The Tithe in the Church age is something of a total quandary to me. Once I began to actually study the Bible I discovered something of great interest concerning the whole tithing concept that I would like to share with you all today.
First we need to understand when and why God chose to implement a tithe and what a tithe is.
When Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt at Gods command and with His help, God gave moses the "law" we can read about the law and all its coming about in the first five books of the old testament. In the book of Leviticus God established a line of Priests, all of the males in this family (The Levites) would be responsible the temple and the sacrifices to God to make sure that the nation of Israel stayed in good standing with it's God.
You see the "Old Covenant" was a covenant or "if you, then I will", basically God said to them "if you obey me than I will protect you and bless you", then in Gods grace and mercy he set up a system of atonement (i.e. making sure that even if they sinned against Him they could seek forgiveness and come back into Gods protection).
In a nut shell, He gave them the Levites, the priest or mediators between the Israelites and God. They were not allowed to hold secular jobs or professions as their sole responsibility was to mediate between God and His people.
Since the Levites had no ability to make money or other means of providing for their families physical needs and also needed money to take care of their Priestly responsibilities God set up a way for them to get the provisions that they need... the Tithe, Numbers 18.
In the New Covenant we are all Priests! We have a Mediator, the High Priest, Jesus Christ who sits on His throne to represent us to The Father and continually offers Himself as a sacrifice for our sins! In the New Covenant we have no need for a Priesthood to intercede for us to God. Therefore, the Old Covenant command of a tithe is no longer valid and I gaurantee you that if the Apostles were hear today they would be very confused as to why we do it.
Basically here is what happened... the rise of the Roman Emperor Constantine. In about 300 ad he converted to Christianity and saw that it was a good religion for controlling the masses so he declared it the "state religion of Rome" when he did that he built buildings designed to make everyone come together in central public places where he could gain influence in the most efficient way and he created a group of men that were all political figures, had great influence, money and education (he labeled them "Priests"). After that he had them begin to teach the parts of the Old Covenant laws that would be beneficial to the Roman Empire as well as start to come up with other "laws" and impose them in the New Covenant Churches.
This was not hard to do as most people did not have the education they would need to read the biblical manuscripts (the common language had changed) or access to them (this was WAY before the printing press or anything like it was invented) and all of the Apostles had died by now... he had a captive audience and no one to combat him.
The tithe was a way of making extra money for the Empire from people who otherwise would have only payed taxes.... and extra 10% for the Empire, control of the masses' religious beliefs and practice, and a self imposed position of spiritual leadership. A great plan if power is your main and only concern. Constantine got exactly what we was trying to accomplish.
Up until his reign there is no record of Churches collecting a tithe, only Christians giving to one another as they had need as they understood from the Apostles that in this Church age you actually are commanded to give everything to the Kingdom of God and its advancement, your money, you time, your energy, your resources, you love, your everything!
So my main arguments against a tithe are:
1. It is not obedience to Gods commands as he never commanded us to do it.
2. Falls exceedingly short of what we are commanded to give our brothers and sisters in Christ (the Church) and created a false sense of obedience among "Church goers".
3. Most of what you give to your "Church" is not actually used to support the Body of Christ, it is used to support the building, staff, pastors salary, light and sound equipment etc. We are still acting like the Roman Catholics! Why do we even have those things let alone give our hard earned money to them instead of to the people in our Church family that are truly in need! There are people in your church body who are facing foreclosure on their homes, who have medical bills they can't pay, who would value an hour of your time encouraging them and praying with them more than your money!
4. By paying your "Tithes" you are doing nothing more than helping to continue the propagation of the faulty systems and ideals that Constantine established to gain power to the Roman kingdom..... why?
In closing I would like to say again: as New Covenant followers of Jesus Christ we have a much greater responsibility to our Church families than to give 10% of our income!
Stop tithing, start truly giving your all and in this way ignite change in your Church and help it to become a Functioning Church!
