New Covenant Generosity: How to Receive an Offering Without Guilt, Manipulation, Or Curses

part one

TITHING AND GIVING IN THE NEW COVENANT

Are the Bible verses about tithing still relevant in the new covenant? Many modern teachers have begun to question whether we can rightly use Old Testament verses about tithing to push Christians to give. Dr. Che Ahn, founder and overseer of H.I.M., a network of 40,000 churches, is one such leader. In his recent book, The Grace of Giving, Ahn writes:

There are many sincere Christians today who faithfully give the tithe because they believe it is mandated in Scripture, and that mandate is still valid today. I know, for I used to be one of them. I was taught to tithe from the time I first became a Christian as a teenager, and it never occurred to me to question the teaching. My wife and I have always given more than the tithe every year since we’ve been married. However, more recently, I find that my position is changing, due to what I believe is a deeper understanding of God’s grace and its operation in our lives.¹

Ahn then goes on to explain the change in his beliefs by looking at one of the most popular verses used to teach mandatory tithing, Malachi 3:8–10:

Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

About this passage, Ahn says:

Unfortunately, this teaching on the tithe from Malachi 3 frequently intimidates people, inducing guilt by telling them that if they don’t tithe, they are robbing God and are under a curse. The passage is also frequently quoted out of context. As we discussed at the beginning of this book, when we take a text out of context, we are opening ourselves to a con.²

Frank Viola and George Barna speak out even more vocally on this issue in their bestselling book, Pagan Christianity. In it they include some enlightening facts from Church history:

Before the 3rd century priests had no form of income. The people supported them of their own volition. If that was not possible they worked alongside their ministerial roles to support themselves. It was actually Constantine who introduced the idea of a priestly salary, which was a pagan idea. He took money from the municipal and church funds to pay those serving as priests in the empire. We have to wait till the third century before someone suggested a tithe upon believers to support their local priest. Cyprian of Carthage suggested it, however it still wasn’t really accepted by anyone until the fourth century. Even then it was a tiny minority. In fact, it wasn’t common practice till the 8th century and was not law until the 10th century. That’s right, 900 years after Jesus!³

Yet, despite this history, many modern leaders become upset when we question the tithe. They act as though we are questioning a 2000-year-old tradition. In reality, we are challenging a teaching that entered the Christian Church in AD 900. To understand this, we need to answer the question: Where did tithing come from?

THE ORIGIN OF TITHING

Tithing was a common practice in the Ancient Near East (ANE), during the time of the Patriarchs. Back then, tithing did not look like a weekly giving regiment at a religious service. In the ANE, tithing was not obligatory, but it was common. In the Bible, we find record of Abraham tithing one time and Jacob tithing one time (Genesis 14:20; 28:20-22). As far as we know, they did not tithe yearly or at any set time increment, because tithing was not based on a law. They were not required to do it, but they sometimes did. This is the origin of tithing in the biblical record.

Later, in the Book of Leviticus, God introduced a mandatory tithe to the nation of Israel. As a theocracy, Israel looked to God as their king, and His priests served not only as religious leaders but also as government leaders and administrators. The tithe was a tax system to support the national governmental and religious structure, which were unified. We know this is true, because the Old Testament does not talk about a tax system but a tithe system. To them, the tithe was the tax, because the religious leaders were also the governmental leaders. This, of course, is completely foreign to the democratic republic we have in the United States, and to other forms of government throughout the world. Israel’s situation was unique. As part of that, the tithe served as their taxation system, which included three different tithes:

1.One to take care of the Levites (government officials)

2.One to take care of feasts (government activity)

3.One to take care of widows and orphans (social safety net)

This system of taxation in Israel carried through until Jesus’ day. Some Christians argue that Jesus’ silence on the tithe affirms its validity. If He hadn’t believed in it, they suggest, He would have included it in His attack against the religious systems of His day. However, Jesus knew the old covenant system supported by the tithe would be destroyed in AD 70 (see Matt. 24:1–2). Thus, He probably did not see the tithe as an important issue. Its days were numbered. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70, the taxation system (tithe) of Israel faded into history. No one seriously considered reviving