Mike,

Benny Hinn gets a $3 million dollar “parsonage” that is 7200 square feet and has 7 bedrooms and a 10 car garage.

I was rereading scripture used by my own pastor and others in the past to justify the practice of churches paying full-time wages to pastors and priests. He doesn’t believe that church leaders should have exorbitant salaries from the church they lead, but says a full-time salary should be expected. Here is what was presented to me:

1Co 9:1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?
1Co 9:2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
1Co 9:3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
1Co 9:4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?
1Co 9:5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
1Co 9:6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
1Co 9:7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
1Co 9:8 Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?
1Co 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
1Co 9:10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
1Co 9:11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
1Co 9:12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
1Co 9:13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
1Co 9:14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

The Problem

They stop here and quote Paul saying, “See, Paul said ‘they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel’ so God intended it to be this way. Ahh, but Paul was not even a pastor and was giving a rebuke if you read further:

The Answer

1Co 9:15 But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
1Co 9:16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
1Co 9:17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
1Co 9:18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
1Co 9:19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

Or even better, from the Concordant Literal NT:

1Co 9:15 Yet I do not use any of these things. Now I do not write these things that it may be becoming thus with me, for it is my ideal rather to be dying, than that anyone shall be making my boast void.
1Co 9:16 For if I should be bringing the evangel, it is not for me to boast in, for necessity is lying upon me, for it were woe to me if I should not be bringing the evangel!
1Co 9:17 For if I am engaging in this voluntarily, I have wages, yet if involuntarily, I have been entrusted with an administration.
1Co 9:18 What, then, is my wage? That, in bringing the evangel, I should be placing the evangel without expense, so as not to use up my authority in the evangel.
1Co 9:19 For, being free of all, I enslave myself to all, that I should be gaining the more.

If you’ve already addressed this topic just direct me to the article. I have read many of your articles, but not all.

If churches would step up and admit that the organization they operate under is of the world and not God, I would not object to it as strongly. Most churches use successful business models for growth. I know of a few pastors that read books on marketing techniques for the church. They should just admit that they are a business and go from there. Hiding behind misused scripture only diminishes their credibility to the unbeliever. God does not honor deception.

Comments?

God Bless,

P__

P__,

You are right. By requiring and receiving tithes of their flocks, ministers are asserting that they are the modern day priests. In doing this, they are telling their flocks that they, the flock, are not priests. Such subtle teaching undermines the truth revealed in:

Rev 1:6  “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

No, I have never written on this subject myself. I do intend to do so eventually because I see something in both the old covenant types and in the new covenant realities that I have never seen written on before. My wife and I graduated from Ambassador College, and we all lived the doctrines of the Worldwide church for many years. We were more ‘under the law’ than Jews are. At least the Jews and Paul realize one cannot scripturally tithe to any but those who “are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham” (Heb 7:5).

As I pointed out above, today’s Christianity subtly inserts the ministry between us and God, in effect denying the Truth of “He hath made us kings and priests unto God…” (Rev 1:6).

Paul encouraged those elders and bishops in his charge to follow his example of ‘working with his own hands, ministering to his own needs and to the needs of those that were with him.’

Act 20:33. I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.
Act 20:34 Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
Act 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

This verse in Act 20 backs up Paul’s advice in 1Corinthians 9:

1Co 9:18 What is my reward then? [Verily] that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
1Co 9:19 For though I be free from all [men], yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

Paul asked for nothing from those to whom he brought such wonderful news. He certainly did not subtly suggest to his flocks that he, but not they, was a priest entitled to 10% of their paychecks before taxes. Paul never did such an unscriptural thing. Tithing was old cloth in an old garment and old wine in old bottles. However, the whole Christian world is doing just as Christ prophesied:

Luk 5:39 No man also having drunk old [wine] straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

Christianity to this day ‘thinks the old is better.’

In other words, there is a lot of good new wine (the teachings of Christ and His apostles) being wasted by trying to put it in old bottles (trying to retain huge segments of the law of Moses) in today’s churches.

This is where everyone stops. It really is obvious to those who have been given eyes to see that tithing is unscriptural for those who are in Christ. As a result, many who come to see this fact simply stop tithing and do nothing more as far as their service to the body of Christ is concerned. That is exactly what I did for many years.

Then, at the appointed time, God gave me a copy of Andrew Jukes’ ‘The Law of The Offerings’. I had always understood that the offerings of the Old Covenant were typical of Christ and the accomplishments of His sacrifice.

However, as I believe is the case with most people, that was the sum of my understanding. I did not even know the different kinds of offerings, much less the different levels within each kind. I wasn’t even curious. God decided it was time that I should “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2Pe 3:18). If you have any desire to get to know Christ better and to truly know “the fellowship of His sufferings,” then I would strongly suggest that you read ‘The Law of The Offerings‘. [Ed. note: Andrew Jukes’ writings were out of print for many years, but most of them can now be available through bible book stores or even found on eBay.]

There is a distinct difference between Old Covenant ‘tithers’ and those who understand that under the New Covenant we have been “bought with a price.” In Christ we can no longer claim anything as our own. Under this New Covenant, God no longer allows us to keep back 90%. Those ‘in Christ’ now “present [their] bodies [and everything those bodies do] a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).

Mr. Jukes discusses the fact that the trespass offering, unlike the other offerings, concerns itself with restitution. This restitution is offered, in Christ, to both God and man. In this trespass offering there is even more than restitution. It is this extra payment, “the fifth part added thereto”, that separates the ‘few chosen’ who are truly ‘in Christ from the ‘many called’ who, like the ‘priests of Egypt’, never were bought by Joseph (Christ) for the Pharaoh (who typifies the Father turning all rule over to Christ). It is ‘the priests of Egypt’ today who would never admit that they are ‘priests of Egypt’ but who nevertheless want things to continue as they were before Christ (Joseph) came along and robbed them of their positions of influence over Egypt.

I’m not sure that Mr. Jukes saw that part of this typical story of Joseph, but it is clear they were not “bought with a price” along with the people of Egypt. Of course Joseph saved them along with the people of Egypt, but they were not willing to submit to being ‘bought with a price’ much less “adding a fifth part thereto.”

Here is how Mr. Jukes so eloquently explains this part of our Lord’s accomplishments:

(4). But this is not all. Not only is the original wrong paid, but a fifth part more is paid with it in the Trespass- offering (Lev 5:16; 6:5). Not only is the original claim, of which God and man had been wronged, satisfied: but something more, “a fifth,” is added with it. And first, what of the amount? It is “a fifth part.” To find the import of this, we must again go back to Genesis. If I mistake not, the first place in Scripture where “the fifth” is mentioned, will lead us to apprehend its import. The particulars will be found in the history of Joseph. Briefly, the facts are these. Before the great seven years’ famine, though Egypt was Pharaoh’s land, and the Egyptians his people, yet both were independent of him in some way which evidently was not the case afterwards. This we gather from the fact that after the famine “a fifth,” never paid before, was paid to Pharaoh, in token that both land and people were Pharaoh’s by another claim. We read that when that year was ended, the Egyptians came to Joseph the second year, and said unto him We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle: there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies and our lands: wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh; and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s. Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day, and your land, for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass, in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own. And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s” (Gen 47:18-26).

We see here that “the fifth part” paid to Pharaoh, was the acknowledgment that all had been forfeited to him through misery. We learn, too, that in whatever way the Egyptians had been his people heretofore, they were now, through their need, made his by another claim. Accordingly, the payment of “a fifth” henceforward, wherever we meet with it in Scripture [Footnote: It is only found in the law of the Trespass-offerings, Lev 5, 6; and in the law concerning vows or dedicated things, Lev 27. In both cases evidently the purport is the same.], is the acknowledgment that the person paying it has lost and forfeited that whereof “the fifth” was offered. It is a witness not only that the sum or thing yielded up, has been yielded of necessity, as a debt, not as a free gift, but that the whole of that whereof the fifth was paid, was the right and property of him to whom its “fifth” was rendered. Thus its import in the Trespass- offering seals the character of the offering, testifying that what was given was indeed a debt, and not a free gift . [Footnote: If I mistake not, this “fifth” is also connected with the tenth or tithe; the fifth being two tenths, or a double tithe. One tenth was paid by God’s people before anything was forfeited in any way, as the acknowledgment that he to whom it was paid had a claim on all that of which a tenth was offered. But after a thing was forfeited by vow or trespass, (Lev 27 and 5,6,) we find that a fifth or double tithe was rendered. By the law in Exo 22:4,7,9, any act of trespass gave him who had been trespassed against a double claim, or rather a claim to double the amount of the original wrong or injury inflicted on him. Thus when trespass had been committed and confessed, “the fifth” was paid as the acknowledgment of the double claim. But this only by the way, as marking, if I mistake not, the connexion between the “tithe” and the “fifth part.”]

But while this was the import of giving “the fifth part,” yet by the addition of this fifth the injured party became in truth a gainer. So far from losing by trespass, he received more back again: and this is what we have now to consider. Wonderful indeed are the ways of God: how unsearchable are His counsels and wisdom! Who would have thought that from the entrance of trespass, both God and man should in the end be gainers. But so it is. From man in Christ both God and man have received back more than they were robbed of. All things are indeed of God; yet it is from man in Christ, and this in consequence of trespass, that God, according to His wondrous purpose, receives back more than that of which sin had robber Him. In this sense, “where sin abounded,” yea, and because sin abounded, “grace did more abound.” Just as in the case above alluded to, which I doubt not is typical, and typical, if I mistake not, of very kindred truth, the effect of the famine and misery on the Egyptians was to give Pharaoh a claim not possessed before; so the effect of the entrance of trespass has been to give the injured person, whether God or man, a claim on the person and property of the trespasser, which before trespass entered was all unknown.

I would to God this were more fully seen. We should then oftener hear of grace, of rights more seldom: nor should we so often see Christians shrinking from that which we call grace, but to the exercise of which we are nevertheless most surely debtors. But to explain this: – Before trespass entered, God only claimed His part or right. He had a right to holy things as His portion, and these He looked for from man. But since trespass has entered, His claim is more: the original right and the fifth part added. “The fifth” was, as we have seen, the token how much had been forfeited by the trespasser. Its payment testified that he to whom it was given had now not only his original right, but a still further claim upon him who wronged him. Thus God’s claim through trespass is greater: and the same is true with regard to man’s claim. Before trespass entered, man too had his claim: that claim was his right, that claim was justice. But since trespass has entered, his claim is more: more than his right is now his claim from the trespasser. The fact that God has been wronged by man, and that Christ stands for man confessing trespasses, gives God a claim upon Him, not only for the original right, but for more that the first claimed holy things. So, too, because man has been injured by man, and because Christ stands for man as his substitute, therefore man, injured by trespass, has a claim on Christ, not for the original right only, but for greater blessings.

And this claim Christ never refuses: nor are those in Christ free to shrink from it. They, too, as “in Him,” are called, yea, and they are debtors, to deal in grace far beyond the claim of justice. The world may think that to mete out justice is the highest path of which man is capable. But Christ has shewn a higher still; and “he that abideth in Him is called to walk as He walked” (1Jn 2:6). Such a path, of course, as every other step after Christ, if followed, will surely cost us something. But costly things become king’s children: we are rich enough to lose this world. May the Lord make His people know their calling, and conform them to Him in grace even as in glory! But I will not pursue this here, as further on I must again touch it in its bearing on the believer’s walk. I merely add therefore, – “Christ set us an example” (1Pe 2:21): and He yielded, not merely rights, but grace, to every man.”

So, ‘in Christ,’ we are ‘not our own for we are bought with a price,’ just as Joseph bought all Egypt ‘with a price’. Here is how we should look on our new relationship with God as we “present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God:”

Rom 12:6 God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you.
Rom 12:7 If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching.
Rom 12:8 If your gift is to encourage others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

I believe that God has given me the ability to share my lessons with others in a somewhat understandable form for those who are “given eyes to see.” I hope this lengthy email is an indication of that faith.

Whatever your gift is, God has a 100% claim on your life. This 100% claim is “the fifth part added thereto.” This is what typically replaced the Old Covenant law of tithing. God will settle for nothing less.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike