Fables
- 1 Timothy 1:4 "Neither give heed to fables[1] and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do."
1 Timothy 1:3 sought to stop people from teaching other doctrine. The Church was preoccupied with providing benefits and care through a daily ministration of charity and faith. But he also wanted the people to avoid fables like those spread by people who had the same mind set as the pharisees.
They were more concerned with form and practices and private interpretation and personal doctrines rather than the weightier matters.
We not only show how the Modern Christians are not doers of the words taught by Christ to that early Church but they are also not doing what the Church in the wilderness was doing.
Jesus took the kingdom from the Jews who believed in false doctrines and fables so much so that they were not bearing the fruit of a peculiar people, the fruit of a nation and kingdom that operated through a network of faith, hope and charity.
- For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." Matthew 13:15
- They read the Scriptures but cannot see that the "... Levites were directly responsible to distribute the tithes to the poor of the land.... We also haven’t found any Scriptures to indicate that Aaron was to take care of the poor, the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger, with this tithe." Exxx
It should be absolutely clear that everyone was responsible for the widows and needy of society within the gates. That has always been the definition of Pure Religion.
http://www.preparingyou.com/wiki/Widow
Even though neither the words religion and charity never appear in the Old Testament it is overwhelmingly obvious that that in order to love your neighbor as yourself like Moses said you would need care for one another in a variety of ways.
Rules about gleaning were established but many would not be able care for their needs with gleaning alone. People were often spread out and some times aid would be needed in large amounts in different pats of the land.
- Deuteronomy 14:29 And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which [are] within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.
Within the gates was within the network of Israel which was a kingdom, the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to take the kingdom from those who were doing things wrong and appoint it to those who would do it right. Wrong was by force. Right was by charity and freewill offerings in love.
That is simple
It should be a no brainer.
The tithe was what freely flowed from the tens, the tents of the congregation, to sustain a healthy viable nation.
This was all done to bind the people together by love and honor and hope rather than contracts. If people cannot see the simplicity and wisdom of that voluntary system they will produce unsound doctrines like the Pharisees and produce a scattered community which is incapable of sustaining itself in a crises.
The support of the leaders of the Network like Aaron and the Levites was an essential element in the protection and care of society.
- 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Yet even when you show in detail that God never intended people to pile up dead stones and burning up sheep and common sense would tell you such bloody rituals and macabre practices could not bind people together nor inspire an promote Social Virtues.
But a network of living stones freely receiving the sacrifices of the people and rightly dividing that bread from houses to house or tent to tent could produce those needed results.
- "The commanded tithes are specifically one tenth of the increase of the seed of the land, and the fruit of the tree, and the flocks and herds." Exxx
This is absolutely foolish and comes from unmooring the meaning from the allegory and metaphors of the testaments. Under such nonsense we would all be casting our bread out on the lake in hope that it will come back to us.
- "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
- 1 Timothy 4:7 But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
Tithing was a part of the Kingdom of God from Melchizedek to the charity of the early Church.
http://www.preparingyou.com/wiki/Tithing
- Titus 1:14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
Even the Seven men chosen by the people who trusted them had a purpose in a Kingdom.
http://www.preparingyou.com/wiki/Seven_men
Jesus did not preach isolated congregations or a plan where people forsook the gathering together. Charity is not just heping the needy you stumble upon.
- 2 Peter 1:16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
- g3453 ~μυέω~ mueo \@moo-eh’-o\@ from the base of 3466; v
- AV-instruct 1; 1
- 1) to initiate into the mysteries
- 2) to teach fully, instruct
- 2a) to accustom one to a thing
- 2b) to give one an intimate acquaintance with a thing