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Taxpayers
(Continued from page 8)
owed. Nor would it be necessary lo
hire an accountant to wade through
long and complicated tax forms.
Paying special taxes seems usual–
ly to hi t a person at an awkward
time- when little money is on hand
to pay them.
God's tithe is, by contrast, the
first
10 percent of any profit. And
for the person who pays to God the
first
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percent of whatever
increase or profit he makes, God
promises to make the other nine
tenths stretch to cover all needs.
4)
Economy.
The exaction of
taxes seems to need a vast organiza–
tion to explain and police the sys–
tem. There are tax collectors,
accountants, arbitrary tax regula–
tions thanges and court decisions.
How ditferent God's t ithing sys–
tem! Tithes paid would arrive at
their destination with little more
cost than that of postage and han–
dling.
Amazing Prophecy for Today
One of the most striking proofs of all
that the tithing law is still in etfect
today is found in an amazing prophe–
cy about solving financia! woes due,
among other things, to the high costs
of human governments.
The prophecy is found in Malachi
3 and 4. Not ice the period in history
to which it is specifically directed.
Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 3 give the
time sett ing as just befare the resto–
ration of the government of God at
the return of J esus Christ- "the day
of his coming."
It
is a time when
God will intervene in human atfairs
to prevent world suicide. All of chap–
ter 4 (remember that men divided
the Bible up into chapters) is cen–
tered around end-time events and
the "coming of the great and dread–
ful day of the Lord " (verse 5).
This is talking about the time we
are living in now- the last days of
this civi lization. God warns people,
laboring under the burdens of taxes
and their own personal sins, to
repent of their wrong ways.
As the prophecy shows, people
would ask, "Which wrong ways?"
(chapter 3, verse 7). The problem is
that people today have not generally
been told what is right and what is
wrong. They do not know God's
October 1985
laws. In most cases they don't
know-they've never heard-that
they are living in ways that bring
penalties and sutfering down upon
their own heads. Those who should
be "experts" about God's laws either
themselves don't know the facts, or,
if they do, they aren't saying.
God answers this way: "Will a
man rob God? Yet ye have robbed
me. But ye say, Wherein bave we
robbed thee?" (verse 8). The
people being addressed don 't quite
get what God is speaking about.
How could
they
rob God? So God
replies bluntly: .. I n tithes a nd
offerings . Ye are cursed with a
curse: for ye have robbed me, even
this whole nation."
There is not a nation on earth to
which this does not apply in princi–
pie. And there is not a nation on
earth that is not sutfering financia!
and economic curses as a result.
Here is the quickest way to reduce
the burdens of taxes and generate
new personal income and still have
all the essentials of human govern–
ment services.
God says we have robbed him
" in tithes
and o.fferings."
In for–
mulating the law of tithing God put
an automatic limit- 10 percent–
on what would be owed to him. It's
not a question of our being gener–
ous to God when we pay God bis
tenth .
It
doesn't belong to us in the
first place! lt is
God who gives us
the other nine tenths. We only
begin to be generous to God when
we give him offerings over and
above his tithe .
Listen to the dcscription in Hag–
gai 1:5-6 of what happens when
people do not put God
first
finan–
cially. This description pictures
rampant inftation eating away at
earning power.
lt
pictures agricul–
tura! problems that cause food
prices to escalate. "Now therefore
thus says the Lord of hosts: Consid–
er how you have fared. You have
sown much, and harvested little;
you eat, but you never have
enough; you drink, but you never
have your fill; you clothe your–
selves, but no one is warm; and he
who earns wages earns wages to put
them into a bag with boles" (Re–
vised Standard Version).
Why these problems? Does this
sound familiar where you live?
But there is more. " You have
looked for much, and, lo, it carne to
little; and when you brought it
home,
1
blew it away. Why? says
the Lord of hosts. Because of my
house that lies in ruins, while you
busy yourselves each with his own
house" (verse 9, RSV).
In other words, money that
should have gone to God , goes
instead to personal interests. Here
is what God is finally going to do:
" T herefore the heavens above you
have withheld the dew, and the
earth has withheld its produce. And
1
have called for a drought upon the
land and the hills, upon the g rain,
the new wine, the oil, upon what
the ground brings forth , upon men
a nd cattle, and upon all th e ir
labors" (verses 10- 11, RSV).
Sobering. But it doesn't have to
be that way for us. In Malachi 3,
God tells us how to receive bless–
ings instead of economic curses:
" Bring ye all the tithes into thc
storehouse, that there may be meat
in mine house, and prove me now
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts
[yes, here's a sure way to prove
God exists!]. if
1
will not open you
the windows of heaven, and pour
you out a blessing, that there shall
not be room enough to receive it.
"And
1
will rebuke the devourer
for your sakes [the way to rid any
nation of moth larvae, the corn bor–
er and other such plagues need not
be through costly aerial sprayi ng of
pesticides or fumigation, but by the
nation paying God his tithe!). and
he shall not destroy the fruits o f
your ground; neithe r shall your
vine cast he r fruit before the t ime
in the field, saith the Lord of hosts"
(verses 10-1 l ) .
To any nation that would pay
God bis tithes and
giv~
him otfer–
ings in gratitude and that would
pay Caesar his dues (see Matthew
22: 15-22), the Almighty promises:
" And all nations shall call you
blessed: for ye shall be a delight–
some land, saith the Lord of hosts"
(Malachi 3: 12).
No matter what whole nations
do, you, as an individual, can bene–
fit from God's blessings, financia!
and otherwise. To learn how, write
fo r our free booklets
Ending Your
Financia/ Worries
and
Managing
Your Personal Finances.
Your
whole financia! picture will light up
with hope again!
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