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Where Should the Pastor and the Pastor's Pastor and So On, Pay Their Tithe?

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Answered by True Bible Teachings AI on 10/4/2026

1) Direct Answer
- Every believer pays tithes to the storehouse where he is fed the Word—his own pastor.
- A pastor also pays tithes. He does not keep his own tithe. He sends his tithe to the minister who feeds him the Word, the one who pastors him, or faithfully into the Gospel work through a proven minister.
- The “pastor’s pastor, and so on” simply follows the same order. It stops where a man is actually being fed. Christ is our High Priest; the tithe supports His ministry on earth, not an endless ladder or a headquarters.

2) Scriptural Explanation
- “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house” (Malachi 3:10). The tithe goes where the spiritual meat is served.
- “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things” (Galatians 6:6). Tithe follows the one who teaches you.
- “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:13–14). God ordains the ministry to live by the tithe.
- “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine… The labourer is worthy of his reward” (1 Timothy 5:17–18). The preaching elder is to be supported.
- In the Old Testament pattern the Levites received tithes, and the Levites themselves gave “a tithe of the tithes” unto the Lord’s service (Numbers 18:21–28; Nehemiah 10:37–39). That shows ministers also tithe onward.
- Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1–8). That points to Christ, our High Priest, receiving tithes through His ministry.

3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Now notice: the tithe is not for buildings, boards, or programs first; it is for the ministry that brings you the Word. Where you eat is where you tithe.
- You see, a pastor is also taught and strengthened by ministry. So he pays his tithe to the one who truly feeds him or places it faithfully into the active Gospel ministry—not back to himself.
- There is no Scripture for a man tithing to himself, nor for sending tithes to an office that does not feed him. The Bible ties tithing to the storehouse and to the one who teaches.
- So the order is simple and consistent: the flock to their pastor; the pastor to the minister who pastors him or the Gospel work that nourishes him; and it all culminates in Christ’s service, not a human chain without end.

4) Reinforcing Statement
Keep it clean and biblical: tithe where you receive the Word. Let the laborer live by the Gospel, and let even the laborer honor God with his own tithe. That’s the order the Bible sets.

What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?

Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.

SermonRelevance 33

Church Order

Thursday, the 26th of December 1963

63-1226 §9

The deacons is the one that has to meet this opposition, or this problem, rather; because that in the Bible when the dispute come up about food and clothing, and so forth, in the book of Acts, they called the apostles in about it, and they said, "Go look out for yourself seven men of honest report and full of the Holy Ghost that they might attend to these things, because we will give ourself continually to the Word of God and in prayer." And it isn't the pastor's duty to look out to the ... for the food and so fort...

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SermonRelevance 33

Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 2

Sunday, the 22nd of September 1957

57-0922 §22

The only thing that I do, just is owning the property. And if something or another comes by that it's a... Like moving the pastor, and they want to take a vote on that, you couldn't ask a deacon to do that, you'd come ask me. I'd come down, and say, "If you want to move the pastor, tell me why. Has he done anything?" "Yes, we caught him drunk, or we caught him doing this, or doing something that wasn't right." "Have you got three witnesses of it?" "Yes, we have." Them witnesses must first be tried, "Don't receive a...

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SermonRelevance 32

Faithful Abraham

Sunday, the 12th of March 1961

61-0312 §9

So I have to answer for that money. And then I know if I'm a good steward, I'll spend it in the kingdom of God. My church gives me a salary of a hundred dollars a week. That's what I live on, with my children. By the way, someone sent me two dollars---I appreciate that---by my son. And there was two five-dollar checks that come in this week. And someone awhile ago sent us a box of canned blackberries. My wife doesn't know it yet. Honey, wherever you are, we're headed for a gastronomical jubilee. I really like black...

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SermonRelevance 32

The placing of deacons

Sunday evening, the 20th of July 1958 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

58-0720E §1

...and that is, that the first is the placing some deacons into the church. And our little church here is sovereign. It doesn't have any denomination or anything to send its deacons, it elects its own deacons. It elects its pastor, it elects its trustees, it elects everything that comes in and out of the church. No one person has the say-so over anything; it's the church. And the church are those who come and support the church with their presence, with their tithe and offerings, are always the ones that has legal...

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SermonRelevance 32

The Second Coming

Sunday afternoon, the 20th of February 1955 at the Shriner Temple in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.

55-0220A §6

And now, and then finally, we are not here to take up finances. I wish we didn't have to ask for one offering in the meeting. But just as soon as the... I never took an offering in my life; never in my life did I ever take any offering. But in my church, that I was pastor there, as a Baptist minister, for twelve years I never received one penny salary, but I always thought, Lord make me healthy, and I could work. So why not work and pastor. Now, that's not an example for every pastor, because, certainly a minister...

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