Are christians in America supposed to tithe to their local church today because of the biblical commandment in the Old Testament to give "10%", which was a means of funding the Levitical priests and theocracy? Does that apply today?
In the Old Testament, tithe is a tenth, just a word that means one-tenth. In the Old Testament, you had a theocracy, not a democracy, but a theocracy. That is to say, you had the nation of Israel ruled by God, who mediated his rule through the priesthood. There were 24 courses of priests who were basically the officers of the theocracy. They mediated the rule of God through the revealed law of Moses to the people.
The people needed to supply funding for those officers, namely the priests and the Levites who served along with them. So, there was a tithe tax that was essentially the basic tax to fund the national government. It was one-tenth of whatever it is that you earned. It could be commodities, not particularly money, but grain, oil, fruit, or whatever.
Then you had a second tithe every year which was designed to fund the national celebrations, the feasts, the festivals, and provide for all that the nation of Israel engaged in. There were a whole series of feasts as you know, and funding temple events when all the people came together like the Passover and all those things.
Then you had a third tenth every third year which was the poor tax that was distributed to the people who were poor. So, if you split that into every year, it's about three and a third percent every year. Essentially, every Jew paid 23 and a third percent with the addition of a fixed amount of temple tax, and they couldn't harvest the corners of their fields. That had to be left for profit sharing to let the poor take that. If you dropped a bale off your wagon when you were harvesting, you couldn't pick it up. That again would supply for needy people who would hang around the fields to pick up and glean whatever they could get.
So, you might say that it could be somewhere between 24 or 25 percent of the income of an Israelite living in the kingdom that was funding the national government. That really was taxation that never was free will giving, that never was what we would call free will. In Malachi 3, when God says, "Why will you rob me of tithes," that's what he's talking about, free will giving. In the Old Testament, whatever you wanted to give, you have illustrations of people giving all different kinds of amounts. A tenth of a tenth was given in the Pentateuch when they built the temple. People were told to bring whatever they wanted to bring. Then they brought gold, jewels, and everything, and finally, they brought so much that they had to say, "Stop bringing, we have too much."
It's an overload. In the book of Proverbs, it simply says, "Give the first fruits," doesn't say an amount, be generous, etc. So, you had taxation which was fixed, and you had free will giving which was flexible based on the heart of the giver. The same thing is in the New Testament, even though Israel ceased to be a theocracy because they were occupied by the Romans. Jesus says, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's," pay your taxes. The apostle Paul says, "Pay your taxes" (Romans 13).
And Jesus said, "Give whatever you want to give." But here's the principle, Luke 6:38, "Give, and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over." The simple principle is that whatever you give, you invest with God, and He gives you a return. Or the language of Matthew 6, where He says, "Lay up treasure in heaven," or in Luke 16, "Use your money to purchase friends for eternity." That is, use your money for gospel enterprises because then people will be converted by your giving, and they'll be there to welcome you when you enter into heaven. "Be faithful over little, and the Lord will give you much. Don't serve God and money." All those are general principles.
So, the simple thing is this: tithe was never in the Old Testament a means of free will giving to the Lord. It was the way the theocracy was funded. If you study the story of Joseph, you'll also find out that it was 20% that Joseph determined should be the tax in Egypt, and that really is the historic base for the American taxation system which, not too many years ago, was basically about a 20% tax and is still, perhaps, for some majority of the population. So, pay your taxes and fund the government, the Jews in the time of the Romans, and give to the Lord what you want.
The Jews in the time of Jesus had a real difficulty with the tax part because their tax money was going into the hands of Rome, and the tax collectors were the scum because they were Jews who bought tax franchises from Rome and then prostituted them into a way to get rich like Zacchaeus and Matthew. They extorted money, so tax collectors were Jews who had betrayed their heritage, who were collecting taxes for the pagan, idolatrous, occupying Romans who were extorting more money than they should. The Romans set a fee for a tax franchise. We need this amount each year from the zone that you operate in, whatever else you can get, you can keep. So, tax collectors were surrounded by a mafia, thugs, and strong-arm people who would extort the money out of the people. They became very, very rich, and that's why they are always categorized with sinners, with the scum and the riffraff of society. They couldn't attend a synagogue. They were basically despised in the culture.
So, the Jews were reluctant then to pay their taxes because they knew that it was going to the occupying and idolatrous Romans. When Jesus said, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's," this was a shattering realization. Jesus also, you remember, paid His temple tax. He had a rather convenient way to do that, you know, catch a fish and take it out of the mouth of the fish, but you know this was part of what He wanted to teach us to do. So, the bottom line is always been the same throughout all redemptive history, pay your taxes, support the government, be a good citizen. Paul makes that clear in Romans 13, elsewhere. And give God whatever you want to give. The principle for giving is 2 Corinthians 8, so sparingly reap sparingly, so bountifully reap bountifully. Whatever you give to God is what you get a return on. If you want a small return, you give a small amount. If you want a big return, you give a big amount. God keeps very careful records. Not only will you enjoy His blessing here, but you will enjoy His blessing eternally in the reward that awaits the one who is the bountiful giver. That's the principle.
No. The Lord has promised to bless the faithful giver, and one of the reasons the Lord blesses the faithful giver is because a faithful giver, being blessed, is able to give more. It's not an indulgent kind of thing. There are no guarantees, however, that you're going to be rich at all. The prosperity gospel is a deception. It's a pyramid scheme, a con job that makes the people at the top very, very rich.
In conclusion, biblical tithing in the Old Testament served as a means of funding the theocratic government and supporting religious activities. It was mandatory and comprised a portion of one's income or resources. In the New Testament, giving shifted to a voluntary, heart-based approach, emphasizing support for God's work and generosity toward others. Paying taxes and supporting the government were also emphasized, alongside the understanding that biblical giving does not guarantee personal prosperity. The focus should be on contributing to God's kingdom purposes and experiencing the joy of giving.
So...
