52 Lies Heard In Church Every Sunday - Plain Truth Ministries

giving a tenth of their income
away in ministry (or if it is a
meaningful practice for them).
The question is whether or
not we have to. The teaching
I’m challenging is whether
God commands believers to
tithe. If He does, then those
who don’t tithe are living in
disobedience to God.
Where tithing is taught as a
command, this is the passage
almost always used in support:
“Will a man rob God Yet
you are robbing Me! But you
say, ‘How have we robbed
you’ In your tithes and contributions.
You are cursed
with a curse, for you are robbing
me, the whole nation of
you! Bring the full tithe into
the storehouse, so that there
may be food in my house.
And thereby put me to the
test,” says the Lord of hosts,
“if I will not open the windows
of heaven for you and
pour down for you a blessing
until there is no more need. I
will rebuke the devourer for
you, so that it will not destroy
the fruits of your soil,
and your vine in the field
shall not fail to bear,” says
the Lord of hosts. “Then all nations
will call you blessed, for you will be
a land of delight,” says the Lord of
hosts (Malachi 3:8-12, ESV).
The context is God rebuking the
nation of Israel for her unfaithfulness
to the old covenant. The Lord
spoke this message through
Malachi, one of the last Old Testament
prophets, around 400 b.c.
Let’s take a moment to recall
how Israel was to live. God separated
one tribe, Levi, out of the nation
to serve as priests and teachers
of the people. From the Levites
came the line of high priests who
descended from Aaron. They were
responsible for the formal worship
at the tabernacle and temple. Unlike
the other tribes, all of whom
received a portion of the land, the
Levites were distributed in cities
throughout the nation, and they
were forbidden to work as the others
did (for instance, they were not
allowed to farm). How were the
Here’s a serious hot potato! There are
few ways more guaranteed to get people
upset than to talk about their money.
Even questioning the validity of tithing
can get you into trouble in a hurry.
continuous worship system and
Levites to be supported It was
through the tithes of the rest of
the people.
That’s why the Law of Moses
commands the Israelites to bring
tithes of all their blessings to “the
storehouse.” The storehouses were
literally places to receive the people’s
tithes of grain, fruit, wine,
sheep, cattle, and so on, for distribution
to the Levites and priests—to
support the worship and sacrifices
at the sanctuary and for the support
of the priests and Levitical
families. It was a very practical system.
But this was a feature of the
Law of Moses, the old covenant.
And notice, there was nothing voluntary
about it. The tithe for Old
Testament Israel was no more optional
than what you or I must
give to the Internal Revenue Service
when we pay our taxes. The
tithe from Israel was mandatory,
not an option.
As we have seen so many
times in this book, we do not
live under the Law. We live in
the age of the new covenant,
and the New Testament after
the cross and resurrection is
where we learn principles of
living that apply directly to us.
I know somebody is going to
say, “Now wait a minute,
Steve! You’re saying tithing is
old covenant, but they tithed
even before the Law was
given.” Well, that’s true.
Tithing was fairly common in
the ancient world for the support
of one’s religion and to
recognize one’s sovereign.
There is the well-known example
of Abraham giving a tithe
to the priest-king Melchizedek
following his military victory
in Genesis 14:17-20. This is
how some teachers argue that,
since this was before the Law
of Moses, the principle continues
after the Law of Moses.
But may I point out a few
things They also sacrificed
animals before the Law was
given. I don’t hear anybody at
church on Sunday insisting
that we ought to be sacrificing
animals today. God gave Abraham
the practice of circumcision
centuries before the Law, but I
don’t hear preachers demanding
that today. Also existing before the
Law were the practices of
polygamy and levirate marriage
(where a surviving brother must
marry his dead brother’s wife). So
the fact that something was practiced
before the Law means nothing
in regard to whether the
principle continues after the Law.
And one more thing: Did you
know that according to the Bible,
the tithe actually was not just 10
percent There were additional
tithes throughout the year. So if
you add up all the tithes that they
gave, it amounted to around 22
percent! So if they only gave 10
percent, they were still robbing
God, according to Malachi 3:10. Is
there any verse in the Scripture
that’s been used to beat people
over the head more about money
than that
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