Study: Few Born Agains Tithe to Churches

dawilson8655 »

Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:14 am Agree: 5   Disagree: 3

Has anyone read "Pagan Christianity" that Barna co-wrote with the original author, Frank Viola? It touches on this a bit.

However, I want to make two points, but first my stance: I can not reason from Scripture that the tithe is New Testament. However, collecting money for those in need in the church (i.e. - Paul's collection of monies to help support the church in Jerusalem during the famine).

First, the tithe as we know it did not originate from the OT. It came from the Roman land tax. The Catholic church later reinforced the idea by claiming that the OT supported it. So Christians do not have to "tithe", instead they should support those in need primarily within the church and then outside of of the body to show Christ to the world.

Second, I do believe that IF you "joined a church" (I won't talk about how strange that would be to say to the NT church, among other phrases!) and were told beforehand that "membership" meant that you are required to tithe, then you have an obligation to tithe because you accepted that clause. (And yes, I have personally experienced this.)