Greedy Preacher$ Redefine the Tithe

By Patricia Backora

Eph.4:14:That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and

fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of
men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Oh, how crafty theologians and churchmen of Christendom can be
when it comes to preserving their pet traditions from the scrutiny of
believers who know God has set them free from the Law of Moses!
Where it concerns enforcing the edicts of Jewish ceremonial Law,
they know they dont have a leg to stand on. Like a politician spins
away the real truth in order to sell a smelly fish to the voters, the
clergy of Christendom air-brush their own regurgitation of the Law,
perfume it in religious mysticism, and sell it to the congregation
ever so softly and tenderly...at first. Those erudite Bible scholars
are quite subtle about it.
The word law immediately raises
defenses and arouses suspicion toward the preacher. Law evokes
visions of a Wild West shootout at the OK Corral or a speeding
ticket, while principle is soft and fuzzy. The way a lot of
preachers get around the sticky problem of us not being under the
Law anymore is to reclassify their favorite law as a principle. This
buzzword instills pride, not guilt.
Why? Because the thief in the
pulpit evidently believes his cash cows are smart
enough to
understand big words from above and receive deeper revelations
(dipstick devilations) whch lead both deceiver and deceived into a
deep ditch (Matt.15:14; Luke 6:39).

Law is the stick approach. Law says you MUST tithe or God will
put a hex on you. Principle is the carrot approach. Principle
says you OUGHT to tithe, because tithing is (allegedly) one of Gods
foundational operating procedures, and a vital key for unlocking His
blessings. But that polished preacherese is really a thinly veiled
threat that youll be reduced to rags if you dont fork over ten
percent of your milk money to the bully in the pulpit.
Preachers post non-tithers names to bulletin boards. Preachers call
out their names from a high-and-mighty pulpit. Preachers appeal to
alleged visits to hell to scare tithes out of people. Jesus allegedly
locks non-tithers up in pits to be tortured, with big placards on their
chest announcing theyre roasting in hell for not coughing up the
cash. Why would the REAL Jesus wait till after Christians have
croaked and gone to hell to notify them Hes punishing them for
failure to keep a monetary tithing law that isnt EXACTLY written in
the Bible, but He changed His mind when the Catholics started
doing it and thought it was a great idea? HORSEFEATHERS! Jesus
never even hinted that heaven is for sale. Throughout His life, Jesus
denounced vain manmade traditions and stuck with It is written
(Matt.15:3; 16:6; Mark 7:13). He told the Pharisees that they made
the true Word of God ineffectual because of their vain traditions.

Preachers even punish the dead. I read about one elderly lady
whod faithfully tithed to her church for most of her life. In her later

years she was unable to do this and still meet her basic living
expenses. Filled with very un-Christlike resentment, the preacher
took malicious revenge on her by refusing to preach her funeral!
Who would want that mean old devils sendoff anyhow?
Maybe Jesus did nail the Law of Moses to His Cross, preachers
grudgingly admit, but heres how they wiggle out of that: Nowhere
does it say He nailed Gods principles to the Cross. Oh, preachers
spin lies into cotton candy like a polished politician. Even if New
Testament tithing isnt a binding law, per se, its still a principle
God made part and parcel of nature, like the law of sowing and
reaping, and youd better respect tithing like the law of gravity.
After all, preachers say, the law of gravity will still kill you even if
you dont believe in it and jump off a cliff. Notice, a violated
principle will exact its penalty.
What a crock! My dictionary defines principle as: scientific LAW
shown or used in the working of something. A law by any other
name is still a law, whatever the preacher calls it. Call the tithe a
principle, but if something looks like a law, sounds like a law,
smells like a law, barks orders at you like a law, and punishes you
for failure to observe it, its a law!
Oily-tongued tithe teachers claim that even if God isnt (exactly)
mad at you for non-tithing, He is BOUND by universal law NOT to
bless you unless you fork over a fixed percentage of your pay to the
preacher. Even if youre too smart to get the Law of Moses put back
on you, who can argue with the dark side of the force?
That preachers would say these things about that same Almighty
God Who is Lord over all and isnt bound by ANYTHING! Our
merciful Heavenly Father Who makes rain to fall on lost sinners!
That kind, faithful Creator Who blesses the birds with food every
single day!
Can you imagine God threatening to nuke little
songbirds if they dont sell a bait shop some of the worms they
catch and pay some preacher ten per cent of the proceeds?
Jesus plainly declared that the same God Who feeds the birds who
dont sow or reap, or lay up in storehouses, will also take care of us
because He loves us even more than the birds (Matt.6:26).

All this rhetoric from preachers about the need for us to sow seed
into THEIR sinis.I mean, MINISTRY! If we keep sowing to THEM,
on THEIR land, were sure to rake in big bucks on OUR land!

What Jesus said about the birds NOT gathering crops into barns
contradicts everything preachers holler about hauling tons of loot to
the church house.
If God doesnt curse birds that dont fill up a
storehouse with grain, then God doesnt curse Christians who dont
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fill some religious whI mean, STOREHOUSE with greenery! Heres

how preachers tinker with Old Testament tithing to make it fit within
the framework of a more spiritual New Covenant: First you sweat
and labor in your spiritual harvest field (Burger King or Dunkin
Donuts). Then you reap your spiritual minimum wage crop, then
you send it to the spiritual storehouse (First Natl. Bank) where
hippie bread is stashed away for the spiritual Levite (some
conservative Gentile preacher who plays god with peoples souls).

Thats how you keep the Fat Cats in the pulpit fat.

Birds dont earn favors from God that way, and neither should we.
At various church conferences I attended many years ago, Brother
Stan, the keynote speaker who hosted the convention, emphasized
over and over that we are to live our lives according to the Gospel
of Paul, who repeatedly said were free from the Law. Galatians 5:1
was one of Stans favorite Scriptures: Stand fast therefore in the
liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. My, but we loved that, and it is so
true. And: Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but
after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death.
Such Scriptures as these were the foundation of Stans teaching on
grace in the New Testament. The paradox is this: Stan spent most
of his time expounding on Old Testament Tabernacle ordinances. I
took copious notes. I struggled to remember every ritual, every
priestly office, every stick of furniture and every court in the
Tabernacle as if my spiritual life depended on it. Thank God it is so
simple to get saved, all it takes is repentance toward God and
childlike faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). Thats the
Gospel in a nutshell, and its far more wonderful than any of us can
fully comprehend.
Stan spoke of Gods divine order for Old Testament worship and
practice being a pattern for todays church. His examples made
sense, such as the brass laver in Exodus 30:18-19 in which the
priests washed their hands and feet before going into the Presence
of God to offer up sacrifices. Brass speaks of our sin nature, and
the laver speaks of the washing of water by the Word (Eph. 5:26).
When applied to our hearts through repentance and faith in Christ,
the Word of God does indeed cleanse our outward walk, typified by
the feet, and our hands, which perform Gods service. Another
picture of redemption was the sprinkling of blood upon the doors of
the Israelites homes at Passover. That ordinance speaks of the
sprinkling of the Blood of Christ upon our consciences to make us
blameless before God, so we can be spared His judgment (Hebrews
9:12-14).
Teaching on the Old Testament Mosaic Tabernacle is very beneficial
when it is presented as a picture of Gods beautiful plan for our
salvation, which, like a photographic negative being developed to a
positive, was fully developed when Christ came to earth to make
final atonement for us on the Cross. That is how Brother Stan
presented the principles of Gods salvation to us. He had a sweet,

childlike nature, and I enjoyed his teaching. Even if Stan did teach
a Mid-Trib position on the Rapture, which I now disagree with,
because you cant split the true Body of Christ in two, otherwise
that would be a RUPTURE, not a rapture. And after all that teaching
about how salvation is not by works but grace, how do you
determine whether youve done enough good works (or lived a
saintly enough life) to earn the Rapture? This notion has something
in common with my main topic: tithing.
Hows that? Preachers make exceptions to the rule whenever it
suits their purpose. Preachers agree with the ancient apostles that
you ARE free from the Lawwell, except for tithing, because even if
Jesus paid your sin bill, you still need to leave a tip to avoid looking
like a bum, and theres something in it for preachers too. Similarly,
preachers teach that salvation is by grace through faith alone, and
works have nothing to do with earning or keeping it. Sinners come
just as they are and get saved.
God freely forgives them,
throughout their Christian life, without demanding that they flog
themselves to earn this forgiveness. But once you reach the FINAL
stage of salvation, the salvation and perfection of our body at the
Rapture (Rom. 8:23; 13:11; I Cor.15:52-57), that has to be earned
by good works or you get punished by going through the
Tribulation, where god will use the Antichrist to give you a good
whipping for failure to be good enough to go up in the first load. As
if suffering through famine, disease plagues, and nuclear warfare
would teach a left-behinded believer to love Jesus better! I suspect
the reason the Rapture has to be earned by good works and the
other phases of our salvation are a free gift, is this: the final part of
our salvation, our glorification, is the only period in our Christian life
that doesnt involve any suffering, and control freak preachers cant
stand to see their people happy and free of troubles and trials!
In Stans meetings a box was kept near the door of the
Tabernacle, where you could discreetly contribute any amount,
according to how the Lord led you. I dont remember Stan
mentioning tithing much, but his father did actively teach tithing,
which Paul, whose Gospel they exhorted us to follow, never taught.
After much study, I found tithing to be a carryover from the Law of
Moses, transformed into a lucrative income tax to be enforced upon
New Covenant saints redeemed from the Law.
Over and over again, I heard it preached that you shouldnt eat the
tithe. But during all the years I heard Stan and his dad cite endless
passages on Old Testament Law and Mosaic rituals, why did I NOT
ONCE hear them quote this passage on tithing:

Deuteronomy 14: 22-27 deals with the Festival Tithe, one of three
tithes paid by the Israelite worshipper.
VERSE 22 Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase (harvest) of thy
seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.****Not which thy
boss payeth thee week by week.
VERSE 23 And thou ( the tithe-payer!) shalt EAT before the LORD
thy God, in the place which He shall chose to place His name there,
the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thy olive oil, and of the
firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to
fear the LORD thy God always.*****Funny how its the other way
around with modern preachers, who insist that God will teach you to
fear Him by zapping you like a fly if you dont tithe.
VERSE 24 introduces the ONLY context in all of Holy Scripture where
money is mentioned in conjunction with tithing! Lets read. And if
the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or
if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall
choose to set His Name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed
thee;
VERSE 25 Then thou shalt turn it into money, and bind up the
money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy
God shalt choose:
VERSE 26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy
soul lusteth after; for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong
drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and THOU SHALT EAT
there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy
household,
VERSE 27 And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not
forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee (in the
Promised Land).
Take special note of verse 26. God Himself suggests that the
worshipper purchase wine and strong drink with money from the
sale of farm produce! Scandalous! Even if most preachers did
quote this scripture, theyd suggest that God meant spiritual wine
while still keeping the tithe literal and changing it to money!
The church system I was affiliated with taught that while it may not
exactly be a sin to drink per se, wed better be teetotallers, even
though Old Testament saints drank wine and so did Jesus, Who was
accused of being a winebibber and a glutton (Luke 7:34). One
church brother was spotted in a restaurant with his wife, celebrating

their wedding anniversary over a glass of wine. The spy told the
pastor, who disqualified this brother from being a candidate for
church elder, just for one wicked glass of wine! That pastor taught
both liberation from the Old Law and compulsory tithing at the same
time. He thought that it was a sin to drink even the mildest
alcoholic beverages, because that was being a bad example before
weaker brethren. But Jesus drank wine. His very first miracle was
to turn water into wine (John 2:1-11). He even promised to drink
the fruit of the vine with His people in the world to come (Mark
14:25). Deut.14:26 encourages worshippers to purchase choice
foods and strong drink with tithes the tither converted to money,
which he would do only when his tithed farm produce could not be
transported over a long distance. The only way legalists could cook
up todays tithing law was to appeal to religious sentiment and
mysticism, not early apostolic authority. If youre going to lay down
the tithing law on New Testament saints, show some fidelity to
Scripture, for goodness sake. If one tithing ordinance is binding
upon the saints, they ALL are! So let the tithers go out and buy a
six-pack with their tithe money and hold a big party of thanksgiving
to God in the church fellowship hall.
If these verses are mentioned at all, theyre given a spiritual
application. Yes, we can bring forth both the Old Wine and the New
Wine to convey truth (Matt. 13:52; Luke 5:37-39). The danger lies
in pouring old wine (typified by the Old Covenant) into new bottles
(Christians are containers of the New Wine of the Spirit). While the
Old Tabernacle System is a beautiful illustration of the spiritual
reality of the New Covenant fulfilled in Christ, the danger of
focusing too much on the Old Law lies in immersing your mind in
mysticism and weaving new doctrines and ordinances from Old
Covenant laws you like or find profitable.
That denies the
foundational doctrine of the New Covenant: Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the Law (which results from imperfect lawkeeping):(Gal. 3:13). As many as are under the works of the Law
are under this curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
continueth not in ALL things whch are written in the book of the Law
to do them (verse 10). James 2:10 states that if you try to keep the
Law and offend in JUST ONE POINT of it, youve broken it all. Just
like when the teacher would say, If part of that test question is
answered incorrectly, its ALL wrong! NOBODY ON EARTH tithes
the Bible way today, because most of the old ordinances which
comprise this law are violated! Theres no Biblical Levites to take
the tithe (Num.18:24), no Temple storehouse to take it to
(Mal.3:10; no,the church treasury wont do), the poor arent given
the whole tithe every third year (Deut.14:28-29), tithes arent
taken from crops and cattle (Lev.27:30-34), and the worshipper is
forbidden to eat his tithe (Deut.14:26). Although a fifty-dollar bill

couldnt be choked down without plenty of mustard!. Tithing is not

suspended every seventh year to give the land a rest (Lev.25:4), It
follows that you cant tithe on crops you didnt grow for that year!
The following chart shows who paid each of four (4) types of tithe,
and how that tithe was used:
Type of Tithe
LEVITICAL TITHE

FESTIVAL TITHE

POOR TITHE

PRIESTS TITHE

Paid
Yearly, by farmers and
herdsmen, except for
Sabbatical years
(Num.18:21)
Yearly, By farmers and
herdsmen (some scholars
believe it wasnt paid
during years of Poor Tithe)
Every third and sixth year
of seven-year tithing cycle
by farmers and herdsmen
(Deut.14:28-29)
Yearly, by the Levites, to
the Aaronic priesthood.
The choicest ten per cent
heaved out of the tithes
they received from the
people (Num.18:25-32)

How used
Stored in Levitical Cities
(Lev.25:32) to feed Levites
and their families
(Neh.10:37)
Hauled to place of worship
and immediately EATEN BY
WORSHIPPER and others
(Deut.14:22-27)
Laid up within Israels city
gates as emergency supply
of food for Levites and
poor people
ONLY kind brought to
Temple storehouses! Fed
priests who worked rotating
shifts (Mal.3:10; I Chron.
Chap.24; Luke 1:8)

Stan and his father went into minute detail about all the Old
Testament ceremonial rituals, quoting countless chapters and
verses, and deriving the deepest spiritual analogies from them.
EXCEPT THE TITHING PASSAGES! Why would they preach about
Christ fulfilling the Firstfruits ritual of Israel, the Scapegoat ritual,
the Passover Lamb offering, and the Firstfruits offering (1
Cor.15;20), then turn around and tell believers to tithe?
After hours spent roaming through old Temple ordinances and
picking apart verses on every other Mosaic Temple rite under a
microscope, why would Stan skip over those TITHING PASSAGES
which show what the tithe was ON, WHO paid it, WHO benefited
from it, and how OFTEN tithing was to be conducted? After making
circumcision spiritual ONLY, the incense of the Temple spiritual
ONLY, and seeing the sacrificial Lamb fulfilled in Christ, why was
tithing the exception to the rule, to be literally kept by Gentile
believers who didnt farm for a living? After making an exhaustive
effort to give a spiritual application to every other Mosaic Temple
ritual, WHY WERE THE TITHES OF THE TEMPLE STOREHOUSE
TRANSFORMED INTO LITERAL CASH MONEY? Why is tithing the
ONLY Mosaic law carried over into the Dispensation of Grace? Talk
about pick-and-choose theology!

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If the preacher is fully aware the Bible does NOT sanction monetary
tithing, perhaps his reasoning goes like this: John Q. Pew-warmer
is parking his caboose in OUR padded pews, in OUR high-tech sheep
shed, financed by OUR church organization. Hes enjoying OUR air
conditioning, OUR plush carpeting, OUR free entertainment, OUR
scenic landscaping, OUR angelic choir directed by OUR $75,000 per
year choir director, and last, but not least, he enjoys MY tender
teaching FREE of charge. Id say that suckers getting a bargain,
paying only ten per cent rent on his salvation. Because if it werent
for ME watching over his ignorant, second-class soul, hed have
drifted off to the Moonies a long time ago and LOST his salvation.
For all their hollering and screaming about bringing tithes into the
lords (the church boards) house, preachers never mention this
minor point: only the LEVITES, not the people, were commanded to
bring tithes into the Temple storehouses!
Anyone who
impersonated a Levite and did his job for him would have been put
to death (Num.1:51; 3:10; 3:38).
Neh.10:38: And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the
Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the LEVITES shall bring
up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the
chambers, into the treasure house.
The bulk of Israels tithes were either eaten by the worshipper,
Levites and the poor at the feasts of Israel, or stored in the towns
for feeding Levites, foreigners and poor widows. Only ten per cent
of that tithed produce (or one per cent of Israels agricultural
output) was ever taken into the Temple storehouses, and that went
to feed the priests on duty. This best ten per cent of the ten per
cent was called the Terumah, or heave offering, because it was
heaved (carefully selected) out of the rest of the tithe, which was
eaten by lower-ranking Levites and their families.
Num.18:25: And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
26 Thus speak unto the Levites (not the common worshippers),
and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes
which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye
shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part
of the tithe.
27 And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as
though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of
the winepress.
28 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD
of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel;
and ye shall give thereof the LORD'S heave offering to Aaron the

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priest. *****This tithe to the altar priests is only taken up AFTER

ordinary Israelites have ALREADY paid their tithes to the Levites
(lower-ranking members of the tribe of Levi), and its the Levites
themselves who pay it. So ask your spiritual Levite preacher
whether he pays the best one-tenth of his cash tithe income to
clergymen who outrank him in the Kingdom of God.
29 Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the
LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of
it.
30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the
best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the
increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress.
31 And ye shall eat it (the best of the tithe) in every place, ye and
your households: for it is your reward for your service in the
tabernacle of the congregation.****Ask the tithe collecting bully
preacher how hes gonna manage to eat a fifty-dollar bill taken as a
tithe payment! If its inedible, it aint a Biblical tithe, plain and
simple. Unless you follow the example of the wicked Pharisee, who
tithed on everything he owned, even his Elvis C.D.s (Luke 18:12).
32 And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved
from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of
the children of Israel, lest ye die.*****honestly, after reading
this last part Id be too SCARED to fiddle around with any of Gods
old laws. Preachers pollute the old law by changing it to suit their
own purposes, adding to and taking from it to enrich themselves.
Its the tithe-payer who usually falls under the curse of the law for
trying to keep this bit of the Law of Moses (Gal.3:10), because
theyre not doing ALL things written in the book of the law, and
whatever they ARE doing is a pathetic distortion of that law. So
their sacrifice of faith is unacceptable in the sight of the God Who
wrote those old laws. Its a wonder God has been so patient with
the preachers who bring His dear children under the curse of the
law theyve loused up so bad!
The Priests tithe was stored in Temple granaries to feed priests on
active duty. Most of the time, priests stayed in their own towns
instead of living on Temple premises and officiating at the altar.
When their turn came to minister in the Temple, theyd go up to
Jerusalem to work until their tour of duty was over, as in the case of
Zacharias (Luke 1:8-9). When Zacharias was home in his own town,
he didnt need to eat tithed food out of the Temple storehouse.
Without bothering to mention that ALL Christians are priests under
the New Covenant (I Pet.2:5,9) and the priests outranked the
Levites in the OT, modern preachers brag that theyre spiritual
Levites higher up in the pecking order than pew Christians. So
everybody else has to pay him per cent of their gross assets to build

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his brick and mortar palace. I Pet.2:5 and 1 Cor.3:16 tells you what
(who) the REAL house of the Lord is!

Because Gods people have been pounded over the head with
Malachi 3:10 billions of times, this liberating truth cant be
emphasized enough:, the ONLY type of tithe which was EVER
brought into the Temple storehouses was the Terumah, or heave
offering, the choicest one-tenth of the tithe, PAID NOT BY THE
PEOPLE, BUT THE LEVITES THEMSELVES!
God gave the Law to the Children of Israel, not other nations
(Lev.27:34; Psalms 147:20). JEWS IN GENTILE LANDS DONT
COLLECT MONEY TITHES, or any other type of tithe. According to
Pastor Craig Lyons of Bet Emet Ministries, Rabbinic law still requires
the tithing of produce OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL. Some observant
Jews will tithe on produce they have bought from other Jews. Theyll
say a ritual Jewish blessing over it, and then destroy the terumah
(theres no high priest in Israel today to feed it to). Rabbi Avraham
Yeshayahu Karelitz devised a formula whereby all the different
tithes are merged, and one per cent of the produce is set aside,
with its sanctity transferred to a specially minted coin. Since tithes
are no longer distributed to priests and Levites (there arent any
officiating today since the Temple hasnt been rebuilt), theyre sent
to various zoos in Israel.

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So next time Brother Blowhard stands in the pulpit and publicly

humiliates you for refusing to tithe, hit the ball back in his court:
Tell him youve already fed your peanuts to the elephants at the
zoo, and youre sorry he missed out!
If you dig deep in the Old Testament, youll find theres lots and lots
of fiddly little regulations which comprise the true Biblical tithing
law. So you see what a pit you dig for yourself when you promise
God youll keep that law. Some Jews in Israel do their best to honor
this law, and zoo animals benefit. But the ONLY aspect of that law
being kept today in Christian churches is ten per cent (interpreted
as dough for the PREACHER). As stated before, keep the law
imperfectly and you bring Gods judgment on yourself, not a
blessing. God doesnt appreciate it when some pompous pinhead
makes a dogs dinner of His ancient laws, to profit thereby.
You cant just hang onto one law you like and transplant it to the
New Covenant of Grace. That is pouring old wine into new bottles,
and it creates an explosion of confusion (Matt.9:17). When you
covenant with God to keep one of the 613 ordinances of Jewish Law,
you make yourself a debtor to keep ALL the others as well (Gal.
5:3). When preachers teach people out in the pew that they must
keep the Law of Moses or any part of it, theyre bringing their
people under a curse (though they could care less, because the
Almighty Dollar is their god). No one was ever justified (made
righteous) through keeping the Law, but by faith only (Gal. 3:11).
The Law of Moses is an indivisible unit. If you covenant with God to
keep one ordinance, you must keep them ALL. You might as well
offer up a nanny goat in the sanctuary if you think any of the Old
Ceremonial Law is still binding on us today. If that is true, Christs
death for us was in vain (Gal. 2:21).
Very few people have smooth sailing all their lives. But I tend to
suspect that a lot of the trials of sickness, family problems and
poverty suffered by churchgoers are attributable to monetary tithing
and other forms of loopy law-keeping. Whereas the Gospel is so
simple a child could understand it, it takes a rocket scientist to
grasp the complicated Scroll of the Law ancient Israelites had to live
under every single day of their lives. All greedy preachers do is
insult everyones intelligence by latching onto the ten per cent
aspect of this law and disregarding every other component
comprising it. They simply say people other Christians OWE them
ten per cent of all their financesFOR LIFE, something Christ NEVER
taught! This lifetime debt runs contrary to Rom.13:8, which says
were to owe nothing but love to other Christians.

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All those rascally preachers love is your GROSS income. True,

preachers have robbed their own brothers and sisters in Christ of a
GROSS amount of money through teaching this fraudulent false
doctrine, which is GROSS iniquity in the sight of Almighty God.
Preachers have not only robbed the saints, theyve committed
GROSS spiritual adultery with Mammon (Luke 16:13). Their love
affair with money has given birth to innumerable evils in the Body
of Christ (1Tim.6:10), putting up barriers between rich and poor
Christians and giving rise to envy and resentment.
Not only have modern preachers stripped Moses complicated
Tithing Law of all its key components, theyve dumbed it down to
mean a ten per cent tax paid to THEMSELVES! Will preachers
demand tithes from you even in heaven (if they manage to make it
there)? Let Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven
(Matt.6:10). Do saints in heaven tithe to Peter, Paul or Abraham?
Do the angels pay tithes? Would you tax your own child?
Throughout history, have children of kings paid taxes, or are taxes
collected from subjects outside the royal family?
Jesus made this clear when He told Simon Peter that the kings of
earth take tribute from outsiders, not from their own children. So
the rulers children are free (from taxation). Jesus paid the Temple
tax anyway just to keep the tax collectors off His back. But this
contribution was NOT a sacrifice of faith. Jesus paid that tax with
UNEARNED money pulled out of a fishs mouth (Matt.17:24-27).
If the children are free, why should our Heavenly Father tax the
princes and princesses of His own Kingdom? Why should your
pastor demand that YOU learn to live by faith as you give till it
hurts while he demands that poor people guarantee hell receive a
fixed percentage of their income so he doesnt have to live by faith
himself? Isnt he putting his faith in people instead of God?
Present this simple logic to one of those Bible-waving thunderheads
and instead of giving you a direct answer to your question theyll
throw up defenses and question your love for Christ because you
smell a rat and wonder why. Theyre a lost cause because people
believe only what they want to believe, even if they know its
unscriptural. Not even God can get through to them. You cant get
a TV picture on a broken-down radio!
For all their yelling and screaming, preachers arent intelligent
enough to rewrite the Law of Moses. Thats like asking a baboon to
rewrite the U.S. Constitution. God threatened Old Testament people
with judgment if they got their dirty fingers on His holy things. So
preying preachers dont fear God enough to stop twisting the true

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Biblical tithe. Quite possibly they no more believe in a literal God of

holiness than they believe in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. But it
would be safer for Homer Simpson to run your neighborhood
nuclear reactor than what preachers are doing: redefining their
favorite Mosaic laws to line their pockets.
Heb.12:29: For our God is a consuming fire.
If you dont keep EVERY tiny little ordinance associated with the
tithing laws, and keep every other law perfectly while youre doing
it, youre liable to suffer the penalty of broken law, which is stated
in Deut.28:15-48. That last verse, Deut.28:48 states that youll try
to sell yourself as a servant (presumably to keep from starving to
death). But no one will buy you. The modern equivalent would be
applying for a minimum wage job, and nobody will hire you. How
many faithful tithers are forced to go to secular food banks because
their own churches, who kept bread (money) in gods house, but
no food for the poor, refused to help them?
THE TITHING
STOREHOUSES WERE FOOD BANKS, NOT MONEY BANKS. Unlike
today, tithes were GIVEN TO, not TAKEN FROM, the poor!
Unscrupulous clergymen who know better because they have
studied all the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation will use flowery
speeches to sell their own brethren back into the bondage of the
Law, even though Christ died to set them free. Like Judas, they sell
their own Lord down the river for a big bag of money and make
ignorant souls stumble. Revelation Chapter 18 speaks of Babylon,
which is thought by many to refer to a false religious establishment
which will persecute the Tribulation saints who turn to Christ after
the Rapture of the Church. Verse 13 mentions the souls of men
as being one of countless products bartered by Babylon for gain.
Souls are being sold down the river by false religious systems of
men in order to profiteer off them. In Matthew 18:6 Jesus says:
But whoso shall offend (cause to stumble) one of these little ones
which believe in me, it were better that a millstone were hanged
about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
That is what Jesus thinks of those who deliberately make others
stumble in their walk of faith! Their true reward awaits them on the
other side, and it sure wont fill them with jubilation!
Someone sent me a piece which says: God requires everyone, from
prisoners to pensioners, to tithe. Ill believe that scripture when I
see it in the Bible. II Timothy 3:16 is one Scripture tithe collectors
resort to to prove tithing is still required: All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness. But we are living under
grace, not law. Even if the tithing law were binding on us today,

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tithing on money is nowhere sanctioned by Scripture. If those who

misuse this Scripture were consistent, they would circumcise all the
males in their church and keep all the carnal ordinances of the true
Sabbath Day, which is Saturday, by the way, not Sunday! To them,
their imaginary scriptures commanding them to take tithes ARE
profitable for making doctrine...and dollars!
Just for fun, lets apply this All scripture is profitable for doctrine
and instruction in righteousness principle to OTHER scripture
verses which are NOT profitable for fattening preachers wallets.
The first one that comes to mind is Matt.27:5. Judas throws some
money on the ground, then rushes off to hang himself. Preachers
might teach you to throw your money away (on THEM!), but theyd
be deranged to teach the second part of that verse as doctrine!
Southerners, youll have to give up catfish, as that has no scales
(Deut. 14:9-10).
If preachers are so perfect, why dont they sell all that they have
and give to the poor, instead of yelling that theyre lazy bums who
should starve for not working hard enough (Matt.19:21)? But
preachers think this sauce should be applied only to pew potatoes,
not the Big Cheese in the pulpit.
Seriously now, lets dig deeper into this can of worms preachers
open when they lay the law on Christians because All scripture is
profitable for doctrine.
What preacher forces Christians to apply THESE scriptures to their
lives? If they did, theyd end up at a war crimes tribunal or in a
crazy house! Israelite warriors wiped out male babies and nonvirgins. Then they forced all the fair young virgins to have sex with
them (Num.31:17-18).
How about this example? Joshua committed mass genocide to take
the Land. King Ahaseureus ordered his queen to expose her body in
front of drunken dinner guests (Est.1:11-12). She refused to
humiliate herself that way, so the king dumped her and held a
beauty contest to find a new queen. Queen Esther took revenge on
the sons of her enemy, contrary to Deut.24:16. She had their dead
bodies hung up for all to see. Not satisfied with this gruesome
spectacle, she butchered five hundred others in the Palace instead
of observing the Geneva Convention and putting only the guilty man
on trial (Est.9:10-13). The king was so delighted he gave in to
Esthers demand for more massacres the next day. The men of
Benjamin kidnapped girls who were dancing at a festival and forced

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them to marry them (Josh.10:28). Jephthah offered up his daughter

as a burnt offering (Judg.11:29-39). Israelite soldiers ate raw meat
(I Sam.14:32). The prophet Samuel hacked a prisoner of war to
pieces (I Sam.15:33), Isaiah went naked and barefoot on his
preaching tours (Isa.20:2).
The prophet Micah did a similar thing:
Micah 1:8: Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and
naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the
owls.*****How could churchmen make a law out of that one?
Paul shaved his head as part of a Mosaic vow even after he became
a Christian (Acts 18:18). Paul circumcised Timothy, making him a
debtor to do the whole law (Gal.5:3). Ezekiel did weird things with
his hair and beard to illustrate his sermon (Ezek.5:1-4). Will
Christians go to hell if they dont fuel their stove with bull butane
(Ezek.4:15)?
Samson killed a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass (Judges
15:15). Amnon raped Tamar and David didnt punish Amnon for it
(2 Sam. Chap.13). Abraham forced his maid to be a surrogate
mother, then allowed his first wife to abuse her when she got
pregnant (Gen.chap.16).
In the Old Testament, God repeatedly orders certain categories of
sinners to be put to death by stoning. Non-virgin girls who marry
were put to death (Deut.22:20-21). Is this teaching profitable for
doctrine today.? A teenager could suffer the death penalty for
sassing his mother or father (Deut.21:18-21). Why dont preachers
argue the case for applying THIS doctrine today as hard as they
push tithing?
Tithe enforcers argue that Abrahams tithing predated the law, and
thats why its allegedly binding on believers today. But an example
is not a law for New Testament believers to follow. What about
other things Abraham did before the Law? Abraham married his own
sister, then allowed Pharaoh to take her into his harem without
much of a fight, after which he accepted gifts in exchange for her
(Gen.chap.12:14-20). I know a lot of preachers trade their old gray
mare in for a new model, but thats not what the apostles taught.
Abraham offered up animals for sacrifice (Gen.22:13). After years
of unpaid service and devotion, Abraham banished Hagar and
Ishmael out of the camp, into the desert, unescorted, with minimal
provisions (Gen.21:9-21). That was a health and safety violation,
and wouldnt have sat well with Amnesty International. Abraham

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nearly practiced human sacrifice before an angel stopped him

(Gen.chap.22). Abraham owned slaves. Abraham, who didnt have a
medical degree, circumcised himself and others.
Are THESE
practices also binding on believers today?
They would be, if
preachers could make money out of these examples!
As for Abrahams tithe, a plain, unbiased reading of Genesis 14
reveals that he paid tithes ONCE. Abrahams tithe was taken from
the spoils of war, not from his own business earnings. Wicked,
degenerate Sodom was the source of Abrahams tithe. If the
preacher insists on making a law out of Abrahams tithing example,
the closest parallel would be to rescue a gang of prostitutes (and
their belongings) from kidnappers, take ten per cent of their
recovered possessions, and present the loot to the Pope.
Why dont preachers apply a few of THESE scriptures to their
congregation? Under the Old Covenant, the first-born of every man
and beast was the Lords (Exodus 13:1-2; Numbers 18:15-16;
Leviticus 27: 26-27). Human males under 5 had to be redeemed
with a payment of 5 Temple shekels, 3 for females. The redemption
fee was higher for an older person. The firstborn of all unclean
(non-kosher) animals had to be redeemed instead of being offered,
e.g. the jackass (Exodus 13:13; Leviticus. 27:27) This is a sample
of hundreds of Mosaic ordinances preachers have neglected to
transfer over to our Dispensation of Grace. If anybody hopes to
score points with God by observance of one Mosaic ordinance, that
individual must place himself under ALL of the Law of Moses, and
keep those laws exactly as God dictated them to Moses, not some
money-hungry preachers new-and-improved version of them! Its a
package deal! If one Mosaic ordinance is transferable to the New
Testament Age of Grace, every other Mosaic ordinance is
transferable and binding, not just the money-makers! The whole
Law includes circumcision for men, purification rituals and pigeon
offerings for women, various cleansings and washings, animal
sacrifices, physical inactivity on the Sabbath, abstinence from pork
BBQ, going to the Priest to have your zits checked, and paying a
redemption fee for your firstborn child. Thanks to Christ, we are
redeemed from the condemnation of imperfect Law-keeping,
without having to muddle through all those Levitical Laws and fees
(Isaiah 52:3; I Peter 1:18).
You really do open up a tiresome, nit-picky can of worms when you
try to create new doctrines from Old Testament law in this
Dispensation of Grace. Even if monetary fees still had to be paid
today in fulfillment of ancient Levitical law, God wouldnt accept
U.S. currency, with its mystical inscriptions and images of men, as
these violate His Law against
making images (Exodus 20:4).

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Ministers simply couldnt accept $3.00 as a redemption fee for a

baby girl, instead of three Shekels of the Sanctuary! The Jews of
Christs time had to exchange their Roman coins, engraved with
images of Caesar, for acceptable Temple shekels (Matthew 21:12).
Even then, those coins were not used to pay tithes, but taxes for
the maintenance of the Temple, as in the census tax taken from
every Israelite over twenty (Exodus 30: 11-16). Each person,
whether rich or poor, was charged the same amount__half a shekel.
That would constitute far less than 10 %of a rich mans income.
Under Nehemiahs leadership, God allowed this small sum to be
reduced to one-third of a shekel, perhaps because the people at
that time were under foreign tribute and needed a bit of relief. This
is one example of Gods compassion.
None of the early apostles taught tithing under the New Covenant.
Wherever Old Testament and New Testament teachings seem to
clash, the epistles of the New Testament, written after the
resurrection of Christ and the beginning of the Church Age, carry
the weight of apostolic authority.
They, along with Christs
commandments TO HIS CHURCH, should have the final say where
it concerns a Christians faith and practice, not the Old Mosaic Law.
How can any preacher stoop so low as to take away a poor
prisoners weekly candy ration, so he can dine in the finest
restaurants!
II Corinthians 3:12 says: Seeing then that we have such hope, we
use great plainness of speech. In other words, Paul wasnt speaking
with a forked tongue, and he wasnt trying to slip something past
his hearers. If the early apostles had authorized any official of
Christs church, past, present, or future, to slap a monetary tithing
tax on the church, what better time to do it in than at the powwow
they held in Acts Chapter 15? Verses 23 and 24 clearly state,
concerning whether Gentiles must keep the Law of Moses, or any
part of it: And they (the apostles) wrote letters by them after this
manner: The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto
the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and
Cilicia. Forasmuch as we have hear, that certain which went out
from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls,
saying: YE MUST BE CIRCUMCISED AND KEEP THE LAW, TO WHOM
WE GAVE NO SUCH COMMANDMENT.
Acts 15: 28: FOR IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST, AND TO
US, TO LAY UPON YOU NO GREATER BURDEN THAN THESE
NECESSARY THINGS;
29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and

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from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep

yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
As stated in the above verse, only four (4) restrictions were placed
on
the liberty of Gentile believers who walked in the Spirit.
TITHING NEVER MADE THE HOLY SPIRITS SHORT LIST OF
NECESSARY THINGS revealed to the apostles! How dare any
preacher contradict the Holy Ghost (play god) by slapping the
additional burden of the MANMADE MONETARY TITHING LAW on
believers!
No matter how loud they curse Gods people with Malachi, preachers
cant cough up a single scripture verse where Jesus or His apostles
impose a gross ten per cent tax on peoples paychecks.
The REAL truth is: Church tithing is a Catholic doctrine cooked up by
religious prelates in the Middle Ages to bring in extra revenue.
According to McClintock and Strongs Cyclopedia of Biblical
Literature, In the early Christian Church the custom of consecrating
to religious purposes a tenth of income was voluntary, and it was
not made obligatory until the Council of Tours in 567 A.D. The
second Council of Macon in 585 A.D. enjoined the payment of tithes
under pain of excommunication (article tithes).
The Encyclopedia of Catholicism states: Pauls instructions on the
Jerusalem collection urge voluntary giving (I Corinthians 16:1-4; II
Corinthians Chapters 8 and 9) which became the practice of
Christians until religious and civil authorities (sixth and eighth
centuries) initiated legislation mandating tithing.
By the beginning of the Middle Ages (the sixth century A.D.), the
institutional church couldnt function by faith alone. Like a bloated
bureaucracy, Big Religion had grown so complex that it needed a
more predictable source of income than freewill offerings to keep
its machinery running. The prelates sitting on Church councils knew
that the poor peasants generally could neither read nor gain access
to the Scriptures, let alone scrutinize Church laws in the light of
Pauls gospel of grace through faith in Christ alone. So the council
met with no serious resistance when they took an outdated Old
Covenant Law, tithing on agricultural produce ONLY (Lev.27:30-34)
and changed it to rake in cash from poor people and widows.
God doesnt like it when preachers pretend some law is in the Bible
when it isnt. All God wanted was food to feed the poor in Israel.
But preachers insist He demands that rich, fat preachers be kept in
luxury by struggling wage slaves who need to feed their families!

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Preachers force Christians to be worse than an infidel by telling

them to donate their grocery money by faith (1 Tim.5:8).
Deut.12:32: What thing soever I command you, observe to do it:
thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Rev.22:18: For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of
the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things,
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
The apostle Peter doesnt brag on preachers who pull shady
shenanigans to filch funds. In II Peter 2:1-3 he says: But as there
were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privily (in a sneaky way) shall bring
in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and
shall bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall
follow their pernicious (harmful) ways; by reason of whom the way
of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness (greed)
shall they with feigned (pretentious) words make merchandise of
you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not.

Far from being consigned to hell because we dont send money in to

such preachers, they will be the ones who go there for putting the
screws on gullible people to give tribute to them, Gods self-

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appointed representatives and tax agents. Never before in all the

history of man has the way of truth been more evilly spoken of, as
TV comedians lampoon unscrupulous fishers-for-funds and mock
their mannerisms, to entertain sinners. These sinners are less likely
to ever trust Christ for salvation, because of the stinking example
set by greedy thieves who claim to represent Him.
God will lead each individual in how, how often, and how much he
or she gives (and to whom), but it is a sin to tithe or perform even
legitimate religious works to supplement what Christ has done on
the cross.
That even includes such activities as door-to-door
witnessing, teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir, Bible
studies, or spending whole days in prayer.
I Corinthians 13:3 says you could even give your body to be
burned, but if your motivation isnt love, it will profit you nothing.
Laws are observed out of fear, not faith. Many wonderful teachers
wish they could tell the little children in their classrooms about
Jesus. But the law of the land forbids them to proclaim their
Christian faith to their students. They would lose their teaching
position and probably be unable to teach school ever again. So
they obey that law out of fear of the consequences, not because
they have faith in this law to impart life eternal.
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). How can you
perform any deed in true faith if you are honestly convinced it is not
sanctioned under the New Covenant, and yet do it anyway, because
of peer pressure or dead tradition of men? Galatians 2:16-19 says:
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of
the Law; for BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW SHALL NO MAN BE
JUSTIFIED. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we
ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of
sin? God forbid. FOR IF I BUILD AGAIN THE THINGS WHICH I
DESTROYED, I MAKE MYSELF A TRANSGRESSOR. For I through the
law am DEAD TO THE LAW that I might live unto God. Lots of
preachers admit that were no longer living under the law, but
theyll build again (remodel) their favorite ordinance (tithing) into
something to make their own lives nicer.
II Corinthians 3:6 says: Who also hath made us able ministers of
the new testament; NOT OF THE LETTER, but of the spirit: for the
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Behind every bubbly promise
of pie-in-the-sky in the here and now for tithing or making vows
to a TV preacher is the insinuation that youll never get blessed
unless you buy his smelly bait and cough up the cash.

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Paul called the Law the ministration of death (2 Cor.3:7). In modern

terms, THE LAW IS A SLOW DRIP OF DEATH! Or spiritual arsenic!
Preachers might be able to fool other believers by taking the tithing
ordinance down from the Cross and disguising it as a principle for
positive living, but God isnt fooled! In I Samuel 15: 3 God orders
King Saul to go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they
have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant
and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. So what did Saul do,
but only partially obey the Lord? He killed all the people except the
king of the Amalekites, and spared the best of the livestock. Why
did Saul do this? BECAUSE IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA. The
best of the livestock was spared to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God
(verse 15). Saul is the one in charge, but when confronted by the
Prophet Samuel, he passes the buck. Saul blames the people for
pressuring him to disobey God. Unscrupulous clergymen lie like that
today, the way they misquote Malachi 3:8-10 to lay a guilt trip on
parishioners for driving away Gods blessings from their church for
refusal to tithe. But even when the tithing law was in force, the
book of Malachi was addressed mainly to the priesthood, not the
people of Israel. Malachi 2:1 says: AND NOW, O YE PRIESTS, THIS
COMMANDMENT IS FOR YOU! How convenient, to lay the blame on
the laity. The Spirit of the Lord departed from stubborn Saul (I
Samuel 16:14). When Gods glory departs from a church, blame
can be laid at the door of those who obey the will of man rather
than God (Acts 5:29).
Instead of agreeing with Saul that keeping some of what God
ordered destroyed was a great improvement on Gods program, the
prophet Samuel rebuked Saul in 1 Sam.15:22: Hath the Lord as
great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the
voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee
from being king.
Carnal ministers of Christendom operate like Saul. Theyre also
acting like Achan, who brought defeat to Gods people when he
hung onto forbidden items God wanted destroyed (Joshua chapter
7). Whereas Christ left the Law unresurrected and nailed to His
Cross, preachers cling to the best of the Law: tithing. Theyll unnail it from the Cross of Christ and profiteer from it. Too many
building programs and vacations in Hawaii are at stake. Its a good
idea to rescue tithing from its appointed death on the cross, to

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make sacrifices unto the Lord...and themselves! The road to hell is

paved with bright ideas.
Malachi 3 is the ONLY chapter in the book tithe enforcers care
about, and they only focus on verses 8-10, where they zoom on up
to the curse for not bringing in THEIR tithe. WHO is this particular
chapter addressed to anyway? Lets backtrack to verse 3:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify
THE SONS OF LEVI, and purge them as gold and silver, that they
may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
Any other clues as to who this chapter is addressed to?
Verse 6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye SONS OF
JACOB are not consumed.
This rebuke is aimed at the SONS OF LEVI and the SONS OF JACOB!
How can any greedy preacher convince some ninety-year-old
Cherokee widow that shes a son of Levi, or a son of Jacob!
Preposterous! To make this rebuke universal, God would need to
notify the reader of that minor point between verse 6 and verse 8,
where preachers start reading the only part of Malachi they ever
quote from. I dont see any such change of addressee!
Despite scriptural evidence to the contrary, preachers insist that
God was rebuking the pew potatoes, not the preachers up front.
Anybody who can read should know thats a baldfaced lie!
Preachers have no more right to readdress Gods Biblical rebukes
than they do to write your name and address on THEIR electric bill
and sneak it in your mailbox, then curse you for failure to pay it!
Pit bull preachers have got no more right to manipulate you with
maledictions from Malachi than King Kong has to oppress you with
omens from Obadiah, another book of the Bible full of rebukes.
A lot of Christians dont care much about what the apostles taught
in the Bible, because they put their faith in some slick trick
preacher, not in God. If their pastor told them that Judas Iscariot
was their guardian angel theyd believe him and wouldnt bother to
check the Bible to see if thats true.
This Big Tithing Controversy might seem like a nitpicking, piddly
petty issue to most Christians, but its the fly in the ointment that
ruins the sweet savor of the love of Christ in the midst of the saints.
Like a speck of yeast in bread dough, a tiny bit of law keeps on
multiplying till it takes over completely (Gal.5:9). Tiny little birds
caught in a mighty jet engine can cause a crash. Church tithing is

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probably THE most hurtful heresy satan has snuck into the Body of
Christ to scuttle its unity in the love of Jesus. Tithing exacerbates
the rich/poor divide in the church and causes fear, spiritual bullying,
hard feelings, poverty, resentment and loss of poorer members who
need to eat and pay their rent.
Church tithing hinders the spread of the Gospel of Christ because
some sinners figure theyve got enough bills to pay and dont need
anymore.
They dont have enough cash to follow the poor
Carpenter of Nazareth Who had nowhere to lay His head. Its
cheaper to sit home and meditate.
Preachers yell and scream about how negligent parents are to train
up their children properly, and how Americas family life is all shot
to hell because nobody likes to drag their dead carcass out of bed
on their ONLY day off to go to church to take a whipping from their
spiritual dad. And while theyre hollering for families to pray
together and spend quality time together, preachers urge people to
work themselves to death to earn tithing money for the church
nobody can afford. Evidently, preachers flunked math. Theres only
24 hours in a day, and if parents have to work 2 jobs apiece to be
able to tithe and still pay the bills, their kids must do their own child
training. Not everybody can afford to ride horses or go to Jesus
theme parks with their kids.
Speaking of training, preachers justify tithing on the grounds its
the training wheels of giving. Their logic is, that just like training
wheels protect you from falling off, you cant help but give the
minimum amount acceptable to the preachers god, ten per cent.
Why? Because youre afraid NOT to give at least that much. Its in
your own self-interest to fork it over. Malachi 3:9 sees to that! Who
wants to be cursed by God Almighty for paying their bills with their
disability check instead of tithing? Which opens up another can of
worms: Government welfare, disability checks, or food stamps are
meant specifically as emergency support for jobless people or those
too sick to work. When the preacher demands a cut of someones
welfare, hes not only endangering the health of the giver, hes
defrauding the taxpayer who may not even believe in his religion,
and may not even want his tax dollars to save his ministry! Guiltmongering preacher, put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!
And as for that training wheels analogy, theyve got it wrong. Not
only is Tithing is the training wheels of giving found nowhere in
scripture, a better way to put it would be: Tithing is the training
wheels of law-keeping. Malachi, as misused by the preachers,
instills FEAR, the ONLY cattle prod that will drive a Christian to try
to keep any laws the preacher feels like burdening him with.

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Preachers yell themselves hoarse about welfare moms and poor

folks without a job, and how they should just be allowed to STARVE!

27

If anybodys a lazy bum mooching off the saints, its those firebreathing dragons in the pulpit who curse Gods people for tithes so
THEY dont have to bust their buns at some crummy factory. If they
had to blister their soft hands making burlap tents like Paul (Acts
18:1-3), or clean up after cranky customers all day long at some
greasy burger joint, theyd sit up and beg even louder for tithes!
Preachers could care less whether some poor widow can afford
winter fuel or prescription medicine. Let them eat cat food so long
as the tithes keep rolling in!
Just like the Pharisees fiddled with Gods laws to make them more
burdensome to keep, preachers think its a good idea to improve on
Gods old tithing law, no matter how many Christians fall from grace
because of law-keeping (Gal.5:4).
The story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 has been a gold mine
for tithe teachers who threaten Christians that satan will leap out of
their closets at night and haunt them if they dont pay up.

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Preachers just love Ananias and Sapphira. But they tend to ignore
the full context which starts at the end of Acts 4, that all believers
shared what they had with one another and no one lacked for the
necessities of life. Conservative preachers hate that part, it sounds
too much like socialism. Theyll read Acts 5, verses 1, 2, 3, and 5,
but skip over verse 4 where Peter plainly says that the money
belonged to Ananias, not the church, before he gave it. That verse
demolishes the preachers argument that Ananias ALREADY owed
money to the church. Tithing appears NOWHERE in this context!
This story has a far better application. Just as Ananias held back
part of the price of the land after pledging it all, preachers hold back
part of the truth which could set Gods people free. Preachers KNOW
tithing is no longer in force because the law which commanded
tithing has passed away (Heb.8:13). Although preachers damn nontithers to hell, and threaten them with ALLEGED posthumous visions
of special tortures reserved for them there, Jesus Himself said
other MATTERS OF THE LAW were weightier, or more important than
tithing, which was included in that body of Mosaic law (Matt.23:23).
Despite lack of SCRIPTURAL evidence that preachers have been
divinely invested with any authority to resurrect that defunct law
and CHANGE it into an additional tax burden, preachers make a
dogs dinner out of scripture to justify religious theft from hungry,
poverty-stricken people.
God probably gets more irked by
withholding truth than withholding money that never was owed in
the first place!
Jesus mentions tithing only three (3) times in the New Testament,
and all three appear in a negative context: Jesus lambastes selfrighteous Pharisees who think their good works make them appear
holier than others before God. One passage is Luke 18:9-14 where
A haughty Pharisee stands before God and brags that he is better
than the sinner standing next to him. In verse 12 he boasts: I fast
twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Fasting and
tithing. Two tortures which feed self-righteousness. By the time of
Christ, the Pharisees had added an innumerable multitude of new
ordinances to the Scroll of the Law given to Moses by God.
As Jesus parable showed, Pharisees tithed on everything from A to
Z, not just on agricultural products, as decreed by the Law. While
in Babylonian Captivity, the doctors of the Law doctored up the Law.
They added extra days of obligatory fasting to Gods calendar. My,
how holy such self-denial made them appear to people! No apostle
commands, or even suggests, that Gentile believers need to fast to
butter God up so Hell answer their prayers. Like the Pharisees New
and Improved
tithing law, compulsory religious fasting is an

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invention of the Pharisees. Mosaic Law mandated only one (1)

required fasting day per year: the Day of Atonement. Preachers who
ADD TO the written laws of the Bible are following the Pharisees,
not Jesus.
Preachers who teach monetary tithing are following Pharisee lawexpanders and the Roman Catholic Church in this, not the teachings
of the early apostles. The irony is that most of the evangelical
preachers who demand tithes condemn the Catholics for deviating
from what the Bible teaches!
Jesus parable about the proud Pharisee is a real gem. You can
almost hear that smug Pharisee boasting: Now you see here, God.
Twice a week I give up MY martini and MY Big Macs just to please
YOU. Twice a week I suffer with water and a toothpick. Just look at
the beer gut on that carnal creep, his mouth full of chocolate, not
songs of praise. Hes so drunk you could smell his breath from here
to Haifa! Not only do I contribute fresh basil from MY window sill to
sprinkle on YOUR salad, I share MY Elvis collection with YOU. I
donate MY old phylacteries to the Salvation Army. What does this
selfish slob ever give? Hey, whats salvation anyway?
The self-righteous Pharisee never did find out, but the sinner
standing next to him sure did. Instead of making excuses for
himself like the Pharisee, he admitted he was a sinner in need of
the grace of God. He threw himself on Gods mercy and received it.
The other two verses where Christ mentions tithing are Matthew
23:23 and Luke 11:42. Again, these are in the middle of a context
where Christ blasts the Pharisees for their loveless hypocrisy. He
rebukes the Pharisees for tithing mint sprigs while neglecting the
love of God and righteous judgment. Jesus is addressing these men
as being so-called experts on the Law. (Whenever some preacher
claims to be Gods anointed , RUN! and dont let go of your
wallet.) But in the last part of Christs comment on the Pharisees
tithing, legalists find a loophole for church tithing: These ought ye
to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Yes, JEWS UNDER THE LAW WHO RAISED CROPS OR LIVESTOCK
WERE REQUIRED by Mosaic Law to tithe, even up to the time Christ
went to the Cross. No Gentile EVER had to tithe, unless they
converted to Judaism and lived in the Promised Land. Interestingly,
no modern Jew outside the State of Israel feels obligated to tithe for
at least two reasons: Tithing was to be done on the produce of the
land only (Lev.27:30), and when God speaks of THE land, He means
Israel, not Timbuktu or Kalamazoo. So why should God amend His
tithing law to force non-Jews to tithe on cash wages? The other

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reason most modern Jews dont tithe is because the demolished

Temple (and its literal granaries) have not been restored. Ask any
tithe enforcer why American churches take tithes while American
synagogues dont finance their worship this way.
When Christ went to the Cross, He took the Law with Him (Col.
2:14). When reading even the words of Christ, we must ask
ourselves: Who is Christ addressing in this context, Jews under the
Old Covenant, or believers of all ages? Is Christ speaking of ways to
love thy neighbor, or observance of the Law of Moses? The Law of
Moses was binding upon the Jewish listeners of His day. It is not
binding upon us. We have been set free from it by the Law of the
Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-2). But even when Gods
people were still under the Law, religious leaders made it even
harder to follow by adding extra requirements of their own. Yet they
neglected the issues of the heart which really mattered. Evidently
the Pharisees thought God would rather do without charity toward
starving widows than the parsley sprig on His salad.

Until that poor widow weighs as much as the fat preacher, hes got
no business hitting her up for tithes.
If you depend on tithing to help you stay righteous before a holy
God, or practice
tithing in observance of the Mosaic tithing
ordinance, you are taking down an ordinance which Christ nailed to
His Cross (Col. 2:14). In doing so you deny that Jesus blood is
insufficient to maintain you in sanctification after salvation. Actions
speak louder than words where it concerns faith in Gods Word.
Tithing legalists quote that slogan all the time to get people to part
with their money. But tithing under the Old Covenant is an act of
faith that works of the Law can keep one righteous, which it cannot

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do. Tithing is included among the works of the Law which cannot
justify a believer in the sight of God.
Salvation is ALLEGEDLY free of charge, a GIFT you dont need to
pay for, according to most theologians. Paul himself calls salvation
a FREE GIFT (Rom. 5:15-18). I might not be the brightest bulb in
the lamp, but my understanding of gift means I dont have to dig
deep in my pocket to pay for it. And yet youll hear polished
professional preachers screaming about their god threatening to
take your salvation away if you dont pay for it in weekly
installments of ten per cent of your GROSS paycheck.

Is it any wonder that so many born-again believers feel like theyve

got to apologize for the way the church operates when sharing
Jesus with friends and relatives? Is it any wonder burnt believers
are fleeing the institutional church like rats running away from a
sinking ship, just so they can save whats left of their faith from
preachers? What about baby believers who trust some greedy
preacher to reveal Christ to them, and end up hurt and
disillusioned, and give up on God altogether?
To teach free salvation, then charge people a tenth of their gross
finances to keep that salvation, well, thats the ultimate power head
trip and the grossest example of greedy hypocrisy. Such preachers
speak with a forked tongue, like a cunning snake. You can fool some
of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time,
but you cant fool all of the people all of the time. So theyll vote
with their feet and leave to go look for the REAL Jesus!

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Preachers misrepresent and malign Gods character, turning Him

into a mean old Scrooge sitting at a table counting his money and
turning poor widows out in the snow for getting behind on their
rent. God does NOT blackmail His own dear children with hellfire
and damnation if they dont pay Brother Brawley one-tenth of their
GROSS (or net) slave wages!
Paul said to follow his example (I Cor.4:16; 11:1). Paul accepted
FREEWILL offerings to meet his basic needs (Phil.4:10-18). The
other apostles undoubtedly received gifts from the saints as well.
But if anyone can produce one shred of SCRIPTURAL evidence that
Paul ever dunned some poor working stiff for ten per cent of his
paycheck, Ill take back everything I ever wrote or said against the
Tithing Doctrine.
If Jesus and Paul didnt take tithes from their congregations,
modern preachers dont have the right to dun folks for tithes either.
Preachers whove been to cemeI mean, SEMINARY, and studied
their socks off KNOW church tithing is taught nowhere in the Bible,
and tithing on wages is nowhere taught. So you cant excuse them.
They are sinning against Christ (Matt.25:40) DELIBERATELY, not out
of ignorance. Only the landowner had to tithe, not his poor fruit
pickers. Those whove read the scriptural evidence with an unbiased
mind know it, and the preacher knows it. Even the tithe-paying
landowner didnt tithe on money earned from the sales of his crop
or livestock. He paid part of what he grew or raised to Levites
(Num.18:24), who in turn, took one-tenth of that to the Temple
storehouse (granary, not bank) for the consumption of the high
priest and his family, see Num.18:27-28. Especially notice in verse
27, corn and wine are included in this special tithe, not cash and
wampum!
The tither kept another tithe of farm produce for himself and others
to consume at his place of worship during the major festivals of
Israel (Deut.14:22-27). Still another tithe was earmarked for the
Levites and the poor of his community so they could have
something to eat (Deut.14: 28-29), not to build a new steeple.
Modern preachers KNOW they dont have one scriptural foot to
stand on, so they resort to guilt and shame techniques. Pushy
preachers who yell lies the loudest tend to get their way even if
they cant prove their position with it is written. Such shame and
blame tactics amount to spiritual witchcraft because of the way
preachers try to drown out the gentle cautionary voice of the Spirit
of God within the believer and control that persons thinking

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processes. One guy posted something like this: Since Christians are
being persecuted all over the world, the least we can do is tithe.
Yeah, right!
Simon Peter forgot to mention in Acts 15 that
Christians who suffer less persecution should make up for it by
coming under the tithing law and its related curses, and being
persecuted by the preacher when they dont cough up enough cash!
Preachers usurp the Holy Spirits job as the VOICE OF THE
CHRISTIANS CONSCIENCE! Theyll bring out their fiddle and sing
sob songs about being willing to sacrifice your grocery money for
Jesus. Their psychological manipulation can and often does result
in deep feelings of conviction and inner grief the Holy Spirit didnt
put there! Thats WICKED! Jim Jones never controlled peoples
souls as easily as your average health-and-wealth tithe teacher!
IF YOU LOVE JESUS youll do this or that, even if the Bible doesnt
teach it! Because other people are being persecuted, we have to
come under the Law and suffer its curses for failure to keep ALL the
points of the Law perfectly, to Gods specifications (Gal.3:10,13)!

Simon Peter, a Jew, admitted that neither he nor his ancestors had
been able to bear the heavy demands of living under law.
Acts 15: 10: Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon
the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear?
11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
we shall be saved, even as they.***No mention of needing to tithe.

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Preachers who put the Law or any part of it on the backs of Gods
people are provoking God!
So long as preachers get THEIR pie in the sky in the here and now,
they dont care if you live in poverty and lose out with God because
of falling away from faith in Christ.
Preachers preach a different Christ (2 Cor.11:4), the post mortem
law-changer who takes tour groups to hell to watch Christians burn
for failure to fork over ten per cent of their loot to the preacher. I
present a detailed analysis of all the reasons why it was a FALSE
Jesus who allegedly took the group on this sight-seeing tour.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/8734638/Hell-Vision-s-Collision-WithScripture
This cruel hoax could be bounced back into that pugnacious pastors
court. You know, that draconian Dracula who calls out your name
for not tithing. Next time he makes you feel like putrified pond
scum for not making a sacrificial gift of your childrens milk
money, stick a love gift in a church envelope to build bridges.
Present him with a gift voucher from INFERNAL FUN CRUISES for a
rump-roasting raft ride down the River Styx, so he can go to the
devils zoo and feed peanuts to the Pharisees Jesus threatened the
Pharisees with greater damnation for robbing widows (Matt.23:14).
If the REAL Jesus had expected a higher class of Christians to levy a
lifetime income tax on other believers, youd think He would have
given some indication of that minor point in Matt.23, where He
denounces those who expect preferential treatment. Instead, Christ
forbade His disciples to lord it over one another, and told them to
relate to one another simply as brethren (verse 8). Jesus said
nothing about some Christians owing ten per cent of their
paychecks and pensions to lords over Gods heritage, see 2
Pet.5:3). Jesus never taught the unscriptural clergy/laity system
dividing churches today, where poorer saints work hard so spiritual
leaders can kick back and relax.
The ONLY Biblical context in which people pay ten per cent of their
possessions to authority figures is connected with rebellion against
God. In I Sam.chap.8, the prophet Samuel pronounces judgment on
the Israelites for rejecting Gods rule over them and demanding a
human king.
I Sam.8:11: And he said, This will be the manner of the king that
shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for
himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall
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run before his chariots.

12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains
over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his
harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his
chariots.
13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be
cooks, and to be bakers.
14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your
oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15 And he WILL TAKE THE TENTH of your seed, and of your
vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.****His PR
man, his board of directors, his nephew, his ministry associates.
16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and
your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his
work.
17 HE WILL TAKE THE TENTH of your sheep: and ye shall be his
servants.*****unscriptural tithing practice is a form of slavery.
18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye
shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
Christians who pay tithes have made themselves a king, just like
the people of Israel chose a king and paid tribute to him. No longer
does the Holy Spirit have the final say about how, and to whom,
and how often, they give.
Instead, some man controls their
conscience and calls the shots in their life. COULD TITHING BE
THE REASON SO MANY PRAYERS ARENT ANSWERED TODAY? Never
was I poorer, or so beset with troubles, as when I made sacrifices
of faith to preachers!
Based on Scriptural evidence, not only is tithing under the New
Covenant nowhere commanded by God, it is forbidden by God to
preach it or enforce it as an ordinance of faith and practice upon
believers in Christ. Therefore it is a SIN to pay or take tithe money.
God doesnt even approve of preachers passively HARBORING this
doctrine in church. Preachers who KNOW tithing is wrong will
accept this money anyway instead of exposing this snake-in-thegrass heresy to protect their flock from spiritual deception. But,
unfortunately, MONEY is king in the majority of modern churches,
not Jesus. Church tithing is a deceitful doctrine of darkness, a
crafty mishandling of the Word of God which should be renounced
(2 Cor.4:2).
Tithing denies the priesthood of the individual believer (I Pet.2:5,9).
Biblical priests NEVER paid tithes to anyone. Tithing brings believers
back under the Law and its curses. Those who collect tithes are not
authorized by God to do so, because only descendants of Levi were
chosen for this task (Heb.7:5). Preachers grasp at straws when

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they appeal to Christs Melchisedek priesthood to justify New

Covenant tithing. But they still havent presented scriptural
evidence that God changed the tithe from food to funds.
Read about Abrahams interaction with Melchisedek in Genesis
14:18-20. There is no indication that Melchisedek used an IRS
agent to receive Abrahams ONE-TIME, VOLUNTARY tithe of WAR
BOOTY on his behalf. Abraham personally handed the loot over to
Melchisedek, the high priest of that particular priesthood. Since
theres no go-between authorized by God to collect tithes for the
Melchisedek priesthood, then PREACHERS WHO COLLECT TITHES
ARE USURPING THE HIGH PRIEST OFFICE OF THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST! Talk about the mother of all ego trips!
We are in Christ and are one spirit with Him (I Cor. 6:17). The
yelling, screaming tithe collector claims to be in Christ too. DOES
JESUS BEAT TITHES OUT OF HIMSELF? Does He tax His Bride the
Church, a spiritual relationship never enjoyed by any Old Testament
saint? So those who curse tithes out of true believers in Christ are
extorting money out of Jesus Himself to finance their sinistry.
NOW whos the one robbing God?
In the book of Hebrews the writer strives to reason with Jews who
want to turn away from faith in Christ and return to the old Mosaic
sacrificial system, thus putting their faith once again in the carnal
ordinances of the Law, which includes tithing (Hebrews 9:10).
Hebrews 10:38-39 states: Now the just shall live by faith: but if any
man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are
not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul.
Look twice when some preacher presents you with principles of
prosperity or any other DEEPER LIfE hoops you must jump
through to please god. As Mary Poppins might sing: A spoonful of
sugar makes the messages go down. Be wary when preachers use
fancy semantics to cloud the issue. Especially watch out for the
word principle, an air-brushed euphemism for LAW.
Preachers use such softly spoken, sanctimonious pinpricks as IF
YOU LOVE JESUS YOULL TITHE to sanctify their highway robbery.
Satan doesnt normally use TNT to blast the door to the sheep cote
open. He is a slippery snake who needs just a tiny crevice to creep
in. The devil is able to bury Gods simple truth under an avalanche
of misapplied Scripture.

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Tithing, far from being a blessing under the New Covenant, is a

curse to Christians under grace (Gal.3:10; 5:3), just like religious
circumcision. Tithing is a hindrance to the Gospel and a slippery
slope away from the grace of God in Christ.

******
http://banpreachergreed.tripod.com
http://boogerbucks.tripod.com
http://kingdomage.tripod.com

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