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| "YOU ARE CURSED WITH A CURSE" if you are a nontither, states the prophet Malachi in the Biblical book of Malachi, chapter 3, verses 8 and 9. "HE THAT EARNS WAGES EARNS WAGES TO PUT IT INTO A BAG WITH HOLES" the prophet Haggai admonishes in the first chapter of Haggai, verse 6. Haggai's warning reveals one of the ways that the Lord uses to patiently try to correct those that financially displease Him. "WOE UNTO YOU, SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, .....FOR YOU PAY TITHE OF MINT AND ANISE.....AND HAVE OMITTED.....MERCY AND FAITH: THESE OUGHT YOU TO HAVE DONE, AND NOT TO LEAVE THE OTHER (TITHING) UNDONE" warns Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 23, verse 23 and in Luke 11, verse 42. "HE WHO GIVES TO THE POOR (THE HUNGRY) WILL NOT LACK, BUT HE WHO HIDES HIS EYES WILL HAVE MANY CURSES" Solomon solemnly states in Proverbs 28:27. Curses are curses, and even the least of them can keep setting you back financially, relentlessly, until the last day of your life when your body finally succumbs to rigor mortis and reverts back to room temperature. They can even be worse than the collection efforts of the Internal Revenue Service. Imagine that. The financial problems of most of the lottery winners are probably caused by these curses. Nontithers are embezzlers, spiritual felons, destined for the trash heap if they don't repent. In the lower portion of this page are four respected translations showing Jesus' specific, direct command to us to tithe using the words "ought to tithe" or "like giving one tenth" or "give a tenth" or "should tithe." The number of thoughts that the Lord can have at any one time exceeds the number of grains of sand in all the beaches and deserts of the Earth (Psalm 139:17-18), so He knows if you are ignoring any of His financial laws. To implement His chastising curses, our Creator can temporarily possess your mind so subtly to make a bad financial decision that you think you made the decision, and that the decision was a good one (Isaiah 45:13, Proverbs 3:6, Exodus 14:4, 16-17, 23, 28 [by "hardening the heart" of the Pharaoh and thousands of his Egyptian soldiers our Creator literally adversely controlled their thoughts for an extended period of time --- God controlled their thoughts so well that the soldiers thought it was smart to drive their chariots between two towering walls of water in the Red Sea that could have been as high as one fourth of a mile that were obviously supernaturally supported --- an extremely stupid, fatal mistake that even mildly retarded people would normally avoid], Daniel 5:21 and other verses show that God can easily possess and manipulate the minds of people to force them to even think and act like wild animals). Conversely, the Lord can grip your mind without you ever knowing it, and force you to make profitable decisions through what you think is your own determined enthusiasm, when you are financially righteous. A significant number of people, which is far less than the majority, never tithe yet still prosper, seemingly unaffected by these curses. Some Biblical verses, especially those in the book of Proverbs basically say that the "wicked" sometimes do die rich. Nations which are more Christian than others, therefore containing more tithing Christians, though, have been historically generally far wealthier than nonChristian nations. Rapidly prospering China now has a growing population of many millions of Christians. The richest American that ever lived, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was a meticulous tither. For one or more reasons, though, admittedly, a minority of nontithers are not noticeably affected by these curses, in this life. If I was a prosperous nontither seeking God's eternal kingdom, however, I think I would feel a little uneasy, knowing what I know now, about why God so far hasn't bothered to chastise me with a curse for failing to obey His tithing laws, in this premillenial, Satan dominated age. If without any exceptions at all, 100 % of all nontithers were scourged with obvious financial curses that were replaced with significant blessings when tithing began, a phenomenon that could be reproduced endlessly in a controlled, laboratory like situation, far more people would probably become Christians in this premillenial age, which apparently is not an immediate goal of our Creator, surprisingly to most people. Apparently only certain people, the "called," which mostly appear to be "the weak (those who are not socially prominent) of the world" according to Mark 4:10-12, John 6:44, 65, 2 Timothy 2:25, and 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, who are the "first fruits," will be in the first resurrection, and that probably will not be the majority of Christians. God of course wants everyone to eventually be saved, and the Bible is written in a way that encourages everyone to seek salvation. Although this special calling of the "weak of the world" is an unpopular and rejected teaching among mainstream Christians, that is what the Bible says literally concerning the "called," believe it or not, take it or leave it. God, if He wanted to, could do a much better job of saving everyone now to be in the first resurrection if that was His goal. For example, He could temporarily send Jesus back to the earth to hold a 6 month question and answer session to clear up all religious disputes, in advance of the coming millenial reign of Jesus. Click ucg.org/bible-faq/salvation-after-death-resurrection-judgment-day.htm if you have never heard of the first and second resurrections. 1) The first, or regular tithe, which literally means one tenth, is a Biblically commanded tax (not a voluntary contribution, not a donation, and not a "love offering") of 10% of your "increase" or NET income, AFTER ALL FEDERAL AND STATE TAXES have been paid, to be paid to the Lord by sending your money to a reputable, righteous church, to be paid before anything else is paid (Proverbs 3:9), INCLUDING RENT, UTILITY BILLS, MORTGAGE PAYMENTS ON YOUR PRIMARY RESIDENCE, PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, FOOD, CAR EXPENSES, AND INSURANCE PREMIUMS based on Genesis 28:22, Leviticus 27:30, 32, Nehemiah 13:11, 12, Malachi 3:8-11, Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42, and other verses. Those and similar expenses (expenses [your "increase"] that benefit you, not someone else) cannot be deducted from your after tax income to calculate the holy tithe. However, court ordered bankruptcy, restitution, child support, or similar payments that benefit someone else (their "increase," not your "increase") can be deducted before figuring the tithe. Evil homestead property taxes? (Local government and school operations should be financed by sales taxes and perhaps a tiny 1 or 1.5 per cent income tax, not property taxes with attached threats of land seizure for nonpayment of taxes, especially when there is inability to pay the taxes). I have been thinking about that for years and still don't have a definite answer as to whether they can be deducted from tithable income. Since there is doubt, to be safe I do not deduct property taxes when calculating the tithe. If I am wrong and am over tithing, the excess tithe will probably be considered by the Lord as an offering, which is fine since offerings are essential for shedding all curses and remaining free from them, according to Malachi 3:8. Your attitude should be "Nothing, absolutely nothing will stop me from paying that tithe first and if all hell breaks loose after paying it, so be it, but by (blank) I will pay that tithe first. In my later years after I've been lowered into the grave, I'll be able to take my comforting righteousness with me (Revelation 14:13: " ....... for their deeds will follow them."), right into Judgment Day, and then on into His fabulous Kingdom." After consistent and faithful tithing you should be pleasantly surprised to see all of your necessary expenses somehow at least eventually being paid or some of them even becoming unnecessary to pay. If your income is low, it may be rough at first, but you should start prospering little by little. People who inherit land or other assets such as homes at any time are not required to tithe on it since no mention of such tithing is recorded in the Old Testament regarding the Year of Jubilee when land is returned to the original owners or heirs. Should food stamp recipients tithe on their food stamps? Yes, if you want or seek a divine blessing for such tithing, but only if a separate, additional source of money is used to provide the tithe since selling or bartering food stamps is illegal. Using Deuteronomy 14:28-29 as a guiding example, though, needy, hungry recipients of the third year food tithe in ancient Israel apparently were not expected to tithe on the food that was handed out to them. In the last analysis in an absolute sense, though, food stamps definitely are a type of "increase" whether "earned" or not, and I strongly suspect blessings would flow to tithing recipients. People receiving monthly disability, Social or Supplemental Security benefits seeking blessings from the Lord should also tithe on that income since those benefits usually have never been tithed on before. As I explained with food stamps, now called SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, recipients of such such governmental assistance income programs above possibly may not be subject to Malachi style curses for nontithing. Due to inflation and the Ponzi scheme nature of social security and similar benefits, that income is almost always substantially in excess of what a person previously paid into the system. Also, to ward off any rapidly approaching curse for failing to tithe, you need to keep in mind the general message in Exodus 22:29: "You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce and your juices ........" by paying your tithes and offerings as soon as possible. Proverbs 3:9: "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the FIRST and best part of all your income." --- God's Word Translation. This last verse reinforces the need to pay tithes before anything else is paid. Over the years I have noticed that delaying tithing by weeks or sometimes even days things seem to start going against me financially until I paid the tithe. Tithes, which the Bible says are holy and do not belong to you, are used to pay for the living expenses of the human representatives of the Lord, ministers, who teach others about eternal salvation. Tithes are also used to pay for other expenses such as the cost of producing and distributing educational literature, maintenance of church buildings, missionary work, and so on. In the past, tithes were paid to Israeli preachers, called Levites. The law has been changed so that tithes are now paid to Christian preachers. Hebrews 7:12: "For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law." 1 Corinthians 9:13-14: "Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel." People claiming incorrectly that tithing is only for agricultural profits seem to not know about many verses in the book of Proverbs and in the New Testament saying that generous, philanthropic people will prosper. Such skeptics also forget about Jacob's vow in Genesis 28:22 to tithe on his profits from all sources, which we can reasonably assume still applies to us and all future Christians.. According to Malachi 3:10 receiving financial blessings for tithing sounded pretty good to me before I first started tithing, so years before my baptism I tithed for about 3 months, then stopped paying tithes because, by my standards, I did not seem to have more money than before I began tithing. I came to the quick conclusion that tithing is unprofitable, so I gave up tithing anymore at the time. However, after analyzing my situation about 4 to 5 years later, I realized that my long term ambitious financial goals were steadily being accomplished and in a more excellent and sure way during the time of my initial tithing. After I stopped tithing my financial situation began a slow downward spiral for about 4 years grinding all the way down to carlessness, homelessness, the labor pools, and at least one "soup line" where fruit and sandwiches were handed out to the "down and out," despite my best efforts to get ahead financially. After about several weeks of working very hard all day mostly just for food, I finally realized that my failure to faithfully continue tithing had probably produced the prophesied curses for me, so I resumed tithing, and my financial situation improved almost immediately and has generally, with occasional, temporary setbacks, been getting substantially better ever since then. A skeptic might say that my very bad nontithing experience was merely the result of a series of coincidences mixed in with a little bad luck. Perhaps that was what happened, but I seriously doubt it because I have never even come close to making that many consecutively disastrous decisions before tithing or after I resumed tithing. Besides that, I don't have another 30 years to experiment with. I have read about similar accounts by others who experienced severe financial difficulties after stopping their tithing, then rebounded financially after steadily tithing again. In 1988 after years of church attendance, I heard a sermon about offerings. The recommendation from the sermon, based on past experience from other church members according to this particular minister, was to give about a 5% or more offering with each tithe, which would make a 15% or more contribution when the tithe is included. Most of the time I could afford to do that, so I started paying the extra 5%. Within about a year my long term financial blessings more than doubled. (I bought 2 nice rental homes at basically half price.) Malachi 3:8 does mention the word "offerings" as a DEFINITE PREREQUISITE for blessings, in addition to tithes. The church that I send tithes to has no officially specific recommendation about offerings as a percentage of one's net income. The main purpose in mentioning the above offering sermon is to expose you to the necessity of giving offerings for maximum blessings. Do not underestimate Malachi's use of the offering word, since the Bible sometimes grossly understates some things. For example, a verse in Genesis says that the sun is "a great light." That "great light" is about 800,000 miles in diameter and generates multimillion degree temperatures. So when the great prophet Malachi says "offerings," it is best to believe him. The continued possession of some blessings can, also, be dependent upon continuously faithful tithing. Look ahead 20 or 30 years into the future and expect your financial blessings to well exceed the amount of money you will have given to the Lord. 2) A second, additional tithe, very much still in force for Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Buddhists, and everyone else, which you could call the tithe for the hungry, different from the regular tithe exists according to Deuteronomy 14:28-29 and 26:12: "At the end of every THIRD year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. 29 And the Levite, ........ and the stranger (in this modern age of almost instant communications, include the starving in third world countries) and the fatherless and the widow ........ may come and EAT AND BE SATISFIED, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." 26:12: "When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the THIRD year---the year of tithing---and have given it ("it" in the highly respected, accurate Septuagint translates into "second additional tithe" further confirming the existence of a third type of tithe. There is the tithe [regular tithe], the "additional tithe" [festival tithe], and the "second additional tithe" [third year food tithe] in the Septuagint) to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may EAT within your gates AND BE FILLED." Josephus is about the most widely known historian of the Jews, and in his book Antiquities of the Jews, Book 4, Chapter 8, Section 8 he says "Besides those two tithes, which I have already said you are to pay every year, the one for the Levites, the other for the festivals, you are to bring every third year a tithe to be distributed to those that want; to women also that are widows, and to children that are orphans, ........." The English translation of Deuteronomy 26:12 in the Septuagint is as follows: "When thou has completed tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, thou shalt bring the SECOND ADDITIONAL tithe to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat in thy gates, and be merry." The original Greek for "second additional" is deuteron-epidekaton which literally means the "second additional" tithe. Most theologians, including the Jews, Josephus, and the Septuagint scholars, call the second tithe the festival tithe, and the third tithe the third year food tithe. Therefore since the Septuagint calls the second or festival tithe the "additional" tithe then the "second additional" tithe must refer to a third type of tithe. You can see from the self explanatory verses above that this tithe is obviously separate from and is not the same as the regular tithe because it is meant to strictly be used to feed people that have not been able to feed themselves. No other purpose is allowed for this tithe which is collected only every third year, not every year like the regular tithe, not even to pay for expenses associated with proclaiming the gospel or for nonfood living expenses of ministers. For further prosperity, and to remove MANY additional pre-existing curses, faithful observance of the Biblical third year food tithe for the hungry is needed according to the above verses, which is what I personally like to call the second tithe to EMPHASIZE its strong impact (being blessed for obedience or cursed for ignoring this tithe) on your personal finances, second only to that of the first or regular tithe. Luke 18:12: "........... I give tithes of all that I possess." Although Jesus criticized the tithing Pharisee for being snobbishly proud in this verse, the fact that the Pharisee paid, to be truly righteous, tithes in the plural sense provides additional confirmation of more than one kind of tithe. If you insist on not paying all 3 tithes, at least pay the above 2 relatively easy tithes to start prospering, which should help you to better afford festival tithe observance, explained below. If you do not pay the regular tithe and the food tithe, you are stealing from God and the needy. If you do not observe the festival tithe you are basically only stealing from yourself, which should be a less serious offense. The following third type of tithe is usually the most challenging for low income people to pay, especially those who are married. 3) A third kind of tithe, which you could call the "vacation tithe to go worship the Lord," the aesthetic seven day Feast of Tabernacles tithe created primarily for your very own personal dining pleasure, which I personally call the third tithe (almost everyone else calls this the second tithe) does exist in the Bible in Deuteronomy 12:17-18, and 14:22-26. This tithing law not only guarantees but demands that you will have a really good care free, eat, drink, and be merry type of time for at least a week each year, which is also a special week of daily worship and an advance celebration of the approaching millenium when Jesus will have returned. People with decent incomes sometimes spend 5 to 10 per cent of their annual income to go on a nice vacation trip, so what's so terribly burdensome about spending 10 per cent for a special yearly vacation to go worship the Lord, and, according to the Bible, even be blessed financially for it later on? More information about it is available in the gnmagazine website mentioned in the bottom one third of this page. Members of righteous churches regularly hear about this festival tithe in sermons. If you think that you cannot afford this third tithe, you may be right probably because you have been living under the weight of multiple financial curses for failing to pay the two previously mentioned tithes. Based on my own personal experience the feast tithe also has its own set of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, but they seem to be less intense and more temporary or seasonal than those of the other two types of tithes. Also, curses seem to be milder for ignoring the festival tithe perhaps because you are stealing primarily from yourself instead of from God or others (the hungry). The respected Septuagint (septuaginta means 70 in Latin) is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Old Testament's original Hebrew, especially the first 5 books, into Greek, translated several hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Those accurate translators, seventy of them, were Jewish scholars very proficient in the use of Hebrew, not often anti-Old Testament leaning Protestant scholars. Translated into English, Deuteronomy 12:17 in the Septuagint, which explains a little more clearly the festival tithe, reads as follows: "Thou shalt not eat in thy cities the ADDITIONAL tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the first born of thy herd or of thy flock ....... but before the Lord thy God thou shalt eat it, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose." Please click www.cog-ff.com/site/cog_archives/booklets/what_you_should_know_about_tithi.htm, and read the lower half, a 1959 article about the 3 tithes by Dr. Herman Hoeh. Dr. Hoeh was the church historian selected by the founder of the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert Armstrong. According to sermons I have heard over the years part or even all of the festival tithe may be spent for such things as essential car repairs while travelling to feast sites in emergency situations when no other money is available. In such rare situations church assistance funds at the feast are usually available to help you enjoy the rest of the feast. Returning to the second tithe, the third year food tithe for the hungry is an additional 10% tithe separate from the regular or first tithe. It lasts for only one year out of every 3 years. After you have completed two consecutive years of paying the first tithe, you need to begin the third year by paying the additional charity or food tithe. During the fourth and fifth years you are not required to pay this food tithe. At the start of the sixth year you would begin paying the charity tithe again, and so on, assuming you are not a farmer. The schedule is slightly different for farmers since the seventh year land rest law is involved, so contact a Bible believing minister about when to pay the charity tithe if you are a farmer. This triennial food tithe is given mostly to other people that, without the assistance of this tithe, might otherwise starve to death because of circumstances beyond their control. If you believe that the regular 10% tithe is still in force but do not pay the third year food tithe because you think it has been abolished, you are not being logical, you are delaying blessings that you could otherwise be receiving, and you are sinning almost or about as badly as Adam and Eve sinned by deliberately ignoring, as the first couple did, a direct command from our Creator. Jesus' reminder to pay tithes in Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 logically refers to all three of these separate tithes because the scribes and Pharisees mentioned in the above verses, who strictly obeyed all the Mosaic laws, also ROUTINELY paid these tithes, the third year food tithe for the hungry, the festival tithe, as well as the regular tithe. Jesus did not single out a specific kind of tithe, and He did not distinguish between the different kinds of tithes contained within the Mosaic laws, so He must have been referring to all 3 tithes in the above verses. To be fully righteous we need to pay all 3 tithes. The average reader often does not recognize the huge implications of the previous two sentences. The words above in brown also help reinforce the conclusion to obey other Mosaic laws such as those concerning diet, the festivals, and resting on each Saturday instead of each Sunday. Giving a regular tithe plus the charity tithe, which would total 20%, may seem impossible if you have never tried it. After you actually start doing it, though, you should begin to realize that it can be done when you prioritize expenses. Remember, when you're dealing with God, you're dealing with magic and miracles. After or during this special third year you should be able to detect one or more financial blessings that will at least increase your income to more than keep pace with inflation. The best time to begin paying the food tithe is in the very beginning of the new year which Biblically begins about the time of the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread in the spring. Ask someone at one of the conservative, restored churches for a Biblical calendar, or just visit their websites to view a Biblical calendar to determine what day the new year begins. However, to start shedding curses if you have never paid the triennial tithe for the hungry, deduct 20% from your next paycheck and send the money to a church that you know you can trust. Be sure to specify that 10% is a regular tithe and the other 10% is specifically to feed those unable to feed themselves. Making sure that all of the extra 10% is used for food, though, could become a problem in some mainstream churches. It might be best to just spend the extra 10% on low cost but nutritious canned food, rice, or beans and donate them to a local food bank or homeless shelter. Be sure to record the exact day you started paying the charity tithe so that you will know when you can stop paying it a year later. More than a dozen proverbs in the book of Proverbs mention that those who give to the needy will prosper and be blessed. Proverbs 28:27 also says "He who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have MANY curses." The word "many" means significantly more than one, and these curses can occur consecutively. How many times have you heard others say "It's always something," referring to a recent expense that just wiped out their most recent savings? Have you ever felt that you must be under some kind of curse because despite your best efforts, you just cannot get ahead financially, and if you do, it's always only temporarily? You probably have been on the receiving end of real curses for ignoring divine financial laws. The original Hebrew word for "many" in the above verse is "rab 7227." Some of the definitions of rab include "great, plenteous, mighty, exceedingly, full, and powerful." A certain group of people well known by their history of persecution has faithfully obeyed this triennial food tithe more than any other well known group of people, and they often have the reputation of being rich, which is more evidence that this tithe works. Actually, most orthodox members of this group (I have to be careful about specific names because of my advertisers) contribute 10% of their income to charity every year, not just every third year. Partly because of their above average prosperity, a certain dictator during the 1940s had a huge number of these people put to death, mistakenly believing that they were in a worldwide conspiracy to cheat, steal, or use other means to unfairly exploit other people. He did not understand, apparently, that the real source of their wealth was God and His blessings He gave to them for obeying all of the Mosaic financial laws. Regarding the controversial issue of whether or not governmental Social Security tax deductions from paychecks in the United States satisfy the third year charity tithe requirement, I personally like to give a full 10% tithe to charity through the trustworthy church assistance fund which gives 100% of such donations to those in need, in addition to any Social Security taxes paid. Then I don't have to worry about whether or not average Social Security income recipients, who usually have access to somewhat adequate state food stamp programs and often have pensions, jobs, investment income, or help from relatives and friends, truly represent the Biblical poor, those in danger of actual starvation. Remember, the sometimes money wasting U. S. Social Security system continues giving retirement payments even to people 65 years or older who earn 500 million dollars or more annually! The situation is much different for European wage earners, though, since their tax rate is much higher, and a higher percentage of their tax dollars is used to feed the hungry. Since I do not need a curse, much less a multitude of curses, I almost always give 5% of my income to those less fortunate than myself during the two years between the third year charity tithe years. The 5% contribution is a personal decision, and the church that receives my tithes has no instructions about giving a particular percentage of one's net income to charity between the triennial years. The church assistance fund assists those who do not qualify for government welfare programs. Getting back to the first tithe, a study reported in the Houston Chronicle newspaper sometime in the 1980's showed that from a large survey of businesses, the businesses that contributed 10% or more of their income to their chosen churches had significantly higher incomes and net worths than those businesses that did not practice the Biblically commanded tithing law. John D. Rockefeller Sr., the multibillionaire, was a meticulously faithful tither, and his wealth reached about 150 billion dollars that had the purchasing power of what a dollar could buy in the year 2006, which is about 3 times the maximum wealth that Bill Gates ever had (one million is one thousand thousand, and one billion is one thousand million). To my knowledge, John Rockefeller still retains the title as the richest American in this nation's history, and he was also the richest person on the face of the Earth during the last 1,000 years perhaps excluding conquering, plundering military tyrants. More people tithe in the United States of America than in any other nation in the world, and the U. S. A. has become the richest or most blessed nation in the world, as Malachi prophesied in verse 3:12. Malachi 3:8-12 says that people are under a divine financial curse for failure to tithe, but that people will be supernaturally blessed financially if they do tithe. Life should steadily become financially easier and more secure for even unrepentant sinners when they faithfully pay their tithes and offerings. Tithes and offerings should be sent to a regular, weekly fellowshipping church that believes and actually obeys the Bible, but people seem to be blessed for even tithing to Mr. Pat Robertson's 700 Club which, as a type of Christian organization with some incorrect doctrines, is admittedly doing a lot of very good, philanthropic things with most of the money they take in. The 700 Club is shown on national television every weekday, and on almost each program they provide testimonials by different people of how God has blessed them financially for tithing to the 700 Club or often to a traditional church, which is additional proof that tithing is still in force. The nontither's curse is a subtle curse on the majority of people for failing to regularly tithe. This scourge seems to initially be low grade, but the effects are cumulative over the years as some or much of the income of nontithers keeps falling through the prophet Haggai's "holes" and is wasted or lost. A sustained curse causes most nontithers to live from paycheck to paycheck with no substantial reserves and to have instead significant credit card or other debt. When a streak of bad luck reduces the income of even hard workers, this ever present, merciless curse can eventually tip the scales all the way to outright homelessness for some nontithers. An unrelenting curse causes most nontithers, after working hard for a lifetime, to have only government social security income or less to live on. Government statistics show that most of the population, after a lifetime of work, wind up broke at retirement age. Would you like to win tens of millions of dollars in a lottery and still remain a nontither? Consider this fact: about 70% of lottery winners eventually lose most of their winnings, and approximately 30% of all the winners wind up bankrupt. Only about 30% manage to hold on to most of what they won. The majority of the lottery winners were probably victims of these Biblical curses. Tithes should be calculated after all income taxes have been paid, since that is one's true net increase or profit. Some high income Europeans are forced to pay 80 to 90 % of their income in taxes. If they tithed on their gross income, they would have zero income to live on, which of course is worse than ridiculous. Summarizing, from my income I personally give a 10% tithe (always) to the Lord , a 5% offering (most of the time) to the Lord, and a 5% contribution (most of the time) to the church assistance fund which helps feed those less fortunate than me. That equals 20% most of the time, and during the triennial year it goes to a minimum of 20% (10% to the Lord and 10% to the hungry) and 25% (an extra 5% offering to the Lord usually) most of the time. For an expanded, more complete discussion of tithing please click gnmagazine.org/booklets/AT/AT.pdf, then click thercg.org/articles/totq.html . ............................... MATTHEW 23:23: "........ Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest of income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law -- justice, mercy, and faith. You SHOULD TITHE, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. --- New Living Translation. "........ Hypocrites! You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the law: justice, peace, and faith. You OUGHT TO TITHE but without forgetting about those more important matters." --- Common English Bible. LUKE 11:42: "........ you give God a tenth of the spices from your gardens, such as mint and rue. But you cheat people, and you don't love God. You should be fair and kind to others and still GIVE A TENTH to God." --- Contemporary English Version. "........ you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You SHOULD TITHE, yes, but do not neglect the more important things." --- New Living Translation. "........ You give one - tenth of { everything you own }--even your mint, your rue, and every other little plant in your garden. But you forget to be fair to other people and to love God. These are the things you should do. And you should also continue to do those other things--{ LIKE GIVING ONE - TENTH}." --- Easy - to - Read Version. ..................... Much more importantly, deliberately not tithing can also have dire eternal consequences for Christians who have received the Holy Spirit, and who are undergoing an irreversible process of judgment. Matthew 5:20: "........except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case (this means under NO circumstances !!) enter into the kingdom of heaven." Using other words, you definitely need to be just as diligent about tithing as the Pharisees were, and of course be merciful and so on to be saved. Matthew 24:11,12: ".........MANY (polus, which can refer to the majority according to other verses) false prophets (major religious leaders in the popular, mainstream churches) .........shall deceive MANY (polus). And .........INIQUITY (ANOMIA) shall abound........." Matthew 7:13-14: "........wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are MANY (polus, same Greek word as in Matthew 7:22) who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are FEW who find it." The original Greek word for INIQUITY, or the more accurate "lawlessness" in some translations, in all of the above verses is anomia. Anomia does not necessarily refer just to major, New Testament listed sins like murder, theft, lying, or coveting. Anomia can also refer to other very serious offenses such as deliberately resting on the wrong day of the week, deliberately eating more toxic, potentially carcinogenic pork products, shrimp, oysters, clams, lobsters, turtles, rabbits, squid, catfish, swordfish, frogs, crayfish, and other forbidden food, outdoing Adam and Eve's dietary sin many times over, deliberately adding to the Mosaic laws by creating and observing our own religious holidays such as Easter, which even has a blatantly pagan name with attached insulting, idolatrous traditions such as Easter egg hunting, and Christmas, which also includes the highly offensive tradition of decorating trees with historically pagan symbols, deliberately ignoring commanded festivals faithfully observed by all of the original Apostles, deliberately ignoring the triennial charity tithe, and so on. The original Greek word for "Many" in all of the above verses is polus, number 4183 in Strong's concordance. According to James Strong's The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition, 2001 printing, on page 206 of the Greek dictionary of the New Testament the definition of polus is "many," "much," "often," "mostly," or "largely." Mostly and largely may mean that the terrifying words of Jesus were referring to the majority of gentile Christians. In the context of the above Matthew 7:13 verse MANY (polus) obviously refers to the MAJORITY since the qualifying word of "few" appears in the very next verse, verse 14! Matthew 7:13's Greek word polus (loosely translated MANY), obviously meaning the majority, is the same polus in Matthew 7:22 also translated into MANY again possibly meaning that the majority of Christians will not make it into the next life. 1 Peter 4:18: "And if the righteous scarcely be saved........" The original Greek word for "scarcely" is "molis" (from "molos," or "toil") which means "hardly, with much work, with difficulty. We will be judged by the law as shown in James 2:12: ".........do as those who will be JUDGED BY THE LAW (nomos, Strong's number 3551, Mosaic laws primarily) of liberty (liberating you from sin and from the now abolished laws of very burdensome animal and grain sacrifices, but not other Mosaic laws such as those of tithing, diet, prohibiting incest, bestiality, landmark removal, prohibiting stumbling blocks for the blind, etc. )." ............ The most important concept in this entire site is that the Old Covenant with its ceremonial sacrificial laws were abolished after the death of Jesus Christ, not the separate and eternally beneficial, humane civil and moral Mosaic laws. Basically only the animal and grain sacrificial laws and circumcision law were done away with, not all of the other Old Testament laws. Both the Old and New Testaments then become harmonious, and Jesus' dire warning in Matthew 7:21-23, using the anomia word, about living apart from the Mosaic laws makes sense. The Old Covenant, described in the Old Testament, promised only physical blessings for obedience, not the gifts of the Holy Spirit and immortality which the New Covenant now promises to those that obey divine laws. The Old Covenant is not the same as the Old Testament. The Old Testament contains many Mosaic laws still in force, such as tithing. The home page of this website is LITTLE PUBLICIZED ANOMIA. | |
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