The First Tithe

After winning an astounding victory in battle and retrieving his nephew Lot along with all his lost possessions, Abram thanked God by giving Melchizedek one-tenth of all he had. Then, in Numbers 18:21, we find tithing included in the Mosaic Law. Its purpose was to provide for the Levites, whom God wanted to concentrate on priestly duties. While the New Testament contains no explicit command to tithe, many have argued that this relationship between the Levites and the other tribes of Israel prefigures how Christians should provide for their ministers. This view of tithing, known as parallelism, gained prominence in the church around the sixth century. Many non-Jewish and pre-Christian societies also practiced tithing-like giving. Some ancient sources describe how kings imposed a type of first-fruits tax to maintain holy shrines and support clergy.

From Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonia to the temples of Apollo in Delphi and Athena in Athens, pre-Christian centers of worship collected tithes for their gods. Ancient cultures as disparate as the Greeks and Chinese—including the Arabians, Phoenicians, Romans, and Carthaginians—gave in ways mirroring the tithe. Some scholars believe ancient cultures hit on the seemingly arbitrary figure of one-tenth because they often did calculations on their fingers. The early church's views on tithing foreshadowed many of today's stewardship debates.

The Eastern Church began tithing out of obligation because they believed Jesus' conversation with the rich young man demanded sacrificial generosity. Clement of Alexandria and Irenaeus pleaded with the church to surpass even the Old Testament tithe since Christ had freed them from the Law. Later church fathers—John Chrysostom, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine among them—complained from time to time that their followers lacked Christian charity. Chrysostom even shamed his stingy church for marveling at those who tithed. He contrasted their amazement with the dutiful giving of Old Testament Jews.

The Negative Impact on Ministries

Today, Last Harvest Fellowship, while supporting others, has watched giving levels drop to an all-time low in 2009. From 1984 the ministry's income grew from the first year of $25,000 to an all-time high of $250,000 in 1993, to the lowest level now in 2009. Contrast that level of giving with the population we are serving. In 1984, I had approximately 100 initial donors. By 1993 we had over 450 donors. In 2009, we are supported now by barely 3 donors.

As a result, we are having to find lower cost, lest effective hosting for our sites to keep them live, cutting back out office space, copiers, fax machine and such. Even now, eliminating video in place of live radio hosted on a free blog. Even with all our 'cuts' and not taking a salary from the ministry for over 10 years, we still see that because of the perverted attitude on tithing, we are suffering directly as a result.

Like church fathers—John Chrysostom, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine, I too agree that our followers have exchanged the gift of giving watching God's blessings flow back to them for their charity to a welfare entitlement attitude of "gimmie-gimmie" only to realize that because of their lack of biblical thinking every blessing seems to be passing them by.

Our nation as a whole has become so radically leftist and socialist that millions are of the mind that the government is supposed to take care of them. Little do they know, that at this very moment (2009) plans are being made in high places to invoke China's one-child coerced/mandated/forced abortion policy, global carbon-taxation and global world control of all humans with a stated, published goal to reduce world population by 90% in the next few years.

The curses of God are falling hard upon America and much of it goes right back to the individuals belief system. If you think you can be blessed without doing what God has indicated, suggested and commanded you to do, you will be grossly disappointed. I urge everyone to pray deep and hard about what the tithe means in your life. Do you worry about every penny you get? Do you horde every dime you can muster? Or do you trust God that He is able to provide for you and your family?