- As we’ve seen, the Bible has never directly authorized the modern day church to ask to receive a tithe; a tithe was only food to be given to Levites under the Old Covenant. But if someone feels that tithing might’ve been a pre-Mosaic tradition of followers of God, then we will study three examples of giving before the Mosaic Law- Abraham, Jacob and Joseph:
- Abraham gave a one-time tithe, which was either a freewill offering or customary Arab tax to the king of Salem (giving 10% was practiced by many pagan idol worshippers of Abraham’s day and this is clearly documented in world history texts), Abraham didn’t give of his personal possession but rather only of spoils of war (and, in the Mosaic Law, rather than being 10%, the other recorded giving of spoils of war was to actually be either 1% or 0.001%, depending on to whom it was given- Numbers 31:28-30). Abraham then ultimately gave nearly 100% of the rest of his spoils of war away to the king of Sodom rather than just a tenth (we now see that Abraham had originally given 10% of something that he had no intention of keeping any of, which was demonstrated when he gave all of the rest away, because Abraham was already vastly wealthy). We also see that God never asked or required Abraham to give that one-time tithe, and there is no record that Abraham ever gave a tenth to anyone else ever again.
- John Owen: Famous Calvinist Apologist, Commentary on the reference to Abraham’s tithe in Hebrews 7: “If the strict legal course of tithing be intended, it cannot be proved from this text [Hebrews 7] nor from any other instance before the law.”
- John Gill (1697 – 1771), the first major Baptist theologian, “Hebrews 7:4, which is no proof of any obligation on men to pay tithes now to any order of men; for this was a voluntary act, and not what any law obliged to; it was done but once, and not constantly, or every year; it was out of the spoils of the enemy, and not out of his own substance, or of the increase of the earth; nor was it for the maintenance of Melchizedek, as a priest.”
- To name just a few, this same view regarding Abraham’s one time giving of 10 percent is also held by “the Scofield Reference Bible, Dallas Theological Seminary, Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College and authors such as Craig Blomberg, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Walter Elwell, Theodore Epp, John MacArthur, Charles Ryrie, Charles Swindoll, Merrill Unger and John Walvoord” (information from Russell Earl Kelly PhD, Should the Church Teach Tithing).
- Viola, Frank (author of over 20 books, 900 blog articles, and 100 podcasts. His podcast, Christ is All, has been ranked #1 in Canada and #2 in the USA in the “Christianity” section of iTunes. His blog, Beyond Evangelical, is regularly ranked in the top 10 of Christian blogs) -Straight Talk to Elders (tithing)- “If we approach the New Testament by lifting verses from various letters and putting them together, we can build a case that tithing is a New Testament practice. And therefore we can tell God’s people that they must tithe. But if you look at the story of the first-century church, you will discover that the Christians did not pay tithes. The early Christians recognized that the tithe was part of the Old Covenant. The tithe was Israel’s income tax to support the temple and to help the Levites, who were not given an inheritance. But it was also for the purpose of supporting the widows, the fatherless, the poor, and the strangers. This rarely gets mentioned when ministers preach on tithing today. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ has put to death that whole system. Today, all of God’s people are functioning priests. We, the church, are the temple. Historically, you cannot find any Christians tithing until the eighth century! This is historical fact. It wasn’t until 700 years passed that tithing became a Christian institution. It wasn’t until the fourth century–under Constantine the Roman emperor who converted to Christianity and made a Christian state out of the Empire–it wasn’t until Constantine that the church had a paid clergy. Church leaders did not receive a salary from God’s people until the days of Constantine. Tithes were not practiced among the Christians until eight hundred years passed. It was not part of the first-century church’s practice. It was part of the Law. And we have been freed from the Law. I know that Melchizedek was given tithes by Abraham. And I understand that this happened before the Law. But, brothers, may I make this observation? Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek one time. So if you wish to hang tithing around the neck of God’s people by using Abraham, then you can only use it to support a one-time tithe.”
- Abraham is universally recognized as being our example of faith, therefore, what lesson can we truly learn from his giving? We no longer have legalistic rules to follow, we have Christian liberty, and in all areas we must be led by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, with that being said, if someone were to try to apply a lesson from Abraham’s giving, it’s this: knowing that he only gave a one time tithe of his spoils of war after Melchizedek had already given Abraham something of value, we see that Abraham gave only 10% to someone religious (to Melchizedek), but the vast majority (90%) was given to a secular (non-religious) destination. The majority of Abraham’s giving simply wasn’t to a religious organization. There are real needs in our own communities and even within our own assemblies, therefore, from his giving we should begin to see that it can be acceptable in our Father’s eyes to give to Him by primarily giving to people who are in need as we are led by the Spirit, rather than being coerced to exclusively give to religious organizations that keep the majority of donations for itself. As we learn from Jesus in Mathew 25 as He taught us how He will separate the sheep from the goats, we will be judged by how we take care of people who are in need. After studying Abraham’s giving, it’s now quite possible that a good rule of thumb might be that 10% of our giving could go to a religious destination, and the rest would be free to be given where there is need.
- Next, we will now look to Jacob and Joseph. Jacob made a conditional promise of “if” and “then” and only then he might give a tenth. But there is no record that he ever gave that tenth, nor is there any description as to whom he might’ve given a tithe (remember that many offerings were consumed mostly by the person who brought it, such as the freewill thanksgiving peace offering). When examining Joseph, rather than institute tithing, Joseph instituted a 20% government tax in Egypt. The Israelites never tithed until they arrived in the land of Canaan, and they were only to tithe food from the land of Canaan. Therefore, the tithe was officially instituted with the Mosaic law, and in the Mosaic law it always referred to referred to food (specifically only from the land of Canaan).
- Now that we know that the official tithing of food was instituted in the Mosaic Law, we will now see that the post Calvary discussion of tithing begins and ends in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews was written to prepare Jewish Christians in Jerusalem for the severe shock of when the Temple would be destroyed a mere 6 or 7 years after the book of Hebrews was written. Most of these Jewish Christians had never abandoned the Mosaic law and some rejected Paul as a heretic. Hebrews chapter 7 lays the groundwork for the crucial declaration in verse 18 that the entire Levitical system of worship, including tithing, has been set aside as “weak and useless.” By first abolishing tithing (its chief financial support) the domino effect knocks down every other authority and function of the Levitical priesthood. Tithing is used in each of the four instances in verses 4-10 to prove that Christ’s priesthood is superior to the Mosaic Law. Because of the failure of the old system, there is a need for entirely new principles. Since Christ came from the tribe of Judah and not Levi, and Psalm 110 and Hebrews 7 patterned the new priesthood after a non-Jewish Melchizedek, it is evident that nothing in the law that related to Levitical priesthood could be carried over. The fact that Melchizedek wasn’t even Jewish means that the new priesthood is open to those who aren’t Jewish. Christ’s Melchizedek priesthood isn’t governed by any set of laws given to man, but rather by the power of our Eternal God (information from Russell Earl Kelly). The ultimate purpose of Hebrews 7 is to prove to all (and specifically to Jewish Christians) that Jesus was greater than the Old Covenant, including it’s priests and their system of tithing.
- If tithing were to actually be taught, “Now that even the newest Christian believer belongs to ‘the royal priesthood,’ being in Christ who ‘forever’ is of ‘the order of Melchizedek’ (Hebrews 5:6), every Christian should therefore be RECEIVING tithes! Those teaching that we all need to follow Abraham’s example of tithing surely need to explain why we all are not following Melchizedek’s example of receiving them” http://www.tithingdebate.com/eatingsacredcowsdownload.pdf
- Schaff, Phillip, [Presbyterian] History of the Christian Church, Vol II [p. 124], “In the apostolic church, preaching and teaching were not confined to a particular class, but every convert could proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, and every Christian who had the gift could pray and teach and exhort in the congregation. The New Testament knows no spiritual aristocracy or nobility but calls all believers “saints,” though many fell short of this vocation. Nor does it recognize a special priesthood in distinction from the people, as mediating between God and the laity. It knows only one high-priest, Jesus Christ, and clearly teaches the universal priesthood.”
- Hebrews 8:6, 13 states, “But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises… When God speaks of a ‘new’ covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.” (It disappeared when the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.). We also see in Hebrews 7:12, “For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.”
- The book of Hebrews explained that the Law has been “changed,” the Old Covenant made specifically with the nation of Israel is now “obsolete,” and the New Covenant is based on “better promises.” Our leaders have not been given authority to go back to the Old Covenant and pick and choose what to keep and what to discard. If tithing were to be re-established, then congregations would have to be given a break from tithing every 7 years and all debts would have to be cancelled, and a good percentage of the tithe would have to be given directly by the tither to people in need. But again, we are not allowed to re-institute the Old Covenant, because we are now in the New Covenant brought about by the blood of Christ.
- Lenski, R.C.H., The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel, [p. 907], “Although all of the apostles were originally Jews, reared in tithing, with not one word did any of them even intimate that in the New Covenant that Christians might find tithing a helpful method of making their contributions to the work of the church.”
- Neither Paul, being a Pharisee and well versed in the Law, nor the other apostles were able to ask for a tithe because they knew they weren’t Levites. If Paul wanted tithes, he could’ve brought Levites to become part of the church to receive the tithes, and he even had Barnabas with him who actually was a Levite. In Rom. 15:19 and Acts 20:20, Paul said he had “fully preached the gospel” and had “kept back nothing that was profitable,” however, throughout all of his writings, Paul didn’t mention tithing even once, but when discussing financing the ministry in 1 Corinthians 9, he stated, “we endure anything rather than put an obstacle [specifically money] in the way of the gospel of Christ… [so that] I may win more of them” [the lost]. So what’s wrong with just following tradition and letting churches ask for a tithe? By Paul’s reasoning, if some denominations tell people that regardless of their financial difficulties they must give 10% of their income to a church while they are already in debt, then this is putting an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Christ. Even in the “Bible Belt,” the number of people identifying as Christians has dropped sharply. How many of those people have been run off by the church’s unauthorized requests or use of guilt in order to try to receive 10% of those individuals income, especially those struggling financially and in debt. When believers try to witness to people who aren’t in church, the response that they’re sometimes told is that the church is just there to try to get money. Clearly, this false teaching has become an obstacle to the Gospel.
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