Recently, while talking in our community of former evangelicals converted to the Catholic Church, we were studying the subject of the tithe. Taking part in it were the evangelical pastor Fernando García Sotomayor (Director of a seminary in Colombia), José Luis Vela (a former evangelical pastor returned to the Catholic Church), and myself.
I have wanted to gather the best of their contributions and a summary of my own, in order to address this interesting subject.
Opinion of Fernando García Sotomayor (Pastor and director of a seminary in Barranquilla, Colombia)
Too Poor to Tithe
Proverbs 13:7
Introduction.
Among the many excuses a believer offers for not paying tithes, this is one of them.
Others justify themselves by saying: “ I always give offerings”
Others claim they have many expenses. Others assert that the tithes are poorly managed by the church treasury. Others who are very “biblical” affirm that paying tithes is a thing of the Old Covenant and that it is not ratified in the New Covenant. Others justify themselves by saying that they do not know how much they earn and therefore do not do it.
But whatever the excuse may be, the truth is that excuses have no value before God.
We are all debtors before God, and our tithes are like a “guarantee” of “paying” what we give to the Lord. Paying tithes is an acknowledgment that we are debtors and not owners.
When a believer does not pay his tithes, he reveals what is in his heart… inner poverty.
This inner poverty manifests itself in three different ways:
I. SPIRITUAL POVERTY
A. It manifests itself when we love ourselves more than God
B. It manifests itself through lack of love for the church
C. It manifests itself through lack of love for the ministry
Applications:
1. When money is loved more than God, the consequence is a fickle and unstable character
2. Paying tithes is an antidote against the love of money
3. Paying tithes is a way of receiving spiritual blessings
Illustration:
The church of Laodicea was rich materially but poor
Spiritually. Apoc. 3: 17
II. POVERTY OF VISION
A. Paying our tithes contributes to the accomplishment of missionary projects. Matthew 28:18
B. Paying our tithes is an investment made in the Kingdom of God.
1. This investment is made in the church treasury
2. This investment accumulates eternal rewards. Phil. 4:17; 2 Tim.1:12. (The terms account and deposit are banking terms)
Application: Where is your treasure invested?
III. POVERTY OF FAITH (FAITHFULNESS)
A. A believer who does not believe God’s promises is poor in faith.
Heb.11:6
B. A believer who does not make the Lord’s cause his own cause is poor in Faith.
C. A believer who is materially rich but is not faithful to God is poor in faith
Conclusion.
Four pillars sustain the work of God: the spiritual pillar, the administrative pillar, the doctrinal pillar, and the economic pillar.
If you want to be a wretched believer, then hoard for yourself. If you wish to be poor, let yourself be bitten by greed. But if you want to live in God’s superabundance, then be generous with the Lord’s work.
Give for the love of Jesus Christ. Christ is the greatest giver of us all. If you long for all of God’s blessings, pay your tithes in full; if you do not pay them in full, you have not tithed. Your tithes may be small in amount, but God asks that we pay a percentage proportion and not an amount. If your tithes are the best that you have and are the just proportion, they will please God, and this is what truly counts.
With much appreciation.
Rev. Fernando García S
Opinion of José Luis Vela (former evangelical pastor)
ORIGIN OF THE TITHE.
God led His people to the promised land; there He distributed the land among the ELEVEN tribes.
The tribe of the Levites would have to devote itself to the service of God, so the other remaining tribes would have to give the TITHE to sustain the JEWISH PRIESTHOOD. So 11 tribes giving 10 % was equal to 110. This priesthood was to be sustained until the coming of the Messiah.
Jesus Christ annulled the sacrifices of the Temple, the veil was rent, Jesus Christ opened the way. The Levitical priesthood necessary for the sacrifice of animals or offerings, which had been instituted since Aaron, was annulled. No longer would either the OFFERINGS or the HOLOCAUSTS be necessary; the blood of bulls and calves did not please God. Only one perfect sacrifice is now pleasing to the Father (Malachi 1,11)
Now then, Jesus institutes a new COVENANT. In this new covenant there is NO LONGER ANY TITHE, because there is no longer any need to sustain the JEWISH PRIESTHOOD. The servants of the New Testament are commanded
“eat such things as are set before you” Luke 10,37
And the members of the Church are asked:
“to give as every one hath determined in his heart” 2 Corinthians 9,7
This is why what the pastors of any group calling itself “Christian” do in demanding the tithe by pressuring their brethren is NOT from God, but is a COMMANDMENT OF MEN, who without any shame deceive their weak brethren in order to take money from them in the name of God.
“supposing gain to be godliness” 1 Timothy, 6,5
The gentlemen who lead some religious group have no Apostolic Authority delegated by God to “demand” that people comply as if they were “Jews”, collecting the Jewish “tithe”
to sustain a Priesthood that has already expired
In this NEW TESTAMENT sealed with the blood of Christ there is a New People: the Catholic Church of Jesus Christ, INSTITUTED in THE APOSTLES and their Successors the Bishops (Acts 20,28). These Bishops, successors of the Apostles, are the ones who have received the Authority delegated by Christ to His Apostles through the laying on of hands. (Acts 6,6 1 Tim. 4,14)
Not like some improvised preachers who suddenly feel enlightened by some spirit and set about forming their little “Christian” groups in order to impose the “tithe” on people and take their money.
There is only one Church that comes from the beginning; it is the Church founded by Jesus Christ, which He sustains despite human faults and errors. It is made up of sinful men. If God had wanted to have a Heavenly Church, He would have sent angels to lead it…
For that reason it is necessary to respect the Authorities that have been placed by God. (Rom 13,1) and not set about forming new churches.
This Apostolic Authority is not obtained merely by setting out to “read the Bible”. Not just any person can begin to preach on his own account and start asking people for TITHES
frightening them with biblical quotations such as “you afflict me, bring all the tithes into the storehouse”
Why? Because this biblical quotation was addressed to the JEWS, who had the duty and the obligation
of sustaining the JEWISH PRIESTS, since they had received the land flowing with “milk and honey” and needed the Jewish priesthood in order to offer their offerings and holocausts in the ancient temple.
Now then, my brethren. The messengers of the Gospel of Christ must first be called, as Aaron was (Heb 5,4). This call was made by Christ when He chose
the ones who were to be the apostles of His One and Only Church (Matthew 10,1 Luke 6,13). That is why the Catholic Church is Apostolic, for it traces its origins from apostolic times
The Church of Christ is not some new group formed by some clueless preacher
nor is it any church founded from the rebellion of Luther in the year 1517 (or coming from an earlier heresy).
So then, no one can claim to have received authority from God to found new churches
just because one day it occurred to someone to start to “read the Bible”. Because God appointed Apostolic Authorities that have already been instituted by Christ in HIS Church.
These Authorities must be obeyed, because they watch over our souls. (Heb 13,17)
This Authority delegated by Jesus Christ is found only in the One Ancient Church. Yes, in that Catholic Church that many despise and judge, because they claim they can build for themselves some “better churches”
However, these man-made “churches” ought to know that they are behaving badly when they preach the division of Christians, because they go against the Will of Jesus Christ
expressed in the Gospel of St. John 17,21
Many found new churches out of greed for profit and deceive people with this tithe business.
In Summary:
The Tithe, the offerings, and the holocausts are for the Jews.
We Christians are NOT Jews nor do we belong to any tribe of Israel
Christians cooperate for the support of their brethren. They take up “COLLECTIONS” just as Paul asked the Christians to help the brethren of Jerusalem who were going through a crisis.
“To carry your grace to Jerusalem” 1 Corinthians 16,3
The Jews Tithed to sustain their Levitical priesthood
We Christians know love of neighbor, and we take notice of our neighbor’s needs.
Each one gives according as he hath determined in his heart 2 Cor. 9,7
Without any abusive schemer demanding with threats the old Jewish tithe
from the weak who do not know these things well.
Glory to God.
Opinion of José Miguel Arráiz (Catholic layman)
Little remains to be added. At this point it is clear:
Although the Church, by the power of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, could demand the tithe, those who claim to be governed by Sola Scriptura while rejecting the authority of the Church cannot demand the tithe from Christians. The tithe forms part of a work of the law (the Torah) that has been abolished. It is curious that the Protestants, who go about proclaiming that we are not under the law but under grace, want to impose, when it suits them, some work of the law — as it happens, “the tithe”.
It is important to stress that we do not think that Christians should not support the Church; the Scriptures are quite clear that “thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn” (1 Corinthians 9,9), and that “they who work in the holy place eat the things that are of the holy place” (1 Corinthians 9,13). When the Christian Church replaced the tithe with the collection, it did not do so out of stinginess, but because now each one would give “as he hath determined in his heart, not with sadness or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9,7).
So the insinuations that whoever does not tithe is “inwardly poor” have little coherence. Quite the contrary: he who does not tithe can give much more than the tithe if his heart so disposes; some will give much more, and those who have little will give according to their means. Nor does it mean that we have no love for the Church. Or could someone who gives generously according to the kind disposition of his heart be justly accused of such a thing?
It has caught my attention that in his contribution, Pastor Fernando did not spend his time demonstrating the tithe biblically. He knows that among people who know the Bible this is not possible (Catholic apologists and former evangelicals). Let us acknowledge that he immediately tries to “judaize”. That is why he preferred to refer to us somewhat sarcastically as the “very biblical” ones and to give no reasons, so as to immediately accuse us of “spiritual poverty”
He says:
“Others who are very ‘biblical’ affirm that paying tithes is a thing of the Old Covenant and that it is not ratified in the New Covenant….But whatever the excuse may be, the truth is that excuses have no value before God.
Yes, paying tithes is a thing of the Old Covenant. It would be better if he gave the reason why we must pay it despite Paul’s command in 2 Corinthians 9. What happened to that whole Sola Scriptura business? Is the problem now being very biblical? What a novelty! Instead of dodging the issue by simply asserting that it is an excuse that has no value before God, he should refute it, and not forget that He IS NOT GOD.
Thus, the pastor has chosen this time to set the Bible aside, to try to discredit the opposing position by sarcastically calling it “very biblical” and to use a two-pointed spear: Threat – Hook.
Threat:
-To those who do not tithe:
“they love themselves more than God”
“lack of love for the Church and for the ministry”
“the consequence is a fickle and unstable character”
“we are wretched and poor”
Because of the psychological pressures that some Protestant pastors put on their faithful, the individual ends up being seen by his community as someone miserable, who does not love his church or the apostolic work, and who puts money first, before God. It is not difficult for him to end up tithing. I know of a case in which the lady was pressured to tithe in such a way that she lost her mental balance. Her husband wanted nothing more to do with Christianity.
Hook:
-To those who tithe:
“If you long for all of God’s blessings, pay your tithes in full”
“it is a way of receiving spiritual blessings”
Thus, for those on whom the threat does not work, the hook will follow next: pointing out that if they tithe they will receive God’s blessings (a powerful combination). He thereby conditions the believer to tithe in order to be blessed and moves him by the reward. Most people who do love the god “money” tithe for this reason. Note that this hook motivates the believer to tithe out of self-interest (in order to receive, and not out of pure love). But were God’s blessings not free of charge? What happened to that “Sola Gratia” business? Does it no longer apply when it is not convenient?
God blesses the one who gives with joy, but not if he is giving while thinking about the blessing he will receive afterward; there it is not meritorious but self-interested. We are not merchants trading with God, and God sees the secret intentions of our heart. When we approach obtaining God’s blessing in this way, we fall into the absurdities of the prosperity theory: Pay so that God may bless you.
We must not let ourselves be deceived by these false pastors who invite us to tithe so that God may bless us; let us rather believe the gospel that was taught to the true disciples of the Lord:
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils: freely have you received, freely give.” Matthew 10,8
God has given us His blessings freely. We must be generous in the collection, not in the pastor’s human manner, not literally 10%, and God will bless us. But the motivation of our offering must never be to obtain God’s blessing. One does not bargain with God.
P.S: The evangelical Churches that have tried to practice the collection and eliminate the tithe in order to be in accord with the New Testament have seen the income in their coffers diminish considerably, which is why some have chosen to go back to demanding the tithe. At present, most evangelical Churches demand it of their members.
