Religion & Tithing [split topic]

[B_J 2,752]

The use of that verse in Malachi by ANY Christian pastor to encourage donations IS cafeteria religion. The Book of Hebrews makes it very clear that the local church is NOT the Temple. A church is a worthy thing to donate to, but when a pastor stands up and declares with a straight face that Christians are obliged to tithe to it because of OT law, they are showing themselves as either massively ignorant, deeply confused, or simply greedy.

Just as all Christians are now priests (in the sense of the Hebrew Law) with Jesus Christ as our High Priest, our bodies are now the only temples of the Holy Spirit. To follow the directive in Malachi we would have to deliver our tithes to ourselves! For a pastor to ignore this and demand tithes is to put his church in the place of the Temple, and that's just wrong, and disingenuous to boot. Pastors have to do an in-depth study of the book of Hebrews in seminary, so they can't claim ignorance either.

However, there are currently many pastors who have never been to seminary.