The Tithing Parody: My Take!
By Akin Akinbodunse
Introduction:
Had a chatting on the whole “Tithing” topic on my secondary school Alma Mata’s WhatsApp Group. This was spurred by a fellow Gregorian’s sharing of a handsome boy, Reno Omokri’s take on the issue. Surprisingly, he seemed to have cherry-picked scriptures to espouse what he chose to believe on the subject. With the responses to his take, I allowed myself to be drawn into the discussion.
Below is my take.
The Truth:
Let me start by stating, “Truth is the only test of Truth.” Sincerity, handsomeness, beauty, popularity, age, etc., are no test for truth. Truth is the only test of truth. All truths are parallel. They NEVER contravene one another. Rather, they work in consonance with one another to produce even higher efficacies.
Reno Omokri’s take is, at best, shallow and lacks an understanding of the principles of biblical interpretation and history. There are basically two approaches to scripture. One can either allow the Scriptures to speak to one or use the scriptures to say what one wants to say. They might sound the same but are as different as heaven and hell, life and death, day and night.
One will bless you and gain heaven’s approval. The other, will curse you, might gain men’s temporal approval, but surely heaven’s disapproval.
The Word of God is settled in heaven and is not subject to private interpretation. The word of God is the truth. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of the Truth, the Spirit of the Word. There is no disagreement between the Father, The Son (Word), and the Spirit. We have one Father, One Son, and One Holy Spirit. The divergence of understanding stems from immaturity and levels of submissiveness and or faith.
Though a man is fallible, God is not.
The crux of the Matter:
Whether you give a tithe or not has to be based on your belief system, philosophy, accepted way of thinking and doing things. Tithing is obviously scriptural but not limited to the Christian experience. It is a natural concept or phenomenon that wands up in a covenant relationship’s principle and carriage.
Its covenant efficacy makes it have wide acceptability in the natural, self-development, and life coaching arenas. You cannot then use its daughter and or son to define its source. This is where the people crying foul miss it. The source is bigger and wider than its offspring.
Tithing will work wherever you place it and use it, for as long as you know what you are doing, and work within the boundary conditions of its underlying beliefs and philosophy.
When we use it in the life coaching arena, it serves the very purpose of breaking the hold of money over a person; creates an avenue for practicing the art of giving and giving back –for the exercise of the reason of our purpose for and of existence.
Tithing in the Church:
There is a slight modification to the above when you bring it to the local church. The Local church is not a business, though some abuse it as such, while others simply assume it.
The Local church NEEDS money to run. The question is, how does it source for these? How can it best be set up to run, and all its needs met.
We can limit our search to the early church, but that might be erroneous, in that the church was going through its teething process then. Many things were not fully in place –some not understood, others not known, or possibly needed. The emergency response was what we see in Acts 2, and that was not without its faults, including the fact it was not sustainable.
Hence, the once rich Jerusalem church became insolvent. Paul had to raise money for it from other churches. If we stay there, we will see the requirement was more of 100% than 10%. Yet we complain about the 10%.
The template for a more sustainable running of the church we take from its shadow, the temple -Judaism. The tithe’s very essence, which is God’s way to run the temple and its priesthood, we adopt. Yet, over and above that, the Israelites still gave several offerings. It can thus then be summarized that the tithe is the minimum offering a Christian gives to God. 10% is not debatable or compromise-able.
You have a choice of the church you want to attend, but you do not have a choice as to where you should tithe. It needs to be to the local assembly you so choose to worship. All these assume you are a Christian, though.
I rest.
St. Akin the Great.
