Banned from AMF, AGAIN!

[jfrog]

Originally Posted by JoeCastorina

What would make a person willingly rob God?

I'm not about to make a judgement call on someone's salvation. I will tell someone what the Bible says and they can determine if they'll comply. In my opinion, tithing also has to do with authority (See Hebrews 7). When you fail to tithe, you rob God of that authority in your life.

Without going too deep into it right now (because you guys are sucking me in ), God was not just speaking to the priesthood in Malachi 3. He started out speaking to the priesthood and then made the transition in vs 6 (I believe, no Bible in front of me) to the entire nation. He associated their lack of tithing to the same type of disobedience when they walked away from him time and time again.

The writer of Hebrews uses the subject of tithing to prove the superiority of Christ's priesthood. He shows that Christ is the end recipient of tithes. Christ is the superior, we are the inferior. The superior always blesses the inferior. That is a law of authority that the writer of Hebrews clearly acknowledges and associates with this practice.

Tithing is not a part of the OT law in that it pre-existed the law. Abraham did it (we have no reason to believe it was a one time only event), Jacob promised it to God, and many believe even Able did it when he brought the first of his herd to God in sacrifice. On top of this, only the ceremonial law of the OT was fuliflled, the moral law sill applies even to the Christian.

As for it being salvific, when we get into the mindset that categorizes each doctrine as a "Heaven Issue" or "Hell Issue" then we have completely lost the point. Tithing is not about "do this or burn." Tithing is a principle of authority, worship, submission, and blessings. To turn it into a Heaven or Hell argument is to remove the very purpose of tithing.

The lack of tithing speaks to a greater internal issue. God gives us everything we are increased with. He asks only for 10% to support those who devote their lives to ministry. To refuse God the 10% he requests is to deny his sovereignty. You rob God of his authority in your life.


That's a brief description of my take on the issue anyway.

I think one fundamental difference is that you are viewing pastors as superiors to laity. I view them as equals.

Another fundamental difference is that you want to compare modern day pastors more to old testament priests. I would describe them more as Pharisees or Rabbis, NOT BECAUSE OF HYPOCRISY, but because the general consensus is that they were the religious leaders of Jesus' time. Many pharisees and Rabbis were not of the tribe of Levi and so these would not have received tithes. (If I am wrong on this please correct me).