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'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's,
and to God what is God's'" (Mat t.
22:19-21) .
The Roman government, wheth–
er right or wrong, had the authority
to collect taxes. J esus did not just i–
fy a tax revolt. 1f Caesar had
demanded a tax, then the tax was to
be paid. But J esus was careful to
point out one must not neglect his
duty to God whi le fulfilling one's
tax obligations to the nation or the
state.
On another occasion Jesus com–
mented on tithing. As we have
seen, tithing had been the means
God set up to finance bis work
since the days of Abraham.
In the days of J esus the Jewish
religious leaders had been careful
to impose strict adherence to ritual,
custom and tradition. But they
often overlooked the spir itual
intent of God's law.
For example, on the subject of
tithing, many among the Jews had
bee n practicing a very zealous and
met iculous procedure to deter–
mine their tithes. But they were
neglecting other important mat–
ters of major spiri tu al signifi–
cance. Addressi ng this problem
J esus said: " Woe to you, teachers
of the law a nd Pharisees, you hyp–
ocri tes! You give a te nth of your
spices- mint, dill and cummin .
But you have neglected the more
impor tant matters of the law–
justice, merey and faithfulness.
You should have practiced the lat–
ter ,
wit ho ut neglecting the
former"
(Matt. 23:23) .
Many of them had spent so
much time counting out tiny
g ra ins of spices or mint leaves,
they didn't have t ime to serve
their fellowman. But they could
proudly point to how prec isely
they counted out exactly 10 per–
cent of their dill.
J esus showed tithing is an impor–
tant obl igat ion to God- be careful
to do it-but don 't neglect other
important responsibilities to fellow–
man.
Taxing Proliferates
As the years passed, tithing and
taxation were practiced in a variety
of ways. Because the Roman Cath–
olic Church dominated the religion
of the Western world for many cen–
turies, the collection of religious
May 1984
tithes and offerings often rested in
the hrutds of the clergy.
In addition to religious offer–
ings, the people were often sub–
jected to a variety of taxes by the
state. lmport duties, property
taxes, inheritance taxes, transpor–
tation taxes and market fees were
but a few of the methods used to
fi nance wealthy land lord s and
government officials or members
of ruling families. Often these
taxes were collected in goods a nd
produce.
In the rural sections of England
today there still stand old buildings
called ti the barns. Many don't
know the derivat ion of the term. It
comes from the practice of collect-
Ensure yourself of the
best possible conditions in
very uncertain times.
Learn to manage your
finances based
on God's principies.
ing goods for distribution to the
government, the church or to needy
people.
A prime reason to collect taxes
has been to fi nance the military. In
many modern nations the social
functions of medica! care, payment
to widows -and orphans, unemploy–
ment benefits, disability payments
and retirement also are paid out
from a variety of taxes collected by
the government.
The tax rates have steadily
increased till taxes now constitute a
major portian of most families'
budgets.
In the United States the first
federal income tax was imposed
late in 1861, the time of the Amer–
ican Civil War.
It
was 3 percent of
income over $800.
It
was rescinded,
along with other Civil War taxes, in
1872.
Before then , as stude nts of
American History. well know, an
important contribut ing factor to
the Revolution of 1776 had to do
with taxation. The Boston Tea Par–
ty and the cry against taxation
without representation led to the
American Declaration of Indepen–
dence.
Jt
has not been easy to tax the
American public. The income tax
as we now know was not instituted
till March 1, 1913.
The 11th edition of the
Encyclo–
paedia Britannica
makes an inter–
esting observation in the subject of
taxat ion. Th is l:d ition was printed
in 1911. Britain had just come out
of t he South African Wa r . Of
course sorne of the taxes of the day
were used to fund that war.
The Britannica noted : " The
important points in this connexion
appear to be :
(1)
Very large
appropriations can be made by the
s tate from the revenue of its sub–
jects without permanent mJury.
The community thereby suffers,
but the land and f ixed capital
remain, and when the high gov–
ernment expenditure ceases indi–
viduals at once have the bene–
fit. ... (2) A state which in ordi–
nary times appropriates one-tenth
or sorne less proportion of aggre–
gate individual incomes is much
stronger relatively than a state
absorbing one-fourth ... or higher
proportion"
(Encyclopaedia Bri–
tannica.
l l th edi tion , ar ti c le,
"Taxation").
I wonder if modern tax officials
would agree?
But What About Tithing?
Tithing one tenth of a famil y's
gross or, if in business, adj usted
g ross income has always been
God's instruct ion. We addressed at
the beginning of the article the sub–
ject of tithing in the days of Abra–
ham during the ancient priesthood
of Melchizedek. T ithing continued
to be the means God instructed to
finance bis work- in the period
when the Levítica! priesthood
served God and now the New Tes–
tament Church.
But there have been times when
people were careless about the
tithe.
After the return of the J ews
from the Babylonian captivity ,
sorne of the people grew lax .
Ezr~.
Nehemiah, Zerubbabel and Mala–
chi h ad to stir them back to
action.
One of the important lessons the
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