The Fallacy of Making Descriptive Texts Prescriptive
The first fallacy we need to address that influences adherence to the required at least 10% tithe is making descriptive texts prescriptive. This fallacy takes a story or elements of a story in Scripture and makes it a prescription to live our lives. For example, we see in the descriptive texts of Acts 2:43, 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 11:20-25 that the disciples had communion weekly. That is the description or narrative of what happened. But is this to be followed today? No. There is no passage in the Bible that tells us or prescribes that we observe communion weekly. Can we? Sure. Must we? No. We can only take a descriptive text as normative if there is an explicit teaching supporting it. As an example, we can take the description of how Joseph did not succumb to the sexual advances of Potipher’s wife in Genesis 39 and say that we can prescribe his actions to our lives today, “do not commit adultery,” since Jesus prescribed this in Matthew 5:27-30.
While making this descriptive text prescriptive, Floyd correctly identifies the principles that we “give honor and praise to God alone for everything because God is the owner of everything” (Floyd, 16-17) and “lead others to honor God in the same way your are honoring God.” (Floyd, 18-20) He correctly asserts, “Giving honor and praise to God alone for everything is always in order because God is the Owner of everything. This is a foundational reality in the Christian life. This shapes our lives.” (Floyd, 17) He also aptly declares, “Each Christian is in the process of living and leaving a legacy.” (Floyd, 19) Sadly, these statements are made without referencing corresponding prescriptive texts but rather uses the descriptive text of the narrative of David’s financial giving towards the construction of the Temple in 1 Chronicles 29:10-20 and suggests that “David led the people of God to live out what he himself was already practicing in his life.” (Floyd, 17) He then insists that we notice “how he did this and how we should do this” and “as David did, you will.” (Floyd, 18) This is making a descriptive text prescriptive.
So, are we to follow the narrative of David and God’s people in this passage? Floyd seems to ignore v. 20 here: “Then David said to the whole assembly, ‘Praise the LORD your God.’ So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed down, prostrating themselves before the LORD and the king.” Using the logic presented here, let’s make a prescription of this description. We can say David plays the role of the pastor and the people here are the local church members. Thus, pastors can expect their congregants to prostrate themselves before him after he declares the Word of God to them. Right? No! While there may be a few pastors who would desire this act, we would be pressed to find many people who would agree to prostrate themselves. This is a description of how the people responded to David. That is all and nothing more. There is no explicit teaching for us to prostrate ourselves to pastors in this way. So, we don’t prescribe it today.
It is not until the small group discussion section on this sermon that Floyd references texts that highlight God as the owner of everything- Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, 1 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, John, Acts, Romans, 1Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Revelation and also Psalm 24:1–2, Haggai 2:5–9, Psalm 50:7–23, Ecclesiastes 5:19, Jeremiah 27:5, James 1:17. (Floyd, 22-26) While he also further explains David’s choices in 1 Chronicles 29, they are correctly presented as descriptive rather than prescriptive. BUT, Floyd closes out this small group session with a return to a focus on prescriptions found in the personal experiences of those attending this session by suggesting, “If you feel it would be appropriate, take two to three minutes and share your own personal story of giving the first tenth of all God has given you through your church, emphasizing God’s faithfulness.” (Floyd, 26) Why is there such a distinction between the sermon and the small group session?
Floyd asserts, “Our view of God as Creator, Owner, and the Sovereign One over all things will determine if we are willing to trust Him with the finances He has entrusted to us.” (Floyd, 16) He also summarizes that God made and owns everything and He “gives what is His to whom He chooses.” (Floyd, 25) YES! Then he closes this small group session with a reference to the “command” in Malachi 3:10-11 to “bring the whole tithe” and makes the following introductory statement:
In the next few weeks, we are going on a journey of faith to discover how obeying this simple command will change our lives. We are going to discover that despite what our natural mind might think, the path of security through any time and anything we are facing in life is by living out this truth from God.
Ronnie Floyd. TEN PERCENT: A Call to Biblical Stewardship (Nashville: Convention Press and Ronnie W. Floyd, 2020), 26.
“Living out” what “truth”? We will see how Floyd insists that an at least 10% tithe is biblical and required. What about this “path of security”? We will see how, even though he will attempt to deny it, Floyd will also insist on a continuing work(tithing)/reward dynamic as the foundation of tithing- the more you give, the more you get. It appears here that Floyd suggests our ability to weather the storms of life is found in one thing- you guessed it- TITHING. We will observe that Floyd incorrectly maintains that a required at least 10% tithe is both non-negotiable and grounded in Scripture.