Template:Early Church tithe

Stone upon a stone

Was the "stone upon another" really about ruling one over the other?

The idea of a stone upon a stone had a double meaning.

Christ prophesied the destruction of the temple, but also it was the end to the domination of an hierarchy that exercised authority one over the other.

There was an hierarchy within the Church, but it was not a system where men rule over one another, but it was a system of government where the "greatest among you" was great because he "doth serve".

The Bible is filled with Allegory and Metaphor, which can allow Sophistry to produce a Strong delusion in the minds of the people.

If the Altars of Clay and Stone were not just piles of dirt and rocks, why were they made of unhewn stones?

If a gathering of stones was a company of men, then what were the Stones that Jesus was tempted to turn into bread?

What was the Golden calf and the sacrifice of the Red Heifer, and why did the people have to sew the Breeches of the Levites?

And if the Lively stones were people, did Stoning originally mean a practice that did not include hitting people with rocks until they were physically dead?

Finding the answers to these questions may make it clear who Christ appointed and why and what they were to do and how they were to do it. The Minsters appointed by Christ were to be benefactors of the people, but they were to do so without exercising authority, forcing contributions or ruling over the people.

Early Church tithe

Some people try to teach that the precept of tithing did not transfer to the early Church when Jesus took the kingdom from the Pharisees and appointed it to the Apostles and other ministers of His Church.

Christ said He would take the kingdom from the Pharisees, which included many Levites. He said it was to be His pleasure to appoint it to His little flock. We see Him appoint that kingdom to the apostles but we are evidently suppose to believe that Jesus took away the precept of contributing to the minister to support them and their work.

• Where is the reference in the scriptural text where Jesus says the people seeking righteousness do not have to contribute to these new appointed ministers of His kingdom?

• Where does Jesus say the people do not need to tithe any more?

• Why do these new called out ministers of Christ called the ekklesia or Church not need to be supported by the congregation's regular freewill offerings like the Levites who were the Church in the wilderness?

Jesus requires that his ministers come out of the world.

They are not to pray to the Fathers of the earth.

They are to have no personal inheritance or private estate just like the Levites.

They owned all things in common as a bond servant of Christ like the Levites who belonged to God.

They were to be separate from the people like the Levites and certainly from the world. But some how people think you do not have to support these ministers who took the Levites place.

One of the problems is that people do not understand the Levites nor the tithe or tithing much less the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. . The apostles were working in the Temple in Jerusalem built by Herod and daily distributing bread and meat into the homes of the needy. After all this is what James calls Pure Religion. When we see that this daily ministration was not reaching the Greeks they needed to appoint Seven Men like what was done in the Old Testament.

There are those who preach that tithing was not a part of the New Testament but the same who promote that idea also send their congregations to the men who call themselves benefactors but exercises authority one over the other contrary to the instructions of Christ.

Tithing existed before the Levites and afterwards and even in other ultures.

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Early Church authors talk about the mission of the Levites being transferred to the apostles.

• "Bishops, presbyters(Elder) and deacons occupy in the church the same positions as those which were occupied by Aaron, his sons, and the Levites in the temple." Jerome, Ep. 146

In Deuteronomy 12:19 we are told not to forsake the Levite ever. But is it the Levites or the position they hold in a free society.

" "Since, therefore, these things have been made manifest before unto us, and since we have looked into the depths of the divine knowledge, we ought to do everything in order, whatsoever the Lord hath commanded us to do at the appointed seasons, and to perform the offerings and liturgies.... 40:5 For to the High Priest were assigned special services, and to the priests a special place hath been appointed; and on the Levites special duties are imposed." CLEMENT OF ROME, First Epistle. Composed between AD 80 and AD 140, and ranked with Didache as one of the earliest—if not the earliest—of extant Christian documents outside the canonical New Testament.

"That people which was called of old the people of God was divided into twelve tribes, and over and above the other tribes it had the levitical order, which itself again carried on the service of God in various priestly and levitical suborders. In the same manner, it appears to me that the whole people of Christ, when we regard it in the aspect of the hidden man of the heart, that people which is called "Jew inwardly," and is circumcised in the spirit, has in a more mystic way the characteristics of the tribes. This may be more plainly gathered from John in his Apocalypse, though the other prophets also do not by any means conceal the state of matters from those who have the faculty of hearing them." Origen. Commentary on John, Book I,. HOW CHRISTIANS ARE THE SPIRITUAL ISRAEL.

We also see in the "Excerpts of Theodotus" preserved in the writings of Clement of Alexandria " And at all times, the God who loves humanity invests Himself with man for the salvation of men, -- in former tithes with the prophets, and now with the Church. For it is fitting that like should minister to like, in order to a like salvation." "

Paul the Apostle was clear about the ministers were to eat of the altar which was given to God. This of course would include only preachers who conformed to what Christ's requirements for His ministers was.

• "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?" 1 Corinthians 9:13

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We do see the Greek word for tithing in the New Testament numerous times.

The word dekate meaning a tenth appears 4 times and dekatoo which appears twice, all in Hebrews 7. Nowhere does the text suggest that tithing is done away with but that it was transferred from Aaron and the Levites to an order of Melchizedek who was the Righteous King of Peace, Jesus and his appointed ministers of the kingdom.

We also see the word apodekatoo which also appears in Hebrews 7:5. It is a verb which had to do with both giving and receiving. It appears in Matthew 23 and Luke 11:42. None of these verses suggests that Jesus is discontinuing the practice of tithing but that along with tithing we should also attend to he "weightier matters".

In Luke 18:12 does not even hint that there was a problem with tithing but but only bragging or exalting yourself in the process.