Notes used in the Message
08-0413pm
- Tithing - Samuel Dale
GENESIS 14:18 - 20
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he [was] the priest of the most high God.
GENESIS 14:19
19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed [be] Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
GENESIS 14:20
20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
MALACHI 3:8 - 10
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
MALACHI 3:9
9 Ye [are] cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, [even] this whole nation.
MALACHI 3:10
10 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].
LET.US.SEE.GOD_ SAN.JOSE.CA V-14 N-2 SUNDAY_ 59-1129
28 But, you know, I feel like this, that a member of a church, their first obligation is with their tithe and offerings, is to support their church. If you're members of these fine churches that's represented here, you support your church. That's your first duty to God. "Bring your tithe and offerings into the storehouse." And the storehouse, you surely know what that is; it's where you get your food. So there's where you get your spiritual food, and your obligation is to your church and not to an evangelist like me.
It's taken up somewhere along in the meetings when we have campaigns like this, where you have a little laying aside to help support it, that takes care of me. I thank you very much. And every time, prayer cloths or anything like that, is absolutely free. There's nothing in it at all, and we don't...
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS_ JEFF.IN COD SUNDAY_ 64-0823E
1034-Q-307 307. Should a person pay tithes to an individual, or should a Christian work?
Sure he should. He's the one man that will work, is a Christian.
"Pay tithes to an individual?" It depends on who the individual is. See? That's right. In Hebrews 7, the first time tithings was talked about in--in a stand that we... Wait a minute, I believe, number two question. No. Uh, uh. No. For Brother... Said, "Two questions for Brother Branham."
When... In Hebrews the 7th chapter, when Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings met Melchisedec, he paid Him a tithe. That was Melchisedec, the King of Salem, which is King of Peace, and King of Righteousness, which was nobody but God Himself. See?
But when you pay tithings... Really, where you owe tithings is where you get your food. "Bring ye all your tithings into My storehouse, saith the Lord. (That right?) And prove Me wherein saith God, that if I'll not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you would not have room enough to receive it." I challenge any man or woman that's not a tithe payer to accept that.
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.7.PT.1_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0915E
309-120 Now, watch this if you want to see something.
But he whose descent is not continued for... from them receiveth tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promise.
Abraham had the promise, and this Man blessed Abraham who had the promise. Who was this? The sons of Levi paid tithes to their brethren, or their brethren paid tithes to them. They had a commandment of the Lord to take a tenth of what their brothers made, for their living, because they were the priesthood. Now, that lets out the Melchisedec priesthood, as you talk about, right there. That's right. But this Man... Even the one who had the promise, the greatest man on earth, Abraham, met this Man and paid tithes to Him; He had to be greater.
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.7.PT.1_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0915E
310-122 Listen.
And without any contradiction the less is blessed of the better. (Certainly. Watch Who He is.)
And here men that die receive tithes;... (That's the priesthood of the order of priests and preachers and so forth, men that receive tithe, die. See?)... but here he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
What would a man take tithings for, if he had any... If he never was borned, and never will die, and was from beginning to end, and--and never had no father or mother or descent, and owned the whole heavens and earth and all in it, why would He take tithe? Why would he ask Abraham to pay tithes? You see what a strict thing it is to pay tithe? Tithing's right. Every Christian's duty bound to pay tithe. That's right. Never has been changed.
CHURCH.CHOOSING.LAW.FOR.GRACE_ MIDDLETOWN.OH THURSDAY_ 61-0316
E-31 God will provide the works. If you'll just walk in grace, you'll be more at work than you are right now with the Ladies Aid Society and all this other nonsense that's been added into the church. Soup suppers to pay the preacher, where'd you ever get such a thing as that Scripture? Tithes pays the preacher. He's to live by the tithes of the people. But we had to get something else to do. We have to have our part into it. And then if the--they can't make it up, there's another society will do it, another society. God's way is right. Tithes and offerings goes to Levi, which was the minister. If everybody would pay their tithes you wouldn't have to have any soup suppers. See, you adopted something else and leave the tithings off. Say it's an Old Testament ar--argument. I'd like for you to prove it to me. That's right. You can't do it by God's Word; it's a New Testament order too. God makes one order, it can never be changed. It has to remain that way.
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS_ JEFF.IN COD SUNDAY_ 61-1015M
680-Q-161 161. Would it be wrong to use tithes on church building funds?
Well now, here--here's a touchy little thing for the church now. No, correctly, tithes is to go to the minister. That's right. In the Bible they had a box they'd set at the door in the Old Testament when the--building. This box was a fund where the people put in there for the repairing... You've read it many times in the Old Testament. They kept up the buildings and things like that... All the repairs on the buildings was taken care out of that fund. But a tenth of that went--a tenth of the tithings--all the tithings went to their priests, their pastors. Yes, tithings are to go for nothing else.
I know people take their tithes and give them to a widow woman. That's wrong. If you've got anything to give the widow woman, give her, but don't give her God's money. That's not yours in the first place. That's God's.
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS_ JEFF.IN COD SUNDAY_ 64-0823E
1034-184 I could stand here till in the morning, telling you just what happened when I seen that, and what condition I was in. But just as loyal as I ever could, I paid tithes. And when I took my own money from the church here or from my campaigns, I'd take more... I'd give a tenth. Then I'd give it out to the ministers, and give the rest of it to ministers. Then when I couldn't do that, then the thing I did, I kept ten percent and give God ninety. And then, when the law told me I couldn't do that, I'd have to take... And if I did, it was going to be charged to it, then I had to take and bypass it into foreign missions and so forth, and then just take a wage out of that of a hundred dollars a week; and I pay my tithes from that.
Yes, sir. I believe in paying tithes. It's one of God's blessings that's proven to be a blessing. You say, "That's of the Old Testament." It is of the New Testament too. Yes, sir.
DISCERNMENT.OF.SPIRIT_ PHOENIX.AZ V-9 N-3 TUESDAY_ 60-0308
91 Jesus... I preached the other night somewhere, maybe down there, "It Wasn't So From The Beginning." We have to go back to the beginning to find our text now for just a moment. At the beginning there was Cain, intellectual, built a fine church (we would say), made a fine altar, offered up a sacrifice, prayed, sincere, gave thanks, paid his tithe, everything just as religious as Abel was.
PERGAMEAN.CHURCH.AGE_ JEFF.IN ROJC 229-285 WEDNESDAY_ 60-1207
129 And what do we have in our Protestant churches? Soup suppers, entertainments, skating (oh, my), rag sales, and everything else. See? Now, you know that's the truth. Well now, if that--if that is God's Word, friends, it's the truth. And all Protestant churches are guilty. See?
Now, never was God's plan to--to have soup suppers and dances in the basements, and all that there carrying on to pay off the pastor and the things. If people was just taught to pay their tithes, that'd be all there'd be to it. That's God's plan. But God has a plan, but man wants to make his own plan, hybriding God's plan. All right.
QA.GOD.BEING.MISUNDERSTOOD_ JEFF.IN COD SUNDAY_ 61-0723E
617-Q-146 146. Brother Branham, don't you feel that everyone who claims to be a Christian should pay tithes, pay their tithes into the storehouse of the Lord? Please give Scripture to this question.
All right, if you will... That is right, that the Bible said in Malachi the 4th chapter, "Will a man rob God? And you say, 'Where have we robbed Thee?' In tithe and offerings. Bring all your tithe and offerings into My storehouse and prove Me," saith the Lord, "if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there'll not be room enough to receive."
That's a challenge to any individual. And if I only had the time, and would not get to this little Scripture that I wish to get to in about the next ten minutes, I would like to give you a personal testimony of how that I was even hungry, and my mother and them hungry, and my daddy sick, but I took my tithes out first and give it to God, and you ought to see what happened. I have never seen in my life, that any man or a woman, that if you only make one dollar a week, will bring the ten cents of that money and put it into your storehouse, your church where you come, if God don't bless that, call me a hypocrite. Yes, sir. That's a challenge to anybody. And every Christian... That goes to this other question. Every Christian should pay tithes. That's right. It should be done.
QA.GOD.BEING.MISUNDERSTOOD_ JEFF.IN COD SUNDAY_ 61-0723E
604-Q-136 136. Can a Christian go to heaven if he or she does not pay tithe?
Now, that's one that I could not answer Scripturally.
Now, this "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," if the minister is sincere, just let--let us know (You see?), we'd be glad... Brother Neville, myself, or Brother Beeler, or Brother Collins, or any of these ministers here who are ordained to this ministry, and so forth, can--can do so.
Now, but now: Does a Christian not get to heaven because they do not pay tithe?
I--I could not say yes or no to that. But I do believe that every Christian is obligated to pay tithings because it is a commandment of the Lord. "And blessed is--are they that do all His commandments, that they might have a right to enter into the Life, the Tree of Life." Now, I do believe that tithe-paying is essential to a Christian experience. For I'll get to that in another question in a few moments; I know there's another one in here pertaining to that.
ENTICING.SPIRITS_ JEFF.IN DE 79-112 SUNDAY_ 55-0724
72 Notice, they... Instead of this, they had tried to adopt hand shaking for the old time experience we used to have. Today the church has become modern. They walk up and they give the right hand of fellowship. And that's about the way they do it. But it'll never take the place of the old fashion mourners bench where sinners called out and got right with God. That's right.
Today they're trying to take the place of God's tithing. They're trying to adopt something. They're trying to make it different. They go down and have bunco games in the churches, play lottery. Lottery will never take the place of God's tithings. Suppers, blanket selling, picnics to raise money to pay different debts off. It'll never take the place of God's eternal tithe and offerings; it'll never do it. But yet we're trying to do it.
ISRAEL.AT.KADESH.BARNEA_ JEFF.IN IC 97-128 SATURDAY_ 53-0328
132 School, theology... Oh, my. You know what they've done? In its place of the upper room, they substituted a supper room, boiled up some old rooster and sell it for fifty cents a plate, to try to pay the preacher. Brother, if you paid your tithes and done what God said for you to do, you wouldn't have these old soup suppers and things like that. Amen. (Even the anointing oil jumped off, on that.) Let me tell you something, brother: God wants a church that moves in the Divine will of God, based upon THUS SAITH THE LORD. Yes, sir. They've taken all the tarrying in the upper room out, like that. What they've done for the Holy Ghost, they've substituted theology for It. Somebody go out and say, "Well, we believe this and we believe that." Why do you believe it? That ain't in the Bible, nothing about it.
FAITH.ONCE.DELIVERED.TO.SAINTS_ W.P.BEACH.FL SUNDAY_ 53-1129A
E-116 Now, look. Last comment. Now, we're in Revelations, going out. Let's listen to what Paul said. "Know this that in the last days (that's the end, isn't it?), perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves."
"I'm from the so-and-so."
"Lovers of their own... proud, boasters, incontinent, fierce, and despisers of those that are trying to do good." See?
"Well, I'll tell you now, Brother Branham. That's meant communists." Oh, no. That meant fundamentalist: "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away for this is the sort that go from house to house and leads silly women," along with all kind of societies and sew and stitch and sew and talk about Miss So-and-So. And boil up some old rooster and sell it and pay the preacher. Oh, goodness. Pay your tithes and you won't have to do that, and they...?... In all these other things like this... "Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From such turn away." God, be merciful to us.
PLACING.OF.DEACONS_ JEFF.IN COD SUNDAY_ 58-0720E
353-1 And that is, that the first is the placing some deacons into the church. And our little church here is sovereign. It doesn't have any denomination or anything to send its deacons; it elects its own deacons. It elects its pastor; it elects its trustees; it elects everything that comes in and out of the church. No one person has the say-so over anything; it's the church. And the church are those who come and support the church with their presence, with their tithe and offerings, are always the ones that has legal say-so in the placing of such.
And I want to thank the past board of deacons, and I say it from here for all the church. If any of those brethren are here, which was Brother Cox, Brother Fleeman, and Brother Higginbotham and Brother Deatsman, they have give us a good service, give the Lord, in this Tabernacle.
DISCERNMENT.OF.SPIRIT_ PHOENIX.AZ V-9 N-3 TUESDAY_ 60-0308
18 A New Testament prophet is a preacher. We all know that. Just any minister that's a preacher is a prophet, a New Testament prophet, if he's prophesying, preaching, not to try to edify himself to make a big name, or to edify his organization. Which, he should be in an organization. Here I am without one, but yet preaching you should be. That's right. Every man ought to have a church home. You ought to have a place, not just to float about from pillar to post, but have somewhere that you go to church and you call it your church, somewhere you pay your tithe, and somewhere that you help support the cause. Take your choice, but then don't never disfellowship the other man because he don't belong with your group. See? Discern his spirit and see if he's got the same purpose in heart, then you got fellowship one with another. You're working for one great cause. That's the cause of Christ. I think that that is absolutely true.