A Selection of Post-Tithe Quotes: Mid-1900s

Francis Pieper (Lutheran; 1953)

“We Lutheran professors deplore and reprove as sin the undeniable fact that New Testament Christians make use of their deliverance from the Old Testament tithe to excuse their indolence in contributing for the purposes of the Church, particularly for missions. Also Luther reproved this sin. [the sin of not supporting ministers and missions] But we also know that the Christian Church never commands where Scripture does not command. The obligation to pay the tithe has been abolished in the New Testament. While the New Testament Scripture inculcates that obligation of generous and untiring giving, it leaves the exact amount and the details of the contributions to Christian insight and freedom.”

Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, vol. 3, trans.

Walter W. F. Albrecht (St. Louis: Concordia, 1953), 50.

Paul Leonard Stagg (Baptist; 1958)

Tithes “are not thus binding upon Christians.”

Leonard Stagg, “An Interpretation of Christian Stewardship,” in

What is the Church? A Symposium of Baptist Thought,

ed. Duke K. McCall (Nashville: Broadman, 1958), 151.

Hiley H. Ward (Baptist; 1958)

Ward wrote a whole book dedicated to why tithing is not necessary for Christians: Hiley H. Ward, Creative Giving (New York: Macmillan, 1958).

Roy T. Cowles (1958)

Cowles said that he has “taken the position against the tithing doctrine for many years.”

Roy T. Cowles, Scriptural Teaching on Stewardship:

Tithing or Stewardship? (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1958), 3.

R. C. Rein (Lutheran, Missouri Synod; 1959)

“The fact that many church members today contribute far less than ten per cent does not constitute a valid reason for advocating the tithe as the ideal guide for giving. For, apart from the fact that the tithe is not a worthy standard for giving in the New Testament, those who advocate it should, in fairness, call attention to the many offerings that the Israelites brought in addition to the tithe.”

R. C. Rein, First Fruits: God’s Guide for Giving (St. Louis: Concordia, 1959), 64.

Wick Broomall (1960)

Broomall says that the silence of tithe in NT is “best explained only on the ground that the dispensation of grace has no more place for a law on tithing than it has for a law on circumcision.”

Wick Broomall, “Tithes,” in Baker’s Dictionary of Theology,

ed. Everett F. Harrision (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1960), 525.

Alfred Martin (1968)

Martin was a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary. At one point in his career he was a Vice President at Moody.

“The Christian, since he is not under the law, is not under the obligation to tithe.”

Alfred Martin, Not My Own: Total Commitment in Stewardship (Chicago: Moody, 1968), 36.