TITHE: GIVING IS A CONVICTION NOT COMPULSORY (Part I)

The debate around tithing is an old one and a continuing one as well. The main reason for this debate is that it draws from the plates of many and pours into the plates of a few. Human beings are never unanimous on any issue that touches their bread. In the world of selfish beings like us, resolutions concerning gain come easier than resolutions in which we are not the beneficiaries.

Recently, dust was raised by an Archbishop who proposed that since believers are hesitant and careless in returning their tithe into the baskets of the Church, the government should deduct the tithe directly from them through their systems of tax collection.

The Archbishop was right in the act of whistleblowing and wrong in his proposal. As a priest, he was right to point out that the believers are reluctant in their religious duty of returning the tithe to the church. However, he was wrong to hand over church business to the state or even to attempt an alliance of the Church and state over offertory issues.

Besides the difficulties in collecting tithe of believers in both formal and informal sectors, the Archbishop ought to have understood that to involve the state in offertory collection is to license the State’s auditing mechanisms into the Church’s treasury. If the state collects the tithe then it should also audit its use by the church. Spiritually, this alliance with a secular state would leave many suspicious.

The Archbishop gave examples of Italy and German as states that deduct the tithe of church members. However, states like Italy, German, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, and Sweden do not collect a ‘Biblical Tithe’ but a ‘Church Tax’. Unless we conclude that tithing in church is a religious tax, we cannot equate what these states are doing to what the priests want their flock to do. To equate the tithe to tax is to make it compulsory with penalties and charges to the defaulters.

As a pastor, I do not think anyone will go to hell because they never tithed neither do I believe others will bridge their way to heaven with their tithe receipts. Actually, I would marvel at an emotional God who blesses or curses his people based on how well they give.

Tithe, therefore, is not a tax, for that would make it compulsory.

Secondly, the states that deduct a church tax, none of them (at least to my limited research) take a 10%, most of these countries deduct a 1-2% church tax from those workers who specifically registered as members of particular denominations. In Denmark and Germany, not only members of the church pay this tax but also the government contributes a percentage to what it considers as the national church.

If such giving were introduced to the Church in the context of tithe-giving, I would call it an INJURED GOOD. The ‘injury’ is in turning giving into a taxation policy therefore compulsory and the ‘Good’ is in the conviction to give to the church. People and governments without fear or favour must perceive it a virtue to give to the church. This very ideology is carried in the offertory system of the Old Testament. Nevertheless, before I say a few things about the Old Testament and the Tithe, allow me to address the question of:

To whom does the Tithe Belong?

Many pastors who are advocates of tithing always remind the flock that the tithe belongs to God and it is God to whom the tithe is given. They even quote verses from the Bible. However, as I have always warned, ‘The Bible hangs no one but rather hands over ropes in form of verses to those who want to commit suicide’. I see this happening most times.

Let us be practical, there is no central bank in heaven that collects all the tithes and gives us receipts. The scriptures that are used to attach and attribute the tithe and its demand to God are categorized under the section of anthropomorphism of scripture (Human inference and language) known as Mystified Ordinations.

In anthropomorphism of scripture, or what I call mystified ordinances, are those verses whose context and background were addressing a particular situation and the leaders of then presented them as direct GOD-SPEECH. These leaders meant well but to ensure the enforcement of a good resolution, they had to detach it from being man-made and attach it to God.

In Deuteronomy 31:24-27 it was ordained that Moses’ book of the law (written by Moses) be esteemed equal to the Law in the Ark of the Covenant (Written by God Himself). The Old Testament writers were not as bold enough as the New Testament writers who occasionally chose not to mystify their good and right personal and institutional ordinances (1Corinthians 7:12).

In this context, when prophets had to motivate and rehabilitate the offertory system amidst the desperate returnees of the exile in the Malachi days, passages like Malachi 3:8-10 were formulated. Today, we know that an omnipotent and omniscient God cannot be robbed by inferiors like us, and all he does is to whine and blackmail as it is written in Malachi 3:8-10.

However, the Church Institution ordinance gains its seriousness from the mystification of God himself allegorically depicted as the complainant in this verse. These mystified ordinances should be appreciated in the manner that, it is not that we give the tithe to God through the priests but instead we give the tithe through (and by God) to the Priests (Pastors) and Church workers.

If therefore, you are not convinced and convicted by your God to give to your Pastor at church, then it doesn’t matter how much threats or promises are cast from the pulpit or even from the state.

Look out for part 2 where we trace the origins of tithe and also explore the different types of tithe.

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)

Pr. T.I.M WHITE

The Gospel Hawker

iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)