Herbert Armstrong - Is Tithing Required on Money Incomes?

Tithing in the Old Testament is an interesting study. What becomes immediately clear is that it never applied to wages, trade income, craftsmanship, fishing, commercial profit, or any other form of monetary earnings.

Money certainly existed, and the monetary economy was substantial - merchants, traders, craftsmen, builders, fishermen, and labourers, including agricultural labourers and many others too numerous to list, formed a significant and essential part of Israel’s society - yet none of these were ever tithed.

Towns, fortified cities, royal centres, and trade hubs had significant numbers of non‑agricultural workers. Even rural villages had essential trades (smiths, carpenters, potters, weavers, builders, transport workers, fishermen, merchants). The Bible itself depicts frequent monetary transactions, which presuppose a functioning monetary economy.

The biblical tithe was restricted solely to agricultural increase and herds and flocks from the land of Israel, as laid out in Leviticus 27 and Numbers 18.

If someone insists that tithing applies to modern monetary income, that is their prerogative - but Scripture never makes that demand. Unfortunately, many systems, particularly in parts of the United States, are highly adept at redefining the word tithe to mean a mandatory tenth of monetary income, for reasons that are obvious. Armstrong was so adept he managed to extract (or sought to extract) some 23pc of income of the members. 

Such matters are discussed in my post in Quora.  See here.  It is titled: Is there any biblical basis for applying the Old Testament tithe to modern monetary income, as so many Christians insist today?

I’ve laid out the distinctions between the first tithe, second tithe, and third tithe; explained redemption; clarified the Temple tax; discussed widows mite, and shown the New Testament teaching.