Sermon Tone Analysis

*Tithing is Unscriptural Under the New Covenant*

[A Scriptural Exposition on the Fraudulent Fleecing of the Flock]

Since first posting this tithing paper on bible-truths.com,

we have had hundreds of thousands of visitors seeking information on this topic.

Many have written me personally thanking me for freeing them from this illegal and abusive practice of the Church.

I have also received emails from some who are sure that tithing is a bonafide legal obligation for members of the New Testament Christian Church.

Objections to my paper range from simply quoting the prophet Malachi sent to the priests and nation of Israel: *"Wherein have we robbed Thee?

In tithes and offerings.

Ye are cursed with a curse…."

*While others who can find absolutely no Scriptural authority for Christians to tithe, invent clever little doctrines like this:

"Tithing was a form of worship to God, and since we still worship God, we must still tithe."

I will answer this one in one sentence: Since burnt offerings were a form of worshiping God, and since we still worship God, must we still offer burnt offerings to God? ... Ridiculous.

Part II of this paper covers the Malachi prophecy more thoroughly as it concerns the subject of tithing.

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*PART I*

"Will a man ROB God?" How many untold tens of thousands of men will give account one day for teaching this verse in Malachi 3:8 totally out of context for their own sordid gain.

I couldn’t count the times I have heard self-appointed ministers of the gospel berate their congregations and listeners for "robbing God" in tithes and offerings.

This verse in Malachi certainly means what it says.

Someone /was/ defrauding God of tithes and offerings, but wait until you find out /who/ it is that God blames for this act.

On any given Sunday morning there will be numerous men-of-the-cloth who will be bellowing out over the air waves that people are being "cursed with a curse" because they have failed to pay God ten percent of their paychecks.

And should such a gullible listener decide to repent and give God ten percent of his salary, just how would he do that?

Just keep reading.

These men of the cloth who often have unquenchable worldly desires of the flesh, will be sure to give you an address where you can send them (or, ah, rather God) your tithe.

And do they have a right to quote these Scriptures in this manner?

No they do not, and furthermore they themselves know better.

*SOME SHOCKING TRUTHS ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN TITHING DOCTRINE*

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Abraham never tithed on his own personal property or livestock.

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Jacob wouldn’t tithe until God blessed him first.

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Only Levite priests could collect tithes, and there are no Levite priests today.

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Only food products from the land were tithable.

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Money was never a titheable commodity.

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Christian converts were never asked to tithe anything to the Church.

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Tithing in the Church first appears centuries after completion of the Bible.

*ALL SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES TO TITHING*

We will now go through all the Scriptural references in the Bible on tithe, tithes, and tithing:

[1] Gen. 14:20, *"And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.**

And he *[Abram]* gave him *[Melchizedek king of Salem, the priest of the most high God, Ver.

18]* TITHES of all *[all the goods of war, Ver.

16]*."*

We read again of this same event in the book of Hebrews:

[2] Heb.

7:1-10, *"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who meets with Abraham returning from the combat with the kings and blesses him, to whom Abraham parts a TITHE also, from all... Now, behold how eminent this one is to whom the patriarch Abraham gives a TITHE also of the best of the booty.

And, indeed, those of the sons of Levi who obtain the priestly office have a direction to take TITHES from the people according to the law...

And here, indeed, dying men are obtaining TITHES...

And so, to say, through Abraham, Levi also, who is obtaining the TITHES, has been TITHED, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek meets with him."*

There are a number of things we can learn concerning tithing from this section of Scriptures.

In this, the first mention of tithing in the Bible, Abram gives to Melchizedek (a priest of God who was also the king of the city of Salem) a tithe of the best of the booty taken in war.

Notice that this was /not/ wheat, corn, wine, oil, or cattle from Abram’s personal possessions, but rather booty taken from conquered nations.

There is nothing stated here that would cause us to conclude that Abram (later changed to Abraham) ever tithed on a regular basis on his own person possessions.

Although Abraham gave Melchizedek a tithe of the booty of war, he told the king of Sodom that he would take none of it for himself.

In this same account recorded in the seventh chapter of Hebrews, we learn that the priests of Levi, from the family of Aaron (although far inferior to the priestly order of Melchizedek) also receive tithes from the people according to the law.

This tells us little more about the actual tithes other than they received tithes.

Christian scholars claim that Abraham’s tithing of the spoils of war predated the Law of Moses, and therefore even if the Law of Moses is done away with, tithing is still binding on Christians because Abraham predated the Law of Moses.

Is this true?

And Christendom teaches that this Scripture is the first proof from the Word of God that Christians are to tithe ten percent of their salaries to the church.

But what have we really learned from these Scriptures?:

Abraham went to war on behalf of Sodom (SODOM, mind you), to rescue his nephew, Lot.

He then gave 10% of these spoils of war to Melchizedek, and allowed Sodom to keep 90%, while he himself kept NOTHING!

Now then, is there a Scholar alive anywhere on earth that can explain to us how this one single unparalleled and never-again-to-be-duplicated event, is Scriptural proof that Christians should give 10% of their annual salaries (not the spoils of war, but their money, their salaries), not once, but year after year after year, not to Melchizedek, but to Clergymen who claim to be ministers of Jesus Christ?

If anyone can see a similarity here, I will show him the similarity between an elephant and a fruit fly.

Next we will observe a Scripture that you will probably never hear a sermon on.

No tithe-preaching clergyman would use the example of how Jacob tithed.

Remember, Jacob is the grandson of Abraham, the father of the faithful, whom God also blessed tremendously.

Not only did God /approve /of Jacob’s tithing proposal, but, He made it the foundational principle upon which all future tithing would be based.

Here it is.

[3] Gen. 28:20-22, *"And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, IF God will be with me, and *[if God]* will keep me in this way that I go, and *[if God]* will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; THEN shall the Lord be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shall GIVE ME I will surely give the TENTH unto thee."*

Wow!

This one Scripture pretty much contradicts 99% of all sermons I have ever heard on the subject of tithing!

This is the very first Scripture in the Bible that gives an account of someone giving a tenth or tithe of his personal possessions back to God.

But, oh how different it is from the teachings of most Christian Churches.

First Jacob truly recognizes God as God.

He then begins to proposition God.

He states that "IF" God will do this and "IF’ God will do the other things, "THEN" Jacob says, "shall the Lord be my God." Jacob concludes his proposition to God, should God meet all of his requirements, by saying that of all the things that God will first give to Jacob, Jacob will give God back a tenth.*

*Now don’t laugh.

God honored Jacob’s proposition, and furthermore, God continued to honor this same principle of tithing all through Israel’s history.

As Paul said, *"Now what have you which you did not /obtain/?"*

(I Cor.

4:7) All that we possess comes from God.

And so, once more, we learn that Israel was not to tithe on what they did not first possess, unlike those today who teach that it is required to tithe on that which one does not already possess.

God is not partial and God is not a hypocrite.

This example of Jacob proves that God doesn’t expect a tithe until He blessed the tithe payer first.

Everyone should put down this paper, call his minister, and tell him you want to hear a sermon Sunday morning on how Jacob paid tithes to God.* *Now hold your breath.

Let’s ask ourselves a reasonable question: Just how did Jacob actually give a tithe to God? Did he personally hand it to God? No, no one has ever even seen God.

Did Jacob tithe to an angel?

No, angels do not need and can’t use tithes.

Did Jacob send his tithe to Heaven by Celestial Express?

No. Did he take it to the local church?

No, there was no local church.

Did he take it to the Temple?

No, there was no temple.

Did he give it directly to one of the Levitic priests?

No, there were no Levites as yet.

Well how then did Jacob tithe to God? Was it even possible?

Yes, there were actually two different ways that Jacob could tithe to God:

1.      *"And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your TITHES, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, YE and YOUR HOUSEHOLDS, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee"* (Deut.

12:6-7).

2.      *"And even though there were no Levites in Jacob’s day, nonetheless, there were "...the STRANGER, and the FATHERLESS, and the WIDOW, which are within thy gates, shall come, and SHALL EAT AND BE SATISFIED; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thin hand which thou doest"* (Deut.

14:29).

That’s how God acknowledged a tithe from Jacob: By partaking of a portion himself and his family in communion and thanksgiving to God, and by sharing his fortune with those who were unfortunate, poor, strangers, etc.

[4] Leviticus 27:30-33, *"And all the TITHE of the LAND, whether of the SEED of the land, or of the FRUIT, of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.

And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.

And concerning the TITHE of the HERD, or of the FLOCK, even of whatsoever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.

He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it..."*

We learn a great deal about tithing in this section of Scripture: