Persistent Tithe Questions
I went back and was listening again to your podcast series on the Adventist Beliefs and heard the one on stewardship.
For the longest time I lived in guilt about the topic of tithe, and I feel like the Adventist church made it a trusting-in-God issue. I felt like I was missing out on an opportunity to grow my faith when I didn’t have the money to pay tithe. The church doctrine made me think that I should pay tithe over paying the necessities I need in my life and not to worry because God will come through for me, and I will get the money I need.
After listening to this podcast, I understand that this is not a requirement as a Christian, but how come some non-Adventist churches still do this? I totally understand that supporting pastoral ministry in a Christian church should be by conviction, and we should give with a cheerful heart, but I just want to be clear: is the concept of tithing in the new covenant not biblical? I need to listen to the podcast again, but is wanted to hear from you as you grasp the concept more than I do.
I was actually confronted in a very friendly way by the treasurer of the Adventist church that I pastored as a very young pastor (at the time when I was having financial difficulty) to inquire why I was not paying tithe, and he said that God will provide for me, and I was to just give. I know he meant well, but there is still a pressure that came with it.
I am just wanting to make sure I took from your podcast presentation the right idea. Technically, tithe is not something that is required or requested of a Christian, but rather giving is a free gift of the heart in order to support the work of Christ in a Christian church, right?
Please correct me and point me in the right direction if I am off.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Tithing. There’s no subject connected to the law besides the Sabbath and the food laws that is so defended within Adventism.
Tithing is explained to Israel in lots of detail in Leviticus 27, Numbers 18:21–26, and Deuteronomy 12, 14, and 26. It was clearly connected to the agrarian life of Israel and was also connected with the principle of the firstborn of herds and flocks belonging to the Lord. Tithing and the laws of the firstborn were also closely connected to the levitical priesthood—God redeemed the Israelites’ firstborn by saying the levites were His and were His provision for the redemption of the firstborn. Then those levites (both priests and the temple workers) were supported by the tithes of Israel.
Deuteronomy also explains how the tithe could be saved and used by the Israelites to pay for their own celebrations if they were unable to travel to Jerusalem to deliver the tithes themselves. We never learned these things about Israel’s tithing system as Adventists. It was inseparable from the Mosaic covenant and the system of the levitical priesthood.
In the New Covenant, there is no command to pay tithe. There are rather detailed instructions to the Corinthians, for example, about making sure they give generously and without compulsion, that the believers’ abundance would be a supply for their suffering believers, and their eventual abundance would be a supply for those who first gave. (See 2 Corinthians 9.) In the new covenant everything we have is the Lord’s; He doesn’t give us a legal percentage we are to pay, but we are told to decide what we can give and to be generous.
Our giving in the new covenant is for the purpose of supporting our fellow believers and for the increase of thanks to God among believers. We owe Him all that we have, and He teaches us individually what to give.
Many churches continue to teach tithing—but many churches are unclear about the complete obsolesce of the Mosaic Law in the new covenant as well. You’ll find a lot of Christian churches who teach the Ten Commandments as a rule of faith and practice for the church, although there are some pastors who do not. But tithing is a concept that is useful for making people feel that they owe the church at least 10%—not to mention that teaching 10% helps people remember to give regularly. The New Covenant as explained in the New Testament, however, never teaches tithing or a law-based system of giving.
Once again, this whole subject is connected to the covenant that is in effect. Israel was under the law, and the books of the law included the rules for tithing. We are now under the new covenant if we are born again through faith in Jesus alone. We are no longer under law, but we live, as 2 Corinthians 3 explains, by the law of the Spirit. We are literally new creations, and the Spirit Himself indwells us—a phenomenon that did not occur in the old covenant. The indwelling Spirit is the seal of God validating that we are His and that we are under the authority of God Himself because we have been cleansed by Jesus’ blood and given His resurrection life. We live in a completely new covenant, and the New Testament describes how we who are spiritually alive are to live. The Spirit in us convicts us and teaches us, and He makes God’s word come alive in us—and He teaches us to give generously as He supplies. Second Corinthians 8 and 9 gives a lot of detail about new covenant giving in the body of Christ.
The new covenant does not remove our command from God to give generously. If anything, we realize more clearly that everything we have is His. His Spirit convicts us individually of our fellow believers’ needs, and God increases our “seed for sowing” so that we can give generously and without compulsion from a grateful and cheerful heart.
Podcast Ministers So Much
You two are ministering so much to me in my current life. I wish I could give you ladies a hug. A huge thank you, and God bless you.
—VIA YOUTUBE
Praise to the Father for what you are doing to step up and take the truth and expose the lies and trauma of what this false religion has spread. Love you.
—VIA YOUTUBE
Confusing Cult
I continue to ask my Adventist friends, “What was wrong with the apostolic church?”
I never get an answer. Adventism is a very confusing cult.
—BENSON, AZ
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