Wednesday, September 24, 2014

"The Sacred Cow of Tithing" by Andre van der Merwe

Excerpts:
"The entire Bible was written for us, but not everything in the Bible was written directly to us. Many times the intended audience was Jews (who were bound by the law) or unbelievers. That’s not to say we can’t read and learn from these passages of scripture, but to take them as having been written directly to us as commands to obey is to forsake dividing the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15). The Bible is one of the most dangerous books in the world if the reader is unable to discern between the Old and New Covenants..."

"God’s blessings in the New Covenant (after the cross) are not dependent on our knack to impress Him with our law keeping, in this case, our ability to give money. If we really had to tithe to receive God’s blessings, it wouldn’t be called “grace” anymore, would it? The beauty of grace is in the fact that Jesus took everything we deserved (punishment for sin) and that He freely gave us everything which we didn’t deserve, namely love, forgiveness, blessings, salvation, healing, finances, etc. So to now teach people that they need to tithe first in order for God to bless them, is essentially throwing God’s free gift back into His face and opting to buy it from Him instead..."

"Because Jesus is our big brother and He is not tithing to our Father, neither do we need to. [...] Jesus fulfilled the entire law, which included tithing. But the modern day church can’t afford to stop preaching tithing, because it can’t survive without the money. The only difference is now it is preached that our “motive” for tithing should be different..."
Read the full article by Andre van der Merwe at New Covenant Grace: http://newcovenantgrace.com/organic-church/tithing/