A CLOSER LOOK AT TITHING
EXPOSING THE ERRORS
By: Victor T. Stephens
"People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up."
~ George R.R. Martin
OLD TESTAMENT TITHING DURING THE MOSAIC LAW (continued)
Old Testament Tithing Versus Church Tithing
I've heard numerous sermons on tithing and have discovered that many leaders in the church have an inaccurate and limited perception of biblical tithing. Modern-day teachings that assert or suggest believers pay monetary tithes do not contrast with the old covenant tithing instructions given to Israel.
Some time ago I was engaged in a very brief email conversation with Mr. Frank Cox, Pastor of "North Metro First Baptist Church" in Lawrenceville, Georgia. I contacted him and respectfully refuted several errors he made during a sermon where he attempted to justify tithing for the new covenant church. Reluctant to address my repudiations, Mr. Cox's response was:
“Thanks for your input. I wish you well on your journey.”
Mr. Cox's evasive approach to a doctrinal rebuttal is of no surprise. Wayward ignorance, ignoring correction, and their continuing propagation of error are frequent behaviors of false teachers. In the words of Upton Sinclair:
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
Mr. Sinclair is right on point. Many leaders in the Church conveniently do not understand the biblical tithe was not used to pay salaries, erect, and maintain buildings. Throughout the old covenant law, the purpose of tithing was to fairly compensate an equitable supply of food to the Levites, strangers, widows, and orphans in the land of Israel (Num. 18:24; Deut. 14:28-29; 26:12-13).
As we learned earlier, there was one tithe used for two distinct purposes. Let us now examine each purpose and some important surrounding details of tithing that God gave to Israel. We will then contrast these points with the manner of tithing in many of today’s churches.
Purpose and Pattern 1
Each year of a seven-year tithing cycle, Israel traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Ingathering, known as the Feast of Tabernacles. During years one and two and four and five, the people were required to include their tithes with various yearly offerings. While in Jerusalem, the Israelites and the local Levites who accompanied them to the festivities consumed their tithe and other offerings. During the celebration, the people of Israel shared their tithes with the local Levites since they received no land inheritance.
Before their journey to Jerusalem, provisions could be made for the Israelites to exchange their tithes for money (Deut. 14:25). The only condition that warranted such an arrangement was transportation difficulties. Once exchanged, the Israelites would purchase the required substances (food items) after arriving at the central place of worship.
When we hear a sermon on tithing, the vast majority of congregations will scarcely hear Deuteronomy 14:26 read in their churches. However, I am sure some of you heard tithing advocates say, "Your tithe belongs to God. Don't ever eat your seed or you will be cursed. Tithing is for your own benefit!" Is tithing actually for your benefit or the benefit of the pastor’s bank account? Some pastors deceitfully use this type of pseudo-psychological rhetoric to threaten and brainwash believers into handing over ten percent of their incomes.
Let us now take another look at Deuteronomy 14:22-27:
"You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you."
(Deut. 14:22-27)
Here, we have documented proof from the Word of God that illustrates instances where the Israelites were permitted to eat their tithes. And it is interesting to note that they were required to be consumed at the central place of worship --- a practice that has no congruency to the manner of tithing today. How can this observation be overlooked by so many purportedly knowledgeable "men of God?" It is apparent that many leaders in the church carefully elect which tithing verses to employ and twist to their financial advantage.
Purpose and Pattern 2
Let us take another look at Deuteronomy 14 and Deuteronomy 26.
"At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." (Deut. 14:28-29)
"When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year -- the year of tithing -- and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the LORD your God: 'I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.'" (Deut. 26:12-13)
The Israelites did not transport their tithes to Jerusalem during years three and six of a seven-year tithing cycle. Instead, they were stored locally and given to the Levites, the stranger, the fatherless, and widows who lived within each tribal community. Contrary to popular opinion, it was only during the third and sixth years that tithing was fully payable ("the year of tithing"). This averages to about 3.33% per year.
Since most church leaders allege that monetary tithing is valid today, do they teach their congregations to tithe every three years and share their tithes with "the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow?"
Of course not! They want a full ten percent of your monetary income so that they can use it according to their agendas. Thus again, we must take note of the fact that the practice of tithing in our modern churches has no resemblance to the methods of tithing in ancient Israel.
Other Considerations
Let us now consider other details associated with tithing under the Mosaic Law and compare them to the current paradigm of church tithing. If tithing is currently a valid principle for Christians, there should be a legitimate parallel between the two systems.
First Consideration
There was no full-scale tithing by the Israelites during the seventh year of a seven-year tithing cycle. Furthermore, there was no full-scale tithing every fiftieth Jubilee year. These were the Sabbath and Jubilee years expressed in Exodus 23 and Leviticus 25.
"Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove." (Exodus 23:10-11)
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land... all its produce shall be for food.'" (Lev. 25:2-7)
'And if you say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?" Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.'"
(Lev. 25:20-22)
"That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine." (Lev. 25:11)
The passages above indicate that the entire harvest tithe remains in the ownership of the Israelites since God does not require it during the seventh year of each tithing cycle and the fiftieth Jubilee year. It was permissible to work the land for the first six years, but during the seventh and fiftieth years, the Lord commanded that the land observe a rest period. The Israelites could not plant or harvest anything that grew of itself. Thus, there was a cancellation of tithes from produce during those specific years.
"Based on the cycle of working six out of seven days, Israel was to work for six years and then rest during the seventh year, the Sabbatical, when no fields were to be sown and no full-scale reaping was to occur. Both people and animals were to eat of what grew in the fields. Everyone was to rest, Israelites and their servants as well as their livestock."
(Baker Commentary on the Bible, The Sabbath Year and Jubilee, p.82 [Walter A. Elwell, Editor])
To prevent a deficiency of food during the Sabbath and Jubilee years, every sixth year and forty-eighth year, God enabled the land to produce a bountiful quantity of sustenance that would be adequate to compensate for the years in which the land rested. What the land yielded on its own during these years supplied food for the Israelites, their servants, the hired workers, the poor, wild animals, and temporary guests who resided with them. In the ninth year and fifty-first year the people of Israel recommenced tithing from the new crops that were harvested.
Since church leaders allege that Christians are required to tithe money, we should ask the following questions:
a. What portion of one's monetary salary is exempt from tithing every seventh and fiftieth year?
b. Are Christians required to refrain from working every seventh and fiftieth year?
c. Is God blessing all Christians with an enormous quantity of money every six years to offset any shortage of funds during each seventh and eighth year?
d. If tithing money applies to Christians, are they not breaking the law for tithing during every seventh and fiftieth year?
e. If tithing money does not apply to Christians, are not church leaders breaking God's law by adding to or deleting from His word? (Proverbs 30:6)
Proponents of church tithing have no desire to address or apply these facets of the Mosaic tithing laws for ancient Israel. That is understandable since the answers to these questions further indicate today's version of monetary tithing lacks conformity to the legislation under the Mosaic Law. So remarkable is the disparity that any reasonable biblical scholar would question how tithing is taught and practiced today.
