Will a tithe save your soul? No. unless your church supports missions and homeless shelters it won't save anything, Our offerings quite often go to some wonderful causes not the least of which is feeding the pastor and his family.
My own church, the First Congregational Church of the Bereans, is wonderfully generous. When floods ravaged several local communities our tiny congregation was able to raise a fund for flood relief that shocked our new pastor to tears. It was just Christians being Christian. I'm sure there's tens of thousands of stories just like this one because on the whole Christians are a loving generous bunch. Sometimes we're a bit too eager to share our earnings and end up getting 'taken' by con artists and sometimes we've been taken by the church we attend.
I've heard numerous arguments for and against tithing, all of them taken from the bible, and all of them from the Old Testament, most from Leviticus and Deuteronomy - books of Jewish law. My wife and I give offerings that come up to about 10% because that's a good rule of thumb, but we don't tithe.
I've heard numerous arguments for and against tithing, all of them taken from the bible, and all of them from the Old Testament, most from Leviticus and Deuteronomy - books of Jewish law. My wife and I give offerings that come up to about 10% because that's a good rule of thumb, but we don't tithe.
Why don't we tithe? For the same reason we enjoy bacon: we're not Jewish.
Christians were NEVER meant to tithe. That idea probably came from Romanism when they decided the church replaced Israel and had to obey all the Jewish rules. The Christians are only to give according to 2 Cor. 9:6-7
ReplyDeleteThe RCC church I grew up in actually had two collections during mass, each contribution was put in an envelope with each contributors name pre-printed on the envelope. This was supposedly for tax purposes but if you fell behind you could expect a call from the Monsignors office
DeleteGreat post, thanks! And I loved the bacon line.
ReplyDeleteI get that bacon thing a lot from atheists. I take it as an invitation to explain the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and New Covenants which show that God is so loving that He changes His rules to meet the needs of the time, place, and people.
Delete2 Corinthians 9:7 seems to settle the question of tithing, as Glenn observed. Worth quoting:
ReplyDelete"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, [so let him give]; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."
When churches start pushing the tithe, it's one indication that they've lost faith in the Word of God. Focus on tithing has made legalistic and abusive many a congregation.
Amen!
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