Truth About the Tithe
Today’s Focus: The Church Building: Necessity or Luxury?
Scripture: Acts 17:24,25; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
In today's church culture, the tithe is primarily being used to maintain the building, staff and pastor. Where did this all come from as it pertains to the building and maintenance and paying the staff and all of this. Where did it come from?
First, it did not come from the first century church and the reason I say this is because primarily the first century church went from home to home ministering and sharing the gospel (Acts 2:42-47). There was a steep advantage to doing it this way. For one, the church had no financial responsibilities to the government and towards a building, utilities, taxes and all of these problems that arise in our churches today. Notice throughout the majority of the entire New Testament, the apostles did not run around preaching and teaching tithing. That is very unique because that means they were focused on doing what they see the Father doing and teaching the Word of God to the nations. That is a focused purpose. Now if we look at then and now, what is the difference?
For one, in these harsh economic times we are seeing more prosperity preaching and teaching and hearing more messages about give to this to get that. This is not what Jesus taught. The focus of these leaders is to maintain their lavish lifestyle at the expense of the members. Do you notice how these popular preachers live lavish lifestyles while their members are struggling and just getting by. Some have lost their homes and their families giving to these people who have preached this foolishness. But yet they still get the support and the financial gifts from the very people they are fleecing. They buy these buildings that they know is more than they can afford but they know if they can scare the people using Malachi and Haggai into giving tithes and offerings so God can open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing. I am getting sick just typing this. Look, the first century church did not have to deal with NONE of this because when people gave, they gave cheerfully and freely and everyone had everything in common. So where did the church building concept come from? Just like most of what we know about the current church culture, Catholicism.
Constantine around 300 A.D. started to erect buildings that people can go worship their gods in the Roman Empire. Understanding the Christianity was a growing sect in the empire, Constantine had a building built for the Christians to go worship in. Now here is the twist, Constantine wanted to build a city but needed the funding to do so and so what Catholicism did was take scriptures such as Haggai and Malachi to scare the people and tell them that a curse would be put on them if they did not pay their tithes. Politicians also saw that tax money was flowing into the churches and they became "priests" to get the tithes and offerings from the people. All of this money that was collected was used by Constantine to erect a city called Constanople. This city was built off of the tithes and offerings of the people. Do we see a correlation? This trend became very popular and this started a wave of church buildings being built.
Notice it is 324 years after the Day of Pentecost is the first church building is erected. So for over 300 years the church ministered house to house. So it was Catholicism that really brought the "church building" concept to Christianity. Much of what we see in the churches came from Catholicism. Many of these prominent preachers are no different from the crooked ways of the Roman Catholic church by scaring people to give to furnish the building and the lavish lifestyle. We must get back to God and the mentality that we are the church and the temple of the Lord.
Acts 17:24-25: God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, DWELLETH NOT IN TEMPLES MADE BY HANDS; NEITHER IS WORSHIPPED WITH MEN'S HANDS, AS THOUGH HE NEEDED ANY THING, SEEING HE GIVETH TO ALL LIFE, AND BREATH AND ALL THINGS.
So we are the building that God dwells in. The building is a luxury, not a necessity. If it was a necessity God would have told us, but He tells us about His temple and how it is to be maintained.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20: What? know ye not that YOUR BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY, AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD'S.
The church building is not where God dwells but He dwells with you. Building a building or acquiring a building is of man and so it must be funded and supported by you. It is not God's responsibility to pay the note. When you buy a car, who pays the car note? You do. You could walk! So these are luxuries. So please I am not condemning the building but we should never allow the expenses and cares of the building to interrupt or change the very gospel that we are to preach and live. Think about it this way churches pay taxes on land, the banks own the building if there is a mortgage, in order to have utilities the church must pay the utility company. See where the tithe or offering is going, to the government just like Constantine and the Roman Catholic Church which is a mixture of false god worship of the Pope who controlled government and church. So if God is shifting people to doing home ministry, what is wrong with that if that is what God started out with? We need to be very careful classifying church as people within a building instead of people being the building in which God lives in.
At Our Father’s Service
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.
