Thanks to those who participated in the previous post about tithing. I ended that one by indicating that I wasn't bashing giving, but that I didn't think tithing fit with a properly told Christian story. This post is meant to expand on that idea of a properly told story. Mind you, it is difficult to be brief and thorough with this stuff, so please forgive me if some of it appears to be a caricature.
Most Evangelical Christians, and many Christians who are not Evangelical (but since I grew up Evangelical, it is the sub-culture with which I am most familiar) tell the following story: God (in three persons) is holy and just and all-loving. Mankind was created with the intent of relationship with God which has been destroyed as a consequence of sin (which God cannot tolerate because of his holiness and justice). God chose Israel as a special people so that he could eventually be incarnated as a Jewish person who would then bare the penalty of humanity's sin by dying on the cross (to satisfy God's justice and love, which demand that he both act to do something about the situation and that there be a legal substitute for humanity). As a result, those who ask God for forgiveness, who accept that Jesus is God's only way of undoing their own personal sin, are guaranteed not to go to hell (the just consequence of sin) but rather may go to heaven when they die. Some would then add, or at the rapture. The mission of the Church, then, is to get as many people as possible out of hell and into heaven before their death or Christ's return. Tithing fits uncomfortably into this story as a throwback to the Jewish laws that is necessary for promoting church mission. Sunday morning 'church' (or Saturday for SDAs) is a given and the tithe is important for perpetuating that event.
I propose that this story is only a small part of the larger story and that, because it has focused on a microcosm of the larger, it is in many points mistaken, having drawn faulty conclusions from too little data. In particular the question of tithing misses the point of who we are entirely.
But it's late and I'm tired, so tomorrow I will post a summary of what I think a more complete story sounds like. Goodnight!
1 comment:
Tithing breaks down the concept of relationship building with God. God gave us his Spirit to communicate with and help us determine how much we should give. As long as we keep reverting to the old testament laws of tithing, then we'll continue down the path that misses the mark of our relationship with God. If all we had to do was follow a law to live by, then God would have been completely satisfied with the relationship level he had with Israel and would not have put in place a new covenant.
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