[Sean]

Originally Posted by Aquila

Forced giving is wrong. However, to hurl condemnations at them, is just as bad as them hurling condemnations at you.

Instead, I pray that the Lord open their eyes. I pray that they begin to see the depth to which this form of extortion keeps them bound and often burdens the poor, widow, and orphaned families in their congregations. I pray that they see that the tithe was not considered a burden in the OT because only those professions connected to the life on the land had to tithe (farmers and herdsmen). Under God's law... widows were exempt. The tithe was a 10% agrarian flat tax that sustained the temple, the Levites, and the storehouse for these needy classes. For those in need... the tithe was a blessing, because they received of it. The way the tithe doctrine is managed today, the tithe is a burden on the very classes God's law would have relieved.

I do not pray for their damnation. I pray for them to receive a revelation on "grace giving".

I believe that education is the best approach. Instead of condemning them... educate them. Beat the drum over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over until they either acquiesce to the truth... or their followers begin to see them as the misinformed and desperate leaders they are. Tithing has a true researchable history. It wasn't universally embraced from NT times. It's an innovation of the institutional church (organized religion).

Here's a little history...

As far back as Cyprian we discover that tithing wasn't practiced by the church. In fact, Cyprian wrote about how he believed the church should be employ tithing to support the newly established priesthood (based on the Levitical system of the OT). He felt that by sustaining a trained and well paid priesthood with tithes, heretics and false teachers could be dealt with officially. If tithing was a universal practice within the church, why would Cyprian contemplate the church's reaction to such an idea? But we continue... After Constantine and the institutionalization of the church in Rome, the ecclesiastical leadership were in wide open debates on how to fund the priesthood and build cathedrals. The Council of Tours in 567 advocated tithing but it was rejected as a practice to be universally enforced. Bishops began buddying up to royalty and soon tithes were made obligatory by civil law in the Carolingian empire in 765. After the Protestant Reformation tithes didn't become mandatory in England until the tenth century. Soon, the notion of tithing was pumped all over the world through the English colonies in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Even after the Revolutions when churches and governments became separated, the notion of tithing continued. And it continues to this very day.

Tithing is essentially a Catholic innovation like the Trinity.

Maybe God is opening their eyes through ME!
I just might be the answer to your prayer brother.
Think about that for a minute...


Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple


Did the Apostles teach tithing in the original church of his day?....I rest my case.