Most people in Western societies pay about 30% of their wages in taxes. Churches are now attempting to impose an additional 10% in the form of monetary tithes as a religious tax. Some churches go to the extreme of tracking the incomes of their members; and sending them bills detailing the amount they should tithe. As I explained in yesterdays post, Christians are not required to pay taxes to any religious authority. This leads us to another well-known passage the church adopts for the support of paying tithes as a tax. Matthew 22:17-21: Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax. They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription? Caesars, they replied. Then he said to them, Give to Caesar what is Caesars, and to God what is Gods. Today this passage is a commonly cited synopsis of the correlation between the new covenant church and secular authority. The church zeros in on verse 21 (Give to Caesar what is Caesars, and to God what is Gods.) to prescribe the payment of governmental and religious taxes --- with the latter in the form of tithes since allegedly this is what belongs to God. Again, as in previous posts, this endorsement of tithing is taught based on convenient presumptions rather than facts. In this passage, Jesus raises the question regarding the coin, Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription? Since Caesars image is engraved on the denarius, Jesus is pointing out that the monetary coin belongs to Caesar. In the same manner, todays currency is owned by someone as indicated by the inscriptions on it -- the Federal Reserve System (Government). From the money we earn, we pay back a portion in the form of taxes. Now ... following the dialectic of Jesus, we must ask the following questions: What belongs to God? Where has God placed his image? Is it on the first ten percent of our earnings? The answers to these questions are indicated below: 1. Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 2. Romans 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. 3. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. 4. 2 Corinthians 8:5: And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with Gods will. As noted earlier, Caesars image is inscribed on the coin. According to the above passages, God has His image engraved on us. That is what Jesus was referring to. It is the body of the believer -- our total self, which belongs to God. In the words of Leo Tolstoy, he wrote: “Yes, it should be paid; Give to Caesar what is his, that is, the money, and give your life to God.” (Tolstoy, Leo, “Drózhzhin’s Life and Death: We Won’t Pay!, A Tax Resistance Reader, 2008, Page 223) Under the new covenant, the Christian prime directive is to, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God...” In other words, we should devote ourselves to God and make every effort to honor Him with all things while zealously utilizing the spiritual gifts the Lord has bestowed to us. We should also give praise to God who has given us His Son’s sacrifice so that we may have eternal life (Heb. 13:15-16). And finally, we should share with others the great privilege of God’s grace through His Son, Jesus Christ. To allege that 10% of monetary income belongs to God is false doctrine and an insult to the Lord.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:58:19 +0000
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