Tithe Your Way Out of God’s Blessings

For some reason, I keep running into Judaizers. These are people who try to convince Christians they should obey the Jewish law. It’s a dangerous heresy (or maybe apostasy), because it makes Christianity much harder than it should be, and it also tends to convince Christians they are the “real Jews.” It bolsters anti-Semitism and replacement theology, which is the dangerous belief that Christians are supposed to replace the Jews on earth.

I was watching Derek Prince videos, and he talked about a lady who was full of demons of false doctrine. I wrote about her a couple of days ago. She submitted to exorcism, and while he cast the demons out of her, they said things. One kept saying, “No pork! No bacon!” It was a false-doctrine demon that wanted to make Christians keep kosher. Another demon supported “eternal security,” which is the false belief that Christians can’t lose their salvation.

I came across a couple of videos by other Judaizers. One was a young man with a street ministry. He prays for people to be healed, and he also promotes prayer in tongues. Unfortunately, he also believes we are under the dietary laws. He says we have to keep the sabbath and observe the Jewish feasts.

The next video featured Bill Wiese. This is the man who wrote 23 Minutes in Hell, which is a fairly credible account of an experience in which Jesus sent him to hell so he could tell the rest of us what we were in for.

Wiese may have had a legitimate experience in hell, but does that mean he’s automatically right about all doctrine? Obviously not. One of the dangers of listening to people who say they’ve had extraordinary supernatural experiences is that you may assume they now know everything. Sometimes they seem to assume it themselves. It’s not true.

Wiese pointed to Matthew 23, where Jesus said the pharisees were right to tithe on the herbs and spices they grew in their gardens. Obviously, this has no application to us. These men were Jews still under the law. They were not allowed to eat pork. They couldn’t wear garments made from more than one fiber. They couldn’t cook on Saturdays. They were nothing like us. Furthermore, Wiese was not suggesting we should tithe on produce, like the pharisees. He was talking about money. If we have to tithe on money (something many Jews dispute), then we also have to go out in our yards, count the fruit on our trees, and bring 10% to church. No one does that.

Actually, I did it once, and then the tree died. It was a tangerine tree, and like most citrus trees in Florida, it caught citrus greening, which is incurable. So much for God favoring tithers.

Wiese said he tithed, and he said his bills were always paid. Well, guess what? I have had to lend money to people who believed in tithing, and they could not pay me back. Remember, I am the guy who criticizes tithing. God should be cursing me with lack, if the tithe-pushers are right.

Christians are supposed to give. That being said, we are not supposed to tithe. The law of the tithe has never applied to gentiles. Before Jesus came, gentile servants in Jewish homes were not required to tithe.

I’m not saying giving is bad. Giving is important, especially when it involves the poor. Psalm 41 says God will reward people for it here on the earth. Am I pushing Jewish law when I mention this pre-Christian writing? No; the psalm doesn’t establish a law. It doesn’t say, “Go into the streets and give 10 shekels to the poor every week.” It simply documents a principle.

We have to give, and sometimes we will be commanded to give to ministries, but that doesn’t mean we have to tithe. God may tell you to give more or less than 10%.

We are supposed to obey God’s commandments, but that doesn’t mean we observe the 613 Jewish laws, all of which are commandments. It means we obey the commands of the Holy Spirit. Often he will agree with the law, but often, he will not. He allowed the 12 disciples to pick grain on the sabbath. God fulfilled the law, so now our burden is lighter.

Satan choked Holy Spirit awareness out of the church, so most of us don’t hear from God. As a result, we rely on the law. It’s not a good substitute.

I saw an article from Christianity Today, in which the author tried to support tithing. In reality, he condemned it without realizing it.

The article said “nearly” a third of tithers are free of debt. If tithing works, they should all be free of debt. God doesn’t keep his promises to a third of his people; they apply to all of us.

Tithers rely on Malachi 3, which describes phenomenal prosperity, not just survival without crushing debt. It says tithers will be so blessed, there will not be room to contain the blessing. Clearly, this does not happen today. If it did, every Christian on earth would be storming his local church, shoving his tithes through the door in order to become a financial titan.

Christians who think they’re obeying the Jewish law make themselves somewhat ridiculous. They don’t know the first thing about the law. I know very little about it myself, but I know enough to tell you, for a fact, that the Jewish law is extremely complicated. There is a reason why brilliant Jews spend their entire lives studying it. Observant Jews have to have bona fide sages to go to for guidance. It’s not possible for a normal person of average intelligence to understand and apply the law without help.

If you’re not tithing on your garden, you’re not a tither. If you’re not giving 10% of the offspring of your livestock, you’re not a tither. And what about this: tithes were supposed to go to the Jewish temple. Where is the temple? How much have you sent there?

Judaizers teach a silly caricature of Jewish observance. They think that if you give up cheeseburgers and pork and stay home on Saturdays, you’re keeping the law. Not even close. This is the kind of observance knowledgeable Jews make fun of. Many Jews take the same route and then claim they keep kosher, and the Orthodox ridicule them.

Do you go through your house before Passover, make sure there is no leaven in it anywhere, and then perform an inspection? Are you and all your sons circumcised? Do you build a booth of branches and sleep in it on Sukkot? Do you only eat kosher meat inspected by rabbis? Do you practice ritual immersion on a regular basis? Do you drive on Saturdays? Do you have a mezuzah on your doorway? If you can’t give the right answers to these and many other questions, your observance is a joke. Remember, the New Testament itself says that if you break the law in one area, you violate all of it.

I saw an article which complained about the lack of tithing in the church, and God told me something: the tithe discourages people from giving.

It is believed that only something like 5% of Christians tithe. Preachers love to talk about the things they could do if all of us tithed. Bigger yachts, I would think. Think about this: what if everyone gave three or four percent? Churches would thrive. People who are giving too much could cut back and take better care of their families. Christians would be less burdened, and they wouldn’t be filled with guilt about withholding the tithe.

When you tell people they have to give 10%, the message many get is, “If I can’t give 10%, I might as well not give.” Then they give little or nothing.

The last church I went to had around 150 people in attendance every week. Maybe 75 of those people were adults. Maybe 40 of the adults were members. The pastor got mad and told us only 40% of the members tithed, so how many is that? Somewhere between 15 and 30 people? Less, because some members were married, and a married couple only produces one tithe.

This was a fanatical church, mind you. The situation is worse in lukewarm churches.

When I went to Trinity Church in Miami, I dreaded the offerings. They sometimes had several offerings during a single service. It was like we were olives in a press, being squeezed over and over.

A young man named Alex Nicolas drowned, and the memorial service was held at the church. The head pastor, Rich Wilkerson, collected an offering at the memorial!

It’s too bad preachers can’t see the people who stay home because of the constant milking.

I don’t tithe. Right now, I’m not giving to ministries at all. I eat pork. I don’t worry about the fibers in my clothes. I collect interest on my savings. I use electricity on Saturdays. I don’t observe a single Jewish feast. I don’t even know where the nearest mikveh is, and if I did, they wouldn’t let me use it. I am not a Jew. I don’t own a share of Israel. I will never replace a Jew. God still loves the Jews, and they are still his chosen people.

Jesus said his yoke was easy and his burden was light. One of two things has to be true. His yoke has to be easy and his burden has to be light, or Jesus must be a liar.

Paul told early Christians to eat whatever meat was sold in the markets, as long as it was drained of blood, hadn’t been strangled, and hadn’t been offered to idols. Jesus said we can’t be defiled by what we eat. God showed Peter unclean animals in a vision and told him, “Kill and eat.”

We are not Jews. We just aren’t.

Judaism is very complicated, and it requires a lot of sacrifice. Christianity is very simple. A person of below-average intelligence can be a very sound Christian teacher, as long as he hears from the Holy Spirit. We don’t need high-IQ scholars who pen themselves up in libraries. Paul said not many wise had been called. How can that be true if we have to understand the Jewish law?

I hate to see Christians run to take back the heavy yoke. Life is hard enough without it, and it tends to block God’s help. God doesn’t like false doctrine. He keeps trying to do things for us, and we keep telling him we’ll do it ourselves. He wants to carry our burdens for us, and we need to let him.