A Newly Radical Old Challenge and Ecclesiasticisms

Those of you who have been reading this blog for two months and/or have at least read back a few posts may recognize the combination of two previous posts as the title of this one. Occasionally I do work on more than one post at a time, but they have always stood individually in my mind, unless they were part of a series, of course. That was the case with those two posts when they were written. While they were written only four days apart, I did not make the connection between them until just a couple days ago. There are probably a few of you reading this who wonder how that could be since you made the connection right away. Okay, so I am just a little slow sometimes. For those of you who still have not made the connection, please allow me to assist you. The remainder of this post will make more sense if you read back to those two posts.


I had not realized the concept that the tithe belongs to the local church is an ecclesiasticism. Even those who teach and believe that concept know, and will freely confess, the tithe belongs to God and not to any individual or group of individuals, including the local church. Traditionally, tithes have been brought into the local church for the support of the ministries there. Most churches then send a portion of what they receive to other ministries they deem worthy. Any other giving done to The Church, e.g., rescue missions, missionaries, evangelistic ministries, etc., is expected to be above and beyond the tithe. (This makes less and less sense as I write it.) That practice stems from the artificial division of The Church into churches and para-Church ministries.


Perhaps I should clarify what I actually said and meant the first time I waded into this subject in "A Newly Radical Old Challenge." That post was intended to be nothing more nor less than the opening of a dialogue about one area in which we, The Church, have had a traditionally-held belief and practice that we could not back up with scripture. It was supposed to be a starting point for us all to examine those things we believe, either based on tradition or without solid, scriptural backing. Unfortunately, some people ran off with what was written and assumed I was saying tithes need not be brought to the local church, and further that I was somehow setting myself up to receive tithes from someone to support something. Yes, that was actually said to me in almost so many words. (We are going to address that sort of thing in the next post. I only have the title and the main concept so far.)


A friend pointed out to me the verse I used from Nehemiah 13:13 to make my point about the storehouse being the place people came for the provision of their physical needs was really only for the Priests and Levites. He said they were the "brethren" referred to there. Let me give him that point because it does not change mine at all. My point was, and is, the storehouse was the place the tithes were brought for the support of the people who did the work of the ministry. (see Ephesians 4:12) There were not any volunteers teaching Sunday School or cleaning the building or serving in other capacities in the Old Testament economy. Those ministries were reserved for the Priests and Levites who were clearly expected to be able to obtain their support from the storehouse.

Anyone who has had a basic class in hermeneutics (defined in Theology as the science of Bible interpretation) knows there are certain rules that must be followed to ascertain the correct interpretations and understandings of the scripture. I am not aware of any numbering system for the rules of hermeneutics so let me just say one of the rules is that we cannot make doctrine out of Old Testament principles unless they have been validated in the New Testament. The reason for this is simple and should be obvious. Some things change at the cross. Everything is not the same after the death and resurrection of Jesus as it was before. The physical rules of the Old Testament become the spiritual realities of the New Testament. The Old Testament Law gives way to the New Testament love.

Jesus said we should tithe. (Matthew 23:23) The author of Hebrews also validates the principle of the tithe in Hebrews 7:5-9, but nowhere is there a storehouse in the New Testament. In order to make the local church the New Testament storehouse, one has to jump from the Old Testament, through the New Testament to sometime after local churches were established. Bye, bye solid hermeneutics.

As most of you understand, what we call the local church is something of a modern phenomenon. Prior to the official establishment of the Catholic church in the fourth century A.D., The Church existed as a combination of all the house churches in a city or geographical region. The Protestant Reformation (1517-1648) ushered in the model of the local church, replacing the Catholic church as the one and only church. Again, there is no mention of a storehouse to which the tithes were brought in scripture or in history, as nearly as we can tell.

In order to avoid any confusion as to what this writer believes, let me conclude by stating plainly that every Christian should tithe. Incidentally, the word tithe means one-tenth. Tithing is the doorway to God's financial blessings. He promises that when we tithe, the windows of heaven will be open above us (Malachi 3:10) and He will rebuke the devourer so we can keep what He pours through those windows. (Malachi 3:11) As to where one should tithe, that is above my pay-grade, as it were. The tithe belongs to God. He will tell you where it should go. Were The Church fully-functional as the storehouse, were all the ministries God has called forth to be equally and adequately funded from the storehouse, then a case could possibly be made that the local church is the New Testament storehouse. The problem is, there is no storehouse in the New Testament. The principle Jesus taught is that God will provide our daily needs from His abundance, not from something we have stored, but space does not allow us to go into any elaboration on that subject. God bless you as you tithe.

A Newly Radical Old Challenge

A few weeks ago, someone mentioned she was hoping for more teaching in these pages rather than an online journal. Okay, when she says she wants more teaching, maybe it is not such a bad idea. (Guess who "she" might be.) We do have to do one thing before we start this.

WARNING: If you pastor a church you probably do not want to read any further.

God made just one challenge in the Bible to test Him. It is recorded in the last book of the Old Testament. The prophet Malachi, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke God's word to us. "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." (Malachi 3:9-10) If you have not heard a message, or at least an admonition, from this verse, you probably just have not been around churches or other religious organizations very long. Hold on! You probably have never heard what you are about to read. Due to limited space, there is not a lot of detail here. We are working on recording the full message.

First, take a look at the italicized words in the verses quoted above. The quotation, as is our custom, is taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. The translators of the NKJV did something that is very helpful to us in understanding what God is really trying to tell us here. They took their lead from the translators of the original King James Version in that wherever they added words to the text to make it more understandable in English, they italicized the words.

When we read verse 10 from about the middle of the verse, we see only, "...pour out for you blessing that not enough...") God has already given us an if, then. That is the sign of His covenant with us. In this case it is the covenant that shows how God will meet our needs. If we will bring our tithes into the storehouse, then He will open the windows of heaven and pour out for us blessing. God is not wishy washy on this. If we, then He. But wait, you get more.

Most teachings on this subject are limited to verses 9 and 10 quoted above. That is not the end of the thought. For whatever reason, most people preaching or teaching on the subject of bringing tithes, stop before they get to verse 11 and as a result never get to the really good part. Having the windows of heaven open above us is a great thing. God pouring down blessings through those open windows ratchets that up at least a notch. However, to understand the whole of what He is saying here we have read at least the opening words of verse 11. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." It would not be a complete promise from God if He opened those windows and poured out those blessings only to have the devourer eat them. In God's economy, you can have your blessings and enjoy them too!

We are running out of room here so we have to hurry. I have no idea at this point how the following quotation relates to this post, but I heard it yesterday and I know it does. Without further comment, here it is. "People have been making choices between a lie and a lie." (Shari Norvell, 1/28/11)

There are just two more things we need to cover. The first one is really a reminder. In order for you to have open windows above you, blessings pouring down on you, and the devourer rebuked out of your life, you must tithe. The second thing will get me into trouble with pastors everywhere. Hopefully, they heeded the warning and stopped reading awhile ago. You need to know this.

The storehouse is not what you have been told it is. Here is one example to verify that statement. If you have ever heard a sermon on these verses, tithing, and/or the storehouse, you have most likely heard the storehouse is the local church. That is where your tithe should be taken. The word "storehouse" appears in the Bible eight times. The most telling occurrence is in Nehemiah 13:13 which talks about the men who were entrusted with the tithes the people brought. The final words of the verse are, "...and their task was to distribute to their brethren." We obviously cannot speak for everyone, but if memory serves, there have been fewer than a half dozen times in a half century of church attendance that anyone has distributed to us out of the storehouse.

Should you need an apology for what I am about to do, you have it. But I am done for now. Selah (And get back to me if you like.)