Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

It’s not enough that people have to give the first fruit of their tithe, which is a scandal. Now Paula White is saying that a separate first fruit offering should be given. I’ve got a mouthful that i want to say. Here’s the difference between first fruits, tithes, and offerings. Where else could i begin with this mess? This is the typical TBN, Paula White scandal to get more money and fatten these theives. What more could Paula White want? If anyone else wants to fall for this Paula White scandal, be my guest. It’s just tempting me to come up with a good scheme to get everybody, to make me rich.

I came across this Prosperity Bible on A little leaven. Here’s an excerpt from the editorial review on Amazon.com

“The Prosperity Bible is a one-of-a-kind resource that collects the greatest moneymaking secrets of authors from every field-religion, finance, philosophy, and self-help-and makes them available in an attractive, keepsake edition.”

I guess you can say that now there officially is a prosperity “gospel”.

What do you think about stories of people giving money and then they magically get back exactly the same amount or exactly double the amount they gave? After listening to so many stewardship sermons, i’ve heard so many pastors give a story where they would give $210 in the offering and magically they would get a check in the mail that was almost the exact amount that they gave in the offering. These kind of stories kind of twist my bones a little. Who am i to say that God didn’t do that? What evidence is there to say that God gave them almost to the penny what they gave to him? Hey, maybe if they had a little more faith, God might have given them the exact amount down to the penny, back.

I don’t doubt that God rewards those who sacrifice for him. Maybe i get bent out of shape because i do not have a story where i gave such and such amount and God gave me back twice that amount through an anonymous gift. I guess i get annoyed at these stories because it gives me the idea that God is a slot machine.

Here’s what i mean. Do these miracle stories happen every time you give? No. For the people that do tell these magnificent stories, it only happens to them once in a blue moon. But when it does happen, they love to publicly display this miracle as though God does this all the time. Its like when someone sits down in front of a slot machine. They keep popping in quarters and pulling the lever, time after time. Hey, soon enough, after enough quarters and enough time, you’ll hit the jackpot. Don’t murder me here or get me wrong. I know God provides miraculously for his children, but do you know how many people can give a testimony about them winning the jackpot? probably the same amount of people that can show how they got the same amount of money back in return that they gave. Hmmm . . . maybe God is a slot machine?

So what do we do? We ask for the Spirit of God to rise up a Pastor. We ask the Spirit of God to equip Sunday school teachers. We ask the Spirit of God to call more missionaries. We ask the Spirit of God to train our children. We ask the Spirit of God to start a new Church. We ask the Spirit of God to help us with our words. We ask the Spirit of God to lead us when we witness. We ask the Spirit of God to heal, intercede, interpret, and perform miracles. We ask the Spirit of God to guide everything, except our pocket books. So What do we do? we just play that safe and leave that up to tithing.

I’m not the type of person to just spit out a bunch of verses and say, “these verses are so clear about what God says”. I like hearing things myself that just kind of thump you on the head. Like the one statement above, “we’ll just play that safe and leave that up to tithing.” What it does is sum up the folly of the tithing mentality into a sarcastic thought. It’s not going to prove anything but it just shows how the tithing logic is so off. Sometimes i get so sick of trying to prove the role of Spirit-led giving. I can write chapters and chapters about that, but who wants to read all that stuff. There’s plenty of authors and theologians out there that repeat the same points as me.

I love the times in life when you say something and it sounds so profound. It’s like, where did that come from? then you feel happy about yourself and you start repeating it over and over in your head so you don’t forget it. I guess that’s kind of what i’m doing now. Are there times when you say something or hear something so profound that no one else seems to be on board with? Hopefully i won’t get any comments like that. If you do want something that is a little more definitive about the tithing argument you can read my tithing rebuttal with supporting verses. That has some of that boring stuff i talked about earlier.

Here’s a video about tithing, spoofing off of that old Christmas classic “it’s a wonderful life”

There are many people that ask about the definition of the tithe compared other types of gifts. The tithe definition in its broadest sense means a tenth of one’s increase - Deuteronomy 14:22. That is the broadest definition of tithe that is accepted by most of the population. There are even more defined meanings of tithing out there. For instance some would say that the definition of the tithe by nature, goes to your local church, and is taken off of your gross income. This is because the tithe was delivered to the local storehouse in the Old Testament - Malachi 3:10, and in Proverbs 3:9 we are to honor the Lord with the first fruits of our increase.

Scholars and theologians constantly debate about the tithe definition. Mainly because the tithe’s function was prescribed in detail in the old testament, defined for the nation of Israel, and was not done so for the Church in the NT. There seems to be many holes and many opportunities for personal interpretation of how we should prescribe the tithe into the New Testament Church.

The definition of the tithe was very simple and plainly laid out for Israel. They were to gather their harvest and count the tithe out from what they’ve gathered. For instance, if you had 100 apples, you must count them out from one-to-ten, and the tenth one you set aside for the Lord - Leviticus 27:32. As is stated in the previous verse, it did not matter if that tenth one was bruised or under-sized, you still set it aside. Also, you set the tenth one aside, not the first one aside.

There were other rules under the tithe definition. First, the tithe generally went to the Levites, and in turn the levites gave a tenth of their tenth to the priestly line for the work of the temple. Next, there were generally three different “types” of the tithe. first, was the poor tithe - Deuteronomy 26:12. Second, was the feast tithe - Deuteronomy 14:22-23. Third, was the Levitical tithe - Numbers 18:24. Practically, the tithe included the poor and the Levites all the time, but those are generally how the tithe is categorized. The feast tithe was the most unique and was consumed by the whole nation of Israel as a feast celebration.

Most people argue that the total amount of tithes given by Israel equaled over 23%. I don’t follow that logic, just for the simple fact that when the bible says 10% of all your increase, generally it means just 10%. Maybe that’s too simple minded? I don’t know? Also genealogy and numbering records have shown that a 10% gift from the whole nation of Israel was plenty enough to take care of the small tribe of Levi.

Now that we got an abridged version of the tithe definition for Israel, what about the definition for the Church? Truthfully, you are asking the wrong person. I feel the definition of the tithe for the church is far more complicated than the IRS tax code. Like i said above, the definition of tithing for the New Testament Church has many holes and opportunities for personal interpretation. I’m of the persuasion that it doesn’t belong in the Spirit-led Church. I know. . . I know what you’re saying, how can the Church operate without the tithe? Well, first of all, the Church is not the nation of Israel so it has no need to operate under Israel’s strict code of laws. The Church operates under the capacity of the Holy Spirit in tune with the principles of God’s word. Yes, God’s word said don’t eat unclean meat, circumcise your sons, tithe of your increase . . . and so forth, but i said the Holy Spirit is in tune with the PRINCIPLES of God’s word.

Ha, Ha, what is the definition of a principle you ask? Well, let’s make that for another post. I know this was a quick synopsis of the definition of tithing, but without writing a few chapters and without a few hours, this seems the best i could do. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas that i missed that describes the tithe definition, we need to hear them. Please share them below.

Here is a humorous video about tithing.

Here is an investigation by CBS News, looking into the kenneth copeland ministries. Of course you might have to watch a commercial first.