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Pay Extra Tithes - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 22nd Apr, 2004 - 11:23am
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Pay Extra Tithes?
Some members feel a necessity to pay more tithing than usual. I know of one woman that pays 20% of her income instead of 10%. Do you think that some members can 'feel' inspired to do more by paying more money, or is it their own 'cross' that they have chosen for themselves? Will giving more tithes bring more blessings? What are your thoughts?
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Tithes Extra Pay
It's not the percentage or the actual money that matters but the principal we are to obey. I've read talks by many of our Prophets who admonish us to give more IF we HAVE more. Extra blessings may be attached to those who feel inspired to give more, I don't know. As long as it is done with gratitude and joy, and not with resentment or curses.
IMO
Roz
Pay Extra Tithes? Studies Doctrine Mormon
I knew a missionary once who said he had been told to pay tithing on what he wanted to earn, rather than just on what he was currently earning. I personally think this is not of the Lord.
We are commanded to pay a tithe. That is 10%. I am not saying we shouldn't give more, if we can, but if we are doing it with the expectation that will we be blessed more by paying 20% than someone else will who pays 10%, then I don't think our heart is in the right place and we miss the point of tithing.
We have many general funds which serve worthy purposes. If you want to give more than 10% and can afford to, then I suggest you don't put it down as tithing, but add it to one of these funds. The perpetual education fund, the fast offering, the missionary fund, many other areas which are funded through the generosity of those who can afford to give more than just a tithe. Giving 20% and calling it a tithe is not really accurate, since a tithe is 10% by definition. It is still a donation, and if you are doing it with the right spirit and intention you will be blessed, but the command is 10%.
I give when I can to other funds, and I know I am blessed for it, but I don't think I am required to do more than my tithe. Now, I cannot say that others are not being directed by the Lord to do more, but if he is, I still don't think it is correct to call it a tithe. I think the Lord expects, actually demands to some extent, his tithe. Then he wants us all to do whatever else we can above and beyond that, but it is important we do it with honest intentions.
I don't doubt there are people who pay tithing, and could afford to do more, but don't because they feel they are doing all that is required. I think this is misguided. If we have been blessed with more than we need, we should bless others the same way as much as possible. That having been said, I think if someone is really going without in order to double their tithe they are probably doing more than than need and are perhaps misguided. However, if they can easily afford to do it and feel the Lord has asked them to, then they should do it. Yet, if the Lord is telling them to do it, and if they are doing it with the right spirit, I question why they would make it public. Seems a bit like the fasting and praying in public to show how good I am thing. 
Edited: tenaheff on 2nd Feb, 2004 - 2:29pm
Tithes Extra Pay
I totally agree with Tena, there are many sources they can use to put that extra money (fast offering and humanitarian aid for instance!), to put all that extra on , it is like a waste because it cannot be used properly!
If a person feels generous enough to give more money to the Lord, that's great but I think we should use the wisdom to know for what purpose we are doing it and who is going to be benefit out of it.
Tithes Extra Pay
In my opinion, and that is all it is... my opinion, one should pay 10% of their increase as required and then pay a very generous fast offering. Of course contributions can be made to the other categories as well. Then if you still feel like you need to give more then go and visit the widows, fatherless, aged, poor and others in your Ward/Branch, I am sure you will find good ways to use your money to help them.
Post Date: 30th Mar, 2004 - 7:47pm / Post ID: #
Pay Extra Tithes?
A few years ago my wife decided we did not have enough money. Actually, she's always felt this way but she decided a few years ago the way we could get more money was to increase our fast offerings. So, overnight she went from $20 per month to $100 per month. We are not in any strretch of the imagination affluent. We have 4 kids in a 3 bedroom home and really cannot afford to buy a bigger home, we make less than 50K per year. I was against the idea but decided to let her do it, even though I questioned her motive. It didnt seem to be to help the needy but rather to reap the blessings for ourselves.
It is very difficult to see if this increase in fast offerings has resulted in the desired blessings. We are still struggling financially, at least by the measurement we are using. We really cannot afford to take on the burden of a larger mortgage and are thus stuck in our small home. On the other hand, we have no debt other than our home, have been able to send our oldest to college and the next oldest will go next year. They both have benefited from some scholarship help. So, we really cannot complain. But I think we've learned that you do not raise your fast offerings for the express purpose of increased blessings for yourself.
At tithing settlement, our Bishop has thanked us for being so generous. He said they are counceled not to define what constitues a generous fast offering but he says in his opinion we are very generous and our money was very much needed in the ward. So, that made us feel good.
We also occasionally pay into the Missionary Fund, Scouts etc.
Pay Extra Tithes
Wow gaucho, your wife must be a woman of great Faith. I must admit, I don't think I could do the same knowing I have financial struggles, I admire her willingness to help others. Sometimes I wish I could so much more, but I am also a believer that in order to help others you need to help yourself too. There are so many rich people in the Church that I'm sure are very generous in their fast offerings and so on. I would love to see one day our Church build up of great Saints where 'there is no poor among them' and where we partake our substance to the less fortunate, not what we don't use or what we don't want but the things we use in our daily lives. Thanks for sharing that story.
Pay Extra Tithes Mormon Doctrine Studies
Someone posted this on an email list I subscribe to. It is very appropriate for this thread, so I hope I can get it all in.
| QUOTE |
| Journal of Discourses, Vol.16, p.157, Orson Pratt, August 16, 1873 So in the year 1838, he gave us another law, called the law of Tithing. Let me name now some of the conditions of Tithing, according to that law. The Lord gave a commandment that the people that came up-gathered with the Saints-should consecrate, not all their property, but all their surplus property, and after they had consecrated all their surplus property, there should be a certain portion, not called surplus, which they should retain; and out of this that is not called surplus property, they should try to make an income, they should consecrate one-tenth part of that income. Now of you who have been in this Territory for twenty or twenty-six years, how many have complied with this law of Tithing? How many have had surplus property, over and above one-tenth part? How many would come here with fifteen or twenty thousand dollars' worth of property, and pay one-tenth, as though this was surplus. Is that the law of Tithing? If it is, I do not understand it. If I understand the law of Tithing, it requires a man who has fifteen, or twenty, or fifty thousand dollars, when he comes up to Zion, to go up to the Lord's agent, the Bishop, and say, "I have so much money, and so much of a family; now tell me, Bishop, how much of this is surplus property? Oh, says one, that ought to be left to our own judgment. Our own judgment! Who in the world among all the Latter-day Saints would have any surplus property if it is left to his own judgment? How many in Ogden have given surplus property to-day? Go throughout all this town and ask them if they have surplus property. "Oh, no, I have not quite enough to carry on my business according to my own mind. I have a manufacturing establishment here, I wish I had a few thousand dollars more than I have to put in it. I want twenty thousand dollars more. I have no surplus property." Some man starts another business, and he has no surplus property. And you may go through all the towns and villages and not find a man who has surplus property. He could not be found. Then I should judge, that the men to determine what is surplus property, and what is not, are those men whom God has ordained to this power, namely, the Bishops, who have a knowledge of these things by the power of the Holy Ghost, and by virtue of their calling. The President of this Church will be prepared to say whether a man has surplus property or not, and let him specify, and the man be satisfied. This is the law of Tithing, inferior to the full law of consecration, and also inferior to the law of Enoch. Now for the other portion of the law of Tithing. Say a man comes here with fifty thousand dollars and it is judged by proper authority that forth thousand is surplus. He goes to work with the remaining ten thousand and gets him a farm and home, and enters into some other business, and makes not only a sufficiency for support, but finds at the year's end that he has made a thousand dollars: he has to pay one-tenth of that, that is a hundred dollars. This is really the meaning of the word Tithing. But the surplus property, the forty thousand dollars, are consecrated as is required in the former part of the first paragraph of the revelation on Tithing. How many of the Latter-day Saints have complied with even the least thing that God has given in property matters? Perhaps a few, and no doubt many have done well; and other have been careless; not feeling to rebel against God, but a little too careless or indifferent about paying one-tenth of their income. Now is this right? Can we be prospered as people? Ought we not to be ashamed if we cannot comply with one of the lesser laws? It seems to be the last law, in regard to property, that God has given to save this people.. We ought to ask ourselves, "Am I fulfilling this law? Am I preparing myself for the day when God shall required me to enter into the higher law?" I will say that the day will come, and is not far distant, when this higher law will be carried into effect, not only in theory but in practice. At present, God has eased up on the law in part, that there is a revelation given in the year 1834, on Fishing River, in which the Lord says, "Let those commandments which I have given, concerning Zion and her law, be executed and fulfilled after her redemption." That is as much as to say, "You are not prepared to keep them. If I do not now relieve you in some measure, from the responsibility, they will bring you under great condemnation." The revelation does not say that we shall not enter into that order, but we are not bound by penalties so to do. Now I believe that before the redemption of Zion, there will be a voluntary feeling to carry out the celestial law. I found my belief on the prophecies that are given in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord has said that before Zion is redeemed she shall be as fair as the sun, clear as the moon, and her banners shall be a terror to all nations. And that it is needful that Zion should be built up according to the law of the celestial kingdom, or I cannot receive her unto myself. He cannot receive her only as she is built up according to the full law of consecration. All the Zions that have ever been redeemed, from all the creations that God has made, have been redeemed upon that principle. And God has told us in the revelation given to ancient Enoch, "I have taken Zion to mine own bosom out of all the creations that I have made." Now if he has done this-if he has selected Zions, he has done it from the different worlds, by the celestial law; and they are sanctified by the same law, and they dwell in his bosom-that is under his council and watch care, in the presence of his glory, exalted before him, all redeemed by the same law, hence partakers of the glory, the same exaltation, the same fullness in the eternal worlds. Therefore if the latter-day Zion would be counted worthy to mingle with the ancient Zion of Enoch, caught up before the flood, if they would be counted worthy, when the Zion of Enoch comes, to be caught up to meet them, and to fall upon their necks and they to fall upon the necks of the Latter-day Saints, and if they would enjoy the same glory, the same exaltation with ancient Zion, they must comply with the same law. "I can not receive Zion to myself," saith the Lord, "unless built up by this law." |
This is a part of tithing I have always struggled to understand. The way Orson Pratt explains it appears to me to be the way we are commanded in the D&C, but it is NOT the way we are told to do so now. Actually, the way we do it now appears to me to be an easier way.
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