This was a question sent to me from Talitha, a very astute reader who said my arguments could be even stronger. Way to go, Talitha!
Hi my brother in Christ,
I just wanted to say thank you so much for the book that you have written and made available on the net. I am an elder/pastor of a church who is the only one of the group who doesn’t believe in ‘tithing’, and have received much derision because of this. It is great to come across an article which puts into the words all the previous study that I have done in this area.
Just a couple of thoughts I had about the tenets you mentioned on page 12. With tenet 2 I’m not sure we can say “The tithe is money” as you have mentioned, the tithe was food. I know you are trying to say that the ‘intent’ was the same, but God was very specific that it wasn’t money. I wonder why God didn’t make it money in the first place? As we know money existed then. I think it was because the basic needs were meant to be provided for – but a profit couldn’t be made from it, and it couldn’t be spent unwisely. Why did God set up a ‘tithing system’? I think the spiritual connection for us is that as the ‘Royal Priesthood’ God is our inheritance and our ‘food’ will always be provided for us.
Nowadays we think it is OK to translate it ‘Food = money’, however ‘time = money’ also. Would ‘tithing preachers’ accept people’s gift of time rather than their gift of money? It is also significant that it was only agricultural produce that was tithed on.
Some people may have had other industries – fishing, etc and may have only had a small garden (eg. the herbs of the Pharisees) so the total amount some people gave would have been far smaller that the 10% of their total ‘incomings’. if this makes sense. So I don’t think we can say that ‘The tithe is money’ – as it never was – the only time it was converted into money was when the load was too heavy to carry – and then it was converted back into food at the other end. Does this mean that the church should pay our ministers only with food – of course not – because we are not paying a tithe in the first place! It is interesting that when the Jesus sent the Disciples out – the thing that was provided for them was food.
Anyway, these are just some of my musings on the issue. Another thing people don’t consider when using Abraham as our example is that he also gave away the other 90%. Thanks again, I will be taking your notes to our next meeting,
Yours in Christ,
Talitha
One Comment
Here was my response to Talitha’s questions:
Talitha,
Thanks for the feedback. You know, I had trouble letting point #2 go as I was making my final edits. I really thought about making a bigger deal about the tithe being food. But instead, I figured that at least in principle, the tithe being ancient food vs. present-day money was an argument I would leave alone. That said, I agree with everything you wrote. And you would be correct to argue along those lines to someone else. I guess I kind of picked which battles I would fight, and that really wasn’t one of them. I had SO MUCH ammunition against
tithing I was willing to concede point #2 to a skeptic. I don’t know if you noticed, but in chapter 7 on pages 48-49 I make a big deal about the tithe being food in connection with Hebrews 13:10. In the book, I tried to assemble the “best of the best” arguments against tithing. Many other books against tithing are much longer than mine, because (as you noticed) just about everything about tithing preached today is wrong. I dropped whole chapters from earlier editions to keep the book “short and sweet”. However, if I get others who give me
similar feedback, I’ll probably go ahead and make a revision where I don’t concede tenet #2. Again, though, thanks for the note.
Let me know if you get pastors to reconsider their position on tithing. I have yet to come across an established ministry that actually changes their minds. Until then, let’s keep spreading the word!
Sincerely,
BDP