This is a slam-dunk, you all. Praise God!
And bless you, Russell Kelly!!!
May we be obedient and get it right — finally.
Phew!
Jeff : )
From: About the Author
Although legally blind since 1989, Russell subsequently completed a Th. M.. and a Ph. D. at independent Baptist-oriented Covington Theological Seminary in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia in August 2000. His dissertation was on the subject of tithing. From that dissertation came his first book, Should the Church Teach Tithing? A Theologian’s Conclusions about a Taboo Doctrine.
Russell lists all 19 points here (scroll down for article)
From: Russell Kelly’s Articles on Tithing
1873: TITHING FIRST SUGGESTED IN THE U.S.A.
BUY THIS BOOK AND 2-HOUR $10.00 DVD
CBS NEWS TRANSCRIPT ON TITHING
CONTEMPORARY JEWISH TITHING CONCEPT
MALACHI 3:10 HAS BEEN MISINTERPRETED; RNS
OPPOSITION TO TITHING GROWS; RNS
PREACHERS SPEAK OUT FOR GRACE-GIVING ONLY
RICH PREACHERS WHO TEACH TITHING
SEARCHING FOR A GRACE-GIVING CHURCH
SIX MOST QUOTED PRO-TITHING LIES
TITHING PRINCIPLES FOR TITHE-TEACHING CHURCHES
WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE BACKLASH AGAINST TITHING
WALL STREET JOURNAL; RUSSELL EARL KELLY
WEB SITES WHICH DISCUSS THIS BOOK
WIDOW’S MITE NOT TITHING EXAMPLE
Related: All of my Tithing or Spirit-led posts, which includes: The Day that Tithing Ended—To Now Be Led By the Holy Spirit
Russel is fighting against the devil and the doctrines of men. The clear call of the New Testament giver is to give to the poor, to build treasure in heaven. This is a salvation level issue. Jesus rejected those who failed to give to the poor and hungry. Today’s fallen churches rely on the extortion of God’s Flock. See God’s Church Or Man’s Substitute:
http://thebigpictureministry.htohananet.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/10/3787575.html
I pray you can seek the Lord in this. Such an obvious truth can no longer be hidden from those truly seeking God and Seeking Jesus, The Way, The Truth, and The Light!
God Bless
Glenn
Comment by Glenn — July 23, 2008 @ 6:42 pm
Glenn,
What you say reminds me of what Irenaeus said in “Against Heresies,” chapter XIII.3, written about 180 AD.
I’ve considered this quote very interesting because Irenaeus refers to the clear distinctions that Jesus made between the Old and New Covenants, indicating that tithing has clearly been superseded, now that we have the Holy Spirit in us to help us decide what to do with our money.
But regarding how church leaders should now be funded: Paul decided to support himself. But there is some precedent in the New Testament for truly Biblically qualified [few really are today. See Tit. 1 with Gal. 5:22-23] and truly called-by-God-to-be leaders to be supported by believers in some cases. So they can totally devote their time to ministering and to prayer, for example.
Each person in the congregation should determine in their hearts, being led by the Holy Spirit as to how much to give—or even if to give.
The 10% figure shouldn’t even be mentioned as being a factor at all. “This is sin” to teach that this part of the old covenant law is still in effect.
And this is one of the main reasons why churches are mostly spiritually dead. The money comes in no matter what, and the people aren’t being taught to be led by the Holy Spirit, by what seems right in their hearts—as Paul taught. And according to Paul, being led by the Holy Spirit is a requirement to truly be a child of God:
Jeff Fenske
Comment by Jeff Fenske — July 25, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
lol you seem pretty exited about keeping more money!
I believe tithing is still a command and still relevant
Comment by Robby — February 25, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
Robby,
You have a right to believe and do whatever, but is it biblical? The goal is to be led by the Holy Spirit, building living churches with Christ as Head.
Tithing (old covenant law that Paul warned us about) is a death warrant for most churches. Sure, the doors may still be open, but where is God? Show me one living church—just one in America.
We must be led by the Spirit, then churches will live.
Pastors, everywhere, should repent for teaching the old covenant law to the people who trust them to teach truth that will give them life. Teaching tithing sets people and churches up for a fall.
I was taught in Bible school: “It’s better to fall on the Rock than for the Rock to fall on you.”
There’s nothing fun about this. This is a TRAGEDY! Tithing is one of the doctrines that has killed the church.
There is a better way.
Jeff
Comment by Jeff Fenske — March 3, 2009 @ 3:09 am
I’ve been taught about GOD all of my life and I’m learning more about him now than I ever have. I was always taught to tithe. I’m amazed at how much I’m learning now that I’ve stopped attending physical church buildings and lisening to one person but, conducting research on my own.
Comment by Crystal L Whitfield — June 18, 2009 @ 10:42 am
Crystal,
This is beautiful, but is also sad. For the church is supposed to be a place of truth and life. And this will be the place when Jesus is truly head of His church.
It is my opinion that most churches in America have become brain washing, mind-controlling institutions that are designed to keep people believing in the church’s doctrines, which too often includes tithing.
Seminaries are also designed primarily to keep the particular doctrines they believe in perpetuated. Theology classes and the textbooks are almost all biased. Investigative thought that could find error in their teachings is discouraged through many means, including what I call James-3 curses, for James discusses this phenomenon in chapter 3 of his text.
And this is one of the reasons I have categories in this site, as well as ToBeFree on people cursing people. Here it’s called “‘Christians’ Cursing People.” I put ‘Christians’ in quotes, because a person can’t be a going to heaven Christian when they control their brother through prayers that Satan answers, not God.
I think most ‘Christians’ in most USA ‘churches’ are under a kind of a spell. And in those ‘churches’ that teach tithing, the spell may even be stronger. Because people pray (James-3 curse) that the people in the ‘church’ would believe this doctrine without question.
Some ‘pastors’ even get angry when one questions this doctrine, which should be a sign that something is terribly wrong. And they can get really angry at those who could influence others to doubt this doctrine as being a false, doctrine of demons.
Churches that will do well in the last days will have leadership that are submitted to the Head, Christ Jesus. They won’t be pushing their agendas. They’ll be resting in God, Who will lead His church into unity: ‘ONE’ with each other and ‘ONE’ in Him.
Blessings to all of you who have made it out of the matrix and are finding out what is really going on, how we can become ONE in Him.
Free! And this can happen in large churches as well as small. Some think that size is the problem. I think it’s doctrine. And that size can be a good thing when the people are in God, not just following a man.
I believe I’m supposed to add: for those who believe they’ve been manipulated to accept doctrines of demons through mind-control prayers (curses), please remember to bless and not curse back. And pray FOR them. So we aren’t part of the dysfunctionality.
We can break the cycle and be free!
Jeff Fenske : )
Comment by Jeff Fenske — June 18, 2009 @ 9:28 pm