Article published in “Challenge Weekly” Newspaper in New Zealand by Cultwatch Director and novelist Mark Vrankovich

Date: Week starting the 4th of September 2006

World wide the tithing debate is heating up, fueled by the increasing abuses of this suspect doctrine by money-centric pastors. I will detail those abuses later in this article. Indeed, we at Cultwatch are so concerned with the complaints we are receiving, complaints increasing in both number and intensity, that we have launched a new international web site www.TithingDebate.com

TithingDebate.com is a portal to the very best Biblical arguments against the idea that Christians are obliged to tithe, or comply with a mysterious “tithing principle”. Without a doubt the Malachi tithing regime taught in many churches today has been fabricated by greedy men, it bares no resemblance to any doctrine found in the Bible.

This debate has been brewing for a while. One of the first entries to this debate was the underground Christian book Eating Sacred Cows by New Zealand pastor Graeme Carlé. Eating Sacred Cows has been much hated by tithing-teachers because it immunises Christians from their guilt ridden rhetoric. Using clear Bible based reasoning Pastor Graeme’s book has set many Christians free from the bondage of this false doctrine. Honest Bible teachers have embraced his book, including the late Dr. Derek Prince who was so impressed with Eating Sacred Cows that he personally bought twenty copies to give to his international council. And, thanks to pastor Graeme’s generosity, Eating Sacred Cows is now available for the first time as a free download from TithingDebate.com - we are chuffed to have such a renown book to giveaway with TithingDebate.com’s launch.

In addition to Pastor Graeme’s book we have another free book for download, theologian Dr. Russell Earl Kelly’s book Should The Church Teach Tithing? Dr. Kelly earned his Ph. D. with a thesis on tithing and will debate any tithing-teacher prepared to step up to the plate – unsurprisingly, few accept his challenge. Pastor Graeme and Dr. Kelly have raised the tithing debate to a level where the tithing-teachers simply cannot compete.
Hence, the current strategy of the tithing-teachers is to keep silent, stonewall, and just hope this debate will go away. Well, it’s not going away. I believe our Lord has determined to expose this false doctrine for what it is. Other tithing-teachers are soft-stepping backwards; retreating quietly from what they now realize is an indefensible position. The tithing-teachers who are trapped are those who do not have enough faith to believe that God can provide for their ministries and therefore are desperate to hold onto this guilt and fear driven money-extraction-tool. These men and women are afraid that their ego enhancing glass-door monuments and supply of new cars, boats, houses, and holidays will dry up if their church members move to the Biblical model of Christian giving known as “New Testament Giving”.
New Testament Giving is where, in accordance with 2 Corinthians 9:7, Christians decide prayerfully in their own hearts what, where, and when to give. They decide cheerfully and not under compulsion. This model is Biblical and works. Think about it, God knows where He wants money to go, He directs Christians via the Holy Spirit and the money goes there. It’s elegant and simple, fully compliant with the grace we Christians live under. But it is an anathema to tithing-teachers; totally contrary to their control-freaky ways. Now instead of demanding the money they have to appeal for it. They have to enthuse Christians to give to their projects by underlining the spiritual benefits, how it will help the poor, save lost souls, and educate Christians. They have to trust God for provision. Imagine trying to appeal for a new Ford or Holden for the Pastor’s son on this basis. They want to keep their ability to command money from their church members, despite the fact that even the Apostle Paul stopped short of commanding people to give (2 Corinthians 8:8).
The following is a sample of the wealth of information you’ll find at TithingDebate.com:
You’ll discover that the tithing teachers are taking Malachi out of context. That Christians are not under the Mosaic law discussed in Malachi. That the term “storehouse” cannot equal the “local church”. That the pattern of the tithe being taught today (ten percent of your gross income per year) is not found anywhere in the New or Old Testament. That Abraham’s one off war-booty tithe did not establish an earlier law that somehow still applies to Christians today. Also, Jesus never instructed Christians to tithe, and the early church did not tithe, and apart from abstaining from blood and three other points the first council in Acts saw no other laws as required to burden the gentile church with (Acts 15:19-21), that’s right, tithing was not mentioned.
The abuses perpetrated in the name of this false doctrine are spiraling out of control. Comments questioning tithing by readers on tithing-teacher owned web sites are quickly deleted. Christian leaders are removing members from their church for questioning if tithing is true. A Christian asks his pastor to read a book on the subject, and the pastor shows him the bin where he will throw it. Christians are told that God will only bless them if they do tithe and He’ll curse them if they don’t. Giving is monitored and church members are punished if they don’t tithe. Tithing is added to the list of criteria for church leadership or even membership, despite not appearing in any such Biblical list. A well known New Zealand pastor tells the poor that if they have to choose between eating and giving to their church, then they should give to their church. A new Christian stopped going to her church because she couldn’t afford it. This madness has to stop.

Tithing or the “tithing principle” for Christians today is a fabrication. We would encourage all Christians to visit TithingDebate.com and find out what the tithing-teachers don’t want you to know.

URLs:
www.TithingDebate.com
www.Cultwatch.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 7:11 pm by Lionfish and is filed under the money jar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.