TITHE STILL APPLIES - Mike Peralta (e ink epub reader txt) 📗

Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

13 “You have spoken arrogantly against Me,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ 14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’ ”

16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name.

17 “On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be My treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

It is well known that Malachi Chapter 3 is about robbing God of His tithe. But it is also about other sins. A list of these sins (verses 5,8,14) is as follows:

1. Sorcerers (witchcraft),

2. Adulterers,

3. Perjurers (bearing false witness),

4. Defrauding laborers of their wages,

5. Oppressing the widows and the fatherless,

6. Depriving foreigners of justice,

7. Not fearing God,

8. Robbing God of His tithe,

9. Speaking against God by saying “It is futile to serve God.”

Did you notice that if the Tithe commandment “was done away with” then that would mean all the other commandments in Malachi Chapter 3 would also be done away with? You can’t have it both ways. All the arguments used to discount and “do away” with the Tithe commandment could also be used to “do away” with the other commandments. Isn’t this a case where “every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:5-6) ? Picking one commandment to suit your taste but rejecting another that doesn’t. But God will not change His word for any man – however much He loves him. Remember that Jesus loved the rich young ruler but had to let him exercise his free will and let him go to Hell. (Mark 10:17- 27) And this even though the rich young ruler obeyed every commandment except the first commandment – that is about putting God over all other things – including money. (The rich young ruler did not want to give away all his money, as he was commanded, to follow Jesus. His money was his god.)

It is obvious that the other eight commandments (witchcraft, adultery, etc.) in Malachi Chapter 3 have not been “done away with.” So why would one out of the nine, namely “Robbing God of His Tithe,” be done away with? The answer is, the Tithe Law has not been done away with. In fact stealing from God is a horrible sin to do. How can anyone say they love someone but then steal from that person? The answer is that if you love someone you will not steal what is rightfully theirs. And in this case if you love God you will not steal what is rightfully His. You simply will not.

It is also revealing to notice that the term that God used in Mal 3:8 was Robbing and not Theft. Although being a robber and a thief both mean stealing from another, the term robbery involves a personal assault or threat of assault. For example robbery at gunpoint or knife point or with threat of being beaten. The crime is done personally or against “one’s person.” Whereas theft usually means just stealing something or things when the person is not looking or when they are not present (i.e. at home). So when God says “you are robbing Me.” He considers that to be very personal – against His person. Since God sees all things and is always present, then stealing from God is always Robbery.

I don’t know if you have ever been robbed personally by someone. Well I have and I felt traumatized and violated. When I was about 13 years old I was walking back home from a fast food restaurant and someone, a little taller and older than me (about 14 or 15 years old), grabbed me by my shirt and demanded that I give him my money. Let me tell you - it felt awful. And I even started crying. Now I am no cry baby but that robbery hurt me to my core. Likewise I can sympathize with how God feels when we Rob Him of His tithe. Now the word Robbery is God’s own word in Malachi 3:8. Being robbed makes you feel violated – especially when it is by someone who is supposed to love you. Make no mistake about it. God is very hurt when we rob Him of the tithe that is rightfully His. How can we rob from Jesus even after He gave His life for us on the cross? After everything Jesus has done for us – how can we rob from Him?

This sense of assault was voiced by Jesus when Saul was persecuting the church as described in Act 22. In Acts 22:4-9 Paul recounts as follows: “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ ’ “And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.”

Notice that Paul was persecuting the church, but Jesus told Paul that he was persecuting Jesus Himself. You see Jesus takes it very, very personally when you persecute (or steal from or hurt or harm) His church or any of His children.

In fact, as I was writing this section, I strongly felt that Jesus was hurt and even angry about how we casually rob Him of the tithe that is rightfully His. Believe me, or rather believe the scripture in Malachi 3:8, God really does view our disobedience of the tithe and takes it very personally that we rob Him of His tithe. This is not a trivial matter, my reader. If you truly love God you will not rob Him anymore.

A lot more is at stake here than you currently realize. Robbing God is a horrible sin to commit. I will go over more of the consequence later, but notice for now that Robbing God of His tithe, is a very egregious crime and sin that is personally against God Himself. (Note: Egregious means outstandingly bad; shocking.)

Another very important thing to notice here (in verse 7) is that right before God accuses (and rightfully so) the disobedient about Robbing Him, He tells them to return to Him.

“Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from My decrees and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?” (Malachi 3:7)

It was their sin that separated them from God. As Isaiah 59:2 states, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

This, of course, means that to return back to God they must repent of their sin and now obey God’s commandment about the tithe and others as well (remember the commandments against adultery and witchcraft, etc.).

So we see here that to love God requires that we forsake sin and obey God. This is just as Jesus said in John 14:15 that if we love Him, then we will keep His Commandments. “If you love Me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15)

 

 

CHAPTER 7: NO WHERE IN THE BIBLE IS THE TITHE ABOLISHED

 There is no where in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament that the practice of the tithe is abolished. In fact, as I will cover, we are actually commanded to tithe in three passages in the New Testament.

It is also very significant to note that no where in the New Testament did the Apostle Paul , nor any other Apostle, tell believers to not pay tithes. NO WHERE! If God wanted us to stop the practice of tithing He would have clearly told us in the New Testament. But God did not command us to stop paying tithes. And in fact He commands us to tithe as I will discuss in Mat 23:23, Luke 11:42, and Heb 7:8. Also Paul was very clear about the change of practice about circumcision, and food and drink laws, and special festival days. But Paul nor any other Apostle never ever told us to stop paying the tithe. So the idea that “the tithe has been done away with” is a deception straight from the pit of Hell. Satan wants to weaken the church – including it’s finances and so he and his demons concocted the false deception to get rid of the tithe. Financially weakening the church only helps the devil drag more people into Hell.

Telling people that “the tithe has been done away with” only serves to weaken God’s church and results in more and more people being dragged to Hell - due to the gospel not being supported as much, and also due to the disobedience to God’s tithe commandment. 

How anybody can say (essentially lie) that the tithe “has been done away” is a clear case of deception and falsehood. Don’t let satan nor false teachers deceive you and fool you into thinking that “the tithe has been done away with.” Not only is the church hurt but you yourself are also hurt.

Support the gospel and obey Jesus wholeheartedly and pay the tithe and offerings from a willing and obedient heart (Isaiah 1:19). Jesus will be elated with you and bless you, as He promises, and we can bring many more people to the saving grace of Christ on this earth. What a privilege and honor that we can support the gospel and give our High Priest, Jesus, the tithe.

 

The Tithe In The New Testament

Some say that the tithe is never mentioned in the New Testament. But this saying is actually false. There are three (3) places where the tithe is mentioned in