I had a private meeting with this young man and advised caution, but he was not prepared to listen. I once encountered a young minister – straight out of Bible college – who somewhat rashly, and without receiving much wise counsel, decided that he was going to impose tithing upon his new congregation. Now I don’t know who might need to repent within his congregation but – to be perfectly frank – THAT MINISTER MIGHT NEED TO!! I won’t say why right now but will continue with one or two more examples. Soon, he would tell this section of his congregation that they needed to “Repent!” Apparently, this gentleman lives in some opulence and prosperity and the whole ‘set’ which was apparently within the congregational meeting place (I try to avoid the word ‘church’ where it will be wrongly applied), betrayed a very prosperous and large congregation. ![]() There he was, striding the stage in an obviously highly expensive silk suit, as he loudly berated a few who did not pay their tithes regularly. I do know that this man is capable of good biblical preaching, he does not, for example, uphold the ‘prosperity gospel.’ But I eventually realised that no more excuses could be made for this man. For a while, I thought that the preacher may have been purposely playing the role of some bad kind of example of what ministers/pastors really should not do! I wanted to believe the best about this preacher. The pastor started loudly berating a section of his congregation for not paying their tithes regularly! I continued to sit and listen with some measure of incredulity. When the sermon commenced, however, I was in for a shock I had expected a sermon on ‘Giving,’ but what soon followed genuinely astonished me. It opened with some lovely singing from an elegantly attired choir. I once sat down to view a video recording which featured a sermon given by a noted American minister who has both a Television and a Radio ministry. 2 Corinthians 9:7 effectively bars tithing for the New Testament Church of God since it plainly states that Christians should not give (and the whole context is of financial giving) “under compulsion.” Is this not at odds with the examples within the Book of Acts which show Christians within a congregation SHARING their substance so that none should suffer lack? Why do we ignore this clear NEW TESTAMENT example, while being quick to seize an Old Testament example which finds no real New Testament support?ĥ. In our day, strongly tithing congregations often become very wealthy congregations with much to spend on various projects and with the minister enjoying an affluent lifestyle, even while many within that congregation might live in a financially very precarious world. Tithing was a widespread practise in the ancient world – not something peculiar to Israel.Ĥ. The early Church – prior to Constantine – DID NOT uphold tithing.ģ. However, he wrote rather a lot about FREELY giving financial support where one is able.Ģ. The Apostle Paul NEVER ONCE appealed to tithing even though he obviously often suffered financial difficulties. I will start this article/essay by making five opening statements:ġ. ![]() TITHES AND TITHING: CAN WE HONESTLY FACE UP TO THE TRUTH? Is It Christian To Impose Tithing on a Congregation? (BE ASSURED: IF YOU ARE A FAITHFUL TITHER, THIS ARTICLE WILL IN NO WAY ATTACK YOU BUT WILL BRING A FEW FACTS TO YOUR ATTENTION). The Practice of Tithing is Unbiblical TITHING ![]() Amazing to me, but this is how big this sacred cow is and how afraid some leadership is of losing there status and lifestyles that un scriptural tithing affords them. I also hope to have a testimony from a man who recently got kicked out of his church (he really just got kicked out of the building not the church) for not believing in tithing, although he has been a good giver for years. ![]() This has nothing to do with giving by the Spirit that is the new testament model, if you really want to know the truth about Tithing, I have added a good article about it and it covers it very well. Hello and welcome to this edition of ACTS 29 TODAYĪfter years of being manipulated into Tithing I began to search this out for myself and found out IT IS NOT FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH.
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