Tithing

If it's income to you, then give the "first fruits" of it to God.

 

I am glad you said "virtually". As treasurer of my church I know there is at least one church where the pastor does not have access to who gives what. The financial records are locked up in my house. I also do no even keep a record of who has given what in the past so that even I do not have that record. Every penny is accounted for and reported to the church monthly. We know where every penny is spent. There is an amount ($200 or less) which CAN be spent each month at the discretion of the deacons as a benevolent fund and they do not have to report publicly WHERE the money went and that is just to protect the privacy of someone who was in need.

 

Amen! We should definitely tithe on the gross of our pay. Tithing on the net is the devil's way of trying to tempt you into what messed up Cain in the book of Genesis, that is cutting corners on what you give to God. Just consider what you are doing. You would be in effect telling God that the percentage the government gets from you is more important than what He gets. The government takes their percentage from your gross and so it should be with the percentage God gets. The tendency to fall for this shortchanging God is what has happened in this country in it's inability to recognize what is honorable and dishonorable and it seems the increasing acceptance of the corrupting influence of money is so often behind it. Shorting God in tithing is just the tip of the iceberg. I believe it is very well possible that if you tithe only on your net pay instead of the gross you may not receive any blessing from God at all and in fact it may be a negative instead of any kind of positive. Don't even go there, pay from the gross and do honor to God in your tithing.

 

Whenever you receive money, then you should tithe from it.

I think each person needs to decide that for themselves. My mother has been a devout churchgoer and tither all her life. Any inhieritance I receive will be from money that she already tithed from. I don't think anyone has the scriptural right to tell me I must tithe from it. But I probably will, when the time comes. I know the church could use it.

Now, here's a thought: Inhieritance is not income per se. It's a gift, freely given to you be another. If, for example, my mother leaves me her car in her estate, am I required to tithe 10% of the value of that car? If I win a free trip to Europe, am I required to tithe a percentage of its value?

No situation is the same. I think that if people insist hard fast rules in these matters, then there's a bit of legalism going on. I will always suggest that a person give a portion of whatever they receive (and not just money). But to require it as a rule, I think that's a bit legalistic.

I agree with Helen. It's God's money (and things). Care for those around you. And ask God what He wants you to do with His money and possessions. Give all you can, and do all you can. Let others do the same.

 

I've have a hypothetical question - What if we lived in a State that taxed 90% of our income off the top? Are we to tithe net or gross then?

 

Tithe from what you receive. Leave the number crunching to the number crunchers (aka, give to ceasar what is ceasar's). If you get a check for ten bucks, give a buck. God doesn't keep score.

 

In the Old Testament, the land was apparently not tithed. One could see the tithes of crops and herds as compensation to God for using His land. The Levites did not receive an inheritance of land in Israel, though they did get some towns. If every bit of land were tithed everyone someone died, The Levites would have owned most of the land after several generations.

I do not see where tithing monetary income is clearly demanded in the Old Testament. Tithing generally referred to crops and herds. There were occasions where the spoils of war were tithed. I do not see a clear case for merchants having to tithe their monetary income under the law, for example.

Why is it that tithing proponents always demand cash income, and no one ever asks you to plop one out of ten tomatoes from the garden into the offering plate? Why is it they demand tithes, but do not tell you to pay them to descendants of Aaron, like Mr. Cohen at the local synagogue.

 

Besides my being too much of a skeptic to take anybody's 'word for it,' I have some examples where pastors gave themselves away after making that statement. One of them was claiming there was a man who wanted to be a deacon, and everybody in the church knew him and liked him, and not pastor or anyone understood why he got "not a sniff of a vote" when deacon nominations were open. He went on to say that it was because the man was not a tither; but then he "forgot his ambition to be a deacon and decided what he really wanted was to be right with God...so the old boy started tithing, and the next year when the deacon nominations were taken up he nearly led the ballot!" But then the pastor's voice and expression changed and he stammered out "Oh, uh, the way I found that out was I asked the treasurer, 'Why did he start gittin' votes all at once like this?'"

Pastors are too accustomed to speaking straight on unchallenged, and occasionally they make a mistake that a keen observer can detect. But anyway, even if the story is true as the pastor told it, all he said was that he "wasn't a tither" before. That could mean he was non-giver, a 5 percenter, an 8 percenter, or maybe just that he 'tithed' off his net instead of his gross. Regardless, the pastor would also have to know his income to know if he were a tither, or definitely that he had become a tither; so that pastor knew plenty during the time he claimed to not know what anybody gives. [Going beyond the scope of the topic, it's silly also to deliberately indicate that becoming a tither will cause people to vote for one as a deacon, or keep people from voting for one if one doesn't. If there is any truth to that part of the story, then I think it was an exaggeration that he was so well liked, and probably he began to straghten out in a lot of ways and people noticed.]

Not if you itemize and you deduct your contributions ['tithes']. And whether you do or not, most of us are probably near the 15% bracket in income taxes. Are you claiming we must give a greater percentage to our church than we give to our government? And then, some of us have state income taxes and some don't. Do people of the same income owe more because of their state's system of taxation? And maybe the biggest discrepancy of all, some of us have our insurance paid mostly by our employers [not too many have it fully paid by them anymore], but some must pay all their own medical bills or insurance premiums. Does tithing work the same there? Do you add the value of the part the company paid for your insurance or are some exempt from tithe liability and while some aren't?

 

I only have 9 cows. How will I tithe?

 

I would beg to differ. Mama taught me to tithe out of everything I received. So, yes, if I have a bounty from my home garden, it is appropriate for me to give away a portion of that bounty. As a somewhat avid gardener, I think most people who have garden give away a fair portion of what they grow.

A tithe is supposed to be given to God. It is the tither who decides where his/her tithe should go. If it's to the local church, great. If it's to the boy scouts, great. If it's to the local homeless shelter, great. One caveat is that if a person is attending a church, then that person needs to help support the church. In the very least, we should be giving regularly to our church of attendance.

 

ALCOT I think guitarpreacher has the same philosophy as our pastor. Our church is VERY God centered !

After being hurt in a few Legalistic IFBC we sat down with the Pastor and deacons ( alot just with the Pastor ) and discussed many things. And this was one of them.

 

CAN WE STOP USING THE WORD TITHE !

No where in the new testiment are we commanded to TITHE !

GIVING is the principle, one of free will and with a cheerful heart.

 

The issue of whether tithing is still relevant, the concept of giving and tithing are two different things. An offering is given. A tithe is paid. I owe God for my very existence. I have no problem paying a tithe. I also give freely. I don't drop in 10% and pretend that it's a gift. No sir. It's the very least I should be doing for God.

I don't expect everyone to do the same as me. That's between then and the Lord. But, I do as I feel God has asked of me. It would be unroghteous and legalistic of me to insist that everyone else do as I do. However, it should be understood that a tithe and an offering are not the same thing.

 

Many people are getting legalistic in it by analyzing so many situations to wrangle out of giving a tithe. It is very simple. Just give back to God from what he has given you. From what He has blessed you with. Every thing you get is a blessing one way or another. The inheritance you got was not a blessing but what you deserved? The heavenly host chuckling, hey, you're brother could have got it all or someone else. Get real. 9 cows, tomatoes, whatever, perhaps give a whole cow, yea, maybe give more than you are technically supposed to but still God is a reasonable person. Do you suppose God might bless you for that? Value the cost of your tomatoes, apples or whatever if you want but why not just give some to your neighbors. Love your neighbor as yourself so don't give him the bruised ones on the ground give him some of the best. This is a matter of honor of the heart toward God, not a legalistic one. If you are dealing with numbers and wages it is not hard to get it correct but don't put Ceasar ahead of God. It is simple, not complex.

 

There is a group of people in this world who no longer tithe. They are the Jews. The ones to whom the law was given. Tithing is nolonger taught. Interesting that those who will still tell you they are under the Law of God do not tithe and so many of us who claim to under Grace teach tithing. Must be something we stole from the Catholics. History says they were the first to widely teach tithing and the Baptist and the Pres. ridiculed them for it. Maybe we just can't put any faith in God's people without coersion which is what a law does. Requires us to follow for fear of the penalty of not following. Sounds like the opposite of Grace to me.

 

Jews don't tithe? A coworker of mine is an orthodox jew. He's a faithful tither to his temple.

 

BTW the thing about the 9 cows was to make a point on the "technicality" of the subject which I thought was "should christians still tithe". The answer is that a person with only 9 cows would not tithe. This is of course in the technical aspect of this point of Jewish law we call tithing.

 

I thought there was only one temple?

 

John, how did you arrive at paying 10%?

 

Uhhh, You know what I mean. Synagogue. He's a faithful tither to his synagogue.

buckster, you do the best you can, and let no one judge you by it.