I just returned from video-taping 2 45 minute segments on tithing to be aired in Chicago daily for a month soon.
At the bus station I met a 40-ish gentleman whose wife was fanatic about tithing. I gave him a few scriptures and he opened his luggage to pull out a Bible which he always carries. He began looking for Timothy over and over and the FRONT of his Bible and became frustrated that he could not find Timothy.
Friends, this is a man who faithfully attends church regularly and whose wife regularly depletes their money by giving it to the church. If this is the kind of Bible knowledge we find from regular church-attendees, then what horrible kind of manipulation is being done in the name of God among the biblically ignorant?
The slums of Chicago are lined with store-front churches filled with Apostles and Prophets who are soaking the poor for everything they have. The name of God is being blasphemed and changed into a greedy God who only wants to make fat-cat Apostles and Prophets.
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Not exaclty, tithing is not meant to bind people, it is meant to bring increase! God said that he would pour out on us a blessing we would not have room enough to receive! Yes, some people do take advantage of the "prosperity" message to line their pockets, but that is just as wrong as telling people they dont have to do anything. God wants to bless His people and wants to bring them great blessings so big there is no way to contain them! Not everyone who teaches tithing is a "fat-cat apostle and prophet" some (like my father who is not a rich, fat-cat taking advatage of the congregation...if that were so he would be driving a BMW rather than an older minivan!) really do teach it wanting to help people! I am NOT speaking out of just ignorant knowlege! Growing up a PK, I have watched people who didn't tithe, who were thousands of dollars in debt and just didn't know what to do financially and certainly couldn't "afford" to tithe. I watched these people make a decision to tithe, after looking in the Word and reading what God's Word says about tithing. It was miraculous the things that happened in their life as they started tithing and being faithful to tithe. Debts were erased and their financial disasters were turned upside down and they have just watched God increase them more and more as they continue to be faithful to tithe! Those are real-life examples of God's word being put into practice, not just some theological junk based on "historical" interpretations of the scripture and "deep philisophical" understanding of the "true" meaning of the scripture... too many people spend time trying to prove why we shouldn't do something rather than living by what we KNOW we are supposed to do through the Word!
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