In this piecewise Bible study, we only talked about two topics. One is the controversial topic of tithing, let’s see what the Bible says about its true meaning. Second, Christians all know that the Bible says not to acknowledge Satan as their father. We have also explained some situations where this could happen if we are not careful, so we really need to be vigilant!
Last time we mentioned that Christians live in faith and believe that the Bible is inspired by God. Because of this, we know that “what God tells us through the Bible is consistent” and “do not discount the words of the Bible.” When we take this as a logical axiom, we will discover how logical the Bible is! In “250413 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – Genesis (1) 1 2140”, we use the first sentence of the Bible to explain this concept. We can share so much in just one verse. The link is “https://youtu.be/rptERpX82iA?si=LNuZapGQjvdcuEVp” in Chinese. If you don’t know Chinese, you can go to its corresponding article “1140 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – Genesis(1)1.” This article is on the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/“, click “Understanding of Spiritual Life”.
At this point, I should explain why I have to refer the YouTube instead of the article directly. This is because if a video is corrected on YouTube, it must be re-uploaded and the time cannot be maintained, while an article can be changed and the original video time cannot be seen. This can be seen in “240721 Correction: The Announcement of the Lord Jesus as the Triune God and the Messiah – Revelation (18) 2110”, the correction is due to cutting out one error and its associated parts, the rest remaining the same. The corrected date is 8/5/24, but the original meeting was on 7/21/24. Although the article is later than the meeting, it will not fall within the corrected time. This can be confirmed in the corrected YouTube video, https://youtu.be/8bDi9tI7zhI?si=LxW3RlB84FETzjwR.
In “250420 What We Can Do About the Holy Spirit’s Leading Bible Study 2141”, whose link is “https://youtu.be/i_Vysc4NMIA?si=S64Wrb4wDVkP_zhD” in Chinese. The corresponding article is “1141 What we can do regarding Holy Spirit leads us to study Bible.” In 1141, I mentioned the method the Holy Spirit taught me to read te Bible, that is, we can let the Holy Spirit lead us in Bible study like in 1140. In its “3. How do we know God is leading us to study the Bible?”, we see that the Holy Spirit has absolute sovereignty, and His guidance is sometimes divided into more than one step. In “3,” we also gave an example regarding paradise, that happened not long ago, to illustrate this point.
Now we not only want to share the true meaning of tithing, but also use this topic to see another example of how the Holy Spirit leads us the Bible study in more than just one step. Moreover, because this matter will start in 2020 and end in 2025, there is definitely some foreknowledge, which is something Satan cannot do. Only the Triune God can do it. We mentioned this in “200830 Some Nature of Satan”, the link is “https://youtu.be/c7LMREAN-IM?si=uposXuthU-GvOa6Q”, which is only in Chinese and no corresponding article. Sorry about this. Here we only want to emphasize that Satan cannot foreknow; otherwise, Satan wouldn’t get involved in Jesus’ crucifixion as the verse says, “After the morsel, Satan then entered into him (Judas, the betrayer). …”(John 13:27)
I would like to take this opportunity to explain that a piecewise Bible study basically starts by putting the live recording of the meeting on YouTube, and then writing a corresponding article, which may also include revelations added after the meeting, because the Triune God has absolute sovereignty, and we cannot limit what He wants to do. In “1141 What we can do regarding Holy Spirit leads us to study Bible”, 1141 is a number, representing that there are 141 articles on the website. The first 1 refers to the English version, 2141 refers to the Traditional Chinese version, and the Simplified Chinese version is 3141.
In 2142, the time when some things happened is recorded, so we can clearly see God’s guidance until we can finally see the true meaning of tithing. This involves foreknowledge which Satan cannot do, only God can do. We have also mentioned some examples of Christians who have accidentally acknowledged Satan as their father. Simply put, I hope that everyone can see God’s own guidance in 2142, which is His endorsements.
1. The true meaning of tithing
Before we share about the Bible saying about tithing, we need to use this topic to look at an example with foreknowledge, where the Holy Spirit led us in multiple steps. It is very obvious that we can only see what the Holy Spirit wants us to see, that is, according to what the Holy Spirit allowed me to see at the time, thus I used logical reasoning to come to different conclusions. Therefore, we first shared this topic four times, and it was not until the fifth time that the Holy Spirit allowed me to see what the Bible actually says!
The first time was on YouTube in 2020 at about 13:40 on “200816 Looking at some scriptures from the perspective of the inerrancy and consistency of the Bible”, and the link in Chinese was “https://youtu.be/xea-Yj-jnro?si=ai5_K5F4MSH10p6S“. Sorry that there had no corresponding article in the early stage of the piecewise Bible Study in 2020. Here, we just want to show you the time when it happened. The second time was on YouTube also in 2020, at about 24:10 on “201220 Three Examples of Reading the Bible from the Entire Bible”, and the link in Chinese was “https://youtu.be/O3E84s3SoYI?si=SNlq2XkXnA2GGrBD“.
The third time was on YouTube in 2021 at about 14:25 on “210918 A doer of the word is better than a hearer – the third one of trilogy,” and the link in Chinese is “https://youtu.be/KuAza8O-eS4?si=jro1s2to9Pvc_pd4.” The corresponding article is “1003 A doer of the word is better than a hearer – the third one of trilogy.”
The fourth time was on YouTube in 2021 at about 0:54 on “211024 One tenth offering interpreted and a time to every purpose under heaven 1008,” and the link in Chinese is “https://youtu.be/SsCDXc2O3Z4?si=FOGi_E4ASCcfDr6d.” The corresponding article is “One tenth offering interpreted and a time to every purpose under heaven (by Whirlwind) 1008.”
The fifth time was on YouTube in 2025 at around 49:20 on “250216 Yu Hongjie’s Discipleship of Newself – Unbiblical Places (2) 2132”, and the link in Chinese is “https://youtu.be/rqyCALRKpV4?si=QNNANGtT9m7aWlPY.” The corresponding article is “1132 Yu Hongjie’s Discipleship of Newself – Unbiblical Places (2).”
In the fifth “1132,” I mentioned how I got to know Brother Yu in the Lord. Because I really wanted to see God grants Brother Yu’s church the revival he desired, I met with him in church for about an hour. The issues we discussed basically included his confirmation, my need for discernment, whether it was right to feel the work of the Holy Spirit in my mind, whether Adam had a share in holiness when he was created, what it meant to ask or think more than what is asked or thought, and the true meaning of tithing. It was also because he pointed out the verses that I had not understood before that I learned from his words what the Bible says about tithing. If you are interested, you can go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/” and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life” to find this article.
Unfortunately, when I tried to communicate with him again via email, his co-workers deprived him of the opportunity to see the email and make a decision for himself, as you can see from my records. The email dated September 19, 2024 at 9:34 pm said, “Therefore, all relevant emails will be reviewed and replied by office coworkers. It isn’t convenient (adequate) for us to forward him (Brother Yu) your email. Hopefully you can understand!” Although I tried to remain anonymous as much as possible, such as in the piecewise Bible study, the office had my mobile phone number and know how to contact me. By this way, I can also remain anonymous as much as possible. Just hope that they will change their minds in the end and give Brother Yu a chance to make his own decision. I really hope he has the opportunity to see the true meaning of tithing and will get the church revival he hopes to see.
Now we can share the question we want to ask, which is, “does the Bible say that we must tithe in the New Testament era?” The answer is no. Let’s briefly look at why the Bible says so.
Let’s start with the Old Testament. The first giving was when the tabernacle was built. “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution.”(Exodus 25:1-2) Let’s see how this giving ended. “So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.” Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more. For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to perform it.”(Exodus 36:6-7) Therefore, God’s house had enough food for the construction of the tabernacle. From these verses, we can see that the key to giving is to be “willing” and the purpose is to have “food in God’s house.”
Those who say that tithing is a must often quote this verse, ““Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”(Malachi 3:8-10)
Opponents would say that if we must follow the Old Testament, in addition to the tithe, we must also add the offerings, so it is definitely not just one-tenth! But this does not make sense, because in the New Testament age there are no more sacrifices, because “…He (Christ), having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.”(Hebrews 10:12) It also clearly says, “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:18) So in the New Testament era, the most that was left was the tithing. The question is, does the New Testament say that the tithing is mandatory?
The only reference to tithing in the New Testament is this verse, ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”(Matthew 23:23) But if we look at the original text of the Strong’s Concordance, it is required that the scribes and Pharisees in the Old Testament to tithe. At that time, it was still in the Old Testament era, because Jesus had not yet died and resurrected and ascended to heaven, so these words were spoken to people in the Old Testament.
In fact, it is even clearer from the perspective of “what God tells us through the Bible is consistent” that Jesus Himself kept the true meaning of the Sabbath rather than the letter of the law as an example to us. How could He require us in the New Testament era to keep the law of tithing literally! A person who loves the Lord will naturally consider the needs of God’s house and do his best to provide food for it. If a person who loves the Lord has the power to give more than the tithe, he will definitely give more than the tenth. If a person who loves the Lord does not have the ability to offer a tenth, his offering of less than a tithing will still be accepted by the Lord because he has willingly done what he can with his strength.
2. Do not acknowledge Satan as your father
The Bible clearly states, “…the devil (Satan), Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”(John 8:44) From this verse, we can clearly see that those who tell lies acknowledge Satan as their father, and we can also see that the Triune God did not create lies. Lying is a sin of disobedience to God, for the Lord says, “‘You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.”(Leviticus 19:11) John said, “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.”(1 John 3:6) We have previously spent considerable time in “”1096 Yu Hongjie’s Discipleship of Newself – Unbiblical Places (1)” to prove that the Bible defines sin as disobedience to God. If you are interested, you can go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/” and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life” to find this article.
We just shared that the Bible tells us that there is no law requiring us to obey the tithing in the New Testament era, but some people will distort the Bible. Peter puts it very clearly when he says, “…our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”(2 Peter 3:15-16) For churches that advocate tithing, once they know that they should not keep such a law without distorting their interpretation of the Bible, they should stop advocating such things and stop deceiving themselves and thus lying to acknowledge Satan as their father.
Those who believe that the Bible literally contains no errors are deceiving themselves and thus lying too, because the Bible contains obvious contradictions. This is also an example of acknowledging Satan as the father. When we see an obvious contradiction, we should ask why God would inspire this obvious contradiction in the Bible. In “1111 The True Meaning of Biblical Inerrancy,” we discussed this issue in detail and gave quite a few examples. We also discussed a possible way of writing the Bible: with the ability to automatically correct errors in “4. A possible way to write the Bible: with the ability to automatically correct errors” of 1141, which can be considered as an annotation of such inspired obvious errors. Some churches would say that the original version of the Bible is free of textual errors. Since the original version has been lost, no one can prove whether this narrative is right or wrong. It is just playing the words.
Peter said it well, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”(1 Peter 5:8) Don’t sin by lying, thus “…do not give the devil an opportunity.”(Ephesians 4:27)
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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