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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gary does exegesis!,
By "cdwitmer" (Tachikawa, Tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tithing and the Church (Hardcover)
I own most of Gary North's books, and just about all of them have good stuff in them. I'm not always thrilled with Dr. North's exegesis in his economic commentaries on the Bible, where the biblical text is often used as a springboard to discuss scads of interesting topics, but the Biblical text itself sometimes is not very deeply explicated. I guess Dr. North would reply that it's a result of focusing on economic dimensions. Be that as it may, in this book Dr. North does a pretty decent job of explaining, from the biblical text, why tithing is still obligatory for Christians today, and why the tithe should go to the local church. Dr. North could have done even more, of course, and the reader is encouraged to carefully study and meditate on the pertinent biblical texts, rather than simply reading this book. Now that R. J. Rushdoony has gone to be with the Lord, the criticisms of Rushdoony have, in a certain sense, lost some of their importance. In another sense they are still as important as ever because there are a lot of Christians out there to whom Dr. North's criticisms continue to stick. R. J. Rushdoony and his followers are most certainly not among them, but many Christians today reject tithing on the grounds that is "legalistic." I wonder how many people can see the irony in that: such a rejection is itself susceptible to the same charge of legalism in reverse. The anti-tithers claim that tithing amounts to a "downgrading" of New Covenant standards because, they assert, it tends to create the misperception that 90% belongs to us, when in fact 100% belongs to God. In other words, they try to take the moral high ground. People who argue along these lines usually say lofty-sounding things about true New Covenant giving not being limited to "only" 10%. It's almost as if their approach results in the church prospering, whereas the tithers would fetter it. But a recent article in Christianity Today (posted June 6, 2003) discusses a Barna Research Group study that shows only 6% of born-again Christians donate 10% or more of their income to churches. This means that at least 94% don't feel tithing is obligatory. Now, of the 6% who do donate 10% or more of their income to churches, how many are people who think there is no longer any obligation to tithe, but they do it anyway? Probably they would fit into a phone booth. What this means is, people who argue against tithing find that donating 10% of their income to the church is an onerous burden. Oh yeah, we modern Christians are long on "grace," but short on gratitude. Is it any wonder the church is scorned among the non-believers in modern America? Why should non-believers take the church seriously when even Christians don't?
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The tithe belongs to the local church,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tithing and the Church (Paperback)
Gary North makes a strong case from the scriptures that the whole tithe belongs to the local church. North argues that the institution which has a monopoly on the sacraments is the institution that has a monopoly on the tithe, as it was in Abraham's day. The first half of the book makes his case very well. However, the second half of the book is mostly a criticism of R.J. Rushdooney's position that the tithe does'nt necesarily need to go to the local church. I felt that using half of the book to detail this criticism was unnecessary to his arument. I give tha first half of the book 5 stars, but the second half 3 stars. The first half is worth the purchase price and I recommend that you buy it for that.
16 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Chalk another one up for the traditional, non-biblical view!,
By
This review is from: Tithing and the Church (Paperback)
Ugh! I don't think I have the energy to write another review of books like this that just push traditional opinions rather than honestly and thoroughly examine Scripture.Please do yourself a great favor; Don't waste your time with this book. Get a copy of Russell Earl Kelly's book, "Should The Church Teach Tithing," or "Beyond Tithes And Offerings," by Michael and Mitchell Webb. If you don't mind admitting that you are set in your ways and are just looking for titles to agree with your opinion (whether or not they agree with clear Scripture), then buy Gary's book. But if you're a sincere student of the Word of God, I encourage you to get your hands on some real research materials and start doing your homework. In my own studies I was initially shocked to find out how many respected resource works and ministries there are that do not support the concept of tithing money to a local church as being a biblical mandate (including names like Spiros Zodhiates, Richard Lenski, C.I. Scofield, Walter A. Elwell, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Ryrie, and tons more!) If you search the Web for my Prayer Shack website or e-mail me, you can read some of my own research in this area. Tithing money to finance institutionalized churches is absolutely unheard of in the New Testament and the first couple of centuries of church writings. In fact, a few of the early church fathers specifically pointed out that tithing was not to be a guideline to motivate Christian giving. The whole thrust of tithing doctrine gathers its strength from romanistic influence! This is an historical fact! It wasn't until the Roman Emporer Constantine launched his grand religious building schemes that tithing was imposed as a formal requirement. The practice did not become popular in Protestant groups until about 700 years after Calvary!!! Russell's book will draw attention to historical resources like these and all of his work is documented so that you can follow along and do the research yourself. Gary is pushing traditional opinion, not engaging a biblical study here. You decide what is important to you.
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