Ekklesia ReformandaLeave a Comment on Lesson #9: Who has known these Truths?

Lesson #9: Who has known these Truths?

  1. Until 1963, Baptist Confessions, or Statements of Faith, did not teach or include tithing. It took from 1644 until 1963 (319 years) before just the mere mentioning of tithing texts even appeared in Baptist Statements of Faith. The Baptist Faith and Message STILL does not contain the words “tithe” or “tithing.” Yet they have so far not allowed any contrary discussion of tithing inside their denomination councils.
  2. A full 24% of Southern Baptist clergy even agree that we are not called to tithe to the “church” (SBC LIFEWAY) FACTS AND TRENDS MAGAZINE, Mar/Apr 2006; pg 14-19.
  3. Thomas R. Schreiner, Associate Dean and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary – “I would say is a tithe required? 10% tithe? I would say, no, because the tithe is part of the Mosaic covenant, it’s part of the Mosaic Law, the covenant made at Sinai with Moses and with Israel. And the New Testament is very clear, we’re not under that covenant any longer (Galatians 3, Romans 7, Hebrews 8 and 9).”
  4. In April 2011, The Evangelical Leaders Survey of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals, which includes leaders of churches, denominations, missions, universities and publishing houses, found that 58 percent believe the Bible does NOT require tithing from New Covenant Christians.
  5. Fact: The national average of people who tithe to their local church is currently between only 2.4% to at most only 5% of those who attend church. Apparently it’s uncommon for people to actually afford to be able to tithe, yet imagine the unbiblical gilt that many feel when they try to attend church and it is often preached to them that they are obligated to tithe. That would be an obstacle to the Gospel that Paul warned about in 1 Corinthians 9.
  6. The Eastern Orthodox Church, which is the 2nd largest Christian church with 250 million members, has never accepted tithing, and its members have never practiced it. They emphasize voluntary stewardship instead of a specific amount.
  7. Churches of Christ don’t teach tithing. The Church-of-Christ.org financial statement says a “free-will offering is the only call which the church makes. NO assessments or other levies are made. No money-making activities, such as bazaars or suppers, are engaged in. A total of approximately $200,000,000 is given on this basis each year.” That is a tremendous amount of money and is proof that “freewill offerings are sufficient and sometimes even more than enough.”
  8. There are many modern schools and churches which have flourished without teaching tithing. Some examples are: Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, Wheaton College, Talbot Bible School and John MacArthur’s Master’s Seminary. Lists of churches that oppose tithing, other than Churches of Christ and the Eastern Orthodox Church, can be found at www.tithing.com and www.tithing-russkelly.com
  9. Martin Luther, who began the Protestant Reformation, known for “Ninety-Five Theses” and translated the Bible from Latin, taught, “But the other commandments of Moses, which are not [implanted in all men] by nature, the Gentiles do not hold. Nor do these pertain to the Gentiles, SUCH AS THR TITHE.” He also stated, “a simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it.” In 1520, Marin Luther was accused of heresy and was asked to recant, but refused and concluded his testimony with the defiant statement: “Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted [convinced] of error by the testimony of Scripture…I stand convicted [convinced] by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.” That is how we should all feel and act.
  10. Ulrich Zwingli, in his “67 Articles” which were against the man-made teachings in the Roman Catholic Church, rejected the teaching of tithing, as it was only an Old Testament practice.
  11. John Wesley, recognized as the founder of the Methodist church, stated in the 18th century, “In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church.” He was said to believe that after the Christian has provided for the family, the creditors, and the business, the next obligation is to use any money that is leftover to meet the needs of others. Wesley taught that God gives his children money so that their reasonable needs will be met, and then He expects them to return the rest to Him by to meet the needs of others. Did John Wesley ever envision a powerful and wealthy church organization, and did he advocate giving exclusively to that organization? No, throughout his writings, it is crystal clear that he intended for giving to meet the needs of those who were struggling. We are to be motivated by the desperate needs of others and by love for them in order to give to meet their needs.
  12. Charles Spurgeon declared, “But you are not under a system similar to that by which the Jews were obliged to pay tithes to the priests. If there were any such rule laid down in the Gospel, it would destroy the beauty of spontaneous giving and take away all the bloom from the fruit of your liberality! There is no law to tell me what I should give my father on his birthday. There is no rule laid down in any law book to decide what present a husband should give to his wife, nor what token of affection we should bestow upon others whom we love. No, the gift must be a free one, or it has lost all its sweetness.”
  13. Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and president of the Dallas Theological Seminary, said, “In matters pertaining to the giving of money, the grace principle involves the believer’s recognition of God’s sovereign authority over all that the Christian is and has, and contrasts with the Old Testament legal system of tithing which was in force as a part of the law until the law was done away with (John 1:16-17; Rom. 6:14; 7:1-6; 2 Cor. 3:1-18; Gal. 3:19-25; 5:18; Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). Tithing was never imposed by God on anyone other than the nation of Israel (Lev. 27:34; Num. 18:23-24; Mal. 3:7-10). No blessings are thus dependent on the exact tithing.”
  14. C. S. Lewis– Author, Professor at Cambridge & Oxford, author of “Mere Christianity,” “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give.”
  15. Water A. Elwell, Wheaton College, Editor, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of the Bible; (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), s.v. “tithe.” [p207] “Paul’s vocabulary and teaching suggest that giving is voluntary and that there is no set percentage.”
  16. John MacArthur, “Christians are not under obligation to give a specified amount to the work of their heavenly Father. In none of their forms do the tithe, or other Old Testament levies, apply to Christians…Tithing, basically, is never, ever advocated in the New Testament; it is never taught in the New Testament.”
  17. Larry Richards, Thomas Nelson Ministry, author of over 200 books, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), p.307-310: “There are many obvious differences between OT and NT faith communities: With such differences, the NT faith communities did not transfer the tithe in their era. There were no instruction in Acts or in the Epistles that suggests that tithing is to be practiced by Christians. Instead, a new set of principles that reflect new theological and social realities is introduced.”
  18. Ron Rhodes, The Complete Book of Bible Answers (296). “I do not believe that Christians today are under the ten percent tithe system. We are not obligated to percentage tithe at all. There is not a single verse in the New Testament where God specifies that we should give ten percent of our income . . . We are to give as we are able. For some this will mean less than ten percent, but for others whom God has materially blessed, this will mean much more than ten percent.”
  19. Wycliffe Bible Dictionary of Theology [p173], “The silence of the N.T. writers, particularly Paul, regarding the present validity of the tithe can be explained only on the ground that the dispensation of grace has no more place for a law of tithing than it has for a law on circumcision.”
  20. Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible,Vol. 5, “Church fathers such as Irenaeus and Epiphanius did not believe Matt. 10:10, Luke 10:7 or 1 Cor. 9:7 could be used to establish a pattern for the church based upon the practice of the Jewish synagogue. They believed freedom in Christian giving [should be] emphasized.”
  21. Arnold Fruchtenbaum Ph.D., founder and director of Ariel Ministries, an organization which prioritizes evangelization of Jews, Associate director of The Christian Jew Foundation which is the largest Hebrew-Christian broadcasting ministry in the world, “There is no need to feel guilty if somebody tries to get on your case for not tithing specifically to the church. The verses they use are verses that deal with the Mosaic Law. The storehouse was in the Temple Compound where the food was stored and not the church treasury.”
  22. Bruce Metzger (1914 – 2007), professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor, served on the board of the American Bible Society, Scholar of Greek, New Testament, and New Testament textual criticism, considered one of the most influential New Testament scholars of the 20th century, “The New Testament nowhere explicitly requires tithing to maintain a ministry or a place of assembly.”
  23. David Croteau, Ph.D., author, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Liberty University, “Tithing proponents typically fail to recognize that tithing is an integral part of the Old Testament sacrificial system that has been once and for all fulfilled in Christ. Hebrews, Romans 10:4, and Matthew 5: 17-20 all point to this reality. This may be the best reason why tithing is not commanded in the new covenant era: it was fulfilled in Christ.”
  24. Francis Chan, pastor, author, founder and Chancellor of Eternity Bible College, “I don’t believe you are required to give a certain amount of your income. From my study of scripture, as I look through this, when I look at the New Testament; I don’t believe that we’re required to give this ten percent.”
  25. Les Feldick, Founder of “Through the Bible,” “Many people are hung up on the legal system of tithing. I’ve got nothing against giving. But you are not under the tithe.”
  26. Ray Stedman (1917 – 1992), Pastor and author well known for bestselling books – Adventuring Through the Bible and Authentic Christianity, “Never once in the epistles do you ever read of Christians being asked to tithe. A lot of Christians today are taught to tithe, but I am always sorry to hear that, because that is not New Testament teaching.”
  27. Dave Hunt, founder of The Berean Call, “I don’t think tithing is for Christians. Everything belongs to the Lord…I don’t read anything in the New Testament saying that we give 10%.”
  28. “Graham M Lyons, a representative for Chuck Swindoll and member of Stonebriar Community Church, where Chuck is the Senior Pastor, said, ‘I think those who continually preach the tithe are being manipulative. It is the Holy Spirit who directs our living and that includes our giving. They are not the Holy Spirit. We are not under the Law. … I am glad that Chuck preaches grace giving from the heart.’”
  29. The Master’s Seminary, Introduction to New Covenant Theology, “Infant baptism, Sunday as Sabbath, along with tithing, are viewed as remnants of the Old Covenant system that some Christians have mistakenly carried over into the New Covenant era.”
  30. Irenaeus (130 – 202), one of the first great Christian theologians, “and instead of the law enjoining the giving of tithes, [He told us] to share (Matthew 19:21) all our possessions with the poor.”
  31. John Wycliffe (1320-1384), Theologian, Reformer, Teacher at Oxford in England, translated the bible from Vulgate into vernacular English (The Wycliffe Bible), taught that we are to regard the Scriptures as the only reliable guide to the truth about God, and that all Christians should rely on the Bible rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics. He directed his strongest criticism against the friars, whose preaching he considered neither Scriptural nor sincere, but motivated by “temporal gain.” It was Wycliffe who recognized and formulated one of the two major formal principles of the Reformation, one of which is the unique authority of the Bible for the belief and life of the Christian. He questioned, “why curates are so severe in exacting tithes, since Christ and his apostles took no tithes, as men do now; neither paid them, nor even spoke of them, either in the Gospel or the Epistles, which are the perfect law of freedom and grace. But Christ lived on the alms of holy women, as the Gospel telleth; and the apostles lived sometimes by the labor of their hands, and sometimes took a poor livelihood and clothing, given of free will and devotion by the people, without asking or constraining,” and he also said, “Paul proved that priests, preaching truly the gospel, should live by the gospel, and said naught of tithes. Certainly tithes were due to priests in the Old Law — but it is not so now, in the law of grace.” 30 years after he had died from a stroke, the Roman Catholic Church declared Wycliffe a heretic and The Council decreed that his works should be burned and his remains removed from consecrated ground. Wycliffe’s corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes were cast into a river. If he hadn’t died from a stroke, he would’ve been burned at the stake for teaching the authority of the Bible and for stating that the New Covenant does not teach tithing.
  32. Erasmus (1466 – 1536), teacher, theologian, writer, “And yet, disgusting as it is to see Christian princes in this field more inhuman than pagan tyrants ever were, yet this is a little less outrageous than the fact that among our priests also, in whose eyes all money ought to be quite worthless and whose duty it is freely to share the endowments they have so freely received, everything has its price, nothing is free. Think of the sotrms they raise over those famous tithes of theirs, how hatefully they oppress wretched common people! You cannot be baptized, which means that you cannot become a Christian unless you pay cash; such are the splendid auspices under which you enter the portals of the Church.”
  33. Otto Brumsfels (1524), well-known German Protestant, minister at Steinau an der Straße and Neuenburg am Rhein, head of the Carmelite school in Strasbourg, declared that the New Testament does not teach tithing.
  34. John Smyth (1570 – 1612), formed one of the earliest Baptist churches, “We hold that the tithes are either Jewish or popish… I answer with the Apostle: the old testament and the ordinances thereof are abolished.”
  35. John Owen (1616 – 1683), church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the University of Oxford, “it is no safe plea for many to insist on, that tithes are due and divine, as they speak, that is, by a binding law of God now under the gospel. . . .according to the duties required of all the ministers thereof in the gospel, to sing unto themselves that tithes are due to them, by the appointment and law of God, is a fond imagination, a dream that will fill them with perplexity when they awake.”
  36. George Fox (1624 – 1691), founder of the Religious Society of Friends (The Quakers), “It were better for you to plead for Christ, who has ended the tithing priesthood with the tithes, and has sent forth his ministers to give freely, as they have received freely.”
  37. John Bunyan (1628–1688), author of Pilgrim’s Progress, commented on Luke 18:10–13: “This paying of tithes was ceremonial, such as came in and went out with the typical priesthood.”
  38. Franz Pieper (1852 – 1931), Professor and President of Theology at Concordia Seminary, served as President of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, “We do not obligate New Testament Christians to pay the tithe, since, as we rightly contend, this would go counter to Scripture. In the Old Testament indeed it was God’s will and order that the tithe should be given by every Israelite; but this divine command is not binding upon New Testament believers.”
  39. Even though he was in favor of giving 10%, Billy Graham had said, “The matter of your giving is between you and God, and He always takes into account our circumstances. He knows when they are beyond our power to direct and control. The important thing is that we see giving as a privilege and not a burden.” He dismissed criticism of his style of preaching, saying that he was only a servant of God, spreading the Gospel as best he knew how and said, “I’m not here to teach psychology or philosophy or theology, I’m here to tell you what the Bible says. We’ve listened to the voice of man long enough. Let’s hear what God has to say.” That same message is true today!
  40. What exactly were the Christian principles that America was founded on? Who were the Puritans, Pilgrims and the Quakers, and what did they believe? The public testimonies of Quakers (aka, Society of Friends) from the very beginning included plain speech and dress, and refusal of tithes. In 17th century England, Quakers were hounded by penal laws for not swearing oaths, for not going to the services of the Church of England, for going to Quaker meetings, and for refusing tithes. Some 15,000 suffered under these laws, and almost 500 died in or shortly after being in prison. Quakers historically have rejected a formal or salaried clergy as being a “hireling ministry,” which Scripture warns against. They believe that if God can provide his own living testimony, then creeds and outward sacraments can be dispensed with altogether. Generally, in the United States each Quaker congregation has a monthly meeting. The modern Quakers are sometimes viewed as a philanthropic organization; and this work, recognized in 1947 by the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the American Friends Service Committee and the (British) Friends Service Council, has also mobilized many non-Quakers and thus demonstrates the interaction between Quakers and the rest of the world. Yet the Quakers are grounded in the experience of God, out of which philanthropic activities flow. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Society-of-Friends
  41. The Quakers had written that, “as a society, we have been long professing a public testimony against the lawfulness of Tithes; and I am persuaded many among us, who dissent in that testimony, are fully apprised of the ground on which our forefathers proceeded, with a view, no doubt, to disincumber Christianity of a burden which they thought unsuitable to its spiritual dignity… Tithes were a part of the ceremonial law; which was to come to an end; that the bringing in of the more spiritual dispensation of the gospel, was that end; consequently, that to comply with the ordinances peculiar to that law, as though it had not been superceded, is to deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and abrogated that law, and therefore utterly an antichristian practice” https://sniggle.net/TPL/index5.php?entry=01Feb11
  42. Puritan Separatists believed that it was a gross violation of their principles that a preacher should instruct parishioners to pay tithes. https://books.google.com/books?id=jrsTAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
  43. Anabaptists determined that the New Testament didn’t teach tithing, but rather they believed that it paints a picture of Christians having all things in common and that there should be equality. They also rejected the state churches’ approach to tithing as unjust and based upon incorrect biblical interpretation.
  44. In a book review about Amish life we read, “I was impressed in some regard with how the Amish approached matters such as how they choose a preacher for their congregational gatherings. The community would choose a number of men and then cast lots to determine which would serve in the way of preaching and performing typical “church” duties. That’s not exactly the part that impressed me. What impressed me was that he was merely a brother among the community; no special or lofty credentials or experience required… but also his service as a preacher did not allow him the opportunity to quit his job and collect some kind of salary off parishioners, but instead required him to continue in everything expected of a man who labors to care for his family and do good in his community. He was expected to continue all of his daily work (and means of acquiring his living) just like every other member of the community. His responsibility to study the Bible and preach and serve in whatever capacity preachers normally entertain was merely in addition to his regular daily activities. In truth, the typical Amish preacher’s work ethic puts most modern pastors to shame and allows for no excuse of “full time ministry” to remove them from such responsibilities in the name of “serving the church.” Ironic too, considering that “serving the church” is the staple of Amish religion. But as I considered how diligently they commit themselves to such endeavors and maintain the task of caring for their families and community, it made me think of the apostle Paul who mentioned that he also labored night and day to make his ministry without charge to those he served.” https://www.truthforfree.com/book-review-plain-faith/
  45. It is worth noting that Amish communities, rooted in Anabaptist traditions, do not tithe, and most view tithing as a worldly practice. Instead, they give alms (donations to the needy, charity) twice a year after communion, and they freely give as financial needs arise within their communities. Unlike Catholic and Protestant churches that conduct an offering at the end of each service, “the Amish believe that such open displays of giving are ostentatious and showy, encouraging boastfulness. They teach that giving should operate quietly or in secret without seeking personal recognition. They believe monthly payments impede more generous and spontaneous giving, which congregants can tailor to individual needs and circumstances. The Amish do not conduct building campaign drives or money-raising festivals as other churches might. They keep church expenses low, partly by meeting in the homes of individual members. They select Amish clergy from male members of their individual communities. A man chosen for the Amish clergy usually earns a living as a farmer because he is not paid for pastoral work. The Amish encourage members to give generously to others in their communities as each need arises. They believe that this kind of giving is reminiscent of how early Christians helped each other, [and they] also provide a reprieve from giving for families experiencing financial difficulties. As needed, Amish communities pool resources to provide for healthcare, sustenance and other needs for individual families.” https://classroom.synonym.com/amish-beliefs-about-tithing-12085474.html
  46. Even Jehovah’s Witnesses know all of this and have stated that, “The commandment to tithe, or contribute a tenth of one’s belongings, was part of the Law given to the ancient nation of Israel. However, the Bible makes it clear that this Law—including the ‘commandment to collect tithes’—does not apply to Christians.”
  47. As we can now see, the founding of our country was by Christians who were adamantly against the tithe, knowing that the Bible doesn’t teach that we are to meticulously tithe to a religious organization, but rather, we are to help those who are in need. By giving to people in need we would be a better witness to a lost and dying world.

Leave a comment

search previous next tag category expand menu location phone mail time cart zoom edit close