Hm. Possibly. Though it does still seem to be a rather popular convention in churches today to adopt an interpretation of secret offerings.
I would imagine popular interprations of scriptures on giving would evolve based on the goals of the church (to get $$$), and kept in check only by being believable enough to the member congregations.
Tithing seems to work for the church, so lots of churches resurrect it from the OT and really shaky exegesis and make it a part of the rules. If tithing didn’t work for the church, they could easily make it go away in the same way they get rid of tons of outdated stuff from the OT (and the NT).
Secret offerings seems similar to me. I’d imagine they could make the commands for secret giving go away with some simple hermeneutical waves of the hand if it didn’t benefit them.
Hm. Possibly. Though it does still seem to be a rather popular convention in churches today to adopt an interpretation of secret offerings.
I would imagine popular interprations of scriptures on giving would evolve based on the goals of the church (to get $$$), and kept in check only by being believable enough to the member congregations.
Tithing seems to work for the church, so lots of churches resurrect it from the OT and really shaky exegesis and make it a part of the rules. If tithing didn’t work for the church, they could easily make it go away in the same way they get rid of tons of outdated stuff from the OT (and the NT).
Secret offerings seems similar to me. I’d imagine they could make the commands for secret giving go away with some simple hermeneutical waves of the hand if it didn’t benefit them.