Religion, Business, Marvin Sapp, And Tithing
Is Tithing Spiritual Abuse?
I saw a clip of Mike Todd talking about tithing yesterday on Instagram—posted, naturally, by a critic who triumphantly followed it with a breakdown on how tithing was supposedly limited to agrarian economies, as though he’d just unlocked the Da Vinci Code of Levitical economics. Then, within the same 24-hour scroll spiral, I saw someone else repost a ProphetsAndWatches shoutout to Marvin Sapp, who apparently had ushers lock the auditorium doors until $40,000 came in during a special offering. Yes, really. Old school, tabernacle siege energy.
I’ll show you the Mike clip and give you my take (spoiler: I actually think he nails it)—my issue isn’t with him. My beef is with the guy who thinks he delivered some smug, varsity-level takedown of Todd’s belief in the tithe. Like he discovered an unreleased Gospel of Peter where Jesus says, “By the way, 10% is a scam.”
Here’s the full disclosure moment: it really does seem like fewer and fewer people believe in tithing. Some of my own relatives? Don’t believe in it. Some of my close friends? Same. I even had a pastor at Hillsong (not Brian, calm down) who genuinely believed that Malachi 3 should never be preached—that “robbing God” was irrelevant under grace. That in Christ, all curses were broken, and we now live exclusively in a cascade of undiluted blessing, like we’re all walking around inside a divine fountain commercial.
Honestly? I ping-pong between two frameworks: one is this ultra-grace, prosperity-soaked, God-would-never lens. The other is more Augustinian—this gritty, severe compatibility between wrath and grace that feels both Catholic and Reformed and, more crucially, historically orthodox. Because let’s be clear: classic Christian orthodoxy affirms that God disciplines His children. Like, actually disciplines them. That’s not me being intense, that’s Hebrews 12.
So then the million-dollar question: if someone doesn’t tithe, are they disobedient? Like—wouldn’t you want to know that? Shouldn’t someone tell you? And has the Church said anything about this? What did the early Church Fathers believe? Did they say nothing? Or did they say something substantial? Who were the loudest voices in the room?
Spoiler: I think you’ll be shocked by what they actually said. I’ve got receipts.
But first—watch this clip and the tired no-tithing take that this dude thinks he scores on Mike Todd:
