Weightier Matters--The Relationship Between Tithes and Justice: When I Was a Child

By Dr. Lanston M. Sylvester

Religion is big business. Blessings mentioned in the Bible have been turned into monetary opportunities. If G_d blesses you then it must be in terms of money. Churches now stage “blessings” to people by giving them money. Ministers show the blessings of G_d by asking people to give them money for jets and mansions. Unfortunately, many have fallen into this fraudulent belief system.
Weightier Matters addresses the foundational giving structure for most churches and its true meaning: The Tithe! What is the tithe? Why was the tithe originally established? Is the tithe just money or does it represent something greater?
Dr. Lanston M. Sylvester invites you to walk with him to rediscover what really matters. Clothes, houses, jets may attract many and tap into their base desires, but people matter. Justice and righteousness must be the basis of the money that is collected in the church. The poor, the homeless, the foster kids, the widows, and the immigrants should be the beneficiaries of communities (churches) that pool their monetary resources together. If churches spend more on feeding themselves than relieving suffering, that church has yet to understand what the tithe is.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin but have neglected the weightier matter of the law: justice, mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” Matthew 23:23 NKJV

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798823003926

Dr. Lanston M. Sylvester

Dr. Lanston M. Sylvester is an ordinary man serving an extraordinary G_d. Born in Trinidad, W.I. and raised in Brooklyn, NY he is the last of five children. He credits everything he is to his mother. Dr. Sylvester has done his Ph.D coursework in Public Health at Walden University. A graduate from Andrews University with both his Doctor of Ministry and Master of Divinity degrees. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Oakwood University. Dr. Sylvester has been married for over 30 years to his wife Raquel (Walker) and together they have 4 adult children. He has pastored for over 30 years and is simply trying to improve the lives of others. He is the president and director of Lanston Sylvester Ministries. He is also the creator of the SCAR Conference that is comprised of a team of skilled leaders helping others work through the wounds of this life. He has served as a Civil Service Commissioner, Board Member of NAMI, and other various roles. Prior to his work as a pastor, Dr. Sylvester served as a public-school teacher. In short, his life has been one of service to others. Our legacy that we leave behind is not money, houses, or cars. Our legacy is the ability to leave our spiritual DNA imprinted on someone else that they may have a better life. “Pure and undefiled religion before G_d and the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27 NKJV

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WEIGHTIER

MATTERS

–THE RELATIONSHIP

BETWEEN TITHES AND JUSTICE

WHEN I WAS A CHILD

Volume1

DR. LANSTON M. SYLVESTER

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2023 Dr. Lanston M. Sylvester. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  03/21/2023

ISBN: 979-8-8230-0393-3 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-0392-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023904999

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expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1     The Origin of the Tithe

Chapter 2     The Meaning of the Tithe

Chapter 3     Different Use of Tithes in Israel

Chapter 4     The Storehouse

Chapter 5     The Fulfillment of the Tithes

Chapter 6     The New Covenant

Chapter 7     The Widow’s Mite

Chapter 8     Ananias and Sapphira

Chapter 9     The Giver

Chapter 10   The System of Giving

Chapter 11   Weightier Matters

Chapter 12   A Message to Seventh-Day Adventists

DEDICATION

To: Marilyn Murphy

While others succumbed to their fears, you faced yours. The daunting

decision to raise five children with G_d rather than 5 children in

a degrading relationship. I thank you! I don’t know how you did

it! I don’t know how a single woman who did not graduate from

college, raised 5 children who have tasted the heights of academia

and excelled in vocations. I don’t know how you raised 5 children

who are faithful to G_d and the church though they went to public

schools. I don’t know how you financially survived. I am in awe of

you. I need no church to describe G_d to me; I need no pastor to tell me

the characteristics of G_d, for I have seen it up close and personal.

This book is for you and all the women and men out there

like you who give of themselves to the benefit of others. You

gave and asked for nothing in return. You gave when you

had nothing, while others took when they had everything.

It is because of you that I can speak and write boldly.

I strive to make you proud and my failures are simply reminders

that I can never repay you but I must never stop trying.

Ubuntu—I am because you are!

FOREWORD

In the beginning, G_d created the heavens and the earth. Among many things that this well-known biblical verse conveys, one of the most poignant is that G_d owns everything. He created it; thus, He owns it. A very simple concept.

Given G_d’s ownership of everything, how are His created subjects (we humans) supposed to respond? For multiple millennia, the answer has been to love the Lord, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. What a reasonable declaration this is! G_d gave us the essence of who we are and expects us to recognize and honor Him with the essence of who we are.

As time progressed, we, as the stewards of the created order, were allowed to amass material possessions—food, clothing, houses, tools, transportation, art and artifacts, cattle and crops, flocks and fields, herds and harvests, and of course, money. What is the response to G_d based on these material possessions? For multiple decades, since the resurrection, the answer has been, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. Given G_d’s ownership of everything, what a reasonable declaration this is. Or is it?

The approach taken in this book seeks to answer the last question. This body of work, though not original in concept, is quite original in approach. In language that’s void of seminary-laden terminology, ecclesiastical groupthink, and laity-laden parroting, the author describes the principled response to G_d’s ownership of everything. The author refocuses our attention to the essence of our relationships with our Creator and not simply just the possessions from our Creator. In other words, to use a crude fictional analogy from childhood, is it better to have the goose or the golden egg?

The fact that you are considering reading this book suggests you are open to new information. Good for you! You’ll be richly rewarded, not just because the information may be new, but that it is also well reasoned and true. If the previous suggestion is unfounded, and you are skeptical of this book and its contents, then you, too, will be richly rewarded. The author uses careful exegetical skill to arrive at an answer that does justice to G_d as Creator as well as to the responder as a steward of the possession and essence provided by our Creator.

Lastly, if you are fixed in your thinking and completely sold on the narrative that has been dispensed from pulpits for your entire life, then it’s not likely you’d be reading this book. Your mind is fixed, and that’s that. But if the temptation gets too irresistible and you do start reading, you will also be rewarded, though perhaps not as richly as the open-minded or skeptic. Your reward will be that the author affirms the need for us to respond with our possessions to our Creator’s beneficence. The efficacy of this response is grounded in the essence of who we are, what G_d has done (and continues to do), and what kind of relationship we seek to have with G_d. Make no mistake, you will be challenged—not to upset you, deride you, or chastise you but to make you think!

I could go on to tell you about the professional credentials of Dr. Lanston M. Sylvester, his academic acumen, his penchant for pastoral provocation toward piety, his love for G_d and His church, his childhood exploits with mischief (we grew up together as teenagers in Brooklyn), and his maturation to the man that he is now and is yet to be by G_d’s grace. I could tell you about his principled stand on what the Word of G_d has declared as true regardless of what the culture or the conference may say. I could tell you all of that and more so you can better understand the man, the Christ follower who was driven to write this body of work. But it’s better if you get