Pastor: Deduct tithes from gross salaries for God’s business

 By DOROTHY MARK

THE tithe offered to run God’s businesses in churches must be deducted from gross salaries and first harvests, a pastor says.

Pr Billingson Aite of the Biliau Maus Rot Seventh-Day Adventist church told a stewardship revival meeting that many Christians were still confused about how to calculate their tithes – one-tenth of their total earnings.

“One tenth of the gross salary a person gets is God’s money and not one-tenth of the net salary,” Aite said.

He said God had rights over the amount of money a man got as the creator and source of life for mankind.

“Life plus time plus talents equals money,” Aite said.

He said God was the sovereign owner and men as creatures were caretakers. Thus God and men were partners.

Aite said the biblical contexts of Leviticus 27:30 and Deuteronomy 22:14 stated that everything we owned and yielded from the land must be tithed as they all belonged to God.

He said offerings were separate from tithes. 

He also discouraged people giving left-over shopping change as offering in church.

Aite said offering should be planned and offered.

“Many Christians today are giving left-over money after shopping as offering meaning that they did not plan to give and they will not be blessed. It is a waste. They rather not give at all,” he said.

Aite said tithes and offerings were part of worship and Christians must worship God accordingly and faithfully. 

Appropriate tithes and offerings giving are two of them.