- In America, tithing wasn’t suggested until 1873, and gradually became the doctrine of some denominations between 1895 and 1963. It was in 1895 that Wesley Chapel in Cincinnati attempted to get out of financial trouble by teaching “storehouse tithing” based on Malachi 3.
- One of most important parts of “storehouse tithing” in Malachi 3 that is often skipped over, is, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough FOOD in my Temple.” The Mosaic law is clear and consistent that tithing has always been about food; even New Testament Pharisees knew that tithing only referred to food (Luke 11:42). In order for modern day preachers to ask for a tithe, Scriptures are always modified or taken out of context, each and every time.
- J. Vernon McGee, whom I spent countless hours listening to on AM radio in my college years as he taught a verse by verse study of the Bible, had said, “There is no such thing today as that which is called ‘storehouse giving.’ That’s not quite the way we give because Israel’s giving was in the form of produce.” J. Vernon McGee didn’t believe that Scripture taught that we are to tithe and said, “Today we are living in an age of grace. Under the Mosaic Law, men were required to give one-tenth to God. Today we’re to give on an altogether different standard or basis. That is, we’re not under Law; we’re not under compulsion relative to this matter at all.”
- Malachi 3 was never intended to be a message for New Covenant Christians, and the “church” was never the “storehouse” for New Covenant giving. In further studying the book of Malachi, we know that Numbers 35, Joshua 21, 2 Chronicles 31:15,19; and Nehemiah 10:37-38; 13:10, show that the Levites and priests lived in provided suburbs of designated Levitical cities. The people brought food to the Levitical cities, and then Levites and priests only brought 10% of that to the priests at the Temple, and then the priests at the Temple were to share with “Levites and singers and gatekeepers” (Nehemiah 13:5). The people were never the ones who were commanded to “bring the tithes to the Temple;” that responsibility was only to be carried out by the priests and Levites (it is clearly recorded that priests and Levites were the only ones that transported the tithe to the storehouse). Therefore, Malachi 3:10 must only refer to the priests who had removed the tithe from the storehouse, as seen in Nehemiah 13:5-10 (Eliashib the priest and Tobiah had taken over the storeroom and hadn’t given the proper share to “Levites and singers and gatekeepers.” Since the Levites had not been given their prescribed portions of food, “they and the singers who were to conduct the worship services had all returned to work their fields”). The priests had stolen the tithe from the Levites, and also the priests had married pagan wives, (“one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I drove him from me,” Nehemiah 13:28). Then came along a priest (Ezra) and a governor (Nehemiah) who had the literalzeal to literally cleanse the defiled priesthood and restore the priests to their covenant (Ezra 9-10; Neh. 13:8-13, 29-31). We must not ignore this historical context of Nehemiah and Ezra when reading the book of Malachi. Those who were guilty of robbing God in Malachi 3:8 were the disobedient priests and not the people (information from Russell Earl Kelly PhD).
- Farmers in Israel gave several different types of tithes throughout each seven year cycle, yet at no point in the history of Israel were “all” of those tithes ever brought to the Temple storehouse (for example, see Deuteronomy 26:12). Furthermore, the Temple storehouse simply wasn’t designed to be large enough to contain that much food. And yet, in Malachi 3:10, God said, “bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house.” How can that be? Actually, as it turns out, God was specifically talking to the disobedient priests, and they were the ONLY ones who ever were to bring a specific tithe to the Temple storehouse (see Numbers 18:25-28 and Nehemiah 10:38). Priests were to bring all of that tithe, and that was the specific tithe that God mentioned in Malachi 3:10. The best of that tithe was to be transported to the storehouse by the priests, and they were the only ones required to tithe the best. Again, Malachi 3:10 was only a specific command given by God specifically to Old Covenant priests.
- The majority of the entire book of Malachi is addressed to disobedient Old Covenant priests (see verses 1:6 and 2:1). For the second time, in verse 2:1, God distinctly makes it clear that He is specifically addressing the priests. Since there is no corresponding text anywhere else in the book of Malachi where God has changed his primary audience, then the conclusion must be that God didn’t change his primary audience for the remainder of the book, and is still speaking directly to priests. The only specific covenant mentioned in Malachi is God’s Covenant with the priests (and by extension the Levites). Malachi 2:8 says, “you priests have left God’s paths. Your instructions have caused many to stumble into sin. You have corrupted the covenant I made with the Levites.” The curse in Malachi 3:9 had already been used 4 times by Malachi in specifically addressing the priests. If Malachi 3:5 had referred to the entire nation sinning by oppressing the needy by not bringing tithes, then why are the priests NOT included in the list of those who need the tithes? Logic dictates that the priests must AGAIN be the OPPRESSOR rather than the OPPRESSED. Verse 9 states “this whole nation of you,” yet it is quite possible that this is not referring to every Israelite, but rather “this whole nation of you [priests],” because throughout Malachi, the primary audience had been the priests. Throughout the book of Malachi, the priests have been the main villains. So again, in Malachi, God is angry at the priests, and it’s the priests who have robbed God and they are the ones who are then presented with the choice of either blessings or curses (information from Russell Earl Kelly PhD).
- For even more background information on the full context leading up to Malachi 3, we see this: “The question-and-answer format between the priests and God continues. In 1:6 God rebukes and the priests reply. In 1:7 God rebukes and the priests ask a question. In 1:7-11 God and the prophet rebuke the priests. In 1:12, 13 the priests rebut God. In 1:14 God curses the priests for stealing. In 2:1-9 God curses and rebukes the priests. In 2:10 the priests ask a question. Next, 2:11-12 are in third person to all Judah. In 2:13 the prophet rebukes the priests, In 2:14-16 the priests ask a question and God rebukes them. In 2:17 the priests ask a question and God answered in 3:1-6. In 3:7 the priests ask another question which is answered in 3:8-10. That is the context!” (Russell Earl Kelly) http://www.tithingdebate.com/DeJongRebuttal.html
- “Today, the very lowest income class pays the largest percentage to the church, yet most remain in poverty. If Malachi 3:10 really worked for New Covenant Christians, then millions of poor tithing Christians would have escaped poverty and would have become the wealthiest group of people in the world instead of remaining the poorest group. There is no evidence that the vast majority of poor “tithe-payers” are ever blessed financially merely because they tithe. The Old Covenant blessings were never intended to be New Covenant blessings” (Heb. 7:18, 19; 8:6-8, 13) (Russel Earl Kelly, http://tithing-russkelly.com/index.html).
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, (tithing), Jerome Smith [p.188] [p. 1026], “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house….” (Malachi 3:10). Christians are often urged to tithe based upon a mistaken appeal to this Old Testament text, which is wrested out of its rightful context, when applied to such a purpose… The storehouse is clearly the Temple [which has been destroyed], not a church… Taken in context this passage lends no support to the mistaken doctrine of ‘storehouse tithing,’ whereby Christians have been directed to restrict all their financial giving to their own denomination or local church, or as a variation, church members have been directed to pay the tithe to the local church, and restrict giving to outside organizations to amounts over and above the church tithe.”
- A website which attempts to point out the inaccuracies of Seventh Day Adventism, Truthorfables.com, puts it this way, “It was not all the Israelites that were robbing God. Chapters 2 and 3 make it clear that this was directed against [either the priests or] Levites, which caused the whole nation to come under God’s curse. It is impossible for Christians to rob God in tithes, as God has not transferred or given a tithe law to Christians. Christians receive blessings from God for having Christ as their Savior and not by any works of the Old Covenant Laws. Malachi is the most used text to scam Christians out of their money by church pastors, as they have no New Covenant support for tithing. Pastors are denying Christ, by using Old Covenant laws. Church Leaders are the ones that are sinning by leading you to believe tithing is binding on Christians. In so doing they are denying Christ’s finished work at the cross.”
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