# Covenantal Application of Malachi 3:10



## C. M. Sheffield (Feb 2, 2010)

How does Covenant Theology approach Malachi 3:10 specifically in its contemporary application to the Church. Provide a clear explanation of why.

This is the conversation I'm having with a Dispensationalist in my church.


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## PuritanCovenanter (Feb 2, 2010)

Hermeneteutically speaking your starting points are going to be so diverse that application is going to be difficult. How one defines the Covenant Community or ecclesia of God is going to be a trouble spot between the two of you. Unless that is first remedied I don't think that a discussion will progress.


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## C. M. Sheffield (Feb 2, 2010)

I'm not trying to convince him of my view (per se) though I'd like to. I'm simply desiring to explain it too him as simplistically as possible. I'd be interested in how some of you would go about it.


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## Peairtach (Feb 2, 2010)

It depends if you believe in tithing as such for today or not. Covenantalists don't agree on this, as can be seen on threads on tithing.

I would hold that it is a more consistent covenantal approach to apply the tithing of Abraham and Jacob to ourselves, as they were in the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant is a phase of the Abrahamic Covenant.

It's more complicated for us to learn from Old Covenant tithing.

(a) Was there more than one tithe under Moses? Maybe not?

(b) Was the Mosaic tithe more legally-required than that of Abraham and Jacob? It seems so. 

From the Mosaic period and the New Covenant we learn a bit better what the tithes and offerings to the Church are for. Not only for the payment of ministers, evangelism, teaching and "spiritual" matters, but also to help with health, welfare and education, where the family doesn't take up the slack.

Abraham and Jacob seemed to feel it was their honourable duty to their Melchisedec and their Covenant Lord to enter into agreement to tithe; they weren't asked to but volunteered it as their reasonable service. Once they voluntarily agreed to tithing as their reasonable service, they had to stick with it. They left a pattern for their Children in the Faith, us.

I don't know how dispensationalists argue for tithing. I would have thought it was more consistent of them to deny tithing for the New Covenant along with the Sabbath?


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