Tuesday, March 3, 2009

“Christians must tithe to their local church!”

Christians were never instructed by Jesus or his disciples to tithe. This teaching came many centuries later with the proof text of Malachi 3:8-11

“You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.” Malachi 3:8-11

The tithe has been reemphasized in the past three or four decades primarily by evangelical pastors and prosperity teachers, who preach adamantly on one hand that we’re saved by grace and that it’s impossible to fulfill the Law of Moses and on the other insist under much threat of curse on personal goods, finances and lives—one even equated it with salvation, that Christians must follow the Law by tithing.

Curiously, this “Christian” version of the tithe in no way resembles the Levitical tithe or the tithe Abraham gave to Melchizedek but is much more demanding. God commanded the Israelites to tithe food not money and to eat it themselves. (Deuteronomy 12:5-7) Only in the third year were they to give it to the Levites, who were to in turn divide it with the “aliens (immigrants), orphans and widows”. (Deuteronomy. 26:12-13)

Christians are never to be put under the Law! Paul had some scathing things to say about those who attempt to put them there and those who allow themselves to be put under the Law. (Read the book of Galatians).
Read more about "tithing" on my Freeing Truths blog:
http://freeingtruths.blogspot.com/search/label/Tithing%20part%201   http://freeingtruths.blogspot.com/search/label/tithing%20part%202
http://freeingtruths.blogspot.com/search/label/Tithing%20part%203

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