Kleptomaniac

Historical evidence proves tithing money did not exist in congregations as a practice among first century New Testament believers. This fact cannot be ignored because no verse in the entire Bible argues for a tithe of money. In Greek, church is defined as a group of people called Ekklesia, which means called out ones or congregation. Ernest L. Martin refutes tithing and writes:

When you research the history of first century believers and how they conducted financial matters, it is apparent they knew it was illegal for them to commute the livestock and crop tithe to money tithing. It appears that institutional religion rejected other means of support and co-opted the Old Testament tithe by redefining into a money collection to feed the institutional church juggernaut. For them to teach money tithing and claim that the Levite tithe inheritance somehow passed on to the New Testament church or preacher is kleptomania. They knew they were not Levites and that the tithe belonged to the tribe of Levi, which God ordained as their inheritance.

The Bible has a clear warning to those who call themselves pastors. Jeremiah 50:6 states, “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds [pastors] have led them astray, [in tithing] turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold” (ESV).

You have probably heard many tithing testimonies but have not given serious thought about the accuracy of those testimonies. In a religious environment, it is assumed that everything a pastor or teacher says is true because they are believed to be credible authority figures. What follows is a series of pro-tithing statements from leaders in the church. Based on exegesis, hermeneutics, the land, the language and the literature of the Hebrew people, these tithing arguments are spurious.

This statement seems biblical and plausible; however, it is not true. When you work for money, you are selling your labor to man for a price. Therefore, you can’t produce money from your labors but you can earn money from your labor. Israel tithed from God’s labor. The Israelite farmer’s crops and animals were their farm assets not income. The farmer’s income came from the sale or barter exchange of those assets. What a farmer received from the barter exchange or sale would be the farmer’s income. The income was NOT what God wanted tithed but rather the assets (crops and livestock), which came from God’s hands as miracles. Here is an example: Fruit is not a payment or compensation. Fruit is classified as an asset because it is property, a product. The sale or exchange of the fruit would create income. There are no Scriptures showing Israel selling crops and cattle and taking the money from the sale and giving a tenth to the temple or to the Levites as a tithe. If you study every money verse in the Bible, it was never a titheable item. For example, Joseph gave Benjamin 300 pieces of silver (Genesis 45:22). According to Genesis 47:15-17, food was used for barter only after money had run out. Banking and usury laws exist in Leviticus even before tithing. Therefore, the argument that money was not prevalent enough for everyday use is false. Yet the tithe contents from Leviticus to Luke never includes money from non-food products and trades. The only mandatory tithe in the Old Testament is eatable items (crops and livestock).

According to Scripture, tithing was mandatory only for those who owned land and grew crops and raised livestock in the Old Testament inside Israel. There are no implied or direct mandatory commands to tithe money from the Apostles in any of the Epistles. To assert that tithing money is mandatory in the New Testament is an argument from silence in the Scriptures. Tithing is mandatory in the Old Testament under the law and not mandatory under the New Testament because it was not passed down. The New Testament encourages giving from the heart as outlined by Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:7. If Paul wanted to drive home a tithing argument, his style of direct and to the point writing would have been clear because the text would possibly read: “So let each one give a tithe as God commanded.” When Paul says give what you decide in your heart, he is emphasizing freewill grace giving not percentage based giving.

In his book, Unmasking Traditional Untruths About Tithing, Byron J. Shorter, exegetically argues that “Paul pushes free-will giving by writing the words ‘he purposes’ from the KJV, which the Greek translates as ‘proiareo.’ It means to choose before, or to resolve before, that is in one’s heart. The giver chooses the amount to give. When Paul says that giving should not be in a grudging manner, he literally means giving should not be done out of grief. The Greek word for grief is ‘lupe’ which means, ‘a state of unhappiness marked by regret as a result of what has been done.’ If regret or grief is experienced after giving then it was never given from the heart but as a result of pressure or a law. When the KJV uses the words ‘nor of necessity,’ the word is translated in the Greek as ‘anagke,’ which means ‘an obligation or a compelling nature, complete obligation, or necessary obligation.’ Therefore, giving should not have a hint of compelling or necessary obligation and tithing is a compelling obligation based on the law. Finally, Paul says God loves a cheerful giver. So the believer can only give from a cheerful heart, which is the Greek word ‘hilaros.’ It is also where we get the word hilarious. Hilaros means happy, glad or cheerful state of mind. No one can happily and authentically give 10 percent of their income under the guise of obligation, compulsion and fear that is required by law with curses attached if it is not done.