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