Questions about tithing

[Guest]

Er, when the Festival Tithe was in effect, the normal tithe was not. It was just a matter of how the tithe of 10% was to be used, depending on the time of year and on whether it was the third year or not.

The collection of the tithe was an ongoing thing. Just like "tithes and offerings" are collected once a week in your local congregation, the tithe would be paid/distributed on a regular basis in ancient Israel. When the Feast of Tabernacles came around, the tithe went to it instead of to the local priests and Levites or to the poor.

Make sense now?

Damon

I see what you are saying now. It brings up another point though, and that is if there was only one tithe, and all tribes at the feast were allowed to partake of it and the poor and stranger to use it, then not all of the tithe ended up going to the Levites. If churches want to carry the tithe over, shouldn't they carry this over too? It seems like their major concern is building bigger churches, like a temple tax.

[Guest]

Perhaps. Was it wrong for, say, David and Solomon to invest so much of the nation's wealth in building the Temple? What about the expensive ointment that the woman anointed Jesus' feet with? It cost eight months' wages.

There's a time and use for everything under the sun, from "building bigger churches" to ministering to the poor.

Damon

[Guest]

Perhaps. Was it wrong for, say, David and Solomon to invest so much of the nation's wealth in building the Temple? What about the expensive ointment that the woman anointed Jesus' feet with? It cost eight months' wages.

There's a time and use for everything under the sun, from "building bigger churches" to ministering to the poor.

Damon

The difference today is that, unlike Israel's one temple and there being one Jesus who's feet were anointed, there are many churches all calling themselves "the temple" when the cumulative number of believers are really "the temple". Thereby making it more difficult.

[Guest]

Right. So the way to discern is, where is the glory going? Is it going to God, or is it going to the group or sect who is building the church? The truth is probably somewhere in between, and of course we should strive to tip the balance towards God as much as possible.

Damon

[Guest]

My opinion is that in America we (Christians) spend too much of our resources on buildings and salaries and not enough on evangelism and benevolence.

Todd

[Guest]

Well, to a degree that's certainly true. America does tend to be the land where bigger equals better. (So much for weight loss! )

Anyway, I've never been involved with any big churches, so I can't really comment from experience. *shrugs*

Damon

[Guest]

What's a big church?

[Guest]

There is simply no evidence that ANY of the early Christians tithed ---after that special day of Pentecost in which the Holy Spirit came upon them.
So why should we delve into the legalistic details of tithing in the law of Moses?

Under the new order, Christ's people were to give 100%! ----as in Acts chapter 2, where they sold all their goods and divided the proceeds among all the brethren.

Unhappily, people who practise tithing today, often feel that they have given their tenth to God, and the other 90% is theirs to do with as they wish. I even saw a Sunday School cartoon where a smiling man held up two money bags, a little one and a very large one. The large one was labelled "Mine" and the little one was labelled "God's". Doesn't there seem to be something terribly wrong with that?

Today churches bring OT tithing into their churches in order to assure they get enough money to pay their expenses. They teach that the money must be "brought into the storehouse" ---- the "storehouse" being redefined as the church.