Page 15 - Pastoral Epistles I & 2 Timothy, Titus

8. What is the primary point of sound doctrine?

Let’s get Personal…

Activity: Do you ever tell a lie? Most people do in some form or fashion. Sometimes a lie can be just telling
somebody something that is NOT true. We call that a bold-faced lie. But sometimes a lie can be telling someone
something, but exaggerating the facts to emphasize a point. This would be like going fishing and telling someone
you caught a large fish when really it was not all that large. Another way pastors can lie is to take a verse in
Scripture and use it to support an idea they may have when the verse really does not do that at all. I had a pastor
who told me that if I was not tithing as in the Old Testament Mosaic Law, I was robbing God. He used Malachi
3:8-10 as his “proof” text:

9
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are
10
cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation. Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that
there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the
windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

The pastor said that if I was not giving 10% of my GROSS income to the church, I was robbing God. He told me
that the “storehouse” in verse 10 is the church in the New Testament (and specifically the church that I was
attending at the time).

As I studied this passage, I found out that my pastor was lying about several things in this passage. First, the
storehouse was a building in Jerusalem, not the church. And the tithe under the Mosaic law was actually three
tithes of only the animals and the crops that were raised, resulting in 23.3% of an Israelite’s crops and herds, but
nothing else. Sometimes, pastors can use passages out of context to prove their point, and in doing so, are lying
to their congregation.

I hope you never do that!

13