Old Testament

The practice of offering part of our earnings to God is as old as the human race. Scripture tells us how Cain, who was a farmer, offered up the first fruits of his labor. Abel, on the other hand being a shepherd, offered the best of his flock to God. Then God had them actually burn their sacrifices. God did this to show them that He didn’t need their offerings, but they needed to offer the fruits of their labor to God.

Two thousand years before Christ, Abraham gave tithes to the priest Melchizedek. As we read further on in the 14th Chapter of Genesis, we see that Melchizedek offered to give the tithes back to Abraham. But note this: Abraham refused to take them back. You don’t take back an offering made to God.

Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, (Genesis 28) very solemnly promised to pay tithes of all that the Lord would allow him to earn.

The whole of Chapter 22 in the Book of Exodus is law. It is the continuation of the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. Here is the 29th verse: “Thou shalt not delay to pay your tithes and your first fruits.” The law not only says give to God what is His due — but don’t hesitate and postpone your giving.

When the Jews had finally completed that 40-year trek across the desert and began to inhabit the Promised Land, God again gave them orders. He told them the very places where they were to offer sacrifice. They were to ravage the pagan temples and in place of pagan altars, the Jews were to erect their own temple. “You shall offer in that place your holocausts and victims, the tithes and first fruits of your hands …” (Dt 12:6)

The years rolled into centuries and Jewish devotion reached a low ebb. In the schooling process God was giving His people, He was quick to punish their disloyalty by allowing them to be overcome by their enemies and carried off into the captivity of Babylon.

After 70 years, God, through the hand of Cyrus, allowed His people to return to the land of Palestine. It taught the Jews a lesson and they went back home closer to God.

The people returned to Promised Land. They were gathered in a great multitude and received a “refresher” course on God’s law. It was seven full days of study for all. They did penance and repented for their sins and the sins of their fathers. And the leaders all instructed the people to obey God’s law.

In the 2nd Book of Nehemiah (Chapter 10), the LAW of God, when they returned to Palestine, specifically required the law of tithes and first fruits. The priestly tribe, the Levites, would receive the tithes from all earnings in every city of the Jews.

These good resolutions started the wherewithal for the building of the temple in Jerusalem. However, when a little opposition hit the Jews through trouble with the Samaritans, work was stopped. Haggai was the prophet sent by God to revive the religious spirit of the Jews at this stage of their history. In these words, God rebuked the Jews through His prophet: “You have sown much and you have brought in little; you have eaten but have not had enough; you have drunk but have not been filled; you have clothed yourselves but have not been warmed. And he that earns wages puts them into a bag with holes.”

God asked them if they knew why He had rebuked them. Then He told them the answer: because they were not building the house of God. The implication of their falling away from tithing is obvious here. Had they been tithing, the temple would have been built. (Note the graphic words of God which hold for every generation and for all time: to keep God’s share it is like putting your money into bags with holes.)

About 400 years before Christ, God scolded the people again because of their lack of tithing. Chapter 3:7-10 in the Book of Malachi is an eloquent sermon preached by God to the people through the mouth of the prophet. It deals with the rewards God promises for tithing: “For from the days of your fathers you have departed from my ordinances and have not kept them: Return to Me, and I will return to you, saith the Lord of hosts. And you have said: ‘Wherein shall we return?’ ‘Shall a man afflict God?’ For you afflict Me, and you have said: ‘Wherein do we afflict Thee?’” He answered them: “In tithes and in first fruits. And you are cursed with wants, and you afflict Me, even the whole nation of you. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in My house: and try Me in this, said the Lord, and see that I will open unto you the floodgates of Heaven and pour you out a blessing even to abundance.”

Here God shows the people what an important part of the law is tithing. The term “return” used in the above passage does not mean come back to Me and I will come back to you. “Return” means “give back,” as we can see from the context. Give to Me and I will give to you!

Under the reign of the Maccabees, the Jews were also reminded of God’s law of tithing. It was ever kept before the minds of the people, and its history with the Jews is a very active one.

New Testament

In the time of Christ, tithing was so popular that we find mention of it in the Scriptures about the Pharisees even tithing on the herbs from their gardens.

Christ was probably brought up in a tithing home. His mother, Mary, and His foster father, Joseph, were devout Jewish people. We can assume Jesus watched His mother and foster father pay their tithes regularly to the temple. In the Gospel according to St. Matthew (23:23), Christ is talking about the Pharisees. He mentions how they tithe and mentions that it is something they should do; but complains about things they are leaving undone.

For the early Church, tithing was a small amount for their generous hearts. They gave all their extras to the Church for the support of the poor and the needs of the Church.

After 300 years of Roman persecution of the Christians, Emperor Constantine the Great put a stop to all persecutions and allowed the Church to build and worship in the open. A great number poured into the Church. All the new converts weren’t as strong as the early Christians (and not so generous). And in time the Church found the need to remind the people of God’s law of the tithe because churches had to be built.

We find positive Church legislation on tithing in a letter of the bishops assembled at Tours in 567. It was mentioned again in the Council of Macon in 585.

Gregory VII (the famous Hildebrand) in the 11th century severely condemned those who refused to pay tithes. He called it sacrilegious and said it incurred the danger of eternal damnation.  

Just as almost anything can be abused, so there was unfortunately an abuse of tithing in the Church in the Middle Ages. This abuse was recognized and dealt with at the Third Council of the Lateran (12th century). In the 15th and 16th centuries, people were losing the sense of obligation of tithing their earnings to God. The main reason for this was the lamentable wealth of the clergy.

The poor, with perhaps an outlook of “occult compensation,” felt there was no need to give tithes; it was to come back to them as the poor anyway. What was lost with this was the spirit of giving to God. To help correct this neglect of tithing, the Council of Trent (16th century) insisted on the payment of tithes. (Session 15 of the famous Council of Trent)

As the years passed on into centuries, we see that, especially in Europe, parishes were supported by endowments. And where parishes had a good endowment the Church didn’t ask for the tithe. As late as 1868 the Fourth Council of Quebec declared that the payment of the tithe binds in conscience on the faithful.

In our own country especially, the Protestant denominations see tithing, from the Scriptures, as God’s law today. Their churches are beautiful, and their missions well supported because they tithe.

The purpose of this book is to show the continued need and reward in practicing God’s plan to support His Church continuing into the 21st century.