Hi guys, my name is phil, im 25, from australia, im new to mypraize and this is my first post. I thought id kick off a topic which i think is important for christians to rightly divide. i would love to know who tithes to a church, cause if you do, this study I wrote is for you!! God bless =) Phil Tithing Remember, the following discussion addresses the issue of TITHING, not the issue of giving! Giving is totally biblically, and God loves a cheerful giver! Before you pay your tithes next time, you should stop and ask yourself – why am I paying tithes? When I ask Christians that question they mostly answer me “I pay tithes because the bible says to”. Usually then I say “where does it say that?” and funnily enough they usually can’t remember where, but they assure me they have read it before. So next, I say to them, “well if you pay tithes because the bible says to, presumably you will want to pay tithes the WAY the bible says to!! So, if people really want to pay tithes – then lets look at what tithes are and how they are to be paid: 1. Tithes are to be paid in the form of FOOD (Not money!) - the Jews HAD money, but God didn’t ask for their money, he asked for their FOOD! (Lev 27:30-32; Deut 14:23) - This is because the REASON for tithes is that the tribe of Levi (one of the 12 tribes of Israel) were not allotted any land, unlike the other tribes. Instead, their call was to minister fulltime as priests in the temple of the LORD, and as their compensation, God ordained that the other 11 tribes should tithe their food to the Levites, so that they could have food to eat! (Numbers 18: 21-24) - Therefore to obey the bible, you also must pay tithes in the form of food and NOT money! 2. Tithes are to be paid every THREE YEARS (Not every week!) - so you must not pay tithes every week, you must pay every three years as scripture shows (Deut 14:28-29; Amos 4:4; Deut 26:12) 3. Tithes are to be paid TO LEVITE PREISTS!! (Not pastors / churches!) - The bible says tithes are to be paid to Levite priests (Neh 12:44; Heb 7:5). If the pastor of your church a descendant of the tribe of Levi? Even he will tell you that he is not. Is your pastor a priest? Presumably, he will confess he is not a Levite priest. Therefore tithes are not to be paid to him or to his church. Tithes are to be paid by JEWS to LEVITE PREISTS (Neh 10:37-38). - To pay tithes the way the bible says, you will have to fly over to Israel (Deut 12:5-6), and find a Levite priest and pay HIM your tithes! 4. Tithes are to be paid by JEWS! (Not Christians!) - If you really want to pay tithes then you need to become a Jew, which means you have be CIRCUMCISED and keep the LAW OF MOSES (Heb 7:5; Deut 4:1-9) - So to pay tithes the way the bible says to, you must be a circumcised, law keeping Jew. Now ask yourself: – Are you really paying tithes the way the bible says to? And now that you know what that entails... – do you really want to pay them the way the bible says to?? Furthermore... – does the bible say you as a gentile Christian believer, have to??? Should I pay tithes? If you are a gentile Christian, the bible teaches that you should not pay tithes because tithing was a commandment for circumcised Jews under the law. Hebrews 7 5And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren Christians, you must realize that tithing is one of the Levitical laws for the Jews, which Christ has done away with! Tell me: - do you still have to kill an animal if you sin? NO! - do you still have to ritually cleanse yourself if you touch a dead body? NO! - does a woman have to leave the camp during her customary impurity? NO! Why don’t we have to do these things anymore?? Because Christ did away with these Levitical precepts! Seeing as how the commandment to pay tithes is one of these Levitical precepts, why do you think you still have to keep that precept, and not the others I mentioned above?? You cant just pick one law (i.e. tithing) and say “were free from all those other laws, but were not free from the law of tithing”! The fact is that for true believers, Christ has set us free from these Levitical Laws. Christ kept them for us, and now we are FREE in Christ! In fact, In Hebrews chapter 7, the LORD is STRIVING the point that Tithing is ONLY for the Jews! Notice these verses: 5And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren So we can see JEWS are commanded to pay tithes under the LAW. 11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), Again, its striving the point that the Levitical priests (to whom tithes are paid) are under the LAW. 12For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. Here is plainly stating there has been a CHANGE OF LAW! 14For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. It states Christ came from Judah which had NOTHING spoken concerning the LEVITE PREISTHOOD (and the whole chapter has been showing that tithes are to be paid TO LEVITE PREISTS) – so if Jesus had NOTHING spoken concerning the priesthood, then He had spoken NOTHING concerning the tithes who are paid to the Levite Priests! 18For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness If you read back through verse 1-17, ONLY two times the word “commandment” is mentioned are: once in verse 16 and once verse 5 where it mentions the COMMANDENT TO TITHE! And Verse 18 clearly states that the FORMER COMMANDMENT IS ANNULLED!!! Many pastors preach from Malachi, and they try and make you think that your robbing God if your not paying your tithes to their church each week. Well, Christians are NOT robbing God if they don’t pay tithes – only JEWS were! And were not robbing God of money – because God never asked us to tithe money!!! He didn’t even ask us to tithe!!! Tithing is only for Christians who want to go back under the law – the same Levitical Laws which Christ died to set us free from! And we know what Paul says in Galatians about going back to the Law! He even strives the point that if we go back under even ONE, then we have to KEEP THEM ALL!!! (Gal 3:10; 5:3) And He even says we are cursed if we do this! Ask yourself – do you really want to be under the Law that badly?? One of the Levitical Laws which Christ died to set you free from was tithing! Please know the Truth on this matter - you are free in Christ from the Law of tithing. There is no bondage to pay tithes. You now have the liberty do as Christ taught – to give according to need. If you see someone hungry or in need – YOU GIVE TO THEM! The New Testament teaches that we as saints are to give according to need! This is the law of liberty regarding giving that we have in Christ! Praise the LORD! In fact the NT ministry was supported solely by freewill offerings (Matthew 6:25-34; Lk 10:4-8; Acts 4:32-35, 20:33-35; 2 Cor 8:2-15, 9:6-12, 11:8-9; 1 Jn 3:17-18) and not by some tithing system. Amen. In regards to the above-mentioned main aspects of tithing, there are also small variations on these rules as you read the Law of Moses. For example, in one instance tithing is mentioned to be yearly. And in another instance, tithes are to be given to the Levite priests and to the poor of the land. Also, when the Israelites weren’t able to travel to the temple, they were allowed to sell their tithes (i.e. convert the food to money!) and spend it on themselves and buy whatever they wanted. Email Phil: valuecard2@hotmail.com My website: http://www.freewebs.com/streetpreachingbrisbane/