Have you been promised a great return if you give money to God through a church or a TV ministry? Maybe you heard some testimonies of people getting rich and you were drawn to give whatever you can because someone said that if you sow your seed into their anointed ground it bring a hundred fold return. The stories and testimonies are endless and so are the devastated lives from the unfulfilled promises to them.

There are two different groups of people on different sides; those who see these men as scam artists and are questioning the validity of their practices by the Bible and the other group believes whatever they say, thinking it is biblical and they do not question a thing.

Many preachers, churches and ministries have become very wealthy - especially television evangelists from practicing what they call seed faith. Many today live as king's in what would be called palaces and justify their opulence by using tithing as the law of God to have these blessings. However in closer examination there is no comparison between the enjoyers of the prosperity teaching in the modern day church today and the life Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, or how the Apostle Paul lived. Don't get me wrong, we should give, it is important to give (not just money). I assure you I'm not saying you should not support the church that you go to or ministries that do God's work. What I am asking you to do is two things. Question what your motive is in giving or more importantly, what is their motive in why they are telling you to give? And second: to look into the Scripture to see if what they are saying is Biblical by its context. Both of these will be covered in this article.

God does bless truth and people who want to give with the correct motives. Isn't this what it is all about motives--the givers motive and the receiver's motive.

Tithing for Israel is not the same as the tithe that we hear of today-- in fact tithing was rarely money. There were three tithes in the Old Covenant. More often tithes were the crops, the produce of the soil was to be tithed, grains, the fruit of the trees, every year new wine and oil, the firstborn of their herds and flocks (Leviticus 27:30-33). If the place the nation of Israel were to tithe and was too far away to carry their goods (such as Jerusalem), it could be exchanged for money. They were to use their money to buy anything the owner chose: cattle, sheep, wine (Deuteronomy 14:22-26). Every third year the tithe was to be reserved as a festival tithe where they brought out all the tithe, and their produce where the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, the widow, the poor who were in their town, could come and eat and be content (Deuteronomy 14:28-29; 26:12-15). You can expect not to see those who teach tithing as an obligation to practice the third year tithe.

The degree that prosperity teachers manipulate God's people is more than most schemers in the world would dare to do, and they do it without shame. It's all done in the name of our God. The apostles made it clear “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth”(2 Corinthians 4:2-3).

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