TITHING’S ISSUE.

When most Christians want to support their churches financially,

they come up with the idea of giving ten percent of their income.
Moreover, they have been taught that this percentage of their
income belongs to God. However the New Testament teaches
nothing of the tithe. In opposite to the man’s traditions teaching, the
New Testament makes clear that all our income belongs to God, yet
the percentage we give in our offerings is up to the individual
Christian’s conscience.

Basically, it is recorded in the Old Testament that the children of

Israel were recommended to tithe (giving 10% of their income).
However, before we can learn much in this topic, let us first ask
ourselves these questions: What, How and why did the children of
Israel tithe? Who tithed? And tithe to whom?

Well, it is understandable that the tithe is Ten out of One Hundred

(10%) of the income that God commanded the children of Israel to
give. When God brought the Israelites from Egypt, it was not a
simple thing, nor ordinary miracle. God had organised everything in
order. God decided to live among His people (Israelites), so He
commanded Moses to build a Sanctuary for Him. God divided the
Sanctuary’s tasks to the Israelites according to each one's ability.
He also gave them the free territory (land) which was an inheritage.

These Israelites were happy to receive their own place, in spit of

there were some people who were not given any land. But, it was
not by stake that all these people did not get their own places. Take
in consideration the example through Aoron’s portion. God did not
allow Aoron to have an inheritage (land), or any portion among
Israelites because He (God) was his (Aoron) portion and his
inheritance among them. (Numbers 18: 20).

In the same token, Levites did not have any inheritance among the
Israelites (Numbers 18: 23), because God was their portion through
tithes given by Israelites.

Truly, God organised an authentic ministry opportunity for His

people. Those who were appointed to serve in the sanctuary
(Temple) of God did not have any land. Then, God commended
Israelites to give the tenths of their income in order to feed those
who served in the Temple . (Numbers 18: 24). When God called
someone into ministry in the Sanctuary who owned or possess a
land, this person has to give up fully his land and goes to the
ministry and God Himself agreed to be their portion through the
tenths given by Israelites.

Do not get wrong here or be confusing my friends! God did not call
out the Levites only to deal with the special duties of the Levites,
but also to deal with the mainly service of worship at the tabernacle
which was conducted by the priests. Levites were not given any land
as an inheritage (Joshua 13: 14), because they lived through the
tenths as God allowed them to be theirs. They collected these
tenths from the children of Israel, they combined all together and
they had to take the tenth from those tenths for the Priest/high
Priest. (Numbers 18: 25, 26). Thus, the tenths seem to be the
portion (salary, ration) of the people who conducted the tabernacle
of meeting’s ministry. (Numbers 18: 31).

When the law of tithing was promulgated to the children of Israel,

they eagerly agreed to give the tenth of all their income to the
appointed people. (Nehemiah 13: 37- 38). Unfortunately, all the
children of Israel did not keep this agreement of tithing all the time.
Sometimes they stopped giving the tenths; and as consequence, the
Levites and the singers who carried out the activity in the Temple,
stopped their work and got out of the temple as they went back
home to their normal activities.(Nehemiah 13: 10). It was the
reason why God told the children of Israel that they are robbers of
tenths of God. God made clear this by saying that they robed Him in
tithing. (Malachi 3: 8- 10).

Kinds of the tenth God required from the children of Israel:

-Grain, New wine and Oil. (The increase of grain that

the field produces year by year; they had to eat them before the
Lord their God, in the place where God chooses to make His name
abide, the tithe of their grain and their new wine and their oil of the
firstborn of their herds and their flocks, that they may learn to fear
the Lord their God always). Deut. 14: 22, 23.

-Produces (this must be practised at the end of every third

year). Deut. 14: 28; 26: 12.

-Holy tithe. (They had to say before the Lord their God: "I
have removed the HOLY TITH from my house, and also have given
them to the Levit, the stranger, the fatherless, and the window,
according to all your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.
(Deut. 26: 13).
- Etc…

If, Dear friends, you believe and practise the tithing, you should see
first the way and how and what to tithe as it is investigated above.
When you understand all about it, and if you still agree to tithe, then
you MUST apply for all these kinds of tenth investigated above.
(Note that many principles can be found in the Bible.) And you MUST
identify the Sanctuary, the priests and the Levites as recorded in the
Old Testament, because the tithing required the sanctuary (temple),
the priests and the Levites. Therefore without these, the tithe
should not be practised.

Look at Jesus Christ! Jesus did not come to take away the Law and
the prophets, but to fulfil them. (Mat. 5: 17). The tithing law has
been fulfilled. Jesus brought an end to the sacrifice and offering
(Daniel 9: 27) including the tithing. Do not get discouraged, the full
information is coming in one minute.

Jesus Christ, as our example, did not support the tithing during His
earthly ministry. Jesus used sometimes parable to illustrate the
evidence of the event or advent, thus He used the parable of the
Pharisee and the tax collector to show the public that the Pharisee
who paid the tenths was not recognised as a welldoer. (Luke 18:
12). Paul, an elect Apostle of Jesus, who was commissioned to carry
out the Gospel to the Gentiles, never taught in the church of God at
any time about the practise of tithing at any time, rather he
encourages people of God to give offerings, thanks and gifts. Why
then do the Christian churches of today are still practice this dead
doctrine? Why the tithing doctrine is the main teaching and the peer
doctrine of those churches? Please, not get tired! Step down to next
section.

Tithing’s condition is, If the New Testament fails to teach tithing,

then why do most Christians continue to believe that it is Scriptural
and therefore binding? By examining the preaching of these
people, one example to be looked at is the preaching of one
Minister (Mutsiri Antoine) who taught people in Refuge Camp
Tanzania by emphasizing Malachi 3: 8- 10 why they should tithe.
This Mutsiri says: “we should tithe because if we don’t, we are
disobeying and robbing God. God has given us everything we have,
but He does not want much of us, only He wants us to be obedient
and give 1/10 of it back to Him. He does not need our money, but
He does require our obedience.”

While Mutsiri is supporting his ministry in that way, what he has

shared does not square with the New Covenant teaching on tithing.
There is not one word in the New Testament to suggest that
Christians ought to tithe.

Some will say, “The New Testament is vague on the topic of giving.”
That is not true. Friends, the New Testament is as clear about giving
as it is on any other doctrine. But, the Old Testament tithing
(altogether amounting to about 23 %) was not adopted by the New
Testament Church.

New Testament Believers (Christians) are encouraged to give

liberally (Rom. 12: 8), but the New Testament itself never gives a
percentage as a required standard for giving. Instead, it says, “So
let each one give as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or
of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9: 7). Notice that
believers are not told how much to give. Apostle Paul does not give
them a fixed percentage as a standard. Rather, he simply tells them
that they should give whatever they have “Purposed in [their]
heart,” that is, whatever they have decided to give beforehand. He
insists that Christians should be faithful to follow through on what
they have decided to contribute to the Lord’s work, but the amount
is up to us. There is to be no compulsion whatsoever in our giving;
the amount must be our decision.

In 1 Corinthians 16: 1- 2 Apostle Paul says: “Now concerning the

collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of
Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of week let each one
of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there
be no collections when I come.” It is understood that here Paul
instructs the church in Corinth to give proportionately to how they
have been prospered by God. It is very clear that the tithe was not
mentioned at all. Believers are instructed to give proportionate to
their prosperity.

Apostle Paul also writes in 2 Corinthians 8: 3- 4: “For I bear witness

that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they
were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would
receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.”
In this account, Paul emphasizes the fact that the churches of
Macedonia gave “of their own accord.” Nobody twisted their arm.
Believers are always to give voluntarily. God wants us to give
because we want to do so. Our gifts should be “generous” (2 Cor. 9:
5) and given with “liberality” (2 Cor. 9: 11), for God will see to it that
their generous giver will not suffer want.

In fact, what should our attitude be when we give? Keep this

statement of 2 Corinthians 9: 7 in your mind: “So let each one give
as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or of necessity; for
God loves a cheerful giver” Giving is a joyful privilege, not a joyless
duty. God wants us to give from an attitude of cheerfulness, not out
of sense of obligation. It is interesting that the only text in New
Testament that describes the mind-set with which we are to give
describes it as joyless! Such cheerful giving is the appropriate
response to God’s “indescribable gift” His own son. (2 Cor. 9: 15).
Note that the words of Jesus’ sermon are divine and powerful. Let
us seek an advice from the words spoken by Jesus as it is recorded
by Matthew 6: 19- 21: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on the
earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and
steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We need to store our treasure in heaven. Look at Jesus ministry!

Jesus as our true Teacher, one day He wanted to teach His disciples
how to have a faith in God through what they have. He sat down
and watched how people put their money in the treasury (Mark 12:
41- 440). When Jesus saw the window gives much money, then He
called His disciples very quick to come and to see how to have a
faith in God through what we have. This window never paid the
tenth of her income or tenth of what she have. No. Why then did
Jesus consider her as true example before His disciples and before
us as well? Disciples as students of Jesus Christ learnt and
understood how the followers of Christ should give. They learnt
very carefully as they were prepared for the future ministry. Thus,
the early Church, true church of God never practised the tithing
doctrine, because the leaders of church were those who learnt
directly from Jesus Christ and sent by Him.

In contrast, the churches of today teach differently, because they

seek to establish their own constitutions to meet their needs and
desires. They denied Jesus as our High Priest through what they do.
Since Jesus is our High priest, He never asks people to tithe to if we
want to tithe; we need to tithe to Him. The people of Israel tithed to
Levites, Levites to the priests, and priests to the high priests. Bible
says that we who believe Jesus; we shall be kings and priests.
Therefore, because we shall be priests, when we want to tithe, we
should tithe to our High priest, Jesus Christ. How then can you tithe
to Jesus?

In short, whereas the Old Testament tithe was required by the Law,
the New Testament emphasizes the complete voluntary character of
giving. This is exactly what Abraham did before the institution of the
Law, and it what Christians are to be doing today. We are free to
give any amount we choose-whether it is 10% as Abraham did, or
60%, or 90%, or any other percentage. If then the New Testament
itself never gives a percentage as a required standard for giving,
isn’t obvious that many of our churches departed from the teaching
of scripture? How can we claim to take the New Testament seriously
and yet turn a deaf ear to the clear, undeniable pattern that marked
the early apostolic church? If we are to see revival in our churches,
we must speak out against false traditions and begin to conform all
of our practices to the New Testament patterns.

Tatien Nduwimana
AMO Presiding Minister.