if you give 10% of your income to someone in need or your favorite charity is this the same as tithing?

Question

my daughter states that tithing means giving 10% of your income to your church. What are you opinions on this?

Answer 1

Tithes and offerings are different. If you attend a good Bible preaching church, then your tithe should belong to it. If you want more blessings, then give offerings to other faith based organizations to recieve more blessings in return.

Answer 2

Unlike the rest of Yahoo Answerer's.. I will defer from my opinion and state what the WORD of GOD says.

In Deuteronomy 22-29 God specifically differentiates between tithing to the church (OR as the bible state "the place the Lord your God will choose") and charities to the needy and poor.

This scripture is of course old testiment but still relates today. At the time the Isrealites gave of their FIRST FRUITS but didnt neglect the "Levites living in (their) towns" The Levites at this time were the poor because they didnt have any inheritance and every three years the Israelites were to bring the tithe of the years produce so the Levites, aliens, fatherless, and widows could come eat and be satisfied.

This scripture shows that TITHING is giving to the church you have decided to worship at and charity is totally different. But all christians should partake in charity as the WORD states.

God Bless you and I hope this Scripture has given you some insight into your situation.

Answer 3

Giving 10% of your income to someone in need or your favourite charity is different than tithing.

Tithing, first of all, used to be mandatory, and in many ways, was used as sort of dues to the membership of church.

One thing to remember about giving money away is that most of your money doesn't go to actual charity works or the church. A lot of it pays the bills and helps with marketing. If you do want to give money to a charity, try finding out what percentage of your donation goes to the actual issue. If 60% and up of your funds goes to the issue, then give the donation.

If you give your money to someone in need, all of it will go to the issue at hand. It's an easier (and stress-free) way of helping out.

But none of this matters if you are hell-bent on giving money to a church. It's not the same thing, but if your faith is strong enough, go ahead.

Answer 4

There is no hard truth to this. To say that you should 10% to a Church flat wrong. Some people need to feed a baby with the money.

What if you make 200,000, are you going to give 20,000 to your Church?

I give to the these charities also

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Oxfam America
Local Church
The ACLU
The Genocide Intervention Network

I also consider my political giving as charity since I do not get anything back for it. I don't get a deduction for this but it is charity for me.

I was the Financial Elder in a Church for two years and I recall it being very expensive. We were not rich Church and we ran a homeless shelter so we had outlets for donated money but I wonder about Churches that do not have outlets for their donated money.

Answer 5

This is Tithing.

A Roman Catholic Bishop gave a homily. In this homily he was asking for us to give Tithings of: Time, Talent, and Wealth. His first and most important request was for us (his parish) to commit to giving 10% of our time to God in prayer; he even waved the 10% a day (1.5 hours) and asked that we sign a contract for 1.5 hours a week.

Next is 10% of your talent. What talents has God given you? Ability to sing, vocation like accounting, healing (nurses, doctors), motherhood, teaching ... God wants 10% of his talent put to the use of other human beings.

Lastly, the Wealth ... The Bishop was clear that tithing could be to any place that took care of the poor, sick, ect. He did mention that the services that his parish provided and stressed that he would be very appreciative if we gave our wealth tithing to the Church; but it was fine to tithe else where as well.

Answer 6

I believe that as long as you give it for something that will advance the Kingdom, it is tithing. If it is going to someone in need, or a charity that is doing good, and not going against Christian beliefs, then why wouldn't God bless you for it?

Answer 7

The church really needs the tithing, in many many countries the only income they have to support themselves and their charities that they have through missions, in their communities, etc is of this, we have to help support our churches so the governments don`t make them disappear.
Also is not mandatory, if you don`t have enough income you can give as much as you can, you will not go to hell.
If we support many things why not our church and not let other religions rise, because every religion asks for funds.

Answer 8

God didn't say to give 10% to the church. He says to give 10% to HIM. He also says that "whosoever you do unto the least of these, you do unto Me". In other words, God sees our hearts. If we are tithing 10% to anyone in need or a charity, then we are still tithing and giving unto the Lord.

Answer 9

No. that would be an offering. Malachi says to bring all your tithes into the "storehouse" (the local church where you are taught). Even if you are not a member there, you should tithe there if you receive instruction and counsel from that particular ministry.

Answer 10

your daughter is absolutely correct. Tithing is giving to the church, or to be perfectly clear, giving to the Reverend and his family, or to Rome. Can you afford to give 10% of your GROSS income to the church? Why isn't religion free? After all, the church doesn't pay taxes to anyone. Is this what God wants? A pray as you pay plan?