Paying tithe on donations: some notes

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

12 November 2010

The concept of tithe is biblical. It is given in the legal books which Moses wrote down under God's editorship and it included the principle that one tenth of once income should return to God for the use also spelled out by the Bible.

Since the earliest Sumerian times, offerings were brought to the gods of those days. At Drehem, near Nippur was a special market where the livestock was brought for use at the religious city of Nippur's temples. Some of these tablets, dating to the days of Shulgi until the days of Ibbi-suen which was the last king of the Ur III period, in 2004 BCE, are at Andrews University in Berrien Springs Michigan. They were translated by Marcel Sigrist, the Franciscan father. Hebrews did not copy their offerings system and tithe system from the nearby nations. Cain was already offering and Noah offered after coming out of the ark in 2521 BCE. So the offering principle is as old as the world. From our time it is more than 6000 years old. That is biblical, regardless of the fact that written record only started 4500 years ago and that we do not have any written records earlier. The Flood of Noah destroyed all written records until that date in 2521 BCE. We only have post-flood records. Noah preserved some memoirs about Adam and the early history and this is written for us in the first 11 chapters of Genesis by Moses who selected from the book of Adam and the book of Noah information for the first 11 chapters.

The purpose of our writing is a case that has come up in contemporary times leading us to ask and answer whether an individual should or shouldn't pay tithe on money that he received.

The case is this:

A man has a school that belongs to him and he owned it. It is a school that is operating on NPO principles since they do not charge the poor students any money. Thus there is no real income. If he hires a teacher, she gets a salary from the government and that is it. Nothing more.

Now, one day the government or department of education donated 210 000 ZAR to the school or 30 000 USD. Should he pay tithe on this amount or not? Is it legal to pay tithe on this amount or not?

This question was submitted to Dr. Bernard Ficker, who is an emeritus professor from Helderberg College in Business Administration. Dr. Ficker graduated with a Doctorate in Business Administration from Stellenbosch University. He served on the College Board, Conference Executive board, dellegate to many boards and meetings of the conference and union, church treasurer, head of the department of Business Administration at Helderberg College, a SDA institution. The list can go on. He is also an active Sabbath School teacher and thus familiar with the issue involved in the case above and the biblical perspective on the issue.

Dr. Ficker answered as follows:

1. The state NEVER gives money to individuals (if it did, then you could pay tithe on it, but I am not aware of any government anywhere in the world that has ever done it), hence there is NO tithe payable.

2. The state will give money to a school and it is NOT tithable at all since it does not go to an individual.

3. Usually the government specifies what the school must use the money for (usually capital expenditure).

4. If the money is also given for salaries, then the recipient must pay TAX and TITHE on his monthly salary income.

So in short, the answer is NO, there is no tithe payable on the R210 000 or $30 000.

Another way of looking at it is as follows: Money that you pay income tax on, you pay tithe on.

If there is no income tax payable, there is no tithe payable

I trust this is clear.

There is some other points that we can add to that of dr. Ficker:

a. One cannot break the Sabbath and try to cover it up with paying tithe.

b. Worse still, one cannot break the Sabbath and try to cover it up by paying an enormous amount of tithe taken from money that does not belong to oneself. It is like breaking two laws at the same time.

c. In bankruptcy and insolvency they say that one of the signals of bankruptcy is when a person takes from Peter money to pay Paul. In this case, it is the state's money and thus taking money from Uncle Sam to pay Paul would not be correct action.

d. One cannot pay a large amount of money to the church in order to soft-pad the cooperation of the church members for the person's breaking of the Sabbath or working on Sabbath or having a business open on Sabbath.

e. Hosea and Isaiah speaks of outrage by God due to Israel's sins in bringing offerings and tithe. He said that He does not need it. It is their hearts that He wants and that undivided. You cannot cling to worldly things and to God. You have to make a choice.

f. What God is looking for is not worldly honor, fame, prestige but integrity, sincerity, honesty, spirituality, devotion and dedication to God.

g. To have a business open on Sabbath and to pay a large tithe resultant from this guilt feeling of breaking one of God's rules, is a heathen concept and unbiblical.

h. It is better not to treat donations from the state as donations to oneself, unless so indicated, like in the case of a scholarship or stipendia for a university student. Even then there are rules as to the usage of the money.

i. To try to buy God off for one's continual sins, is humanistic, out of step with the Bible and strongly connected to heathen practices.

j. Seventh Day Adventists are strongly advised by Ellen White not to accept donations from the State since no donation is without strings attached. SDA's also operate with a clear separation between church and state, religion and politics. SDA's are not a political religion and do not engage in religious politics or political religions.

k. If a person takes the donation from the State for himself/herself, then the person has to pay tithe on it provided it is not illegal to take the amount from the State or that the State gave permission that the amount can be used privately by the individual, a situation that dr. Ficker pointed out, never exists in any country.

l. One cannot pay God tithe of money that does not belong to one and then take 90% remainder for oneself with the rational that since tithe was paid, there is now a mandate to the rest. One cannot make an illegal civilian situation legal by keeping another  law of God strictly. Obedience by the individual on some other aspect will not cover up the disobedience on other grounds. There is no such thing as atonement by obedience and cover-up of continual sin and willful sin by this obedience. It is a heathen principle, not biblical. Obedience is important for God but He demands perfect obedience, not lopsided obedience.