The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. -- 2Corinthians 9:6-7 (ESV)
What is God teaching here? We cannot give under compulsion. What is the entire premise of tithing? Giving under compulsion. Eugene Smith eviscerates his own teaching by correctly citing these verses. Instead of realizing this however he comes out with another stupid sound bite:
"Tithing breaks the cycle of scarcity and creates a new cycle of supply." -- Eugene Smith
Yes nothing breaks the cycle of not having enough then giving what you have away. Now, there is a universal principle of sowing and reaping displayed in the verses from 2Corinthians. However, this speaks to having a generous nature in general -- not necessarily to the church. It also speaks to being a miser and constantly worrying about money. One who tends to hoard their money will tend to lack and one who gives freely will tend to abundance. THAT is a great principle to teach because it ties in with so much biblical teaching against the evil of loving money. Tithing however does no such thing that Smith promises. How do I know? Because tithing does not exist. It has been nailed to the cross according to Colossians 2. If you read Galatians 6 you will realize that insisting on tithing, as with circumcision, renders Christ useless to you. Smith recklessly lies for God here and says if you give Him your first ten percent that you will no longer experience scarcity and that is a false teaching that can wreck someone's faith when "God" does not deliver.
Smith now gets into some sermon points and continues to mangle the bible in order to prop up his false premise that tithing is still required. In his first section called "What Is Tithing", he cites Genesis 28:20-22 and the graphic behind him cites this as, --the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you." He then claims that Abram modeled tithing so Jacob "learned from his grandfather the importance of tithing." All of these would be convincing arguments if they were true; which they are not. Abram tithed one time in his life that we are aware of. That is it; once. His motivation was not the advancement of the word of God but rather to prevent a pagan king from being able to claim that he prospered Abram when it was God who did so. He also did not tithe ten percent but 100% and none of it came from his own money but rather from the spoils of a successful war. To claim this "modeled tithing" is beyond ridiculous. The more insidious claim by Smith however is in regard to Jacob. Do you see the three little dots before his verses? That is called an ellipsis and it denotes that there is something before the quote. Something Eugene Smith left out. The key verses today represent the actual verses in their entirety and this is the portion Smith omitted:
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace
The bible never says if Jacob ever tithed. These verses are Jacob, who was still known as the deceiver at this point, making a deal with God. If God does all of these things for Jacob, he swears he will give back a tenth of what God gives him. Nowhere does it say that he will tithe regularly. This is a prid-quo-pro agreement Jacob is praying for. You give me xyz and I will give back a tenth and there is no indication either way if he ever even followed through on it.
The next section is "Why We Tithe" and here Smith claims that the first reason is that it teaches us to put God first and offers up Deuteronomy 14:23 as his proof text. He uses the Living Bible though because it says "put God first" instead of "fear the Lord." Either way he oblivious to the fact that Deuteronomy 14 is the heart of the civil law given to Israel which Christ came to earth to redeem us from. The very section Smith cites is immediately preceded by the prohibitions against unclean food. We are under grace now. Not the law. That is the entire point. As Christians we are still bound by the moral law, which is reiterated in the New Testament but delivered from the civil and ceremonial law that solely belonged to Israel. This is the beauty of debunking tithing heretics. Eventually they have to turn to the bible to try and appear credible and the bible tears their arguments apart.
