Power Evangelism Church

A Stronghold of Deliverance and Healing

                                No More Tithes!

It would require a full-length book to comprehensively deal with this subject.[1]  This is exactly why I have written What Preachers Never Told You About Tithes and Offerings: The End of Clergy Manipulation and Extortion.  It’s 288 pages and scheduled to be published July 2010.  This fact sheet highlights our beliefs about mandatory tithes and offerings: 

 

  • We believe New Testament Christians aren’t obligated to obey in any form Old Testament Jewish obligations of mandatory tithes and mandatory offerings. 
          
  • We believe it is dangerous, counterproductive, and in violation of the gospel of Christ to require Christians to live as Old Testament Jews. 

  •  We believe Christians must give according to the Spirit of Christ, which is love, rather than the spirit of Moses, which is law.

  

Christians Are to Give

According to the Law of Love in Christ Jesus

 

Moses has no claim on Christians, but Jesus Christ does!  Our Lord demands two things from us.  One, that we love God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul.  And, two, that we love our neighbors as ourselves.  He defines neighbors as friends, enemies, and anyone in-between. 

 

God’s requirement for giving is as refreshingly simple as it is devastatingly challenging.  If we love, know, and trust God, we will give consistently and sometimes sacrificially.  If we don’t love, know, and trust God, we will be selfish.  That’s it.[2]

 

The position of PEC is that leaders have an obligation to model consistent giving and to strongly encourage Christians to do likewise. 

 

There are three reasons we give.  First, it is to honor and worship the Lord.  Second, it is to demonstrate our love for fellow Christians.  Third, it is to help the work of evangelism and discipleship. 

 

Noticeably absent from our list of reasons is an obligation to satisfy the lusts and dreams of men.  We believe that spiritually healthy Christians give consistently and sacrificially, but they do so only according to their ability, and only because they believe the Holy Spirit desires them to do so.  The amount they give, when they give, and to whom they give is between them and God.  No so-called minister of God has a right to this information.[3] 

 

This raises the inevitable question of, What will happen to the work of God if Christians are given such freedom?  The answer is that true Christians want to give to God.  They don’t need to be tricked, threatened, or bribed! 

 

  • We believe that if Christians are properly taught to hear the voice of God, they will give.
     
  • We believe that if Church leaders model and teach how to give in good times and in bad, Christians will give. 
     
  • We believe that if the Church proves that it is no longer greedy, wasteful, and driven by fleshly ambition, Christians will give. 

  • We believe that even though we strongly teach Christian liberty, Christian liberty will never prevent us from doing anything that God desires us to do.  The key is to do God’s work in God’s way in God’s time!  

[1] Here are some excellent resources on the subject:  Beyond Tithes & Offerings by Michael L. Webb and Mitchell T. Webb, http://www.ontimepub.com/; Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola, http://www.ptmin.org/; Should the Church Teach Tithing? by Russell Earl Kelly, Ph.D., http://www.shouldthechurchteachtithing.com/; Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin of Contemporary Christianity by Ray Mayhew, http://www.relationaltithe.com/pdffiles/EmbezzlementPaper.pdf; and several excellent teachings by George Greene, http://www.inyourbible.com/.    

[2] Matthew 5:43-48; 25:31-46; Mark 12:28-31; John 13:34-35; Romans 12:10, 13; James 2:14-17; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 3:10-18.

[3] Churches and preachers who require Christians to disclose such information to be declared in good standing with the Church are presumptuous, manipulative, and controlling.  It is nothing less than witchcraft!