Dollar contrasted the tithing commanded in the Old Testament with New Testament instruction for giving. Rather than specifying a certain percentage of money to give, the New Testament teaches believers to give as they are able and as God leads them based on their relationship with him.
The preacher said that giving should never be motivated by fear or shame, but should come from gratitude for what God has already done. For example, Genesis 14 describes how Abraham received a blessing from Melchizedek and gave the priest a tenth of the possessions Abraham had won in battle. Abraham tithed from his possessions after he had already had won a victory in battle, said Dollar, not in order to achieve that victory.
Dollar told the congregation that God had woken him up at 5:30 a.m. that day and told him to tell his church, “Your giving is a response to my [God’s] ability to take care of you.” The pastor emphasized repeatedly that believers are not under an obligation to give 10%, but should pray about how much God would want them to give.
Dollar also said it is important that people give with the right attitude. Christians should never give because they are “responding to pressure,” he said. This pressure could come from fear over what God could take away or from a desire for what God could give.
What’s more, Malachi 3:8 does not apply to followers of Jesus, said the pastor. That passage speaks of Israel being under a curse from God because they withheld tithes and offerings. But Christians do not have to tithe in order to be blessed, said Dollar. “You got Jesus in your life, you are blessed.”
Yet while Creflo Dollar emphasized that tithing is not a “magic pill,” he also spoke at length on the idea that God wants to bless his people and not leave them poor or homeless. The preacher does not appear to have changed a belief he expressed in 2007 when he told ABC’s “Nightline,” “I believe that when people who are having hard times give, I believe that good things will start happening to them. I was one of those poor people that gave and couldn’t afford it.”
Dollar said that at one point in his ministry, he was gifted two Rolls Royces. He decided to sell one of them because it would look suspicious for him to own something so expensive. But after that, said the pastor, God spoke to him and told him that he should not have gotten rid of the car because it was a sign of God’s love for him. “My God wants to bless you,” said Dollar. “I’m sorry you don’t want to receive it. I apologize if you hate the ‘prosperity gospel,’ but that’s still not going to stop his abounding provision.”
