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Are you a proponent of tithing?
If you’re a pastor who teaches tithing, or a layperson who agrees wholeheartedly with your church’s tithing doctrine, then, quite frankly, this book probably isn’t for you. It’s been my experience that those with a deep-seated belief in tithing are quite unwilling to even entertain, much less accept, any argument to the contrary, no matter how overwhelming the evidence. They wear tithing like a badge of honor that they’ve obediently earned, and nobody’s going to take it away from them.
Are you skeptical or undecided about tithing?
If you’re not sold on the notion that as soon as you accept God’s free gift of salvation, you immediately incur a minimum required financial debt to God equal to ten percent of all the money you’ll make for the rest of your life, payable to your local church, then this book is definitely for you.
The Situation:
Many of today’s churches refer to financial support as tithing. The basic premise is that God commanded the Israelites to give Him a tithe, or ten percent, of the Promised Land’s agricultural production, which He then gave to the Levites for their work at the temple. Since ancient Israel was an agrarian society, the church surmises that God’s intent was to require a tithe of their “increase”. They further surmise that Christians today are still required to give God a tithe of their “increase”, or income, and that it must be given to the church. And failure to do so will result in being cursed by God per Malachi 3.
The Problem:
The church has opened up Pandora’s box by equating two concepts that have nothing in common: the biblical tithe and financial support for the church. The biblical tithe was not about “increase” as the church incorrectly purports. It was about agricultural production from the Promised Land for a reason, and that reason had nothing to do with ancient Israel being an agrarian society.
Nowhere in the Bible does God ever change the substance of the tithe from agriculture to money, or change the recipient of the tithe from the Levites to the church, or instruct Christians to give a tithe of their income to the church. So by erroneously referring to financial support as tithing, and by erroneously misinterpreting scriptures on tithing, the church has exercised carte blanche in creating its own erroneous tithing doctrine.
The Revelation:
The issue isn’t whether or not Christians should support the church financially. The issue is whether or not the church should teach that salvation comes with a price tag of a minimum required financial obligation to God that must be paid to the church or else punishment will be incurred.
The church’s position on tithing is rooted in one basic belief, that God required the Israelites to tithe:
“A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.” (Leviticus 27:30 NIV)
There’s just one glaring problem: This verse isn’t a command, it’s a statement. God isn’t commanding the Israelites to give Him a tithe, He’s saying He already owns it. And for good reason. It had already been given to Him many years earlier, through a vow, by Jacob.
The Israelites Did Not Tithe And Neither Should You
By Kurt Pindroh
Read the book. Know the truth. End the tithing charade today.
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