Every Sunday, in nearly all churches, after 30-45 minutes of beautiful music and singing, a short act is played out usually between 10:30 and 11:30 am. Someone steps up to the pulpit while others fan out through the auditorium with small envelopes. Most of those envelopes are inscribed with "God loves a cheerful giver." There are blanks to write in name, address, date, and, of course, the amount of cash or check that will be inserted. Typically, almost all of those envelopes have a place indicating "Tithe"________, "Offering"________, "Children’s ministry"____, "Sunday School"________, "Other"_______.
The Faithful dutifully contribute their part in this play, passing the filled envelopes to the attendants who whisk them all away to a private office. Meanwhile, a speaker is usually expounding to the congregation why they should contribute, affirming the reasoning directly from the Bible. This is done sometimes with personal testimony and sometimes with an implied threat that if they do not cooperate, they are robbing God. Sometimes they will speak passionately of tithing to the church as an expression of thanks to God and act of worship.
Tithing is a long held tradition. Most Christians are too busy to question and search out religious practices for themselves. No one wants to spend the extra effort, time, and study, to pray and seek a higher truth. It is much easier to trust tradition or to merely study an issue, only as far as a denomination or pastor teaches. We have been carefully conditioned not to challenge convention.
Sometimes God Himself will challenge us to put aside what others say and teach to delve deeper into a subject in order to find the hidden manna of God’s Word. The Tithe That Binds is the fruit of one of those challenges.
If you have the courage to read this, you may never see tithing in the same way again.
Where is tithing found in the New Testament?
Must the New Testament Church keep the Law of Moses?
Is the local church now the storehouse?
Why do churches need so much money?
Where did the New Testament believers send their gifts?
Is the New Testament ministry to live from tithes?
These questions and more find their answers in Scripture and the answers may surprise you. Please read this book carefully and without prejudice. You will find many thoughtful and challenging questions and points worth considering. This is not written as a criticism of the Church, God knows we are all fallible, but began as a personal study regarding the 10% tithe and the Church. Under inspiration, my wife and I recognized the hand of God as we began to write. At key times, God spoke a Scripture reference for me to look up in the Bible, and then would open my understanding of how it did, or did not, fit the Church. As God continued to add to our understanding, and the "anointing" of 1 John 2:27 taught us, line upon line unfolded from Scripture until the point came where we realized this is an important message to the Church.
