summative best of what God’s people are giving to the church belongs to the senior pastor is actually the cause of church proliferation and greed in the church system of today.

All monies given as tenth belongs to the church, not the pastor. In the Gospel, nobody is entitled to the tenth or the best of what people give as their faith-based response to the Gospel of Christ. Monies such as this should be received on Christ behalf and used to further the spread of the Gospel.

Coveting and converting a hallowed thing such as this for personal use is the reason some men now have cursed swollen belly that people mistake as evidence of good living.

Finally, a minister of the Gospel must have a curtailed appetite. The present chase for money by church ministers is a proof of our drift from God and spiritual realities.

If wayward girls are slaying on social media with a provocative dress sense, pastors shouldn’t slay by displaying exotic cars, designers, magnificent church edifice, or personal buildings on Facebook.

These are the things stirring the present agitation against tithe. People see more of the abuse than the blessedness…

Thanks for reading.

Martin White, a teacher, writer and speaker, writes from Abuja. He is the president, Martin White Organization and publisher, Ecumenical Review