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earth. The ownership of that first
tenth of income is God 's.
To Whom Tithes Are Pa id
But how can you pay God's tenth
lo him? God is on his throne in
heaven. And " no man," said
Jcsus, " hath ascended lo heaven ."
You can' l go there. You can't see
God, or hand your money to him
personally. How, then, can you
pay him his tithe?
Wcll , sorne large corporations,
pcrhaps in a distant city, cannot
be directly con tacted by their
many customers. And so they
send around representalives, col–
lectors, to collect for them what
you owe the company. The collec–
lor comes in the name of the com–
pany. When you pay the money
that really belongs to the compa–
ny to the collector, you have paid
the company.
God's system of collecting from
you his tithe is just that simple.
S ince you cannot see God , or go to
God's throne in heaven, God
instructs you in his revealed Word
lo pay it to his representative, who,
in receiving it, represenls God just
as a collector to whom you pay a
debt represents the company to
whom you owe
it.
And when you pay such a bill toa
collector, you consider you paid the
company-not that you made a per–
sonal donation of your own money
lO the man the company sent. You
paid it as to the company. From
there on it is the company's respon–
sibility what happens to that money,
not yours. And the company pays
the collector his salary. He does not
consider that you paid his salary–
he receives his salary from the com–
pany.
This illustrates plainly God's
true principie of tithing. When
you pay tithes today you are
instructed by God's direct ions to
pay them to God's called and
chosen representative- the true
minister of J esus Christ. But you
pay it, not as a personal contribu–
tion of your own money to a min–
ister- but as to God . T he minis–
ter represents God- receives not
your money but God's money
from you for God.
Here again so many in this
modern world have lost sight of
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God's clear d irect ions. Whe n
they give the tithe to a minister
they seem to fe.el it is a special
entrusting of their own money,
and they make it their duty to try
to supervise
how
the minister
handles it- even, in sorne cases
today, down to the supervision of
what the minis ter and his family
may eat or wear or have in their
personal prívate family life!
When Your Respo nslbility
Ceases
But God's revealed principie is
quite different. That first tentb of
your income is not yours-never
was yours!
It
belongs to God. And
the metbod God himself insti–
tuted for your payment of his
money to him is to pay it to his
called and true ministers.
When you have done that, your
responsibility for that money
ceases! You have no further con–
cero, responsibility, or direction
in the handling of it than you
have in money you owe the elec–
tric power or the telephone com–
panies that you pay to thei r col–
lector. Once paid, you have done
your part-you have acquitted
yourself of your obligation.
Of course you are expected to
be sure the collector is the com–
pany's approved representative–
not a thieving imposter pretend–
ing to be the company collector.
And you should be equally sure
you are paying your tithe to a
called and
true
minister of Jesus
Christ. · Satan has many more
ministers today than Christ-and
Satan's thieving imposters pose as
ministers of J esus Christ , put on
sanct imonious ai rs, speak in pious
and spiritual-sounding language!
How are you to know? By their
fruits, Jesus said, you shall know
them! The fruits of God's Spir it
and of Christ's true ministry can–
not be counterfeited!
So when you pay tithes to
God's true and accredited spiri–
tual representative, you pay it as
to God. l t is not a c haritable gift
from you to the minis ter.
It
is not
your money- but rathe.r it is
God 's way for you to pay to God
that which belongs to God.
And from there on, the minis–
ter who receives it is accountable
to God. And you may be sure that
Goo's jus tice is perfect- t hat
Goo Almighty will hold every
minister far more strictly ac–
cou n table t han you would be
capable of doing!
Wha t God Ooes wit h His Tithe
Once paid, so far as you are con–
cerned , you have paid God's tithe
to God.
The question now is what does
God do with it ?
And the answer, which we will
show by the scriptures inspired of
God, is that God uses it for his
ministry-for carrying on his
work!
Now the nature of God's min–
istry on earth has changed with
changing d ispensa tions . Not
much is revealed as to how God's
minist ry was carried on back in
patriarchal times. We know Mel–
chisedec was High Pries t- that
he held rank eq ual to that of
J esus Christ, actually one of the
Godhead! Thc ministry, then ,
must have been of a spiritual
nature. New Testament writings
reveal that the gospel, God 's spir–
itu a l message, was preached
beforehand to Abraham. All we
know of those days of the di m
dis tant antiquity is that the tithes
were pa id to Me lchisedec , a
divine Being, for the service of
God's ministry for that time.
But beginning with Moses, a
new and different dispensation
was ushered in. God formed
Israel as a civi l nation, and also as
a church. (See Acts 7:38.) But
between Moses and Christ under
the old covcnant, God's minist ry
was purely national, for Israel
alone- and purely material, not
spi ritual.
As a church, or congregation,
Israel was give n a constant round
o f physical ceremonies and
rituals- animal sacrifices, meat
and d r ink offerings, carnal ordi–
nances (see Hebrews 9: I 0)–
which, note it!- means of a mate–
rial, not a spiritual nature. Israel
under the old covenant was not
given God's Holy Spirit. They
had no promise whatsoever of sal–
vation, astonishing as that may
seem! They were not commanded
to go into all the world and pro-
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