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“And my people shall know the truth and the truth shall set them free” “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the store house and prove me now herewith saith the lord of hosts if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing, that there would not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3 : 8 -10

The above quoted scripture is probably one of the most quoted in the bible.
Unfortunately, it is being quoted out of context and used as a weapon of mass intimidation, manipulation, extortion, oppression, cajolery and outright lies and deceit by some church leaders to collect 10 per cent of the gross income of their church members who have been hoodwinked into believing that they are doing God’s will.
Before I go into the details of this discourse, I want to state categorically that I am a God-loving, bible-believing Christian who has the fear of God in his heart. I am also not writing this article to undermine any church or pastor, but to let people realize the truth about tithes and remove the yoke placed by some pastors upon them. I also want to state categorically that I strongly believe in giving to the church for the sole purpose of propagating God’s work and the Christian ministry. I will continue to encourage all Christians to give their all to God as exemplified by the widow’s mite which Jesus Christ himself referred to in the bible.
Now, back to Malachi 3:8-10, the first question one should ask is who was this message directed at? The answer lies in the book of Numbers 18:25-28 which states that “The Lord commanded Moses to say to the Levites, when you receive from the Israelites the tithe that the Lord gives you as your possession, you must present a tenth of it as a special contribution to the Lord. This special contribution will be considered as the equivalent of the offering which the farmer makes of new grain and wine. In this way you would also present the special contribution which belongs to the Lord from all the tithes which you receive from the Israelites. You are to give this special contribution for the Lord to Aaron the priest.”

From the above, it is clear that it was the Levites that were directed to pay a tithe they collected from the Israelites to the priest who represents God and not the people of Israel. It was these Levites that were being referred to in the book of Malachi as those who rob God. A thorough study of the book of Malachi would reveal that in those days the Levites were collecting the tithe from the people of Israel and not remitting a tithe of it to the house of God, hence Malachi’s statement which is now being quoted out of context..

To understand what tithe really means one would have to understand the social reasons and cultural/religious setting within which it was situated. This concept of tithes was properly explained in the bible as stated in the laws of the tithe which can be found in the books of Leviticus 27:30-34, Numbers 18:25-31 and Deuteronomy 14:22-29. Upon reading these passages one would understand what tithes really mean, but unfortunately most pastors prefer to neglect these passages that tell us the true meaning of tithes and emphasize on Malachi 3:8-10 which was directed to the Levites of that time to remit the priest’s share of the tithes they collected to him. It is worthy of note that Malachi does not even define what tithe is and how it should be paid.

The definition of tithes, as practised today, was manufactured by modern day pastors to suit their purpose as it is completely in contrast with what is in the bible and it only seeks to manipulate Christians to believe that God requests 10 per cent of their gross income from them.
So what is tithe and why did God request that it be paid to the Levities? The answer can be found in the following passages: Leviticus 27:30-32 which states that “one tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit belongs to the Lord. If a man wishes to buy back any of it he must pay the standard price plus an additional 20 per cent. One in every ten domestic animal belongs to the Lord. When the animals are counted, every tenth one belongs to the Lord.” And Deuteronomy 26:12 which states that “every third year give the tithe, a tenth of your crops to the Levites, the foreigners, the orphans and the widows, so that in every community they will have all they need to eat.”

The above quoted passages clearly tell us what tithe is and the reason why God directed the people of Israel to pay tithes. It is very evident that it was a social arrangement for the less privileged in the Jewish society of that time. It was also meant to take care of the Levites because they had no land or property of their own (today, pastors are amongst the wealthiest property owners in Nigeria). This social arrangement is obviously not relevant to us today. It also states that every third year is the year of tithing, not the weekly/monthly tithes being extorted from church members today.

Another passage illustrates the true meaning of tithes properly and also states clearly that tithe is not money. Deuteronomy 14:22-29 says: “Set aside as tithe a tenth of all that your fields produce each year then go to the one place where the Lord your God has chosen to be worshiped and there in his presence eat the tithes of your grain, wine and olive oil and first born of your cattle and sheep. Do this so that you may learn to have reverence for the Lord your God always. If the place of worship is too far from your home for you to carry there the tithe of the produce that the Lord has blessed you with, then sell your produce and take the money with you to the one place of worship, spend it on whatever you want ,beef, lamb, wine, beer and there in the presence of the lord you and your family are to eat and enjoy yourselves. Do not neglect the Levites who live in your towns for they have no property of their own. At the end of every third year, bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns. This is food for the Levites since they own no property and for the orphans, foreigners and widows who live in your towns. Do this and the lord your God would bless you in everything you do.”

From the above passage, it is very clear that tithe is not money and it is not the exclusive preserve of the Levites (church). It was a religious practice in those days to give reverence to God and to celebrate God in his place of worship. The Levites were only included for the main reason that they had no land of their own and that reason is not relevant in today’s society. Yet some pastors would tell you that you are cursed and would not go to heaven if you don’t give them 10 per cent of your gross income. All this hypocrisy would not have bothered me if all the money being collected was being used to propagate God’s work. But the truth as we all know today is that this money is being used to finance lavish, flamboyant and exotic lifestyle that is unbecoming of a man who truly claims to serve God, as a pastor who is expected to be meek and humble like our Lord Jesus Christ was.

As a concluding part to this article, I would want to refer us to the book of Hebrews, which was written to the early Christians. This provides irrefutable proof that Christians are not meant to pay tithes as the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ does not require it.
Hebrews 7:5, says: “And those descendants of Levites who are priests are commanded by the law to collect one tenth from the people of Israel, that is from their own countrymen even though their countrymen are also descendants of Abraham.”

From this verse, we can jump to verses 11-13 which say: “It was on the basis of the Levitical priesthood that the law was given to the people of Israel. Now, if the work of the Levitical priests had been perfect there would be no need for a different kind of priest to appear, one who is in the priestly order of Melchizedek not of Aaron. For when the priesthood is changed, there also has to be a change in the law. And our Lord of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe of Judah and Moses did not mention his tribe when he spoke of priests.”
The above passage is self-explanatory and it states clearly that the practice of tithing has no place under the priestly order of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the passage suggests that the collection of tithes is belittling of the priestly order of our Lord Jesus Christ. It states that it is wrong for us as Christians to receive or pay tithes and is not relevant to us as Christians because we belong to a superior priestly order.

Once again, I would like to state that this article is not meant for us as Christians to revolt against the church or our pastors. It is just meant to establish the biblical truth about tithes and remove the yoke from people who labour to pay tithes–not required of them by God–while their pastors are living luxuriously. Today, many pastors see the church as their personal business and even fraudulent people are opening up churches so that they can have access to people’s tithes and use it for their personal comfort. I encourage all of us as Christians to remain vigilant and continue to serve God in truth and in faith to the glory of his holy name. Amen.

Another point of note is: how come out of the 613 biblical laws of Moses which were handed out to the people of Israel, it is only an adulterated version of the law of tithe that is still being practiced today, apart from the Ten Commandments? How come we are no longer required to offer burnt sacrifices? How come we no longer stone people to death for sinning? The truth is that only tithing was dug out of the laws of Moses because it presents material benefits to the collectors of tithes. Given that most Christians do not study their bibles and depend on their priests to guide them through, it was easy for pastors to pick a passage in the bible (Malachi 3 : 8-10),

quote it out of context and use it to manipulate the flock into parting with 10 per cent of their income. Furthermore, it is worthy of note that neither Jesus Christ nor any of the apostles ever preached about or collected tithe. In fact, in the bible, Jesus Christ only spoke about tithes in Luke 11:42 which states that: “But woe unto you Pharisees! For ye tithe mint and rue all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Here we can see that Jesus Christ is rebuking the Pharisees for laying emphasis on tithes instead of the more important things of the spirit, like our pastors are doing today.
In Acts 15, we find outlined what the apostles all agreed was necessary for the newly converted Gentiles to practise, and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, tithing is conspicuously missing. Yet, what is one of the very first legislated duties taught to Gentile converts by the Church today? It is that they must tithe their annual salaries to the Church. Where did this unscriptural law of Christian tithing come from?

Notice this telling bit of history from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1963, volume 22, page 253, ‘TITHES’). “Tithes in Christendom—The earliest authentic example of anything like a law of the State enforcing payment appears to occur in the capitularies [Ecclesiastes] of Charlemagne at the end of the 8th or beginning of the 9th century. Tithes were, by that enactment, to be applied to the maintenance of the bishop, clergy, the poor, and the fabric of the church. In the course of time the principle of payment of tithes was extended far beyond its original intention. Thus, they became transferable to laymen and saleable like ordinary property, despite the injunctions of the third Lateran Council; and they became payable out of sources of income [not just farming and herding, but other trades and occupations and salaries paid in the form of money] not originally tithable.”
The Catholic Church knows its own history. Here is how tithing got back into the Church after being absent for nearly five centuries:

“As the Church expanded and various institutions arose, it became necessary to make laws which would insure the proper and permanent support of the clergy. The payment of tithes was adopted from the Old Law… The earliest positive legislation on the subject seems to be contained in the letter of the bishops assembled at Tours in 567 and the [canons] of the Council of Macon in 585.”—The Catholic Encyclopaedia.

They “extended” their base of tithe collecting to eventually include all forms of income. All Christian scholars know that although money was in wide use in ancient Israel, it was never a titheable commodity. But modern pastors don’t want tithes of goats or oil or corn, they want money–cold, hard cash! God has a word to the “shepherds of the sheep”, and it is the very same message that He had for the Levites in the book of Malachi. And it is this:

“My people have been lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray” (Jer. 50:6).
Were Israelites aware that they were being led astray by their spiritual leaders? Not most, and neither are Christians today aware that they are being led astray by their spiritual leaders.
Oshobi is a businessman based in Lagos.

NOW DID YOUR PATOR TELL YOU THIS ?
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Stephen Hawking in front of sun with coronal mass ejections.




THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrialsare almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out,humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.

The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinkingon some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centreof stars or even floating in interplanetary space.

Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containinghundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely tobe the only planet where life has evolved.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work outwhat aliens might actually be like.”

The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals — the sort of life that has dominated Earthfor most of its history.

One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of two-legged herbivores browsing on an alien cliff-face where they arepicked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another showsglowing fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceansthought to underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons ofJupiter.

Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose athreat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could bedevastating for humanity.

He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligentlife might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imaginethey might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources fromtheir home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads,looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think theoutcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed inAmerica, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

The completion of the documentary marks a triumph for Hawking, now 68, who is paralysed by motor neurone disease and has very limitedpowers of communication. The project took him and his producers threeyears, during which he insisted on rewriting large chunks of the scriptand checking the filming.

John Smithson, executive producer for Discovery, said: “He wanted to make a programme that was entertaining for a general audience as well asscientific and that’s a tough job, given the complexity of the ideasinvolved.”

Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, suchas the discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distantstars, showing that planets are a common phenomenon.

So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitiveenough to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances.

Another breakthrough is the discovery that life on Earth has proven able to colonise its most extreme environments. If life can survive andevolve there, scientists reason, then perhaps nowhere is out of bounds.

Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Coxbacked the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon ofSaturn, as likely places to look.

Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier this year that aliens might prove to be beyond humanunderstanding.

“I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive,” he said. “Just as a chimpanzee can’t understandquantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyondthe capacity of our brains.”

Stephen Hawking's Universe begins on the Discovery Channel on Sunday May 9 at 9pm.

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Yar’Adua can walk, talk, eat – Cousin Confirms

BUT HE CANT ADDRESS THE NATION ! .

By Lawani Mikairu with agency report
Thursday, March 4, 2010
LAGOS—CONTRARY to speculations that President Umaru Yar’Adua is in coma and on a life support machine, the first cousin, Mr. Zubaru Ali, has disclosed that the President can walk, talk, eat and was even asking after family members.

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In an interview with cable network, Al Jazeera, Zubaru Ali said he was given permission to meet with the ailing President because he is his first cousin and family spokesperson.

He said the President’s health was improving and that he was able to recognize individuals contrary to speculations. Zubaru Ali added that Yar’Adua has been expressing thanks to family members for their prayers and support.

It will be recalled that President Umaru Yar’Adua, has been back in the country since penultimate Wednesday, after spending more than three months receiving medical treatment at a Saudi Arabian hospital.

He has, however, not been seen or heard in public since his return on February 24, fueling speculation that he was incapable of carrying out his job. Yar’Adua’s silence has led many newspapers to continue to report that he was on a life support machine or in a coma.

There are also speculations that the president’s aides and first family are holding him hostage in the presidential villa until they can figure out how to retain influence and power in the event of his death.

According to Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, who had gone to Katsina State, Yar’Adua home state, she was able to track down one of the few members of Yar’Adua’s family to discuss the state of the president’s health.

State of health

Yar’Adua left the country on November 23 to receive treatment for pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart that can restrict normal beating.

He is also known to suffer from a chronic kidney condition and has long been criticized for not being able to work more than five or six hours a day.

Aside from the near constitutional crisis, Yar’Adua’s long absence had prompted street protests by thousands across the country, demanding his resignation.

It also threatened to paralyse the government until the National Assembly installed Goodluck Jonathan, the vice president, as acting president on February 9.

Yar’Adua had not officially transmitted a letter of medical vacation to the National Assembly, though the parliament said it based its decision on an interview that the ailing president gave the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, last month, saying that he would return to work once his doctors gave him the go-ahead.
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Na Only 4 Niaja

There are some many things that qualifies one to be called a true born Naija Person..I say the things dem plenty well well..Also,there are many things that are found only in Naija..I mean ways of life..talking,and other things. Check out the List 1:Its only in Naija that Young Guys eat Beans and Bread?2:Na 4 Naija U go hear say Thief dey Rob 4 Church.3:In Naija,When they bring Light(Electricity)Everybody shout Up Nepa4:In Naija,even when you koboless,you can dress like a millionaire.5:In Naija,Men dont give their fellow Men Lifts on the way,except they have booby(U know what i mean)6:Na 4 Naija when you are in a public means of transport,u dont interact..everybody carries a long face.7:In Naija,You can get almost anything in its fake version..Shoes,Clothes,jewry,currency,women ..even these days,their are fake Leaders.8:In Naija no Sociall security.9:Na only for Naija You see People with lots of Cars wasting away in their garage.10:Lastly..na 4 only naija u see politicians spending their ill-gotten wealth on parties and no one talks,afterall na chop i chop...What a country!...yet we still believe things go work out some day...''The Choosen Leaders are not yet Born" He go better!
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The News is not complete without a mention of the Federal Governments Amnesty to the Niger-Deltan Militants..Day in,Day out we are fed with juicy news from that Region..The Niger-Deltan Region has been in the spotlight of late with not too pleasnt news ..Bombing of Oil Pipelines,Kidnapping of Expatriates and Nigerians alike etc...The Recent one was the Invasion of some communities by the Army under a spcial unit called JTF(Joint Military Taskforce)They left behind their regular trademark..(sorrow,tears and Blood)apologies late Fela Kuti.. Now,then Government have extended the Olive branch to the Militants to lay down their Arms for the sake of Peace and to enable them develop a Region they abandoned for 50 years..Thats not the issue here,the main reason they are offering the militants amnesty,is to ensure that they continue siphoning the Oil wealth..because the Militants have promised to cripple the oil sector if their demands are not meant these include;The Unconditional release of Henry Okah,return To true Federalism and Resource Control..blah..blah..blah..I think this is a right move in the midst of the present situation of things in the Region..All said and done,i honestly believe that we the great people of the Country-Naija need amnesty..Yes i think we need to be liberated from the hands of selfish Leaders who get into power solely to enrich their pockets..We need amnesty from Epileptic Power Supply,Corruption,electoral malpratices (Infact we dont elect,they just appoint)I want to use this medium to call on the FG to extend her hand of amnesty to the entire citizens of this country.
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