Perhaps the most firmly entrenched tradition of man besides having a pastor is tithing. The Holy Spirit slowly opened my eyes to the truth about tithing over many years - indeed I could not fully see and accept the truth till I left the heart of Babylon - the USA and moved to Ireland. It's interesting that tithing is perhaps the only doctrine that is universally agreed upon by all denominations.
The USA is the land that has spawned the majority of denominations and America's god is self - manifested by a love of and pursuit of money. Most churches teach that Malachi 3:8-12 along with a few other Old Testament scriptures are commandments for today's Church. Oh how these modern day church leaders love to dissect the Old Testament, picking and choosing which scriptures suit them and casting aside the ones that don't.
When God spoke through Malachi he was challenging his people Israel who, at the time were under the law given by Moses. If a Christian of today wants to claim these scriptures they must accept them in their entirety. Take Dt. 28 as an example. How often have I heard Christians claim the blessings of that chapter while ignoring the curses. The point of the chapter was to give Israel a sobering look at how seriously God takes his Covenants and how carefully they were supposed to follow his law, with blessings for obedience to the Law and curses for disobedience. If you as a Christian, a New Testament believer, a keeper of the New Covenant, want to submit to the Old Covenant, you cannot choose just one part of it, you must follow all of it. You cannot pick and choose parts of the Law of Moses to obey, the Law of Sin and Death, while ignoring the rest. You must choose either the Law of Moses or the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom:8:2).
Yes, tithing preceded the Law of Moses but when Abram (not Abraham - the old man tithed, the new man did not) tithed to Melchizedek, God was not making a law for us to follow but rather he wanted to establish Melchizedek as a type of Christ, a foreshadow, a mysterious character who is mentioned this one time in Genesis - someone the Father of our faith received a blessing from - a spiritual blessing, who Abram then blessed in return with a natural blessing. The only other mention of Melchizedek in the Old Testament is in Psalm 110:4 where God establishes his Christ as being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Order, course and lot were established under the Law of Moses as the means by which a priest would determine his job. So we see that the primary purpose of mentioning Melchizedek in the Old Testament is to establish Christ as the "High Priest" of our faith - higher even than the father of our faith, Abraham.
God does include tithing in the Law of Moses but Christian - we the redeemed, the "called out ones" , the Ecclesia of God are not under the Law of Moses but we are under the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). The Holy Spirit put it to me this way - we don not follow the law, we follow Christ, the giver of the law. By his Spirit living in us and us abiding in him, he reveals his will to us - not just in a general sense but in great detail. Long ago God taught me to do what he says, not what I think is good. I wanted to help a homeless man once and God told me to leave him alone because it had taken God many years to get him to a place of brokenness and humility.
Part two soon..
The USA is the land that has spawned the majority of denominations and America's god is self - manifested by a love of and pursuit of money. Most churches teach that Malachi 3:8-12 along with a few other Old Testament scriptures are commandments for today's Church. Oh how these modern day church leaders love to dissect the Old Testament, picking and choosing which scriptures suit them and casting aside the ones that don't.
When God spoke through Malachi he was challenging his people Israel who, at the time were under the law given by Moses. If a Christian of today wants to claim these scriptures they must accept them in their entirety. Take Dt. 28 as an example. How often have I heard Christians claim the blessings of that chapter while ignoring the curses. The point of the chapter was to give Israel a sobering look at how seriously God takes his Covenants and how carefully they were supposed to follow his law, with blessings for obedience to the Law and curses for disobedience. If you as a Christian, a New Testament believer, a keeper of the New Covenant, want to submit to the Old Covenant, you cannot choose just one part of it, you must follow all of it. You cannot pick and choose parts of the Law of Moses to obey, the Law of Sin and Death, while ignoring the rest. You must choose either the Law of Moses or the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom:8:2).
Yes, tithing preceded the Law of Moses but when Abram (not Abraham - the old man tithed, the new man did not) tithed to Melchizedek, God was not making a law for us to follow but rather he wanted to establish Melchizedek as a type of Christ, a foreshadow, a mysterious character who is mentioned this one time in Genesis - someone the Father of our faith received a blessing from - a spiritual blessing, who Abram then blessed in return with a natural blessing. The only other mention of Melchizedek in the Old Testament is in Psalm 110:4 where God establishes his Christ as being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Order, course and lot were established under the Law of Moses as the means by which a priest would determine his job. So we see that the primary purpose of mentioning Melchizedek in the Old Testament is to establish Christ as the "High Priest" of our faith - higher even than the father of our faith, Abraham.
God does include tithing in the Law of Moses but Christian - we the redeemed, the "called out ones" , the Ecclesia of God are not under the Law of Moses but we are under the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). The Holy Spirit put it to me this way - we don not follow the law, we follow Christ, the giver of the law. By his Spirit living in us and us abiding in him, he reveals his will to us - not just in a general sense but in great detail. Long ago God taught me to do what he says, not what I think is good. I wanted to help a homeless man once and God told me to leave him alone because it had taken God many years to get him to a place of brokenness and humility.
Part two soon..
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