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pacted (pressed together, knit or
drawn together, consolidated] by
that which every joint supplieth, ac–
cording to the effectual working in
the measure of
every part
... "
(Ephesians 4: 16).
"And he [Christ] gave sorne, apos–
tles; and sorne, prophets; and sorne,
evangelists; and sorne, pastors and
teachers; for the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,
TILL we all come in the UNITY of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the ful–
ness of Christ" (Ephesians 4: 11-13).
The true Church of God has these
offices, as the living Christ put them
in His Church.
A Tithe-Paying Church
God's continuing original Church is
also a tithe-paying Church.
The Church receives that ONE
SAME THING they all are commanded
to believe-even as the Church be–
ginning in A.D. 31 did-from the
APOSTLES who received the doctrines
and teachings FROM CHRIST!
The Church of God under Peter,
Paul and the first-century apostles
was a Church which gave not only
tithes but offerings!
Tithing started BEFORE Moses and
the Old Testament Israel. It started
with Abraham, who, after the
slaughter of the kings, gave the tithe
of all to Melchizedek, priest of the
Most High God (actually the one
who became Christ). Write for the
free reprint article "The Mystery of
Melchizedek Solved."
Tithing to God- PAYING a tenth
of one's "increase"- became a law in
Old Testament Israel. After both Is–
rael and Judah had gone into captiv–
ity and slavery, the prophet Malachi,
writing about 450 B.C., as one of the
prophets who with the apostles and
Christ form the FOUNDATION of the
Church, wrote PROPHETICALLY COn–
cerning our time today: "Will a man
rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed
thee? IN TITHES
AND
OFFERINGS. Ye
are cursed with a curse: for ye have
robbed me, even this whole nation"
(Malachi 3:8-9). Both the kingdom
of Israel and the kingdom of Judah
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1979
had long before been taken out of
their land as slaves. A cornparatively
small contingent was sent back to
Jerusalem 70 years after J udah's
captivity by King Cyrus of Persia
under governorship of Zerubbabel to
build the second temple. Sorne of
these Jews were still in Judea wben
Malachi wrote, but the two nations,
as a whole composing ancient Israel,
were not there. THISWAS NOT MOSA–
IC LAW-this was PROPHECY for OUR
DAY!
Malachi continued, " Bring ye a ll
the tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be meat in mine house, and
PROVE ME NOW HEREWITH, saith the
Eterna!, if 1 will not open you the
windowsofheaven, and pour you out a
blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it" (verse 10).
Jesus Christ is going to
marry the one and only
true Church-not a
number of scattered
groups or scattered
individuals.
' '
That is
not
"Old Testament stuff,"
as God's true Church KNows- and
because it has TITHED, it has had
God's blessing and prosperity.
Speaking of tithes, Jesus said,
" ... these ought ye to have done ..."
(Matthew 23:23); Hebrews 7:4-12
binds tithing in the New Testament.
1 Corinthians 9:1-14 definitely
upholds the principie of tithing and
GIVING.
Knowledge of God 's Master Plan
Of all the religions- and of all the
denominations and sects in "Chris–
tianity"-God's true Church alone
has understanding of the master plan
of God for His spiritual creation of
man. This is forcibly reminded every
year in the Church by the seven an-
nual holy days and festivals Christ
instituted in the Church.
Small as t he Church is in num–
bers- Jesus spoke of it as the "little
flock" and said tha t as they had per–
secuted Him so would they H is
Church-nevertheless the Church's
great annual autumna l Feast of Tab–
ernacles is the LARGEST church con–
clave, convention or festival held on
earth!
As God made the weekly Sabbath
FOR MAN (Mark 2:27)
when
man was
rnade, so He gave His Church seven
annual Sabbatbs and seven annual
festivals
when
He first established
the Church. In Acts 7:38, you will
find the Old Testament congregation
of Israel called "the church in the
wilderness." It was composed of the
human-born children of
Israel;
the
Church of the New Testament is
composed of the begotten children of
Goo. As the Old Testament church
was called the congregation of Israel,
so the New Testament Church is
caBed the Church of Goo.
To the Church- both Old Testa–
ment under Moses and New Testa–
ment under Christ-God gave these
annual occasions to emphatically re–
mind His people, annually, of His
master plan.
No other church or religion, to our
knowledge, observes these festivals or
knows their tremendous MEANING!
lt
has been stated before that as
the physical creation of man began
with the physical Adam, so the SPIR–
ITUAL creation of man begins with
the spiritua l Christ.
The first of these annual festiva ls
is the Passover, observed on the eve
of the fourteenth day of the first
month of the sacred year. This is the
year's most solemn service, on the
anniversary-as a memorial-of the
death of Christ to reconcile those
called to God.
This is immediately followed by
the next seven days- the Festival of
Unleavened Bread. All leaven must
be put out of members' houses, and
nothing leavened may be eaten.
Leaven is a symbol of sin.
It
emphat–
ically reminds God's called-out ones
daily for seven days through their
stomachs that we must
put sin out
of
our lives. Also it is a memorial, on the
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