Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 9/30/2008

Question
Are we suppose to pay tithes today?
How many churches have God established?
Should women preach.

Answer
Dear Bobby,

Thank you for your questions. You’ve listed three, and I’ll answer them in reverse, beginning with women preachers, since tithing will take a little more space to answer.

The only place in the Bible that speaks against women speaking in public is in the following passage:

1 Cor 14:33  . . . As in all the congregations of the saints,
1 Cor 14:34  women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.
1 Cor 14:35  If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

There’s been a lot of debate about this, but most scholars agree that Paul was speaking within the context of the custom of the times. In the Roman world, women were little more than the possessions of their husbands, and had little say in affairs. Christianity changed all that, for Paul said:

Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So Christian women had considerably more freedom that other women in the empire.

With this in mind, I see no objection to women speaking or preaching in church.


How many churches did God establish? Only one: The Christian church.

But men have misused and abused the church through the centuries, and what began as a pure church became totally apostatized and they changed almost every doctrine that Christ had given the church. They changed the system of leadership from apostles and teachers to popes and priests. They changed the position of the altar from standing between the church leader and the people—symbolizing that all could approach the altar of Christ on the same level—to the back wall of the church, signifying that the people had to essentially go through the priest to receive the salvation of Christ. They changed the day of worship from the 7th-day Sabbath to the 1st day—Sunday. They changed many other things as well.

And when people tried to reform the church, they were burned at the stake (That’s true—thousands died like that through the centuries). The church became anything but Christian. During the 15th and 16th centuries several men were able to call for reformation without losing their lives—Martin Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others. Each one sought to reform one or another part of the church, and their followers gathered around them. But when the men died, their followers didn’t delve into the Scriptures any further and built their doctrines upon the messages of their leaders. Thus in doing this they formed a church, but didn’t have all the teachings of the Bible in their creed. This continued through the centuries, which explains in part why there are so many churches today.

However, I believe that the Seventh-day Adventist church has studied into Scripture with the idea of following all that they find, rather than just stop at the doctrines of it’s founders. I have studied the Scriptures for more than 40 years and find that this church fills all the earmarks of the Church that Christ founded.

(You’d enjoy reading THE GREAT CONTROVERSY, a book that you can find on my website www.PettyPress.com/books)


Tithe

Tithing teaches us at least three lessons: 1) God owns everything, and can do whatever He wants with the things He owns; 2) God claims 1/10th of our income as His own; 3) God promises to bless us if we are faithful in returning His tithes and giving Him our offerings.

1) God owns everything on Planet Earth, and can do whatever He wants with the things He owns.

God created Earth in the beginning, but Satan wrested control of it from Adam. God bought it back again with the blood of His own dear Son. So by two abiding principles, creation and salvation, God owns Planet Earth–and everything and everybody on it.

Psa 33:6-9  By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars ; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

Psa 50:9-12  I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

2) God claims 1/10th of our income as His own;
Lev 27:30-32  "'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. . . . The entire tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod—will be holy to the LORD.

In Bible times the economy of the nation was based upon crops and animals. These things were often used as currency to buy those things that the family needed. So it's only natural that God referred to the tithe within this culture by having the animals tithed. So every 10th animal—10%—belonged to God, and He designated it as holy. The word “tithe” means a 10th.

God was fair with His people. Since there were good and bad animals in the flocks and herds, God took His losses along with the people.

Lev 27:33  He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.'"

If a shepherd found that the 10th animal was flawed in any way and wanted to replace it with one that was perfect, he would forfeit the perfect one, but the flawed one was also the Lord's.

3) God promises to bless us if we are faithful in returning His tithes to Him.

Since the tithe belongs to God, when we do not return it to Him we actually commit robbery. In that way we bring a curse upon ourselves. But God also promises a blessing if we're faithful in returning His tithes to Him.

Mal 3:8-10  "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Since the tithe belongs to God, where does He want us to take it and what should be done with it?

In the above text God says: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” The words “storehouse” and “my house” are written in the Hebrew style of parallelism, and refer to the same place. And God's house is His temple:

Exo 25:8  "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.”

God meets with His people in His house, which we call the “church building.” So God's house today is His church. So if the tithes are to be brought to God's house, then we should bring them to Him via His church. But once we've brought it to His church, how will they use it?

Num 18:21-26  "I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting. From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.'" The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Levites and say to them: 'When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord's offering.

The Levites were the pastors and teachers, the priests and spiritual leaders of the nation. God did not give their tribe a territory because He wanted them to serve the entire nation. So God gave them the tithes as their share of the promised land. The tithes which God's people brought to His house were distributed to the Levites so that each had his share with which to care for his personal needs and those of his family.

The Apostle Paul drew attention to the use of tithe in the spiritual economy of Israel:
1 Cor 9:13, 14  Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

Paul tells us that the same system of finance that was practiced in ancient Israel should continue in the Christian church. And he makes it plain that the money is to be used for those who work full time in helping everyone on earth learn the gospel of Jesus Christ. The way that this is carried out by the church is a different subject and would have to be discussed at another time.

I suggest, after you've read this letter that you go to your knees and plead for wisdom from your divine Partner. He'll help you to know how to carry out His plan. You see, since God owns everything, we don’t give Him the 10% tithe. That already belongs to him. But He gives us 90% of our increase to meet our needs. And He looks at us as thieves when we refuse to return to Him His tithe.

There is more information about tithes, offerings, and other issues in our stewardship relationship with God, on my web site, www.PettyPress.com. Click on “Writings,” and then on “Our Relationship with God: Holistic Stewardship.” You will also find more information on tithe under “Questions and Answers”/Questions about stewardship.

Always be ready for Jesus to come,
Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
Thurman@PettyPress.com