Als Personal blog

Last year I listened to several radio sermons by Alistair Begg (truthforlife  minstries) concerning the Sabbath. Those sermons left me with many questions about the Sabbath, why we really worship on Sunday, and what kinds of activities are appropriate for Sundays.

To answer these questions I began searching the internet for information on the Sabbath and Sunday worship.

Like many topics on the internet, it’s easy to find information and opinions, but it’s been challenging to find authoritative information.  This week I finally found a well-documented article that was based on (1) the Bible and,  (2) church history. The article answered all of my primary questions. If you have similar questions about the Sabbath you should read Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity

Please don’t be turned off by the fact that the article is hosted on the web site of the organization that used to be known as the Worldwide Church of God.  The Worldwide Church of God renounced Herbert W. Armstrong’s teaching in the 1990’s and since then has embraced all of the tenants of the historic Christian faith. They now seem to be solidly evangelical. Note: in April 2009, they changed their denominational name to Grace Communion International.

For more information on how the Worldwide Church of God has changed from cultic to evangelical see the article The Worldwide Church of God: Resurrected into Orthodoxy  by the Christian Research Institute.

Conclusions With Supporting References

The Bible teaches us that:

• Christians should regard everything they have as coming from God and being owned by God. (Deuteronomy 10:14, Psalm 50:10-12, Deuteronomy 8:17-18)
• Christians should give generously, sacrificially, cheerfully, and as God leads them to give.  (Second Corinthians 9:7; 1 Timothy 6:17)
• The Old Testament tithe was of agricultural products only. (Those who made a living through commerce did not tithe on the portion of their income that came from commerce.)  (Deuteronomy 14:22, Deuteronomy 26:12-13)
  Or see http://www.setfreetogive.com/b31.htm#moses
• In Old Testament times, the largest portion of an individual’s tithe was not given to the priests or the temple. Instead, the largest portion of the tithe was consumed by the person (and his family) giving the tithe and/or was given to the poor and needy.  (Deuteronomy 14:22-29, Deuteronomy 26:12-13)   Or see http://www.setfreetogive.com/b31.htm#moses

Historical writings teach us that:

• The Pharisees taught a form of the tithe that went far beyond the tithe set forth in the Scriptures, including tithing on all forms of income, not just agricultural income. (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus, The Messiah, Book III page 312;
  http://books.google.com/books?id=EyGls9iGbSgC&pg=PA312&lpg=PA312&dq=Alfred+Edersheim+tithe+pharisee&source=bl&ots=PPdsddwYr3&sig=TK61UTGpjcvlsMnM59ieJPCYxLE&hl=en&ei=Mzn4Sd2gIqakNdv1haoP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA312,M1)
• The tithe was not a practice of the early church.
  See Set Free To Give page 110 http://www.setfreetogive.com/b107.htm
• The tithe was ordained by the church hundreds of years after Christ to support the church’s infrastructure and building programs.
• See Set Free To Give page 110 http://www.setfreetogive.com/b107.htm
  or The Catholic Encyclopedia at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Tithes or  http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Tithes

Our adult Sunday School class is studying Romans and this week we are in Romans chapter 5.  Romans chapter 5 is very rich in doctrine, but verse 17 seems particularly relevant to me at this time.  Romans 5:17 says

¹⁷For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

William R. Newell, in his excellent commentary on Romans “Romans Verse by Verse” wrote: Let us refuse to be content with a Christian existence that cannot finally be summed up as “He reigned in life through Jesus Christ,” — over sin, Satan, the world, difficulties, adverse surroundings and circumstances.

David Livingstone early wrote in his diary, “I have found that I have no unusual endowments of intellect, but I this day resolved that I would be an uncommon Christian.”

I think most of the time I’m a pretty common Christian.  I pray that from this day forward my life will be one of uncommon Christianity.

Without references, here are my conclusions on the Bible’s teaching on giving and tithing.

The Bible teaches us that:

• Christians should regard everything they have as being owned by God.
• Christians should give generously, sacrificially, cheerfully, and as God leads them to give.
• The Old Testament tithe was of agricultural products only. (Those who made a living through commerce did not tithe on the portion of their income that came from commerce.)
• In Old Testament times, the largest portion of an individual’s tithe was not given to the priests or the temple.
• The largest portion of the tithe was consumed by the person giving the tithe (and his family) and/or was given to the poor and needy.

Historical writings teach us that:

• The Pharisees believed that a tithe should be made against all forms of income, not just agricultural income.
• The tithe was not a part of the early church.
• The tithe was implemented by the church sometime around the third century to support the church’s infrastructure and building programs.

Summary Conclusions

• The Bible does not teach that Christians should tithe.
• It is wrong to say that the Bible teaches that Christians should give 10 percent of their gross income to their local church.
• God wants to be in control of our finances, just like He wants to be in control of every facet of our life.
• For any given Christian it may be right or it may be wrong to tithe.  It depends on what God wants them to do with His money.
• It is wrong to say that not to tithe is the same as robbing God.

In the next few posts, I’ll restate my conclusions and give references in support of each conclusion.

It’s been quite a while since my last post but in the interim I’ve finished my Bible study of tithing and giving.  I’ve decided not to go into the details of the study because I found several good resources on the Web that do a much better job than I ever could in covering the Bible’s teaching on tithing and giving.  In this post, I’m going to list the Web resources and in my next post I’ll tell you what I’ve concluded as a result of my study.  If you want to study tithing in detail, I encourage you to check out the listed resources for yourself.

Note: this article is in response to the common belief among Christians that the Bible teaches that Christians should give 10 percent of their gross income to the local church (a practice commonly referred to as tithing). For many years I thought the Bible taught the tithe.  It was only recently, after studying the issue in depth, that I became convinced otherwise.

Resources on Tithing and Giving

1.  Will a Man Rob God
Andreas J. Kostenberger and David Croteau, Southeastern Baptist Seminary
http://www.biblicalfoundations.org/pdf/pdfarticles/bbrtithing1.pdf

2.  Reconstructing a Biblical Model for Giving
Andreas J. Kostenberger and David Croteau, Southeastern Baptist Seminary
http://biblicalfoundations.org/pdf/pdfarticles/bbrtithing2.pdf

These two articles by Southern Baptists Andreas Kostenberger and David Croteau are the most scholarly, yet readable material I could find.  Highly recommended.

3.  Tithing: Is It New Testament
Elliot Miller, Christian Research Institute
This article by the editor-in-chief of the Christian Research Journal was on the CRI web site when I began my research, but seems to have been removed from the CRI website since then.  A copy of the article is here:  http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/showthread.php?t=36937

4.  Set Free To Give (Online Book)
Brent J. MacDonald
http://www.setfreetogive.com/bindex.htm
This is a fairly complete treatment of the Bible’s teaching on tithing and giving with excellent historical information included.

5.  Should the Church Teach Tithing
http://www.tithing-russkelly.com/index.html
Russ Kelly’s web site is the most complete compendium of information on tithing I could find.  Unfortunately, Russ can be very strident on the topic of the tithe.  (I suspect Russ is extremely frustrated with the South Baptist Convention’s refusal to re-examine the case against tithing.)  Sadly, Russ can be so strident that you may be tempted to dismiss what he has to say.  There’s a lot of good information here if you can filter out the emotional heat.

6. Toward the Tithe and Beyond
John Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1995/923_Toward_the_Tithe_and_Beyond/

A respected pastor and Christian author explains why he believes Christians should tithe.

In my next post, I’ll summarize my conclusions on giving and tithing.

I’m rereading the book “Set Free to Give” with the other deacons and pastor in my church.  Reading the book is part of our process of studying what the Bible really teaches about tithing, offering, and giving.

Between now and April I’ll be posting articles on this topic.  In regards to the book “Set Free to Give” I’ll be writing about the facts, interpretation, logic, and conclusions of the author, (Brent J. MacDonald), and any questions his book has raised in my mind.

The book is available as a PDF file and can be downloaded from the author’s web site for the very reasonable price of $5. Clearly Brent isn’t trying to make a lot of money from the book because the $5 entitles you to give one copy of the PDF to someone else and Brent has posted the full text of the book on his web site, allowing you to read it without spending a cent.

I have to mention that some parts of “Set Free to Give” seem somewhat strident  (perhaps reflecting the author’s frustration at the evangelical community’s lack of reasoned response to many of issues he has raised). When I read those sections of the book I have to make a conscious effort not to let the strident tone interfere with my understanding.