Should we continue tithing today?

Several years ago, I attended a truly uplifting worship session at a mega-church in Leatherhead. Yet, at the conclusion of that session, I was disappointed to hear the Senior Pastor trot out the usual shop-worn arguments for the continuance of tithing in the New Testament.

Of course, I can understand churches’ attraction to having a substantial and predictable source of church funds. However, stretching the applicability of an Old Testament regulation to our New Testament era is not the way to do it.

Tithing in the Old Testament: the goal was equality

In the Old Testament, tithing (the religious practice of giving a tenth of one’s income) provided harvest and or livestock support for the relatively landless Levite tribe (Deut. 26:12–13)