Reply to Pastor Terry Grey, Aletheia [Truth] Seekers on Malachi [Tithing]

Reply to Pastor Terry Grey, Aletheia [Truth] Seekers on Malachi [Tithing] http://aletheia-seekers.blogspot.com/2012/04/malachi.html Grey: [Malachi] is God's final message to the Israelites of the Old Testament time. Kelly: Yes. This is Old Testament context addressed only to Judah under Law (Ex 19:5-6; Lev 27:30-34; Mal 4:4). Grey: Malachi 1:6-1:8 Israelites and priests no longer honored God. They essentially brought garbage that they wouldn't even bring to human governors to honor God. Kelly: Yes. The context is dishonest priests under the Old Covenant. The people brought the tithes to the Levites and the Levites gave a tithe of the best tithes to the priests. The priests, in turn, bred the best animals but gave God the worst of that which they bred (Num 18:21-28; Num 35). Grey: Malachi 1:9-1:14 Israelites no longer treated God as the Great king. They bring trash God but save the best for themselves. Kelly: No. Read the entire chapter. There is no break between verses 1:1-8 and 1:9-14. The people (Israelites) are not involved here; it is still describing dishonest priests from 1:6. Grey: Malachi 2:1-2:9: Priests no longer did what they were supposed to do. Kelly: Yes. Back to context. Chapter 2:1-9 continue the address to “O priests, you” from 1:6. Grey: Malachi 2:10-2:12 Marriage at the time has become corrupted. Marriage is a holy relationship between a man and woman. A holy covenant between a man and a woman and God. And as the nation became idolatrous, so man had become adulterous. Kelly: These “Judah” texts interrupt the “you – priests” from 1:6 to 2:9 and 2:13 to end and are third person. They alone refer to Judah as a whole. Grey: Malachi 2:13-2:16 Kelly: This is a return to “you priests” whose tears cover the sin offerings. Grey: Malachi 3:6-3:12 In the Old Testament, people were commanded to give 10% of their income to God. Kelly: Wrong. The only “people” in the Old Covenant who were “commanded to give 10%” were food producers who lived inside God’s HOLY land of Israel. HOLY tithes were strictly limited by God to FOOD which He had miraculously increased. Tithes could not come from non-food producers, from Gentiles, or from outside Israel. Period. It is wrong to call tithes “income.” Although money was common in Genesis and essential for sanctuary worship, money was never a tithed item. Grey: Here [3:6-12] the people were stealing from God, because not only do they defile God's honor by sacrificing animals they don't even want, they have also stopped tithing. Kelly: Not true. Those guilty of stealing from God in 1:6-14 were the priests who were cursed 4 times from 1:13 to 2:1. According to Nehemiah 13:5-10, the priests had stolen tithes belonging to their Levite servants and only the Levites went home for food. Grey: “Should we still tithe?” Kelly: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. “We” Gentiles have never been under the law or commanded to tithe. Israel was forbidden to share its covenant with Gentiles and no tithes were ever used to convert Gentiles. The question confuses the difference between the Old and New covenants. Grey: Matthew 23:23 Jesus expected tithing from people. Kelly: Of course. Jesus lived and died under the law (Gal 4:4-5). It would have been sin if Jesus had not taught tithing to the temple system. It would have been sin if Jesus had accepted tithes. Matthew 23:23 is (1) addressed to “you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites” and not to the church, (2) is in the context of “matters of the law, and (3) nobody who teaches tithing today literally obeys Jesus by accepting tithes from garden spices. Grey: Also, from Paul's writing, we are told to give regularly. Kelly: Yes, but, as a doctor of the law and rabbi, Paul had been taught that it was wrong to accept money for teaching God’s Word. And Paul knew that Holy tithes could not come off defiled pagan land or from Gentiles. Grey: Malachi 3:10-11 This is the only place in the Scriptures where God essentially said, "I dare you. Test me." Kelly: Not in practical application. One could not expect blessings while, at the same time, breaking other commands of the law. The entire law was a test. Read Deuteronomy 28 to 30. “Obey all to be blessed; break one to be cursed” (Gal 3:10). Grey: God promises that when we give, we will also receive. As we bless others with what we have, God will bless us because how we have served others. Kelly: Yes, but this does not endorse post-Calvary New Covenant tithing. The “we” of this sentence is not the “we” of Malachi 3:10. Malachi 3:10 cannot possibly be addressed to all the people. (1) They were commanded to bring their tithes to the Levitical cities (Neh 10:37b). (2) Only Levites and priests brought the tithe to the temple (Neh 10:38-39). And (3) the small temple storeroom could not hold the tithe of the nation (1 Kings 6:6). Grey: And here, we see that God challenges the Israelites to take up that promise. Kelly: Grey is switching back and forth between the tithing text of Malachi 3:10 [where tithes are still only food] and freewill giving principles – they are not the same. Some can give 10% and not be giving generously and sacrificially. Others can give 2% and still be giving sacrificially (2 Cor 8:14-16). Please stop mixing Old Covenant tithing with New Covenant principles of giving. Join me. Russell Earl Kelly, PHD www.tithing-russkelly.com\ russell-kelly@att.net

SBC'S ROGER S OLDHAM DISTORTS TITHING FACTS

To: Dr. Roger S. Oldham April 20, 2012 From: Dr. Russell E Kelly On April 20, 2012, Baptist Press published an article by Roger S. Oldham, Vice President for Communications and Convention Relations for the Southern Baptist Executive Committee. http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37652 The purpose of the article was to celebrate the May 13, 1925 beginning of the Cooperative Program on April 22. Yet the first two sentences of the article are either deliberate lies or reveal that Oldham does not even know the subject he is discussing as an authority. “Recognizing the drain frequent financial requests made on the churches, our Baptist forbears in the opening decades of the 20th century hammered out a plan that recognized and sought to address this problem. The plan was remarkably simple -- 1) individuals give their tithes and offerings to their local churches …” Oldham errs when he says “The (1925) plan was remarkably simple – 1) individuals give their tithes and offerings to their local churches.” This error is easy to demonstrate. Go to the SBC website and look up the 1925 Faith and Message. There no mention of tithing in that Faith and Message headed by E. Y. Mullins. And, more important, the Faith contains no tithing texts in its Stewardship section. Tithing texts did not appear until the 1963 Faith and Message and the word “tithing” is still missing. The omission is evidence of opposition to tithing in 1925. A second evidence of Oldham’s error is the 1925 Cooperative Program document. Its “twelve basic working principles” are found on the Baptist 2 Baptist website at http://www.baptist2baptist.net/b2barticle.asp?ID=240. This is found in Todd Starnes, June 2000 article, A Godly Heritage: A History of the Cooperative Program. There is no mention of tithing n that document. It simply reads “4. Money given by the churches was to be evenly divided between the state convention and SBC.” According to Starne’s article, Austin Crouch, who served as the first president of the Executive Committee from 1927 to 1947, said "The Cooperative Program is scriptural" and quoted First Corinthians 16:2 instead of any tithing text. I plead with Southern Baptist leaders to either stop teaching tithing or, at the very least, begin seriously studying the subject. (1) You are mixing law and grace contrary to Paul’s exhortations in Galatians 1:8-9 and 3:1. (2) You are ignoring your own beginnings which opposed tithing. (3) You are ignoring your own 1895 to pre-1963 history. (4) You are ignoring the biblical definition of HOLY tithes as only food from inside Israel which God has miraculously increased. (5) You are ignoring the doctrine of the priesthood of every believer and the fact that those who received Levitical tithes were not allowed to own or inherit property. And (6) you are ignoring the fact that O.T. tithes were never used for missionary evangelism of Gentiles – there is no precedent. Please go back to teaching post-Calvary biblical principles of giving: freewill, generous, sacrificial, joyful, not grudgingly, not by commandment, and motivated by love for God and lost souls. Russell Earl Kelly, PHD 6610 Skyview Dr SE Acworth, Ga 30101 770-974-4756 russell-kelly@att.net www.tithing-russkelly.com

Reply to J. Robert White on Tithing

Dr. J. Robert White April 20, 2012 Executive Director, Georgia Baptist Convention jwhite@gabaptist.org RE: Christian Index, April 19, 2012, page 7 Sir I was born, raised, and saved in the Southern Baptist Church. After questioning a majority teaching of the SBC, I was gradually pushed out rather than given a hearing. First, it disturbs me that your M. Div. and Th. M. are both from the SBC Seminary in Louisville. Since this was before Moehler’s time, I ask “Are you a Calvinist? How many points of Calvinism do you subscribe to?” Secondly, and to the point of my writing, why do you teach tithing when it is not taught in the SBC Faith and Message? Did you know that the texts for tithing were not even included until 1963 and the 1925 had no tithing texts? That should tell you it is a relative recently change of approach. The Mar/Apr 2009 issue of the SBC’s own Facts and Trends Magazine revealed that 20% of SBC pastors do not teach tithing! Being a scholar, your arguments for tithing are first grade level. Do you not know that, in Matthew 23:23 Jesus was: (1) speaking before Calvary in the context of the Law (Gal 4:4-5), (2) speaking about “matters of the law,” (3) speaking to “you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites,” and (4) speaking about HOLY tithes which were always only FOOD from inside God’s HOLY land of Israel which He had miraculously increased? In ten years neither you nor anybody else in the GBC or SBC has had the spiritual integrity to dialog with me on this subject. You cannot win. Your hermeneutic is wrong. The truth of God’s Word will prevail. (1) You base your argument on Matthew 23:23 which is not addressed to the church. In fact it would have been SIN if Jesus had accepted tithes for His support. (2) You boast that Abram’s tithe trumps the law when his tithe was only spoils of war, was only paid once, was not commanded by God, was probably in obedience to the law of the land, and following his example would mean giving our 90% to the equivalent to the king of Sodom. (3) Your totally ignore 16 texts which clearly define the HOLY tithe as only FOOD from inside Israel. Why do you do this? “Giving” is an eternal moral principle; tithing is not written in the heart, nature, and conscience. Tithes could not come from what man increased, from Gentiles, or from Gentile lands. (4) You totally ignore Numbers 18:21-24 and Neh 10:37b which assign the whole Levitical tithe first to the Levites who were not the ministers. (5) You totally ignore the fact that Num 18:25-28 and Neh 10:38-39 teach that priests only received one per cent. (6) You totally ignore the fact that those who received the Levitical tithe were, in turn, not allowed to own or inherit property. Yet you dishonestly receive the whole tithe and own your own house and property. (7) We are New Covenant believers. Malachi was only addressed to Israel. Wise up. (8) Your comment “Does God expect us to give less in the New Covenant than in the Old?” is based on the erroneous assumption that every Hebrew in the Old Covenant was required to tithe and began their level of giving at ten per cent. That is a lie and it is SIN to keep on quoting it. Only food producers who lived inside God’s HOLY land of Israel qualified as tithe-payers. Jesus, Peter, and Paul did not qualify. Be honest! Please be a leader and open this subject up to public dialog. Russell Earl Kelly, PHD 6610 Skyview Dr SE Acworth, Ga 30101 770-974-4756 russell-kelly@att.net www.tithing-russkelly.com