Though Larry is often heralded as one of the most popular Christian authors on financial matters (which I would have to agree that financial advice is his strong suit and I know people who have benefitted from his books), this book is a grand disappointment, to say the least. This book proves that Larry is typically influenced with the traditional mindset on tithing but is less than able to present any valid biblical reason for his direction to tithe. As Russell Kelly, PhD. put it, "Larry is a financial planner, not a theologian..."

Larry builds his entire foundation on the modern traditional teaching of tithing rather than building it on the Word of God. While Scripture is referenced, it is most often far removed from its proper context and Larry relies on his personal opinion often to enforce points.

Larry seems to be ignorant of the mountain of evidence included in early Church history that reveals the Church was big on giving out of love, but was not impressed with those who imposed Old Covenant mandates on the Church. In fact, several of the Church Fathers from the second century specifically spoke out against tithing (to be used as an example, guideline or motivation for Christian giving). And despite the fact that there is not one New Testament passage that teaches the Church to use the Old Covenant tithe of food as an example to motivate giving money for the purpose of maintaining building programs and staffed ministers, still Larry insists that tithing is very much a New Covenant principle! Amazing!

Another problem is that Larry only seems to quote certain passages of Scripture where it supports the point he is making. That wouldn't be a problem if it weren't that he continually misapplies passages by removing them from their proper context and then only quoting the part of the passage that suits his view. Other passages that should also be included to bring clarity to the complete biblical picture are left out entirely, and understandably so as they would cause his misuse of other passages (whether deliberate or from ignorance) to be more evident. His puzzle wouldn't fit together if Scripture was visited in its proper context.

This is sad and unfortunate. Even more unfortunate is the reality that there will be some Christians who just bite and swallow these teachings without examining the Word fully for themselves.

I am not suggesting that Larry is deliberately trying to deceive people. I'm sure he is probably thoroughly convinced of his view as are so many believers today who follow the modern concept of tithing money to churches. I know that Larry is a skilled teacher in the area of financial management and I thank God for the help he has provided to people needing assistance in this area of their lives. There is much good to be said about brother Larry's work in this field. I cannot, however, speak so positively about his handling of this subject of tithing because, quite honestly, this book is a miserable examination of the topic and it is misleading to the body of Christ when it encourages Christians to just accept that tithing money to a church is a biblical mandate. It is not. Not even close. This is also not to say that Christians should not support those programs that they receive benefit from, but all I am suggesting is that to call something biblical and present it as a mandate of Scripture when it is not Scriptural at all is just not biblically honest and I don't see how the Holy Spirit can ever bless such teaching.

I hope by sharing these comments that, if someone does happen to purchase Larry's booklet on tithing, they will be wise to thoroughly examine the Word on their own and not just take this brother's word for it. Anyone can build a doctrine by piecing verses together here and there. It is another thing to honestly examine Scripture in its full and complete context.

While there is much encouragement in the New Testament towards giving from love and obedience to the internal leading of God's Spirit, and that giving is to be actuated from free will WITHOUT COMPULSION or because of NECESSITY (2 Corinthians 9:7), any mandate to tithe money to a local church ...is just absolutely absent from Scripture! After studying the topic myself for more than 4 years now, I am thoroughly convinced it is a doctrine of man and not at all of Scripture.

For a real study on tithing, that goes far far far beyond just one guy's opinion, prooftexted with a small handful of verses, I strongly encourage you to get your hands on a copy of Russell Earl Kelly's book on tithing. It's called, "Should The Church Teach Tithing: A Theologian's Conclusions About A Taboo Doctrine." This book is remarkable! Every passage on tithing in the entire Bible is dealt with thoroughly, in context. There is no proof texting in this study... it's just strait up, honest Bible! Where opinion is offered, Russell states such and does not ever expect the reader to just take his word of opinion for something. In other words, Russell does not teach his opinions as being the Bible. He teaches the Bible. And his book includes all the source references used in his study so the reader can check him out completely if they choose to. That's why I loved his book and so highly recommend it - it nails it on the head when it comes to "getting biblical" about this topic. No stone is left unturned!

Just about every other pro-tithe book I've read lacks substance and usually these books are very thin, scantly clad with Scripture. Russell's book is crammed thick with the Word of God and loaded with resource study material, including an examination of early Church history - post Calvary! Good stuff! Excellent!... If you want to get honest about what biblical tithing is, I strongly recommend Russ' book!...

Giving and Tithing, Larry Burkett, 1991, 1998, 62 pages.

If you are a lay person with little depth of contextual Bible study, this book will be very appealing and a delight to read. Larry is a financial planner, not a theologian, and is more skillful in getting people to agree with him than instead of correctly teaching God's Word.

PLUS: (1) When New Covenant principles such as those in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are discussed, the book has a lot of worthwhile comments, although they are still in proof-text style. (2) On pages 32-33 he correctly points out that the real biblical "tithe" was actually 23 per cent, although he does not go into embarrassing detail. (3) He correctly concludes that a great deal of the Old Covenant tithe went to the poor and needy in the community and even states the churches should give a portion of their "tithe" income to individuals or para-church organizations that are filling in the gap (page 35).

NEGATIVE: (1) Pages 14-15: While claiming to spend many hours studying the Bible in its context, Mr. Burkett does not show any knowledge about the correct definition, contents, covenant, limited purpose, or failure of tithing. (2) Page 29: In reality the tithe was always only food from landowners and herdsmen inside Israel and never applied to craftsmen or the poor. His definition of tithing ignores the food only contents of every legitimate tithing text after Moses. Although Abraham was before the Mosaic Law, he was obeying the Arab law which is clear by Genesis 14:21 in most commentaries. (3) Page 29: Burkett says "no punishment was indicated for not tithing." King Saul (1 Sam 8:14-17), David (1 Chron 23-27), Hezekiah (2 Chron 31), and Nehemiah (Neh 10-13) sent soldiers to collect tithe-taxes to support their Levitical government workers. (4) Page 30: Since tithes were collected and stored in the king's storehouses, it was not voluntary, as Burkett, and thus is disqualified under free-will principles of the newer and better covenant of grace. (5) Page 31: Burkett also missed the "purpose" of the tithe by ignoring its key chapter, Numbers 18. The tithe was a temporary replacement for the "priesthood of believers" and only its supported priests could draw near to God. When tithing ended at Calvary, Exodus 19:5-6 was fulfilled in 1 Peter 2:9-10. (6) Page 31: The wicked "they" were most likely the disobedient cursed priests from Malachi 1-3. (7) Page 32: Says that the tithe was considered a minimum without giving any supporting texts. This is not true. The poor gave what they could and were not covered by the definition of the tithe. (8) Page 34: "The priests and the tribe of Levi would be the equivalent of the pastors, church staff, missionaries, and evangelists today." This is also not true, because the believer-priest replaced the old priesthood and the pastor-teacher is a new entity comparable to the rabbi, who was usually self-supporting.

(9) Page 34: Says that the system of tithing was "kept nearly intact by the early church." Actually, while the earliest church was very strong on helping the needy, tithing was not reintroduced until Cyprian's time in the 3rd century. Tertullian, his teacher, taught otherwise. (10) Pages 16-17: Claims that Paul's "material suffering" following his great sacrifice was "unique" and, therefore, not the norm, which contradict his own survey found on page 16. (11) Page 17: The statement that "Paul amplifies" the statement that "those who give less than a tenth of their income limit what God can do for them" is absurd when compared to New Covenant principles found in 1 Tim. 5:8 and 2 Cor. 8:13-14. (12) Page 17+: While quoting Mal. 3:10-12 numerous times and 3:8 once, he does not quote the curse of 3:9 because it contradicts his statements about no "fear" of being "punished" on pages 22-23. The old covenant curse context of 3:5-7 from Neh. 10:29 and Deut. 27-28 is totally ignored. Actually, the priests in Malachi were cursed for keeping the best of the tithe for themselves and not giving it to the poor in verse 5. The curse of the law for not tithing does not apply to Christians, per Galatians 3:13. (13) Page 17: "A lack of giving is an external material indicator that spiritual changes need to be made" is an insult to the devout Christians in Judea who were being helped by the early church; and also to those today who are suffering under tremendous medical bills. Burkett sacrifices the love Jesus shows to the poor for his viewpoint of "weak and unprofitable" "abolished" principles of tithing (Heb 7:18).

Burkett might succeed as a family financial counselor, but he fails miserably as a theologian and church historian. When asked to speak for the church in such matters, he should defer the biblical application to those persons. Burkett is not inclined to dialogue with those who disagree with him. Since the book contains so many biblical errors, I do not recommend it at all.

Regretfully, Mr. Burkett has fallen short. Yes, we are to give and do so with the proper motivation; but that is only half the story. Missing is a distinction between tithes and offerings and their proper uses. In short, tithes are for people, and ONLY for people, to meet peoples' PERSONAL needs. In other words, no where scripturally will you find tithe money being used to finance church buildings and the like (as we usually do). Freewill offerings can be used for anything, but it should be noted that of the two, only freewill offerings were used to build and/or maintain church buildings (shocking, I know!). Hence, the biblical definition of the storehouse becomes not so much the place, but from WHO you are spiritually fed. For those interested, Numbers 18:19- sets the tone. We cannot simply give to God without taking some vested interest in how these funds are spent according to their scriptural intent. The only REAL church building is the person who has accepted Christ. Is God against church buildings? No! But he is particular in how we construct them. And it is for this reason why I gave this book a low rating - it didn't present in any real terms the full teaching of the tithe. It failed to emphasize the difference between tithes and offerings and their scripturally permitted uses. A teaching for which we have sinned greatly by avoiding.

Not even about finances at all. Waste of time.

When I purchased the book I thought that I would be receiving a book that talked about finances for the single parent. However, it is more of a book with very basic fatherly-like advice. While it may have given some well intentioned advice it really said nothing significant about finance at all. In fact, the other thing that even resembles finance was the chapter on making budgets. Which consequently, has nothing to do with a single parent. Again, the author may be a wise and very kind person but if you want to know about finances for a single parent, this is not the one for you.

Finally, a financial advice book that addresses the specific financial concerns of the single parent! And with all the biblically-founded financial wisdom that Larry Burkett is famous for. This book is full of strategies on how to stretch your money, and includes specific guidelines for setting up a budget. My finances are still a mess, but with the help of this book, I'm straightening it out. I only wish I had it several years ago. The only negative thing that I noticed is that it didn't seem (to me) to adequately address the expense of child care, which is probably the biggest concern of the single parent. But it is well worth the money, I'm getting a lot of use out of it.

Although he eventually gets to financial planning he spends a LOT of time working on God's design for MARRIAGE and the pain of divorce. I feel that most people who buy this book are already aware of these things and are perhaps struggling and need help with the tight financial planning. I like Larry Burkett and recommend most of his books, but not this one.

Disappointed Mom of 4

This book by Larry Burkett of whom I have the utmost respect (I reguarly listen to his radio show on finances), seemed to me very, very shallow. The book measures just 6.5" X 4". It has less than 43 pages of actual information if you include the glossary (which has a total of 13 words). On average, each page addresses 2 topics. The information is generally sound, but little explaination is given as to why one should do such and such. The subject of finances is for teenagers, but if your teenager is going to college, he won't be impressed by this book. But what really got me going was the [price] retail price! I would price it more like [cheaper price]. Having said all of the above I would like to still encourage readers to continue to buy and read books by Mr. Burkett. You will never go wrong with any of his advise. I bought his book "Money Matters for Teens" at [price] (still a little pricy in my opinion) which seems great at first glance.

I read a lot of different personal financial advice books, and I found this one of the worst I have ever read. There were some good points made, but I found errors in the book regarding qualified retirement plans at the workplace and IRA's. There are much better books out there to read besides this one.

If you've heard his program or read any financial advice books this book is nothing but rehashed material and based on old ideas when the markets were humming along. The advice won't work in the current economic conditions. Worse yet it's boring to read and poorly written. Very disappointing.

I pick up this book in the local library. I am glad I did not waste money to but this book. Buckett claims that he is a Christian but he lacks Christian character in the introduction. "... a Christian finanial planner, who is not very successful in his own right, wrote a book in which he attacked my previous book..." He may disagee on what other people say about him, but calling names like "not very successful" is not a Christian act.

Some of the terms stated in the book is just wrong. e.g. "Treasury bills are fairly illiquid investments, because you need to hold them for a year or more." (p. 61) This is not true. T-bills are the most liquid investment you can find for SHORT term money. T-bill are short term investment with a 365 days maturity or less. I never heard of anybody who could not sell their T-bills and have to wait to maturity.

Most predictions (if not all) provided by Backett in chapter 4 about the economic fallout from Y2K are ridicous and wrong. As we know now those predictions never happened.

"Our immigrant population, rising medical costs, national defence, and particularly our nation's moral bankruptcy must all be reckoned as economic liabilities." (p. 95) Buckett tries to blame immigrants for the economic problems in the nation is just down right racist.

This is just another of his book to misuse the Bible for his fundamentist ideas. I just wondered, what would Jesus do with this book?

A word of warning, unless you are lost on the Christian right, this book will not appeal to you in the least. Money Matters manages to apply draconian financial rules written some 2000 years ago to a modern economy.

I thought this would be a brief guide to the US renatl market, instead it turned out to be religious propaganda with little if any value as a guide to renting.

Save a tree (well a twig - since it is a pretty small book) and buy an alternative book.

I guess I can assume some of the responsiblity for purchasing this book. Larry Burkett is a prolific writer and many of his other books give ample indication to his angle of teaching, or should I say preaching.

To say the least I was astounded and highly annoyed that Mr. Burkett find it necessary to drag God, and his take of Christianity into every aspect of this book (or lets say as far as I could bear to read). Now if that wasn't enough, Mr. Burkett occasionally peppers his text with his personal (I'm tempted to say narrow-minded)opinion about government agencies (describing the EPA as commiting terrorist acts) and political structures (socialism). If I were into stereotypes, I'd say he probably thinks that the U.N. is involved in a world conspiracy to conquer the U.S.

It's a pity because the author seems to have some good advice to give, and I don't mind an occasional quote from the scripture to make a point. Nonetheless this book smacks of zealotry.

Well I guess I was just the wrong reader for this book. Maybe the next time my door bell rings and there's somebody trying to give me a Bible, I can in exchange, give Mr. Burketts book.