Reviews, Interviews, News, Commentaries, Excerpts, My Top 5 Books, Wilson's Bookmarks, Book Awards'Tithing' by Douglas LeBlanc
Tithing: Test Me in This (Ancient Practices)
Leblanc, Douglas
Thomas Nelson
February 16, 2010
176 pp., $13.16
The ministry known as empty tomb, inc., is based in a modestly sized office building within walking distance of the University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign. Founders John and Sylvia Ronsvalle describe it as a Christian research and service organization. That's an understatement on the order of saying the Salvation Army occasionally helps a homeless person.
For reporters writing stories about the state of giving in churches, empty tomb is the go-to think tank. The Ronsvalles crunch statistics so vigorously that in 2010 they will publish the 20th edition of The State of Church Giving, a challenging report of nearly 200 pages. They praise whatever progress they find, such as the decision of Francis Chan's Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, to devote half its budget to missions. They also catalog how little priority most churches give to worldwide evangelism or to fighting preventable childhood deaths in developing nations.
The Ronsvalles decided early on in their married years that they would tithe. "We were poor when we started," Sylvia said. "We had two rooms to live in and $75 a month in food stamps." They now tithe not only on all the donations they receive but also on the value of their medical coverage. John understands Matthew 23:23 as Jesus' implicit affirmation of the tithe as the starting point for a person concerned with righteousness.
After so many years of studying the world's needs and the church's poor giving patterns, the Ronsvalles struggle to reconcile the two. John said they sometimes think of Christians as two figures from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy: the slow-moving Ents and Theoden, the king who spends much of the narrative in an enchanted stupor.
"It's like people in this country are under the influence of drugs, and it is the drug of affluence," Sylvia said. She cited Jacques Ellul's observation, in Money and Power, that Jesus speaks of mammon as a personal being in Matthew 6. "Mammon is competing for your soul with God. The church in the United States, with all the blessings we've had, can lay those resources at God's feet or can be consumed by them and become like Theoden, become like the Ents, become drugged. It would take visionary moral leadership to wake people up."
For the Ronsvalles, tithing is not only a matter of obeying God. It is also a conscious way to resist the self-worship that accompanies greed and stinginess. In one essay they have published online, the Ronsvalles quote a fellow Christian as asking them, "If I'm not trusting God with my money, am I really trusting him with my eternal salvation?"
Reprinted by permission, Thomas Nelson, © 2009, all rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
Tithing: Test Me in This is available at ChristianBook.com and other book retailers.
Other articles on charities and giving include:
Scrooge Lives! | Why we're not putting more in the offering plate. And what we can do about it. (December 5, 2008)
Some Boats Stay Afloat | An economic downturn isn't always bad news for giving. (December 5, 2008)
Church Giving Outlook: You've Got Some Time | Research shows that members' contributions stay steady through first years of recession. (October 16, 2008)
Grieving with the Good Friday God
La complejidad hispana: Todo cambió en el 2012
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GLS
It's not only that tithing can't be shown to be a mandated for the Christian, the problem is that the people who do tithe, most of them don't do so in a manner that would help any of the issues the Ronsvalle's talk about. They don't give to the poor, to developing nations or even to missions. They have been told by their pastors that the "local" church is the storehouse. Ask the Ronsvalle's for this number: the average amount of local church revenue that goes to missions and the poor? Even if it is 10% which is high, that means that about 90% of tithe money goes strictly for upkeep on buildings and church employees, including shepherds. If tithers are comfortable that lawn-care, cars, electric bils and the pastors wardrobe are "kingdom" expenses, then God bless 'em.
William Simpson
The Tithe, The great deception of modern evangelical Christianity. Nowhere in the New Testament writings of Scripture, is tithing a command. If you would ever take the time to research the history of the tithe, you will discover it was a tax paid by the people to the Levitical Priesthood, who were the theocratic government of Israel at that time. The tithe was used to provide the needs of the priesthood and for the welfare of people. There were two different tithes given each year and a third tithe was required every third year totaling not ten percent, but nearly thirty percent, much like this nation’s tax system. Yet the majority of people in these churches happily throw their hard earned money at the feet of slick charlatans. Who have studied Scripture well enough to know what verses they can use to manipulate spiritually dumb people into believing their money is needed by God. Read the Bible for yourself the learn the truth...
Tired of Bible Illiteracy
The reason so many people do not realize when Scriptures are being misapplied or taken out of context is because most Christians are Bible Illiterate. They seldom crack open the Bible on their own, when they do they pick out a verse here and there without going back to the first mention principal. If you think this is a stereotype and not the truth then take a poll among your group at Church and see how few have actually read the bible from cover to cover starting at Genesis and ending at Revelation. This laziness & slothfulness has to stop or many more people will be wide open for false doctrines like the false teaching that God will curse you for not paying him the tithe. Most Christians have no idea what paid in full or what all was given to us by Jesus at His Cross. Christians also do not fully realize they are trying to pay God by money & works for Favor that Jesus gave at the Cross for free!