The tithe of ancient Israel was the same as our income tax today. Because Israel was a theocracy, the priests did the administering of the law and welfare system (widows, orphans, etc.) and also took their living from the tithe -- exactly the same as government officials do today.
Historically, in America, it has been when the church(es) stopped caring for the people in their community, whether or not they were members of that church, that the government found it necessary to step in and start caring for its population. In this sense, the churches have given up their right to that money by abandoning their responsibility of caring for the community in which God has planted them. Instead, most fund missionaries, social programs, 'church outreach', and church maintenance. None of those is bad, it's just that the church's first responsibility outside of its own memebers should be to its neighbors, not itself and not those around the world.
The 'storehouse', by the way, was used to feed people. The grains and other non-immediately-perishable goods were put there for use by the community as needed and the priests and temple caretakers as needed.
Now, Jesus fulfilled the LAW, but that did not abolish it, number one, and since He commanded we love our neighbors as ourselves, that commandment certainly applies not only to church members but to the church itself.
Inasmuch as the church abrogates that responsibility and government has to pick it up, or individual Christians, seeing a need and moving to fill it, pick it up, the church has given up its right to the tithe.
That being said, everything we have belongs to the Lord. It just doesn't belong to the church! In too many cases there is a distinct difference, dear pastors.
Case in point: my husband before left us 11 1/2 years ago. There is a Baptist church down the road that we used to attend. I had been asked to be deaf interpreter at another church and that was a real need and the church was a good Christian church, so I agreed. My children still went to Awana at the Baptist church every week for years, participating in almost every activity, competition, etc. They would rather consistently ask for prayer for me because of various problems we were having learning to cope as a single parent family. NOT ONCE did any member or the pastor or any person from that church even call, let alone inquire to see if they could help. However the 'pagan' manager of the nearby Safeway made sure we had enough food. The non-Christian owner of Midas Muffler made sure my car was in working order. That was interesting.
Case in point: my husband now is an Australian and a wonderful Christian man. In Australia it is illegal to sell day-old baked goods, so for many, many years, he would collect unsold goods at the end of the day several times a week from a couple of different bakeries and personally spend until about one in the morning delivering the goods to various needy families within about a 20 mile radius of his home. Some never even knew he was a physicist -- he was just "Barry the bread man"! The churches did not help these people because they were not members. However every single family is now Christian thanks to my husband's consistent caring and witness and prayers with and for them.
Case in point: one of the families bread was (and still is) delivered to is that of a Zimbabwean man in medical school. He already had a degree in mathematics and was married to a lovely wife, a nurse, and they had two sons. He is a devout Christian and was sure the Lord was telling him to go into medical school because that was so needed in his country. So when he got accepted by the University of Adelaide, with funding provided by his government and a private donor, he moved his family to Adelaide Australia and started school.
The Zimbabwean government collapsed, as did their economy. The private funding also reneged on the promise of money. Daniel was left in a strange country as a student with no income and no help but his faith that God would provide. Barry and I stepped in and individually and privately we have picked up all his medical school expenses. It has cost us almost everything. We cannot even spend much time together as we both care for autistic relatives in our respective countries and do not have the funds now to travel to see each other. But we know this is what God has shown us there is a need for, and no church was willing. We have asked churches here in the United States and in Australia for help. I have mentioned the need here. There has been no response except 'no' or silence from every single person and church. Daniel is one of the finest, most faithful Christian brothers I have ever met -- determined to do what the Lord has led him to do.
And then I read pages of ministers saying the tithe should be paid.
Sirs, everything we own belongs to God. That's number one. Number two is that the churches have given up their right to a tithe by their handling of the monies they have gotten in the vast majority of cases. Number three, God is leading individuals to do what the churches should be doing, thus using the money that way in many cases.
Sorry to be so blunt, but it's time someone said some of these things. Are we, or am I, bitter? No, not at all. How many times can two people help an entire country? It is a great privilege and we know that, even though the price is very high. But we are both very sad by the necessity of what we are doing.
In Christ,
Helen and Barry Setterfield
