Tithingman

A Tithing was a group of ten men. Their chosen titular leader was a Tithingman but he was a part of another group of ten men. The leader of the Tithingman's group was to help coordinate their resources as a part of a network of men without incorporating as a legal body in order to maintain the welfare of a hundred men and their families in matters of law justice, mercy and fidelity and eventually in the continuation of these groups of tens, hundreds and thousands for a whole and free nation. When the righteous Social Virtues predominated in the people with each man doing his duty unselfishly this system worked well.

Tithingman Defined

A Tithingman was a leader of ten men. The ten men were the heads of families in old England. The chief man of a tithing presided over its gatherings but also linked it to other gatherings representing the interest of the tithing and communal gatherings but titular in nature.

A tithing or tything was a historic English administrative or legal unit, originally one tenth of a hundred families.

National Network

A little known truth of history is that “our modern reliance on government to make law and establish order is not the historical norm.”

Nations often united in groups of ten and formed a network. They kept these networks alive through systems of charity that helped people in times of need. The leader had no power over the people but were to facilitate a network that gathered all the different groups of ten in a meaningful and organized manner.

In ancient nations such rulers of ten did not really have authority over the men or people. They used these networks to bind people together by common sense of loyalty. There were several important elements required to maintaining these networks in a viable and healthy state.

A leader of ten men or a tithing was known as a 'tēothingman' which became known as a tithingman. In prehistoric West Germanic form it was a *tehuntha-, among the Latins it was a 'decānus, or among others he was a dean or doge. Later in England we see terms like borsholder appeared.

These men who served a tithing gathered with other men like themselves and chose their leader. This next layer of the network was called a Hundredsman. The hundredsmen networked among themselves and chose someone they called a shire or eolderman which became an alderman.

With a healthy network of honorable and loyal men, an army could be mustered overnight to deal with fire, flood or invasion on a local or national level.

These systems met with varied success depending on numerous elements in the relationship of these groups and the men who wove them together as a nation. In fact there were several criteria that proved essential to the strength of those national societies.

Patterns of Networks:

• There needed to be an actual service performed to the people of a local group of ten families which passed through the hands of the Tithingman.
• To do this that group must give the means to the Tithingmen through charitable offerings to provide those service, not just for their group but for the whole nation.
• The Tithingman needed to know the families of the group he served but also keep himself somewhat separate and impartial to the group.
• The group he served was not his group but a group of other Tithingmen.
• The bonds of trust and honor between the other Tithingmen he gathered with was absolutely critical to the health of the Network as a national group.
• The same was true of the Shire or Eolderman who served the Tithingmen. He also gathered in a small group of ten Eolderman.

Status of Position:

These leaders had a grave responsibility to deal with the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and fidelity and provide a Daily ministration for the needy.

They had not only the compassion to administer charity and mercy to the people but also answered the Hue and cry of those who were unjustly abused. The social virtue apparent in a man was an essential ingredient for whole communities relied on his relationship of trust and honor in shoring up the network.

If they did not cement their relationships with fellow tithing-men, or hundredsmen, or eoldermen the aid that might be needed to save them might be delayed or not come at all.

These systems or networks were forms of self-government that provided assistance for people in times of need like injury, illness or deaths in a family but in more dire times it was often a matter of life and death.

This was your social insurance for you and your family and sometimes for your whole community and even your entire nation. Through the administration of these men of service all justices and mercy could be provided.

• They were a peacemaker not a placater.
• They would rebuke unrighteousness not pander to men of vise.
• They valued strength and dedication so refused to weaken the poor.
• Because what would be given in time of need was freely given by friends in personal sacrifice the motivation to use the resources of the government was wisely bestowed upon the deserving.

Around the tenth century the role of the tithing man had begun to shift. While their position in the community was one of service and their authority was only over what had been given, the tithings became more like gangs as jealousy and envy ate away at the once noble office.

A new element in society began to grow with power and influence. Kings rose to positions of power more than nobility. They were crowned and sanctioned by a Church established by the spiritual blessing of Constantine and Charlemagne. The moral code, courage and caring of the people no longer turned back the tide of tyrants and despotism dug in its heals against the liberty of the people.

Freedom waned under the weight of the organized armies of these kings like Stephen, De Bullion and, Carte and William the Conqueror. The union and discipline of earlier networks of societies across Europe were not as intimidating to these despotic kings as they had been under Emperors of Rome.

As always it was not the machinery of these kings that brought the people down from liberty to subjection but it was the spirit of self-interest that crept into the hearts of the people, tipping the scales of righteousness that made the people subject. Over time the sloth, avarice and self-interests brought the tithings to a stagnate realm because leaders became more concerned about the support they received from their local group than they were concerned about righteousness needed to hold the nation together.

The early Church appointed by Christ, as well as early Levites of Israel, and evidently the altars of Abraham used these patterns of Tens to form voluntary governments that brought the people together without compromising freedom of Choice.

Governments often need to be able to muster people into a large force for the aid, protection and defense against injustice, disaster, calamity or even invasion. To do this they formed these groups of Tens and linked them in order to gather with a network of respected individuals who diligently dedicated themselves to the mission of procuring the loyalty and love of an entire nation... not just for each other but for righteousness.

When the spirit of pride touches our choices and actions a spiritual current begins to poison society. When the local Tithing begins to neglect the rest of the nation or people of God's kingdom the spirit of God departs and the spirit of evil fills the vacuum.

The people often have their eyes upon the kings and rulers of the world thinking their salvation or social security rises or falls in their great power. But it is the humble ways of self-sacrifice where we live that makes the real difference.

When the Tithingman begins to focus on his local Tithing more than the Kingdom of God and those duties within his congregation of ministers he is in fact leading the people back into bondage. It is absolutely essential he lead the congregation he serves to care about all the other congregations his fellow ministers serve as much as their own. He can only do that if he realizes and emphasizes that his congregation of ministers is his congregation and the elders who gather and choose him as their minister are merely a congregation he serves.

Treasury

Christians were accused of robbing the Temple of Diana in Ephesus. How could they rob this temple which had one of the most secure vaults in the Mediterranean?

The temples of ancient cultures often included the treasury of those governments. The "fat" or reserve fund of the people were often stored in the temples built by societies. Lands, livestock, and commodities like grain along with industries requiring major investment like mines and shipping were accumulated with the wealth deposited with these temples. The temples were not merely centers of commerce but could provide financial, social stability and a variety of valuable functions for society.

The most practical way to store wealth was in gold and without large vaults, the best way to store gold was in a block or statue where no one could steal a part of it without taking from the whole. A large statue could not be carted off easily but also it gave the people something visible and common to defend. Since it represented the wealth of the whole community it provided an incentive for the people to stay together and defend it and therefore each other. It also allowed the governing body of the temples to issue some sort of redeemable currency or money that could be traded within the community.

Even the golden calf of Israel was actually like a reserve fund of the treasury of a government being set up by Aaron. They were trying to create a central economic system like other nations to bind the people together. People fear the unknown, and nothing is more unknown than the future.

Israel was not to bind itself together with Contracts, Covenants and Constitutions like the governments of other nations, nor was the Church to bind the people like the governments of the Gentiles. But it functioned with No king, prime minister, or president without enforced taxation, nor a professional army. Yet, they were a government.

This is why the Church is defined as "one form of government". Centralized governments become governments that exercise the power of choice over the people. Once you create offices of power rather than titular offices of responsibility and service, people who seek power seek office. Power corrupts, and people of power seldom relinquish that power, but generally, they seek more and more power.

All the power of government comes to governments from the people by way of some form of consent. The more the people depend upon the government to use its power to provide the benefits of society, the weaker the people become as a community.

The first and most common form of government was voluntary systems of self-governance which depended upon the goodwill of the people. We see such free governments in Republics like early Israel, which was supported by a tithe which was freely given by ten families.

If more funds were needed, the individuals chose to freely give through the same network of ministers (and many congregations) to support local or even national projects, from emergency relief to military defense.

Governments formed, whereby that right to choose was vested in an elected leader that could exercise authority and rule over the people, was a rejection of God, according to 1 Samuel 8, where it also says they will take and take and take etc.. Such leaders almost always fall prey to what might be called the Saul Syndrome, and the people become victims of the leader's greed for power.

Real Money is power, which is why governments want that power in the hands of the State, rather than the people - from Lycurgus of Sparta to FDR, and Hitler, it has been assumed that "Gold in the hands of the people is an enemy of the state."

Moses believed the opposite, for he came to free the people, not give power to the Nimrods, Pharaohs and Caesars of the world.

Temples like the "Aerarium Stabulum" or treasure-house served as the public treasury in Rome, just as other Temples like Herod's temple were treasuries of the government.

Jesus watched how the people would put money in the treasury within the stone temple of Herod the Great.

Mark 12:41 ¶ And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

The same word for treasury is seen in Mark 12, Luke 21 and in John 8:20

“These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.”

Jesus had been hailed as King by the people, He gave instruction in the royal treasury, He issued orders in the government temple, and He fired personnel. In 78 BC, the Pharisees had an ordinance passed into law, requiring the temple tax be paid, or the matter was handed over to the appointed civil magistrates of Judea for enforcement. The Greek word for “moneychangers” was kollubistes, which was a word for a small coin or “clipped amount”. Kollubistes had to do with the commission charged by the holders of these lucrative offices of the government.

These commissioned moneychangers were likely to bring in an amount in excess of 7,600,000 denarii in that one month. They were allowed to charge a silver meah, or about one-fourth of a denar. Their cut on this one event could be 950,000 denarii, worth more than $9,000,000 today. “Thus the immense offerings … to the Temple passed through the hands of the moneychangers.”

Only the king could fire these gatekeepers of the temple treasury,, and that is exactly what Jesus was doing with His string whip, turning over those tables. Understanding who the money-changers were, as government officials - and what it meant to be fired from their lucrative commissioned position in the national treasury - brings the motivation of crucifying Jesus into a new and revealing light.

Luke 21:1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury <1049>. 2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. 5 ¶ And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, 6 As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

The early apostles were moving funds around and sending relief to the people; these were funds collected from the people in a network.

There is more than one word that is translated treasury in the New Testament. The most common is the word gazophulakion It is composed of two words γάζα gaza treasure, which was the "the royal treasury" and φυλακή phulake meaning guard, watch.

The other word translated treasury is κορβᾶν or korban. Corban was around in most all countries of the world and even in history. It was provided in two ways. Corban was a sacrifice or offering used to take care of the needs of the people. It was part of systems of welfare, of which there have always been two types.

What treasury

The Kingdom of God is from "generation to generation" and congregation to congregation. The treasury of the Kingdom is not found in vaults of dead stone nor a golden calf but God's treasury is stored in the hearts of a peculiar people who live by faith, hope, and charity through a perfect law of liberty. Each family is linked through free assemblies in patterns of Tens by ministers of charity and love. Those who "seek", "strive", and "persevere" through faith and in the name of Christ gather together forming an impenetrable body of righteousness in which the grace and miracles of God may abide.

If we are supposed to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, where is the treasury of the kingdom?

If Religion is how you fulfill your duty to God and your fellow man, and since God said your duty was to love Him and your neighbor as yourself and even your enemy, then how does the Church appointed by Jesus help fulfill that duty as one form of government?

Jesus appointed a kingdom to His called out ministers, His little flock. They were a government that was to be the Benefactors of the people, but not exercise authority one over the other, but rather in its Charitable Practices of Pure Religion strengthen the poor and provide social welfare for the needy of society.

The flow of funds and supplies is important to take care of the Daily ministration of a nation. But the health of the body of Christ must exercise charity daily, and not just when there is great need, in order to be truly prepared for what the future will bring.

Jesus has expressed a strong opinion about the form of treasury of His people, which did not include central depositories and vaults:

Matthew 6:19 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:"

Central treasuries are often robbed by a thief breaking in to rob it, but also by those on the inside of the treasury that do not really love the people they were supposed to serve. Power corrupts and money is power. The ministers of Christ must not seek a position of power or personal wealth.

Israel and the early Church originally did not depend upon storehouses of treasures, but upon a network of volunteers which through Fervent Charity provided a constant flow of aid by The Way of a Network of ministers who gathered in Pure Religion through a system of charity rather than the force common in most governments. This was the system in the days of John the Baptist, when Herod had instituted a system of sacrifice or Corban that was making the word of God to none effect - a system of sharing through a socialist scheme. Rather than freewill offerings, socialist systems were rooted in covetousness which would bring the people into bondage and make them merchandise, both then and today. These systems filled storehouses, but rulers could (and did) spend it on projects to build vast empires.

These covetous practices would curse children with debt and enslave them to a life of Universal Service. The world's rulers who have no intention of halting their progress (empire building) offer no end to the slavery. The only salvation is to repent and seek the Kingdom of God as Jesus said, in a Network of love through the Perfect law of liberty according to The Blessed Strategy of Christ.

Because the Kingdom of God is from generation to generation, the treasury is in the pockets and purses of every man and his family. The "union and discipline" of the network which gathers in Free Assemblies can provide for one another, on a moment's notice, the funds and resources needed through its Network of ministers.

The constant flow of charity is the life and blood to the Body of Christ. When there is a greater need, the contributions begin to flow through the hearts of the people which control the purse strings of the treasury by The Way of the same Free Assemblies of the people, for the people and by the people, out of their love for one another.

This is what it meant to come in the name of Christ, to love one another as He loved us. All of this may happen while the world continues its quests for great empires, in the same way John the Baptist and those followers lived in a world ruled by Herod. But if, instead, the Modern Christians are biting one another in modern systems of Corban that make them merchandise and if they curse children under endless debt by supporting the covenant for the modern version of Roman's government, then they take His name in vain, and they are workers of iniquity.

• Join the network.
• Congregate with a Congregation of Record (CORE).
• Give and forgive so that you may be forgiven.

Matthew 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Mark 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

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