Is Tithing For Today?

[Standing Firm In Christ]

Actually, they were false.  I never named a denomination in any of my posts, yet he said I was attacking all Baptist preachers. 

I also never says all preachers.

[HappyChristian]

Ok, so you never said Baptist preachers. But considering that you are IFB, it is a natural assumption that you are meaning Baptist preachers.  Now that you've corrected  that non-egregious situation, let's get back on topic and have a discussion, not a monologue.  

[Standing Firm In Christ]

Denomination has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.  From what I have studied, practically every mainstream denomination teaches the monetary tithe nowadays.... except the one that instituted the false doctrine... the Roman Catholic Church. 

At Vatican II, they ruled that offerings were to be voluntary instead of the coerced  monetary tithe that they had enjoyed and enforced for centuries.

[2bLikeJesus]

For me, giving is a demonstration of how important God and His Church is and what priority I give it in my life.  

 

Matthew 6:21 (KJV)
²¹  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

 

The only thing in my household that I allow to be a higher expenditure than my giving is my mortgage.  No other expenditure in my house is allowed to exceed what I give to God.  If I want a new truck that would cost me $400 per month, that is fine as long as I can budget in $410 per month in giving.  I do not want to face Jesus and have to explain why I treasured my truck, boat, entertainment, or even my pets (some people spend more on dog and cat food per month than they give God) more than the church.  For me this whole argument over a tithe of 10% is completely irrelevant, and should also to irrelevant to anyone who claims to love God, since I give WAY more than 10%.  I have seen God unmistakably and miraculously provide on so many occasions that I will never ever be convinced that making His work a priority in my life is not the way to go.  

 

Bro. Garry

In His will.  By His power.  For His glory. 

[Standing Firm In Christ]

So Garry, we should not speak out against the lie that "God will curse you if you don't tithe 10% of your money to the Church"? My Bible tells me we are to OBey God rather than men.

I have absolutely nothing against giving. I've pointed that out many times. But Matthew 6:21 has absolutely nothing to do with one tithing one's money. Rewards in Heaven will not be because one OBeyed a man-made command that is totally foreign to Scripture. Nor will there be loss of rewards because one did not allow himself to be coerced or deceived into handing 10% of his money to a preacher that lifts proof-texts out of their context to prove a doctrine that God never established in His Word.

[prophet1]

It seems that one of the results of the Fundamentalist Movement's Protestantization of the Baptists, was to conflate simple terms, making logical discussion impossible.

Pay a tithe- Give 10% of one's Harvest , once a year, to the Priest Tribe that has no inheritance.

Give- any possession freely offered from one person/entity to another person/entity.

The Saints are the priests, now.
The body is the new Temple.
And our care for each other's physical needs IS our method of giving.

[No Nicolaitans]

Alabama Megachurch Builds $26 Million Entertainment Center with Bowling Alley, Night Club

August 27, 2014 | Filed under: Apostasy,Life & Society,Top Stories | By: Heather Clark

 

 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A megachurch in Alabama recently held an open house to celebrate the opening of its $26 million dollar, six-dome entertainment center, which some are stating is far from biblical Christianity and the example of the early Church.

Faith Chapel Christian Center in Wylam, near Birmingham, completed the project on it 137-acre campus last year, all of which was funded by the tithes and offerings of its more than 6,400 members. The facility is located in a depressed area where a number of residents are low-income.

 

“We believe we can really meet the needs of the community,” leader Michael Moore, author of the book Rich is Not a Bad Word, told AL.com. “It will bridge people from the world to the Kingdom.”

 

According to reports, the facility features—among other amenities—a 12-lane bowling alley, a basketball court, a fitness center, a banquet hall and cafe, a teen dance club, and an adult alcohol and smoke-free night club.

 

“People may not want to come to a church, but they’ll come to a bowling alley,” Moore explained. “People have needs other than spiritual needs. There’s a need for safe, clean, uplifting, family-oriented entertainment.”

 

He said that the open house held in July served in part to announce the six-dome structure, called “The Bridge,” to the community, and to “inspire” other churches nationwide to build similar facilities.

 

“Now we want the world to know,” Moore explained. “Our church wants to be an inspiration.”

“We want kids to walk in and have a wow moment and think, ‘A church can do that?’” added spokeswoman Antoinette Mays. “We want this to be an inspiration for little kids, for other pastors to say ‘Hey, we can do his too! ‘ It’s a place where people will come and be ministered to.”

 

But not everyone is supportive of the endeavor in the context of being presented as the purpose or function of the Church. Pastor David Whitney of Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Pasadena, Maryland told Christian News Network that using entertainment to draw the lost is an unbiblical means of evangelism.

 

“I think it would be a misuse [of funds],” he commented. “Mainstream Christianity in America is already oriented at entertainment being its primary focus. … To take evangelism and to say, ‘Well, evangelism also has to be entertaining’—which it sounds like what they’re doing—that we’re not going to be able to evangelize unless we entertain them, [is a gross error].”

He said that the Church is not supposed to attempt to attract the world to come into its doors, but to go out into the world and preach the gospel—a message that is not very entertaining.

 

“That’s a mistake that’s been made for maybe a century now,” Whitney stated, noting that even Jesus and the Apostle Paul regularly took the gospel into the public square through preaching. “We are to go and tell, not to tell them to come in here and hear the message in the church [building]. The church is for the worship of God, for building up of the saints, for making disciples and training them so they can go into all the world and preach the gospel.”

 

“The gospel is an offense. The cross is called in Scripture an offense,” he said. “It’s not a message that’s going to entertain people, or a message that will be pleasant for them to hear. It’s going to convict them of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

 

Whitney outlined that if the endeavor were of a local Christian businessman, rather than turning the church into an entertainment venue, he would be more supportive of the project.

 

“I think they’ve distorted the function of the Church and the ministry of the Church that Christ has given to us,” he opined. “[The] Church is not teaching its people in a biblical worldview what the ministry of the Church is versus the ministry of the disciples that the churches are sending out into the world.”

 

“Bricks, bodies and bucks seem to be the measure most churches use of their success,” Whitney explained. “In the Scriptures, I don’t find that at all. … Contrast that with the first Church, who owned no building and often met in the catacombs. … Jesus died without any trappings of glory, power or wealth at all, and most of his followers died in a similar manner, but they were the ones who turned the wold upside down.”

 

http://christiannews.net/2014/08/27/alabama-megachurch-builds-26-million-entertainment-center-with-bowling-alley-night-club/

[DaveW]

I wonder if they have Brunswick Pinsetters?

[Standing Firm In Christ]

Wonder how many homeless were neglected in the building of this $26,000,000.00 megachurch?  How many struggling people who could have used a bag of groceries or help with a utility bill? 

God's House was never meant to be a place of entertainment, it was to be a House of Prayer. smh.

[Salyan]

What precisely is the point of an alcohol-free night club, anyways? I think even the world will laugh at them.