As Christians in our culture, we seem to have gotten into the habit of creating a false separation between prayer requests and praises (I’m speaking from my own experience here; your experience may be different).  In other words, we open up Sunday School with prayer time and start out with praises.  This is usually our list of things that are going “right” in our lives, or the “good” things God has given us.  Like a raise, a new house, a new job, better health, etc.  Then after we’ve finished listing our praises to God for “good” things, we start on our prayer requests, which are generally the “bad” things that we’d like God to fix in our lives.  Like unemployment, sickness, money problems, etc.

The problem is that this bifurcation reveals how we view God.  We’ve missed out on the truth that God is working all thing together for our good and His glory.  So that means that everything in our lives is meant for our good.  Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV):  “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  And James tells us in James 1: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”  So when trials, weaknesses, tribulations come into our lives, what do we do?  Praise God.  Glory in infirmities.  Count it all joy.  God is at work.

This low view of God as Santa Claus has come up lately in some discussions I’ve had on tithing (you can read some here, here (especially the comments section), and here.)  One argument that generally comes around when you discuss the Biblical view of giving with someone who believes in the tithe as a command for believers is the prosperity argument.  EnnisP, a blogger who decided to interact with some of my postings on the tithe just stooped to using this argument.  He says this in a recent post:  “You have no reason, however, to claim God’s material blessing on your life if you do not commit to this offering [the tithe].  Put Him to the test and see what happens but remember, tithing is obedient giving not sacrificial giving and the Bible teaches that God’s special blessing will be on those who obey.”  So the logic here is that if I want God’s special, material blessing on my life, I must tithe, and, of course, what he means by special, material blessing is God giving me more material things like money.

But isn’t that a complete misunderstanding of the differences between the Old and New Covenants, you ask.  Of course it is.  And what about the fact that God never actually issues a command for believers in general to tithe?  That doesn’t stop them.  And its a widespread problem.  The same people that would rail against the high profile health, wealth, and prosperity preachers on TBN and elsewhere will tell you that tithing will bring about God’s financial blessings.  And they’re armed with examples of people who didn’t think they could afford to tithe but decided to anyway and then got a raise or better job, etc.  It goes even further though.  Have you ever heard someone talk about someone who is rich and say something like, “God has just chosen to bless that guy a little more than the rest of us”?  Maybe you’ve said or thought that yourself.

But if you think about it, if you’re a believer, how can you say that God has blessed someone more?  Think about Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. . . .”  Every spiritual blessing.  This is the inheritance that Paul goes on to say that God has lavished on him.  Its so important to him (and to us) that when Paul talks about confidence in the flesh in Philippians 3, he says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”  C.S. Lewis dissected this idea well in his essay titled “The Weight of Glory“.

The promises of Scripture may very roughly be reduced to five heads. It is promised, firstly, that we shall be with Christ; secondly, that we shall be like Him; thirdly, with an enormous wealth of imagery, that we shall have “glory”; fourthly, that we shall, in some sense, be fed or feasted or entertained; and, finally, that we shall have some sort of official position in the universe—ruling cities, judging angels, being pillars of God’s  temple. The first question I ask about these promises is: “Why any of them except the first?” Can anything be added to the conception of being with Christ? For it must be true, as an old writer says, that he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.

So when we consider the riches Christ has lavished on us, chiefly our position in Him and relationship with the Father, how could we say that someone could be more blessed.  “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.”  And if everything in my life is a gracious gift of God for my benefit and His glory (even the so-called “bad” things) then why would I ask God for more money or material things.  Believe me, He may choose to give them to me and He has, but ultimately they should not be our focus.

The danger is to mistake more material things with God’s special blessing.  Poverty may be God’s special blessing in your life because you learn to trust God better.  Relationship problems may be God’s special blessing because God wants you to learn to be satisfied in Him.  Everything is God’s special blessing in your life because everything is done for your good and His glory to conform you to the image of Christ.

And when, for His good reasons not based on your performance, God decides to give you more material wealth or possessions, it is a temptation to mistake them for performance incentives.  If I get a raise or better job it could be a temptation in my life to trust in my employer rather than God.  Hence the title of this post.  Pray for me, that I wouldn’t put my trust in the wrong place.  Pray for me that I wouldn’t overly indulge myself in the things money can buy.  Pray that, like Paul, I would count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  And pray for the prosperity preachers tithe proponents, that they would learn that spiritual blessings far surpass material possessions.  And that God wants your heart, not your money, though He’ll take both.

A:  Abraham tithed regularly because God had instructed him to do so.

B:  Can you show me where it says that in the Bible?

A:  No, you have to show me where he didn’t.

B:  Wait, what?

He challenged me to offer up an alternative to tithing as a Biblical principle and it was almost as if he thought that the lack of an alternative left his position as the default.  For those of you interested in argumentation, here are a couple pointers.  First, if you are trying to establish something as truth or a command, you are offering up an affirmative (i.e. P:  God commands NT believers to tithe).  In this case, all an opposing position has to do is show that P is false (~P).  The negative doesn’t have to prove Q in order to prove ~P.  However, since offering up an alternative is a valid and effective form of argumentation, here it is.

Now, as I was going through some of my thinking and searching out a few of the passages I have referenced in my teaching on this topic, I ran across an article written by someone I don’t know, but who said exactly what I was thinking.  Its almost like he stole my notes from when I taught this.  So read the article and then if you have comments, questions, or snide remarks, come back and drop them here in the comments section.  I’m doing it this way for a couple reasons.  1)  I have a lot to do right now and this saves me some time.  2)  EnnisP acted like he had never heard an alternative to tithing.  I found this and several others quite easily with a simple Google search, so either a) EnnisP never actually looked for an alternative, or b) EnnisP doesn’t know how to use Google.  Since he has Google Adsense incorporated on his website, I’m going to guess a.

Just to summarize a little bit, here are the major points the author advances:

1)  God never in Scripture commands anyone besides certain Israelites to tithe.  Notice the word “certain”.  There are no commands on Israelites who were not ranchers or farmers to tithe.  EnnisP assumes that they did, but that’s because it supports his position, not because the text actually says so.

2)  The tithe was a form of taxation to support the theocratic system under which the levitical order effectively constituted the government as well as the religious system.  Under a theocracy they were one and the same (And yes, EnnisP, I read your post on tithing not being taxation.  If I have time, I’ll spend a little showing why you are misunderstanding a theocratic system).

3)  God, throughout Scripture, has advocated two types of giving.  1) Giving to support the government (Egypt, Israel, Rome, etc.), which was mandatory and specific.  2) Giving to God through His religious system (Moses and the tabernacle, David and the temple, freewill offerings, every NT example of giving) which was non-compulsory and not a specified amount.

4)  NT giving is to be uncompelled, proportionate, sacrificial, cheerful, and regular.  Paul clearly addresses these principles and the article shows them from Scripture.

5)  The purposes for giving are a) to meet the needs of other saints, b) to meet the needs of Christian workers, c) to meet the needs of the poor, d) I would also add that if you benefit from church facilities, you should support them financially, even though the Bible is silent in this regard.

6)  The manner of giving should be a) anonymous, b) voluntary, c) expectant, d)cheerful, e) sacrificial.

7)  The motivation for giving should be a) the example of Christ, b) the command of Christ, c) I would add, our love of God and our brother.

So there it is.  A Biblical view that is an alternative to tithing.  I’ve had some argue that it won’t work.  That if you teach NT grace giving, then people won’t give and the church will go under.  First, that’s not a Biblical argument but a materialistic argument.  Second, I’ve spoken to several pastors who preach this way and are doing just fine.  Third, its interesting to note that when the Israelites were commanded to give a certain amount (the tithe), they failed in it and fell under judgment for it, but when they were told to give as they purposed in their hearts without a set amount (Moses and the tabernacle and David with the temple) they gave so much that the leaders had to ask people to stop.

Proposition 1:  The Bible has no record of God commanding His people in general to give 10% of their regular income.

Proposition 2:  The Bible has no record of a saint (OT or NT) giving 10% of their regular income on a regular basis.

Feel free to throw down your counterproofs in the combox.  Really, all you need is one instance of either of those occurences to topple my argument here.  And if you’re going to teach that the tithe is a requirement for believers, you better be able to show that someone, somewhere in the Bible actually did it the way you are telling people to.