Is the tithe a NT command?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome back to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and today we�re going to talk about something that�s dangerous. I�m going to talk about a topic that your pastor probably doesn�t want you to know.

Why Tithing Is Not a New Testament Command

It�s one of the most dangerous things that you could ever teach people if you�re a pastor. And so, if you were a pastor and you had some knowledge about something, but you didn�t want people to know because it might affect them, would you tell them the truth?

Certainly, many pastors would. What is this dangerous doctrine that I�m talking about? I�m talking about the doctrine of the unbiblical nature of tithing. Did you know tithing has nothing to do with New Testament Christianity?

Did you know tithing, Christians are no longer under that Old Testament Mosaic law? Did you know that the pastor should never, ever, ever, ever teach you that you must tithe? Friends, I know there are many pastors out there who maybe haven�t studied, although they should.

Ignorance is no excuse for the pastor. But we live in a day and age where people try to extract money from their followers by putting them under unbiblical commands and laws like tithing. If you�d like to give 10 of your money to the local church, I�m fine with that.

But don�t be forced to do that because it�s a tithe. I never will forget the time I was in Los Angeles and there was somebody coming to our Bible study and this particular person wanted to be baptized, but they didn�t want to be baptized by John MacArthur and some kind of sterile, white-collar church.

They wanted to go downtown, South Central LA, and they wanted to go get baptized in a charismatic church and this particular pastor was the kind who was flamboyant. I remember how he baptized people. I baptize you in the name of the Father, one dunk, the Son, two dunks, three dunks for the Spirit.

It was pretty forceful dunking, I might add, but I was there to try to support this lady. She was a wannabe Hollywood actress and so she had to do everything flamboyantly and big and with lots of makeup and all that stuff.

And so I remember they had an offering and so they passed the offering plate and I didn�t think the guy was a very good preacher and I didn�t think the guy was a very biblical church and so I didn�t give any money.

And then they had another offering and the offering this time you had to get up out of your seats, walk up to the front and there was a man holding a bucket there and you had to walk up to the man with this bucket.

It was a nice looking bucket, but a bucket nonetheless and you had to drop the money into the bucket. Now here�s the punchline, the man was the pastor. The pastor stood there, he had a special need and it was some kind of, he needed a new air conditioner, he needed some new leisure suit or he needed some new, I don�t know, he needed a new iPod or something.

This was before iPods. And he had a special offering and he was holding the bucket. Now, there are times when your pastor has a problem and he has a financial need and he has a health need and the elders, the deacons, the leaders, the board, somebody should come along and say, �We need to take a special offering for the pastor.

There ought to be people in the local church that regularly go to the pastor to make sure he and his family�s needs are met. You should have your needs met if you preach the truth. But here, can you imagine if I stood up and said, �We have a special offering.

I need to get a new car. I�d especially like a new carbon fiber bicycle. Do you know the special nice Madone 5 .9 Trex that Lance Armstrong rides? And then stand there with the own bucket. I thought, �I�m getting out of here.

I�ll get up to walk, not up the aisle, but out of the aisle and out of this place. Pastors sadly use the tithe to manipulate the people. You are never blessed if you give a tithe. Can I say that just right now?

This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Let�s just be forceful. You are never blessed. God never blesses those who tithe. Oh, I can feel it right now. He blesses you because you give, but he doesn�t bless you that you go back to the Mosaic Law that Ephesians 2 has destroyed and somehow bless you.

You are blessed when you give, even if you ignorantly give because you think it�s the tithe. Even if you ignorantly give a tithe because you think the pastor has made some kind of comment that will force you to do it.

You don�t get blessed because you tithe. You get blessed because you give. It�s a biblical concept of tithing for the Old Covenant, for the Old Testament. And I have all these kind of papers here. I get online, �The tithe belongs to the Lord Dale Robbins.

Malachi 3, �Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, �In what way have we robbed you In tithes and offerings. And people go on and on and on about this tithe. And now if you don�t give money to the local church, it�s robbery.

Friends, that�s not true. It is not true at all. Your pastor ought to have enough intestinal fortitude and enough guts to get up and say, �Tithing isn�t biblical for the New Testament church. Now what will happen?

If it�s an unbiblical ministry, it will fold. Hallelujah! We need more churches to fold that aren�t really churches. Because if you don�t preach the gospel, if you don�t administer the ordinances or sacraments properly, and you don�t do church discipline, you�re not a church anyway.

You might be a non-profit group. You might have tax exemption. You might have fellowship. You might want to get together with the Masons and the Mormons and the Moose Lodge people. How�d you like that for alliteration?

But you�re not a church. And so why do churches have to, with a heavy hand, say, �You owe us, or else. I know churches in central Massachusetts where people have been employed by the church, not a pastor, but employed by the church for a school.

And then the pastors have called in the employees to say, �You know, we know how much you make because you�re on our payroll. And now we also know how much you give because we add up the money. And you are not tithing.

Friends, that makes me want to cry. That makes me want to throw up, actually. I like to just vomit when I hear that kind of thing. Strict manipulation, strictly trying to take people with an unbiblical verse.

When people take the Bible out of context to manipulate people, I typically think that�s a cult. That�s what that is. And so, this whole robbing God, by the way, giving is a gift. Robbing God is something God deserves.

And back in the old days, a tithe was like an income tax. You owed that to God. And if you didn�t give what was owed to God, it was called robbery. The Israelites could rob God. And so, don�t ever tell people they�re robbing God today if they don�t give because it�s different.

Give is of your own compulsion, of your own desire to say, you know, you, let�s just think about bills and you go to the grocery store and they give you a bill. You don�t really give them money. You pay them what you owe.

A gift is something that�s free and clear and beyond, no strings attached. And so, when people say, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, Malachi 3, that there may be food in my house and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts.

If not, I will open my windows of heaven, excuse me, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will be room enough to receive it, not room enough to receive it.

Test God, try God, and he�ll take you up on it. You can�t give God. Well, I don�t think you cannot give God. And I think you ought to say to yourself, all my money is the Lord�s. The way I can earn money, God has given me those gifts, talents, everything I have is God�s.

I�m all for that. I�m just against pastors manipulating people to say, you�ve got to tithe. I think a better way is to be biblical. How about this? Teach your congregation what a tithe meant for Israel and how it was an income tax and how Israel would actually rob God if in fact they didn�t pay the tax because they owed the tax.

And then teach people about what the New Testament says and encourage them to do it. If you tell your people about the glorious riches of Christ Jesus, the absolute majesty of Jesus, and how he had intimate fellowship with God the Father for eternity past, and yet he laid down his life for sinners.

He actually added human nature to himself. Sinless human nature, yes, but human nature. And how he died on the cross for our sins and how the sins that we�ve had in our thoughts and our minds and with our hands and with our body that he suffered under the wrath of God.

He completely absorbed God�s holy just wrath for us and that he was raised in victorious victoriously over the death, sin, hell, Satan, and how he has adopted us into his family and how we have been saved from our sins and the glorious nature of the gospel.

If you teach your people that, they�ll give. Show me a thankful person and I�ll show you a giving person. Show me someone that says before eternity past, God knew that I was going to be reprobate, deceived, dead, sinful, willfully arrogant, worshiping someone besides God and he chose me anyway.

The doctrine of election, teach that to your people and I defy people who understand the doctrine of election to not understand the other doctrine where God wants people to give. And so, here�s the issue.

I think it�s dangerous if you teach people that they don�t have to tithe. It�s only dangerous to those who have to manipulate people to say, you could better tithe or else. It�s robbery, taking what doesn�t belong to you.

Old Covenant Giving and Israel’s Tithes

And so, when I look at these kind of articles on the internet, I see lots of Old Testament verses, but where are the New Testament verses? Where are the verses that talk about what God expects in the New Testament?

Well, you know what? They�re few and far between because these hucksters, these, I almost said a German word that my grandmother used to say, but I think it�s actually a bad word to say, but that just came to my mind.

These hucksters say, you must give a tithe. And I�m telling you, if you�ve got a pastor who forces the tithe, I think you need to nicely and gently and submissively go to your pastor, but I�d leave a church if he was saying the tithe is forced on you.

This is not true. This is a Mosaic law that we are no longer under. And so, you ask the question, well, what should we think about then when it comes to tithing, when it comes to giving, when it comes to are we under the Old Covenant, the New Covenant?

Let me just give you a brief introduction. Regarding Old Testament giving, there was all kinds of things that they had to give to the Lord, and God expected it, and if they didn�t give, it would, in fact, be robbery.

They had the Lord�s tithe, Leviticus chapter 27. There was a festival tithe, and tithe just means a certain money given. Typically, we think of 10%, but this was found in Deuteronomy chapter 12. The poor tithe, Deuteronomy 14.

And then they had other things that they had to give. They had other requirements. You can look at Leviticus 19. You could look at Nehemiah chapter 10, Numbers chapter 18, Exodus chapter 25. The nation of Israel had to do a lot of giving, and they just didn�t give 10%.

It was up to some people think 23%, 26%. It was a theocracy, and they were required to tithe. And so, when Jesus was on the scene, when Jesus was on the earth, He expected people to tithe. Jesus was expected to tithe.

He was an Israelite citizen, and when He talked to the Pharisees and He talked to others, He expected them to tithe. But friends, what happened after the cross? What happened after the resurrection? What happened when the church started in Acts 2 and Pentecost?

What was going on there? And so, that�s the question that you have to ask. Did you know the New Testament never says you have to tithe? Never. The Bible does not bless people who Old Testament-wise tithe.

He blesses people who give. And again, you might have ignorantly thought I�m trying to tithe and I�m trying to do the right thing, and certainly God blesses you for that. But I�m especially after pastors today who use this bludgeon called the tithe to extract money out of people.

Don�t do that. That�s shameful. That�s what cults do. And I�m sure there are probably people who are fine pastors in every other way, but they don�t do that. Matter of fact, in the bulletin, look at your bulletin this Sunday when you get it from church and see if it says tithes and offerings.

If they do, I think your pastor either put a typo in there, doesn�t really care what the bulletin says, or is uneducated. Tithes and offering? We don�t give our tithes and offering as a New Testament church person.

We give our offerings. That�s what we give. We give a gift. It�s called an offering. And is it true that God owns everything? Yes. We must remember that. We must remember that God gives us power to make wealth, that God gives us abilities to do that.

And if you remember everything you own is God�s, I think you�ll hold on to your money looser, more loosely. It�s like Luther who says if you take your hand and open up your fingers and spread them widely, you should see four crevices or cracks.

One, two, three, four. And Luther said those cracks, those creases, those crevices are so that money and people can go through them quickly, not to hold on to things. We would affirm with Jesus in Matthew chapter 6, �But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Well, I would affirm that. And I would affirm that the Bible teaches that there�s a way to give and there�s a proper method to give, but it�s not tithing.

Unbelievers, maybe they want to tithe. I don�t know. Mosaic people, back in Mosaic law, they will, but the Bible never prescribes tithing. When you see tithing in the New Testament, I think it�s mentioned six times, it always refers to Israel.

Matthew 23, Luke 11, Luke 18, Hebrews 7. When you see these kind of passages, you ought to ask yourself the question, is this prescribing? Is this telling me something to do? When you go to the pharmacy and you give them the prescription, you�re telling that pharmacist, the doctor is telling me what to do.

He�s prescribing, take these three pills and take them three times a day and this is what you must do. Must New Testament believers tithe? I�m concerned because pastors know better. Pastors understand this, but they want to use this club to extract money.

Don�t you find that revolting? I do. Misrepresenting God�s Word is sinful. It�s wrong. What are you afraid of, Pastor, if you take away the tithe? You shouldn�t be afraid of anything. You should say to people, well, let�s look at what Philippians 4 .18 says.

Paul says, I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I�m amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent me, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

We should teach people that if the church would like to, with cheerful hearts, give to the local church ministry, that they�re really given to God. They don�t give to their pastor. They don�t pay their pastor�s salary.

They don�t pay the missionary�s salary. They don�t pay the light bill. When you give money to a local church, you say to yourself, I�m giving this directly into the hands of God. And when you do that, then you�ll say, I think I should probably give liberally.

I think I should give liberally. Listen to what 2 Corinthians 8 says. In a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in their wealth of liberality. Those Macedonian folks, those saints there from Macedonia, they gave over and above.

They gave liberally. They didn�t have much, but they just gave with grace. I think this is what all of New Testament giving has to do with, and that is grace giving. We�re saved by grace, and friends, we actually live by grace, and you ought to give by grace.

That�s what we do. We don�t start off by grace in salvation and then live by the law. We don�t start off by grace and then we have the law and legal kind of thing sneak into it. I know churches that basically think you�re saved by grace, but they extract money now with a tithe, but by other ways.

Here�s how they do it. We have matching funds. You give X amount of money, we�ll match that. That does not strike me as New Testament Christianity when it comes to grace giving. Giving sacrificially according to their ability and beyond their ability, 2 Corinthians 8, verse 2.

We don�t match things, some matching grants. Pastors and churches ought not to do that, but here�s what happens. You need to get a new building. God is giving you more people, and so you have to figure out how to get the money out of the folks.

I don�t think you do matching grants. Furthermore, I don�t think you use pledge cards. I think pledge cards are a waste of time and are unbiblical at worst, waste of time, the best. You don�t, you give with what you have.

You don�t ever see in the Bible, well, we think we�re going to make this in the future and then we promise to give from that. That�s just a way to get a building. Don�t do that. Faith promises, pledge cards, matching grants.

Hire some firm to come in and look at all your people�s salaries and giving and figure out what they should give and say, we�re going to try to do this, you know, rounding up money for the building. I don�t see anything in the New Testament that�s remotely close.

And you say, well, our church did that, Pastor, and it really worked. Friends, is pragmatism ever the standard for if something�s right or wrong? If God gives you the money, hallelujah, tell the people we�re going to try to save for a building.

Hallelujah. But as long as I�m the pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church, we�re not going to have pledge cards. We�re not going to have matching grants. We�re not going to do the things that the world does in the world�s way.

We�re not going to hire some firm to say, well, help us figure out how to get people to give more. No, we�re not going to do that because they�re probably not going to understand the nuances of the Bible.

The pastors understand that. That�s what the pastors are there to do. You should give to your local church. No, you should give to the Lord through your local church liberally with sacrificial giving, but you should give voluntarily.

What does 2 Corinthians 8, verse 3 say? They gave of their own accord. The NIV says on their own. I don�t need to take my shotgun and hold it to your head and say, give. Hey, you haven�t been matching up your pledge funds, and it�s not up to what you said you would give last year, and you�re not tithing.

That�s wrong. That�s not of their own accord. People should give with great enthusiasm and cheerfulness. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7, God loves a cheerful giver. What does 2 Corinthians 8, verse 4 say? The Macedonians were begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.

They wanted to fellowship. 1 Corinthians 1 says we�re called into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says in the New Testament that when you give out of your own free heart and will and mind with voluntary delight, it should be an enthusiastic thing.

It�s called fellowship. You�re fellowshipping with the saints. God loves a cheerful giver. Show me somebody under matching funds and somebody under some tithe and under some shotgun to the head. I won�t show you a cheerful giver at all.

We are to say God has saved us and we want to respond with thankfulness and with giving. And if you first give yourselves to the Lord, 2 Corinthians 8, verse 5, you�ll give everything else. You will give as you grow.

Show me somebody who�s mature and I�ll show you someone who�s a sacrificial, cheerful giver. Show me somebody that doesn�t give hardly at all and I�ll show you somebody who�s immature or who�s somebody who�s not a Christian.

2 Corinthians 8, verse 7,. �But just as you abound in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, and in all earnestness, and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.

It�s a grace work. God has graced us and then we graciously give. How about 2 Corinthians 9, 7,. �Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And what�s more as we wrap this up, I think you should have some kind of a way to give in a planned way, in a systematic way. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 2 gives an allusion to this, which I think is a good principle.

�On the first day of each week, each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. So, what do we have here? We have a person who needs to give with compulsion.

We need to make sure we store up things on earth. No, on heaven, because on earth things get destroyed. We want to make sure that we don�t get stuck saying to ourselves, we are under a tithe. Read Ephesians chapter 2.

I think you�ll soon find out you�re not under any of the Mosaic law. Christ has perfectly fulfilled that and we don�t have to be under the law of Moses. Are there principles that apply today for Moses?

Some are reiterated, yes, but you need to make sure you�re just a free giver. You might ask yourself the question, what percentage must I give? Well, you ought to say to yourself, what hurts? What�s sacrificial?

There�s ways to go about it that still remain New Testament. That�s what we�re after. If you�re at a church that goes around saying you�re under the tithe, here�s the gun, give or else, I say leave that church.

I say, why do you submit yourselves to people who try to use unbiblical things to manipulate you to do what they want, to get more money? I�m not after the people�s money. I don�t beg for money. I don�t ever want to say, no compromise radio, we�re really going through a tough time here, please give.

If you want to give, give. But I am never going to say, hey, we�re really hurting, give money. Why? Because if we�re really hurting and the Lord doesn�t provide needs, then this isn�t a viable ministry and we need to shut it down.

If there�s a special thing in church where we say, hey, the roof is leaking and we need to draw attention to that, well, I think that�s fine and dandy. But I�m not going to say, do this or else. I�m going to say, this is the need we have, please consider giving.

But it�s not going to be the shotgun to the head. The most dangerous thing a church could do is to say, I�m going to take the Bible out of context to manipulate the people and get the money. We don�t want that, do we?

You don�t want to do that, do you? So go ahead and teach your people about free, generous grace giving and I think God will bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.