Christianity arrived in Sub-Saharan Africa in the XV century with the arrival of the Portuguese. Then followed Dutch Reformed Church in 1652 in the southern African continent, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zambia. But missionary fever began after the London Missionary Society dispatched David Livingstone in 1840 to Southern Africa. Driven by the European quest to colonize Africa and an intense crusade against slavery, the Christian mission of converting people to Christianity and literacy expanded.

Not to enter into the merit and demerit of Christianity coming in Africa or Nigeria in particular. One clear fact was that from the outset, the European missionaries introduced the act of building and running churches through collective effort. Like the early believers who shared their possessions (Acts 4). As a result, TITHE is still anonymous in the original churches.

Is it possible that the Europeans that brought us Christianity and indigenes from the 17th century to today, be it Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans, have not come across the words of God in the book of Malachi 3:6-15? As a native Anglican, I know my village church operates through STEWARDSHIPS and Sunday service offerings.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had, And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need (Acts 4:32-35). WHY DIDN'T THEY TITHE?

To be continued…