By Ebunoluwa Sessou

Former Vice Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Bishop Abraham Olaleye has described tithe as an Old Testament practice that has been abolished with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament dispensation.

Speaking with Vanguard, Olaleye in an interview disclosed that, many people do not understand that, many things that apply to the Israelites in the Old Testament do not apply to us today.

‘Tithe is an old testament practice that God initiated when Israelites became a nation and of the 12 tribes that made up of the tribes of Israel, God told the tribe of Levites not to engage in any other business whether the cattle business or agriculture so that they can concentrate on spiritual matters over the nation. So, if other people bring their crops or produces, the Levites that eat sufficiently and they will concentrate on the work of the ministry and that was to Israel

“We are living in the New Testament and Christ has set us free from the curses of the law. The curses that God pronounced in the Old Testament no longer exist in the New Testament.

“When Christ came, all the laws were abolished and Grace took the seat and we now have Grace in Christ Jesus to be free from the law of sin and death.

“We are no longer under the Aaronic priesthood, we are under Jesus’ priesthood and we are no longer under the law. So, if I am paying tithe, I am not paying it, because I do not want devourers to befall me or caterpillars to fall on my house or to build 10 storey buildings and become millionaires. There are more millionaires in the world who are not Christians at all and they are rich because they understand how to address issues of life. So, all the attachment of if you pay your tithe, you will be blessed is not tenable in the New Testament.

“If anyone is dutiful, he or she will prosper in whatever he or she does. It is about God meeting your needs and having the essential things achieved.

“What Jesus Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary is much more than tithe and we cannot quantify it in monetary terms. The redemption of the soul is costly and no man has the currency to pay for it, so to say that without tithe, nobody is going to heaven is a serious insult to the Spirit of Grace, it is an insult to God’s integrity to think that it is through the tithe we have salvation.

“In the new testament, we belong to the Lord completely and whatever we do to the Lord must be done cheerfully. In fact, in the early Church, there is no place where the apostles demanded tithe.

“In Matthew 23 vs. 23 which Pastor Adeboye quoted, is the only place anyone could ever say tithe was mentioned in the New Testament. And it was Jesus that was chastising the Pharisees and Scribes who were so religious about their law but could not pay attention to mercy, Justice, fairness which has been swept under the table of tithing.

“This means that there is something more important in the mind of God than tithing. This is the understanding.

“The fear with many pastors is that if people stop to pay tithe, the income of the church will be nothing and there will be no way to fund it. The question is, how was the early Church in the new testament funded? Did God not provide for them?

“The things we are looking for today to be famous and become a great brand are not necessary things. God has not sent us on some of the things we embark upon as churches.

“We are always under pressure to build projects and so we need money every now and then but if we are content with our major assignment which is to preach the gospel to the whole world, we will not find ourselves under the pressure to coarse people or using subtle threat about paying tithe”, he said.

Asked why the revelation is coming out now, Olaleye said, “This is the culture that we have inherited when we came to Christianity. I come from a CAC background where we were told that whoever is not tithing is robbing God and we were doing it religiously. But, over time, as we continue to study the word of God every day, and understand the terms of the old and new testaments, we will then see the difference that the coming of the Lord has made.

“We do not always know the right thing from the beginning; it takes time for us to have this illumination. But, we have people including myself who have seen this much earlier. There is nothing that liberates the people than knowing and studying the Bible.

“In our church, for almost ten years, we do not emphasize the issue of tithe any longer and there are lots of churches like that that do not emphasize tithe.

“Some people have seen it for a long and they could point to this error but nobody seems to be listening to them. In our church, we tell people not to pay tithe under compulsion or sense of guilt or judgment because you have been redeemed from the curse of the law.

“Sometimes, it is not the tithing that is the problem but what we do with the tithe. The tithe is not only for the Levites, it is also for the strangers, orphans and the poor and that was the Spirit of the new testament that people sold their belongings and brought the money to the apostles’ feet so that, distribution could be made to other people who are less privileged in the society. There is need for transparency and accountability of the distribution of the tithe.

In his contribution, Senior Pastor of the Commonwealth of Grace, COG, Pastor Kenny Adenugba, said, “Today, the concept of tithe has become a major challenge within the kingdom because people have become money mongers in ministry.

According to him, the purpose of tithe is to help the supply within the ministry. “The Bible says,” Bring all tithe into my house so that there can be food in the storehouse in Malachi 3.

“The tithe at that time was not about money. It was about produce just like the harvest people bring to some churches.

“What Pastor Adeboye said was unfortunate when I read about it. However, I feel that apologizing as a father only speaks about someone who understands his humanity and that was why he had to retract the statement and apologise to the Christian body and his followers which for me is a major attribute of a leader to accept his or her error.

“It is an error to say that anyone who does not give tithe will not make heaven. There are people who are not paying tithe and they are successful. And there are people who are not Christians and yet they are successful.

“The reality is that when you pay tithe, you are using it as an instrument to invoke blessing into your life. There is no curse attached to you if you do not pay tithe. God will not place a curse on anybody for not paying tithe.

“If you pay tithe, it does not mean that you will become a millionaire or billionaire. If you pay tithe and you do not work hard, with wisdom and strategy, it will amount to nothing.

“We have seen people who have paid tithe for decades and they still remain little because they do not add work to their faith.

“There is nothing blessing will rest on when there is no work and you do not do what you ought to do. And this is why the Apostle Paul said, “Anyone who does not work must not eat”.

“If someone blesses you with money and you pay tithe from it and refuse to work, there is no prosperity in that.

“You cannot be working in a dimension that does not allow blessing to flow because blessing comes in a dimension. There is a difference between someone who works as a carpenter and someone who works in an oil and gas company. Their blessings or income cannot be the same. They will all prosper in their own dimension.

“There is a dimension to wealth and prosperity and blessing. It depends on the level to which we are operating.

“Some people have become pastorpreneur and profiteering on the pulpit and that is the reality.

“We need to be careful of preachers who would preach people to death over prosperity. People will prosper but there are dimensions to it.

“Give your money where you are led and you will be blessed.

“Tithe should be used to support people who are within the system and beyond. The application of tithe should be to help people within the church system to find their fulfillment.

“Tithe is not meant for the pastor to eat. It is not meant for the Pastors to feed on. It is to benefit the people in the church. It is a system of redistribution.

“There are people who could not afford to pay tithe because they do not have any income and they are people who pay tithe but they cannot afford much.

There are various needs in the church including food, shelter, clothing, accommodation among others which the church system is saddled with to supply to the members who need and require such.

“Unfortunately, the story is different today and that is why everybody wants to be a senior pastor. But, we need to understand that there is more to ministry than the church system.

“Tithes are not supposed to be men of God’s money. But lots of pastors have appropriated ministry’s inflow and income into personal use which is wrong”, he pointed.

Supporting the issue, Pastor Olukayode Oyedepo of the Loveesquad Community Church said, “Tithe is part of the law that God gave the children of Israel in His exclusive relationship with them under the law of Moses. And this was at a different point in time, they were supposed to give 10 percent of their farm produce into the House for the Levites to survive on. And there is part of the tithe that the Tithers themselves are supposed to eat. It is a Jewish practice.

“Christians are not Jewish. Abraham who gave tithe which was 10 percent of the spoils of war gave it to Melchizedek once and he did not pass it on to anyone to practice even his children who inherited his blessings never gave tithe.

“”Essentially, the reason we have lots of controversies about tithe is because we cannot separate Judaism from Christianity. And that is why people will always read from the book of Malachi which was prophetic writing to Jewish nation and priesthood.

The old testament pointed to the person of Christ and now that we have entered into the fullness of God’s plan through the new testament, we no longer run by the law of Moses according to Romans 10 vs 4 and Galatians 5.

“So, we get instructions on how we should give according to the 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9. It says, Christians are supposed to give cheerfully and according to what they have.

“As much as we are instructed to give, there is no formula on the percentage of what we should give. We should also know that we are giving and not paying.

“We need to know that as a church organisation, there are several responsibilities that need money and so people can give towards that so that the church organisation can keep running smoothly. What that implies is that there must be accountability in the church. The Church must not be a one man business. There must be a financial committee and board of trustees that oversee how the monies that are collected are dispensed. It is not for one man to enrich himself but the smooth running of the church.

“We must also encourage people to learn how to give to the poor and the poor must be part of what the church budget for in their income”, he noted.