Sam Raimi is producing a syndicated series based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. Called Wizard’s First Rule, the first season is comprised of 22 episodes and is going into production this may. While this may excite Goodkind fans, let me remind you that Raimi is also responsible for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. If Wizard’s First Rule follows them in theme and camp, I will join the rest of you in the mass weeping.

Mike Nelson
Kevin Murphy (tom servo from 2nd season on)
Bill Corbett (Crow on Sci-Fi network run)

And in this corner, the former champions, almost all of whom left because they thought “it was getting old” but then didn’t find anything new to do, now living at http://cinematictitanic.com and looking to regain the title:

Joel Hodgson (Joel Robinson)
Trace Beaulieu (Dr. Clayton Forrester and Crow)
J. Elvis Weinstein (Season 1′s Tom Servo and Dr. Laurence Erhardt who was replaced by TV’s Frank)
Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester)
Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank)

And the winner is MSTies everywhere.  Awesome.

Ok, did some research. The most relevant verses for a tithing command are:

Leviticus 27:30 “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of
the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto
the LORD.”

Deuteronomy 14:22-29 – Tithe is support for Levities, and for
community service (fatherless and widows). Keep in mind that there
was no king, no government, just the Levities. In the old testament,
tithing was… taxes.

Malachi 3:6-12 – specifically verse 8

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings.”

Malachi is obviously the most overt talking about stealing from God,
but notice these things when reading the whole chapter.

- According to verses 3 and 4, the society was so corrupt even the
Levites, who were still obeying God and sacrificing, needed to be
purified.

- Verse 5 shows a society in chaos. Embezzlement in businesses. False
testimony in courts. Neglect of the needy. Notice the similarity to
the verses in Deuteronomy.

- NO PUNISHMENT IS DESCRIBED. Only a blessing for those that do follow.

- It’s one thing in a list of many things that they are neglecting.

Another important thing from verse 8 is the line “In tithes and
offerings.” The tithe was mandatory in the old testament, but
offerings were voluntary. How could they rob God of something
voluntarily given? If you ask for $5 and I say ‘no’ I haven’t robbed
you of $5. So what were they stealing? Taken as a whole chapter it
becomes obvious that their hearts, that should belong to God, were
given to other things. They gave their attention to these other
things and gave none of it to God.

All of the above verses are from the old testament, and their use as a
command hinges on one verse, Matthew 5:17-19.

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did
not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till
heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means
pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

They are teaching that this means Jesus wants us to follow the laws
set out in the old testament. If that were ACTUALLY true, we’d have
to make sacrifices in Jerusalem yearly, celebrate passover, and a
million other things. Clearly, they are picking and choosing what is
commanded and what is not. And more so, they are flat out ignoring
the Bible. Check out Romans 8:3-4 specifically:

“He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law
might be fulfilled in us”

So, that “one jot or one tittle will by no means pass” it passed on
the day Jesus died. It’s over. The law has been fulfilled and does
not apply. We are not under the commands of the law. You do not have
to do anything. This is further confirmed by the apostles in Acts 15:
19-20

“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult
for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to
them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual
immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.”

Notice they are ‘telling’ not commanding, plus I don’t see tithing in
that list. In fact:

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and
do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1

If someone tells you that you need to do something to go to heaven,
turn it back on them and warn them they are going to hell. Seriously,
they need to know. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1. When they try to condemning you,
they are really condemning themselves exposing that they are not in
Jesus. They have rejected the free salvation of Christ and
substituted works which “no man is justified by the law in the sight
of God.” (Galatians 3:11).

Now with all that out of the way we are left with 2 questions: What
good is the law? And what good are works? Since I’ve been long
winded so far, I’ll try to keep it short.

The law no longer needs to be fulfilled for salvation, but that does
not mean it should not be followed. The law was established to show
what pleased God. Stealing? Not good. Holidays to remember Him?
There’s a ton (yea Christmas). Helping the poor. Avoiding sin. It’s
all there. But, keep in mind we can’t do it all. If a person could
do everything, it would have saved them and we wouldn’t have needed
Jesus.

James 2:26 reminds us that “faith without works is dead.” What does
that mean? What is a ‘work?’ Look at the examples just before the
verse. He’s talking about feeding the poor, following the law, or to
put it another way, doing things that please God.

To paraphrase, if you really believe that God saved you, you’ll
probably want to please Him. Not that you have to. The salvation is
God’s action, it happens first. Our reaction of pleasing God (or not)
is secondary and independent. We do not have to do anything to be
saved. We are saved (period, end of sentence, QED). Anything good we
do just pleases God, and conversely, anything bad we do, is no longer
counted against us. Our good works are evidence of our belief.
Choosing not to do a good work does not negate it. It’s like a rock
in the river of salvation, it may cause some waves in the water, but
the current just flows around it.

So in conclusion:

Is tithing a commandment? No, it is a way to please God.
If I don’t tithe, is it a sin causing me to lose my salvation? Nope,
we are saved by faith in God. The only thing that can negate
salvation is putting our faith in works.
So in fact, if I believe that tithing gives me salvation, I am no
longer saved? Yep. Ironic isn’t it? God saves, tithing does not.
Should I follow the law in general? As much as possible yes, but you
should recognize that doing so is not required for salvation.
Should I tithe? Yes, if you can. You should also go to the temple in
Jerusalem, and stone adulterers, but you don’t feel bad about not
doing that I’d bet.
How much should I give? As much as you want. It’s about pleasing
God. 10% is an easy amount to figure which is why so many people use
it.
Is that 10% before or after taxes? The question clearly a legal one
and you are free of the law.
Do I have to give it to the church? God wants you to support his
workers, but there is nothing wrong to giving it to someone in need or
to a different organization that helps the needy.
What if my spouse does not want me to tithe? Assuming the reason is
they do not want to support the church, try to find a different
charity. If they think it’s a waste of money, the truth is God wants
you to have a good relation ship with your spouse. Love is more
important than money.

More necessary info here.

See I told those looking for Warcraft stuffs you wouldn’t find it here anymore.

He was 80 years old, and it was bad enough that they were only talking about making him comfortable not curing him. Gave him 2-6 months. I was already heading out to visit in 2 weeks so I figured I’d see him then. Before things got really bad and he was no longer grandpa. A week later they did a simple surgery for the eventual blocking of the colon and his liver levels went way off. They did a second biopsy and found that the liver was much, much worse. He now was down to a week.

So I juggled my life, figured out what to do with the baby, when my wife would come, what to do about daycare, where I was going to stay, what car I was going to take. I could either leave that night at 7-8pm and get in at 1-2am, letting the baby sleep in the car, or leave at noon the next day when she went down for her nap. My wife persuaded me that with my lack of sleep and a baby in the car, the late night drive was out. At 9pm my brother called just after seeing grandpa and suggested I leave in the morning reguardless of baby sleep. He didn’t look good.

I woke up with my wife at 7am to the phone, he had passed away at 6am. Of course my first feelings were guilt. I should have been there. It seemed like I should have known. Looking back there’s no way though. When I had woken up the previous day, I thought he had months. At noon it was a week. If I had left work at noon and packed and everything, it probably would have been 8pm when I got to him. That would have been my only chance. Any later and I would have just gone to see him the next day. It would have been a ton of extra stress as well.

My dad later told me that he had pretty much gone by 10pm anyway. I consoled myself that I would at least see him at the wake. I’m one of the few that likes open caskets. Those that don’t almost always hope the deceased looks like they’re sleeping. They never do, which is what I like. It’s perfectly clear to me that the casket contains the body, the person is somewhere else. That thought helped a bit until I found that he had already been created and it was just going to be a memorial service. uck.

The service was 2 nights ago. It was ok. I did a scripture reading from 2 Cor 4:16-18, 5:1, and 2 Tim 4:6-8. I found out as we were singing the last song before I went up that I also was reading Psalm 121. Bit of a panic there that through me all off.

Honestly, the real thing will be next spring when we sprinkle his ashes at his favorite fishing spot.

If someone still has this on their RSS feed, make sure you redirect to The Mystic Hunter or you’re going to wonder why you ever bookmarked this URL.

Please point your browsers and links to http://themystichunter.wordpress.com for updates.

To rectify this I have created a new exclusively Warcraft Hunter blog at:

http://themystichunter.wordpress.com/

Please adjust your links to there.

It has all the old posts and links and ramblings that this one does thanks to wordpress’ import/export features. All new Warcraft related stuff will be posted there, and I won’t be updating this site except for more notices, until Nov. 1 or so, when it will become a more personal blog which you may or may not be interested in.

Once the deadline is hit, I will be deleting much of the WoW content of this blog, though I think I might post a link for the FAQs just in case.