Pastor of the Life Centre Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Utako, Abuja, Odun Emasealu has kicked against the teaching that believers are to pay tithe saying Jesus never commanded tithe, did not receive tithe and the apostles did not either.
This is against the teaching of the General Overseer of the Church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye who once preached that non-tithers will not make heaven.
Emasealu in the message circulating on social media for almost two weeks; also warned against believing everything pastors say without verifying them.
In the message titled, the question about tithing, Emasealu noted that some of the messages preached by some pastors were things they heard from people and not necessarily because they were true.
He warned his listeners to be careful of how they hear messages saying, that the bigger the pastor the more cautious they should be because there is a tendency to believe what the big pastors say.
Emasealu told the congregation to also verify his message and not just believe what he was saying.
He then traced the history of tithing in the Bible making mention of scriptures that talked about it in the Old Testament.
On tithe in the New Testament, he said, that when Jesus made mention of it, he did not command that people should tithe, but that he was rebuking the Pharisees.
Emasealu said Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and he was telling them “Because you are Pharisees, go ahead and tithe but in the weightier things of the law you are found wanting. Don’t carry yourself that you have paid tithe and be bragging. He was advising them. But we have used it as if Jesus said we must tithe. He did not say so. I have taught this for many years in the past that we must tithe. Today, I have made a U-turn.”
While sounding ambivalent on his position, he also noted that the Book of Hebrew talked about tithe adding that in scripture there are things you cannot carry from one dispensation to another. “some things happened in the dispensation of God that did not happen in the dispensation of Jesus.
“There is nowhere in the Bible that Jesus collected tithe, why am I collecting from you and why are they collecting from us? Why am I collecting from you? Jesus did not collect tithe, his disciples did not collect tithe but our pastors are collecting tithe.”
According to him, most of what the disciples did was to make collections. “They did special collections to give to the poor. As they were doing that the church was multiplying”
Be careful
While warning his listeners to be careful of G.Os, he recalled the instance a preacher came from the US to raise money for another man of God in Nigeria and the pastor quoted the portion of the Bible in Acts of the Apostles that people brought money and put them at the feet of the apostles. He did not mention that the money was given to the poor because he knew the people he was preaching to don’t read.”
Emasealu however emphasized the need for people to give to the needy adding that Christians are supposed to work hard to support the needy according to what Paul told the Ephesians and by extension today’s believers.
Talking on dispensation, he said, only the holy spirit can make poor people give beyond their ability. “In the first dispensation, it was by law. God said go and bring your tithe. When Jesus came, he was using love i.e. we should give out of love. But when he left, he sent the holy spirit; that the only way we can collect money is for the holy spirit to minister to the hearts of men.”