The words, The Truth Will Set You Free, proclaimed by Christ centuries ago changed my life forever in unimaginable ways. What I painfully know is this: searching for and discovering truth can separate people, destroy friendships, and throw unsuspecting believers into exile from institutional Christianity.
The truth that set me free is what I learned about a century’s old teaching called tithing. My quest for truth begged for an answer to the proverbial sixty-four thousand dollar question. Does the modern day multifaceted tithing system have any resemblance to biblical tithing? The hermeneutical and exegetical answer based on the land, the language and the literature of the biblical Hebrew Israelites is no! God never issued a new commandment to convert the orthodox biblical food tithe into money as a method to support the New Testament church in age of grace. The change of economic systems across history from agricultural to monetary did not cause God to change his holy food tithe to money.
I practiced the tax-deductible greenback tithing system for 30 years. After extensive research on the subject and prayer, I discovered Christ never endorsed tithing as a command or a principal for New Testament believers. When I peeled back the tithing onion in biblical and secular history, shock and dismay beat upon my theological head like a 2x4. When I regained consciousness, it was apparent Christ never endorsed money tithing as modern preachers assert. The Savior followed 613 instructions of the Law and the only authentic stipulated tithing law He endorsed was the tithe the Bible emphatically claims are eatable items such as crops, cattle, herd, flocks and sheep. In Jesus’ own words, in Matthew 23:23, he acknowledges that the Pharisees tithed mint, rue and cumin, which were eatable items and yet somehow people assume money is implied? The bottom line; tithing is not money, but food and Yahweh never commuted the food tithe to money in the 1st century nor the 21st century.