Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), G. Edward Reid
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000247
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00:30 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
00:31 Welcome again to Issues and Answers. 00:33 Today our issue is Biblical tithing, and the answer is going 00:36 to come straight from the Bible. 00:37 We're going to understand this before the end of the programs, 00:41 so please stay tuned. 00:42 I want to share a scripture with you because I have so many 00:46 people who tell me, Well, tithing was just for the Jews. 00:49 Let me show you that it began long before the Jewish nation. 00:53 In Genesis 14:20; this is the story of Melchizedek 01:00 the king of Salem who Abram; Abraham, he was sill Abram then, 01:05 met along the way in the journey. 01:07 This is what it says: That blessed, praise and glorified 01:13 be God most high who has given your foes into your hand. 01:17 And Abram gave him, Melchizedek, a tenth of all that 01:22 he had taken. 01:23 So the Biblical principle of tithing has been around from 01:26 the beginning, and we're going to find out it's in the 01:28 New Testament as well. 01:30 And here to tell us about it is G. Edward Reid. 01:33 He's a Christian author. 01:34 He's an attorney. 01:35 He is a financial planner. 01:39 But more than that, he is a Bible student, and a Bible 01:42 scholar I would even say. 01:44 He is the Stewardship Director for the North American Division 01:48 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 01:50 Now how's that for an introduction Ed? 01:52 Wow! 01:53 Well, thank you Shelley, and thank you for having me today. 01:56 I think we're going to have a good time as we look through 01:58 the Bible to see what the Biblical principles 02:00 of tithing are. 02:01 I think there will be some surprises for lots of people. 02:04 I hope that we can make it simple, and easy to understand, 02:08 and therefore easy to practice. 02:09 For those viewers who may be tuning in who are saying, 02:13 What is tithing? 02:14 How would you explain a tithe? 02:16 Well, this is a good question and one that is foreign to 02:20 a lot of people because they hear it but they don't know 02:22 the Biblical principles. 02:24 Tithing is something that was introduced in the first book 02:27 of the Bible, and it goes all the way through the Bible. 02:29 The last mention is in the book of Hebrews. 02:31 It is simply in the Old Testament the Hebrew word 02:37 for tithe was the same Hebrew word for tenth. 02:41 So tithe is a tenth. 02:42 In the New Testament, by the way, which was written in the 02:45 Greek language primarily, the word for tithe and tenth 02:48 is the same Greek word also, which is very, very interesting. 02:51 So most people don't have any question about how much 02:54 the tithe is. 02:55 But the tithe, as we're going to see in this presentation, 02:58 is something that God said, as followers of God, 03:02 I want to reserve the tithe for Me. 03:04 The best way I can tell you is this, when God placed man, 03:09 Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden, He said, Of all you see 03:12 you may freely eat. 03:13 I'm only going to ask you one thing. 03:16 There's this one tree; don't eat of it. 03:19 That's all. 03:20 In the same manner, God has placed us in the abundance 03:24 of this earth, and He says, These things are for you. 03:27 I'm only going to ask you for the tenth. 03:30 You take the tenth as a follower, and that's Mine. 03:33 And the very first verse that talks about the law of the tithe 03:38 is in Leviticus 27:30. 03:41 That says, The tithe of the land ... is the Lord's: it is holy 03:47 unto the Lord. 03:48 This is very, very important to understand. 03:51 Remember that the tithe does not pay the Pastor's salary. 03:56 It doesn't go to the church or the conference. 03:58 It belongs to God. 04:00 Now this is very, very amazing. 04:03 But, see, God doesn't need the money. 04:06 I'll just ask a question. 04:07 Since the tithe belongs to God, what could He do with it 04:11 if He wanted to? 04:12 He can do anything He wants. 04:14 That's the right answer. 04:15 I was hoping you would say that. 04:17 He can do anything He wanted to. 04:19 He could take it all back to heaven. 04:20 Right? 04:21 Yes. 04:22 So as a Christian He says, I'm only asking for a tenth. 04:24 So He could take it off with Him. 04:25 Or, parish the thought, He could do this if He wanted to, 04:29 remember when the people brought their lamb without 04:31 spot or blemish? 04:32 Guess what happened to it? 04:33 It got burned up. 04:34 It got killed and then burned up. 04:36 Now this is amazing. 04:37 How would we like it if when the deacons brought the tithe 04:40 forward for the prayer on Sabbath morning someone got a 04:43 lighter and burnt all the tithe up? 04:44 We just wouldn't conscience that. 04:46 That's our money! 04:48 But, see, the whole point was the tithe belongs to God. 04:50 Now this is very basic. 04:52 That's the very bottom line of all tithing. 04:55 Excuse me, I was just going to say, we don't give God a tithe. 05:01 He entrusts everything to us as a steward and we simply return 05:05 a tithe to Him. 05:07 Exactly right; this is very, very important to understand. 05:09 We're told that God does not, with regard to the tithe now, 05:12 appeal to our gratitude or our generosity. 05:16 It is a matter of simple honesty. 05:18 So we return God's portion to Him. 05:20 Then the most amazing thing is He's promised to bless the rest. 05:25 Now this is really, really incredible. 05:27 Now I want to give you a Bible verse that's really interesting. 05:31 It's Numbers, and we're going to look at it in Numbers. 05:35 It's chapter 18, verse 21, I believe. 05:38 But I'm going to look at it in my Bible because 05:41 everybody should actually have this marked in their Bible. 05:44 I believe I've got the right one here, 18:21. 05:50 Yes. 05:51 Now God is speaking here. 05:53 And remember I said He could do anything He wanted to 05:56 with the tithe? 05:57 Yes. 05:58 Well, what did He decide to do? 05:59 He decided to pay the preachers with the tithe. 06:02 So He says, Behold... I have given 06:07 the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an 06:11 inheritance in return for the work which they perform, 06:14 the work of the tabernacle of meeting. 06:17 Amen. 06:18 Now when you read the Bible through there's lots in the 06:20 Old Testament; you wonder why it's in there. 06:21 But here's one of them. 06:23 When the Israelites went into the promised land eleven of the 06:27 tribes were given land to farm, and to have their flocks, 06:30 and herds, and so on. 06:31 But the tribe of Levi was supposed to be the religious 06:35 leaders, and the teachers, and so on. 06:39 At any rate, they were not given land. 06:41 They were just given places to stay with little garden plots. 06:43 It's very simple in the Bible. 06:45 You can see that. 06:46 So God said, Your tithe will go to support the Levites because 06:50 they don't have the big farms, and the cattle, and all that 06:53 you have. 06:54 But even the Levites tithed. 06:55 We understand that from the book of Nehemiah. 06:57 Everyone tithes, but they're supported by the others. 07:00 So God said, I want to support the preachers, if you please, 07:04 with my tithe. 07:05 So when I'm tithing, as an individual, I'm tithing to God. 07:10 Then God says, I'm going to trust the Levites, 07:13 or the religious leaders, to use the tithe to support 07:15 the ministry. 07:17 Isn't that incredible? 07:18 Amen. 07:19 That's one of the amazing things about the tithing that you find 07:21 in the scriptures really. 07:22 And, you know, there are certain denominations out there that 07:26 teach, or one of their traditions is that they do 07:30 not support those who are their church leaders, 07:33 or the preachers, per se, and the Bible says that the 07:37 workman is worthy of his hire. 07:39 Yes, that's in Apostle Paul. 07:41 And this same thing, I mean, he's harking back to the 07:44 Old Testament and bringing that same principle across into 07:47 the New Testament. 07:48 It's very, very important. 07:49 We'll talk about that in a few minutes. 07:50 Wonderful. 07:51 Now what were the people supposed to do with their tithe? 07:54 Now this is a really, really interesting question because 07:57 people have questions about this, so we want to address it 08:01 right up front. 08:02 The Bible says, and probably one of the most famous 08:04 well known tithe texts is Malachi 3: Bring all the tithe 08:09 to the storehouse... 08:10 So tithing was actually an act of worship. 08:13 God had said twice in Deuteronomy, Do not appear 08:16 before the Lord empty handed. 08:17 Come with your tithes and your offerings. 08:19 Now this is really, really interesting. 08:21 So it's part of our worship. 08:22 We bring the tithe to the storehouse. 08:24 The interesting thing is when you do that then there's money 08:28 there, God's money, for Him to do what He wants to do 08:31 with His tithe. 08:32 So it's really an act of worship. 08:34 We bring it to the storehouse. 08:36 And the tithe was used for more than just to pay the salaries 08:40 of the pastors or the ministers. 08:42 It was also used to make sure that God's house had 08:47 what it needed. 08:48 Now that's an interesting question. 08:50 I'm going to try to explain that to you. 08:52 Okay. 08:53 Sometimes people have been told in churches that the tithe 08:58 was anything they did for religion at all. 09:00 I mean it could even go to pay your kids church school expenses 09:04 or whatever. 09:05 But the Bible says that the tithe belongs to God 09:07 and it's holy. 09:08 We return it and then the pastors are paid from that. 09:11 But when there were building projects, like when they built 09:14 the tabernacle or they built the temple, and so on, 09:16 that was a separate fund that they brought in for the 09:20 building of it. 09:21 We don't have any record in the Bible that the tithe was ever 09:24 used for anything but salaries. 09:26 Now I think you're asking the question for the this reason, 09:30 so I'm going to answer it this way. 09:31 In the tribe of Levi there were not just preachers, 09:37 but there were also teachers, the choir was there, 09:40 the people who cleaned the sanctuary were there, 09:42 the security guards for the sanctuary, so if you were a 09:45 Levite you got paid from the tithe. 09:46 Okay. 09:47 But the people that made that decision were the priests 09:50 and the leaders of the Levites. 09:52 So we try to practice that in the Adventist church by saying, 09:56 When the tithe comes in we're going to keep it as a holy fund 09:59 that belongs to God. 10:00 It's not the offering fund that we're going to use to build 10:02 buildings with. 10:04 Right. 10:05 Do you see what I'm saying? 10:06 Right. 10:07 But it's a special fund. 10:08 But who actually gets the tithe is an administrative 10:10 decision that God has left with the spiritual leaders. 10:13 Do you see what I'm saying? 10:14 That's the Biblical model. 10:16 Okay, but doesn't it, in the book of Deuteronomy, 10:18 talk about using the tithe for the poor and for social events? 10:22 Oh, yes, indeed! 10:23 And that's your real question. 10:25 You're trying to get into something that's very unusual. 10:27 People who are perceptive and read the Bible, find that 10:30 there's sometimes counsel that the tithe is to be used at home 10:34 for entertaining the poor, for social occasions, 10:39 and entertaining the Levites, and so on. 10:41 You read that in Deuteronomy. 10:42 Now something is very, very interesting. 10:45 I actually have written a paper on that and it's on our website, 10:48 but I will just tell you a real quick answer to it. 10:51 In the Bible, just like there are more than one Sabbath, 10:55 you know, like there's the seventh-day Sabbath, 10:57 there are also the ceremonial Sabbaths in Leviticus 23. 11:02 You're familiar with that. 11:03 Well, there's also two tithes in the Bible. 11:06 There is the Lord's tithe, which were talked about in Genesis, 11:11 Exodus, Numbers, and Leviticus, but the tithe that's talked 11:17 about in Deuteronomy is called the second tithe. 11:21 Okay. 11:22 Not the Lord's tithe. 11:23 And every third year that tithe was to be kept at home 11:27 to assist the poor, or to entertain the traveling 11:33 preachers, and to have money for social, let's just say 11:37 camp meeting. 11:38 Okay. 11:39 Do you see what I'm saying? 11:40 Yes. 11:41 For the festivals, the religious festivals. 11:42 Now something really interesting, I don't think it 11:44 would be appropriate to say the name, but a few years ago a 11:47 popular minister in America wrote a book, The Kingdom of God 11:50 Is A Party. 11:51 In that book he stated that preachers have no right to tell 11:55 people to bring their tithes to church, because when you read 11:58 it in Deuteronomy chapters 12 to 16, and so on, it's talking 12:02 about using it at home. 12:03 But when you read it it's very clear that's the second tithe 12:07 not the Lord's tithe. 12:08 The first tithe, the holy tithe, the Lord's tithe, always and 12:11 only goes to the storehouse to be used to pay the preachers. 12:16 But the second tithe on the third year was to be 12:19 used socially. 12:20 So we have all the Bible verses and all that. 12:23 It's a free thing. 12:25 You can get on our website and see the answer to that. 12:28 You know in Malachi 3:20... 12:31 I'm just sitting here and you're talking about two tithes. 12:33 Some people have trouble with one tithe. 12:35 Yes. 12:36 But the Biblical principle for this is found in 12:39 Malachi 3:10, when God is saying bring all the tithes, 12:44 the whole tenth of your income into the storehouse that there 12:48 may be food in my house, and prove me by this says the Lord 12:52 of hosts. 12:53 See if I will not open the windows of heaven for you 12:55 and pour out a blessing so much that you can't even contain it. 12:59 So there's a blessing connected to the tithe 13:01 But, Ed, some people don't really understand that when they 13:05 don't return the tithe, God had begun this passage, if we go 13:09 back up a few verses, He says, Will a man rob God? 13:15 Yet you rob me. 13:17 But you say, In what way do we rob you? 13:20 And He says, because you have withheld your tithe 13:24 and your offerings. 13:26 My question is, Is that second tithe what we call offerings, 13:32 or is that something that... 13:34 Are we not tithing enough? 13:36 Yes, there really wouldn't be a second Lord's tithe. 13:40 We would call that offerings today. 13:42 Kathy and I have been doing what we call ten plus ten 13:46 for many years. 13:48 That is our tenth tithe. 13:49 Then we set aside a second tenth for offerings, 13:52 for various things, our local church, our conference work, 13:55 and the worldwide work. 13:56 Then when we some supporting ministry that we really like 14:00 we support them as well, you see, but we do that our 14:03 offering tithe, the second one, because it is discretionary. 14:07 But the Lord's tithe, you read that correctly, with the proper 14:10 emphasis, bring all the tithe. 14:12 Many of the modern translations say bring the whole tithe 14:15 to the Lord. 14:16 That's the Lord's tithe, the first tenth. 14:18 And the reason God is calling it robbery is because He set it 14:22 apart and sanctified it, and He called it His. 14:24 So when we don't return that which has been sanctified 14:29 to Him, set apart for His use, we are actually robbing God. 14:33 Yeah, it even gets more serious than that actually. 14:36 In the law we study criminal law and criminal procedure. 14:40 There are different levels of theft crimes. 14:43 If someone just steals something from your yard they could be 14:46 arrested and tried for simple petty theft, conversion of the 14:51 property, someone took it without returning it, and so on. 14:54 But if they were to break into your house and steal something 14:57 then it gets very, very serious. 14:59 In many jurisdictions, like I know in Florida, 15:01 if you're convicted for breaking and entering the property 15:04 of another, you'd get six years in jail. 15:05 There's no questions asked. 15:07 It's very serious. 15:08 But still though we haven't gotten to the level of robbery. 15:10 Robbery only occurs when the owner is present. 15:14 Now this is very, very serious. 15:16 You know, give me your keys or I'll kill you. 15:18 You understand those kinds of things that people say. 15:20 They're robbers, you know. 15:21 Well, the fact is, how can God call failure to tithe robbery? 15:25 Well, it's very clear in the Bible, in many passages, 15:27 like Hebrews 4:13, you know, Where can you flee from 15:30 his presence? 15:31 We must, you know, we're all naked and appear before the 15:32 judgment bar of God, and so on. 15:34 He's there, and He has plans for it. 15:36 He's not willingly surrendering yet. 15:38 We're taking it from Him and robbing Him of the ability 15:41 to see what good it could do for the cause of God. 15:43 Do you see what I'm saying? 15:44 So that's why it's a real serious thing. 15:47 And many people, I'm sure you've had people tell you this, 15:51 they'll say, Well, that was an Old Testament principle. 15:54 So what that Abraham tithed before the Jewish nation? 15:57 Yeah. 15:58 Where do you find it in the New Testament? 16:00 Well, I'm going to answer it, the beginning and the end. 16:03 When you study the Bible, as in any history book, there's a law 16:07 of first mention. 16:08 The first time something is mentioned is really important, 16:11 and the law of last mention. 16:12 Both of them deal with, Hebrews the 7th chapter, 16:16 deal with the experience of Melchizedek, and that's the 16:20 first time tithing was mentioned. 16:21 Now this is interesting. 16:23 And neither Melchizedek, or Jesus as the new Melchizedek, 16:27 were members of the tribe of Levi. 16:29 Jesus was, of course, from the tribe of Judah. 16:31 And this is very interesting that you have non-Levitical 16:35 priests asking for tithe. 16:37 The first time it's mentioned, and the last time it's mentioned 16:40 in the Bible. 16:41 Now this is really pretty amazing. 16:42 But even beyond that remember that the Bible of Jesus and the 16:47 disciples, and all the Bible writers, was always and only 16:51 in the Old Testament. 16:52 That was the Bible to them. 16:53 Study to show yourselves approved unto God. 16:55 You don't just study the New Testament, you study the 16:57 Old Testament. 16:58 And the principles of scripture that you find in the 17:00 Old Testament are just as valid for us today. 17:02 Do you see what I'm saying? 17:04 Yes. 17:05 Except those ceremonial things that pointed forward to Christ, 17:07 you know in the sacrificial system and so on, 17:10 since Jesus came and became the reality, 17:14 those we don't practice. 17:15 But the other things like the health laws, the civil laws, 17:18 the ten commandment laws, and the law of the tithe, 17:21 and so on, given way before the ten commandments, 17:23 those still would apply to us today. 17:25 Amen. 17:26 Now, you know, I was thinking of how Jesus said, talking to 17:30 the Pharisees, He said, You give a tenth of your mint, 17:33 and you give a tenth of all these herbs, and as He's going 17:36 on to correct them He said what you should have done. 17:39 So Jesus is applauding them for the tithing, but I hear people 17:44 talk about an honest tithe. 17:46 Yeah. 17:47 Giving an honest tithe. 17:48 Now first I wanted to say, I knew I had another point in my 17:51 mind, was that we are really not allowed by God to say, 17:57 Okay, I'm going to set this tenth apart. 17:59 Now I'll decide where it goes. 18:00 We can't say, no, I'm not going to give it to the church. 18:03 I'll give it over here or I'll give it to my family and call 18:05 that my tithe, because He has a purpose for the tithe 18:09 and that is holy. 18:10 You're very perceptive about that. 18:11 According to the Bible the tithe is non-discretionary neither 18:16 as to amount or to what it's used for. 18:18 We don't have discretion. 18:20 We're only told to return it to the religious leaders. 18:23 Now the fact is if I'm a Seventh-day Adventist 18:27 the storehouse would be the conference office, 18:29 the place from which the pastors are paid. 18:31 But for the convenience of the members we return it through our 18:33 local church, but it's sent on to the conference office. 18:36 The pastors are not paid at that level. 18:38 If I was a Baptist and I was in a congregational church 18:41 then my tithe would return there to the treasurer 18:43 who pays the pastor, and so on. 18:44 But the whole point is where your denomination or 18:49 organization has decided, that's the Biblical principal. 18:52 That's what you should follow. 18:53 That's what I would encourage people to do. 18:55 But we're trying to follow the Biblical model in the Adventist 18:57 church so we return our tithe. 18:59 We don't use it ourselves. 19:00 We don't send it off to the mission field. 19:01 We return it to the storehouse and the Lord's leaders can 19:05 decide what to do with it; what's the best use of it 19:07 at that point. 19:08 Okay, now that brings up another point though. 19:10 When you say the Lord's leaders can determine what's the best 19:14 use of it. 19:15 I've heard people say, I don't like the way the tithe's 19:17 being used. 19:18 Yeah. 19:19 But we still, it doesn't matter, our duty is to return it. 19:24 It's God's tithe so that's between God and His leaders. 19:28 That's exactly right, and beyond that it's very serious. 19:31 We really hate to even go in there, but the fact is the use 19:35 of the tithe by the leaders is their responsibility to God 19:39 in that area, too, but it's not my responsibility unless I'm one 19:43 of those people. 19:44 Do you see? 19:45 Yes. 19:46 So I return to the Lord and God says you've done what I've 19:47 asked you to do. 19:48 Then there's an accountability beyond that between the leaders 19:51 and God to use it wisely. 19:53 I mean, you know, embezzling it, or there's many, many things 19:56 that we could say about it, but we don't want to second 19:59 guess each other, you know, in every little dime and nickel 20:02 about it. 20:03 But the fact is we would like to see it used wisely, 20:06 and in fact we are encouraged to contact the leaders if we feel 20:09 it isn't being used wisely, but not to withhold it. 20:12 Okay. 20:13 Now let me come back to calculating the tithe. 20:15 I have a dear friend who owns her own business. 20:19 Let me say it this way, if you are employed by another 20:24 it's easy to calculate the tenth of your gross income. 20:27 If you're doing a salary or by the hour it's very easy, yes. 20:31 Very easy, but now my friend, what she was doing was whatever 20:36 money her business brought in she was paying a tenth 20:38 of that out. 20:39 I sat down with her and explained, No, you're to pay, 20:42 being self employed, God has only asked you to pay a tenth 20:47 of the increase. 20:49 So this would be not your gross profit, but minus the cost 20:54 of goods. 20:55 So it would be on your net profit. 20:56 Am I answering her correctly? 20:59 Yes, I would say that in many businesses they're happy if they 21:02 have an eight percent profit margin. 21:04 You couldn't tithe on one hundred percent or you would 21:06 go out of business. 21:08 Right. 21:09 So I have a real simple formula that I tell people. 21:10 This is a common question, one that deserves a good answer. 21:14 But it's a simple answer, and it's like this: If I'm in 21:17 business for myself, and let's just say that I take out $50,000 21:21 a year to live on as living expenses. 21:24 Obviously at the time I receive it I'll pay tithe on 21:26 that portion. 21:27 But let's just say that at the end of the year when I do my 21:30 taxes that I actually made $70,000 profit on my business, 21:33 and my business transactions. 21:35 Let's just say I'm a farmer. 21:37 After I've paid for my fuel, fertilizer, seed, and the help 21:41 that I've had, and so on, so that my net profit is $70,000. 21:45 Well, I've already taken $50,000 of that to live on. 21:48 So then I would only have a business tithe on the $20,000 21:52 remaining that I hadn't tithed before. 21:54 So it's pretty simple. 21:55 In other words your net profit would be the portion that 21:59 you would pay taxes on typically. 22:01 Now it is possible, sometimes I've had people say, Well, 22:04 you know I didn't make any money last year so I didn't tithe. 22:06 But I would say, Well, how did you eat? 22:08 Do you understand? 22:10 The fact is unless you took it out of savings that's already 22:14 been tithed; if I have money that I take, maybe there 22:17 wouldn't be a net profit in the business side. 22:19 But if I take money out for living expenses I should tithe 22:21 that portion. 22:22 And another thing is we always need to remember that God 22:25 doesn't need the money. 22:26 He really wants to know where is our heart in all of this. 22:28 So if I'm trying to do my best by God surely He will make a 22:33 providential way for me to understand it. 22:35 You know, you can actually be to the point where you're not 22:38 taking money out for eating, because I know when J. D. and I 22:40 first married we had a business partner, and I won't go 22:42 into that, but we ended with $250,000 of debt. 22:48 When we married that's how far our business debt was. 22:52 Now we were making good money, but it was all going to that 22:56 business debt in the same business. 22:58 Basically if it hadn't been for credit cards we would 23:01 not have existed. 23:02 So we were not tithing. 23:04 But I will say this, I was taking out $100 a month 23:06 You couldn't put your groceries on a credit card at that time. 23:12 So I'd take $100 a month out, living in Dallas, Texas, 23:15 and we were living for groceries, for hair supplies, 23:21 for personal items, on that $100 a month. 23:24 I sat down with J. D. as we were working out our plan to get out 23:28 of debt. 23:29 I sat down with him and I said, Honey, I just really feel like 23:33 the Lord's speaking to me that we need to be giving 23:35 to His work. 23:36 We made Him a covenant to give Him $100 a month. 23:39 That's all we had to live on. 23:41 I cannot explain to you, nor can I explain to our audience, 23:45 but the Malachi 3 principle came into play because we started 23:50 giving that money, and all of a sudden, at the end of the year 23:55 I'm trying to figure out why we were so much better off 23:59 than we had been because our business income was basically 24:02 the same, but God gave us such favor in so many ways that when 24:07 we started giving it was coming back to us in so many different 24:10 ways that we never noticed. 24:12 I mean it wasn't like we were left without, we actually 24:16 were benefiting. 24:17 Let me just say in response to your story, which I think 24:20 God has blessed you and there's no question. 24:22 You feel it yourself. 24:23 Absolutely! 24:24 In the Bible, or in the practice of our church, for example, 24:27 we never ask people to turn in your W2 forms, your 1040 forms 24:31 or whatever. 24:32 That's between you and God. 24:33 We just teach the Biblical principles and the people 24:37 apply them. 24:38 But if I knew that I was making a profit and I wasn't tithing 24:41 there would be a serious problem. 24:43 You understand? 24:44 So the whole point is God allows us individually to be 24:46 responsible, and so on, but we could make up all kinds of 24:51 excuses to why we're not faithful. 24:53 Well, we need new this, we need new that, or whatever. 24:55 Do you see what I'm saying? 24:56 But the bottom line is God is looking for faithful people 24:59 because that's what it's going to take to be saved at the end. 25:01 I want to give you a couple of New Testament verses 25:05 because that's one of the questions that people have 25:07 and that is did it really apply? 25:09 Remember the Old Testament model is that everyone tithes 25:13 for support of the ministry. 25:14 Well, in the New Testament Jesus, of course, as you said, 25:17 commended tithing. 25:19 That's in two places, Matthew 23 where He was giving the woes 25:23 and the Pharisees, and then said all these bad things. 25:25 Then you're even so persnickety and particular that you're 25:29 tithing these little herbs. 25:31 Then He said, You ought to keep doing that, but don't leave 25:34 these other matters undone; the justice and so on. 25:36 When Luke talks about it in the synoptic gospel of Luke 11:42 25:43 he talks about, Don't leave the other undone also. 25:46 And then, amazingly, the Apostle Paul uses the same Old Testament 25:51 model that those who work in the gospel should live of the gospel 25:54 and a workman is worthy of his hire, and so on, 25:57 obviously harking back to the same principle that we've talked 26:00 about from the Old Testament. 26:01 Do you see what I'm saying? 26:02 So the principles are there, and since the Old Testament was 26:06 the Bible of Jesus and the disciples there wasn't any 26:09 reason for them to have to reinvent it and put everything 26:11 over into the New Testament... 26:13 Exactly. 26:14 because we have the Bible as a whole. 26:15 Exactly, and Paul said that the word of God was all inspired 26:19 by Him, written for our instruction... 26:21 True. 26:22 ...and for our edification. 26:23 You know, we only have just about a minute left, so I know 26:26 I'm not going to get to hear these wonderful stories, 26:28 but as a financial planner, have you not seen people who 26:33 began tithing and then they said, It doesn't add up. 26:36 A CPA couldn't explain it, but we are blessed in our finances 26:39 because of this. 26:40 We asked people several years ago to send us stories of 26:44 God's blessing and providence in their life. 26:47 We got 150 stories in. 26:49 They were so awesome they would bring tears to your eyes. 26:51 We printed them in a little book called Over and Over Again. 26:53 Well, when people started reading that book they said, 26:56 Well, you should hear what God did for our family, 26:57 so we got 150 more spontaneously and we've written two books, 27:01 volume 1 and volume 2. 27:02 I mean the incredible things that God has done. 27:04 I could tell you stories; you could tell me stories 27:06 of what God has done for your family. 27:08 There's Biblical evidence, and there's antidotal evidence, 27:12 that the principles are correct. 27:13 Amen. 27:14 Ed, thank you so much for coming today and discussing 27:17 this with us. 27:18 I know that we're going to get you to come back to do 27:20 another program. 27:21 You've been a real blessing. 27:22 Well, thank you. 27:23 It's been a blessing to be here. 27:24 This is always an interesting topic, one for which we have 27:26 good information. 27:27 Absolutely, absolutely. 27:29 I hope that you've enjoyed today, and I hope that you've 27:32 learned something. 27:33 If you're interested in getting any of Ed's books you can 27:36 actually go to the 3ABN website. 27:38 We have a link to Ed Reid's website. 27:42 Now, May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the 27:45 Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. 27:49 Test God on this tithing principle. 27:51 See what He does. 27:52 Thank you. |
Revised 2014-12-17