If your gross income is only 8,000 a year should you still pay tithes?

Malachi 3:8-10 is referencing the Levitical crops/livestock tithe system of the seven-year cycle, namely, the third-year tithes. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Christians. It has nothing whatsoever to do with money. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the church. There is absolutely nowhere in the Bible to prove this so-called "tithe" myth of a mandatory 10% of one's paycheck to a church treasury. Of course, the Bible talks about giving to the church, but the tithe has NOTHING to do with it in Scripture.

Please prove this assertion.

 

Boy, I've really been thinking about this and you've got me digging into my bible over it. I've always been taught that either: 1) the tithe is 10% of one's income and it should be given to the church; or 2) the tithe is in the OT and can be disregarded. But so far I cannot refute your statement you made earlier that the tithe has nothing whatsoever to do with money.

 

What do you think churches operate on? My church has us pledge an amount we are able to give and bases the next years budget on that pledge. Money doesnt grow on trees....duh! How do you think churches have money...its us that provide it .

 

To understand what Aresman is saying, you have to separate "tithing" from "giving". Your church operates on the money given by members and other supporters. Aresman says that tithing has nothing to do with money (and I think he may be right).

 

It is amazing when you do a little study on the subject how quickly you realize what a scam the modern church has run for years. I believe most do so honestly and with good intentions but the scripture to back it up is not there. JD you might find this book a great place to start:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0595159788/?tag=baptis04-20

 

I did say

There are many times in the New Testament where giving to the church is commended and expected. However the tithe has nothing to do with this. There is no mandate of 10% of one's monetary income to the church, because such a thing does not exist in the Bible, and is not what the Bible means when it references the tithe. If you have a passage to prove your assertion that Christians are in any way obligated to "tithe" of their monetary income to a church, then please present it. I have yet to find one, and believe me I have looked hard for one.

 

Of course, that is what I have been taught, and that is what I had always believed, until I actually studied the Scriptures for myself.

I was a member of a casual weekly Bible study about the church. I volunteered to study the tithing issue, expecting to find a lot of verses that talk about tithing money to a church. It did not take long in my study before I was totally shocked and floored at what I learned. I searched for every verse in the Bible that dealt with tithing and anything related to money. When I read all the tithing laws in the Old Testament, the history of Israel, and the prophets, then I really understood the context of certain verses that most people ignorantly read out of context.

Here is a list of all the tithing passages found in the Bible for study:

Gen 14:14-14 (Abraham's one-time tithe of the spoils of war to Melchizedek)
Gen 28:12-22 (Jacob's conditional and ambiguous vow to God)
Lev 27:30-34 (Tithes of crops and livestock; redeeming the crops, but not the livestock; the tenth, but not the best).
Num 18 (Levites with no inheritance in the land; they inherit the tithes; only they can enter the tabernacle; they must give the best tenth of their tithes to the priests)
Deu 12 (No tithing until entering the Promised Land; tithing feasts; eating clean and unclean animals)
Deu 14:22-27 (Annual tithe feast; convert to money only if having to travel far, then convert back; eat your own tithe with your household and rejoice; share with Levites because they have no inheritance)
Deu 14:28-29 (Tithe every three years given to the Levites and poor)
Deu 26:1-11 (Firstfruits placed in a basket, brought to the priest, vowed, and shared)
Deu 26:12-19 (Tithe every three years vow)
2 Chr 31 (King Hezekiah returns Israel to the law; third year tithe heaps in abundance; Hezekiah, to prevent waste, builds storehouse chambers in the Temple)
Neh 10 (After the Babylonian captivity, Nehemiah once again returns to the law and resumes tithing every three years to the storehouse chambers in the Temple; the people bring their tithes into the Levitical cities; The Levites bring their tithe of the tithes into the storehouse chambers in the Temple with the priests' supervision)
Neh 13 (Eliashib the priest, allied with Tobiah, builds his own chamber in the Temple and steals the tithes from the Levites who minister there; the Levites flee back to their fields; Nehemiah finds out, cleans out the false storehouse, and resumes tithing to the correct chambers)
Amo 4:4 (God mocks Israel for offering sacrifices and tithes in the wrong cities)
Malachi (God curses the priests for offering polluted bread and blemished animals on the altars, deceiving the people in being partial at the law, practicing and teaching divorce, and robbing the tithes from the storehouse chambers [Neh 13])
Mat 23:23; Luk 11:42 (Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees for rejecting the weightier matters of the law, but commends them for their tithing herbs)
Luk 18:9-14 (Jesus gives a parable of a Pharisee and a publican; the Pharisee boasted of his tithing, yet the publican was justified)
Heb 7 (Reference to Abraham's tithe of war spoils to Melchizedek; Levitical priesthood abolished as Jesus' priesthood and finished work bring a better covenant; the command to tithe disannulled)

 

It has been a while since I have been on this forum. The tithing issue has always been one of my hot buttons because it has been so abused by church leaders claiming to preach the truth.

First of all N.T. giving is what is practised in real churches today. That is giving as you purpose in your heart.

I was in an IFB Church that taught tithing as a commandment. We were told that if we didn't tithe we were robbing God. That no matter what our circumstances were, we were to give as 10% belonged to God. It didn't matter if we could pay for food or not. We were told we had to tithe in order to serve in church ministries. We were also bullied into the Faith Promise scam for missions. (signing an oath)

All the above is garbage and unbiblical. We are to give God our heart! Serve Him with time, talent and finances. We are expected to give as we are able. We will all stand before God. If a person sees a needy person struggling in the house of God it is ok to give a portion of what you were to give to help this person. The nonsense of bringing all the tithe into the storehouse is not N.T. Nor is the church the storehouse! We are to support our churches but we decide how our giving is distributed as long as God gets the glory.

 

Either way giving is giving, and it seems the op is saying not to give at all if the income is too low. Thats whats being addressed isn't it, if you ahve enough money to give God some through the church or not. The op says not.

 

If your gross income is only 8,000 a year should you still pay tithes?

 

It's hard to tell what a given person means when they use the word "tithes". It could mean "giving", or it could mean "10 percent", or it could mean tithing as in the OT. Makes discussions about it difficult.

 

With an annual earned income of $8,000 I think that the EIC payment should probably be at least 1/2 of that bumping up to earnings of $12,000 in the following year (I'm guesstimating) not including the additional child credit possibly increasing the following year's earnings to $14,000 (approximately) almost doubling you initial earned income. So do you tithe on all earnings before taxes including the tax credits? So instead of tithing (if we go with the 10% concept) $800.00 should you tithe $1,400 during the year? Just curious.

Another thought should people tithe Gross income or net?

 

Here's a dandy discussion of that question: http://www.reformed.org/webfiles/an.../webfiles/antithesis/v1n1/ant_v1n1_issue.html

 

The only problem with the article is I'm not talking about Adjust Gross Income (AGI) I'm talking about Gross income. And if you have investment income does God give you a capital gains tax reduction from 10% tithe? I mean the Fed Government taxes capital gains at a lower rate than regular earned income tax. So is investment income "tithed' at 9% or 5%. Also if you earn more than what is comonly earned by your lower middle class christians does God have a plan to increase your tithe kind of like an alternative minimum tithe? Curious about that as well.

 

I also wonder can you prepay your tithe and offset future income by it? Just curious.

 

Sounds like you found a winner! :thumbs:

 

Amen, Brother Ben............

 

When people have any income at all they should be giving to their church, when we had 2 children and less then $8,000 yr we gave to our church, and never did without anything we really needed, God took care of us. Giving is worship and trust in God, it is a growing expereince when we see God take care of our finacial needs. When we don't give of what we have we miss the oppertunity to worship God, we miss the oppertunity for the spiritual growth that comes from giving $$.

 

How about tax refund checks? I mean the theory goes you've already paid tithes on that income. So if you receive a refund do you pay tithes agian? Is it responcible to tithe on EIC when that was a gift of government to help those in financial distress. If you then pay a church out of that amount are you being irresponsible for the goverments gift to help you in your distress. The money was never meant for that purpose.