Ed Young (SBC) on tithing:
He says that its all about the money: yes, it’s all about Ed Young’s love of money, he covets the money of the church, he covets the tithe. He looks out over his congregation and he longs to get hold of their money. He is expecting Christians who follow him to, not only support his needs, but to make him rich so that he can live in the lap of luxury. You would have to be stupid to give $1 to such a person.
I wrote back in 2002:
Jesus and Money
“If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” Luke 16:11
If your heart is not pure and blameless toward money and wealth then how can God entrust ANY spiritual riches to you? If He can’t trust you with money, He can’t trust you with anything more.
Read again: If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
It means that the covetous prosperity-money-preachers are spiritually blind, for anyone who loves money is spiritually blind, they have nothing from God.
Isn’t the whole drive behind collecting tithes and giving tithes indicate covetousness, the love of money?
A leader who is “faithful in the unrighteous mammon” won’t demand people give him money, and certainly won’t collect tithes so that he can live it up in the lap of luxury.
If anyone really, really wants to tithe, let them tithe to a leader or teacher who actually feeds them, and who does not seek after money, or take up offerings for himself, but who trusts God for his support, like Paul did. Or distribute the tithe to needy believers (Doing good to the household of faith – Gal. 6:10) remembering that the body of Christ IS the one true universal Church, the house of God – His people constitute His Church, not an organization.
But when a believer really understands what it means to be FAITHFUL with the unrighteous mammon, then the issue is stewardship: giving according to the Lord’s direction, not tithing – led by the Spirit not the law. To be faithful in the New Covenant means to be obedient to the Spirit, not the law.
Ian Vincent 
February 21, 2013 at 2:38 am
Do you think the Holy Spirit would ever have you give to a filthy rich preacher and ignore the brethren right under your nose who really need help? To support a preacher who lives in a 3 million dollar mansion (Osteen, Meyer, Copeland, Dollar etc.) and ignore the brother next door who is struggling to feed his kids?
Nothing wrong with having a 3 mill mansion as long as you earned it by honest means and not by fleecing the people of God.
February 21, 2013 at 3:22 am
http://www.wfaa.com/news/investigates/Prominent-Pastor-Linked-to-Luxury-83600192.html
February 21, 2013 at 11:28 pm
Wow, what a wicked man. I used to drive by that “church” all the time when I lived in Dallas. The crazy thing is listening to all the people in the audience clapping and cheering him on. People who are willingly ignorant of the scriptures open themselves up to all kinds of deception. Whenever I see something like this, I just take heart and realize there is probably at least one person in that congregation that The Lord is waking up to the truth.
I re-posted this video on Instagram. Thanks.
February 22, 2013 at 3:23 am
Indeed bro, there may be a number of brethren there waking up, and its reported that people are leaving.
The only reason i bother with a blog and facebook is that there may be one or two who can be helped or jolted into re-examining the Scriptures and thus prevented from coming under delusion.
What i observe as happening is that this final generation of professing Christians (facebook Christians) are becoming more and more in love with themselves, as Paul prophesied, men shall be lovers of their own selves.
With the Ed Young video: interesting to superimpose over that scenario the NT Church paradigm, where the team of elders would go up there and ask him to stop, and then explain to him and the congregation why his message is unBiblical. And then the Church meeting could carry on as usual, What was reality in the 1st cent. would be found very threatening today bcos the immediate issue which would arise is, who owns the church? In the 1st cent. no one man had the power over others or over a congregation as these guys have. I Cor 14: every message was tested on the spot by the other elders. No one man could usurp authority over the other elders, such as men like Ed Young do, and therefore they can get away with teaching any rubbish, and there’s nothing you can do about it bcos it is Ed Young’s church.
February 22, 2013 at 7:41 am
Hi Ian
It was nice to talk to you last time with Skype all away from France
Some thoughts and Scriptures about tithes and offerings
A lot of Pastors ask for 10 % of the income of someone to be given to their church…
They will say also that we are no more under the Law given to Moses, but except for tithes ?
They say that Abraham, before the Old Covenant, gave to Melchitsedk 10 % of what he got at war….
Also in Genesis 28 : Jacob said :
“ and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee”
So 10 % was not coming from the Law of the Old Covenant but from the heart of men thankful to God for His blessings…
In the New Covenant we must also give from the heart to brothers is need ( not to lazy one because the Bible says “This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat…” 2 Thessalonians 3:10 )
Also we must give to the church were we go, to participate in the expenses of that building, for the Pastor if it is large church and the Pastor has no possibility to work as Paul did, etc…
1 Corinthians 9:14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel….
In conclusion I think we are not subject in the New Covenant to the Law of tithing, but only to the Law of the Spirit that tell us to give to anyone He direct us
How much, it is the big question !
I think there is no Law about how much, because it is an offering from the heart, 10 % can be a guide from the Bible , but not a Law. And 10 % of what ? Salary? Increase? Having sell something ? It can be more !
Anyway it is not a Law according to the Old Covenant, but a Law according to the New Covenant , so we must do it from our heart !
Here some scriptures about giving from the heart !
2 Corinthians 9:1 For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:
2 For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia… and your zeal hath provoked very many.
3 Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready:
4 Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared (to provide) , we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.
5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
9 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.
10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)
11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.
12 For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;
13 Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;
14 And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.
15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift….
2 Corinthians 8 :7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.
8 I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.
9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.
11 Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.
12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.
13 For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:
14 But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:
15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack….
It is obvious that some of us have more than other , either in our own town, our own county or in the World all together !
Also :
1 Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel….
So, Lord please, lead us by Your Holy Spirit in the way to give unto You, that’s is Your people and those of our own house too …
Last thought, if we are no more under the Law of the Old Covenant… WE ARE STILL UNDER THE LAW OF GOD, THE LAW OF THE NEW COVENANT, THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT AND OF THE SCRIPTURES TOO…
John 14:15 If ye love Me, keep My commandments….
So we see there still a Law, Commandments in the New Covenant… “Thou shall not steal, commit adultery and so on… is still available in the New Covenant…
With love in Christ, sorry if I have been long but what I wrote to you who read me, I write it first to me !
February 22, 2013 at 10:22 am
Thanks for taking the time Marcel.
With not being under the law: There are two parts to the OT Law, the moral law, and the ordinances and sacrificial law.
Christ has fulfilled both the moral law, and the ordinances and sacrifices.
So then the person who has faith in Christ finds that they fulfill the moral law by His Spirit living in them.
As Christ is the fulfillment of the law, then the person in Christ fulfills the moral law bcos Christ, the fulfillment, lives in them. Now it is their new creation nature to love God and man, honor parents, not lie, not steal etc.. The fruit of the Holy Spirit fulfills all the moral law.
And then they realize that the ordinances, which are not moral commands, but were shadows of Christ, prefiguring Christ, were perfectly fulfilled in Christ, the substance, and are no longer relevant (Col.. 2:16-17). And that by His sacrificial death on the Cross, once and for all, there can be no more sacrifices made for sin.
Tithing was one of those ordinances/commands of the OT which has been fulfilled in Christ and we are no longer “under” it. That whole temple-priest system, of which tithing was just a part, has been fulfilled by the New Covenant.
If a person feels they need to tithe in order to please God then they would also need to recreate the whole OT temple priesthood system and observe it to the letter.
But on the other hand…
Freewill giving is simply the fruit of love. The love of God in us which causes us to give and help those in need, and support those who feed us God’s word, is the fulfillment of the moral law by the Spirit: it is the fruit of the Spirit.
Which is why it goes against the Spirit to try and superimpose the OT ordinances over Him.
If we give as we are led by the Spirit then we have perfectly fulfilled the law of love. We should never think in terms of trying to fulfill the OT ordinances which have been fulfilled in Christ.
And this is WHY tithing was never taught or practiced in the NT churches.