Who Pays the Tithe of a Tithe?

It's Feast season again. Do you have "Feast fever" yet? Ready to go on the biggest vacation of the year? Get ready for some go karting, 'cause you know the track is gonna be right down the road from your hotel. Hopefully this year the big-name Ministers will notice you and say hi when you walk into the restaurant where they are segregated off by themselves.

Yes, I tease a little in there. Tell me those things aren't based in fact, though! You've experienced those things at least once. 

Today, I would like to talk about something else you've likely experienced - tithing. Specifically, tithe of a tithe. I was reading No2HWA's article over at Banned! titled "It's Tithe of the Tithe Time! Get Out Those Checkbooks!" and I just had to chime in. I may be mistaken here, but I don't think tithe of a tithe has ever been forced through the patended As Bereans Did Gauntlet. This oversight ends today.

For people who are new here and not from an Armstrongist background, I will briefly explain.
In Armstrongism, two of the many things that are taught as doctrinal truths are tithing and observing Old Covenant holy days rather than mainstream holidays. One of those festivals, the Feast of Tabernacles, is particularly central in the year because it is basically a week-long Christmas and a vacation wrapped in one. To pay for it, the church requires an entire tithe to be set aside - with tithe defined as 10% of your gross income. You might say 10% isn't so bad, but this is a tithe in addition to the normal tithe. In other words, you've already paid 10% of your income to the church and this is a second 10% set aside for going to the Feast of Tabernacles. It's called the "Festival Tithe".

There is a peculiar tradition in Armstrongism that started decades ago, called "tithe of a tithe". This is where you take 10% of your festival tithe and you give it to the church. Because apparently the first tithe wasn't enough. Why? Well, the explanation is rather benevolent. Your generous and mandatory donation of the tithe of a tithe is used to pay for the rented facilities and to help people who cannot otherwise afford to attend the Feast of Tabernacles. At least some of it is. Usually. Why couldn't they just do that with the first tithe? Well, they could have, but instead they probably used it to build a college auditorium.

TITHING - YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG AGAIN

What is their biblical justification for this tithe of a tithe?

(NUM. 18: 25-26) 25 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: ‘When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe.

See? Tithe of a tithe! We accept Cash App.

But hold on just a second here. Didn't I just read that the Levites were supposed to pay this tithe? “Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them," it says. That's the law! It doesn't say, "Speak to the congregation, and say to them."

In order to get tithing in the first place, let alone tithe of a tithe, there had to be a change in the unchangeable law. Armstrongist Church of God splinters make a very large deal out of changing the law. "You can't do it!" they exclaim passionately. Usually, they are talking about changing the Sabbath to Sunday.
I could pull quotes to demonstrate this from any of a hundred thousand places, but I just so happen to have been prepping another post for the past couple weeks. I will pull from there out of convenience. In that post, I quote from a publication on the United Church of God's Beyond Today site by one Robert Berendt. In it, he says this (about changing the Sabbath to Sunday):

"Can we humans discard or change that which God wrote?"
"Can we add to the laws or take away portions? I think not!"
-Robert Berendt, "Written By The Finger of God", Beyond Today, 2001

No? We can't??
Then why was it done here?!

There are no Levites anymore. The law says tithes go to Levites. Then, the Levites give a tithe of that. That is the law. No one can change that.

This is all about tithing, no? Who paid tithes? Everyone in Israel paid them, except for the tribe of Levi. Who received the tithes? The tribe of Levi. Why? Because they were dedicated to being priests and tithes were their source of income.
But that's not how it's done in the "nobody can change the law" churches of Armstrongism.
Who pays tithes? The whole church, except the Ministry. Who receives the tithes? The Ministry. Why? Because the Ministers are dedicated to being Ministers and that is their source of income.

So, the Ministers are in the place of the Levites. But you can't change Levite to Minister. That's a change in the law.

We have other articles on how there are no Levites in the New Covenant, and tithing is a ceremonial heave offering not a moral law, and there is no justification for tithing in Christianity, and tithing wasn't of money in the first place, plus it was not 10% but one-in-ten. For more, read our article "Tithing - You're Doing It Wrong", and I especially recommend "Not All That Glitters".
I don't want to get into those details here, though.

WAIT - WHO PAYS?

But changing Levite into Minister is not the only change. The tithe of a tithe was supposed to be paid by the Levites to the Aaronic high priests:

(NUM. 18: 28-31) 28 Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord’s heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. 29 Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.’ 30 Therefore you shall say to them: ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. 31 You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting.

Who paid tithe of a tithe? The Levites - it was a tenth of the one tithe they already received. Who received tithe of a tithe? The Aaronic Priests. Why? Because they serve in the tabernacle of meeting.
That's the law!

What did we just read earlier?

"Can we humans discard or change that which God wrote?"
"Can we add to the laws or take away portions? I think not!"

Then why was it done again here?!

If the Ministry wants to pretend to be Levites, wouldn't it make a lot more sense that the Ministers should be the ones paying tithe of a tithe? Why are you, Mr. or Ms. Average Churchgoer, asked to pay the tithe of a tithe? Are you a Minister? Are they Levites? No.

DEPOSITED IN WRONG ACCOUNT

And I want you to notice a third thing.
The tithe of a tithe had nothing to do with funding the Feast of Tabernacles!

They change the law a third time. What did Numbers 18 say? The Aaronic priests received the tithe of a tithe as a reward for their work in the tabernacle. That's in the tabernacle, not at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Does the Ministry work in the Tabernacle of Meeting? No! There is no Tabernacle of Meeting or Aaronic Priesthood today. So, why does the Ministry get to collect it and use it for unauthorized purposes?

And I want you to notice a fourth thing.
The tithe of a tithe, which tithe did it come from - the first, or the second? The first! (Remember how Armstrongism teaches two tithes.)

If your Minister expects you to pay tithe of a tithe from your second tithe, he clearly did not read Numbers 18. The tithe of a tithe came from the first tithe, the one that the Levites received. It did not come from any funds set aside by regular Israelites to attend the Feast.

Don't even get me started on the requirement for travel "Three Times in the Year". It's not just once. It's three! Everyone is getting "Feast Fever" because of this annual vacation coming up, but I bet no one is pressing their church to explain the other two times in the year they were supposed to travel but didn't.

Yet again, the unchanging law has been changed. So much for Robert Berendt's comments! Apparently "you can't change the law" only counts when it's a change from Saturday to Sunday. Other than that, you can change the law all you like.

As a good friend of mine once told me, "Herbert Armstrong changed the law out of necessity." So, there's your answer, Robert Berendt.

CONCLUSION

The unchanging law has to be changed in many ways to arrive at the Armstrongist tithing system. Today we saw these four changes:

• The Ministry are not Levites, so they shouldn't be collecting tithes to begin with.
• The tithe of a tithe was supposed to be paid by the Levites, not the average Israelite.
• The tithe of a tithe was supposed to fund the Aaronic Priests for their service in the tabernacle. It was not supposed to fund the Feast of Tabernacles.
• The tithe of a tithe did not come from second tithe.

I probably could come up with more, but this was a quick article I whipped up in short order. I don't want to take forever writing it.

The next time your church reaches out to you to tug on your heart strings and get you to pay them more tithes, you have my permission to quote Numbers 18 and ask your Minister why he isn't paying his due. If they want to ask you for a freewill money donation, that's one thing. But if they want to call it tithing, and point you at tithe of a tithe, you quote Mr. Berendt up there and then put away your checkbooks!

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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )

Acts 17:11

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