Thanks for this excellent overview and research. Tithing is a spiritual law, and therefore it is massively important that we live this in a way that gives everyone involved the most spiritual benefit. Changing the way that I pay tithing has resulted in blessings that I could never have imagined before I did it. This is something I worked with the Lord on directly. And once I understood his will, it was a joyous thing to follow his direction in a new and different way. Everyone should take their "freewill" offerings very seriously. God wants your heart, not your money. But the way your money is used it a huge indication of where your heart truly is. God can use every single thing that you have to bless you and others--if you allow it.
This is true. The money is a representation of our motivations. I recently had a conversation with a very faithful tithe payer who had a friend that needed some car repairs, but didn't have the money themselves. I suggested she "tithe" to the person in order to help them. She ultimately couldn't do it because she was afraid she would anger God by not paying her tithing to the church. This is another case where everything is messed up. The entire western way, which includes the LDS church, seems to be to get us to live in little silos and be entirely dependent on larger organizations for everything.
Thank you for such in depth research. Reminds me of when my family found the BH Roberts History of the church books. So much context is needed for these topics and I doubt even church leaders understand our history. You are a fountain in a desert of gospel knowledge.
I doubt many, if even anyone can fully understand nowadays what the history is. How can we? I was born in the 50's and I can tell you pretty much no one knows what it was like to be a woman in the 50's. Unless you are an older woman who remembers, you have no comprehension. We cannot understand what it was like to be the woman caught in adultery and it was ALL her fault, of course. One of the men casting a stone was likely the cause of her adultery. We need to step into their shoes - or better yet, into the bare and frozen feet of some of our ancestors running for their very lives through the frozen corn stalks cut sharply through those tender often childish or feminine feet , cut with a scythe to a sharp, skin piercing point, not on purpose, but as the fields had been cleared for the next year. Education was out of the question. Survival was all. How could these good saints have the education we have nowadays. How do we dare judge them. The ultimate problem is not tithing, it is not 2% or 10%, it is faith and they had it. We need to read history through their eyes and judge with their knowledge or lack of. .
@@droundyCubby Yes I agree that we should see things from their perspective. I think many today are guilty of judging Brigham and any number of the early leaders. However, they are all products of their generation. The comment I was meaning though is that today we let the leaders do whatever they want regardless of the original principle. If however, we kept the original principle in mind then we could correctly tell the leaders that they are wrong.
How do we decide what is 'increase' rather than income? If I want to have a better style of life and make more money to afford said style is this increase or just considered nessasary to fund a better quality of life? At what point does it become increase?
Yes it is not always straightforward. Net worth may be a better gauge. When I was going to college I was eventually going to "increase", but I did have to take a quality of life hit to do so.
It must be done by the spirit. It will let you know your justified wants. After needs are met, whatever extra money you have that year is tithed 10%. If you have no increase, then no tithe.
What I did was to deduct only the basics to live, we have to be honest with God and recognize that millions if not billions of his children live in this world with the bare minimum and many not even that, so we must recognize that we live in a world full of poverty and inequality, not just look our neighborhoods in our developed world. I just add basic food, house and other basic stuff like electricity and water, because that would be enough for me to live, everything else can be considered luxuries like internet, cable, cars, insurance, food that is not essential such as snacks, dining out, etc. That way my tithe is as much as possible and then I donate that directly to people in need, people actually in need and that can be the hard part sometimes, depending on where you live you may have to look farther away from your area. Pray and ask God to guide you, it’s a humbling but rewarding experience.
@@droundyCubby Faith to do what? Overpay? Does God want his people in financial bondage to their leaders simply because the leaders said so? As a father of seven children I have missed mortgage payments before, but never tithing payments. Luckily I was able to correct my financial situation however how many were not? How many people have dug themselves a financial hole that they will never get out of simply because they paid their tithing first? The way we do it today is not a true principle of God. God wants his people to be smart. However, today the LDS people are in spiritual and mental bondage. This was never supposed to be the case.
