Ask Your Preacher - Archives
“Too Much Math”
Categories: DOCTRINE, FALSE WORSHIP, THE COLLECTION, WORSHIPMy boyfriend says that pastors are wrong when they say, “Give 10% in tithes." He says that the Bible says 1/10th. His argument: the dictionary defines ‘one tenth’ as ‘one part of ten’, and ‘10%’ is defined as ‘10 parts per hundred’, thus meaning that 1/10th is actually smaller. So in all actuality, we should only give:
1cent, $1, $10, $100, etc. (not) 2 cents, $1.54, $12.25, $149, etc.
What he does is if he makes $487.00, he'll put $40.00 into his tithe envelope and another $10.00 into the offering plate going over the 10% anyway. When I ask why argue when you put in over the percentage anyways, he says it's not about the money; the preachers may or may not know the difference, but he does, and it's about facts. Is this true?
Sincerely, By The Numbers
Dear By The Numbers,
Your boyfriend is missing the point and using a modern definition for an ancient word. If I understand your boyfriend’s argument (and I’m not sure I do) it revolves around rounding numbers and an American dictionary. His point is that there is a difference between 1 part per ten and ten parts per hundred. This may be true in certain chemistry and technical applications, but it is not true in the normal usage of 1/10th. Tithe does mean 1/10th. It is a fraction. Ask any math teacher how to find 1/10th of something, and they will tell you to divide by ten. The Old Testament doesn’t use an American dictionary for its word definitions, so the parts per hundred and parts per ten argument doesn’t hold water.
Having said all of that, tithing is an Old Testament Jewish practice, not a command for New Testament christians. Your boyfriend and your pastor are arguing about something that doesn’t even apply to christians! See this post for more details about tithing, and see this post for details about finding a faithful church. Though 10% is a good ‘rule of thumb’ for how much to give, the Biblical commandment for christians is to ‘give cheerfully’ and as you have ‘purposed in your heart’ (2 Cor 9:7)... which it sounds like your boyfriend has been doing. If the leadership of your church doesn’t understand the difference between Old Testament and New Testament teachings – they probably aren’t paying very close attention to their Bibles.
