TITHES

“And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.” (Genesis 14:18 – 20)

“If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” (Hebrews 7:11 – 12)

Dear brethren I wish to talk on a doctrine that jumped through the window to establish itself as one of the church doctrines. Your leaders won’t like it, but it is true.

In my earlier years, I used to play a game called Grand Theft Auto 2. To save your game you must go to a church and pay $50,000. The game was a game of gangsters and criminal activities. You killed, you fought with the police, SWAT, special forces, and army. Steal vehicles. Crush people to death with your vehicle. You grind people in grinders and used them for hot dogs just because you wish to create an occasion for a gang to poke fun at another. You did innumerable evils and got paid for all these. And when you wished to save, you go to a church and they’ll take from you that money you’ve been paid for crime. If you have that amount, you could save your game else you can’t. When you approached the church, you’d hear the most celestially divine organ being played. If you step into the church without having up to $50,000, you’d hear a hoarse voice shout at you, “Damnation! No donation! No salvation.” But when you have that amount or more, they’d take the $50,000, and you’d hear the same voice, this time more friendly, say, “Hallelujah! Another soul saved.” That was a bad tainting of the church’s image, but worse have been done to the fold and the image of the church of Christ than these in the name of tithing. Let’s look at it together.

—The Fool I Almost Remained—

“How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1:22)

“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)

I was bound to be the must pro-tithing Christian. I believed that God was just being absolutely benevolent when he said tithe is just ten percent. I felt it would be too bad for any Christian to really be giving God just ten percent. I supposed that if things get so financially bad, only then should you give ten percent, but you should never go below ten percent. I felt that a man would be very ungrateful if he spent ought out of his income for anything other than for their basic necessities. He ought after this to give back everything to God. As much as possible, you ought not to take yourself on a treat, you ought not to buy yourself ice cream. That won’t satisfy your hunger. You ought, as much as possible, not spend at all and give everything to God. I believed this. If the giving of ten percent was truly to God as the clergy would like us to believe, then I was right.

I think that when God sees the heart of a man, he’d come down and take the veil away from his heart. That was what God in his mercy did to me. One day, as I was heading to church on a Sunday morning, I carefully packaged the tithe I was supposed to give at the church. It was in my habit to play my audio Bible making my device play chapters of the Bible randomly when going to the church. On such days, it used to be a happy one where I’d say something like this in prayer, “Father, remember how I’m being faithful to you in paying my tithe, please bless me and prosper me.” With such prayer I’d strut happily to church. On this day, however, as I went, the first chapter that played to my hearing was chapter 5 of the book of Ecclesiastes which began this way, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.” Hearing this, and seeing my tithe in my hand, I wondered whether this were a coincident or if it spoke of my tithe as being a sacrifice of fools.

I ignored it and kept going about my activities without caring. Another day as I went to church, probably the next time I had a tithe to pay, I packaged my tithe again. I played my audio Bible again, and the first chapter again was the same chapter 5 of the book of Ecclesiastes which began this way, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.” I wondered again. It seemed funny to me how this sacred thing should be made to seem vile to me, so I ignored it yet again, though I didn’t discard it completely from my mind.

However as I was making some eschatological studies, I bumped into an article that spoke on tithing as being unscriptural. Reading it and recalling my experience, I got down to study about tithing for myself. I discovered first of all that tithing, even if it were right was taught heretically for gain. Secondly, that there is no such thing as mandatory giving in the new testament, therefore, even if tithing were right, it isn’t mandatory for any Christian. You give if you so wish. Thirdly, I discovered that tithing was not right at all. Fourthly, I discovered that tithing is extortion. Lastly, I discovered that not only is tithing passively wrong, it is a sin and all tithers are sinners. If you are such, Christ is willing to forgive you. Repent today!

Someone would say, “tithers never lack.” That is just one of those statements that you can’t verify coined to make more gullible the already gullible. Shame on the blind guides of the blind. That was how I came to know the truth. Now let us look at some lies, then we’d look at some truths.

—What Do People Preach About Tithing?—

“Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?” (Job 11:3)

“But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.” (Job 13:4)

There are some error that are being preached concerning tithe that even Moses did not command the Jews to do. The first is that tithe is AT LEAST ten percent. Well that is a lie. Moses didn’t say tithe is AT LEAST ten percent, he said tithe is ten percent. Looking at the pains people were commanded to take in taking stock of their increase, we could say tithing is EXACTLY ten percent. The Bible says, “And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.” (Leviticus 27:32). They were asked to count and every tenth is for God. If this giving of tithe is more than ten percent, it does not fit the definition of tithe any more. These preachers would want us to pay more than ten percent and encourage us to do so. They’d tell you a testimony of a man that gave ninety percent of his income as tithe and God blessed him beyond his hard work. Fables.

The second is tithing is one-tenth. Tithing is one-tenth, quite alright, but it is better described as the tenth, and not one-tenth. These throws out of the window the claim that goes, “God first.” The Bible says, “And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.” (Leviticus 27:32). If you count your herd and you have nine, you don’t have a tithe to pay. If you have five, you don’t need to kill one and give half of it as tithe. If you have nine, you don’t need to give 0.9 of your sheep. The tenth is what is a tithe.

The third is that tithe is the tenth of everything, but there is a big question mark to that. It is not certain, as it is far more likely that tithe consisted of goods, especially agricultural, and not money. In defining tithe, the Bible says, “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD.” (Leviticus 27:30). To convince people that money is to be tithed, a lie is told to support the claim. It is said that in this time, the reason why God did not command the Jews to pay tithe is because money was not in vogue then. People traded in produce. But money was already in use as early as the seventeenth chapter of the book of Genesis. Abraham himself bought a burying place for Sarah his wife with money. Throughout the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deutronomy, the word “money” was used but not in defining what tithe is. However, today, you dear not insult these “priests” with goods, they’d tell you,” go and sell it and bring the money.”

—The History Of Tithing—

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)

Tithing was never a church doctrine. It has been refuted as not being one of the church doctrines from the apostles’ time down until about 700 AD. The Councils of Elders before this time rejected it. People were forbidden from taking money for service to God. At a time, it was prohibited that travelling on a missionary journey, a man should stay beyond a particular amount of days in the house of a person who takes him in as a guest. Every form of acquiring money in the name of service to God was rejected and/or at least frowned at. The church never accepted tithe as a church doctrine till about 700 AD. All the true revivalists and reformers after this period all denounced the tithe doctrine as not being part of church doctrine. Not even did the apostles collect tithes of the early church, neither did Christ (though he is our High Priest) collect tithes of his disciples. Why has it now become the strictest church doctrine? For if you fornicate, preachers would say you could be forgiven. In the case of every other sin, they could sing “grace that is greater than all our sins.” But when it is tithe, “you rob God.” You won’t go scot free. God will punish you severely because you have robbed him. And that teaching is greed at work.

—What Happened Around 700 AD?—

“For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.” (Jeremiah 5:26)

The church has always been one before this time. All the church maintained a uniform doctrine. Anytime there were a wind of heretic doctrine, a Council of Elders would be held to address the issue. Their decision would be accepted by all the churches. About these times also, the Byzantine Empire was a secure haven for the Christians. Constantine the great who was the first Roman Emperor to be converted to Christianity had granted freedom to all religious groups including Christianity. He himself, however, actively promoted Christianity. He established the empire upon scriptures. Byzantine Empire is the Roman Empire, but became popularly known as Byzantine because Constantine moved the seat of power of his government to Byzantium which is in modern day Istanbul, Turkey.

Before this 700 AD, some thing very ugly happened. The emperor of the Byzantine Empire by the name Mauritius, a deeply pious man, was murdered by the General of his army by the name Phocas. This Phocas betrayed his master, and sought to take the throne by force. Mauritius, not willing to resist his evil General, abdicated and retired to his monastery, but Phocas went after him, captured him in his monastery. This pious man was forced to watch the beheading of his own sons before he was himself beheaded. The evil General threw their bodies into the sea and their heads were exhibited in Constantinople. A lot of evil was said to have been done by this man after his ascension to power. You would expect that to such a wicked scoundrel, not even another scoundrel would send a letter of commendation, but Pope Boniface sent flattery letters to this man. When you flatter a wicked man in his wickedness, he’d be so surprised at it that he’d be so impressed. Phocas was so impressed that he handed the Pantheon of Rome over to the Pope to do what he so pleased with it. Do you wonder what the Pope did with it? Here is Martin Luther’s account of it:

“In the year 606, Emperor Phocas, the murderer of that good and godly Emperor Mauritius, and the first erector of the Pope’s primacy, gave this temple Pantheon to Pope Boniface the Third, to make thereof what he pleased. He gave it another name, and instead of All-Idols he named it the Church of All-Saints; he did not number Christ among them, from whom all saints have their sanctity, but erected a new idolatry, the Invocation of Saints.

“In my chronicle, I expound the name of Bonifacius thus: Bonifacius is a Popish name, that is, a good form, fashion, or show, for under the colour of a good form and show he acted all manner of mischief against God and man.

“As I was at Rome, I saw this church; it had no windows, but only a round hole on the top, which gave some light. It was vaulted high, and had pillars of marble stone so thick that two of us could scarcely fathom one about. Above, on the vault, were portrayed all the gods of the heathen, Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, Venus, and how else they are called. These gods were at a union, to the end they might fool and deceive the whole world; but Christ they cannot endure, for he hath whipped them out. Now are the Popes come, and have driven Christ away again; but who knoweth how long it will continue?”

These are the wicked things that transpired against the body of Christ that saw the Pope rise to primacy. And it was the Pope who after about a hundred years after instituted the the very unholy extortive doctrine of tithing under Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor. “Holy” was what they called their empire because as Luther has said, under the colour of the good they acted all manner of mischief against God and man. Many other extortive teachings were taught by the Pope and popish people which pious men down the ages keep denouncing. But greedy men would always go back and deep their hands into the Pope’s smelly latrine to bring out this tithe doctrine to extort the poor.

—List Of Men Who Denounced Tithing—

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

As I’ve said that pious men have denounced this doctrine. Lest it seems that I’m alone in this belief, or that my revelations and findings are contrary to the stance of saints approved of God, below is a list of some of them (religious bodies and other institutions also included) derived from russkellyphd.blogspot.com. You could just scan through but you could study it carefully too.

Clement of Rome 100
Didache 100
Justin Martyr 165
Tertullian 230
Origen 255
Cyprian 258
Waldenses 1150+-
Thomas Aquinas 1275
John Wycliff 1384 (The first man to see to the translation of the Bible to English.)
John Huss 1415
German Peasants 1520
Ana baptists 1525
Erasmus 1536
Otto Brumfels 1534
Martin Luther 1546
Philip Melanchthon 1560
Separatists Amsterdam 1603
John Smythe 1609 Baptist
John Robinson 1610
English Parliament 1650+-
Puritans & Plgrims Mass 1650+-
John Cotton 1652 Puritan
Roger Williams 1636 Baptist
Little Parliament 1653
Oliver Cromwell 1658
John Milton 1658 Puritan
Particular Baptists 1660
John Owen 1680 Baptist
Francis Turretin 1687
John Bunyan 1688 Baptist
Quakers 1768
John Gill 1771 Baptist
John Wesley 1791
BAPTISTS IN AMERICA 1800s
Adam Clarke 1832 Baptist
Charles Buck 1833
J C Philpot 1835 Baptist
Charles H Spurgeon 1832 Baptist
Parsons Cooke 1850
Samuel Harris 1850
Edward A Lawrence 1850
John Peter Lange 1876
Henry William Clark 1891 Engllish
S H Kellogg 1891
G Campbell Morgan 1898 Congregational
Albert Vail 1913 Baptist
Frank Fox 1913
David MaConaughy 11918 Episcopal
William Pettingill 1932
John Harvey Grime 1934 Baptist
John T Mueller 1934 Lutheran
H E Dana 1937 Bapt Historian
R C H LENSKI 1946 Lutheran
Lewis Sperry Chafer 1948
W E Vine 1949
James F Rand 1953
Francis Pieper 1953 Lutheran
Ray Stedman 1951
L L McR 1955 Catholic
Paul Leonard Stagg 1958 Baptist
Hiley H Ward 1958 Baptist
Roy T Cowles 1958
Elizabeth P Tilton 1958
R C Rein 1958 Lutheran
Robert A Baker 1959 Bapt Historian
Wick Bromall 1960
John Byron Evans 1960
Norman Tenpas 1967
James Edward Anderson 1967
Alfred Martin 1968
CHARLES C RYRIE 1969 DTS
Jerry Horner 1972 S Baptist
Pieter Verhoef 1974
Dennis Wretlind 1975
Jack J Peterson 1978 Pres
Donald Kraybill 1978
Jon Zens 1979 Baptist
Richard Cunningham 1979
S Bapt Gary Frieson 1980
JOHN MACARTHUR 1982-2000
Paul Fink 1982
George Monroe Castillo 1982
Tony Badillo 1984
James M Boice 1986
Michael E Oliver 1986 Rest
W Clyde Tilley 1987
Scott Collier 1987
Ronald M Campbell 1987
R E O White 1988
William McDonald 1989
Charles Swindoll 1990 Dallas Seminary
Rhodes Thompson 1990
J VERNON MCGEE 1999
Jerome Smith 1992
CRAIG BLOMBERG 1993 Denver Seminary
J Duncan M Derrett 1993
Walter Kaiser Jr 1994 Gordon-Cromwell
Moises Silva 1994
Benny D Prince 1995
Brian K Morley 1996
Linda L Belleville 1996
Ron Rhodes 1997
Ernest L Martin 1997
Michael Webb 1998
R Johnston 1999
Mark Snoeberger 2000 Baptist
Stuart Murray 2000 Eng
George W Greene 2000
Old Line Primitive Baptists 2000
RUSSELL EARL KELLY 2001 Baptist
Jonathan Kitchcart 2001
Frank Viola 2002
George Barna 2002
Michael Morrison 2002
Elliott Miller 2003
Matthew Narramore 2004
David Alan Black 2004 Baptist SEBTS
Andreas Kostenberger 2007 Baptist SEBTS
Danny Akin 2007 Baptist SEBTS

The list goes on and on and on. That you condemn tithes doesn’t make any a saint or approve their works, but note the names of many noble men who served our Lord and were evidently approved of him. Are they who are on this side which I am not far more than those few on the contrary. They are, by far, outnumbered. The lives of some of these were far more approved than they who say they are “priests” whose signs approval are not true signs but clever lies, hypocrisy, and lying miracles. They may wish to count the Popes and popish persons, or other men who for any reason at all have supported the tithe as a church doctrine, and may have figures more than could be listed above of men who condemned the doctrine, but the ill-meaning profane pagans in religious outfits don’t count. For this reason, a Martin Luther alone outnumbers them all. A John Wesley outnumbers them one to a million.

—Why The Sacrifices Of Fools Are Evil—

“For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering.” (Isaiah 61:8)

Now why is the sacrifice of fools evil? It is evil because they, in giving to what God has not appointed, they aid it. They aid what is against God’s will.

You may wonder why, but who gave the power to the Pope to commit the atrocities he carried out? The Pope and popish persons have killed many people in history, they’ve waged many wars, they’ve suppressed many people, extorted others, and reign supreme as a harlot that believes she shall never be in want. Who gave him this power? The tither. The tither and they who gave foolishly to his course are his sponsors and are partakers in his killings and bloodshed, wars, extortions, and establishment of that adulterous kingdom.

By what is division in the church sustained? The sacrifice of fools! For if not for the sacrifice of fools, all denominations would have closed down. Those who call themselves leaders would have lesser reason, in fact, close to no reason to keep the church divided. But by the kind sponsorship offered as a sacrifice by fools, they are sustained and prevail.

If it is evil for men to seek to divide the church, then it is more evil to help these evil enterprise by sponsorship, for without sponsorship, they’d fail. Every tither is an active sponsor of church division. In the past, men would think twice, pray, fast, and brazen up for the worst, willing to suffer humiliating loss if they fail before starting any service in the name of God. For such they embark on sacrificially with their own resources. As I write this lines, I just began reading the book of George Müller, a man who accomplished much in his selfless service for God and humanity. He boasted saying, “I never asked aid from a single individual.” Yet he succeeded with a remarkable success. Before he began this ministry, he committed into the hands of God in simple trust that God will provide for the ministry and God did. But because of the sponsorship of the tither, any hungry fellow can go to the seminary, and when he graduates, he thinks he is entitled to the ten percent of believers.

Tithes makes imbeciles of its beneficiaries. Every person that is given everything he ever needs from the time he was born to the time when he becomes a grown up will become an imbecile. He’ll spend foolishly, he talk foolishly (out of joblessness), he’ll have contempt on those who are not as privileged as he is though they may be more hard working and intelligent than he, he’ll become a menace. Many church leaders do talk about things they ought not to. They preach nonsense. They probably haven’t got the need to put their brains to serious thinking. They have surplus for their wants. They don’t need to work like you and think carefully, first on how to make profit for a living, and also how to maximise this profit. You cannot compare the teachings of men who through sorrows sustain themselves and these people who while their time away in their ivory towers. The difference is clear. Who made them imbeciles? The tither.

—What Then Is The Sacrifice Of The Wise?—

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

Many people today often think, as they are encouraged to, that all God requires them to do in regards to service to him is to go and work and after making profit come and throw ten percent at him, but this is wrong. God wants you to offer acceptable sacrifice to him. It is not all sacrifice that is acceptable to him. I believe it were better not to make sacrifices at all than to make an unacceptable sacrifice to him.

He said, “And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 1:8).

There are many things a true Christian can offer to God as a sacrifice for example, praise is also a sacrifice. But from the text above, we are told that acceptable sacrifice is our reasonable service. We are to present our bodies to God to use them for his purpose. John Wycliffe also agrees with this when he taught that all lay men were priests and the refusal to render service to God in this capacity is to defraud their Lord-In-Chief which is God.

I request you the reader to begin to seek how you may begin to offer reasonable service to God. Look out for what you can do. Would you run an outreach with your resources and time to fend for the motherless and bring them up in the way of the Lord. Will you with your resources and time go from house to house preaching the Gospel? Will you with your time and resources establish training centres in rural places where they can’t afford education, teach them trades for free and teach them the way of the Lord as well? Will you embark on missionary journeys to preach the Gospel where it has never been heard before? Will you write articles and other publications to edify the brethren? Will you sing songs that could save a sinner? Will you along side any of these intercede fervently and regularly for the brethren and the world? Will you offer yourself, yourself and not your ten percent, as a living sacrifice? Will you render to God a reasonable service. Dear brethren, pray, think, pray again, and start working. This is your reasonable service.

I pray that God will help us to understand this and give us the grace to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. I pray that the extortion of believers comes to a perpetual and abrupt halt in Jesus’ name. Amen.

—Moses Ayomikun Oladipupo
(www.ayomikun.com.ng)

Summary

Article Name

TITHE

Description

An article showing how unbiblical the prevalent tithe doctrine is. It is aimed at informing the Christians individuals to stop allowing themsellves to be extorted and to stop the sin of tithing. For in tithing, men sponsor church division.

Author

Moses Ayomikun Oladipupo

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