How did the Ten Percent Tithes Begin?

When I was a “New born-again Christian”, that was the first issue that I struggled with.

Like “What?  Give YOU my 10% monthly income?!!”  I felt that time, that it was some type of “extortion” tactic by a group that is posing to be a church.

Some  false teachers or false prophets or (actually rich)  pastors   are so good at quoting the Bible, specifically the verses:

“God loves a cheerful giver”

or the verse in Malachi, when God said “You are robbing me off your tithes”.  (Side note, even satan can quote the bible, so pray for God to give you “discernment” – to know and sense and SEE the difference )

I felt really guilted into parting ways with my 10% income.

In my mind, that time, was “Yeah, if I am going to part ways with 10% of my income MONTHLY, I am not cheerful about it, so would God accept my sacrifice and offer?”

Until of course, God worked and fixed my hardened heart.  (And He is still helping me fix it!)

It’s like a test.  Giving, or parting with something that is important to us (like money – we work for it, we exchange our time and skill and energy, to get money in return).

God wants to be FIRST.

If MONEY is first, then it is money that IS our god, and not God.

Money is a tool.  Just a tool.  Not a god.

Money is also a “magnifier”.

It magnifies who a person is.  One can appear to be a good poor person.  And if God blesses that person with riches and money?  And that person became a bad person because of money?  Well, that person wasn’t a good person to begin with, and MONEY simply showed who he really is.

A person’s generosity shines when he gives from his heart “cheerfully” into what God has directed that person to give to (take note, “what God” and not “what pastor” or “what guru” or “what other salesman” or “app” has directed.  And if you are seeing “advertisements” that seem to be following you around your internet browser, that doesn’t mean God is speaking to you to donate, it just means that that organization’s advertising spend is being used to pay to add “trackers” called “pixels” or cookies, so it get’s sneakily put in your device, when you visit their website).

God wants us to help, yes, and to help and not broadcasting it.  For then, we would have received our rewards in full.  Most people ALSO give and donate to charities, because it is “tax-deductible”.  So, yes, those people have also received their reward in full – through the tax deduction.  🙂

So how do we help?

Like the story Jesus told about the Good Samaritan.  God Himself will direct you where to give help to, and often, it is NOT just about monetary help. In that story, the Good Samaritan did whatever it took to help the man.  From cleaning the wounds, to carrying the man, and housing that man in an inn, and paying the innkeeper to take care of the man, and shouldering the other expenses.

Helping takes many forms.  Not just monetarily.

How did the Ten Percent Tithes Begin? 

It’s in the story of Joseph – in the Book of Genesis:

23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

24 And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s. – Genesis 47:1-31

It started because of the famine, that there came a time when money couldn’t serve as payment for food or seeds, so people started to barter, bought food in exchange of cattle, and when they ran out, they exchanged their land, for food, or seeds.

So Joseph instructed those who got “seeds” to make sure they give 20%, or a fifth, of their produce back to Pharaoh (which was their form of government at that time, it was like taxation, these days, we give about 30% of our income to governments, so that’s where it all began, as I’ve learned in the Scripture).

And what about the verse in Malachi that people who want to get your 10% income quote so much?

8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:8-10)

But YOU have to read and study it in it’s context! Read the whole chapter! So we can understand what God said! And what He meant! Here’s the full chapter 3:

1 Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

2 But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

3 And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

6 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.

17 And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” (Malachi 3:1-18)

And if you want to understand more, the Book of Malachi is composed of  only four (4) chapters, it starts with Malachi, writing:

1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

This book of Malachi is a mighty strong rebuke by God, as written by Malachi.  However, the next chapter 2, begins with:

2 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

And yet pastors seem to leave that “quote out”.

My struggle in trying to understand this before, much as I had so many “spiritual questions”, and I tithed, and gave away my hard earned money to a church, or different churches I went to, and yet found NO REAL SHEPHERDING that I needed.

Jesus commanded that to His Disciples, to “shepherd the sheep.”

I felt like a lost sheep.  I needed answers to the most basic spiritual questions.  And so in that search, God, who knows our hearts, can reveal these things and give us clarity.

It took me to embark on this bible app project that I am helping myself too, see the GLARING and basic truth that is not really hidden from us, it was there all along, we just didn’t notice it.

We had / have too much on our plate.

But we all seem to forget “Who Holds THAT plate” called “life on this earth”.

So should we give 10% to a church?

First you have to pray and make sure that you are giving to God’s TRUE church.  And just so you know, churches that are not worshiping the One True God, is satan’s church.   And that’s the plain simple truth.

You are better off saving your 10% money in a high yield savings account, and THEN when God Himself tells your heart to help someone else, like what Jesus taught in the Good Samaritan parable, then your giving will be in the “giving cheerfully” mode, that God wants.  And giving in secret, helping someone in secret, without announcing it to the world, is what God wants, too, and it is then you can store “treasures”, and I call it “brownie points” in heaven.

When we “delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our hearts. ”

If it’s a wrong desire, He changes our hearts,  He leads us elsewhere.

“Trust in the Lord with all your might and lean not on your own understanding, and in ALL of your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

It is much too obvious for me now to “discern” how God’s words are “used by so-called churches” to monetize and enrich the “so-called church leaders and staff”.

A lot of these mega churches now have apps too, that monitor “who donates” “or gives”.

There are bad I.T. people out there who can abuse their accesses to a database of people who are “looking for God” or “looking for fellowship”.  I’ve been victimized by those too, and like what I wrote to a friend of mine:

We go through struggles in this life, but everything happens because God allowed it to happen.  It went through His permissive Will.  And He can turn it for our good and will help us THROUGH it, and not just get stuck IN it.

Our life’s mission can be as simple as answering a question, whose pain do we feel?

What struggles did God help you with?  Help another person with it, by pointing them to the One True God who helped you OUT of it.

So if you are stuck in a “so-called church” trap, giving them your hard earned money, PRAY ABOUT IT, God does not want His children deceived, and you wouldn’t want your money funding satan’s church without you being aware right?  Pray for discernment, pray for guidance.

And when you are feeling STUCK in a church, doing something and getting guilted into doing something that you feel in your gut is wrong – you are always FREE to walk away.

Whoever Jesus’ frees is free indeed!

Get out of that “so-called church” because it is just a cult, with the leader as its god. Not GOD.

A church is not a building.

Jesus said, when two or more are gathered in His Name, He is in the midst of them.

There are still other Followers of Christ who seek true fellowship.  Not those who will try and “monetize” you or pitching you to join their MLM.  🙂