Pages

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Rebuttal to Steven Britt on Tithing-1

Steven Britt: Typically, if someone were trying to persuade you not to tithe, you would undergo a barrage of the following points all mixed together with no distinction between what argument the person is actually trying to make.

Russell Earl Kelly: Both my comments and those of Dr. David Croteau are very neatly laid out in our PHD dissertations. And many top theologians including Martin Luther agree.

Steven: It can seem overwhelming if you’ve not heard the arguments before – which is why they present it in that way: to confuse you so that you can’t stop and really scrutinize any one argument.

Russ: So you begin the discussion by being dishonest. Nice. I seriously doubt that you will continue this dialog very long.

Steven: 1. The practice of tithing for Christians is no longer valid because it is part of the Old Covenant law, which is no longer valid.

Russ: In fact the Old Covenant law was never commanded to Gentiles or to the Church. As a Gentile I never was under the Old Covenant law.

Steven: Some people make an even more specific assertion than this – they claim that Hebrews 7 is not invalidating the law, but specifically invalidating tithe.

Russ: There are many texts where the entire Old Covenant law has been replaced by better New Covenant principles such as Heb 8:8-13 and Romans 7:4 and 10:4.
I teach that Hebrews 7 very specifically invalidates all of the law which specifically deals with the establishment and sustenance of the Aaronic priesthood as in 7:5, 12 and 7:18.

Steven: As many of my readers know, I believe that NONE of the law of God has ever been “done away.”

Russ: You must be sitting on the moon. No major denomination teaches this, including the most ardent pro-tithers. Do you kill your children when they strike or curse you? Do you send your wife out of the house for one week a month? I doubt that you will give us your working consistent definition of what you mean by the word “law.” I will ask for this in every post.

Steven: 2. Ministers in any modern church are not qualified to receive any kind of tithe because only the Levites could receive the tithe in the Old Covenant.

Russ: The true biblical HOLY tithe was only HOLY if it came off God’s HOLY land and from that food which God had miraculously increased. And those who received the Levitical tithe were not allowed to own or inherit property. If you are going to teach that the whole law is valid for Christians, then you must obey all of it and not pick and choose. You must also teach 23%.

Steven: 3. Some actually take this argument a step further and claimed that tithe would only apply to a farmer in Israel –

Russ: Yes, and we have 16 texts to verify this while you have zero texts to define your holy tithe. It is done by literally interpreting the Bible by somebody on earth, and not on the moon.

Steven: therefore, no one in America (or anywhere other than Israel) would have any need to pay tithe at all, even if they were a farmer.

Russ: True. Again, it was only a HOLY tithe when God miraculously gave the increased from inside His holy land. Explain that.

Steven: As you can see, the anti-tithers have constructed attacks at every level of the practice.

Note: Steven Britt is "boldly" attacking those who disagree with him about tithing, but is blocking contrary comments.
He is afraid of something.


Russ: Anti-tithers literally interpret the Word of God.

Steven: 1. There is no scriptural evidence that Jesus, Peter, or Paul ever tithed, and there is no instruction to tithe given after Christ’s death. Some will even be so bold as to even say that “Jesus never tithed.”

Russ: I cannot wait to hear your silly answers. Please hurry.

Steven: 2. Feel free to comment with other categories of anti-tithing arguments that you may have heard, and stay tuned for the upcoming rebuttals of these issues!

Russ: My web site receives over 250 hits per day. It contains a 21 point essay on page one and my 288 page book on the left hand column, plus over 200 other articles. Feel free to attempt to rebut it. Better heads than you have failed.

No comments: