What is hyper-grace?" – in the Bible #6

On February 1, 2014, the message was about how to determine if a church is teaching the relatively newly dubbed “Hyper-Grace”. There were at least 8 identifiers. I have already covered #1-5.

The following are signs of a hyper-grace church:

1. The preachers never speak against sin.

2. The lead pastor never takes a cultural stand for righteousness.

3. The Old Testament is almost totally ignored.

4. People who live immoral lives are allowed to teach and lead ministries.

5. The lead pastor speaks often against the institutional church.

6. The lead pastor preaches against tithing.

Although I believe tithing carried over into the New Testament, I believe it is more of a biblical principle that preceded the Law of Moses (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all tithed before Moses gave the Law), was taught by Jesus (Matt. 23) and was mentioned in other passages, like Hebrews 7. These pastors denounce tithing as a law that was done away with in Christ.

Genesis 14:

·         17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him.

·         18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.

·         19 And he blessed him and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;

·         20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tithe of all.

o   Tithing was in practice long before Moses and the Ten Commandments

Matthew 23:

·         13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

·         14 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

·         15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

·         16 "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'

·         17 "Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

·         18 "And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.'

·         19 "Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

·         20 "Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.

·         21 "He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.

·         22 "And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

·         23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

o   Jesus here is telling the Pharisees that they are correct in keeping the literal written directives of the  law, The Torah

o   This was a great opportunity for Him to tell them it wasn’t needed any more, but He did not do so

o   So where DID Christ do away with tithing? He didn’t do it.

Hebrews 7:

·         1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

·         2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace,"

·         3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

·         4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

·         5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham;

·         6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

·         7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better.

·         8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.

·         9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,

·         10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

o   Years after Christ’s crucifixion, Paul (or whoever wrote to the Hebrews) had yet another opportunity to say that tithing had been done away by Christ.

o   He did not do so.

Malachi 3:

·         7 Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," Says the LORD of hosts. "But you said, 'In what way shall we return?'

·         8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.

o   Since 100% belongs to God and He has said you can keep 90% of it, to fail to give Him His 10% portion is stealing from Him

·         9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.

·         10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the LORD of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

·         11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," Says the LORD of hosts;

·         12 "And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land," Says the LORD of hosts.

OK, so scripture shows us that tithing has not been done away by Jesus Christ, other questions arise in today’s society.

1.      If salaried, is the tithe 10% of your gross pay or net pay?

2.      If you have investments, even a savings or checking account that pays interest or dividends, are their proceeds subject to a tithe?

3.      Much of the Old Testament tithing was of crops. How does that relate to non-farmers?

4.      In the Old Testament times, and even during Jesus’ time on earth, there was no government that paid Medicare or Social Security Benefits. Part of the tithe to the Levites was to go to helping widows, orphans and those unable to work.

Now it is your turn to address the Holy Spirit. Pray to the Father that He may guide your decisions. I will not attempt to provide the answers to you. These questions are typical of what may have been taken to the judges or Levites for individual answers that fit your personal situation. Since it was not possible to lay out the detailed answers to these questions in the Torah, they become issues between you and God. Your directive is to obey the letter of the law. Be true to the spirit and ask God to direct you where there is no clear answer.