To Tithe or not to Tithe - that is the question
I don’t think I believe in tithing. I don’t think its biblical, or to be more accurate, I don’t think its New Testamentical (which is not a word).
(FYI Tithing is the official view that most churches have that you must give 10% of your income to the church because God said so)
Now I KNOW how passionate churches are about promoting tithing and I have heard all the arguments for why it is biblical and new testamentical (still not a word).
And you know what. I still don’t believe them. I have listened, I have prayed, I have read and I have searched and golly gosh I just don’t believe it.
You are totally allowed to believe it. So long as you believe it in your heart, and you have good reasons to believe it. Who am I to say you are wrong and I am right? You might have a deep insight that I have missed.
But maybe I have a deep (or shallow) insight that you have missed. How about we get together some time over coffee and discuss it, I mean if you are keen?
I have a few reasons to think its incorrect and I’ll start with the least logical one.
I feel it in my gut (or spirit to be more holy sounding).
Every time I hear a tithing talk saying that we must give 10% to the church (Gods proxy) I feel manipulated and as though poor people are being told they have no worth unless they meet this rule. If anyone claims that is God trying to tell me to tithe I can honestly tell you I did it, I tried it and I still felt aweful during the tithing talks.
If you are homeless and don’t have enough to eat, but don’t give 10% of the $1 a day you live off of you are not acceptable to God. This is nonsense. How dare someone imply that a group of people who are incapable of surviving without that money are not acceptable? How dare someone make a person living in poverty feel guilty for not contributing to the upkeep of a building, the wages of a professional religious person or whatever?
This gut feeling that something is wrong when churches get all hung up on the exact figure and say that it is a rule from God that applies to everyone is what prompted me to start looking into it and praying about it. Because I don’t mind believing in tithing, but what I believe in, I must believe in 100% and I was never 100% convinced about tithing.
As I looked I found a few key things repeated through the tithing messages I listened to.
1. Jesus says he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfil it. People like to interpret that as the tithing law still stands, YET the same people say that other parts of the law have been done away with (eg animal sacrifice). Come on people, be consistent. You cannot use one interpretation for one part of the law but not another part because it doesn’t suit you.
2. To get around point 1. Some people like to say that because Abraham tithed (before the Mosaical law came into being) that although the law has been fulfilled and is no longer part of our lives, the tithing came before the law and we are to follow Abrahams example.
Would you perhaps like to take a concubine while you are at it? (FYI a concubine is a woman that a man in the old testament part of the bible takes to be a sort of second rate wife, just for sex and babies really).
Just because Abraham did something, does not make it right and does not make it a rule, or something I have to do. What about circumcision – that was another way Abraham expressed his commitment to God, but now we don’t necessarily do that.
Abraham was commended and made right with God because of his faith. Christians are seen as descendants of Abraham spiritually and should also show faith. But just because one of his gestures of faith was to give 10% does not mean we need to do that exactly I think. It is more that we should follow his example and show faith in all areas of our lives, including finances. And this may mean giving x amount of dollars or y % but I believe that there is no hard and fast rule for the number, it is between you and God.
3. The old testament does say to bring all your tithes and offerings into the storehouse so God will open the windows of heaven and pour out a great blessing. But I am not sure about this either.
If church is a storehouse, shouldn’t we all be able to get stores out of it when we need it? Isn’t it more a way of STORING our money until we need it or for others who need it? How is a church paying a pastors wages and a buildings upkeep a storehouse situation? How come if it is my storehouse, I can’t just go to the store manager and say, “right I unexpectedly need some money for my car repairs this month, can I just grab some out of the storehouse, I mean that’s why I store my money here?” Or “it’s been a tough season for my business, can we get some stores to see us through” (as an actual storehouse would be used to get people through tough farming seasons or shortages)
If God is meaning money into the storehouse (Church) and we get fed spiritually (which is the interpretation churches like), what happens when I don’t get fed spiritually at a church? Does that mean it’s then ok not to tithe? Or as I have been told in the past is it more important that others get fed, (but I starve spiritually) and I just need to keep going for someone else’s benefit? What happens when I am getting spiritually fed from podcast sermons from America/UK or listening to life FM, am I then allowed/required to tithe to them as they are actually performing the work of a storehouse in feeding me spiritually? Or should I just find a church where I am getting fed? If a church believes this they need to emphasise that I should be tithing to wherever feeds me (so probably my mum, my bible study group, my face-book friends who discuss God with me too), not just that church. But I’ve never experienced that at all. Once again be consistent!
Personally I am starting to believe that the entire world of Christianity is Gods storehouse and when we bring our offerings or tithes to God by investing our money in a mission to end poverty, or helping to fund a free clinic so the homeless have access to healthcare, then we are putting money into Gods kingdom and stores. Partnering with God in that way, increasing his kingdom on earth and that will bring a blessing.
I believe that the christian mission on earth can be described as partnering with God in undoing the effects evil (or sin) has had on our world. The theory is that God created a perfect world, then Adam and Eve disobeyed and from that moment on the earth was pysically tainted and bad things started to happen in nature etc. So anything that fights poverty, injustice, illness, or anything that separates people from God is my mission earth. So putting money into those things is "giving money to God" to do his will on earth, not giving money to a church to pay a pastor or administrator, or maintain a building.
If you think your local church is fully partnering with God in bringing people to relationship with him, in fighting injustice, poverty, disease etc then go ahead, give money to them, you are totally partnering with God. But if your local church uses most of its money to pay a professional preacher and to pay a mortgage you have to ask yourself;
Is this really the most effective way to partner with God in ending poverty? or injustice? or disease? or helping people to find peace and connection with God?
You need to be pretty darn sure it is the best way of doing this mission, or else what will you tell God when he asks if you were a good steward of your finances, if he asks how you invested your money in his work?
My key finding, that gave me an aha moment is the new testament depiction of church.
Church was in people’s houses, or large open spaces. It was in a borrowed building that a local loaned to them for the night.
I would say (as a guess) that Christians who were jewish before becoming Christians may have continued tithing as part of being a Jew while also being a Christian. But tithing to the temple was part of Judaism not Christianity. The Christian practise of the early church was to share. When someone was in need a brother would share what he had with them. When a missionary was sent out an offering was taken up to support that missionary. There was no rule about giving 10%, it was about being generous and supporting the work of God. When the widows needed support the church people provided for them, but I can find no mention of a tithe of 10% ever being given to a Christian church in the new testament. It was offerings, gifts and a spirit of sharing with an understanding that all we own is Gods (not just 10%) and if he needed it for a group of people in poverty then he could have everything they could spare. It was about giving what God placed on your heart, not the 10% that was OWED to God.
Just as a final point in my understanding of Judaism being about tithing, not Christianity. In the new testament Paul finds that groups of Christians have started teaching that to be a Christian you had to first be a jew. Paul clearly refuted that and said that was nonsense.
Maybe if Paul had agreed and said we all had to be jews first then I would have understood how tithing came to be part of our Christian tradition. But he didn’t. And I don’t.
Finally it makes me wonder if maybe tithing and the rule around it is actually something sneaky that the opposition snuck in when we weren’t looking as a way of putting people off God?
Because when I asked a group of non-believers what they knew about church, their first response was “Churches are just after your money”. They knew that churches had a rule of tithing and it certainly put them off. They knew people who were too poor to tithe but did so anyway to keep in good with their church and then had their power cut off.
Churches will say, well if you don't tithe then how can we pay the pastor and the mortgage? I personally think we need to rethink how we do church. Paul made tents to support himself in the new testament as he preached. No one built a church building in the new testament.
I wonder if tithing has become a sneaky sneaky way to keep people away from God? What if this hard and fast teaching on tithing 10% no matter what is actually stopping people finding God?
Just a thought.
KG
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