question for those of you who tithe
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Anonymous
| You know what, saying things like "god will multiply your income if you tithe" to me, defeats the purpose of tithing. You don't tithe or do good works so that you get earthly rewards, at least in Christianity you don't. You could very well tithe and lose everything tomorrow and it wouldn't mean that God is punishing you or whatnot. This prosperity gospel bull has nothing to do with Christianity and irritates the heck out of me. |
Anonymous
'' You're missing the point. We don't tithe to get it back in blessings. We tithe because we want to give back part of what God has given us. The part "he will provide" is just to make it easier to believe that we won't miss anything giving it back. I remember when I was a kid that my mom had the exact money to tithe that month and I wanted a costume for a recital. The amount was exactly the same. She apologized to me and explained it to me and we prayed together for God to do what was best for us and she gave back her tithe. Guess what? I got my costume for free. One mom from our dance class told the teacher she wanted to pay for another child's costume and the teacher mentioned I was not participating because I could not pay for it so her donation went for my costume. How cool is that for a 10 year old girl? God has never failed me! |
Anonymous
| I am Unitarian. We don't "tithe" we give money to the church so that it can operate. The congregation pays our own ministers' salaries, as well as those of the other church employees. It runs our religious education program. I cannot afford to give 10%, but I give something every month to acknowledge that the church plays a large role in my life and that of my children. If you go to any church or religious institution regularly you should donate some amount, otherwise you are free loading, in my opinion. The building and religious leaders don't sustain themselves ... |
Anonymous
I'm speechless. |
Anonymous
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I am the person who gave the story about my parents income multiplying when they tithed. It isn't about prosperity gospel, absolutely not. I absolutely tithe because God says to tithe, and yes, I know that tithing is no guarantee of future blessings. Tithing does not equal multiplied income.
However I shared that story with the OP because I wanted to encourage her to have faith that God would take care of her family. I have seen these blessings over and over in many families who have chosen to tithe. Often in the church these encouragements are not shared because we don't talk about money, and we don't talk about the impacts we've seen in our lives that have occurred from tithing. I am not saying that future blessings are a given, but I do think He honors our putting Him first. But bottom line, yes, we tithe out of obedience, not out of expectation for future blessings. In my mind, you start by tithing, and you save/live of what is left. And yes, like the other PP said, if you are at a place where 10% would completely put you underwater, then maybe you tithe 5% and maybe the next year you do 6%, and so forth. |
Anonymous
I'm not trying to undercut your faith or your larger point, which I understand. I'm just saying that the language of the prosperity gospel is invasive and it manages to appear in a lot of conversations and sometimes I feel like screaming as a result. I feel like the attitude I hear from a lot of Christians is that God is some sort of adult version of Santa Claus and it bothers me. People who are not Christians seem to see it a lot more clearly than non-Christians, hence the snark earlier on this thread. Sometimes you will not get what you want, even if you are Christian. Sometimes you will not even get what you need (at least what you think you need). Bad things do indeed happen to good people, and sometimes they happen a lot, and Christianity doesn't deny this, in fact we should accept it and thank God for what we do have. Sorry this is purely my own pet peeve and is totally a tangent. I just needed to get it out. |
Anonymous
| Above I mean non-Christians see it more clearly than Christians. Sorry typo! |
Anonymous
And I completely agree. These types of Christians forget that Jesus never promised fame or richness to anybody. He promise to console those who suffer. |
Anonymous
| Giving to your church is not the same as giving to charity in most cases (church charities notwithstanding). My parents give so much to their religious organization, which does little to no actual charity work. They act like they should get a medal for contributing to something they love spending their free time on. Help someone who needs help. |
Anonymous
I tithed for a long time until I started to look more closely into what the bible actually does say about tithing, and it is not that much. Abraham gave 10% of his war booty, not his monthly income, for you to do the same you would need to go to war The 10% of offerings is based on one verse, but if you read the whole chapter you will see that it actually is a grain offering that must be a given to a levite priest. So you will have to find a jew of the levite tribe, and give him 10% of the grain harvest growing in your back yard in order to fulfill that requirement. If a Levite priest wanted new shoes he actually had to find a way to earn money and his shoes himself, the 10% grain was only for his nutritional needs. And widows and single parents do not need to tithe. Women have no say in the congregation, so let the whole thing be financed by men. And no, you can tithe your way into homelessness. Your income is not going to multiply and your kids college will be an issue. Yes, God does come first, but the doctrine of tithing as it is preached by the modern day American churches has no basis in church history, and is a fabrication added to Christian doctrine. You will get your pie in the sky, the place in heaven that has been promised, regardless of how much money you throw at the altar. When a coin in the collection plate clings, a soul to heaven springs, is what was preached in the middle ages by the Catholic church. God does not curse people who do not tithe, he is not in the business of cursing. You are not robbing God as that is not something you are even capable of doing |
Anonymous
If I'd been that other mother, I'd have been pissed. Really pissed. Here she thought she was doing something nice for a kid in need, and in reality that kid's parents had the money - the exact amount - to pay for the costume, but thought something else was more important. That is not a needy family - a needy family is one who couldn't pay for the costume because they needed to buy food, or pay rent. You weren't needy, your parents just found someone else to finance their lifestyle choices. And god has never failed you? Gimme a break. That other parent didn't fail you, when your parents did. God had nothing to do with it. (Or do you reject the widely accepted notion of free will? Did god make her pay for your costume?). You were a kid, so it doesn't fall on you, but your mother should have been ashamed taking advantage of someone else like that. |
Anonymous
| The Catholic church needs that 10% to cover its massive legal liability for harboring pedophiles. |
Anonymous
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Is tithing in the old or new testament??
I'm not religious, but have friends who say things like well we don't follow things in the old testament (like slaves, underage marriage, or whatever else is in that section of the book). If it's in the old testament - who gets to pick and choose what "rules" are followed? Kinda seems wrong to pick somethings to follow but not others. I'm not saying slavery underage marriage etc. is right - just don't know what is in the bible. |
Anonymous
Well, the dance group was one of the ministries of our congregation so I guess the other mom (who still is a friend of our family) did t mind to be used by God to bless me. |
Anonymous
no one even regards the old testament anymore. |