Do Mormons really think this is good advice?

Question

1) Tithing - The most important step toward achieving financial well being is to pay tithing first-no excuses or exceptions. President Gordon B. Hinckley counseled: "some of you have money problems. I know that. You are struggling to get along. What is the cure? The only thing I know is the payment of tithing."

Answer 1

On a purely practical basis, you will be better off if you tithe. You will be more disciplined and less wasteful. You may obtain the support of your church family to get you past the hard times. I have never seen a tithing family go hungry.

Answer 2

It may seem silly until you test it out. Obviously if tithing really goes to God by being used to promote his work it makes perfect sense. He will bless you if you keep his commandments. Malachi says He will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings that we will not have room to receive. I honestly believe this and have experienced this in my life.

I was struggling at work (a self-employed, commission based job) for several months and had actually gone without a paycheck during this time, even though I had several deals that seemed to promise big returns. I had spent many hours on each one, and had completed my share of the work, only to have each one fall through after I had done my work. During the time when everything started to go south, I realized that I had not paid tithing on a couple of hundred dollars from a little work I had done on the side a month or so early. I decided that I needed to pay my tithing on this, so I did. Within the next week, I received word that one of my deals that had been dragged on until it had almost been killed had closed, three days before the deadline. Aside from my regular commission, I was paid a substantial bonus as well as several hundred dollars in reimbursements that I had all but given up hope of collecting from business partners after months of hard luck. On top of that, my personal life which was in chaos at the time improved dramatically through rather sudden events, and everything as been fine since.

You may link this experience to coincidence or luck or such, but I can attest that I have had many other such experiences, whether it be with prayer or tithing or any other matter of faith, that collectively eliminate any allowance for chance as well as any doubt I have about God's love and willingness to help us when we trust him. I know without doubt, that when we trust in him and obey him, we do receive blessings and we are so much happier.

Answer 3

Real christians know that Gid will give you an amount that is sufficient and f God tells you to support a missionary or some thing else in the church (and it is of God) and you ahev the funds but it would crimp your budget, then the Lord will provide, by money coming from other sources like a check coming in the mail out of nowhere in the same amount the Lord told you to pay to the missionary fund. I have heard of several Christian say this has happen, they gave what God said to give and then money showed up out of nowhere, so you can choose to believe this or not, as for mormons they are taught to be thrifty, because the money doesn't seem to be coming out of nowhere.

Answer 4

The HOLY BIBLE says to pay your tithes and offerings:

Malachi 3
8 Whill a man rob God? Yet ye hav robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In thithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the thithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

Edit: Our temples are NOT paid for with tithing. There are seperate funds you can donate to besides tithing. Tithing is strictly for feeding, housing, clothing, and providing the necessities of life to the poor or disadvantaged. Where do you think the Red Cross calls FIRST when a disaster strikes? Salt Lake City to ask the LDS Church for help in feeding and clothing the people who have been displaced.

Answer 5

I guess it is. A couple of people from Harvard did some research on the people in Salt Lake City who filed bankruptcy. They found out that active LDS who paid tithing filed fewer bankruptcies than others. It is funny that you asked this question now because the article was in the newspaper just last week.

Answer 6

Oh yeah, they have all sorts of cute sayings about how paying tithing is great, and of course there are those unverifiable stories about the blessings people have had from paying their tithing.

Answer 7

1 Cor. 3: 19
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

2 Ne. 9: 28
28 O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

Answer 8

I've head/read and been taught this since childhood/ Essentially, it grooms you to be wholly dependant on the church if your are truly humble and childlike. Going into debt to pay the church is not a formula for sucess any more than deficet spending.

Anyway, I never bought into it because it seems so wrong to make the least wealthy spend to most, and do without the necessities.

I'll post my 'quorum of Hummers' photos of the Las Vegas Chapel and Car Show some day.

Answer 9

This just isn't a Mormon philosophy, but a Christianity philosophy in general. It's typically believed that you should give 10% of your earnings to the church. They believe that if you give to the church (even when you are scrapping together pennies) that God will bless you.

Just recently, one of my friends literally had only a few dollars to get her by throughout the week. She dumped it all into the offering plate much to the dismay of her husband and said she knew if she did it God would bless her and help them get through their hard times.

That week her landlord came by and said he knew they had been having money troubles and let them stayed rent free for a month, her boss ended up giving her a raise, and a family member who she hadn't seen in a while stopped by with groceries.

I'm not saying that if people give money to the church, they will automatically receive all these things. I just thought it was a really neat story when she told me about it.

Answer 10

I kind of laugh at this. As for tithing, it does explain why the mormon church is the richest in the world.