Ministers of the Church of God are required to pay tithes, and to attest that they are paying tithes each month when they report. This is required according to the Minutes and is necessary to retain and maintain a ministerial license. Therefore, if a CoG minister does not tithe, then they are forfeiting their license. The question I have, is does this violate Scripture?

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 talks about giving, and when it comes to giving, makes a few statements. First, it says that each person must give based on what they “have decided in your heart”. Does that mean the requirement to tithe for ministers by the CoG is saying “it is ok to give what is on your heart, as long as it is at least 10%?” Secondly, and this is at the heart of my questioning, is the next part of verse 7, which says “not reluctantly or under compulsion…”. Those words, “reluctantly” and especially “under compulsion” (“of necessity in the KJV) are two phrases that seem to be contrary to CoG teaching. In focusing in on the term “compulsion”, the term means imposed upon. Paul, writing under the inspiration of Holy Spirit, seems to be teaching that no one should have to give under the distress of repercussions, or not forced to do what they can’t or don’t want to do. Being forced to do something you don’t want to do does not lend itself to doing something “cheerfully”, which, according to this passage, God love’s a cheerful giver. It seems that Paul is teaching here that God is more interested in cheerfulness in our giving.

With that in mind, if a CoG minister could lose their license for failure to tithe, then isn’t that compulsion? I think the answer is yes, but I am seeking someone to help clarify where I might be wrong on this. Is there anywhere in the Scripture where tithing is a requirement for the Christian?

I received a whole inbox of posts and comments that were reported by someone as spam this afternoon. I believe someone methodically went through the board and reported these posts as spam. Further, it appears this resulted in some of your accounts being suspended by Reddit. Since this was done at the site-wide Reddit level and not at the r/Actscelerate level, there’s nothing I can do about it.

However, according to Reddit, you should have received a message about your banned status letting you know the reason you were banned. Additionally, there should be information about how you can appeal your ban, which I encourage you to do. You can appeal here: https://www.reddit.com/appeals

It would seem a certain SC pastor is making his play for a return to the council of 18 and he is doing it by casting accusations against friends of his own brother, who is in the running for a spot on the Executive Committee. Has the need to return to the C18 and to cover up for the fact he was on the Lee board during its moral decline driven a brother to try to destroy his own sibling’s reputation to promote his own agenda? I am just thankful their dear father who I admired from a distance for many years is not here to see this division of his sons, one a conservative hero and the other a moderate being used by the liberal wing of the church.