- “Storehouse tithing” is a false, destructive teaching that prevents funds from going where they are needed, as each believer should be led by the Holy Spirit to give where there is a need. We now know that each believer is the temple and that a church building isn’t God’s storehouse. Also keep in mind that the original tabernacle and Temple were paid for with freewill offerings and were never financed by “tithes.” An actual church building can sometimes be a necessary evil, and we sometimes need to build them because we might need a large enough place for a large number of believers to gather to worship. But these buildings should be built as cheaply as possible and they aren’t to be built gloriously in order to bring glory to God, because in Acts 7:48-50 we see, “However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says, ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that?’ asks the Lord. ‘Could you build me such a resting place? Didn’t my hands make both heaven and earth?’ ” That statement was given by Stephen, right before he became the first Christian martyr, and he was martyred because those words were offensive to the religious establishment. We should now know that God lives in each believer and we were made by God, we are the “living stones” of His temple, we are His priests, and we are all together His Ekklesia, and in love we are to carry each other’s burdens as we do our Father’s will as He leads us with His Holy Spirit.
- Why was Stephen killed as the first Christian martyr? In Acts 6:13, we see the accusers who say, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law.” Stephen was said to be full of faith and filled with the Holy Spirit and we see in Acts 7:48, “Stephen angered the Pharisees by saying that God ‘dwells not in temples made with hands.’” The end result of a statement like that would abolish everyone from the gatekeeper to the high priest who served in the now obsolete temple system. Stephen’s statement would also be just as offensive to those who currently spend millions of dollars of God’s money on ‘church buildings.’ Remember: God does not dwell in ‘the Lord’s house/Churches’ or any other building, and according to Hebrews 8:2, Jesus is, ‘a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.’ Rather than being focused on and distracted by material physical buildings, our focus should be on the temple of the Holy Spirit. This message is repeated in Hebrews 9:11, “Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands,” and then we see in verse 15, “He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
- Does it bring glory to God to coerce the poor, and those struggling, to meticulously tithe their personal income to the “church?” Or does it bring glory to God to give to those who are in need and to help bear their burdens? Scripture is clear and consistent that we are to take care of those in need. For example, the rich ruler in Luke 18 was told by Jesus to give everything to the poor; Jesus didn’t tell him to give anything to a religious organization. In Deuteronomy 14:11, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.” In Deuteronomy 15:10, “Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.” In 1 Timothy 16:8, it says that we are to be “generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.” In order to be ready at all times to share with those in need, we should make the effort to have money in our wallets so that we will be ready to help someone in need, because Jesus said in Luke 6:30, “Give to everyone who asks of you.” James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress.” In Galatians 2:9-10, when speaking about the advice given from the leaders of the first body of believers, Paul declared, “They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews. Their only suggestion was that we was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.”
- How much glory does it bring to God for us to see someone on the street hungry and asking for food, and lovingly look them in the eye and say, “In Jesus name, have a blessed day” and hand them a fair amount of money and a Gospel tract? It should be obvious that in doing so we are serving our Lord and giving Him honor and glory. Jesus’s very words to the rich ruler teach us that even if we exclusively give our money only to the poor, we will still be rewarded: Mark 10:21, “give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” There is no instruction at all that all of our giving must first go to a “storehouse church.” Jesus could’ve said to give it to the Temple and to then tell those there to make sure that it all went to the poor, but that is not what He taught. Also, as we know, Zacchaeus decided to give half of his possessions to the poor (Luke 19:8), and he wasn’t corrected by Jesus. Instead, Jesus wants us to know that we are empowered to be able to give directly to people in need. We don’t have to wait for something that is official and tax-deductible. Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:2-4, “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Jesus just declared that when giving, it is to go primarily to those who are needy. We are all a priesthood of believers who are empowered to do the Father’s will, as led by the Holy Spirit, and again, all of our giving is not obligated to first go to a “church” “storehouse.”
- Again, we can support the ministry with freewill offerings as led by the Holy Spirit, but if God really wanted or expected 10% of our money to go just to a church building/ religious organization, and not to prioritize giving to those in need like Scripture actually teaches, and that the tithe hadn’t just been 10% of the FOOD that was produced from the land as is clearly stated in the Old Covenant (food so that the people would have something to eat, give to others as well as some to the Temple, and rejoice in the knowledge that all of everything comes from Him) wouldn’t He have just come right out and said that He also wants money, and that He wants that money to go directly to a “church” first and not to those in need. Why would Scripture always need to be twisted, or modified, or taken out of context, each and every time, in order for preachers to try to find a way to ask for 10% of someone’s monetary income. The burden of proof should be put on those who are asking for a tithe of money. But the reality is that NOWHERE in Scripture do we find God EVER requiring 10% of someone’s money, neither in the Old Covenant nor in the New Covenant.
- Even though we’ve sometimes been taught that it’s 10% God’s money and 90% our money, that isn’t Biblical either. It all belongs to God, and everything on this planet is His and we are merely stewards of what He has given us while we are on this planet. In Romans 12:8, we learn that some are specifically given the gift of giving, while others are equipped with different gifts. Those with the gift of giving might be led to give away all of their surplus instead of giving just 10% as currently taught by some churches. But all are encouraged to give to those in need as they able. Another passage that helps us know what to do with our money is in 1 John 3:17, “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion – how can God’s love be in that person?”
- Jesus didn’t come to praise the religious organization of His day, but rather, one thing that He pointed out was that religious leaders created manmade traditions that didn’t please God, and that might be a question that could be asked of the modern day teaching of meticulous tithing of money to a church organization, regardless of the circumstances of those who they obligate to tithe. In Mark 7:6-13, when explaining to Pharisees why His disciples didn’t follow traditions, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.” Jesus just gave us an example of how it can be wrong to give to the church rather than helping someone who is in need. Again, He just gave us a specific example of a manmade tradition of giving to the “church” rather than helping those in need. And yet another way to put this is that Jesus just explained that it is more important to take care of your family than to give to the “church.”
- Was this teaching of Jesus the only time in the New Testament where we’re instructed to provide for our family rather than give to the “church?” Actually, this message is repeated in passages such as 1 Timothy 5:7-8, “And these things command, that they may be blameless. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Please take the time to read the surrounding context, verses 3-16, to see that we are indeed to be able to provide for members of our family, rather than support someone who could’ve provided for themselves. We should be in a financial situation to support our own family, rather than being in debt while also feeling obligated to sacrificially tithe to the “church.”
- “Churches on the whole are continuing to spend more on current members and less on the larger mission of the church and cutting back on missionaries,” said Sylvia Ronsvalle, Empty Tomb’s executive Vice President. “She and her husband, who co-authored the study, worried that churches were not being more generous toward outside giving, thus concentrating less on charities, the lost and the dying.” Other studies shows that, at most, of the funds received by churches, the average given outside of that local church is 15%. But, unfortunately, the news get even worse; according to Christianity Today, only 3% of what is given is actually directed at helping poor non-Christians. This is the end result of “storehouse” teaching: many churches have million dollar yearly operating expenses while there are millions of struggling poor in our own country, and yet only a mere 3% of our donations are directed at helping the poor. “If a church is turning inward and valuing the happiness of its members over service to others, it is moving on a spectrum toward pagan values, the vice president (of Empty Tomb) also stated.” This further shows that churches are becoming more self-centered and are not fulfilling their clear mission of taking care of those in need. Sylvia of Empty Tomb said that, “An estimated $239 per evangelical Christian could potentially stop global deaths of children under five while only $26 a year could fund over $544 million in efforts toward global evangelization.” It seems the answer is that we can’t sit back and let the “church organization” always decide, but rather, we should be aware that we are empowered to give directly to those causes as led by the Holy Spirit, rather than being obligated to meticulously tithe to a church organization.
- The specific results found when examining our modern day giving are this: “85 percent of all church activity and funds is directed toward the internal operations of the congregation, such as staff salaries, utility expenses,” “Almost 50 percent of the average church’s budget goes to staff and personnel salaries,” “American churches spend an average of 22 percent of their budgets on the upkeep or expansion of their physical buildings,” “Missions and evangelism accounts for about 5 percent,” “Only 2 cents of every dollar given by American Christians goes to support overseas ministries,” https://web.archive.org/web/20120628191620/https://generousgiving.org/stats#. “Relatively little donated money actually moves much of a distance away from the contributors,” Smith, Emerson, and Snell wrote. The money given by the people in the pews, it turns out, is largely spent on the people in the pews. Only about 3 percent of money donated to churches and ministries went to aiding or ministering to non-Christians” (from Christianity Today).
- Does Scripture tell us that the “church” needs tons of money taken from families who are struggling just to make ends meet, in order to build gaudy mega churches, or are we told that He wants us to share the Gospel, show mercy and compassion as we take care of those in need? That answer is clear, and we’re not supposed to be beaten down by guilt, fleeced sheep, after having given to the church and then having nothing left to give to those in need. Most waitresses will explain that the worst tippers are Sunday lunch Christians, and this makes complete sense knowing that many in “church” have been taught to feel obligated to sacrificially tithe all of their available income to a church organization, even while they are in drowning in debt, and consequently they are forced to be tight fisted and unable to be generous towards others because there is nothing left to give after tithing.
- “The church has focused its attention on learning and applying principles, rather than knowing Jesus Christ, abiding in him, and expressing his life by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why it falls so short of the Biblical standard of Christianity. The church at Jerusalem, in the book of Acts, was deeply entrenched in both the Law of Moses and Old Covenant mentalities. So is the church today. The carnal religious mind is infatuated with Old Testament paradigms and is addicted to carnal ways of living based upon them. The church has exalted Biblical principles to take the place of Jesus Christ because it doesn’t know how to abide in Christ and live by His new nature and Spirit within us” stated Matthew E. Narramore. We see in Scripture, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted away from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). “Christians today are just as likely to get distracted away from the simple message of Christ, and Scripture tells us that even the great apostle Peter, who walked with Christ in the flesh, compromised the truth and yielded to organized religion and was rebuked by Paul before the assembly in Galatians 2.” The lesson we should learn is: keep things simple, don’t add things to religion, focus on the Good News of Jesus Christ (and the empowering message of the priesthood of believers who are God’s temple and are filled with the Holy Spirit and made righteous by the blood of Jesus), tell others, and help those in need. It really is that simple.
- We are now in the New Covenant, and when we study the New Testament, we see that there is no earthly reward or blessing from giving to a religious organization. We see that our primary call is to give to those in need, and according to Matthew 25:31-46 we will be judged by how we help those who are in need. So, what’s wrong with teaching that everyone should give 10% of their income, regardless if they are in debt and struggling to pay their bills, especially their most basic need of food, clothing and shelter. If a family is struggling and is trying to get on food stamps to survive, should they be taught that God wants them to tithe to a “church” in order to be blessed? The problem is that rather than placing another burden on these people, they are the very ones that we should be helping, especially since again we know that in Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus taught us that we will be judged by how we help people with their most basic needs. Scripture doesn’t teach that we will be judged by if we spent enough to build earthly “church” buildings, but rather, did we help people who are in need. The very people that we should be helping are the same ones that the religious establishment is often trying to take from.
- What did the original body of believers in Acts 15:5-11 decide regarding whether Gentiles must keep the Law of Moses? “Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.’ The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
- Even though there is a danger in participating with the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic author and apologist Dave Armstrong on his website, Biblical Evidence for Catholicism, wrote, “The New Covenant is not about laws, but about relationship and the Holy Spirit and 100% commitment to following Jesus as a disciple from the heart. So it goes beyond tithing. If tithing were still required, it surely would have been spelled out in the New Testament. But it is not.” While Catholics are not under an obligation, most dioceses, such as the Archdiocese of St. Louis, merely recommend that the faithful consider giving 5% to one’s local parish and 5% to other charities. It’s interesting to note that even though the Catholic Church was responsible for beginning the practice of teaching Christians to tithe, not only do some of their leaders no longer teach the obligation to tithe, but now some actually recognize that it is at least equally as important for each individual believer to give to the poor. What a glorious change. Perhaps someday Protestant churches will someday realize this Biblical Truth!!!
“Helping People See Jesus and Exploring All That He Has Fulfilled” 