Where Is the True Church of God?

“Where is the true one?”

Atheism is growing in numbers. Yes, it is growing across the globe.

Church attendance also is in decline and many people are giving their full-time to secular work, recreation and love life, and it seems good enough if he/she has a minute of conversation with God. The prophetic lines of the psalms of David are now fulfilling,

“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

Everyone of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Psalms 53:2-3)

One of the primary reasons that makes people to cease from looking for truth lies upon the popping out of various religious denominations with various theological views but have the same claim of being the true Church founded by God. Being confused and exhausted from false hopes that their churches promised to them in exchange of their intense physical, mental, and financial devotion to its cause, people decided to stop the quest for truth. While ministers and pastors are becoming more wealthy, church members were left into dissatisfaction and despair, until they decided to take no more time for religion which they regarded as foolishness.

Falsehood is a deadly virus that arising today and kills the spiritual life of a person. The Bible speaks the truth, and it tells about the true Church. But the truth that was being said in the Bible was covered by the clouds of falsehood that arising today. Ephesians 5:2 says;

“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.”

Christ is the savior of the body which is the Church.  But where is that Church that He’s going to save? Is it among those more than forty-two thousand Christian  denominations now registered in different parts of the globe? Founded by those people who said to be called by God to restore humanity unto Him? The Holy Scriptures speaks clearly;

“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalms 127:1)

Logically speaking, every house has builders. And these builders are their owners. In the Bible, God has His own, too. And of course, He was the builder of His own house. What then is the house of God?

“But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (I Timothy 3:15)

The house of God is His Church; the Church which was headed by His begotten Son, Jesus Christ. So, those denominations claiming to be of God but ruled and headed not by Christ but by their founders are false and deceptions.  To consider a church to be of God, it must be built by God. “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”, according to the Bible. Hence, if a particular Church was built by man, it’s considered nothing.

Then, where is the true Church of God in our time that those people who really care for the truth will finally take their rest from this quest? How do we able to identify if such Church is the real one or it’s just one of those vain churches scattered all over the surface of the earth? Apostle Paul said;

“And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” (I Corinthians 12:28)

Of course, we are speaking of those true apostles of God, true prophets, true teachers of the gospel, true miracles, true gifts of healing, true government of the gospel, etc. These elements were installed only in the true Church. And where is that true Church? Obviously speaking, that was the Church built by Christ more than 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. Other than that Church, there’s no truth. And don’t be deceived by some preachers of religion saying that the Church founded in Jerusalem was already apostatized or fallen or destroyed. The Lord Jesus Christ has a promise, saying;

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29)

The true Church will never perish but it will stand until the day of judgement. It will remain a light unto the world and vessel of truth that will enlighten the world in the midst of its darkest days. Christ was its founder, so we should not think that it will fall as a house built in the midst of sand. In it, all that will be saved shall be baptized. But how we will be part of it? How we will have fellowship with those members of the Church founded 2000 years ago, like the apostles? is it possible? Of course, it is possible. John said;

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;…
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” (I John 1:1,3-4)

“The Church endured spiritually, and the Bible is the only access to that Church.”

To be part of the only true Church where God put His elected apostles, John said, “that which we have seen and heard (the word of life) declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” Through faith with those words they declared in their epistles and letters, man may have fellowship with the true Church. We don’t need to see the apostles personally, or return to their age literally. We can become members of the Church founded in Jerusalem by simply upholding with those words preached by the apostles. We don’t need to look for those churches claiming to be the restoration of the 2000 years old Church because nothing was restored. The Church endured spiritually, and the Bible is the only access to that Church.

The reason why so many religious people ended into infidelity after a long long time of quest for truth lies to the fact that they look for truth with those churches or organizations built by human in our time, rather than seek it in the Holy Scriptures which is the sole record of all godly truth specially about the Church of God. Thus, everyone who seek the truth should return to the Bible. This is the only access that will connect us to the only true Church founded more than 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.

Strange Abandonment of Principle

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I really love the Church but if Jared Wright speaks in behalf of the Church with regard to this issue, surely we have an east to west distance of disagreement. Christ said,

And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? (Matthew 19:4-5)

 

“Today is a historic day in the history of the State of California and in the history of the United States as a whole. Today is the day when a ban on homosexual marriage will be lifted in accordance with a decision of the California Supreme Court. Homosexual couples from across the United States will descend on California in the coming days and weeks, and will receive the legal rights and responsibilities that accompany marriage.

Today’s removal of the ban on same-sex marriage is part of a larger debate in America over the definition of marriage. Because at stake in the discussion are issues of morality, justice, ethics, and separation of church and state, Adventists cannot and must not remain silent on the issue. Adventists have always insisted on speaking the truth, demonstrating God’s love, and working for justice. For those reasons, I suggest several reasons below that voters in California and elsewhere should stand in firm opposition to any constitutional amendments that would ban same-sex marriage. Below, I enumerate my reasons and provide a starting place for further conversation on the topic.

Seven reasons to oppose a ban on same-sex marriage

1. Adventists affirm separation of church and state. Advocating a ban on same-sex marriage on moral grounds is tantamount to coercive mandating of a religious viewpoint. We cannot spread morality by force through law! We should oppose all efforts to do so.

2. Protecting marriage: Supporters of a ban on same-sex marriage define the issue as protection of marriage. We must note that same-sex marriage is still marriage. Marriage as an institution is not under attack. Rather, it is being affirmed.

3. Promoting fidelity and monogamy: If we, as Christians, support and uphold fidelity and monogamy as better than cohabitation, then we should be consistent. The purpose of marriage is to promote monogamy and fidelity. Get it?

4. Marriage is beneficial for society both structurally and fiscally. Marriage promotes stable, lasting relationships over transient ones. Further, marriage is related to greater financial security and mental and physical health. Married people provide societal benefits for those reasons.

5. We cannot defer to the “will of the people” or “deeply rooted tradition,” as attempts by some organizations have done, to ban same-sex marriage. The will of the people and tradition consented to slavery in America. America’s elected officials outlawed slavery as a violation of human freedoms and dignity. America enacted laws banning interracial marriage by the will of the people and tradition. Appointed judges rescinded the laws as violations of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th amendment. Majority does not equal right. The court-ordered desegregation of schools in the 1950’s also went against the will of the people.

6. Same-sex marriage is NOT a slippery slope to the permitting of polygamy in America.

7. Same-sex marriage does not threat pose a threat to me, my choices, or my way of life. The practice of marital fidelity by homosexual couples does not impinge upon any of my liberties, it does not harm me or my religious practice, and it does not threaten God or God’s sovereignty.

Discussion – an opening for polygamists?

Some have argued that allowing same-sex marriage will open the door to a broad definition of marriage that will inevitably come to include polygamy. That slippery slope argument is demonstrably false. The following discussion comes courtesy of the article Gay Marriage and Polygamy, and is reprinted here for your convenience.

Any proposal for the expansion of marriage must be good both (1) for the individuals involved and (2) for the society in which they live. Gay marriage meets both of these criteria. The case for polygamous marriage is distinguishable (and weaker) on both counts, especially the second.
On the first issue — the effect of allowing gay marriage on homosexuals themselves — the deprivation for gays if gay marriage is banned is greater than the deprivation to polygamists if polygamy is banned. A polygamist may still marry someone if we ban polygamy; he simply may not marry many someones.

The deprivation to the polygamist is large, especially if polygamy involves the exercise of his religious faith, but not total. The gay person, however, has no realistic choice of a mate available under a gay-marriage ban. The deprivation is total.

Further, there is no “polygamous orientation” causing a person to need the close companionship of multiple partners (though some people may prefer it). There is, however, a homosexual orientation, causing a person to need the close companionship of a same-sex partner. The ban on polygamous marriage is the denial of a preference, perhaps a strong one; the ban on gay marriage is the denial of personhood itself.

On the second issue — the effect of recognition on society — the differences between gay marriage and polygamous marriage are more pronounced. There is ample evidence that people who live in stable, committed couples are healthier, happier, and wealthier than those who are single. Gay marriage is a good idea because it will benefit not only the gay couple but their families, friends, neighbors, and taxpayers whose burdens to care for unmarried gay partners is greater.”

Jared Wright is pursuing a M.Div at La Sierra University. He blogs at Adventist Environmental Advocacy.

Source: SPECTRUM

Kiss: What Is Dangerous and Beneficial?

A kiss, when all is said, what is it?
A rosy dot placed on the “i” in loving;
‘Tis a secret told to the mouth instead of to the ear.

This is what a kiss for Edmond Rostand, and I believe it too. Others define kiss by the very best hyperbole they have, and

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the craziest that I heard is that kiss made him to fly with angels. In short, kiss is the sweetest among the stuffs of love. And in fact it is like a cure. I remembered my brother who takes a box of cigarettes a day, but after his girlfriend’s first kiss, he doesn’t buy even a single stick anymore. “Thanks for that kiss”, mom whispered to herself.

Indeed, kiss can be a cure by emotional and physical sense. Bryant Stamford, PhD, professor and director of the health promotion center at the University of Louisville said that, “During a really, really passionate kiss, you might burn two calories a minute — double your metabolic rate.” (This compares to 11.2 calories per minute you burn jogging on a treadmill.) Joy Davidson, PhD, psychologist and clinical sexologist in Seattle, and former columnist for an online column called “Underwire.” stated that kiss “stops the buzz in your mind, it quells anxiety, and it heightens the experience of being present in the moment. It actually produces a lot of the physiological changes that meditation produces.” All in all, kissing and everything it engenders keeps us going strong, living long, as Stamford says. (Source)

But kiss is not always works for good.  There are dangerous kisses or kisses that can lead everyone to the path of death. The Holy Scriptures says,

 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him…

‘Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:…’

Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths…

Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. (Proverbs 7:9-13, 25,27)

Man should flee from tasting this kind of kiss. The kiss of a harlot or an unknown woman is the most dangerous of all kisses that anyone can have. God said, by their kiss you are likened to a lamb going to slaughter. Why? Because from their kiss, scientifically, a man can have herpes, strep throat, AIDS, hepatitis, cytomegalo virus, syphillus, mononucleosis, etc. You can have various illness by kissing an UNKNOWN WOMAN. Remember, not just from a harlot, but from an UNKNOWN WOMAN.

“For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.” (Proverbs 23:27)

So let kiss become a blessing in one’s love life rather than curse.  A kiss can be the best one in the world if it is for the one whom you completely knew and loved, and not with those others that share her/his lips with another.

Can Gays and Lesbians Be Saved?

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Of course we are not Gods and Judges to say that homosexuals and lesbians will be damned, but we are sure that salvation is always open for them. This is what the gospel stands for – a good news to everyone. “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”, says James, so we don’t have any right to judge another especially when that person is outside of our faith. “But them that are without God judgeth” according to Paul. Christ, during His earthly ministry, didn’t  judged those people that considered by the society as wicked and unclean, but rather let Himself acquainted with them and befriend with them. But today’s Christians, unlike the Lord, are very quick in judging people particularly when they noticed someone whose actions are not in parallel to their gender, and as a matter of fact, they discriminate them openly.  This isn’t Christ’s representation.

Of course, homosexuals can be saved. God is so near to everybody and He is so much powerful to save even the vilest person in the surface of the earth.  The only thing that must exist within man is his WILLINGNESS – willingness to welcome God’s willingness to save him. Gays and lesbians can be saved… if he/she want to. For them, Christ came as a physician, and for them His blood poured out on the cross. And by this precious blood, every sinners may be cleared and every believing soul may be justified. Paul said;

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

Unrighteousness makes a person to be damned, thus he/she must be saved from it, and it is only by the blood of Christ that they can be saved from it. This is what happened to those believers in Corinthians, including their homosexuals. They believed and then they were washed and justified. And as they were saved from their unrighteousness, they’re no longer live with it but instead lived in a justified and sanctified life. Maybe their actions are gentle as a virgin or maybe their voices are soft as lady (which I think naturally comes out from them), but in their heart they sing a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, worshiping His name and departing from those unrighteousness where they were saved from.

The “Pajero Bishops”

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. (Matthews 23:27)

“Let them resign!”

“She should apologize via all media organization”.

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These are what the bishops and high ranking leaders of the Catholic Church in the Philippines shout against the current PCSO Chairperson Margie Juico after dragging the names of some Catholic bishops into the irregular use of PCSO funds during the past administration.  PCSO (or Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) is one of the major branches of the government that deals with the “raising and providing for funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character”, as what the Republic Act 1169 dictated. Being a government agency, PCSO is included in the declaration of Article VI Section 28 of the 1987 Constitution which says, “No public money or property shall be appropriated, applied, paid, or employed, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, sectarian institution, or system of religion, or of any priest, preacher, minister, other religious teacher, or dignitary as such, except when such priest, preacher, minister, or dignitary is assigned to the armed forces, or to any penal institution, or government orphanage or leprosarium”.  This provision of the “separation of the Church and state” principle was clearly violated during the administration of ex-President Gloria Arroyo when the agency’s funds were used to provide the luxurious requests of some Church bishops in the country.

By saying that vehicles are needed for charitable works like relief missions and similar activities in their respective dioceses,

Bishop Pueblo's letter to ex-Pres. Arroyo

some bishops,  according to the 2009 report of the Commission on Audit,  received great amounts that totaled to P7 million; amounts that were used to buy luxurious vehicles such as Bishop Pueblo’s 4×4 Montero Sports, Bishop Quevedo’s Mitsubishi Pajero, etc..  This amount was released when the former President entertained the request of some bishops like that of Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblo. But perhaps, due to the shameful consequences of Juico’s exposition, bishops decided to return the vehicles to the government, but they now calling for the resignation of the current PCSO Chairperson, a call that the government ignored.

Bishops are now appearing before the scene as a flock of lamb. Displaying their innocence and pitiful appearance hoping to get more sympathy from millions of Catholics all over the country. They say that they were used as sacrifice in order to conceal the

Other bishops who received their gifts.

bigger anomaly of the agency (which actually they are just part of it). Bishops are now the good ones while Juico appears to be a liar by telling that they asked for Pajero instead of saying that it’s actually a 4×4 Montero. But why Montero? Why Strada or Crosswind? Are the poor need to be visited with Pajero?… I mean a 4×4 Montero?

The Hierarchy of Godhead

“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Colosians 1:25-27)

For many people who have difficulty in harmonizing the revelations of the New Testament with the monotheistic view of the

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Old Covenant, their only resort is to embrace the teaching of the Trinity as the nearest explanation to the biblical God. But not few also were those who fell into the modalistic view of the Pentecostals. Both views are unbiblical. God is neither Trinity nor like what Pentecostal onenesses think about Him. It’s true that there are three powerful Beings or Godhead but unlike the Trinitarian view, these three are not co–equal in power.  Of course, no one will say that when it comes to supremacy, a son is equal to his father or the father is equal to his son, or else it will be no sense at all to call them “father” and “son”.  The term “father” and “son” signify the hierarchical relationship between two persons. The term “father” signifies one’s respect and honor to the person whom he applied the term, and so the term “son” signifies one’s position as lower or subordinate to his father. In fact, Christ had this statement in the gospel of John;

“Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28)

And again in John 10:29, it says,

 “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all…” 

This declaration did not only surpassed the authority of Christ Himself but including the power of the Holy Spirit. When Christ said, “My Father is greater than all”, that’s absolute. It doesn’t only mean to say that no one is above Him but also no one is equal to Him. Hence, Christ said, “my Father is greater than I.” Thus we shouldn’t expect that Jesus Christ is also the Father. That’s wrong and misleading!

The monotheistic view of the Old Covenant is quite incomplete. I’m not saying that it’s wrong,  but I believe, base upon the gospel, that that’s incomplete. Perhaps, the confusion among the Jews whenever they are at reading of the Book of Genesis (particularly Genesis 1:26)  explains how incomplete are the teachings of the Old Covenant concerning to the nature of God. Monotheism is the hallmark of Jewish religion, yet most of the time they were confused by some verses of the Torah. This is because something was hidden during the time of the Old Covenant, and the reason why the New Covenant was given is to explain the mysteries of the Old Covenant. Paul explains,

“How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:” (Eph. 3:3-6)

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: ” (Ephesians 3:9)

“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Colosians 1:25-27)

Compared to the New Covenant,  the Old Covenant doesn’t have enough details about Christ, if it’s not, as Paul said, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”. It was Him (Christ) to whom the Father said, “Let us make man in our image”. John declared, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;” (John 1:1; I John 1:2)

And Christ said; “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with theebefore the world was.” (John 17:5)

Christ was with the Father before the foundation of world. And during the creation, He was with Him as a “master workman“, as an “intelligent architect“, hence John said, “all things were made through Him”. Is not saying that Christ is God? Of course He is. But unlike the Trinitarian belief, Jesus Christ is not equal with the Father, or He is the Father (like the claims of Pentecostals). Being WITH the Father is not being the Father.

What Christ had stated is this, “I and my Father are one.” This is not saying that He is also the Father or He is equal with the Father. But the best way to explain this is the same way how Christ explained it. And he said,

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17: 20-23)

The oneness of the Father and Christ is not in power or in authority neither they are absolutely one being, but as the Church is one in the sight of God, so Christ in the Father. The best representation to describe how Christ become one with the Father is the unity of the Church as one body. Perhaps, we can also use the oneness of a husband to his wife, as the book of Genesis described. This was how the Bible explained the oneness but hierarchical description of the Godhead. The Father is greater than the Son and the Holy Spirit and yet they are one.

Christianity and the Law of Tithing

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (II Corinthians 9:7,8)

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Tithe means tenth or ten percent. It is the ten percent of our total income from a single period of our work. Almost all religious leaders in Christendom teach that this portion of our income is holy and belongs to God, thus they persuade their members to set it apart and bring this to the Church as part of religious responsibilities. And despite the fact that we have over two thousand different religious organizations enlisted in Christendom and that they themselves were often engaged into dialogues and hot doctrinal debates, they seemed united standing in a single platform when the system of tithing is concerned. However, tithe also becomes the reason why several Churches ended into sudden fragmentation. I’ve been told that there was an evangelical church divided into three petty independent groups, each pastors still asking their members to tithe. Not surprising, because its all about money and money can destroy brotherhood.

The system of tithing is a part of God’s oracles, thus we must not be against it or we should blame it for the corruptions and chaos happened in Christianity. Rather, we should blame those religious leaders who used the words of God for their own interests. Because of love of money, these preachers misused the words and the commandments of God. Paul said;

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; (I Timothy 1:8)

The law of tithing is a righteous law, but many preachers of religion are using  it to benefit their own selves. In fact, preachers become rich because of their greedy implementation of this system. I say greedy implementation because when they talk about tithe in front of the members, they always acquainting they preaching with insinuations or often threatens their members with curses if they neglect to give their tithe. They will also say that the blessings of God are exclusively for those who pay their tithes . There were also preachers who freed their members to do sin and remain saved as long as they never forget to give tithe, if they don’t wish to be called “robbers”. So their members will give their tithes with a feeling that they serving God, but in reality, they just serving the belly of those greedy religious lords.

Tithing is a commandment given by God to the House of Israel. Among the twelve tribes of Israel, the tribe of the Levites are the least in the division of territories, because God ordained them not for these territories but to live as ministers of His sanctuary and become priests in Israel. And to sustain the needs of  His priests, God commanded the rest of the tribes to give their tithes as a portion belong to the Levites. The book of Hebrews explained;

And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:(Hebrews 7:5)

The Levites are those who have the commandment to receive tithes from their brothers, so how come that  Gentile ministers of religions are also asking tithes from their members? By misquoting the words written in Malachi 3:8-11, these ministers are binding their Gentile members into an obligation never assigned to them by any law of God. Malachi 3:9 states;

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. (Malachi 3:9)

“THIS WHOLE NATION“, He said. God did not say, “NATIONS“, but He said, “THIS WHOLE NATION“, in which He speaks only about a single nation, and that is Israel alone. Nowhere in the Scriptures that the tithing system was repeated or re-established in a Gentile nation. He only given this command for the Levites who administered the sanctuary of the Old Covenant. Now, in this New Covenant, the Levites ceased from becoming priests. When the priesthood was given to Jesus, the Priest according to the order of Melquisedec and not according to the Aaronic priesthood, the line of priesthood in the house of Levi ceased. So, if there’s no more Levite priest at all, by what command and to whom we will give our tithes, since the Levites are the only persons in the surface of the earth who has the commandment to take tithes according to the law? Did Christ needed our financial supports to sustain His basic needs? Definitely not. In the time of the New Testaments, we have only one Priest, Jesus Christ our Lord. Those preachers of the gospel are His co-workers, and they should work for the gospel without expecting benefits or salaries whatsoever, but they must work  as it is a burden assigned to their shoulders with the feeling of necessity to carry the ministry of God. Ministers must bear in their mind the same principle planted in the mind of Paul;

Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.

For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!

For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. (I Corinthians 9:13-19)

They should not become ministers-for-rent but they must do the work of salvation with love and desire to save their fellowmen.

Giving tithe is a good thing, but since the gospel never taught us to make it as a responsibility or an obligation, preachers should not implement this system as a church doctrine. Paul, the apostle to the Gentile, was very knowledgeable about the teaching of tithing but he never implemented this in the Church or advised any members to do this for him. Rather, Paul used his own hands to sustain his personal needs. He worked as a tent-maker and didn’t made himself a burden to his brethren.

For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;

Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: (II Thessalonians 3:7,8)

The teaching of the gospel is this,

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (II Corinthians 9:7,8)

If we feel we want to give tithe, then give it. Giving must be depend on what our heart purposed. Not grudgingly or of necessity, because God loveth a cheerful giver.