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Luther’s 95 Theses For The Contemporary Church

While some Contemporary Churches are ‘big’ on Luther this week, here is my contribution extracted from Luther’s 95 Theses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95_thesis

 41.  Church tithing must be preached with caution, lest people erroneously think that they are preferable to other good works of love.

42.  Christians are to be taught that the Senior Pastor does not intend that the tithing should in any way be compared with works of mercy.

43.  Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who tithes.

44.  Because love grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better. Man does not, however, become better by means of tithing …

45.  Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for tithes, does not buy Senior Pastor favour but God’s wrath.

46.  Christians are to be taught that, unless they have more than they need, they must reserve enough for their family needs and by no means squander it on tithes.

47.  Christians are to be taught that they buying of tithes is a matter of free choice, not commanded.

48.  Christians are to be taught that the Senior Pastor, in promoting tithing, needs and thus desires their devout prayer more than their money.

49.  Christians are to be taught that tithes are useful only if they do not put their trust in them, but very harmful if they lose their fear of God because of them.

50.  Christians are to be taught that if the Senior Pastor knew the exactions of the tithing preachers, he would rather that the entire MegaChurch Building and all of its campuses were burned to ashes than built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.  

51. Christians are to be taught that the Senior Pastor would and should wish to give of his own money, even though he had to sell the MegeChurch Building, (including the TV studio, big TV’s and groovy coffee lounge) and all of its campuses to many of those from whom certain hawkers of tithes cajole money.

Some wording slightly changed to give it a “contemporary” flavour! 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 7:55 am 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.

2 Responses to “Luther’s 95 Theses For The Contemporary Church”

  1. 1
    abtruth Says:
    December 1st, 2006 at 12:02 pm

    Hi LF

    you might appreciate this link
    http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2003/jun6.html

  2. 2
    Lionfish Says:
    December 3rd, 2006 at 9:21 pm

    abtruth,

    Thanks for that link. CT is in the same boat as many Christian Ministers - they know about the abuses and the dodgy hermenutics, but they refuse to take an objective viewpoint.

    Russell Kelly was refused an opportunity to write his perspectives recently - yet they will deal with other sensitive topics such as abortion, gay marraige, oneness pentecostalism … seems you can print what you want but make sure you don’t upset the funding …

    One of the letters was a stand-out

    “Tithing is a good idea, and so are sabbatical years and Jubilee Years. Do you know of any church that teaches tithing that also follows these two practices? I wouldn’t mind paying the tithe, as long as the church will pay for my year off with pay every 7th year,and pay off all my debts every 49th year. Yes, I know that tithes were actually more than ten percent, and offerings were separate in the Old Testament times; but they were supporting a whole theocratic system of government that we do not have today, many of those functions being taken over by Social Security and other taxes we pay. Another question on the tithe is: does it go to the church you attend or to other groups? I would think the local church should get most, since you are receiving a direct benefit and have your direct involvement there, whilst in the case of outside organizations, you have little control and less involvement in their work (and we all know of cases of abuse of the monies).

    Yours,
    Randy Koper Romans 4:8″