If there is anything that had caused so much issues in the world today, it is the issue of Tithing in the church and how some Pastors and Bishops are going about it and how some had turned it into jackpot. Using it as an avenue to manipulate people and rob them of their hard earned resources. Some Pastors had even gone as far as laying curses on people if they and when they failed to pay their tithe. Some had gone as far as brainwashing their loyal followers that they cannot enter the Kingdom of God if they failed to pay their tithe.
Well, that a bloody lie. Tithe is never the requirement to enter the Kingdom of God. The first thing that qualifies you to enter the Kingdom of God is not even the religion you are so ready to die for and I’m not just referring to Christianity, I’m referring to all religion under the sky. And the first require to enter the Kingdom of God is your love for God and your fellow human being. And Jesus made this clear in Matthew 22:37-40 when He said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The second requirement to enter the Kingdom of God is to believe in Jesus. And Jesus made this clear in John 3:14-17 saying; “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Whoever condemn you for not paying Tithe is anti-God; how? Because it was clearly stated “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Condemnation is the ministry of Satan and anyone who condemns another person is not of God. In John 8:10-12 it was stated that “when Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Do not give room to anyone to condemn you of your decision not to pay Tithe. It is not a sin if you did not pay, and it is not a ticket to heaven if you do pay. And if peradventure you purposed in your heart to pay, pay it as a service unto the Lord and not to any man.
Let’s dig a little into history and see how the tithing became a tool in the hands of the prosperity preachers to manipulate and rob people of their resources.
Before Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa began to teach prosperity and teaching on the importance and benefit of Tithing , no Pentecostal Pastor was preaching it because they knew nothing about it. Now, Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa was not preaching it to exploit the people, he was teaching it as an avenue to create wealth opportunity for the people and as he was receiving it, he was using it to take care of the poor, the widows, the fatherless, the orphans and several others. So many individuals that’d never thought that they could become a graduated benefitted so much from him enormous generosity and he was never tribalistic or treat anyone less because of their nationality or colour and that includes individuals of other religion and faith. Some of the Preachers of prosperity we see and know today learn under his feet; he trained them all both within and outside Nigeria but the moment he passed on to glory majority of them turned the same tool that had helped them to survive the hardship of life into a tool to rob and never look back one day to lift the poor out of the dunghill.
Sometimes, the church leaders are never the problem, but the people; and I mean the church members are the problem. Back in 2010 when I started Pastoring, the Lord told me that paying Tithe is not a law He gave but the system of taking care of the less privilege ones among the children of Israel as well as the serving Priests which today we refer to as Pastors; in the temple which Moses developed into a law not He God.
Now, let’s explore the Bible, and please pay attention to what is written.
ABRAHAM DID PAY TITHE
One of the first thing the Prosperity preachers made us to believe is that Abraham paid Tithe to Melchizedek king of Salem in Gen 14:18-24; that is not true. It was recorded in that verse that; “then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him; that it’s Abram and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”And he – Melchizedek king of Salem – gave him –Abram- a tithe of all.
After he had given tithe to Abram and Abram was yet to accept or reject it; the Bible said that Melchizedek laid a demand on Abram. “Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.”
Then the Bible said; “but Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’ – except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”
That was Abram rejecting the Tithe Melchizedek gave to him. So, Abram never gave Tithe to Melchizedek and Abram never received Tithe Melchizedek.
MALACHI WAS FOR THE PRIEST NOT THE CHURCH
I went on a Three years studies on the issues of Tithing and I discovered that Malachi Three that the Pastors are quoting all the time and using it to scare the people are not written to the people but to the Priests themselves who are receiving Tithes from the people but are not paying Tithes themselves from what they had received from the people. So when the poor comes to the house of the Lord for food, financial or material help, the Pastors are quick to say that the church cannot help because they’d consumed what they’d received on their lust.
This was made clear in Numbers 18:25-26 saying; “then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: ‘When you take from the children of Israel the Tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a Tenth of the Tithe.
When a Tithe is paid, the Priest that received that Tithe supposed to pay a Tenth of the Tithe unto the Lord and this Tenth of the Tithe was what God was referring to in Malachi 3:8-12 when He said; “will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘in what way have we robbed You?’ In Tithes and Offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of hosts; and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.
The system of Tithing is, when you give your Tithe, Priest -Pastor- that receive the Tithe from you supposed to take Ten Percent of the Tithe he had collected from you and keep it aside should in case anyone run to the house of the Lord for help that person will have help. When King David said in Psalm 46:1 that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” This is exactly what he meant; but unfortunately, it is other way round. The church run to people for help and they get it, but when the people run to church for help, they get nothing.
Now, this act of the Priest consuming the Tithe they received from the people did not start today. It started long time ago. In 1 Samuel 21:2-6 it was said that “so David said to Ahimelech the priest …now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.” And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread…so the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.”
The common bread on hand in this verse actually means the Tenth the of the Tithe that the Priests supposed to keep aside from the Tithe they’d collected from the people; but instead of given him the common bread, they gave him the holy bread the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. This was what God meant when He said they robbed Him. The Tenth that supposed to be for the people, they ate it. The one they supposed to keep as a service to the Lord, they ate that to; so they are rubbing both God and Man at the same time. To understand Malachi 3, you have to start reading from Malachi 2
YOU CAN EAT YOUR TITHE
In Deuteronomy 12:17-19 it was said to the people that; “you may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
You have the right not to give your Tithe to any Pastor or any church; but you must be lead by God to tell you or teach you what to do with it. But what happens if or when you don’t have the capacity to hear from God. Very simple, channel it to the poor. In Psalm 41:1-3 it was said that “blessed is he who considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; you will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; you will sustain him on his sickbed.
TEN PERCENT IS A COVENANT BETWEEN JACOB AND GOD
Giving Ten Percent of your income is not a standard for Tithing, giving Ten Percent was a covenant between God and Jacob. A covenant Jacob made to God on his way to Laban’s house in Genesis 28:20-22; “then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” Unfortunately, Jacob never fulfilled the covenant and God never punish him for it.
Tithing should be a thing of covenant between you and your God and it could be any percentage you are so sure is and will be convenient for you to give and be consistent in giving it. It could be one percent, two percent, five percent, twenty percent or more. You’re at liberty to decide what you want to give.
There are so many manipulations and lies in the church all in the name of preaching the gospel; and the funniest thing is, many of these individuals teaching are not even grounded in the word. They don’t sit down to study. Their lives are garbage in, garbage out. They listen to the lies and falsehood from whoever they consider as their Pastor, Father or Mother in the Lord, or Mentor; then listen to the teachings or preaching of few other individuals that they could see that is doing well in ministry and then went about and be spitting the same ungrounded lies and their listeners will take the same and believe it to be truth. No, it’s not; you’d been lied to.
TITHE IS ONCE IN A YEAR
In Deuteronomy 14:22-29 God said to the children of Israel; “you shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. “At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
Giving Tithe supposed to be once in a year according to what was written in Deuteronomy but that was then. The current system of the church now is a system that demand that your pay your Tithe every now and then; including when you borrow money to do a project or to do a business. There is nowhere in the bible where it was said that you must pay tithe from the loan you took from the bank, friends, relatives, associates etc.
JESUS AND TITHE
In Matthew 23:23-24 Jesus rebuked the Priests for paying so much attention to the issue of Tithe; monitoring who pay tithe and who doesn’t. in that verse of the Bible, Jesus said; “”woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
God can use anyone to spark up His moves or bring necessary correction to His body. And you don’t have to be a Pastor or Pastor a huge congregation before God can use you. The most important thing is your availability, total dedication to God and a heart for God and humanity.
Well, majority of our Pastors today are like the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the days of Jesus Christ whom Jesus re-premanded in Luke 11:52 saying “woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”
If you are waiting on your religious leaders to hear the truth or have the truth of God, you might wait for eternity and not have it. But if you will be diligent enough to study and search out the truth yourself; I believe you will receive the light of His words.