LoopHole
By Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Worldwide, Pastor Enoch Adeboye caused a stir in botn the physical and virtual world few days ago. He surprised his followers when he publicly acknowledged that what he had been teaching about payment of tithes all these decades was false.
Adeboye recanted on Friday October 4, 2024 in his address at the RCCG’s National Youth Convention. He clarified that salvation depends on following peace and holiness, as stated in the Scriptures rather than on financial contributions to the church.
It was an earth-shaking confession that reverberated in the hearts and minds of the Christian faithful not only in Nigeria but all around the world.
Adeboye was humble enough to make his great confession. He also tendered an apology for misleading the flock, moreso with his recent declaration that nonpayment of tithes automatically leads to hell fire.
Apparently, Pastor Adeboye did a battle with his conscience after the video clip of his proclamation of eternal damnation on Christians that don’t pay tithe went viral. It also came with a backlash.
Many Churches and their priests have stuck with the biblical injunction in Malachi 3: 8-12 where the Prophet admonished the people of Israel to return to tithing. To drive home his message, Malachi stated that withholding their tithes translated to robbing God.
What the proponents of tithing have refused to acknowledge is that payment of tithes to priests was imposed on the people of Israel as a means of sustenance for the levitical priests. This particular mosaic law served its purpose in that pre-Christian era.
But with the coming of Jesus Christ, the levitical order of priesthood was set aside because of its imperfections. The eternal priesthood of Christ in the order of Melchizedek took over and so payment of tithes was never included among the Christian injunctions.
Paul the Apostle expounded the issue of tithing in the Christian era in his letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 7. Curiously, the pro-tithe Churches and ministers have continued to skirt around this portion of the Bible.
They deliberately refuse to make reference to Hebrews 7 and only quote Malachi 3 to justify their propagation of tithing. Specifically, Paul stated that with the changing of the levitical priesthood, “there also has to be a change in the law (of paying tithe)”. This means that Christians have no business with tithes.
So, Pastor Adeboye is right.
In his humble but great confession he said:
“I apologise for saying, ‘If you don’t pay tithe, you might not make it to heaven.’ I’m sorry, that’s wrong, and it’s not in the Bible. What the Bible says is ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God’” .
All the while, only very few Pastors have preached against payment of tithes. Most of them have chosen to hide the truth because tithing has become a huge source of revenue for the Churches and their pastors.
This explains why the Founder of Power City International Ministry, Pastor Abel Damina, has been at loggerheads with his fellow men of God for preaching against the payment of tithes.
In one of his preaching, Damina reporredly questioned the rationale behind the collection of tithes by Pastors. His poser: “Why are you(pastors) asking for tithe; if you look at the book of Acts, nobody paid tithe to anybody. Jesus didn’t pay tithe, Jesus didn’treceive tithe”.
Expectedly, Pastor Adeboye’s great confession has not gone down well with other men of God, who still believe and teach that payment of tithe is the one way ticket to heaven.
Some church ministers have come out to fault his turnaround repudiation of tithing, even though he left a proviso that payment of 10 percent of earning as tithe should still be observed by new comers or beginners.
The President and Head of the Baptist Church in Ogun State, Rev. Oyewale Oyeniyi, has reportedly contradicted Pastor Adeboye, insisting that nonpayment of tithe is punishable by gnashing of teeth in hell fire.
He was quoted as saying: “My conclusion on whether a person who refuses to pay tithe will make heaven or not is that if God says we should pay tithe and someone refuses to do so, that is disobedience and I think that every disobedient person will not make heaven.
According to him, “There might not be a phrase in the Bible that anybody that doesn’t give tithe will go to hell, but the truth of the matter is that if God is demanding for our tithe and it has been established in the scripture that God is demanding for it, violating that simply means that you are disobeying God’s instruction and I do not see anybody capable of disobeying God going to heaven.”
Obviously it’s either Rev Oyeniyi has not read Hebrews Chapter 7 or has read it but refused to admit that tithing has no place in the New Testament.
As opinion remain divided among churches, pastors and the entire Christian fold on the issue tithe payment, its high time those who don’t read the Bible start doing so. Reading and exploring the timeless truths in the Bible is advisable. The tendency of abandoning oneself to being spoon-fed by pastors who hide the truth for selfish reasons, would do more harm than good.