Tithes by R. C. | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 7, 1864

Tithes.

By R. C.

MANY start back with horror at the bare mention of tithes, as much as though the witch of Endor had been evoked, and see in the very name of tithes the frightful ghost of Judaism, with all its types and shadows, and ceremonies, and sacrifices, and offerings, &c.

But such persons may just as well say that we are going back to Judaism when we advocate the keeping of the Sabbath, or any portion of the decalogue. For it remains to be shown that the tithing system which God established in the Old Testament was ever abrogated. It has been shown that it existed long before the Jewish nation came into existence, the same as the law of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was an institution for the race, and not for any particular class or people. It was necessary for the highest well being of the race that a seventh portion of time should be sacred for rest and religious purposes. And so it seems to have been a law for the race that a tenth part of all their increase, or income, should be as sacredly appropriated for religious purposes as a seventh part of their time.

And further, it has been shown that Christ recognized the system. Hence if it cannot be shown that the tithing system was abrogated, then it must be binding on us, and the command in Mal. iii, 10, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," &c., applies to us as a people. And further, God charged them with robbing him, in withholding from him the "tithes and offerings," consequently they were cursed with a curse. And who of us can say how many in our midst are not cursed for withholding from God's treasury what he demands? Men often wonder why it is that they do not prosper better in temporal things even, but do not stop to inquire how much they have robbed God. It is a wonder, rather, that many prosper at all, in temporal or spiritual things, in view of how little they put into the treasury of the Lord. They seem to think that they can cheat and rob God as much as they please, and then expect to prosper.

How many robbers we have in our churches who have been carrying on a system of robbery all their days, so that many who are considered wealthy, if they should attempt to pay into the Lord's treasury what they have withheld from it, would find themselves miserable bankrupts, in dollars and cents. Now can churches which tolerate such a system, or such practices, expect God's blessing upon them? I have no doubt but that spiritual blessings are often withheld from churches on account of their withholding their tithes and offerings from the treasury of the Lord—not supporting those who preach to them, as well as not contributing for benevolent purposes.

The Lord has said, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." See what the Lord has promised here, on condition that the tithes are all brought into his storehouse. How often the force and instruction of this passage have been entirely lost sight of by spiritualizing it, and making the tithes to consist in spiritual offerings instead of dollars and cents, as God means, undoubtedly. What a strange unnatural and forced interpretation this is. Who ever heard of spiritual tithes? We might talk of spiritual offerings with more propriety. But in the Bible, tithes and offerings are to be understood literally.

And it is high time that the church, and every church member, fully understand this, that ministers cannot be supported and the cause of God sustained, merely on spiritual offerings or tithes. We may just as well set upon this principle, "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled: notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body: what doth it profit?"

R. C. in Morning Star.