Giving and Tithing (Resourceful Living) [Paperback]

Larry Burkett (Author)

Book Description

Series: Resourceful Living | Publication Date: August 1, 1998

Larry Burkett lends his financial expertise to two handy quick-reference books for individuals and families, plus a video especially for married couples. Personal Finances gives the basics on creating and maintaining a budget. Giving & Tithing communicates the biblical instructions on giving sacrificially. A blend of dramatic vignettes and practical teaching, Two Masters will help husbands and wives break the bondage of overspending, debt and materialism.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

LARRY BURKETT (1939-2003) was a well-known authority on business and personal finance and wrote more than seventy books, including non-fiction best-sellers like Family Financial Workbook, Debt Free Living, and “The World’s Easiest Guide” to Finances.  He had a worldwide radio ministry.  Larry founded Christian Financial Concepts and served as chairman of the Board of Directors of Crown Financial Ministries. 
1/04

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Moody Publishers (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802437370
• ISBN-13: 978-0802437372
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian Living > Business
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism > Self Help
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian Living > Stewardship

More About the Author

Larry Burkett 1939~2003, Biographical Information

Widely Known For His Economic Warnings

In The Coming Economic Earthquake (Moody Press, Chicago, I11. * 1991), Burkett delineated growing federal deficits and the ever increasing use of debt by business and households out of control. Burkett points out those severe economic times will appear sometime shortly after the millennium unless current polices are changed. Burkett believed that Keynesian economic policies, with ideals for continuing federal deficits and the implicit preference for higher levels of credit and consumption, reduced saving, and a larger role for government in the economy are a means to disaster. As Burkett states in the book that as interest on the debt consumes a larger and larger portion of the yearly federal budget, and more money is borrowed each year to pay the interest on what was borrowed in previous years, there will be a temptation to "monetize" the debt at an increasing rate leading to a calamity not seen since the Great Depression. Burkett questioned whether or not elected leaders would take action in time to prevent fiscal chaos, and believed they would not. Larry gave no time-line for this prediction, other than a forewarning, foreshadowing current events of the time, with a little common sense added for good measure.

Early Years


Larry Burkett (March 3rd, 1939~July 4th, 2003) was an American author and leading Christian radio personality whose work focused on financial counseling from a Christian point of view. Larry was born in Winter Park, Florida on March 3, 1939, the fifth of eight children. After completing high school in Winter Garden, Florida, he entered the U.S. Air Force where he served with the Strategic Air Command. Upon completion of his military duties, he and his wife Judy returned to central Florida, where he worked in the space program at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He spent the next several years at the space center (NASA) in charge of an experiments test facility that served the Mercury-, Gemini-, and Apollo-manned space programs. While working at the space center, Larry earned degrees in marketing and finance at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. Larry left the space center in 1970 to become Vice President of an electronics manufacturing firm.

A Turning Point


In 1972 Larry put his trust and faith in Jesus Christ to guide his life, through the influence of his wife Judy and persistence of Dr. Peter Lord, Titusville, Florida--an event that had a profound effect. In 1973 he left the electronics company to join the staff of a nonprofit ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ at the request of Dr. Bill Bright, as a financial counselor. It was during this time that he began an intense study of what the Bible says about handling money, and he started teaching small groups around the country.

Ministry Is Formed


In 1976 Larry Burkett left the campus ministry to form Christian Financial Concepts, a 501C(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching the biblical principles of handling money. CFC was used as a vehicle to produce audio, video and written Work's for helping individuals, the local Church and main-line Denominations World-wide disseminate God's word with regard to Stewardship principles. In May of 1996, Southwest Baptist University conferred on Larry an Honorary Doctorate in Economics.

Radio Broadcasting


In 1979 Larry became a frequent radio guest of Dr. Jim Dobson founder of Focus On the Family with a widely listened to syndicated radio program. This exposure lead Moody Bible Institute Broadcasting division, Chicago, Illinois to help host, than start Larry's own radio ministry. Larry was a long time host of the four radio programs, "Money Matters," "How to Manage Your Money," "MoneyWatch," and "A Money Minute," which were carried on more than 1,100 radio outlets worldwide.

Larry's Publications


Larry published more than 70 books, sales of which now exceed 12 million copies and include several national best-sellers. Publications by Larry include What Ever Happened to the American Dream, The Coming Economic Earthquake, Your Finances in Changing Times, Business by the Book, The Financial Planning Workbook, Women Leaving the Workplace, Investing for the Future, Debt-Free Living, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, Hope When It Hurts, Nothing to Fear, in which he gave an update on his experiences with cancer and cancer treatments. Larry also wrote four novels: The Illuminati, The THOR Conspiracy, Solar Flare, and Kingdom Come (with T. Davis Bunn). Larry's final book before his death was The Burkett & Blue Definitive Guide to Securing Wealth to Last, and was written with Ron Blue and Jeremy L. White.

Larry also encouraged his eldest son, (Larry "Allen" Burkett, Jr.) as an author to write and produce thirty-two stewardship books and material "penned" under Larry's name. These Work's were for children, teen and parents under the banner: "Larry Burkett's "Money Matters for Kids", "Money Matters for Teens", "Larry Burkett's Stewardship for the Family ~ Time, Talents & Treasures". Some publications by Allen under Larry's name are Financial Parenting, What If I Owned Everything?, Money Planner for Kids, 50 Money Making Ideas for Kids, Teaching Your Child About Money Matters, Me Wonderfully Made, All About Money, Talent and Time Series, How Things Work Series, Pocket Change Series, Great Smoky Mountains Storybook Series, World's Easiest Pocket Guide Series,

His Legacy


Larry's memory is held dear by all those whose lives he touched: his family, his friends, and his ministry partners. He lived a life of Christian kindness and genuine humility. He was always extraordinarily generous. One of the central principles Larry taught is that we don't really own things; we are simply stewards and managers of what God has entrusted to us. In Larry's case, that included the ministry he founded.

Larry Burkett dedicated his life to teaching people biblical financial principles. He poured his life into serving the Lord through this ministry. He loved the ministry, he loved his staff which he believed was an extenuation of his own family... Caring for family first was foremost to laying a rock-solid foundation to ensuing a genuine love for the people who looked to the ministry for help in their time of need. Larry's compassion was so evident. His Radio Listeners could not see him, but could feel, his concern and even his tears for them.

Prior to his death, Larry founded the Larry Burkett Foundation®. The Larry Burkett Foundation® accepts donations to help needy individuals through and promoting organizations such as The National Christian Foundation®, Atlanta, Georgia and Helping Hands Ministries, Inc, Tallulah Falls, Georgia,. Please send your tax-exempt donation to:

Larry Burkett Foundation® 
1330 Old Woodbine Rd NE 
Atlanta, GA 30319-1040

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Proof-text tithe advocate., May 16, 2001

By 

Russell E. Kelly (Acworth,Ga USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Giving and Tithing (Resourceful Living) (Paperback)

Giving and Tithing, Larry Burkett, 1991, 1998, 62 pages.

If you are a lay person with little depth of contextual Bible study, this book will be very appealing and a delight to read. Larry is a financial planner, not a theologian, and is more skillful in getting people to agree with him than instead of correctly teaching God's Word.

PLUS: (1) When New Covenant principles such as those in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are discussed, the book has a lot of worthwhile comments, although they are still in proof-text style. (2) On pages 32-33 he correctly points out that the real biblical "tithe" was actually 23 per cent, although he does not go into embarrassing detail. (3) He correctly concludes that a great deal of the Old Covenant tithe went to the poor and needy in the community and even states the churches should give a portion of their "tithe" income to individuals or para-church organizations that are filling in the gap (page 35).

NEGATIVE: (1) Pages 14-15: While claiming to spend many hours studying the Bible in its context, Mr. Burkett does not show any knowledge about the correct definition, contents, covenant, limited purpose, or failure of tithing. (2) Page 29: In reality the tithe was always only food from landowners and herdsmen inside Israel and never applied to craftsmen or the poor. His definition of tithing ignores the food only contents of every legitimate tithing text after Moses. Although Abraham was before the Mosaic Law, he was obeying the Arab law which is clear by Genesis 14:21 in most commentaries. (3) Page 29: Burkett says "no punishment was indicated for not tithing." King Saul (1 Sam 8:14-17), David (1 Chron 23-27), Hezekiah (2 Chron 31), and Nehemiah (Neh 10-13) sent soldiers to collect tithe-taxes to support their Levitical government workers. (4) Page 30: Since tithes were collected and stored in the king's storehouses, it was not voluntary, as Burkett, and thus is disqualified under free-will principles of the newer and better covenant of grace. (5) Page 31: Burkett also missed the "purpose" of the tithe by ignoring its key chapter, Numbers 18. The tithe was a temporary replacement for the "priesthood of believers" and only its supported priests could draw near to God. When tithing ended at Calvary, Exodus 19:5-6 was fulfilled in 1 Peter 2:9-10. (6) Page 31: The wicked "they" were most likely the disobedient cursed priests from Malachi 1-3. (7) Page 32: Says that the tithe was considered a minimum without giving any supporting texts. This is not true. The poor gave what they could and were not covered by the definition of the tithe. (8) Page 34: "The priests and the tribe of Levi would be the equivalent of the pastors, church staff, missionaries, and evangelists today." This is also not true, because the believer-priest replaced the old priesthood and the pastor-teacher is a new entity comparable to the rabbi, who was usually self-supporting.

(9) Page 34: Says that the system of tithing was "kept nearly intact by the early church." Actually, while the earliest church was very strong on helping the needy, tithing was not reintroduced until Cyprian's time in the 3rd century. Tertullian, his teacher, taught otherwise. (10) Pages 16-17: Claims that Paul's "material suffering" following his great sacrifice was "unique" and, therefore, not the norm, which contradict his own survey found on page 16. (11) Page 17: The statement that "Paul amplifies" the statement that "those who give less than a tenth of their income limit what God can do for them" is absurd when compared to New Covenant principles found in 1 Tim. 5:8 and 2 Cor. 8:13-14. (12) Page 17+: While quoting Mal. 3:10-12 numerous times and 3:8 once, he does not quote the curse of 3:9 because it contradicts his statements about no "fear" of being "punished" on pages 22-23. The old covenant curse context of 3:5-7 from Neh. 10:29 and Deut. 27-28 is totally ignored. Actually, the priests in Malachi were cursed for keeping the best of the tithe for themselves and not giving it to the poor in verse 5. The curse of the law for not tithing does not apply to Christians, per Galatians 3:13. (13) Page 17: "A lack of giving is an external material indicator that spiritual changes need to be made" is an insult to the devout Christians in Judea who were being helped by the early church; and also to those today who are suffering under tremendous medical bills. Burkett sacrifices the love Jesus shows to the poor for his viewpoint of "weak and unprofitable" "abolished" principles of tithing (Heb 7:18).

Burkett might succeed as a family financial counselor, but he fails miserably as a theologian and church historian. When asked to speak for the church in such matters, he should defer the biblical application to those persons. Burkett is not inclined to dialogue with those who disagree with him. Since the book contains so many biblical errors, I do not recommend it at all.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A grand disappointment in light of Scripture!, July 15, 2002

By 

Dave Y. "nobody777" (Kennewick, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Giving and Tithing (Resourceful Living) (Paperback)

Though Larry is often heralded as one of the most popular Christian authors on financial matters (which I would have to agree that financial advice is his strong suit and I know people who have benefitted from his books), this book is a grand disappointment, to say the least. This book proves that Larry is typically influenced with the traditional mindset on tithing but is less than able to present any valid biblical reason for his direction to tithe. As Russell Kelly, PhD. put it, "Larry is a financial planner, not a theologian..."

Larry builds his entire foundation on the modern traditional teaching of tithing rather than building it on the Word of God. While Scripture is referenced, it is most often far removed from its proper context and Larry relies on his personal opinion often to enforce points.

Larry seems to be ignorant of the mountain of evidence included in early Church history that reveals the Church was big on giving out of love, but was not impressed with those who imposed Old Covenant mandates on the Church. In fact, several of the Church Fathers from the second century specifically spoke out against tithing (to be used as an example, guideline or motivation for Christian giving). And despite the fact that there is not one New Testament passage that teaches the Church to use the Old Covenant tithe of food as an example to motivate giving money for the purpose of maintaining building programs and staffed ministers, still Larry insists that tithing is very much a New Covenant principle! Amazing!

Another problem is that Larry only seems to quote certain passages of Scripture where it supports the point he is making. That wouldn't be a problem if it weren't that he continually misapplies passages by removing them from their proper context and then only quoting the part of the passage that suits his view. Other passages that should also be included to bring clarity to the complete biblical picture are left out entirely, and understandably so as they would cause his misuse of other passages (whether deliberate or from ignorance) to be more evident. His puzzle wouldn't fit together if Scripture was visited in its proper context.

This is sad and unfortunate. Even more unfortunate is the reality that there will be some Christians who just bite and swallow these teachings without examining the Word fully for themselves.

I am not suggesting that Larry is deliberately trying to deceive people. I'm sure he is probably thoroughly convinced of his view as are so many believers today who follow the modern concept of tithing money to churches. I know that Larry is a skilled teacher in the area of financial management and I thank God for the help he has provided to people needing assistance in this area of their lives. There is much good to be said about brother Larry's work in this field. I cannot, however, speak so positively about his handling of this subject of tithing because, quite honestly, this book is a miserable examination of the topic and it is misleading to the body of Christ when it encourages Christians to just accept that tithing money to a church is a biblical mandate. It is not. Not even close. This is also not to say that Christians should not support those programs that they receive benefit from, but all I am suggesting is that to call something biblical and present it as a mandate of Scripture when it is not Scriptural at all is just not biblically honest and I don't see how the Holy Spirit can ever bless such teaching.

I hope by sharing these comments that, if someone does happen to purchase Larry's booklet on tithing, they will be wise to thoroughly examine the Word on their own and not just take this brother's word for it. Anyone can build a doctrine by piecing verses together here and there. It is another thing to honestly examine Scripture in its full and complete context.

While there is much encouragement in the New Testament towards giving from love and obedience to the internal leading of God's Spirit, and that giving is to be actuated from free will WITHOUT COMPULSION or because of NECESSITY (2 Corinthians 9:7), any mandate to tithe money to a local church ...is just absolutely absent from Scripture! After studying the topic myself for more than 4 years now, I am thoroughly convinced it is a doctrine of man and not at all of Scripture.

For a real study on tithing, that goes far far far beyond just one guy's opinion, prooftexted with a small handful of verses, I strongly encourage you to get your hands on a copy of Russell Earl Kelly's book on tithing. It's called, "Should The Church Teach Tithing: A Theologian's Conclusions About A Taboo Doctrine." This book is remarkable! Every passage on tithing in the entire Bible is dealt with thoroughly, in context. There is no proof texting in this study... it's just strait up, honest Bible! Where opinion is offered, Russell states such and does not ever expect the reader to just take his word of opinion for something. In other words, Russell does not teach his opinions as being the Bible. He teaches the Bible. And his book includes all the source references used in his study so the reader can check him out completely if they choose to. That's why I loved his book and so highly recommend it - it nails it on the head when it comes to "getting biblical" about this topic. No stone is left unturned!

Just about every other pro-tithe book I've read lacks substance and usually these books are very thin, scantly clad with Scripture. Russell's book is crammed thick with the Word of God and loaded with resource study material, including an examination of early Church history - post Calvary! Good stuff! Excellent!... If you want to get honest about what biblical tithing is, I strongly recommend Russ' book!...

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short and powerful, November 19, 2007

By 

J. Taylor "rerum cognoscere causas" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Giving and Tithing (Resourceful Living) (Paperback)

Burkett, the sage of Christian finances, writes a short book addressing the two very sensitive topics of giving and tithing. Burkett, as well as Alcorn and Ramsey, all argue that the Bible's mandate to tithe at least 10% is still in full effect.

If you can't live off of 90% of your salary, you've got bigger problems than worrying about the other 10%, they say. The truth is we can never out give God. But refusing what is rightfully "his" will result in poverty (certainly spiritual and probably material).

Burkett goes on to say that helping the poor is an important part of any church's ministry, especially towards the unsaved.

He spends time explaining how a church should set-up a committee to review requests. He shows why all potential recipients must participate in a financial counseling session before a church gives any assistance.

Burkett reminds us that the principle of "from each according to his means, to each according to his needs" is a principle, though disastrous if implemented by the unsaved, appropriate for application by today's church.