The Truth about Tithe -5

E. G. White and the Tithe

 What was Ellen White's practice, in regard to what she did with her own tithe?

Ellen White consistently paid her tithe into the Seventh-day Adventist work, before it was formed into a denomination in 1863. She thereafter continued doing so for about seven years, and counseled anyone who pressed tithe into her hands to give it to the church—and nowhere else. But then she gradually moved into a new pattern.

From the best we can tell, it began about the year 1868, as a result of the Hannah More incident. This was only eight years after the name. "Seventh-day Adventist," had been adopted as the church name, and only five years after the denominational organization had been incorporated.

In order to understand the full story of what happened, you would need to read several Spirit of Prophecy passages.

In 1 Testimonies, 630, we are told that Testimony 14 (pages 630-712) was written between November 1867 and March 1868. On page 632, there is a comment that those pages include a rebuke to the church at Battle Creek because of what they did not do to help Hannah More.

On pages 666-680 we read the pitiful story of an Adventist missionary worker whom the church permitted to die from neglect. You will want to read it.

Near the end of the account, Ellen White mentioned her changed position.

"There are those who can see and feel, and gladly do good to Jesus in the person of His saints. Let them have room to work. Let those who cannot do this go where they will not stand in the way of the work of God.

"Especially is this applicable to those who stand at the head of the work. If they go wrong, all is wrong. The greater the responsibility, the greater the ruin in the case of unfaithfulness. If leading brethren do not faithfully perform their duty, those who are led will not do theirs. .

"If we could have had means at our command last summer and fall, Sister More would now be with us. When we learned our real circumstances, as set forth in Testimony No. 13 [1 Testimonies, 569-629J, we both took the matter joyfully and said we did not want the responsibility of means. This was wrong. God wants that we should have means that we may, as in time past, help where help is needed. Satan wants to tie our hands in this respect and lead others to be careless, unfeeling and covetous, that such cruel work may go on as in the case of Hannah More. .

"When means has been pressed upon me, I have refused it, or appropriated it to such charitable objects as the Publishing Association. I shall do so no more. I shall do my duty in labor as ever, but my fears of receiving means to use for the Lord are gone. This case of Sister More has fully aroused me to see the work of Satan in depriving us of means. "-1 Testimonies, 677679.

By this she meant "depriving us of means" which could be applied outside of regular denominational channels.

What had happened here was that Ellen White began accepting tithe and other funds from others, to share with those who needed help or who were working for the Lord without conference backing. She used the tithe to support ministers and missionaries who needed help and were not receiving it from the church or were retired and being neglected. The other, non-tithe, funds she used to help the widows, the poor, and the orphans.

Hannah More is mentioned again in 2 Testimonies, 140-145, and 332:1. That lady was much on the mind of Ellen White, who was determined that, in the future, the needy and the workers who needed help might receive it.

In later years, Ellen White realized even more what a great loss they had suffered in the neglect of Hannah More. You see, Sister More had become a Sabbathkeeper while working as a missionary for a Protestant church in central Africa (1 T 669: 1). When her conversion was discovered, she was fired. So she returned to America to help her beloved Adventist Church. But they had no room for herwhen, in fact, she was the only knowledgeable veteran foreign missionary church member the denomination had at the time! She could have greatly helped the leaders prepare for their forthcoming foreign missionary ventures (3T 407:2-408:1).

All this placed a burning drive within Ellen White, to make sure such a situation did not repeat itself. Carefully read 1 Testimonies, 666-680. Many of us have known of similar experiences.

It is for such reasons that, in later years, we find comments such as the following:

"These women [Bible workers] give their whole time and are told that they receive nothing for their labors because their husbands receive wages. I tell them to go forward and all such decisions shall be reversed.

"The Word says, 'The laborer is worthy of his hire.' When any such decision as this is made, I will in the name of the Lord, protest. I will feel it in my duty to create a fund from my tithe money, to pay these women who are accomplishing just as essential work as the ministers are doing, and this tithe I will reserve for work in the same line as that of the ministers. .

"This will give you an idea of how matters are in this conference. There are seventy-five souls organized into a church, who are paying their tithe into the conference, and as a saving plan it has been deemed essential to let these poor souls labor for nothing! But this does not trouble me, for I will not allow it to go thus." -Manuscript, dated April 22, 1898, Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, 117.

As Ellen White later said in the Watson letter, she was helping those who were doing a work, which should be done, which the church would not support.

. But she didn't want others to do that also, did she?

It is clear from the surprising number of available statements that Ellen White not only collected tithe to pass on to those needing it, but she also commended others who sent their tithe direct to those who needed it, without sending it through her. First, she gladly accepted tithe from others who wanted it used out of the regular channels.

 "Some cases have been kept before me for years, and I have supplied their needs from the tithe, as God has instructed me to do, and if any person shall say to me, 'Sister White, will you appropriate my tithe where you know it is most needed?' I shall say, 'Yes,' and I will; and I have done so." --January 22, 1905, letter to G. F. Watson.

"I send this matter to you so that you shall not make a mistake. . For years there have now and then been persons who have lost confidence in the appropriation of the tithe who have placed the tithe in my hands, and said if I did not take it they would themselves appropriate it to the family of the most needy minister they could find. I have taken the money, given them a receipt for it, and told them how it was appropriated." EGW letter, dated January 22, 1905 (Letter 267, 1905), to Elder G. F. Watson, president of the Colorado Conference.

. But she didn't want anyone else to directly give tithe to workers who were outside regular channels, did she? Did she not want it to go through her?

Ellen White not only considered it to be a correct practice, in full harmony with Scripture, for herself to appropriate it outside of church channels,but she commended others who also gave it to workers outside the regular lines.

"I commend those sisters who have placed their tithe where it is most needed, to help to do a work that is being left undone."-Watson Letter. .

"This [is a] work which the Lord has appointed to me to do and others to do." -Watson Letter..

The Watson letter will be quoted in full, later in this book.

"God grant that the voices which have been so quickly raised to say that all the money invested in the work must go through the appointed channel [the General Conference] at Battle Creek shall not be heard. The people to whom God has given His means are amenable to Him alone. It is their privilege to give direct aid and assistance to missions. It is because of the misappropriation of means that the Southern field has no better showing than it has today." -Letter, dated June 28,1901, to A. G. Daniels, president of the General Conference (Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, 176-177).

. How could such a procedure be in harmony with Scripture?

The first tithe transaction recorded in the Bible was given by Abraham to an independent ministry (Genesis 14:18-20). Jacob's probably was also. (There is a Spirit of Prophecy passage that says, upon his return to Canaan, Jacob immediately paid all those years of tithe, as he had promised. But to whom did he pay it?)

The self-supporting prophet, Elisha, received first fruits (2 Kings 4:42-44); yet these first fruits were designated for the Levites (Deuteronomy 18:1-4).

Jesus and His disciples constituted an independent ministry, and they even had their own treasury department, which Judas kindly offered to manage for them (John 12:6; 13:29).

The New Testament church, in the book of Acts, was also a body, acting separately from the established body.

A majority of the time, Paul carried on His ministry without the full approval of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. In his work, Paul even approved of local elders receiving the tithe (1 Timothy 5:17-18; if. 1 Corinthians 9:9). Paul said, "They which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:14), declaring that it was a rule commanded by the Lord. (Some dispute the fact that Paul was referring to the tithe in 1 Corinthians 9:1314; 2 Corinthians 11:8; and Philippians 4:1516).

Paul carried on an independent ministry, separate from the church structure. They neither told him where to work, nor financed his activities.

"It was as a self-supporting missionary that the apostle Paul labored in spreading the knowledge of Christ throughout the world." Ministry of Healing, 154.

The Philippians were among those who sent money to Paul to help finance his work (Philippians 4:14-17).

Why did Paul say he "robbed other churches" (2 Corinthians 11 :8-9)? Some believe that Paul wanted to avoid the arrangement, that funds had to be forwarded to the Jerusalem church; whereas, he was taking them for his work.

But that may not be correct; for the concept that all tithes and offerings must be channeled through a single, central organization apparently did not appear in the early church until the supremacy of the church at the city of Rome occurred in the fourth century. Travel was difficult and dangerous in those days, and it would be unwise for a church in Asia Minor to send its money to Jerusalem, so that they could, from thence, be distributed outward again throughout the field. However, some money may have been sent to Jerusalem. Paul took some money there for the poor believers.

In 1898, M.E. Kellogg (not J.H. Kellogg, M.D., nor M.G. Kellogg, M.D.) published a book, entitled The Supremacy of Peter, through the Review & Herald in Battle Creek. In one chapter ("New Testament Church Government"), we find a comparison between the New Testament church and the church at Rome. Kellogg maintained that the Roman Catholic concept of an exclusive, central storehouse was foreign to the New Testament church.

"The church at Philippi at one time took upon itself the task of supporting the apostle Paul, sending to him by a special messenger, money or other means when he was in distant lands (Philippians 4: 15). No doubt other churches did the same. These are specimens of apostolic practice before the rigid rules of a hierarchy had crushed all the spontaneous life and liberty out of the church."-M. E. Kellogg, The Supremacy of Peter. 269-270.

A little thoughtful consideration explains why that would be true. God's plan was that we should individually plead with Him for guidance as to where we should send our next check, just as Abraham no doubt did. These rigid rules of "put it here and nowhere else" are foreign to both the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.

Continuing on with the quotation:

"These are examples of apostolic practice; and the nearer any church can come to the system which existed in the primitive church, in principle, if not in all the minutia, the more certain it will be that it is in harmony with the divine mind. We do not mean to claim that there was not a systematic and regular way of supporting the gospel ministry, but we simply maintain that there was also opportunity, when necessary, for separate and independent church and individual work of this character."-Ibid.

This calls to mind a statement, quoted earlier, in a letter Ellen White sent to the General Conference president, only three years after the publication of M. E. Kellogg's book:

"God grant that the voices which have been so quickly raised to say that all the money invested in the work must go through the appointed channel [the General Conference] at Battle Creek shall not be heard. The people to whom God has given His means are amenable to Him alone. It is their privilege to give direct aid and assistance to missions. It is because of the misappropriation of means [by church leaders] that the Southern field has no better showing than it has today." -Letter, dated June 28, 1901, to A.G. Daniels (Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, 176-177).

 . But should not the regular channels be adhered to? Should alternate tithe routes be permitted?

Ellen White's statements on this matter are quite definitive. Here are a few of them:

"The arrangement that all moneys must go through Battle Creek and under the control of the few men in that place is a wrong way of managing. There are altogether too many weighty responsibilities given to a few men, and some do not make God their counselor."-Testimonies to Ministers, 321.

She frequently speaks of the "regular lines," the "regular way," "the appointed channel," and the "regular channels," and plainly stated that it is wrong to imagine that all the money to the workers must flow through them. In the following section, we have italicized those terms.

"God calls for a revival and a reformation. The 'regular lines' have not done the work which God desires to see accomplished. Let revival and reformation make constant changes. . Let every yoke be broken. Let men awaken to the realization that they have an individual responsibility.

"The present showing is sufficient to prove to all who have the true missionary spirit that the 'regular lines' may prove a failure and a snare. God is helping His people, the circle of kings who dared to take such great responsibilities should never again exercise their unsanctified power in the so-called 'regular lines.' Too much power has been invested in unrevived, unreformed human agencies. Let not selfishness and covetousness be allowed to outline the work which must be done to fulfill the grand, noble commission which Christ has given to every disciple:

"The Lord has encouraged those who have started out on their own responsibility to work for Him, their hearts filled with love for souls ready to perish. . Young men, go forth into the places to which you are directed by the Spirit of the Lord. Work with your hands, that you may be self-supporting, and as you have opportunity, proclaim the message of warning . .

"God grant that the voices which have been so quickly raised to say that all the money invested in the work must go through the appointed channel at Battle Creek, shall not be heard. The people to whom God has given His means are amenable to Him alone. It is their privilege to give direct aid and assistance to missions. .

"I do not consider it the duty of the Southern branch of our work, in the publication and handling of books, to be under the dictation of our established publishing houses. And if means can be devised to reduce the expense of publishing and circulating books, let this be done."-Letter to A.G. Daniells, June 28, 1901 (Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, 175-177).

We know from other statements that missionary, medical, and educational work can be carried on in independent ministries. The above paragraph reveals that the publishing work can also.

The following were extemporaneous remarks, given to high-placed church leaders in a meeting in the Battle Creek College library, during the Apr1l190 1 General Conference Session. Keep in mind that Ellen White had only recently returned from Australia, and this was the first time that some of the leaders had seen her faceto-face for about a decade.

Not only were church leaders telling the members that all funds needed to pass through their hands, but they were declaring that it must be so because they were the "voice of God" on earth! We thought only the pope of Rome claimed that high distinction.

"In reference to our conference, it is repeated over and over again, that it is the voice of God, and therefore everything must be referred to the Conference and have the Conference voice in regard to permission or restriction or what shall be and what shall not be done in the various fields . . We have heard enough. . that 'everything must go around in the regular way.' When we see the regular lines are altered and purified and refined, and the God of Heaven's mold is upon the regular lines, then it is our business to establish the regular lines [as valid). But when we see message after message that God has given has been accepted [received], but no change, Just the same as it was before, then it is evident that new blood must be brought into the regular lines . .

"It requires minds 'that are worked by the Holy Spirit of God; and . . unless there is a power that shows that they are accepted by God to impart to the responsibilities that have to be handled, then there should be a renovation without delay. To have this [1901 General] Conference [Session] pass on and close up as the [previous] Conferences have done, with the same manipulating, with the same tone, and the same order,God forbid! . .

"God forbid, brethren. . He wants every living power to arouse; and we are just about the same thing as dead men. And it is time that we should arise and shine because our light has come, and the glory of the Lord has arisen upon us, and until this shall come we might just as well close up the conference today as any other day' . . Now, the Lord wants His Spirit to come in. He wants the Holy Ghost king. He wants everything of the sharpness, that it shall not be exercised toward outsiders; it shall not be exercised toward one that is trying to serve God and trying to exercise all his power to serve Him, that is bringing his tithes to sustain the ministry.

"He [God] has a treasury, and that treasury is to be sustained by the tithe. . and that tithe is to be so liberal that it will sustain the work largely; each one to act in his capacity in such a way that the confidence of the whole people will be established in them, and that they will not be afraid, but see everything just as light as day until they are in connection with the work and the people. .

"There is to be no man that has the right to put his hand out and say, No, you cannot go there; we won't support you if you go there! Why, what have you to do with supporting? Did they [the church leaders] create the means? The means come from the people, and those who are in destitute fields. The voice of God has told me to instruct them to go to the people and to tell them their necessities, and to draw all the people to work just where they can find a place to work, to build up the work in every place they can."Remarks made at a meeting held in the Battle Creek Library to church leaders, during the 1901 General Conference Session, April 1901 (Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, 162-168).

Although, perhaps as in the days of the early church, local churches ought to be able to allocate funds;yet surely church members should not have a say regarding where their religious funds are to be used! They are not wise enough, are they?

They can go to the same God that the churches and conferences can. Sometimes individuals seek Him more often and more earnestly than committees.

"God desires to bring men into direct relation with Himself. In all His dealings with human beings He recognizes the principle of personal responsibility. He seeks to encourage a sense of personal responsibility. He seeks to encourage a sense of personal dependence [upon God], and to impress the need of personal guidance. His gifts are committed to men as individuals. Every man has been made a steward of sacred trusts; each is to discharge his trust according to the direction of the Giver; and by each an account of his stewardship must be rendered to God."-7 Testimonies, 176.

Each of us will be responsible for how our gift to God's cause is used, regardless of whether we do the deciding or whether we put it on a plate and let a committee decide for us.

. What other counsels did Ellen White give to our church leaders about the tithe?

She counseled church leaders to keep quiet about the matter, otherwise more would do it. "I write this to you so that you shall keep cool and not become stirred up and give publicity to this matter, lest many more shall follow their example. "-Watson Letter.

In her day, Ellen White recognized that no intense doctrinal nor standards crisis existed. There were problems, but they were not too serious. But she warned church leaders that, if they did not get rid of the unconsecrated ministers, more church members would begin doing it.

"Many of our brethren have expressed themselves to the effect that if their Conference continues to pay money to such [unconverted] ministers, they will withhold their tithes."-Series A, No. 1, 13.

This is no little matter! The prophet for our time declared that it was sin for such men to be supported with the sacred tithe, so they could continue preaching their errors, working to lower standards, and living ungodly lives!

Combine the following statement with the one we just read in 7 Testimonies, 176, above. Each one who pays tithe bears a responsibility for its destination, regardless of where it may be, in the regular channels or outside them.

"But on the other hand, it is certainly very wrong for the Conference to give credentials to such men, and it is nothing less than sin to take the Lord's money to pay for such labor. There must be earnest labor with such men; and if they will reform, there can be no reason why they should continue to hold credentials.

"There are many that are even light and frivolous, and by this course they do more harm than good. These, too, should be labored with faithfully. and if they do not give evidence of reform, they should certainly not be continued in the ministry; for only evil can result from their work."-Ibid.

"It would be poor policy to support from the treasury of God those who really mar and injure His work, and who are constantly lowering the standard of Christianity."-3 Testimonies, 553.

In addition, she told them that it is wrong for church leaders to require that all the funds be channeled through the conference.

"Do not worry lest some means shall go direct to those who are trying to do missionary work in the quiet and effective way. All the means is not to be handled by one agency or organization. There is much business to be done conscientiously for the cause of God. Help is to be sought from every possible source." -"To those bearing responsibilities," January 6, 1908, Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, 421.

Ellen White pled with our leaders to return to the earlier practices of the church, back when demands were not being made that all the funds travel through certain channels and the funds were being used correctly by the leaders.

"How is the money which we put into the treasury being used? . . Where is the evidence of the co-working with God?" Kress Collection, 120.

She said that the reins of financial control, over everything that was done, were being drawn tighter and tighterand that it was wrong.

"Laws and rules are being made at the center of the work that will soon be broken into atoms. Men are not to dictate. It is not for those in places of authority to employ all their powers to sustain some, while others are cast down, ignored, forsaken, and left to perish. But it is the duty of the leaders to lend a helping hand to all who are in need. .

"If the cords are drawn much tighter, if the rules are made much finer, if men continue to bind their fellow-laborers closer and closer to the commandments of men, many will be stirred by the Spirit of God to beak every shackle, and assert their liberty in Christ Jesus. . There must be no fixed rules; our work is a progressive work. and there must be room left for methods to be improved upon."-Review, July 23, 1895.

She told them that if they refused to help the workers whom God had raised up to do a special work (in the passage below, natural healing work), such workers would carry on their work even more independently.

"Those who are doing medical missionary work at Battle Creek should have the full sanction and cooperation of the church. . Time is short, and there is a great work to be done. If you feel no interest in the work that is going forward, if you will not encourage medical missionaries to work in the churches, they will do it without your consent, for this work must and will be done."-Manuscript release #11, 218.

She sent letters to various local conference leaders, requesting help for independent ministries (in this instance, an independent training school).

"I appeal to our brethren in South Dakota to help in this emergency, and make a liberal gift to Madison School, that they may erect a chapel and school building. Such a building should have been provided for them long ago. Let us not leave these men to work under present disadvantages, when time is too precious, and the need for trained workers in the South is so great. .

"In the common schools some things are taught that are a hindrance rather than a blessing. We need schools where the Word of God is made the basis of education. The Madison Training School for teachers should have the hearty support of God's people. Therefore I ask you and your associates on the conference committee to act liberally in helping our brethren in Madison in this important work. "-Letter to E.G. Hayes, February 5, 1907.

The reason the brethren did not want to support the Madison School was because it was independent of church control. Yet it was independent, because Ellen White had made sure that it would be. More on this later in this book.

. So she did not want the brethren to try to stop the independent workers; is that so?

Repeatedly, Ellen White told the leaders, "Let there be no forbiddings. .. Let those whom God has called to a special work carry it on without efforts on your part to obstruct and stop them. It is true that He called them, without first having asked you for permission; but that does not mean their calling is invalid.

Repeatedly, she told the leaders, "Do not try to stop funds from going to them.

Ellen White did not write many letters in her final years. The following 1908 letter to church leaders on all levels, everywhere, contains a most solemn call from the God of heaven, to stop trying to hinder the efforts of independent ministries to collect funds to aid them in their work:

"God has given me a message for the men who are carrying large responsibilities in Washington and other centers of the work. This is a time when the work of God should be conducted with the greatest wisdom, unselfishness, and the strictest integrity by every conference; a time when there should be the closest observance of the law of God on the part of every worker; a walking and working under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

"God needs men and women who will work in the simplicity of Christ to bring the knowledge of truth before those who need its converting power. But when a precise line is laid down which the workers must follow in their efforts to proclaim the message, a limit is set to the usefulness of a great number of workers. I am charged to speak, saying, God seeth not as man seeth . .

"The Lord works through various agencies. If there are those who desire to step into new fields and take up new lines of labor, encourage them to do so . . Let no man's hand be raised to hinder his brother. Those who have had experience in the work of God should be encouraged to follow the guidance and counsel of God.

"Do not worry lest some means shall go direct to those who are trying to do missionary work in the quiet and effective way. All the means is not to be handled by one agency or organization. .

"To those in our conferences who have felt that they had authority to forbid the gathering of means in a certain territory I now say, This matter has been presented to me again and again. I now bear my testimony in the name of the Lord to those whom it concerns. Wherever you are, withhold your forbidding. The work of God is not to be thus trammeled. God is being faithfully served by these men whom you have been watching and criticizing. They fear and honor the Lord; they are laborers together with Him. God forbids you to put any yokes on the necks of His servants.

"It is the privilege of these workers to accept gifts or loans, that they may invest them, to help in doing an important work that greatly needs to be done.

"This wonderful burden of responsibility which some suppose God has placed upon them with their official position, has never been laid upon them. If men were standing free on the high platform of truth, they would never accept the responsibility to frame rules and regulations that hinder and cramp God's chosen laborers in their work for the training of missionaries.

"When they learn the lesson that all ye are brethren,' and realize that their fellow workers may know just as well as they how to use in the wisest way the talents and capabilities entrusted to them, they will remove the yokes that are now binding their brethren, and will give them credit for having love for souls and a desire to labor unselfishly to promote the interests of the cause. .

"When the Holy Spirit is allowed to mold our hearts and lives, there will be much more confidence expressed in the workers who are struggling with difficulties in hard places. .

"The Lord has a report to make of every soul who would restrict the liberty of another. There is a Watcher who is taking the measure of character, and who will judge accordingly. The jealousy revealed by some who claim to be in the truth, plainly reveals that unless their hearts are changed they will never be overcomers. Unless they respond to the subduing, sanctifying influences of the grace of God, they will never wear the crown of life. .

"To all who would mark out a certain course for their brother to pursue, the Lord says, 'Stand out of the way.' Satan and his emissaries are doing enough of this kind of work."-Letter, dated January 6,1908, "To those bearing responsibilities," Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, 419-424.

In few places is this conflict more decidedly shown than in the actions of Elder Watson, which led to the Watson letter.

"When existing evils are not met and checked, because men have too little courage to reprove wrong, or because they have too little interest or are too indolent to tax their own powers in putting forth earnest efforts to purify the family or the church of God, they are accountable for the evil which may result in consequence of neglect to do their duty." - 4 Testimonies, 516

"If wrongs are apparent among His people, and if the servants of God pass on indifferent to them, they virtually sustain and justify the sinner, and are alike guilty, and will just as surely receive the displeasure of God; for they will be made responsible for the sins of the guilty."-3 Testimonies, 365-366

CONTINUE PART 6