What if I told you that the word tithe actually was referring to the temple tax in the Old Testament. The reason why the word tithe is used in modern day church instead of temple tax is because it is easier to manipulate the audience. People would instantly turn their noses up if the church said tax. What you will hear from temple tax manipulators is that we should tithe 10% because tithe means tenth. They say that the 10% should be our first expenditure right off of the top of our income. However, Jesus had something different to say about giving. He even used parables to show us how to give. Much of what Jesus said about giving was to give of the heart. Keep in mind that a temple tax was referring to Jewish law. We do not live under Jewish law so therefore we are not subject to a temple tax and should follow the example that Jesus laid out for us instead.
Tithing is not the same as joyful giving from the heart like Jesus instructs us to do. Tithing is legalistic, Old Testament and was not a requirement to follow Jesus. The requirement of Christians tithing 10% of their income is not found in the New Testament Bible. Funny how many churches skip over most of the Old Testament teachings but somehow it super important to highlight tithing. Below is a verse found in 2 Corinthians written by Paul to the church of Corinth.
2 Corinthians 9:7 New American Standard Bible
7 Each one must do just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
The temple tax is a tool used by churches to guilt you for money.
One of the biggest annoyances that I have with the modern-day church is when they relentlessly focus on saying tithe ever single week. Since the message doesn’t resonate enough, now many churches are guilting their congregations to set up their “tithe” on an automatic deduction. That kind of behavior is not a free will gift as demonstrated by Jesus, but it is a bill or temple tax that you are paying to your local church. This kind of automatic payment is set up right next to your electric bill, cell phone bill, cable tv bill and even your Netflix or Hulu monthly bill. It isn’t anything special and the money is definitely not from the heart.
The get out of debt guy is also in cahoots with the modern-day church so that he can peddle his self-help books which help his organization generate millions of dollars a year. All of this is done under the guise of following the Bible and being a good and faithful Christian. Churches enthusiastically get on board because one of the emphasis points in his program is to make sure that you tithe to your local church. If the church peddles his book and sells it as “a godly act”, they can manipulate their congregation to get on board with the 10% automatic deduction of the temple tax. The debt free guy in turn cranks out lots of participants in his program and boom let the money flow down like rain on both the church and his multimillion-dollar for-profit ministry.
If churches actually followed the Bible that the pretend to preach from, they would fully grasp the New Testament position on charitable giving. When called out on their behavior, these churches often get defensive and say that their interpretation of scripture is different. I say liars. They know fully well that they depend on money to keep the lights on. Without significant cash flow, these institutions would not survive. What is quite obvious is that these churches do not believe that God will provide for them. They believe that the only way to survive is to manipulate scripture by using the word tithe to guilt their congregations into giving.
If you want to give to church, then give so freely. If you want to give 10% fine. If you want to give 1% or 25% fine. I’m not going to sit and judge what you give as it is between you and God. What I am going to do is lay down the lies of the 10% temple tax redressed as a mandated tithe for Christian churches. This behavior isn’t biblical and shame on churches that think the only way to get their bills paid is through the manipulation and guilt trip laid on their congregation. And as the debt free guy goes, he has some good points and processes. I just don’t like the relationship between the mandated 10% tithe and churches pushing his for-profit products. If you can’t truthfully project what it means to give freely and from the heart, how can I trust anything else that you say?