If you ever try to read a medical or technical journal you may find yourself awash in unfamiliar terms used by practitioners. Sometimes said terms are just unique to their particular field of study but often they are jargon, verbal shortcuts.
Here at church we sometimes use Old Testament words despite knowing full well we live post-cross in the Age of Grace. Often we use those words not because we don’t understand that we are “free from the law”, but because the word best sums up what we mean in a way we mutually understand. I’m talking about words like “sanctuary” and “tithe.” The challenge is, words like that really do have specific meanings and a visitor (a newer attender or even someone coming into adulthood and thinking things through for the first time) can be thrown by our use thereof. Given Paul’s counsel in Romans 14, I’m going to try to take more care, but I also want to explain.
Sanctuary – Renamed at WOGF – “Worship Center”
The word “sanctuary” appears 150 in the NASB translation of the Bible. Three of those 150 appearances are in the New Testament. Once in Matthew which records Judas throwing 30 pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary, and twice in Hebrews discussing serving in the presence of God in the true sanctuary. At some point in church history someone observed or decided that the meeting room of a church was where we meet God. In no way shape or form am I saying that’s incorrect. But I am saying that it’s contrary to the New Testament picture of our bodies being the temples (sanctuaries) of the Holy Spirit. No one is going to jump down anyone’s throat for misremembering. I still call WOGF BRBC half the time, I just want to slowly fix our jargon where I can.
TITHE – Offerings (Not really a renaming)
This is a more generalized jargon or short-cut. I’ve attached an overview article from GotQuestions and it links to 5 more articles if you want details. NO, we are not under a tithe mandate. Yes, Christians will probably never stop using the word, despite my attempts to “officially” change it. When you hear the word just think of it as synonymous with “taking the offering” because that’s what the speaker means. 🙂
https://www.gotquestions.org/tithing-Christian.html
I was taught to think of the tithe (10%) as my minimum or baseline giving. So while I don’t believe I live under tithing as a law, we (Kelly and I) have never budgeted to live on less than 90% of our income and God has always kept our bills paid. A testimony I have often heard repeated! – Pastor Scott
Grace Notes 