Highlights of the Beginning of the Tithing System

Chapter 7—The Perfected Plan Delineated in an 1878 Pamphlet

According to conference action the perfected plan was set before the believers in a pamphlet significantly bearing the title Systematic Benevolence or the Bible Plan of Supporting the Ministry. It was but a refinement with a better way of figuring the tithe and the presentation made under the familiar title of “Systematic Benevolence.” In the introductory statement in the pamphlet we read: HBTS 4.4

“The subject of Systematic Benevolence has been under practical consideration by Seventh-day Adventists for a period of twenty years or more. And no material changes from the system first adopted were seen necessary until two years since. The reasons for these changes are given in the pages that follow.

“‘How much ought I to give for the support of the gospel?’ After carefully viewing the subject from all points, we answer, ‘A tithe of all our income.’

“This does not mean a tenth of our annual increase of property after the cost of food and clothing, and other expenses, are paid, but that nine parts of our income are to meet all these expenses, while a tithe of our income is the Lord’s, to be sacredly devoted to the support of the ministry. We regard the plan of pledging a sum equal to one percent annually on our property defective in several respects:

“1. It does not give a tithe of our income .... It is our conviction that our people have robbed God of more than one-half of the tithes which are His, while acting upon the defective plan of paying S.B. to the amount of only one percent per annum on their property.

“2. The words of Paul touching this subject—‘as the Lord hath prospered him’—are in strict harmony with that system in the Old Testament which claims one-tenth of all the income of the Lord’s people as His. The following we regard as a Scriptural and proper pledge for all our people to make:

“We solemnly promise, before God and to each other, conscientiously to pay to the Systematic Benevolence treasurer a tithe of all our income, to be laid by when received, and paid on the first Sunday of each one of the four quarters of the year; namely, the first Sunday in January, the first Sunday in April, the first Sunday in July, and the first Sunday in October.

“3. By the defective plan, those who had little or no property, and at the same time had considerable income, in some cases robbed the Lord of nearly or quite all the tithes of their actual income. By the Bible plan, one dollar of every ten earned is secured to the Lord’s cause. This alone will make a difference of many thousands to be cast into the Lord’s treasury for the support of the cause of God.

“And we cannot see reasons why our institutions, such as publishing houses, schools, sanitariums, and state conferences, should not put into the treasury of the Lord a tithe of all their income. These are indebted to the Lord and His servants for their existence and prosperity. As these receive the support of the General Conference, their tithes should be put into the General Conference treasury. The annual sum to be collected from our institutions at Battle Creek alone would not be less than $4,000, a handsome sum indeed to cast into a treasury which is not only empty, but actually in debt. And if our state conferences also pay a tithe of their income into the General Conference treasury, a want will be supplied that has long been felt.”—Statement prepared by committee appointed at General Conference, October 2-13, 1878. Committee as follows: James White, D. M. Canright, S. N. Haskell, J. N. Andrews, Uriah Smith. Systematic Benevolence; or the Bible Plan of Supporting the Ministry.