IS TITHING SCRIPTURAL for New Testament Christians? DID YOU KNOW THAT —
The Family is very strict about tithing. It is one of the few Mosaic Laws which they still insist is in full force in the age of grace. In the beginning of the Revolution for Jesus, however, tithing did not exist. Tithing was brought into the Family not because Berg realized that he had been neglecting an important precept, but only because over the years a huge central office and Headquarters had developed, WS administration had expanded, and a large leadership structure had come into being. Headquarters needed more money, and on Oct. 21, 1974, Berg realized that Family members tithing would be a handy way of raising money. In “Know the Share”, ML 316c:18, he said: The following year, March 4, 1973, Mo spoke out even stronger against the mandatory payment of tithes, calling it a religious “racket”, a “tax” and a “burden on the poor”: “We don't say, like many denominations, you Colonies give us 10% of everything you have, 10% of everything you have must come to headquarters. Many churches levy a tax on their people, laying burdens on the poor that they aren't able to bear, which their leaders aren't willing to lift with one of their fingers!—Jesus said so! We could have been another religious racket like them, and I could have wound up with all the money and you kids still be poor! But God wouldn't have blessed it, and I would have lost it ... Instead, we have literally told you kids to keep it and invest it in your own needs ... Scatter it to the poor! Give out to others!” (“Rags to Riches”, March 4, 1973, ML 211:45-46) WHAT HAPPENED? Well, in 1973 a huge change happened! “Wonder Working Words” and “Shiners or Shamers?” were published, and soon we were not spending our days witnessing the Gospel, but passing out Mo-Letters and asking for donations. In Family history, this is often praised as a great leap forward, because it is when we became self-supporting and began to get out the ‘message to the nations’. In fact, it was a major step backwards for the Revolution for Jesus. The Family no longer lived by faith and New Testament guidelines, and for several years, we hardly preached the Gospel any more. Berg had ordered us to “shut your mouth and let me do the preaching,” so we distributed Mo-Letters that often had little or no salvation message in them, and went months and years with hardly a soul won. Instead of “going out into the highways and byways and compelling them to come in” to the Kingdom as Jesus had said (Lk.14:23), we’d become just another money-raising organization, getting out our own peculiar message of sex and doom. And there were punishments and public shaming for “shamers” who didn’t bring in enough money. Did you get that? “Shame on you for not getting enough money!” Not souls! Money! With this departure from the Revolution, this abandoning of the example of the Early Church, the Family began to be “rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing,” or so they thought. And it is precisely at this time that the legalism of tithing began. The Revolution had been living self-sacrificially like Jesus’ first disciples, but now a regular income began coming in to the Homes. In “Lovest Thou Me?” ML 311a, para 41, Berg noted that nearly a million pieces of literature were being distributed worldwide every week. That may not seem much compared to the Family’s lit stats in later years but it was big bucks back then. At this same time, Headquarters and WS were expanding. More money was needed to support them, and Berg made a direct appeal to the laws of the Old Testament to get more money. In para. 43 he said: An accusation brought against the priests of the Middle Ages was that they “cursed for their tithes”. Now Berg began to curse for the tithes as well. Like so many church preachers, he quoted Mal. 3:8–10 and warned Family members and associates that if they didn’t tithe, God would curse them, that they would suffer financial setbacks, sicknesses, etc. He threatened those who didn't give 10% that God would take even more than that 10% away from them! As he often said, “When you don’t give, God takes a collection.” In the ML “IRFers Beware!”, (no. 880) he even declared that the rape and violent death of an Associate member was God’s judgment on her for not tithing! He declared that her little children were better off without a mother who didn’t tithe: “The Lord may have been trying to save those dear little kids from such a disobedient backslidden half-hearted mother! But she wasn’t even half-hearted, they weren’t even 10%-hearted, they were not even tithers!” (para.57) Berg declared that he had more sympathy for the criminal who murdered her than for a woman who wouldn’t tithe or FF! And though he admitted several times that he knew nothing of how or why she died, he accused her of leaving the man no choice but to kill her. IF TITHING IS A COMMANDMENT The New Testament urges believers to give to the poor and preachers of the Gospel, and commends those who give sacrificially, but nowhere from Matthew to Revelation are Christians instructed to tithe, nor to give 10% of their income to any Church HQ. Furthermore, nowhere does the New Testament even hint that Early Christians tithed. Yet Berg, following the example of many church preachers, and particularly the JWs, began to insist that tithing is an outright commandment of God and that disciples MUST tithe, or else they were disobeying God, and God will curse them! If that were so, that reason alone would be sufficient; but there is an added incentive: it is pointed out that, according to Mal.3:8-10, God will “open the windows of heaven” and pour out His blessings on believers who tithe. So if a person didn’t want to tithe simply out of obedience to God, there were other enticements. Tithe and be blessed! Some preachers are a little gentler: they teach that tithing is not exactly a requirement, but that those who are more spiritual and dedicated will tithe. But if tithing IS a commandment, it can’t be presented as an option, some new higher level of blessing for those who wish. If tithing is a commandment of God and it is still in effect in the New Testament era, then tithing is a requirement for New Testament Christianity. All Christians must tithe. The reverse is also true: if tithing is no longer a commandment of God, then why on earth do Christians tithe? In fact, an in depth Bible study on the subject reveals, that although tithing was a commandment of God under the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament, there is no Scriptural base for New Testament Christians to tithe. Often you will hear preachers saying the church leadership of the New Testament is equivalent to the priests and Levites of the Old Testament, so if the people were commanded to support the priests and Levites and the work in the Temple with tithes, then they must also support the church leaders with tithes. Berg agreed with this, and referred to Family leadership as God’s Levites and priests. His letter, “Tithing & the FN” (ML 928) was the definitive word on tithing, so much so that para. 258 was quoted in the “Family Charter”, Section C, pg.46: “Your tithe, according to God's Word, must come to us, your spiritual leadership, your modern Temple, World Services, and its many Family Temple ministries.” Paras. 138 & 156 add, “It is to today's Temple ministry, WS, that your tithes must be given. We are the Temple ministry of the New Testament Church of the Family. We are the Temple leadership, the priests & the Levites ... & the tithe is the least required by God & must go to the Temple first.” These quotes run completely counter-grain to the New Testament’s claim that Old Testament legalism was done away with in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross! “Seeing that we have a great high priest ... Jesus the Son of God” (Heb 4:14) what further need is there for Levites or priests to administer sacrifices and come before God for us? The whole purpose of the Temple and its priesthood was done away with when the veil of the Temple was rent in twain, a way opened to God, and the Temple destroyed 40 years later! Malachi in the Old Testament prophesied, “Ye are cursed with a curse: ye have robbed me...Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse [Temple].” (Mal.3:7-10) But in the New Testament Jesus prophesied an end to the Temple worship, saying, “The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” (Jn.4:21), and said that the Temple itself would be utterly destroyed. (Mat.24:1-2). It was. And that was the end of tithing to the Temple! From then on, instead of tithing, the Church followed Jesus’ command to “Give to the poor”. And for the next 400 years after Jesus, they took His Words so literally that they refused to tithe! Yes, they gave sacrificially to widows, orphans and the poor, yes, they gave generously to travelling missionaries, but they did not tithe! OLD TESTAMENT LAW FOR NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANS? What does the New Testament say about tithing? Apart from two negative references to tithing (Lk.18:12 and Lk.11:42), there is no mention of the subject in the New Testament. But there is a lot about sacrificial giving to help the poor, the orphans and the widows! Given the complete lack of verses in the New Testament telling Christians to tithe, some pastors teach that the lack of Scriptures is simply because God already told believers to tithe in the Old Testament, so didn't need to repeat His instructions in the New. Berg taught this as well. In other words, although all the rest of the rigorous Mosaic Law (such as being stoned to death for not observing the Sabbath) is no longer in effect now, tithing still is, and has carried on uninterrupted from the Old Testament age of Law into the New Testament age of Grace. Under close examination, however, this line of persuasion does not hold up, given that fact that tithing was an integral part of the legal commands of the Mosaic Law, “the Old Testament which ... is done away in Christ.” (2Cor.3:14) Bear in mind that the passages describing tithing are surrounded on all sides by other passages commanding believers to do many other things, which church leaders today do not advocate. Yet God uttered both commands in practically the same breath. For example, how many Christian farmers who tithe (and tithing is mentioned in Num.18:20-24), also give a five shekel donation to their church every time their wife has a baby, or their mare has a foal? (Num. 18:15-17) What have so many churches done?—And what did Berg do, in following their example? They pick out the Mosaic laws on tithing from the middle of the other Mosaic laws (which are said to no longer apply). And even then, only the mere idea of tithing itself is lifted from those passages about tithing, totally ignoring the instructions on where to tithe, who to give the tithe to, and when and how to tithe. The bare-bones concept of tithing itself is seized upon from Old Testament Scriptures, pulled out of context, stripped of every conditional instruction and stipulation, then presented as a New Testament commandment. For example, Deut.12:5-18 stresses that the Jews were to tithe, yet states no fewer than six separate times that such tithes are to be brought before the Lord at the temple which was later built in Jerusalem. And verses 12-19 specify that they were not to merely hand their tithes over to the priests in the temple, but that the people themselves were to eat their tithes in a great thanksgiving feast before the Lord. The priests were authorized to take whatever food they needed (1Sam.2: 13-14), but it was the tithers themselves who ate their tithes, along with the Levites and the poor from their home towns. The Levites were to travel with their fellow townspeople at the time of the three great Jewish feasts and partake with them. Deut.14:29 specifies, “And the Levite ... shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied.” Fine, you say. So the Levites had all they needed to eat three times a year, but what about the rest of the year? What did they live off then? God commanded that every three years, at the end of that year, the Jews were not to take their tithes to Jerusalem, but were to store them up in their own towns and give them to the Levites and the poor living there. (See Deut.14:28,29 and Deut.26:11-15.)—Not some distant Levites in a far away temple, but the local little servants of God in their own towns and villages. What a different picture Christians today have of tithing! Mention tithing and they automatically think of sending money to some church or church HQ. Yet according to the pattern in the Old Testament, it was the tithers, the local priests and the poor and needy who were to benefit from the tithes.—And yes, the priests in the temple got their cut as well, at least 2 years out of 3. ‘THESE NECESSARY THINGS’ But should Christians in the New Testament tithe? This question was actually settled two thousand years ago at a Council in Jerusalem. As Acts 15:5 says, certain Jewish Christians insisted “that it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the Law of Moses (which included tithing)”. James, the head of the Jerusalem church, concluded in vs.19, 20: “My sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: but that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.” Were Gentile believers to keep the Law?—Including tithing? No! James mentioned only the barest, most common sense guidelines, and tithing was not mentioned. Again, in vs.28,29, James wrote: “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.” Again, NO mention of tithing. If tithing was a vital Old Testament principal that has carried over into the New, then how is it that it was not even mentioned amongst “these necessary things”? In fact, apart from these four points sent out in a letter, the only other Old Testament principle that the Jerusalem council felt should be observed, and which they mentioned to Paul at that time, was to “remember the poor” (Gal.2:10). Again, no mention of tithing! Yet sacrificial giving of alms to the poor is mentioned. Some pastors argue that a tithing church is more financially stable than a church that depends strictly upon freewill offerings. The Family uses the same argument, saying that tithing means the work of God can go ahead unimpeded without having to worry as much about where the finances are coming from. But the financial rewards of a method is no guarantee that it is Scripturally based. And if it is not based on the Bible, the Word of God, then it is just another money-making method of man. Again, although there are many references in the New Testament urging believers to give sacrificially. both to the poor with alms and gifts (Mat.6:1-4; Rom.15:26; 2Cor.8:10-24; 9:1-15; Gal. 2:10; 1Tim.6:17-19) and to missionaries preaching the Gospel (Phi.4:14-18), yet there is no indication whatsoever that the New Testament Christians tithed, nor that they were ever instructed to give a set 10% of their income to their church headquarters. Tithing only came into the church nearly six centuries after Christ when the Early Church had become the Catholic Church, a political-religious organization with chests full of gold and armies to crush their critics, when they’d become rich and powerful and increased with goods and had drifted away from the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ! GIVING TO THE POOR Jesus had a lot to say about giving to the poor. He talked about it over and over again. For example, “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.” (Mat.19:21) Even the Old Testament insisted that God’s people give to the poor. The Mosaic Law specifically informed believers that the poor and the widows were to partakers of the tithes of God's people. (See Deut.14:29) In fact, Deut. 26:12-15 says that making sure that “the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow” partook of their tithes was the ONLY way they could then stand before God and ask His blessing upon their lives and businesses. And in the New Testament, and for hundreds of years after, following the teachings of Christ, the Church “remembered the poor” and gave to help them! Here are a few quotes from “A History of Christianity—Vol. 1: The Early & Medieval Church”. The famous Christian apologist, Justin wrote c.150/155 A.D. in “Apology I”. Note both the freewill nature of giving, and the use that their donations were put to: “Those who prosper, and who so wish, contribute, each one as much as he chooses to. What is collected is deposited with the president, and he takes care of orphans and widows, and those who are in want on account of sickness or any other cause, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers who are sojourners among [us], and briefly, he is the protector of all those in need.” Fifty years later, in 197 AD, the outstanding Christian apologist, Tertullian, of Carthage, known for his radical, uncompromising views, wrote about Christian giving in “Apologeticum”. Again, note the freewill nature of giving, and the use to which their donations were put: “Though we have our treasure chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is not compulsion; all is voluntary. “These gifts are, as it were, piety's deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck and if there happen to be any in [slave labor in] the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession.” Apart from supplying the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, Christians used their alms fund to care for babies left to die. The Story of Civilization III, pg.598 says: Abortion and infanticide, which were decimating pagan society, were forbidden to Christians as the equivalents of murder; in many instances Christians rescued exposed infants, baptized them, and brought them up with the aid of the community fund. Exactly 167 years after Jesus died and the church began, when Christianity was still pure and unmaterialistic, the Christian's financial obligation was still to put in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is not compulsion; all is voluntary. And note the emphasis! Not a word about tithes and offerings to build churches! Not a word about huge salaries to support priests and bishops and elders and patriarchs and popes. Not a word about ‘tithe or God will curse you’. If tithing was a commandment that New Testament Christians were expected to faithfully and scrupulously continue, then Jesus, the Early Christians, the Apostles and the Church for centuries after Jesus entirely missed the point! WHEN WAS TITHING RE-INSTITUTED? Halley's Bible Handbook, page 769, in the section, The Five Patriarchs, says: “By the end of the 4th century the Churches and Bishops of Christendom had come to be largely dominated from five great centers, Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, who Bishops had come to be called Patriarchs." It was during the patristic (Patriarchal) times, beginning in the 300's AD, that tithing was reinstituted. Three centuries of Imperial persecutions had ended with the conversion of Constantine in 312 AD. The church was suddenly catapulted into a position of power. The building of churches, which had been only occasional before now, happened on a large scale. The "Westminster Dictionary of Church History" agrees that the patristic era was when the tithe was reinstated. It says in the section on Tithes, page 824: "From patristic [Patriarchal] times churchmen stressed that ... all Christians were morally obliged to tithe their entire income." In 312 Constantine legalized Christianity. Suddenly vast amounts of money were needed to build church buildings. In addition, the church had become formal and highly organized with a hierarchy of priests, bishops and patriarchs who needed to be supported. As the Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics: Vol.12, under the title Tithes, states: “In the Christian Church the need of supporting the clergy, who were early withdrawn from secular business, was recognized, but the system of tithe was not generally resorted to for several centuries. Until the 4th cent. [the 300's AD] little is heard of it.” “There were Church leaders, however, who strongly opposed tithing. “Epiphanius [AD 315–403] says that tithe is no more binding than circumcision.” “It was inevitable, however, that as the Church spread far and wide, circumstances should make it necessary to fall back upon rule, based upon legal provision, and the old standard of a tenth was set up, and the Christian priest was compared in this matter to the Jewish priest and Levite. But...this species of ecclesiastical property was acquired not only by degrees, but with considerable opposition.' (Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages) Some people tithed, but a big change was about to happen: “The moral duty of paying tithe was not generally taught, but even after it was made a matter of law, tithe was paid reluctantly and irregularly. In A.D. 585 the Council of Macon ordained its payment, while priests were to use it in helping the poor and in redeeming captives. He who refused to pay it was to be excommunicated. “Other councils enjoined it, but it was not until the time of Charlemagne that it became matter of law. In one of his capitularies he ordained it to be paid to churches and clergy ... and doubtless it was now more generally rendered. While the ecclesiastical tithe was usually paid to the bishop, who apportioned it, Charlemagne's capitulary regulated its division into three parts —for the bishop and clergy, for the poor, and for the support of church fabrics [building]. Once the payment of tithe became a matter of legal due, excommunication or temporal penalties were decreed against those who refused to pay it.” The church began stressing that all Christians should tithe 10% of their income, but they were still agreed that some of these monies were to be used to help the poor and needy. The section Tithes continues, describing a change in the use of tithes under Pepin III (d.768) and his son Charlemagne (742-814), the first Holy Roman Emperor: “The Carolingian kings, Pepin III and Charlemagne enforced these ancient customs as a matter of uniform public policy but subsequent canonical legislation added the support of churches and the clergy to the traditional charitable use of tithes.” Note how the use of tithe money continues to change. Soon most of the money was being used for building and repairing church buildings and supporting priests. “In the course of time, however, episcopal control of tithes and their steadily increasing use for the erection and maintaining of churches overshadowed their original purpose. Once their very special character of being used exclusively for charity was obscured, the encroachment on the rights of the poor was continuous. By the 12th century, tithes were simply a form of clerical revenue.” In the 800's AD, Charlemagne enforced tithing. “The Story of Civilization IV: The Age of Faith”, says on page 765: “A Church that was actually a European superstate ... could sustain its functions only through exploiting a hundred sources of revenue. The widest stream of income was the tithe: after Charlemagne all secular lands in Latin Christendom were required by state law to pay a tenth of their gross produce or income, in kind or money, to the local church.” Next, note the change that takes place within two hundred years, from 800 to 1,000 AD. The money stopped being used by the local church and was ordered sent off to Rome: “After the tenth century every parish had to remit a part of its tithes to the bishop of the diocese. Under the influence of feudal ideas the tithes of a parish could be enfeoffed, mortgaged, bequeathed, or sold like any other property or revenue, so that by the twelfth century a financial web had been woven in which the local church and its priest were rather the collector than the consumers of its tithes.” It gets even worse: “The priest was expected to ‘curse for his tithes’, as the English put it—to excommunicate those who shirked or falsified their returns; for men were as reluctant then to pay tithes to the Church, whose functions they considered vital to their salvation, as men are now to pay taxes to the state. “The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are commonly considered by historians of the Church to be a period of decline. The Church began to impose taxes on the faithful, thus enriching itself and aiding the development of a monied economy, but its demands for money cost the papacy the allegiance of many people.” (The Horizon History of Christianity: The Decline of the Papacy, pg.229.) In “An Age of Reformation” “In the early years of the sixteenth century ... there were unrest and dissatisfaction within the Church, and they were justified. The financial exactions of the Church had long been regarded as a grievance. Although the people gave voluntarily with immense generosity, they acutely resented paying tithes when non-payment meant excommunication.” FREE IN CHRIST At this point, having shown that tithing is totally unscriptural for New Testament Christians, it must be pointed out that some Christians even in the Early Church did tithe. Guess who? The Concision, the law-bound Christians in Jerusalem who still believed that they had to keep the Law of Moses, and who, to be accepted by their fellow Jews, continued in the Temple worship. As James said to Paul in Acts 21:20: “And when they heard it, they ... said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law.” So did that make tithing right? No. What does Gal 3:10 say? “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Thankfully, most Early Christians did not tithe! And what “headquarters” would they have tithedto, anyway? As Berg had said in ML 61:49: Where was the central organisation of the Early Church? What was its so-called Headquarters, and much control did it have over its individual member? Very little, except for the Lord, by His Spirit. Our Headquarters is in Heaven! James and the tithing Jewish Christians considered Jerusalem the world center of Christianity, but Paul had an entirely different idea, and there was no way he was going to tell the free Gentile Christians to send tithes to some HQ in Jerusalem. One lady who attended a church and held a position of some reputation in that church’s organization, read this class on tithing and could find nothing to say to dispute it. Nevertheless she said that she was going to continue to tithe. Why? Because her church believed in tithing and thought that you weren’t spiritual if you didn’t tithe. If she had stopped tithing, she would have been looked down on as undedicated and disobedient. She would have lost the respect of the church’s leaders. Her stand might even have cost her her position within the church. So she continued to tithe 10% of her income, even though she now knew it wasn’t Scriptural. Of course, Berg taught the same thing: “How could they be truly fully dedicated when they weren’t even tithing?” (ML 880:36) Is that your situation? Are you afraid of Family members calling you ‘undedicated’ if you stop tithing to them, and instead use the money to buy groceries, get your own child’s teeth fixed, put some money in savings, help support your elderly mother, send checks to a missionary in Russia, and—if you have any money left over—to other worthwhile causes? Do you tithe because you’re afraid of being excommunicated from the Family for not tithing? Or are you afraid of not receiving new pubs if you stop tithing? Is there a lot in the new letters by Maria and Peter you truly agree with and really like, and couldn’t possibly live without? If not, it’d be better to do without the ‘new revelations’ and to instead read and obey the Words of Jesus in the New Testament! If you follow His advice on how and where to give sacrificially, and live simple, basic New Testament Christianity in love for your fellow man, what further ‘revelations’ do you need to make you happy? Want to be happy and free from rules and condemnation? “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them!” (Jn.13:17) “The truth shall make you free!” (Jn.8:32) and now you know the truth about tithing. What are you going to do? If you’re afraid of being ‘excommunicated’ and ‘cut off’ a WS mailing list because you stop tithing, then you still need to be made free in Christ. Be liberated today! WS may still order you to tithe, but it’s time to stand up as Peter and John did and say, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.” (Acts 4:19) If you are to give financially like Jesus taught, the first thing to do is to abolish the tithe. Forsake 10% tithes immediately! They’re a legalistic hangover from the Mosaic Law, and run contrary to the commands of Christ in the New Testament! Instead, commit yourself 100% to the Lord and give whatever part of your income you can afford to—after you take care of your own family, which is your first responsibility before God. May God bless you as you give sacrificially to help the poor, needy single mothers, and missionaries whom you know personally are giving their lives to preach the Gospel! |
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