church staff salaries, missionaries
and widows. He condemns the form
of financial stewardship so prevalent
in our days: “Why do we take what
would normally go to the poor saints
and to missions to further the kingdom
of God and give it to maintain struc-
tures and traditions that are foreign
to the Word of God?” (p. 71) He
challenges the reader to “ask the tough
questions,” yet to do so in love and
with the sincere desire of improving
the body of Christ.
Tithing, Giving and the New Testa-
ment is a brief yet powerful work. It
succeeds in showing God’s pleasure
in genuine giving by challenging a
long-held (and misunderstood) church
tradition. Just like Kioulachoglou’s
second book, The Warnings of the
New Testament, this work is currently
available as a free PDF on the Journal
of Biblical Accuracy website, while its
eBook and printed versions can be
purchased on Amazon.
TITHING IN TOUGH TOPICS
Sam Storms’ final “tough topic” in his
first “Tough Topics” book happens to
be tithing. Here, for a change, Storms
and Kioulachoglou seem to be on the
same side of the debate: both agree
that tithing cannot be demanded
from the Christian. Nevertheless, Stor-
ms advocates that tithing as a volun-
tary practice of the believer does have
its place on today’s Church, so long as
it respects God’s standards of genuine
giving. The theologian goes on to de-
fend that Christians have a responsibi-
lity to “be generous with their wealth”
(p. 319), yet he acknowledges that
such responsibility cannot be under-
taken grudgingly or with guilt, which
follows along Kioulachoglou’s affirma-
tion of true giving as gracious and vo-
luntary.