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Author Topic: Tithing  (Read 4914 times)

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Craig

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Tithing
« on: April 02, 2008, 09:01:49 PM »

Ray:            I took you up on your “offer” to ask my pastor about tithing. My wife and I do give to a local Baptist church here in Huntsville, Alabama and we give generously. However we do have a challenge this year. We will have three kids in college next year, so money will be a little “tight”. So I suggested to my wife that we pull back on our giving a little until we are “over the hump”.  Wrong suggestion! Needless to say my wife would have none of it. I tried walking my wife through the scriptures and she just didn’t want to hear it. She questioned my faith saying I didn’t believe God would provide for our needs; of course she is willing to take out loans… I said that God has already provided by giving us the means to send our kids to college without going into debt. I have come to find out that ignorance, culture, and tradition are VERY difficult obstacles to overcome and not with just my wife but with many if not most people. Anyway, my wife didn’t trust my theology so she said go talk to Brother Jimmy; she was hoping he would “set me straight,” so I did go talk with him. But before I went I told her what I thought the outcome of the conversation would be. I then went and talked to my pastor. I told him the situation and he sympathized with me saying that he had been there but somehow made it through. Anyway, I said that I don’t have a problem giving but just wanted to pull back a bit besides tithing and giving 10% along with offering was inappropriate in the New Testament church, surely God would not mind. He said that - here’s where you were right – “tithing was instituted before the law with Abraham so it wasn’t done away wi th the OT law.” I said that, as you instructed, the battle of the Kings was hardly a proof text for giving 10% of your gross income, it was a one time event not a pattern, and that  Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils of battle (not his possession) to Melchizedek and returned the rest to the King of Sodom. Then my pastor said, “well it’s an argument from silence.” So I said, so we are to practice something based on silence? He didn’t have much to say at that point, I guess he thought the idea of supporting a practice from nothing sounded as ridiculous to him as it did to me. I then talked about Jacob being blessed before he would tithe, as well as all the other facts, e.g. tithing to only Levites, tithing only agricultural products, tithing ceased with the destruction of the temple along with the Levitical Priesthood, etc. (you know the story…  : )  To ma ke a long story short he defaulted to the, “well my wife and I just committed to give a tenth and always have.” Ray , please understand the conversation was done with respect and not out of intellectual pride and it was done in a conversational tone each allowing the other time to speak. After we parted ways I told my wife that the conversation went exactly as I predicted i.e. that he would have to fall back on wishy-washy non-scriptural mumbo-jumbo. I learned several things from this. As I said earlier, ignorance, culture, and tradition are tough to overcome, this particular pastor would rather me and/or my kids go into debt – that could be avoided - before we reduce our giving, and he would also have the problem go unresolved between a member husband and wife rather than they pull back on their giving, He was more concerned with the church getting its cut than what could be (and I won’t let it) a bone of contention between a husband and wife. He could have cared less about the potential for discord between husband and wife. All I can say is that you were right. I know that you don’t want to be because learning these things are disappointing. Also, I finally figured out the reason why I keep moving from church to church it’s because very few of them have life. All this time I thought it was me when really I was coming out of Babylon. I don’t want to go to my church anymore but I am for now to avoid offending my wife who wants us to go as a family for the last year that my twin seniors will be at home. I am praying that my wife sees the truth before she burdens our children with unnecessary college debt. And I keep praying to find a local fellowship with like minded believers.  Respectfully, David     

        Well, good luck David. I don't think you will find a church of "like-minded" people if by that you mean Scripturally-minded. The organized, institutionalized, codified, systematized, churches of this world have little interest in the Truths of God. Many despise the word of God.

        God be with you,

        Ray
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