Thursday, August 23, 2007
Storehouse tithing??
"At the outset let me say that the 'church' is not a 'depository' for the money of the saints nor can it be proven from the scripture that any New Testament church had an ongoing regular treasury. Some have taught that the only way that a person can properly 'give' of their funds to the LORD is to bring them to the 'local church' so that they might be deposited in that organization’s bank account. This idea is generally built on the old testament concept of bringing all the tithes into the 'storehouse' (see Mal. 3:10). The problem with this teaching is that nowhere can a parallel be made between the New Testament assembly of the saints and the Old Testament treasury or storehouse. Nor can it be shown that the New Testament church is an 'organization' (which is a whole new topic to be discussed at another time). On top of that there is no command in the New Testament requiring or asking GOD’s people to tithe their money or any example of an ongoing and regular collection of funds in the assembly of the saints. This is probably quite a shocking statement to those who have long sat under ministries which spend a great deal of time emphasizing 'ten percent' giving even to the point of promising great reward to those who do and certain leanness to those who don’t." -- Mike McInnis, Mike's Wayfarer blog
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10 comments:
You are exactly right. The Temple-building-storehouse concept of the Old Covenant was replaced by the temple-body of the believer in the New Covenant. The NT church did not even have buildings for worhsip for over 200 years and then they were soon burned to the ground. The worse lie about Mal 3:10 ignores the guilty party, the priests, from 1:13, 14 and Neh 13:5-10. It also ignores the fact that the people were comamanded to bring their tithes to the Levitical cities and not to thte temple per Neh 10:37. Only Levites with priesst brought portions of the tithe to the Temple per Neh 10:38. Nobody points that out! Russell Earl Kelly, PHD. Author of Should the Church Teach Tithing?
Russell, welcome to 'Seeking the Old Paths', and thanks for commenting and making those points. Tell us, where can we obtain your book, Should the Church Teach Tithing?
Thanks.
No where in the NT are we commanded to tithe. What it does command is to love one another and love our neighbor as ourself. Could it be that NT "tithing" is meant for the needs of the saints, rather than the needs of the storehouse? In Acts we find that all the needs of the saints were taken care of by the church. Were they giving (tithing) to the needs of the saints so that no one lacked anything? I think so.
Guy, I think you are correct. Probably the bulk of references to giving by New Testament Christians was about meeting the needs of the saints. Much of today's motive for tithing is meeting the needs of the budget.
Russell, I hope you will make it back for more discussion. In the meantime, I was able to find online information about your book, Should the Church Teach Tithing?
Thanks.
I agree that the tithe is an Old Testament teaching, but I also teach that giving the tithe to the local church is minimum giving. We still have offerings on top of that.
The tithing church never has need of further financing, IF it remains true to the original function of the church..A meeting place, and not a castle. A place to pray, and to prey upon peoples.
I would rather function in a plain building and have monies for missions than have pride in a great modern ediface to elevate pride and worldly functions.
Cheers,
Jim
PS I never advertised my needs in public, but trusted God fully to meet them. He never failed!
I'm a little late on this comment but only found the blog a couple of days ago. Here goes:
With all that has been said above; does anyone wish to tackle Faith Promise Missions Giving?
Alan, thanks for the question, and welcome to my blog. Check out this link where I posted on faith promise giving back in March of last year and see if that addresses your question.
Again, thanks. Have a nice day.
R. L.
Sorry I did not see your remarks. I wish your site had a reminder of follow-up posts. I am trying to monitor many blogs at once. I will be glad to join your conversation but need to be reminded through email. My web site is solely dedicated to tithing and has many articles. It is www.shouldthechurchteachtithing.com I have several copes of the book at a great discount. May God bless you. Russell Earl Kelly, PHD
Brother Kelly,
Thanks for your reply. There may be a way to set my site for reminder of follow-up posts. I'll look into it. Thanks for dropping by and commenting, and please do so as often as you're interested.
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