Quote:
Originally Posted by Digging4Truth
Brother... For most of the history of mankind precious metals WAS money. It is a recent event, historically speaking, that worthless paper was used as money. The first mention of money in the Bible comes before the first mention of the tithe. The first mention of money comes about 1/3 the way into the first book of the Bible. Money has been in use and has been discussed in the Bible from book one.
I'm not sure what a supposable fact is... but... as mentioned above... money is used, described and discussed from the very first book of the Bible.
Yes sir... you are being awfully bold. You are evil surmising. You are assuming that you know the thoughts and intents of my heart. You assume that I do not give at least 10% of my income. You are falsely accusing your brother.
yes sir... You certainly are being bold.
And yet still... 66 books....4000 years of history... with money being an object of discussion from the very beginning and there are no scriptures that mention money or a persons wage in relation to the tithe.
Every scripture that mentions the tithe speaks in agricultural terms. Even when the priests were mishandling the tithe and God called them thieves he said he would "open the windows of heaven". Look that phrase up. Every single time it is used in the Bible (Except for Malachi 3 of course) it means rain.
There is not one leg to stand on with this stance exception assumptions and speculation.
And to think... I was able to make this large post without making some accusation about your character and without divining the very thoughts and intents of your heart in the process. |
PTL Brother,
Try not to take my bold stance wrong. I'm sure if we were sitting across the table from each other, we would get along fine. Debating issues like this online is not the best way. I prefer one on one. You can only type so much, and like I'm sure you are aware, thoughts hit us after we press "enter".
It also helps to know someone in person. Judging one another by keyboard can easily lead to a false impression.
I know you use the Bible as a historical reference point, but we must also use other books or historical accounts of how people exchanged in the past. How did people receive or pay for other goods?? They didn't use ATM's, check books, credit cards, or cash.
A personal "wage" or "money" of the past was in fact crops, cattle, grain, whatever may be deemed as being valuable. We cannot avoid or ignore these past economics. People tithing their crops, was the same as money today.
You may think I'm a little off when I say this, but I don't want to do what the Scribes and Pharsees did. They were the ones who took the Word of God, knowing it chapter and verse. Paul, a renowned scholar, stood by to watch the stoning of Stephen. He knew the Word front and back, yet he was was lost from the simplicity of Christ.
I see Tithing as a simplistic approach of furthering the Gospel. When the Lord saved me in the Marine Corps in 1979, I gave a tenth of my income as a love offering and a show of gratitude for all God had done for me. Just my addictions alone cost me more than a tenth. It was the least I could do. It also helped our little church to get a building, build a baptistry, buy chairs, song books, a piano.
I've taught all of my Children, who are now grown and married, to honor God with the Tithe. They were a part of this Home Missions work, and saw the importance of Tithing, and how by faith we gave when it seemed nothing was left. Even when I could barely pick myself off of the floor, and when the famine had hit our lives here, we brought our first fruits into His House and He has never failed me.
I don't want to cut, divide, chop, and even go into a massive debate about this. We can "meaning" ourselves into or out of anything. A simple study does show, people tithed before the Law even existed. I choose to Tithe, and preach it as a ways and means to not only keep the "Money Monkey" off of our back, but to allow His Will to be done on this Earth while their is time left.
God Bless, Bro