Tithe

The law of the ten that has been set forth in the Old and New Testament in giving a tenth of one’s supply to the support of the activities of hierarchy on earth. The law of the tithe is the foundation of individual spiritual growth. It is the science whereby when we take one-tenth of what God has given to us and give it back to him in his order on earth, in his Church on earth. He then takes that tenth, multiplies or squares it, and gives back to us 100 percent again. Those who practice the law of the tithe find a tremendous flow of cosmic abundance, freedom, and blessings coming into their lives.

Tithing in the Bible

Abraham

Abraham meeting Melchizedek, mosaic in St. Mark's Basilica, Venice (13th century)

The earliest mention of tithing in scripture is when Melchizedek met Abraham returning from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the other kings.The great patriarch Abraham, whom Christians, Jews and Moslems all acclaim as their father, bowed before Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem and priest of the Most High God. Melchizedek served him Holy Communion, the bread and the wine, which was later to be the centerpiece of faith at the altar of Christianity. Abraham then gave tithes of all the spoils of the battle to Melchizedek.

Though this is the first mention of the law of the tithe in the Bible, it was obviously not new to Abraham. Nor was the Guru-chela relationship. He tithed not to a church or a country but to the living Guru, the messenger of God, of whom it was written that he was “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life.” Thus it is spoken of Christ that he was “called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

Abraham (a key past life of our founder El Morya) is considered by some historians to have been the wealthiest man of his time. Time magazine called him the King Arthur of the Fertile Crescent. His wealth was based not only on his obedience to the law of the tithe but on his impeccable obedience to the inner voice of God, who called him out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham cast down his father’s idols, rejected his father’s religion and took his wife Sarah and went whithersoever the Lord bade him go.

Abraham was obedient in all nine points of the Law. He would have been obedient even to the killing of his son Isaac, had the angel of the Lord not interceded. He knew the principle of obedience to the laws of God: If we violate any one of God’s laws, we violate the whole law. And when this happens, nothing works for us.

The law of the tithe is a law that applies to everyone, from the lowliest beggar to the richest man in the world. Abraham didn’t belong to any church or pay taxes to any government, but he knew that one-tenth of his increase year upon year must be laid upon the altar of God. And so he went before the highest initiate of the Great White Brotherhood in embodiment, Melchizedek, and he laid at his feet one-tenth of his possessions.

Malachi

In the final book of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi delivers God’s word to the people on the subject of tithing. He rebukes them for departing from his ordinances, specifically for their neglect of the law of the tithe:

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord 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.

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

The practice of tithing

Whether we belong to any church or none, one-tenth of our income belongs to God. It is God’s before we receive it and it is still God’s after we receive it. So, to avoid Church membership to avoid tithing is to fool oneself. The keystone in the arch of all of God’s laws is the law of the tithe—because tithing gives you the means of fulfilling all other laws of God.

According to the law of the tithe, we know that when we give 10 percent of our monthly or annual income, God multiplies it by the power of ten and returns it to us. Ninety percent of our income is ours but not 100 percent. And so we lay upon the altar of our Church what already belongs to God, so that it might prosper.

Some people who support righteous causes and raise funds for the March of Dimes, the American Cancer Society, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army or even the National Wildlife Federation believe in the law of the tithe and yet have not found a church or a representative of God to whom they would give their tithe. Nevertheless, they donate that one-tenth “religiously” to the cause of their choice because they have a deep conviction that supporting charitable causes that are vital to the health of our civilization is something they must do and that they feel good about doing. It’s their way of tithing.

Such people fulfill the law of the tithe, while many churchgoers ignore it and rationalize that matters of money should not be a part of the spiritual path. But when we do not tithe, God becomes a beggar and must go out in the street with his begging bowl seeking to collect the tithes owed him so that he might carry on his work on earth.

The law of the tithe is the most joyous debt we have because we’d rather be giving our money to God than to all our other creditors combined! We tithe to God because we love him, not because he multiplies our money. But it just so happens that when we pay our tithe, our God releases us and gives to us, as he said through Malachi, a blessing that there is not “room enough to receive.”

Sources

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Great White Brotherhood in the Culture, History and Religion of America, chapter 23.

Letter from Elizabeth Clare Prophet, November 17, 1993.