Will A Man Rob God? (Or is Tithing The Law For Christian)

A typical sermon on tithing goes something like this:  

"In The book of Malachi among the sins cited in this book, we find corrupt priests, infidelity and rampant divorce. The first sin mentioned is the offering of defiled sacrifices to God (Mal. 1:6-11). The people were offering sick, lame and blind animals on God's altar. Malachi chides the people by urging them to offer this type of sacrifice to their governor. God equated their offering with a lack of reverence for Him and accused them of despising His name (Mal. 1:6).  Malachi brings this topic up again in the third chapter. He asks, "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, In what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings" (Mal. 3:8)."

ConclusionBrethren, there is a part of your income that does not belong to you -- it belongs to the Lord. Will a man rob God? He might in this life. He might give unto the Lord "that which costs him nothing." He might convince his brethren he is giving the "widows mite." He might convince those around him that he is living in poverty, but God knows. There will be a day of accounting. "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Gal. 6:7).  See here. for the example sermon I chosen.

I guess that this preacher is saying since tithing was a form of worship to God in the Old Testament, and since we still worship God, we must still tithe.  Well then why do we not still offer animal sacrifices in that case? 

 "Will a man ROB God?"  Consider this:

Abraham never tithed on his own personal property or livestock.

Jacob wouldn't tithe until God blessed him first

Only Levite priests could collect tithes, and there are no Levite priests today.

Only food products from the land were tithable.

Money was never a tithable commodity.

Christian converts were never asked to tithe anything to the Church.

Tithing in the Church first appears centuries after completion of the Bible.  

See here:

Tithing is something which we certainly find in the Old Testament since the Israelites were plainly required to tithe, just as they were required to observe the Sabbaths by not working, and to make animal sacrifices.  In fact, they were required to pay not one but three tithes! The tithing texts in the Old Testament are not always exactly clear but it appears that the first tithe was used to support the Levites since they received no inheritance as the priestly tribe. The second tithe was apparently set aside in order to pay for that family's attendance at the various feastdays (especially the Feast of Tabernacles). And the third tithe was used to help support the poor among the Israelites; this third tithe was payable every third and sixth year out of a cycle of seven years. This might seem to present an enormous burden during that particular year, but once we start to unravel the complexities of these tithes with the help of Josephus and other early Jewish writers, it starts to become clear that the first tithe (to the Levites) was dropped in the third tithe year.  Do you see church upkeep or preacher's salary any where in there?

Now just when did the Christian Church start asking its members to tithe?  Paul is continually writing on the subject of giving; mainly, its true, on the subject of the collection for the struggling congregation at Jerusalem. He finally expounds the principle of the 'cheerful giver' in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7. These are two whole chapters on the subject of financial giving by members of the body of Christ. Tithing is not once mentioned. 

It was Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, that said about 200 and some odd years after Christ died, Christians in his time were not giving “even . . . the tenths from our patrimony; and while our Lord bids us sell, we rather buy and increase our store.” In another statement, he says that the clergy receive “as they do in the gifts and donations of their brethren the tenth portion, as it were, of the fruits of the earth.” The emphasis of this passage is on the clergy receiving adequate support for their ministry, as the Levites and priests did in the Old Testament.

"A document from Syria around 225 A.D., the Didascalia Apostolorum, contains some important thoughts on tithing and the law-gospel relationship. Regarding the former, the document said that the laws of the “Second Legislation,” which were all the laws given after the Ten Commandments, should be avoided; they were only given after Israel worshipped idols in the wilderness. Jesus fulfilled the law, that is, “set us loose from the bonds of the Second Legislation.” While it may appear at first that the document was supporting tithing to the bishop, it also said: “No more be bound with sacrifices and oblations, and with sin offerings, purifications, and vows . . . nor yet with tithes and firstfruits . . . . for it was laid upon them [i.e. the Israelites] to give all these things as of necessity, but you are not bound by these things. . . . Now thus shall your righteousness abound more than their tithes and firstfruits and part-offerings, when you shall do as it is written: Sell all thou hast, and give to the poor.” Thus, the old system of tithing has no place in Christianity since a new system has been instituted by the New Testament."  See Here:

It was with the arrival of Constantine the first 'Christian emperor' (many historians have suspected that he was never really converted), that we see much serious thought given to church finance.  This was start of a system which led to the much despised imposed tithe. So tithing had not been practiced in the early Christian church but gradually became common by the sixth century. The Council of Tours in 567 advocated tithing. Tithes were made obligatory by civil law in the Carolingian empire in 765 and in England in the tenth century.

The tithing the preachers want you to do today has nothing to do with the tithing which the Israelite had to make.  Consider:

See Deuteronomy 12:6, 7, 11, 12, 17, 18, "And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your TITHES, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flock. And there, ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.

And of what was he to tithe from"

Leviticus 27:30-33, "And all the TITHE of the LAND, whether of the SEED of the land, or of the FRUIT, of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning the TITHE of the HERD, or of the FLOCK, even of whatsoever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it..."

So let us go back to the preachers admonition, "Brethren, there is a part of your income that does not belong to you -- it belongs to the Lord."  Where in Leviticus, or any wheres for that matter, that you have to tithe of the money you may have earned?  Yes they had money back then, in fact there is a provision for using money to facilitate tithing, but on law requiring a tithe on any income earned in money.

Deuteronomy 14:24-29:

And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set His name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: Then shall thou turn it into MONEY, and bind up the MONEY in your hand, and shall go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose: And thou shall BESTOW THAT MONEY FOR WHATSOEVER YOUR SOUL LUSTETH AFTER, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for WHATSOEVER YOUR SOUL DESIRES: and YOU shall eat there before the Lord thy God, and THOU shall rejoice, THOU, AND THINE HOUSEHOLD.

NOT A SINGLE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE SUPPORTS TITHING AS SOMETHING WHICH CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE PRACTICING IN OUR DAY! Evangelicals who - in our day - have so enthusiastically embraced the tithing principle seem genuinely unaware of the often hideous record of this system, as well as the fact that this tax was not finally abandoned in England and Wales until the Tithe Act of 1936!!

I am not telling you that you should not give of your heart to your church, but any gift given should be out of goodness of you heart and not out of an obligation to a Law Christens have never been under.  Are you required to circumcise? Not to touch a woman during her period?  Not to eat pork?  And on and on, so why are you required to tithe?

This site explains it much netter than I can: http://www.bible-truths.com/tithing.html