Re: The institutionalized church?

Hello all,

beej,

Tithing is a biblical law. But so is circumcision and so is the sacrificing of animals. Does this mean that Christians today should ritualistically circumcise their children or sacrifice animals because these laws were once ordained in the Bible? Most Christians would not think such Old Testament legislation is obligatory for Christians who live in this age. And the Bible makes it clear that such ritualistic practices are not required any longer.

Tithing, however, has been looked on differently by many people, especially by certain Christian ministers who need a ready money supply to operate their organizations. It is often argued that God still demands tithing and that a person who does not give a tenth of his income for the maintenance of a Christian ministry is stealing from God. [By the way, the word "tithe" is an old English word which simply meant "tenth."] Some ministers use this as a threat. The tithing laws of the Bible are not valid today for Christians no more than the act of offering animal sacrifices. Even if all the legal factors governing the tithing laws were in force today, Christian ministers would still have no authority from God to use tithe money for their ministerial functions.

The Bible makes it clear (from the time of Moses onward) that Israelites were to pay tithe. But in doing so, they were strictly ordered by God to pay the tithe (the tenth) to one group of people, and one group only, they were the Levites who (among other things) ministered in the Temple. Numbers 18:21,

"And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service of the tabernacle of the congregation."

It was made abundantly plain that the biblical tithe was to be paid to the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel. In this initial law of tithing, no one else had the slightest authority to receive that tithe. Even Christ Jesus, while he was teaching on earth, did not use (nor did he demand) a penny of biblical tithe to fund his preaching activities or those of his apostles. After all, our Lord was descended in an adoptive way from Judah (Hebrews 7:14). He was not a Levite. This made him ineligible to receive any part of the biblical tithe that was ordained for use by the Levites at the time of Moses. For this reason, Christ did not use any tithe money to support his ministry.

The central fact was this: Only members of the tribe of Levi were at first ordained in the Bible to receive the tithe (the tenth). The Levites in turn were to give one tenth of that tithe to the Priests (Numbers 18:25–28) who did not tithe at all.
Tweet