WHAT FAMOUS THEOLOGIANS HAD TO SAY ABOUT

GIVING

About 450, AUGUSTINE - PRE-CATHOLIC:  Give without a qualm:  it's the Lord who receives, the Lord who is asking.  You wouldn't have anything to give him unless you had first received it from him....acts of charity.  (Sermon 390) 

About 1836, JOHN CALVIN - REFORMED CHURCHES: "Wherefore the Papal priests draw a silly inference when they claim the tithes for themselves, as if due to them in right of the priesthood; else must they needs prove that those whom they call the laity are their tenants...it would be sacrilege to appropriate the tithes to their own use....'The priesthood being changed, the right also is at the same time transferred' (Hebrews 7:12)...whatever the Law had conferred on the Levitical priests now belongs to Christ alone." (Commentaries on the Last Four Books of Moses, Numbers 18:20)

1682, JOHN BUNYAN - BAPTIST: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him....The work now to be done was...to bestow their charity upon the poor; yea, to provide for time to come." (The Works of John Bunyan, "The Seventh-Day Sabbath" Vol. II, pg. 377)

1721, MATTHEW HENRY - PRESBYTERIAN: "Markets in the temple...rob God of his honor....The priests lived, and lived plentifully upon the altar; but, not content with that, they found other ways and means to squeeze money out of the people."  (Commentary, Vol. 5, Matthew 21:12)

1868, CHARLES H. SPURGEON - BAPTIST: "Much has been said about giving the tenth of one's income to the Lord....But it is as great mistake to suppose that the Jew only gave a tenth. He gave very, very, very much more than that...but after that came all the free-will offerings...so that, perhaps, he gave a third....I do not, however, like to lay down any rules....for the Lord's New Testament...teacheth us rather the soul of liberality....Give...proportionately, as the Lord has prospered you....You are not under the Law but under grace; you are not, therefore, to give or to do anything to God as of compulsion, as though you heard the old Mosaic whip cracking in your ears." (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermon 835, A Cheerful Giver is Beloved of God)