"When I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the Universe, God, and he’s given us a system. It’s called tithe. Now we don’t necessarily have to do it 10% but it’s principle. He didn’t say, if your crops fail, don’t give me any tithes. He didn’t say, if you have a bumper crop, give me triple tithes. So there must be something inherently fair about proportionality. You make $10 Billion dollars you put in a Billion. You make $10 you put in $1 – of course, you gotta get rid of the loopholes, but now now some people say, that’s not fair because it doesn’t hurt the guy who made $10 Billion dollars as much as the guy who made $10. Where does it say you have to hurt the guy. He’s just put in a billion in the pot. We don’t need to hurt him."Ok, setting aside politics, this is just really unbiblical. Why?
1) God only gave the tithe system to ancient Israel under the Old Covenant. There is no command to tithe for Christians, and no command to tithe to churches. (Most early Christians were Jewish... did they tithe to the church and to the temple? or just one or the other?)
2) The system was disproportional across society because not everyone tithed. Tithe was not money, but was crops and livestock. Not all people were farmers or livestock owners. (I.g., carpenters, craftsmen, midwives, weavers, servants and blacksmiths, etc.) Moreover, if tithe was converted into money, a fifth of the value had to be added.
3) The purpose of tithe was different than the purpose of taxes. Tithe was for the temple institution (which is why Jews do not tithe to synagogues). And in the New Testament, the temple of the Old Covenant was revealed to be a picture about how God would provide to the world through the offering of His Son. Ultimately, the purpose of tithe was to point people to Jesus. In contrast to what Ben Carson said, God didn't "give us a system." Instead He gave us His Son. That is what tithe was ultimately about in the Bible; not the old system, but the Son!
4) In addition to funding the Old Covenant temple institution, tithes were also collected for the poor. (Is that how churches use "tithe money" today?) But also, if tithe-able people in Israel couldn't make it all the way to the temple and the poor were taken care of, then they were commanded to take their tithes, exchange them for money so that they could buy food and strong drink, and have a big feast with their family. (Yes, preachers never use Deuteronomy 14 when teaching people to give tithes!)
5) The fact that tithes were collected and given to the poor turns Ben Carson's whole point upside down. Perhaps the poor in tithe-able occupations (farmers & livestock owners) had to give 10%, but if they were poor then they could expect to be on the receiving end of "tithe" as well. Question: Are there more verses in the Bible about giving tithes or about caring for the poor?
Ben, preachers, people! Please study the Bible in context before you take an Old Covenant law and apply it all over the place or to make a point to support whatever your politics are!
*****
Study more:
http://transformed-by-truth.blogspot.com/p/worksheet-study.html
For keeping God's priorities and His "system" straight, this is the best "National Prayer Breakfast" speech I've seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OJk8SJ_FNQ
(the talk starts around 4:47)
3 comments:
Love your "Tithing in Context"!
I re-shared this on Facebook and added the following new words of introduction here: http://on.fb.me/1EsNOJQ
Back in 2013 Ben Carson spoke at the White House National Prayer Breakfast and invoked the Biblical practice of "tithing" as a model for taxes in America. I wrote a little about it afterwards.
I'm re-sharing this now since a new Reuters article says in its headline that "Carson takes a biblical approach to taxes."
Note that it's easy to say this or that is "biblical" simply because it is found within the pages of the Bible. What this ignores, however, is *context*, *teaching*, and *Christ*.
For example, we can also say that circumcision is "biblical", but in the context of the New Covenant it is found to be no longer necessary for believers. We are circumcised in our hearts now, *in Christ*. While the Bible may contain circumcision, after the coming of the New Covenant it no longer *teaches* circumcision.
In the same way, Carson grounds his reading in the Old Covenant (yet incorrectly even on Old Covenant terms) instead of in the New Covenant; Carson tries to ground his teaching in Moses instead of in Jesus.
"The Bible also mentions three kinds of tithing for ancient Hebrews — two given each year and a third every third year — which averages out to 23.3 percent (not 10 percent) of a believer’s annual stock." (link)
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