The uber-man that is Lane Chaplin has done it again, and just as I finished my paper too. Ever wanted a good introduction to the dreadly C-word [Calvinism...I like the word :D]? Well here it is:

You can check out the simply excellent website of Dr. White by hitting up www.aomin.org or just scrolling down and clicking the link in my sidebar. [I like James White...he's smart LOL]

I had planned to finish the paper yesterday evening, but the entire family was home all day, so I had to start and stop throughout the day and thus haven’t finished. The house is empty now, so I plan to finish this afternoon, barring distractions. To those who offered to help with reviewing the paper, I will e-mail it to you this evening.

Grace and peace,

Your fellow pilgrim Douglas

It’s been a while now, but here is Part 7 of Dr. John Piper’s seminar on the Doctrines of Grace:

Hey everyone, hope y’all doing good. I thought I’d give a quick update on how the writing break is going. The paper is now close to 21,000 words with two more sections to go. I’d have finished ages ago, but in a home where you are the oldest of four kids and the one who does pretty much anything, you don’t get much in the way of writing, which is frustrating. I can see why John Piper leaves home to write his books - that’s all I’ll say. That aside, it’s been a learning experience, which I have welcomed with open arms.

God willing [and hoping people quit being lazy in my house], I’ll be done for Thursday, but that’ll be far from it, and that’s where you have the potential to help out. I need four people who will read the first draft and act as editors for it. By that, I mean that you will get a Word document which is fully editable, so you can make additions or subtractions or even suggest something I’ve missed out. If you have the time to read a 30.000-word paper and make any edits, just leave a comment. If it gets beyond four…dag, I haven’t that far LOL. God willing, I’ll think of something.

Grace and peace,

Your fellow pilgrim Douglas

Yup, I’m taking a little break to do some extended writing. I was presented with a 55-page paper in response to the criticisms to the Lakeland Revival. I decided to do a brief paper in response. That brief paper has turned into almost 8,250 words, and I am nowhere near finished. I’m fired up about this, since I’ve put a lot of study, prayer and effort into this, and would want to stop a quarter of the way through.

Thus, for a little while, I’ll be ceasing posting new material on the blog. To all who despise me - I am not quitting [not on your life], just devoting myself to a huge project. When it’s done, y’all will be the first to read my paper. That said, I would also like to enlist your help. If anyone has any knowledge of how staged events can be used to induce altered states of consciousness, please send me an e-mail [addresses are on the Contact Me page] with any links, book you recommend or even audios I can get. I will be sure to credit you in the paper by name - that being the least I could do.

It pains me to leave blogging so soon after recovering from my illness, which by the way has left me in need of glasses to read, but I believe that God has a purpose for this paper which is a down sight bigger than me, and I must fully devote myself to this as the Lord leads.

Grace and peace,

Your little brother in Christ, Doug

I’m occasionally shocked by the Lakeland revival, and this is horrible:

Believer, use some common sense and run from Bentley!

When I graduated, one of the gifts I received anonymously [why do that???] was a NET Bible. Now, I don’t mean NET as in World Wide Web - I mean this…

Now I am weird in that I love Bible design and binding. I clearly need mental help for my obsession, but dag - this Bible looked nice, particularly when you held in it in your hands [pray for me, I have weird obsessions like this - I like basketballs as well...PRAY FOR MEEEEEEEEEEEEE ROFL]. Now I was getting into my Bible a lot more, so this was a treat…until August 7, 2007. I was with my good friend Rev. Ramshire who was studying with me through A.W. Pink’s book The Sovereignty of God. Now I never put my Bible on a table -partly because I didn’t have a desk. Now, Rev. Ramshire had quickly stepped out to grab a couple of pens. I put my Bible on the table to see if he was OK [it had been a while, and Rev. Ramshire is prone to falls every now and again]. I noticed the Bible didn’t sit flat and the margins were all uneven. I tried to flatten it but it wouldn’t sit - in fact it broke. It literally split in like 4 places along the spine. Needless to say, this Bible was toast, and I was not happy! I thought surely this was a glitch, so I looked it up on the Web. Turns out I wasn’t the only one - my friend [I didn't know him at the time though] Duncan Forbes had had some similar problems with his, though his was in one piece.

Now I like the NET Bible. A translation where the translators walk through why they render texts as they do is a Godsend. I like the maps - contrary to popular belief, the maps are actually useful particularly when they’re of such a high quality. However, from a practical perspective - the 2007 edition of this Bible bites!!! The binding not sitting flat is bad, since now I have a desk, and it looks weird. There are also problems with the inner margins as a results - which is bad as I write notes in the margins [all of the margins]. Now, if I had the chance, I’d really berate the person who left this at my school on Graduation Evening for not leaving me a receipt, so I could return it. Seeing as I couldn’t, I fired off an e-mail to the folks at the Bible.org store - no response.

If anyone, especially someone from the Bible.org store, could help me out, I would appreciate it. I like my NET Bible - it’s a shame I can’t use it as much as I’d like. C’mon Bible.org - help a teen out…pleeeeease:( [I'm still an ESV-onlyist though LOL :)] 

When I was in bed sick, I listened to a lot of the radio, since I could just about reach it without walking too long. One time, my brother left it on one of London’s largest radio stations, Capital 95.8. Now usually, I’d be listening to LBC 97.3, since all they do is talk about how weird our sceptred isle happens to be.

I didn’t care for much of the music, but three tracks I found to be rather enjoyable - and all by Coldplay. I’m not big on Coldplay’s music, but this has to be one of their best songs [and since then, I have listened to pretty much everything they've done]:

I will formally admit it - I am now a fan of Coldplay. Stone me if you must, but for once, I’ve found a secular band who don’t cuss, swear or generally pollute the mind. I’m happy.

Last time, I began with some background as to the topic before us, looking at attitudes to the practice of tithing, and why people do it. Today, I wish to consider the definitions of tithing that are extant in the Christian world.

Before I cover the main content of this post, let me say this. Most evangelicals/fundamentalists would like to believe that they have no problem with settling the place of Scripture and tradition. After all, we believe the Bible to be the word with tradition having nowhere near as much importance - right?

Well I am convinced that we give tradition an undue high place in determining whether something is true or not. More often than not, the traditions become an unnecessary burden upon those they are preached to (e.g. headcoverings as a classic example). One such traditions that many Christians hold to without contemplating whether they are true is that the tithe is always ten percent of our monetary earnings. If we are interested in understanding whether the tithe is truly mandated for the Church, then it becomes necessary that before we discuss it, we define what the tithe is seen to be, and what isn’t.

THE GENERAL DEFINITION OF THE TITHE

Let’s begin with what the general definition of what the general definition of tithing is. The Encyclopedia Americana defines tithing as:

“The 10th part of produce or other income paid voluntary or under compulsion of law for the benefit of religious instituitions, the support of priests and pastors and the relief of those in need.”

As Dr. Russell Earl Kelly notes, such a definition does not:

…distinguish between ecclesiastical tithes from church laws, personal tithes from trade and agricultural tithes” (Dr Russell Earl Kelly: Should the Church Teach Tithing?, pg.6)

A similar definition of the tithe can be found in the Westminster Dictionary of the Biblem which defines the tithes as:

A tenth part of one’s incomes consecrated to God.

We could easily present several other definitions precede, however we can make an interesting observation. The tithe presented in these definitions precede the Mosaic-Biblical tithe by centuries. The Encyclopedia of Religion notes that the practice of tithing happened prior to the Mosaic Law in such places as:

Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, Greece, and far as Carthage (Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliad, ed.)

We see this practice even in the Old Testament - we simply do not see the word “tithe” attached to it, with the exception of one’s case. In Genesis 41:34, Joseph, having interpreted the dream for Pharoah, advises Pharaoh to store one-fifth of the grain from the years of plenty. Adam Clarke, in his commentary notes that:

It is probable that in Joseph’s time, it was not so much a fifth part, most likely a TENTH (Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Whole Bible, note on Genesis 41:34)

Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the Bible, makes a similar observation:

The measures here suggested to Pharoah were, we must suppose, in conformity with teh civil institutions of the country. The exaction of a fifth or TWO TITHES, during the period of plenty may have been an extraordinary measure, which the absolute power of the monarch enabled him to enforce for the public safety (Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, note on Genesis 41:34)

Thus we see tithing as the normal practice in the land of Egypt at the time of Joseph.

In Genesis 14, a passage often quoted to support the doctrine of tithing, is another prooftext that can be easily explained as an example of this general definition of tithing. Abraham was obligated to pay 10% of his war spoils, due to the custom of the time! One more thing is worth noting - if the law failed to require 10% of war spoils (Numbers 31:25-47), and we have no command from God to do so, yet tithing is an eternal principle of God, then would Abraham do so?

Matthew Poole in his commentary sheds light as to what was “tithed” by Abraham, as to the mean of the word all (Heb. ma`aser micol) as:

Not of all the recovered goods [the doctrine of tithing would have us believe that one tithes of all their gross earnings], but of all the taken from the enemies

However the modern concept of tithes fails to recognise that the Biblical model differentiates between what is to be tithed. I will go into this topic in more details as the series of studies progresses.

TITHING AS GENERAL OFFERINGS

Now another definition of tithing, which is slightly less common yet as pervasive in modern Christianity, is the doctrine of tithing as equal with free-will offerings. A good example of this is given by Dr. kelly:

Members are urged to begin with a small percentage of giving and gradually increase the percentage according to their ability. Among these churches, there is little or no reference to an exact compulsory giving of ten percent from gross income as a legal requirement (Kelly: Tithing, pg. 14)

This position is advanced in a fair deal of liberal church and more often than not find its basis in general principles, rather than any form of Biblical exegesis, often due to the view of Scripture found in such churches

THE TRADITIONAL CONSERVATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE TITHE

Our third definition of tithing is by far the most well-known and accepted and the one I wish to combat in this series. I can recite the position that my dad, a Pentecostal preacher, has preached in his decade as an ordained minister:

The tithe is ten percent of your gross (he’d really emphasise gross) income. Irregardless you must give of your gross - before the tax man, before British Telecom, before the gas company - all is God’s!

Now this position holds to the belief that all are required to pay a rigid 10%, irregardless of social class, financial ability or even general desire. Be it a Baptist or a Presbyterian, an Assemblies of God church or an Independent church, this tends to be the most on which most church hope to receive their income and means to preach the Gospel, support the ministers, and in the case of the Word of Faith types, a couple hundred other things they’d rather not tell you about [if you're in their churches, wake up - and get outta there!!!].

The espousers of this definition (malicious or otherwise) believe the “tithe” to be an unchanging Biblical standard  and a eternal moral principle, fully reflective of the divine character of God, preceded by the Mosaic Law, and thus not abolished by the New Covenant. Thus, the Church, the Body of Christ, is OBLIGATED to teach the tithe. The tithe, as it is taught, must be observed by all Christians, as well as free will offerings.

This series of studies will definitely speak out against this form of the tithe as Biblically revisionistic and legalistic in its operation. Just as important, it ignores the clear teaching of such New Testament books as 2 Corinthians and Hebrews on the nature and superiority of the New Covenant, as well as the place which Christians are to give to both Covenants.

With that, I will wrap up this study on tithing. Next time, God willing, we will begin to examine the text of Scripture as to what the tithe was in the Mosaic Law and whether money was the real commodity of the tithe.

Grace and peace,

Douglas K. Adu-Boahen

For all my Londoners who may not know…

My thanks to Bro. Alan down at Real Christianity for the heads up