[coksiw]

Originally Posted by Esaias

So far, the Seventh Day Adventists were developing a "tithe" doctrine in the late 1800s. A lot of it was based on their "new revelations" from the Prophetess and being given "new light" on the Scriptures and God's Plan for "the last days".

Storehouse tithing was (as far as I can find) first preached at a Methodist Episcopal church in Cincinnati in 1895.

I have no idea what the Mormons taught, but I highly doubt their doctrines would be influential on other churches in the 1800s seeing as the Mormons were involved in shootouts with federal agents and were generally viewed as a heretical cult. The SDAs however have generally maintained a slightly more mainstream reputation (not by much, but still more mainstream than the Mormons).

The Bible Students movement (an offshoot of the larger Adventist movement) spearheaded by Charles Russel (one of the Bible Student splinter groups is the one known as "Jehovah's Witnesses") do not practice tithing as far as I know. Russell did not teach it, rather he taught tithing was an Old Testament law for the Jews and thus not for Christians.

It really seems the "you must give 10% of your income/paycheck" appears to have been developed in the late 1800s, and was popularized in the 50s and 60s by the faith healers/charismatic/radio-and televangelist movements. It was also picked up by Baptists around this time.

i still have not been able to find much documentation on how all these different groups adopted "tithing" at roughly the same time. but I find that incredibly amazing and "synchronicitous", if you catch my meaning.

This book is based on a PhD work by the same author. It has an excellent historical research about the topic, with a lot of names include: https://a.co/d/bJeKoJp

I got this info from his book:

Before 1873, the doctrine of tithing in America wasn't that popular. People supported their ministers the best they could, with freewill offerings. That it is in part the work of the puritans, pilgrims, quakers, and other groups in American strong rejection of the doctrine.

However, the doctrine of tithing began to be "rediscovered".

1873, Alexander Hogshead, published a book called, "The Gospel self-supporting", advocating for a minimum of 10% giving, saying it was an eternal principle. At the same time, A.W. Miller published his work also saying that the early church fathers supported tithing and we needed to practice it. Finally, in 1875, Speer also published a book saying tithing is also a progressive revelation that we all must practice.

But what really caused the fire to start in the USA was Thomas "Layman" Kane in 1876[1]. He was a Presbyterian businessman. He wrote a pamphlet about tithing, and sent it to 75% of the evangelical ministers in the USA for free. He bombarded them with the unsolicited material for years.
His pamphlets were effective enough to cause a "rediscovery" of tithing, and a movement in the clergy to impose it on the congregations.

When tithing hit the Pentecostal movement, it came from ministers already persuaded from the work of these people. And main argument to introduce it to the congregations was: "We don't really need the money, but we don't want you to miss a blessing (prosperity) that tithing brings". So it was a prosperity argument, and in America, who doesn't want to prosper and be rich?

Basically, the theological "foundation" was the work of Hogshead and Miller, and the promoting hand was Thomas.

Finally, in 1906, Henry Lansdell wrote a two volume work called "The Sacred Tenth" that does a very lengthy historical investigation trying to show that 1/10 was a common tax or expected contribution in several cultures, and coming to the conclusion that it must have been some sort of divine number from the times right after the flood. I have a better explanation: ancient time practicality, we got 10 fingers, which makes it easier to count what you are due to the King/Priest. In fact, the Bible in 1Sam 8:15-17, tithing is presented negatively, like something a King would do over Israel, demonstrating that this was just a practical number for the ancient cultures.

Interesting findings.


1. https://www.tithereview.com/blog/pic...aught-millions

The book doesn't really include the history of tithing in the Pentecostal churches, but with the findings of the book, and the findings from the other thread we discussed already, we can figure out what happened.