Firstfruit Is Biblical.

Couple of years ago as a young believer i met a young man from a certain denomination known for the prosperity gospel, and he said to me that do i know that he can teach on money from Genesis to Revelation, that he can literally use every single verse of the bible to teach about money, even verses in the book of Revelation which talk about the endtime. 

I marvelled at the audacity/temerity of his brazen foolishness.

He had been wrongly discipled in a denomination led by a man who claims that God called & commissioned him to make his people rich, so he himself boasts in a supposed ability to twist every verse of scripture & make them talk about nothing but money. 

This is exactly what the covetous preachers who emphasise firstfruits do, they weave & twist what the bible teaches on the subject, turning it into people's first salary/income for the year which must be brought to the building they call church/house of God. 

Yes firstfruit is biblical but the tragedy is what covetous preachers today have turned it into.....money, money, money; earnestly & consistently coveting/seeking from year to year, people's first salary/income/profit in business. 

Covetous preachers? yes you heard me well, for it only takes a covetous heart to go to the bible and turn what the bible teaches about firstfruits into people's first salary/income of a calendar year. 

What Does The Bible Teach About Firstfruit In The Old & New Testament? 

Firstfruit 🍑 in the old testament talks about the first harvest of the increase of the land (agriculture); specifically the land God had given to the children of Israel. 👇🏼 

Leviticus 23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest. 

Deuteronomy 26:2 calls it "the first of all the fruit of the ground". 

Nehemiah 10:35 speaks of it as "the firstfruits of the land, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees"

Then Exodus 23:16 & 19 show us something remarkable 👇🏼 

"And the feast of harvest, the Firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. 

The First of the Firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. 

*Note: there is the Firstfruits & the First of the Firstfruits(see also Exodus 34:26). 

In the light of the new testament we will later go on to see the serious meaning/implication of this First of the firstfruits.

However, in all these, it is important to note that the offering of firstfruits to God as taught in the old testament, is strictly in the context of agriculture & only in connection to the increase of the land God gave to the children of Israel, to dwell in & to sow it. 

Even in Proverbs 3:9 which is a choice verse of scripture covetous preachers use to preach firstfruits, it is still in the agricultural context of the land God gave the children of Israel. 

"Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase" 

"All thine increase" here is still in the context of agriculture, the firstfruits of the increase of the land. 

The following verse, (10) clearly shows this 👇🏼 

 10  so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy vats shall overflow with new wine. 

Beyond the offering of the firstfruits of the increase of the land to the Lord, we amazingly find in Jeremiah 2:3, the entire nation/children of Israel themselves referred to as the firstfruits of the Lord's increase upon the earth👇🏼 

"Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD." 

Firstfruits of the Lord's increase in terms of the first people he separated unto himself, from amongst the nations of the earth. Leviticus 20:24.

Firstfruits In The Light Of The New Testament.

Coming into the new testament, the truth concerning Israel as the firstfruits of the Lord's increase upon the earth, is maintained, as the apostle Paul in Romans 11:16, refers to Israel as the firstfruit. 

Concerning the church also, James 1:18 says "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind/sort of firstfruits of his creatures". 

Not firstfruits merely in the same context of Israel being God's firstfruits upon the earth as separated from amongst the nations but firstfruits in a wider context(of creation itself & beyond that, the new creation) so we are begotten(a new creation) with the word of truth, to be a kind/specie of creatures God created to be consecrated unto himself. 

Of the present creation in bondage to corruption/decay by reason of sin, Romans 8:22 says "the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now". Verse 23 then goes ahead to show that we ourselves(church saints), being in the midst of it, also groan within ourselves but we are in the midst of the present fallen creation & in the travail as a new creation & it is in that connection that scripture says we have the firstfruits of the Spirit. 

By reason of the Spirit indwelling us, what we are groaning for in travail is beyond what the present creation is groaning for. The present creation according to an earlier verse(vs. 21) is groaning for liberation from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God, while we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, are groaning for the literal adoption/placement of sons, which is the redemption of our body. Thus not only are we firstfruits of his creatures, we also have the firstfruits of the Spirit. 

Now scriptures in the new testament also speak of firstfruits in the context of a person/persons who were first reached out to in a particular location & converted through apostolic ministry by the gospel of Christ. 

In Romans 16:5 Paul speaks of Epaenetus, his beloved, who is the firstfruit of Asia unto Christ. 

Also in 1st Corinthians 16:15 he speaks of the house of Stephanas, as the firstfruit of Achaia. 

Lastly in Revelation 14:1-4, we see the 144,000 Jews who will be God's firstfruits of harvest redeemed from the earth in the days of the great tribulation. 

However, before all these harvests of persons spoken of as firstfruits in the new testament, there is someone who is behind it all, one who is the head of the new creation which God has begotten to be a kind/sort of firstfruits of his creatures, he is without any doubt THE FIRST OF THE FIRSTFRUITS prefigured in that old testament offering of firstfruits we saw earlier in Exodus 34:26. It is none other but Christ Jesus! 

He himself is the very seed(word of God) which in death was sown like a corn of wheat into the ground(John 12:24-33) & was raised as the firstfruits of those fallen asleep(1st Corinthians 15:20), bringing forth much fruit; a harvest of people also called firstfruits, having been begotten as a kind of firstfruits, so he himself is the First of the Firstfruits. 

Now concerning the old testament practise of offering the firstfruits of the increase of the land, we can see there is absolutely no such teaching or practise in the new testament. 

In the old testament as we have seen, it is only in the context of agricultural proceeds of the land and strictly in connection to the land God gave the children of Israel.

Also in the light of the new testament, we have seen that there is absolutely no such teaching or practice of giving of firstfruits of any kind or form. 

Those who stand today to preach and interpret firstfruit as the first salary & income of God's people in a year, which must be offered to "God", are clearly teaching something that is utterly strange & alien to scriptures; a doctrine that could have only come by the inspiration of greed & covetousness.