Welcome to Truth Time, where you'll get a shot of the truth with no chaser.
And now, your Truth Time host, Trey Searcy.
This will be part three of our teaching series titled, The Truth About the Tithe Lie.
Paying tithes today results in a zero sum.
Oh, it's a gain for one side, but it's a loss for the other.
In part one and two, we with scripture proved that the biblical tithe was never money.
It was food.
And we proved that the tithe could only come from what was at that time the holy land of Israel.
Any crops, any animals that were grown or raised outside of Israel were not even an acceptable tithe.
Tithers were only farmers and herdsmen.
Poor people never tithed.
Widows didn't tithe.
The homeless didn't tithe.
Carpenters, fishermen, tent makers, you name it, the tithers were farmers and herdsmen.
And we asked the question to pastors, and we'll ask it again, how can you in good faith collect tithes from your members while at the same time you own property?
That's not Bible.
Israel's Levitical priests were not allowed to own property.
They had no inheritance in the land.
And we proved that tithing was a law.
In parts one and two, we learned that Israel was a theocracy, a religious government.
And their tithe to their religious government was a taxation.
It was very much like what we pay today to the IRS.
But it wasn't money.
It was food, things grown from their land or from their herd.
And these items would be stored up in the temple storehouse for Israel's priest.
This does not even resemble what is being taught today.
And we also talked about the fact that you cannot pull one law, the law of tithing, pull it out and separate it from the rest of the law.
And that's supported with James chapter 2, which plainly says, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all."
You see, the satanic system will always offer a counterfeit to God's truth.
If you'll remember, Satan pulled that on Eve back in the garden, and it's still being done today by the religious, institutionalized, systematic church.
They say you're cursed if you don't tithe, when in fact, the Bible says you're cursed if you do tithe.
See the counterfeit?
"For as many are as of the works of the law are under the curse."
Galatians chapter 3 verse 10.
Tithing is the law.
And if you're under the works of the law, you're cursed.
Not a supernatural curse, not a supernatural curse from God, no, you curse yourself.
Most tithers are just barely getting by, and the curse is on their bank account.
And you're psychologically cursed by fear and guilt.
The apostle Paul said, quote, "Ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?"
You see, the problem with those who mix, who blend law with grace, they're not listening.
They don't know the Old Testament scriptures, and they never really heard the law.
If you really knew what the law said, you wouldn't want any part of it.
"Ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?"
See if you were as serious about this book as you led on, you wouldn't be teaching tithing without also teaching your congregation not to leave their residence on the Sabbath, Exodus 16:29.
But you don't hear the law, do you?
And you're not teaching them to remove all the leaven from their homes on Passover Eve, Exodus 12:15.
And why don't you, Leviticus 23:27, teach your people to, "Offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord on the tenth day of the seventh month?"
Oh no, that's for Israel, bingo.
And so was tithing.
So now what?
Don't be a hypocrite, a cherry picker, and pick only the part of the law you wish to choose, the part that benefits you, the tithing part.
Those who are saved are Galatians 5:18, "Led by the Spirit."
And the Spirit enables us to act accordingly and to give accordingly, to give responsibly.
Think about it now.
If we were not led by the Spirit, we would need tithing, we would need the tithing law to provoke us to give.
But we are led by the Spirit, so no need for the law.
Get it?
I encourage you to let the Holy Spirit be your critical thinker, to let the Holy Spirit be your voice of reason.
Hey, we're Galatians 4:5, "Redeemed from the law."
So, what business would we have messing around with the law of tithing?
None whatsoever.
In Galatians chapter 5, Paul starts out by saying, verse 1,
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
Verse 2, "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."
What was circumcision a part of?
The law.
What was tithing a part of?
The law.
Here, Paul could have just as easily said, I Paul say unto you, that if ye tithe, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Why didn't he say that?
Well, the Galatians were not having that problem.
The Galatian church knew better than to tithe.
But if they were having that problem, Paul would have corrected them.
But the problem throughout Galatia was there were some Jews there attempting to place the law of circumcision on them.
But if tithing were a problem, in verse 3, Paul might have said, For I testify again to every man that tithes, he's a debtor to the whole law.
And look what we read in the next verse.
Verse 4, "And Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace."
So if you're tithing, if you're tithing in an attempt to justify yourself or to avoid being cursed, you have fallen from grace.
Alright, this is Truth Time Radio and today we're back with more truth about the tithe lie.
Truth you were most likely not taught by your church.
Now that's sad to say, but for most it's true.
In Malachi chapter 1 we see that God is not happy with the priesthood.
He gets all over them in verse 7 for bringing polluted bread to the altar.
And he rebukes them in verse 8 for offering blind and sick animals.
You see, they had held back the best for themselves and that made God angry.
Verse 14, God says, "But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock."
Notice his flock.
He's referring to animals.
And as we just read in verse 8, they didn't bring the best of their flock but instead brought the sick ones.
So the curse had nothing to do with not tithing.
It was for what they tithed.
They didn't give their best but rather their sick.
And it wasn't the best of their money.
It was the best animal.
Why aren't the modern day preachers telling the truth about this?
Now flip the page.
Chapter 2.
Malachi chapter 2 verse 1.
"And now, O ye priest, this commandment is for you."
Ah, there it is.
For who?
The priest.
Verse 2.
"If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you."
So who gets the curse?
The priest.
Keep reading.
"I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings."
In verse 8, the Lord says, "Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi."
This was a Levitical covenant.
This had nothing to do with you or I, but a specific covenant with a priesthood.
Now flip to the next chapter.
Chapter 3.
Look at verse 10.
This is so clear that if you miss it, you'll do it on purpose.
Verse 10.
Here's the one the pulpit magicians use as they manipulate the flock.
Listen.
Verse 10.
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house."
Meat?
Meat is what?
It's food.
No money involved.
Keep reading.
"And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
Verse 11.
"And I'll rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground."
The what?
"The fruits of your ground."
We're still talking about food, and we're still talking about land.
No dollar bills here.
"Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts."
Verse 12.
"And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts."
This is plain.
God made this truth easy for us to understand.
And I don't know about you, but for me personally, I was a little embarrassed the first time I actually opened my Bible and began to study these things out for myself.
It was then when I discovered that I had been misled for all these years.
And I'm not blaming it on anyone.
It's my fault.
I should have been in this book and searching the Scriptures for myself.
But when I finally did, when I finally saw it for myself, I looked at these verses in almost disbelief.
It was hard to admit that I'd been wrong for so long.
Well, there are still many, so many today who refuse to admit their error.
And sadly, many of these cats have very prominent positions and are held in high esteem.
I'm going to sip some coffee and play a couple of clips real quick.
So let's give a listen.
Pay close attention and I'll be right back.
When God's people don't tithe, the result is retribution.
My daddy used to say, "Steve, if you don't tithe, you won't get that 10%. God's going to take it back.
You'll never get to enjoy it."
Daddy was right.
The Bible says in verse nine, you're under a curse.
Your whole nation has been cheating me.
Did you know that the New Testament also teaches tithing?
We read in text all over the Bible that it's more blessed to give than to receive.
Give and it will be given to you.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men pour into your lap for by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return.
When Jesus said that, he knew what the standard of measure was in the Old Testament.
The minimum was a tithe.
And I believe this is what the Lord spoke about when he spoke of it in Luke 6:38.
He said, give, it shall be given unto you.
Now listen to the words.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give to your bosom.
I don't think we have seen that kind of harvest yet, the kind of harvest that where it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.
That kind of prosperity is in the future because that is that wealth transfer.
I mean, God has blessed us in many ways, but that promise of Luke 6:38, I don't think we have seen it in completion.
We have not seen the fullness of it yet.
That's coming.
So the first clip was mega-pastor Steve Gaines, the 61st president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
And the second clip was Benny Hinn.
So as we see, this twisting of scriptures, this manipulation to manipulate people out of their money, it's not limited to the word-faithers.
It's not just Charismania, but also among the Southern Baptists.
Twistianity runs deep, wolves run in packs, and they discourage independent thought.
And eventually what happens is, our better instincts begin to short-circuit, creating a collective group-think mentality, just get in line and follow the herd.
And so what happens is, when fact-based material, objective evidence, when it finally presents itself, you have trouble reasoning these things out for yourself.
Both Benny and Steve manipulated Luke chapter 6.
They rested and twisted it so hard that it lost its true meaning.
The context was totally abandoned.
The context of the passage is not about money at all.
Look back up at verse 25.
"Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger."
He's speaking about food.
Even the first verse of the chapter tells us this, "And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields, and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands."
Did you hear that?
Corn fields, ears of corn.
And in verses 3 and 4 we read, "Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this what David did, when himself was an hungered, and they which were with him, how they went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priest alone?"
Eat, showbread, corn, corn fields.
Are you getting this?
So by the time Jesus gets to verse 38, the verse that these mega-pastors take out of context, here Jesus uses an illustration, one that they would have fully understood, and it's about food.
Food that comes from their land.
This is plain.
A very popular verse.
Luke chapter 6 verse 38.
A very popular verse when they need you to pull your wallet out.
It's taken totally out of its context.
"Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over."
Now what's the truth about this verse?
Well, keep it in context.
Showbread, eat, hunger, corn, corn fields.
This is a reference to how they measured grain, corn, and the process of how it was carried out.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
It's about a process they used, and those in the audience would have been quite familiar with what Jesus meant.
It was a process where they would fill the measure about halfway, give it a good shake, and then press the corn together.
The idea was, when purchasing corn, you would follow this process so that you could walk away with a maximum amount.
Put it in the measure, press it down, shake it together to make room so you can add some more.
Then, do it again.
Press it down, shake it, and add some more.
This was done until the measure was full.
This is Christ using the illustration of measuring grain, not money.
He was using this illustration to convey a message to them, a message about how they should deal with others.
And it's why the rest of the verse, verse 38 says, "For with the same measure that you meet with all, it shall be measured to you again."
It's about how Christ wanted them to treat their enemies, which is why He said in verse 27, "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you."
And in verse 36, He spoke of how they should show mercy to others.
Isn't it outstanding when we simply stay within the parameter of context?
He wanted them to understand that being kind, even to their enemies, to unbelievers, was the best approach, with hopes that eventually their enemies in return would show them that same measure that had been shown to them.
This is not God giving anything to the believer.
No, we'll leave that to the false teachers.
That's their message.
But when we stay in context, we see that this is about the unbeliever giving back, showing that mercy that was given to them.
Shame on Benny Hinn, shame on the Southern Baptist pastor, Steve Gaines.
Luke 6:38 has nothing to do with money.
And we need leaders, pastors and teachers, that'll get their head out of the clouds and get their feet back in the dirt, come down off their spiritual high horse, get back down in the trenches with us common folk, and start being truthful for a change.
The truth about the tithe's lie.
Just think a moment about how so many today who have their faith in a dime, one dime, a tenth of their dollar, and think about the pastors who will one day stand before God and answer for this.
What they don't tell you is tithing didn't even begin to get popular in churches until the seventh century, hundreds of years after Christ.
The pastors don't want you to know that.
They want you to think that this is something that has always been practiced.
Try wrapping your head around that one.
Tithing, this thing you hear so much about in the local church, was not even an accepted doctrine for more than 700 years.
Seven hundred years after Christ.
Incredible.
Imagine that.
Hundreds of years after the finished crosswork of Christ and still no tithe.
It wasn't until Emperor Charlemagne in the seventh century made it legal for the church to collect tithes.
And it wasn't until the late 1800s, more than a thousand years later, that tithing took off in the United States.
After believing a lie for so long, when the truth finally presents itself, it often sounds stranger than fiction.
But it's just this simple.
Our giving today is flexible, whereas Israel's giving was set.
Flexible giving versus set giving.
They're not the same.
Flexible giving is to give as you purpose in your heart.
Set giving is to give ten percent.
It has nothing to do with a choice.
It has nothing to do with what you purpose to do in your heart.
It could come from pretty much anything we choose.
We can give food, land, a home.
We could donate a car to someone.
Give a van to a ministry of our choice.
We can give money, whatever.
Not so for Israel's tithe.
It was set giving.
Nothing flexible about it.
They were to give ten percent of what they grew from their land or raised in their herd and that only.
No exceptions.
It was to come from the food they grew or the food they raised.
People are awakening to the truth about the tithe lie.
If you're not saved, let me remind you that the gospel that saves today on this side of the cross is the one Paul preached, the one Jesus gave to him.
And it's why Paul said, "I declare unto you the gospel which I preached, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 1, by which also ye are saved, how that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures."
The perfect lamb was slain and sacrificed.
He suffered and took your death, and it was there at the cross where the law of tithing died also.
It was nailed to the cross, never to be practiced again.
Galatians 3:23, In time past, folks were kept under the law, shut up unto faith, faith that had not yet been revealed.
At that time, the law was the schoolmaster.
But now, after that faith has come, we have Christ.
No more need for a schoolmaster.
Now justification comes by faith.
Under the schoolmaster, given a tenth, was mandatory.
Now that we've come to faith, we give voluntarily.
From the heart.
2 Corinthians 9:7, "As we purpose in our heart."
This has been Truth Time with Trey Searcy.
Visit our website at truthtimeradio.com.
Until next time, remember, when a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will
either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
.
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