How Some Churches May Be Deceiving You About What “Increase” means in The Biblical Requirement to Tithe

SOURCE: Policy Document: Corruption Within Modern Christianity, Form #08.012, Section 6; https://sedm.org/Forms/08-PolicyDocs/CorrModernChristianity.pdf

The requirement to tithe is found in Deut. 14:22-20:

Tithing Principles

22 “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. 23 And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, 25 then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. 26 And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. 27 You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

28 “At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

[Deut. 14:22-30, Bible, NKJV]

On the one hand, hyper-grace dispensationalist churches will tell you that the Old Testament is repealed, and yet when the rubber meets the road and they need money, they will tell you that the above part of the Old Testament is still law FOR THEM. Either the entire Old Testament is law for the modern Christian or NONE of it is law. You can’t have it both ways. And you can’t essentially by whim turn that which you say ISN’T law into law. Only God, as the supreme Lawgiver can do that. More on the lawlessness and anarchism of dispensational hyper-grace churches at:

Laws of the Bible, Form #13.001, Section 3
https://sedm.org/Litigation/09-Reference/LawsOfTheBible.pdf

Further, some Bible translations say “one tenth” is the tithe and others don’t qualify it at all. The NIV version says one tenth while the New King James version doesn’t. Which is more correct?

Then there is the problem of defining what “increase” means in Deut. 14:22. Does it mean PROFIT or GROSS? The intended meaning in an Old Testament context seems to be GROSS on produce and not money, like a modern direct tax. Secular taxation, however, is based onthe Sixteenth Amendment which even to this day authorizes an income tax ONLY on Profit and not ALL EARNINGS or GROSS:

“We must reject in this case, as we have rejected in cases arising under the Corporation Excise Tax Act of 1909 (Doyle, Collector, v. Mitchell Brothers Co., 247 U.S. 179, 38 Sup. Ct. 467, 62 L. Ed.–), the broad contention submitted on behalf of the government that all receipts—everything that comes in-are income within the proper definition of the term ‘gross income,’ and that the entire proceeds of a conversion of capital assets, in whatever form and under whatever circumstances accomplished, should be treated as gross income.  Certainly the term “income’ has no broader meaning in the 1913 act than in that of 1909 (see Stratton’s Independence v. Howbert, 231 U.S. 399, 416, 417 S., 34 Sup. Ct. 136), and for the present purpose we assume there is not difference in its meaning as used in the two acts.”

[Southern Pacific Co., v. Lowe, 247 U.S. 330, 335, 38 S.Ct. 540 (1918)]

“The Sixteenth Amendment declares that Congress shall have power to levy and collect taxes on income, “from [271 U.S. 174] whatever source derived,” without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration. It was not the purpose or effect of that amendment to bring any new subject within the taxing power. Congress already had power to tax all incomes. But taxes on incomes from some sources had been held to be “direct taxes” within the meaning of the constitutional requirement as to apportionment. Art. 1, § 2, cl. 3, § 9, cl. 4; Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 158 U.S. 601. The Amendment relieved from that requirement, and obliterated the distinction in that respect between taxes on income that are direct taxes and those that are not, and so put on the same basis all incomes “from whatever source derived.” Brushaber v. Union P. R. Co., 240 U.S. 1, 17. “Income” has been taken to mean the same thing as used in the Corporation Excise Tax Act of 1909, in the Sixteenth Amendment, and in the various revenue acts subsequently passed. Southern Pacific Co. v. Lowe, 247 U.S. 330, 335; Merchants’ L. & T. Co. v. Smietanka, 255 U.S. 509, 219. After full consideration, this Court declared that income may be defined as gain derived from capital, from labor, or from both combined, including profit gained through sale or conversion of capital. Stratton’s Independence v. Howbert, 231 U.S. 399, 415; Doyle v. Mitchell Brothers Co., 247 U.S. 179, 185; Eisner v. Macomber, 252 U.S. 189, 207. And that definition has been adhered to and applied repeatedly. See, e.g., Merchants’ L. & T. Co. v. Smietanka, supra; 518; Goodrich v. Edwards, 255 U.S. 527, 535; United States v. Phellis, 257 U.S. 156, 169; Miles v. Safe Deposit Co., 259 U.S. 247, 252-253; United States v. Supplee-Biddle Co., 265 U.S. 189, 194; Irwin v. Gavit, 268 U.S. 161, 167; Edwards v. Cuba Railroad, 268 U.S. 628, 633. In determining what constitutes income, substance rather than form is to be given controlling weight. Eisner v. Macomber, supra, 206. [271 U.S. 175]”

[Bowers v. Kerbaugh-Empire Co., 271 U.S. 170, 174, (1926)]

NOTE that if the income tax WAS UPON GROSS and included labor as property, then the tax would be a tax on PROPERTY and not PROFIT DERIVED from property, and thus UNCONSTITUTIONAL:

“As repeatedly pointed out by this court, the Corporation Tax Law of 1909..imposed an excise or privilege tax, and not in any sense, a tax upon property or upon income merely as income.  It was enacted in view of the decision of Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan & T. Co., 157 U.S. 429, 29 L. Ed. 759, 15 Sup. St. Rep. 673, 158 U.S. 601, 39 L. Ed. 1108, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 912, which held the income tax provisions of a previous law to be unconstitutional because amounting in effect to a direct tax upon property within the meaning of the Constitution, and because not apportioned in the manner required by that instrument.”

[U.S. v. Whiteridge, 231 U.S. 144, 34 S.Sup. Ct. 24 (1913)]

So, LIKE the corrupt IRS, which insists that ALL earnings are “gross income”, even though it is only profit from labor by people OTHER than yourself that are “gross income”, churches may be deceiving to you about what “increase” means in the context of tithing.

We conclude in the following that if you declare earnings from labor as profit, you are volunteering to make taxable that which is NOT taxable:

  1. How American Nationals Volunteer to Pay Income Tax, Form #08.024, pp. 94-96
    https://sedm.org/Forms/08-PolicyDocs/HowYouVolForIncomeTax.pdf
  2. Proof that Involuntary Income Taxes on Your Labor are Slavery, Form #05.055** (Member Subscriptions)
    https://sedm.org/product/proof-that-involuntary-income-taxes-on-your-labor-are-slavery-form-05-055/

In the context of the Mormon Church (LDS), the following video proves how they are engaging in this fraud as well to maximize their revenues. This video is produced by an ex-Mormon lawyer about the law of tithe in the LDS church:

So what we have in truth is institutionalized covetousness in the Christian Church and the LDS church in violation of the Ten Commandments.

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
[1 Tim. 6:10, Bible, NKJV]

Here is what NikeInsights says on the subject as a Pastor with over 50 years in Christian Ministry and a phD in Theology:

How can you tithe when you haven’t earned a gold or silver dollar your entire life?

How do you tithe digits that depreciate the minute they are in your account?

How do you tithe during a period of rapid inflation when it everything doubles in value?

How does the average Christian tithe without destroying his future?

How do you tithe when the government takes 60% of your income in taxation?

How do you tithe something based on the “faith and credit” of the United States?

You’re correct, we are being lied to by the State and by churchmen.

[Brook Stockton, Retired Christian Pastor with over 50 years in ministry;
http://nikeinsights.famguardian.org]

According to Barna, the average Christian does not tithe 10% of their income to their church. In fact, only 21% of Christians said they give 10% or more of their income, while 25% said they do not give financially at all. The majority of Christians give in lower or less predictable amounts. What Is a Tithe? New Data on Perceptions of the 10 Percent – Barna Group

Learn more

1barna.com

2baptistpress.com

If Christians shouldn’t trust the government, should they believe a pastor who works for the government as a 501c3 government corporation that has surrendered the headship of Christ to the government?

For more on the subject of tithing on this website, see:

Tithing, Form #17.072
https://sedm.org/Forms/17-Theology/Tithing.pdf

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