Thank you for your comment on my post. It brought me to your blog and other than a fine point or two, I have no problem with what you say. We are not opposing views.

However, you miss out one point. You talk about the tithe but neglect to point out that the word itself means “one tenth”. For instance, you mention “a ten percent tithe” but there is no other tithe. There cannot be a 10% fifth or a 10% fourth. To talk about a 10% tithe is redundant—it is the same as saying a 10% tenth.

Anyway, my posts only suggest that to hold NT Believers to a tithe law is wrong. We should give to support ministry and we should do so gladly and willingly. But to press people into “obedience” based on the Law and the tithe—in my opinion—is scriptural heresy.

In the church I attended, there was little focus on helping the orphan and the widow—or the homeless, etc. I know because I was on the Benevolence Committee and had to at times speak on a Sunday morning to ask for funds to help someone. It was not in the budget but was based on designated offerings. No, the “tithe” went to pay a salary for a pastor, youth pastor, associate pastor, secretary, mortgage, utilities, and ministry materials. It helped to buy new projectors, a new sound board, microphones, and the like. It pays for mowing and snow removal. But the ministry to the community in which it sits is anemic. If that community doesn’t come in the front door, little is done otherwise.

My wife and I give to other active ministries that are reaching and changing lives on a daily basis. They’re not busy playing “church”.

You are right to point to 2 Cor. 9:7 that “God loves a cheerful giver.” Verse 6 says that we should each give willingly. If you do not feel willing to make your offering cheerfully, then you should not give it.

2 Corinthians also says that we are no longer our own, but have been bought with a price. Jesus doesn’t demand 10% of what we each have; he asks us to give him everything. If one tithes 10%, he still must honor God with the other 90. More than money, he wants our lives; our time and talents. Those are given to each by God, and his children will seek to serve him with those things. The church is commanded to do certain things, and must have the finances to do them. Rather than tithes, our financial contribution should be thought of as offerings or giving to the church. The idea of “ten percent” may be holding us back.

We are witnessing the progress of God haters in our own country and government, who wrap their dripping hatred of God in an attractive veil of “protective legislation” as though they only want to prevent violence, when in fact they harbor the “hatred” their legislation is designed to prosecute.

we just had a look on google and any mention will help at the moment as the site only went up last friday

we are getting loads of support from people from all over the world

once again thanks for your kind words

Thank you for the thoughtful and respectful response!

I would not suggest that dinosaurs are not part of OUR puzzle at all. Ignorance is the only excuse for not accepting the past reality of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. No, rather my skepticism is found in the puzzle that science and the “laity” have tried to put together that there is a progression of life from species to species—and that this progression is evolution. The pieces of that puzzle were called into question on a micro scale with the “mini-me” find and will probably be called into question again and again as new finds occur.

So, would you disregard a newer find that throws those thoughts into question to cling to the old theory, or would you revise the theory to “make the pieces fit”? That’s what I see going on with evolutionary theory. New findings expand and change the previous thoughts and the theory is refined. If I interpreted that incorrectly, please let me know.

As for the hypothetical Jesus question, I would be skeptical about the religious scholars and equally skeptical about a “new” find all these centuries later. I would question how it could be proven that Jesus wrote it. If the evidence on all sides of the argument proved it, I would accept it and believe it. But then again, the crux of the Bible (unintentional pun) is not the existence of Hell, but rather the existence of God and His will toward humanity.

I can see why you would read my post as suggesting “that admitting a theory is wrong and redefining your knowlege as it grows and expands is wrong”, but that’s not really my position. My position is that in doing so, maybe it’s the theory that is wrong. If man had struggled time after time to prove the Earth is flat and each time, finds evidence to refute that, to then revise the theory to say that the Earth is an arc would be ludicrous. It clings to the old theory and attempts to make newer evidence fit. The resistance to just say the Earth is round would frustrate many.

Is it time to step back and re-examine the theory? I think it is. Or we can continue to try to fit the pieces to a puzzle we may never see the completion of anyway.

Whatever eventually comes of Greenham Common (Expanded business park, warehouses, more housing – the list goes on), I hope that it will be of use and benefit to those in the community, as it unlikely to go back to military use. I just hope that the history doesn’t go with it. It was a period of time that – for the good and bad – was very significant to the local area.