If you attend almost any Christian church in the United States of America today, your church is probably lying to you about money. Of all the lies being told about money in our churches, I believe the biggest one is tithing.
Let me be clear. I believe Christian leaders know the truth about tithing. This isn’t a complex or nuanced principle that’s easily misunderstood. There’s no easy way to misinterpret what the Bible says about tithing without blatantly changing God’s concise instructions.
Yet none of our churches, and I mean virtually none of them, are practicing or teaching tithing as it’s commanded in Scripture. Even if they honestly tried, it would contradict Jesus Christ and His Gospel, but we’ll get to that later. The point is, it's not possible to biblically tithe in a Christian church today, and if it was, none of our churches are even trying to align with the biblical model of tithing according to God's instructions. Therefore, I believe our churches are purposely lying about tithing in order to financially exploit the Christian Church.
Don't believe me? Well, let's read the Bible. Let's define exactly what tithing actually is according to Scripture.
But first, let's examine how the Christian Church defines tithing today.
The Modern Christian Definition of Tithing
If you were to ask almost any pastor or church leader today “what is tithing?”, you'll probably hear, “the word ‘tithe’ means a tenth, so it’s a tenth of your income that goes back to God, meaning the local church.” I’ve also heard church leaders claim tithing is for “all who love and believe in God,” and that tithing is a law or principle that's “taught all throughout the Bible.”
These are false definitions and claims regarding tithing, and none of them has anything to do with how God established tithing in Scripture. The word 'tithe' does mean 'a tenth' in Hebrew, but besides this singular fact, nothing about these claims on tithing is biblical.
So, let's see how Scripture defines tithing.
The Biblical Definition of Tithing
To find the biblical definition of tithing, there are a few places in the Old Testament that describe it clearly and fully:
Leviticus 27:30-34
Nehemiah 10:36-39; 12:44-47
Numbers 18
Deuteronomy 12; 14:22-29; 26
Please read each of these passages thoroughly. You will learn the cold, hard facts about tithing, and I can almost guarantee you’ve never heard most of them from your church. From these concise instructions and other references to tithing in Scripture, I've discovered a plethora of facts I'd never heard in my thirty years as a member of the Christian Body. For now, I want to share five of the most important ones. I'm going to focus on these five facts for the rest of this post because they clearly establish what God's command to tithe was and was not according to the Bible. They also expose the many lies we’ve been told about tithing by the Christian Church.
These five facts are:
1. Tithing was a temple ordinance of the Mosaic Law, which was to the people of Israel. It was not a Christian practice, nor does it apply to Christians today.
2. Tithes, offerings, and all other temple ordinances were commanded by God to be handled exclusively by Aaron, his descendants, and the Levitical priests.
3. The tithe consisted solely of crops and animals from the holy land of Israel, not money.
4. The first fruits of the land were separate from the tithe, and they weren't money either. Just like the tithe, they were food and animals from the holy land of Israel. The New Testament Christian Church's first fruits were Jesus Christ and His first believers.
5. The only people required to tithe were landowners and herdsmen with enough food or animals to tithe and have enough left over to provide for their households. The poor, widows, orphans, foreigners, and non-landowners were exempt from this ordinance. The poor also received a portion of the tithe and additional support through gleaning laws.
So, there’s a lot to get through here. Each of these points is extremely important in exposing the lies of tithing, which have been recklessly propagated throughout the Christian Church for centuries, and in showing the glorious truth about freedom from the law through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So let's get to it, church checkers.
Five Facts About Tithing
1. Tithing was a temple ordinance of the Mosaic Law, which was to the people of Israel. It was not a Christian practice, nor does it apply to Christians today.
Each of these facts is supported by the Scriptures I’ve cited above (and more), and a contextual, plain reading of the Old Testament Mosaic Law makes this first fact undeniably clear: Tithing was a temple ordinance of the Mosaic Law to the people of Israel. It's not a Christian practice, nor does it apply to Christians today.
The first point in this fact to recognize here is that tithing was specifically a tabernacle or temple ordinance. It wasn’t a moral commandment or a civil judgment. This is important because ordinances, commandments, and judgments each had separate and different purposes within the Mosaic Law. Christian leaders today justify preaching tithing as a moral principle or commandment which still applies because of its "generous" nature, but tithing was solely an ordinance of the temple, and besides its provisions for the poor and needy, it was devoid of anything inherently "moral" or "generous."
The purpose of the Old Covenant commandments was to “express the righteous will of God” (Ex. 20:1-26). The purpose of its judgments was to govern the social life of Israel (Ex. 21:2-24:11). The ordinances governed the religious life of Israel (Ex. 24:12-31:18). As Christians, we are not the people of Israel, we are not under the Mosaic Law's religious ordinances, and we don’t have temples or temple ordinances.
“These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.) In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them.”
- Deuteronomy 1:1-3
“These are the commands the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites.”
- Leviticus 27:34
“The rest of the people—priests, Levites, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand— all these now join their fellow Israelites the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.”
- Nehemiah 10:28-29
“The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering.”
- Numbers 18:25-26
Scripture is clear. Tithing was for the people of Israel and nowhere do we see a command from Scripture for Christians to obey a tithing ordinance. That wouldn't even make sense, because of the Gospel. Jesus made the temple and all of its rites and rituals obsolete through His eternal sacrifice on the cross. He set us free from the slavery of the Law. As Christians, we are the temple of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. We are all priests and priestesses, with Jesus Christ being our only and eternal High Priest. We fulfill the whole law by loving each other, not devouring each other through the deceptive exploitation of tithing ordinances. (See 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19-20; Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:5-9; Rev. 1:6; Heb. 4:14-15; Gal. 2-5)
There are obviously calls for generosity and cheerful giving in the New Testament, but that’s something entirely separate and different from tithing. Christian generosity is done freely and voluntarily, not under compulsion or out of obligation (See 2 Cor. 9:7).
Therefore, I believe exploitative church leaders have taken the Christian conviction to be generous and conflated it with the Old Testament temple ordinance of tithing for dishonest financial gain. And that’s besides the many other changes they make to the ordinance itself, which I believe they also do for the same financially exploitative reason.
Of course, just because the New Testament doesn’t teach something explicitly doesn’t mean we can’t draw reasonable conclusions based on the whole of Scripture. Is expecting Christians to obey a Mosaic temple ordinance reasonable though? I don’t think so. As I said, Jesus made temple ordinances obsolete and fulfilled them, along with the Law on the cross. We don’t have, temples, animal sacrifices, or temple ordinances, and that includes tithing. So why on God’s green Earth would we try to re-institute slavery to written laws like tithing when Jesus has set us free? (See Ephesians 2:14-16; Colossians 2:13-17; Hebrews 7-8; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Galatians 5:1; Luke 4:18)
While some churches admit tithing is a part of the Old Testament and give lip service to its lack of applicability to Christians today, they follow that up with a list of excuses for why we should still “tithe” out of the goodness of our hearts. This attitude either purposely or ignorantly avoids the fact that we've always had freewill offerings, even in the Old Covenant, which are specifically given out of the goodness of peoples' hearts. At no point have I ever heard a Christian pastor address these facts about tithing, including this first one, which has nothing to do with being a generous Christian at all, and everything to do with practicing temple ordinances under the Mosaic Law.
So here, I believe we've clearly established that tithing was a temple ordinance in the Mosaic Law to the people of Israel, not to Christians. A temple ordinance doesn't make biblical sense for Christians, who are the temple of God themselves, have Jesus Christ as their only and eternal high priest, and fulfill the whole Law simply by loving God and loving each other.
With this first fact about tithing in mind, let's move on to the next one, which shows us exactly how and why following God’s Law as He instructed is essential for those who insist on keeping it.
2. Tithes, offerings, and all other temple ordinances were commanded by God to be handled exclusively by Aaron, his descendants, and the Levitical priests.
Scripture is clear that the people of Israel were to follow God's Law exactly as He instructed, or they would face fatal consequences. If anyone besides Aaron, his family, or the Levites even went near the tabernacle, they would die.
“The Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting. From now on the Israelites must not go near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die.”
- Numbers 18:20-22
Pretending these prerequisites in the tithing ordinance don't exist is to disregard God's Law and twist it for dishonest gain. If we change or re-establish any part of God's Law, ignoring the New Covenant we’re under as Christians, we reject Jesus Christ and His Law. If we believe the Gospel, we don't rebuild the temple and pay all the debts Jesus already paid. It's an insult and a rejection of His resurrection to claim the temple or anything that relates to it is still necessary in any regard. Jesus nailed it all to the cross.
But hey, if you want to tithe according to the Mosaic Law because Jesus didn’t fulfill that specific ordinance or destroy the temple it necessitates, then go ahead. If you don't think the Holy Spirit and the loving principle of free will giving are enough on their own, go ahead and enslave yourself. If you're going to obey the Old Covenant Law, however, make sure you’re tithing to the right people in the right places and obeying God's Law right down to the letter. The right people are not the leaders of your Christian church and the right place isn't the local Christian church building. Israel is the place and the Aaronic and Levitical priests are the people. To dismiss these specifics as irrelevant or unimportant is to dismiss and disrespect God's Law as He established it.
“For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
- Malachi 2:7-9
“You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
“You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”
- Malachi 2:7-9
Now that we’ve established tithing was a temple ordinance of the Mosaic law to the people of Israel and not to Christians, that it’s not a Christian practice because of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, and that it was strictly to be handled by the Aaronic and Levitical priests of Israel, let’s move on to the next fact about tithing.
Hold onto your hats, church checkers, because this one is a doozy.
3. The tithe consisted solely of crops and animals from the holy land of Israel, not money.
Finding out that biblical tithing wasn’t money was the highlight of my research on this topic. As you may have already noticed by reading the passages on tithing for yourself, it was the food and animals from the holy land of Israel given to the tribe of Aaron and the Levites for their consumption. Not money. Like God's instructions for tithes to be handled exclusively by the Aaronic and Levitical priests, His instructions on the contents of the tithe are just as important.
Of every description of the tithing ordinance in the Old Testament, and even in the New Testament references to tithing, not a single one includes money. Although there were exceptional circumstances that allowed for the exchange of tithes with money, the source of the tithe from the people of Israel was never money. God commanded the tithe to come from the increase of the holy land of Israel. Only food or animals from within the land of Israel were holy and consecrated by God and therefore acceptable as tithes. (Lev. 27:30; Deut. 12:17, 14:22-23; 2 Chron. 31:5-6; Neh. 10:37, 12:44, 13:5, 13:12; Mal. 3:10)
There are a few arguments exploitative church leaders use to justify ignoring this and changing the tithing ordinance to money. The first is the claim that the Israelites and early Christians didn’t have money to tithe. They were supposedly so early in human history that money didn’t exist yet, or wasn’t commonly available. Therefore, they had to tithe using animals and crops because bartering was how people made their living at the time and was a lot more accessible than money.
I believed this lie when I was a child and as a teenager when it was repeated by my Youth Pastor. All it took was a five-minute Google search, some Bible reading, and some plain logic to realize how big of a lie this is. Money existed, was easily accessible, and was essential to life in ancient Israel, even long before tithing was established in the law. In fact, money is mentioned more than seventy times in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before God's command for tithing is mentioned for the first time in Leviticus 27.
According to Scripture, people had been using money for centuries before the Hebrews entered the land of Canaan and before the tithing ordinance was written. The following passages give a few examples of how common, accessible, and essential money was to the Hebrews before God established the ordinance of tithing in Leviticus 27.
Slaves were bought with money - Genesis 17:12
Ancient Egypt only bartered with food after their money was gone - Genesis 42:35; 47:14-18
Loans were made and paid with money - Exodus 22:25
Land/Property was bought using money - Genesis 23:9
Tabernacle fees were paid with money - Exodus 30:11-16
Freewill offerings were made with money - Exodus 25:1-3; 35:5, 21-22
Services and construction costs for the tabernacle and freewill offerings were paid using money, and God commanded some of the offerings to come from money, too. If God wanted tithes to be paid with money, He would have said so, just as He did regarding freewill offerings and heave offerings. Yet He commanded the tithe to come from food and animals from the land of Israel. There is no getting around it. Despite the fact that money was accessible, common, and essential to life in ancient Israel, God commanded the tithe to come from the increase of the holy land of Israel, not their monetary income.
Another argument from dishonest church leaders in response to the fact that tithing isn't money is that Israel was an agricultural society, and most people made their living from farming. They claim God created His Law based on Israel’s agricultural lifestyle. Therefore, it’s reasonable for primarily non-agricultural societies to tithe from their salary, rather than crops or animals.
The problem with this argument is we’ve already shown that money was common and well-established as the main means of commerce in ancient Israel. We’ve also shown that money was used for freewill offerings, tabernacle fees, and other matters relating to the temple. If money was acceptable for tithing, the people of Israel would have tithed it. They didn't. God's Law instructed Israel to tithe from the increase of the land, not money.
Therefore, the fact remains, tithing isn't money and you cannot tithe money according to Scripture. If you do, you are ignoring God’s instructions and twisting His Law for the greedy and worldly interests of men. You are not worshiping or obeying God by tithing your money. In fact, you are showing partiality towards His Law. If tithing money is acceptable and applies to Christians, I believe God would have expressed that in Scripture just as He did with the people of Israel. He hasn't.
Next!
4. The first fruits of the land were separate from the tithe, and they weren't money either. Just like the tithe, they were food and animals from the holy land of Israel.
The Christian Church's first fruits were Jesus Christ and His first believers.
Another thing regarding tithing that’s been exploited for dishonest gain by abusive church leaders is the "first fruits" mentioned in the Old Testament. Contrary to what your pastor has probably told you, just like tithing, the first fruits were also instructed by God to be food and animals from within the holy land of Israel. Not money. They were the first fruits of the harvest or the first-born offspring of a herd of animals raised in the land of Israel.
“When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.”
- Deuteronomy 26:1-4
Dishonest church leaders today lie about the first fruits of the Old Testament just like they lie about tithing by claiming it’s the first/best ten percent of your salary. They conflate first fruits with tithing and claim you must give ten percent of your monetary income to the local church, but that ten percent must also be the “first” or "best" ten percent of your income.
This lie even further financially exploits Christians, especially the poor. If the tithe is the first ten percent of our salary, that means we must pay it before everything else. Before our bills and even before our financial responsibility to our family.
While the biblical first fruit offerings of the Law were more than reasonable, being separate, small, and not money (See Deut. 26:1-4; Lev. 23:17; Num. 18:13-17; 2 Chron. 31:5), the twisted lie created by exploitative church leaders today turns the first fruit offering into something much more burdensome and unreasonable. For someone living paycheck to paycheck, uncertain of whether they’ll be able to pay their rent next month, giving the first ten percent of their income to anything besides living expenses is a heavy burden. This is not a biblical teaching on first fruits, and it's devouring poor Christians who are deceived by it.
Then we have the first fruits mentioned in the New Testament, which I love. Jesus paid the temple ordinance of tithing on the cross, making it obsolete and irrelevant to Christians, but He also paid our first fruit offering. According to the New Testament, the first fruits of the Christian Church were actually Jesus Christ and the first believers after Him.
“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:20-23
"These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are celibate. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from mankind as first fruits to God and to the Lamb."
- Revelation 14:4
The truth about New Testament first fruits gives us more foundational truth about New Testament tithing. Neither is food from the land of Israel, nor are they money, nor were they ever money. Jesus and the first believers are the first fruits of the Christian Church and Jesus paid our tithing, along with all other temple ordinances and rituals, on the cross.
We are justified by the grace of God by our faith in Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit within us, and grown, just as the food and animals of the holy land of Israel, by God Himself. It’s God who gave the increase in the holy land of Israel to His people the Jews, and it's God who gives the increase in the hearts of those who belong to Him now. He does it from within us by the Holy Spirit. Just as with all other things within His beautiful Gospel, the first fruits and the tithe are paid fully and eternally through Jesus Christ.
And with this glorious truth, we arrive at our last fact regarding tithing, which might be the biggest doozy of them all.
5. The only people required to tithe were landowners and herdsmen with enough food or animals to tithe and have enough left over to provide for their households. The poor, widows, orphans, foreigners, and non-landowners were exempt from this ordinance. The poor also received a portion of the tithe and additional support through gleaning laws.
Almost as wonderful as the fact that tithes weren’t money, first fruits weren’t money, and Jesus took care of both of them for us on the cross, is the fact that Jesus didn’t tithe, and neither did most (if not all) of His disciples. They were far from the only ones, too. The poor, widows, orphans, foreigners, and those that didn’t have food or animals to tithe, such as non-landowners of different trades, were exempt from the tithing ordinance. Additionally, the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners were supported by the tithe and the gleanings of every harvest.
“When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.”
- Deuteronomy 24:19-21
“When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.”
- Deuteronomy 26:12
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’”
- Leviticus 23:22
“At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and you shall deposit it in your town. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do."
- Deuteronomy 14:28-29
“You shall not exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your strangers who are in your land in your towns. You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets—for he is poor and sets his heart on it—so that he does not cry out against you to the Lord, and it becomes a sin in you."
- Deuteronomy 24:14-15
Dishonest church leaders claim even the poorest Christians are required to tithe. This exploitative and burdensome lie goes against God’s provisions for the poor, which are all throughout Scripture, but especially in His tithing and gleaning laws to the people of Israel.
Despite what many Christian churches claim, tithing isn’t for all Christians in any regard, but even in the Law, it wasn’t for all Israelites either. As you can see from the Scriptures above, God instructed tithers to support the poor not only through the poor tithe but also through the gleanings of their harvest.
The provisions we see for the poor in Scripture are in direct opposition to what we hear in our local churches today. God rebukes and condemns the exploitation of the poor all throughout Scripture. Yet, many church leaders would have us believe even the poorest amongst us are financially responsible for their costly buildings, six-figure salaries, and a plethora of other unnecessary and extravagant expenses.
Yeah.... no.
But back to the point at hand. How do we know Jesus, His parents, and His disciples didn't tithe? Well, Jesus was a carpenter, and so was Joseph. Jesus' disciples were mostly fishermen. This means none of them had the land or herds necessary to tithe. In fact, it wasn't just their occupations that exempted them from tithing. They also benefited from it through the poor tithe and the gleaning laws described in Leviticus 23, because they were poor. And we know they were poor because they gleaned from someone's harvest in Matthew 12.
“At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
- Matthew 12:1-2
Notice the Pharisees here weren’t rebuking Jesus and His disciples for gleaning, but for doing it on the Sabbath. This is confirmation that Jesus and His disciples were entitled to glean because they were poor. If they weren’t, the teachers of the law would have mentioned it and rebuked them for taking food from the poor, just as they rebuked the woman for “wasting” expensive perfume on Jesus that could have been sold for the poor in Matthew 26. They didn’t do that here because Jesus and His disciples were poor, and as such, were supported by God through tithing and gleaning laws.
Conclusion
So, what's the truth about tithing?
Most churches claim tithing is the first ten percent of every Christian’s salary, and that it belongs to the local church leaders, but after everything we’ve read in the Bible about tithing so far, we know that's not true.
According to the Bible, tithing was a temple ordinance in the Old Testament for the people of Israel. God instructed the tithe to come from the increase of the holy land of Israel through its crops and herds, not money. The Levitical and Aaronic priests were the only people allowed to handle the tithe, and God established it specifically for them. Nowhere do we see a command or instruction from God for the Christian Church to "tithe" anything because Jesus paid everything once and for all on the cross.
We also know the first fruits were separate from the tithe, they weren’t money either, and like the tithe, they came from the food raised and grown in the holy land of Israel. The first fruits of the New Testament were Jesus Christ Himself and the first believers. So not only did Jesus pay our tithing on the cross, but He also acted as the first fruits of the New Testament as well.
Last but not least, the poor, widowed, orphaned, foreign, and those without enough land and animals to tithe were exempt from and supported by the tithe. This included Jesus, His parents, and His disciples. The provisions God makes for the poor all throughout the Bible are clear and undeniable. The exploitation of the poor in the Christian Church today is blatant and disgraceful.
Nowhere in Scripture does God give Christians the authority to jury-rig and lie about His Mosaic Law to appease anyone's financial appetites. In fact, quite the opposite. If we're going to follow the Law rather than Christ, we must follow all of it and we must follow it according to Scripture, or we break the whole law and are judged by it (James 2:10-11; Gal. 5).
These five facts about tithing are just the tip of the fraudulent iceberg, people. They are a fraction of the lies being told in our local churches about money today. When it comes to the false god of money, the lie of tithing may be the biggest one, but it's only one of countless others. I believe wolves in sheep’s clothing have deeply infiltrated the Body of Christ and are working to devour it from within like a parasitic cancer. They are the same wolves Jesus warned against, and they work to exploit, extort, and devour God’s people.
If your church isn’t preaching tithing in the ways I've described so far, then they’ve probably taken to exploiting the Christian practices of freewill offerings and generosity instead. This method of financial exploitation in the Church avoids using the term “tithing,” but still twists the Bible’s teachings on money in order to burden, exploit, and devour God’s people in the same way tithing does. While these churches may not be telling the biggest lie about money by twisting the Mosaic temple ordinance of tithing, the lies they do tell about money are just as false and just as abusive. We will cover those later.
If your church is one of the few that isn't lying about tithing, but they also don't exploit Christian generosity and freewill offerings for greedy financial gain either, then I commend them deeply, for whatever it's worth. Seriously. They are few and far between, church checkers. If you've found a church that couldn't care less about money and they're feeding you God's Word, they're worthy of double honor.
We know the truth about tithing, so let's stop feeding the wolves. Support churches that tell the truth about tithing. Walk away from those that don't. Stop supporting churches that extort and exploit the sheep to feed themselves. Jesus paid your tithing on the cross, so give freely to His sheep and the poor as He instructed. Wolves in sheep's clothing are neither.