Boldproclaimer's Blog

The Biblical Tithe

A forum where the true Biblical tithe is promoted.

What is the purpose of the Church?

Are we to attend it because we have wants? or are we to attend because we have needs? What does the Word of God tell us?

Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

1 Peter 5:1-4 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

In Acts 20, Paul’s message to the elders was to “feed the Church of God.” Three years later, Peter was instructing the Church the exact same message, “feed the flock of God”

If a pastor is feeding our wants, we are not getting fed properly. Paul warned that we should not heap to ourselves teachers that will tickle our ears.

2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Don’t let wants outweigh needs. Wants are no more than covetousness, desires to satisfy carnal lusts. Feeding them only leads to more carnality and is detrimental to our spiritual walk.

In his epistle to the Churches in Galatia, the Apostle Paul wrote:

Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Our desire should not be to satisy the lusts of the flesh; i.e., worldly music, worldly entertainment, worldly pastors that won’t preach against sin, etc.. Rather, we who are Christ’s should have the desire to be fed that which is beneficial and good for the soul.

The Church, over the years, has changed its values tremendously. The attitude seems to be “Be like the world so you can reach the world.” And the world seems to love it. And why wouldn’t they love it? After all, when the world can come into the Church doors and see no difference; i.e., worldly music, dancing, messages of acceptance as you are, sodomites on the preaching staff, etc., the world need not feel condemned for the same sins they participate in on the outside.

Many churches today are just as ungodly as the bar at the county line. The only difference seems to be a mention of Jesus Christ once in a while. Because of complacency, many churches have become whited sepulchers full of dead man’s bones.

We are to be a light to the world, but if we allow ourselves to conform to the world to reach the world, we have only succeeded in exchanging the Light that is needed for a much dimmer light that is wanted.

What is the purpose of the Church?  To feed the flock, strengthening each member in the Word of God, so that each member is fully equipped and capable of going out into the world as a light that shines in darkness.  Not to imitate the darkness, but to reveal to those who are in darkness their need for Light and Truth.

Nehemiah 10:37-38 And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage. And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house.

To break it down and make it easier for all to understand, suppose a farmer from the tribe of Benjamin grew 100 bushels of wheat during the year of the Levitical tithe.  That farmer would take ten bushels of wheat to a Levite in one of the 48 Levitical cities that the Levites lived in.  That was his tithe.  The Levite, would then bring one of those bushels that he received to the Temple and take that bushel into the storehouse there.  As you can see, only 1% of that Benjamite farmer’s crop was to go to the Temple storehouse, not 10%.

Numbers 35:1-8 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them. And the cities shall they have to dwell in; and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; and the city shall be in the midst: this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities. And among the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites there shall be six cities for refuge, which ye shall appoint for the manslayer, that he may flee thither: and to them ye shall add forty and two cities. So all the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities: them shall ye give with their suburbs. And the cities which ye shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel: from them that have many ye shall give many; but from them that have few ye shall give few: every one shall give of his cities unto the Levites according to his inheritance which he inheriteth.

An oft-used passage that pastors say proves we are to tithe our money is found in the last book of the Old Testament.

Malachi 3:8-10 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Now, when used by itself, one might be convinced that the passage is speaking a command to the members of the New Testament Church to tithe their money to the Church.

But is that what that verse says?  Let’s be as the Bereans and search the Scriptures to see if it is as it is being preached…

First, we must see who is being addressed in Malachi 3.  Was it the entire nation of Israel?  If one rightly divides the Word of Truth, one will find that it was not the people.

If not the people, then who?

Let me give you just a little bit of historical background, specifically the time period when Malachi delivered this harsh rebuke and stern instruction.

Malachi delivered this message from God in the year 430 B.C., most pastors will agree that this is the correct date.  What they don’t tell you is that Nehemiah was a contemporary of Malachi’s, and to properly understand Malachi’s address one needs to know what is going on in the book of Nehemiah.

As I said, Nehemiah was a contemporary of Malachi.  This means they both lived in the same generation.  Malachi’s address was in 430 B.C., Nehemiah’s story was in 433 B.C…. just three years prior to Malachi delivering the message from God.

So how does Nehemiah fit into this, you may ask?  Let’s look at the Scripture…

We have already addressed the fact that the Levites were the ones who brought the tithes into the storehouse according to Nehemiah 10:37-38.  We have pointed out the fact that what was tithed to the Temple was not tithed by the Israelites, but by the Levites.

So was it the Levites robbing God?  No, it was not the Levites… it was the Priests, the sons of Aaron who were robbing God.  Notice:

Nehemiah 13:1-5 On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever; Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing. Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah: And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the offerings of the priests.

Did you catch that?  Eliashib, one of Aaron’s sons cleared the room where the tithes were kept and moved an Ammonite into the Temple storehouse.

The Priest robbed God!  He took the tithes that the Levites had brought into the storehouse out and moved God’s enemy into the storehouse.

Blasphemy!

Malachi’s rebuke becomes clear now.  The rebuke was to the Priests.  They had taken the tithes out of the storehouse.  They were the ones guilty of robbing God.  The congregation was not guilty, they had taken the tithes where they were supposed to take them.  The Levites were not guilty, they had brought the tithes into the storehouse as they were supposed to.  The Priests were guilty.  They removed the tithes so they could move the enemy of God in.

Malachi was telling the Priests that they had robbed God.  They also robbed the whole nation because the food that was supposed to be in the storehouse was not there.  Because they had removed the food, the Levites had no food to sustain them at the Temple.  They had to return to their cities so that they could survive.

Haggai 1:9-11 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

Do you see the result of rightly dividing?  The truth is known when one rightly divides.  Because the Priests robbed God by removing the tithes, the Levites had to return to their land and the House of God laid waste.  The Priest’s actions infuriated God and He withheld the rain and allowed the locust to eat what little there was.  The actions of the Priests oppressed the widows, the orphans, the Levites, and the foreigners taking refuge in Israel.  It oppressed them because the food that should have been there was not there.

Why is it that the Church teaches its members that God requires 10% of their money (as tithes) when God only required 1% of Israel’s total increase to be put in the Temple storehouse in Jerusalem?  It was not the congregation’s responsibility to tithe to the Temple.  The responsibility to tithe to the Temple fell solely upon the Levites.  They kept 90% of the tithe that they received in their Levitical cities, while the remaining 10% of that tithe they were required to take to the Temple.

The Church has lied to its members ever since it first taught they were to tithe of their money. God never required a tithe of money. The Church is teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and God says of those who do such, “Even your worship is in vain.”

What has happened to the Church? The Apostles never taught the Church was to tithe.

Psalms 106:38-39 And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

The Bible reveals that God’s Holy tithe was not money, and yet, man (whether out of greed, or out of ignorance of what God’s Holy Word says) has invented a doctrine of a monetary tithe… and the Church has gone a whoring after that invention of man.

God’s Holy tithe was never required of the New Testament Church. The New Testament Church has taken the tithe that was required of Israel, a tithe of crops and livestock, and modified it completely. These modifications did not happen during the lifetime of any of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. It was centuries later that a monetary tithe was adopted.

Leviticus 27:30-33 makes it clear that the Levitical tithe was of the seed of the land (crops) an fruit of the trees (crops) and every tenth animal to pass under the rod (livestock). There was never a command to tithe one’s money anywhere in Old Testament Israel. The Levitical tithe was taken to the Levites in the Levitical cities every year for six years in a seven year cycle. The tithe of crops could be redeemed at a cost. By redeemed, we mean ‘bought back’. The tither would take his crops to the Levite. The Levite would assess the value of the tithe and add a fifth of the value to the assessed value if the tither wanted to buy back the tithe. This proves that the tithe was not money. It would be foolish for a tither to take 20 shekels to the Levite and tell him, “Here’s my tithe… now I’d like to buy it back. You say it will cost me 24 shekels to buy it back? Fine… here you are!” Such a conversation would never have taken place. Money was not titheable in Old Testament Isreal. (Leviticus 27:30-33; Nehemiah 10:37-38)

Now, Nehemiah 10:37-38 sheds light on just who was robbing God in Malachi 3:7-11. It was not the children of Israel who were robbing God. Rather, it was the Priests. The children of Israel were to take their tithe to the Levites, the Levites were responsible for taking a tithe of that tithe to the storehouse. Now, while they were doing just that, the Word of God reveals that Eliashib the Priest had the tithes taken out of the storehouse chambers and moved Tobiah the Ammonite into the then empty storehouse. (Nehemiah 13)

Because he had removed the tithes from the storehouse, the Levites had to return to their Levitical cities so that they could survive… there was no food at the Temple when there should have been. The command given by the Lord to Malachi was to the Priest, telling him to bring the tithes into the storehouse so there could be food for the workers of the Temple. In robbing God by taking the tithes out of the Temple, the Priests were robbing the whole nation. Their actions caused God to withhold needed rain for the crops, and the nation was cursed.

There was a second tithe each year called a Festival tithe. This tithe was also of crops and livestock, and was taken to Jerusalem for one of three annual festivals. If the distance was too far for the tither, or the tithe was too heavy, he could sell the tithe for money. He was then to carry that money to Jerusalem and there spend the money on food and drink to celebrate the Festival with his family and Levites. (Deuteronomy 14:22-27)

A third tithe, called the Poor tithe, was kept by the tither on his property and used to feed the widows and orphans of Israel, the Levites living on the tither’s property, and refugees living in the land of Israel. (Deuteronomy 14:28-29) This tithe was to be observed and kept every third year in a seven year cycle.

The seventh year of the seven year cycle the land was to rest. No sowing, no harvesting. There could be no crop tithe that year.

After the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., there could be no more tithing. No Temple for the Levites to minister in, no sacrifices, etc. Tithing was no more… until the Church resurrected it and then modified it centuries after the Apostles had died. The Church had no business levying on Christians a monetary tithe. Our giving is to be voluntary, not of compulsion.