Story of Tithing
The beginning of tithing can be seen in the Bible, yet many Christians as well as non-Christians have the habit of doing some type of tithing today.
Tithe is a traditionally a Christian term that means to contribute one tenth of your income to charity or to your Church as a form of Chrch giving. However it has similarities with practices in other religious cultures. In Islam it is called ‘Zakat’. In India the Sikh religion also provides for such practice called ‘Dasvandh’ meaning one-tenth part of income to be devoted for religious purposes. Tenth Master Guru Gobind Singh started this practice. In Classical Indian society the Upanisads and the Bhagavadgita commend ‘true alms’ given with a sense of duty in a fit place and at a fit time to a deserving person from whom one expects nothing in return.
The word tithe derives from the Hebrew word ‘asair’, which means to donate one-tenth portion of something, mostly a person’s earnings. Nowadays tithes or tithing is optional and is given in cash. Still, in some European countries church can demand tithing and thus make it enforceable by law.
Denmark is a case where the Church of Denmark members have to pay a church tax, which is different in different municipalities. It is commonly about 1% of a person’s taxable income. The situation is similar in Finland where members of state churches have to pay a tax which can be anything between 1% and 2.25% of income and these taxes form a part of the common national taxation system.
However the practice of regular tithes was not established until after Exodus. Tithes were common throughout the ancient Near East, as well as in later Lydia, Arabia, and Carthage.
The Hebrew custom of giving tithes finds mention in the Bible, starting with the gift from Abraham to Melchizedek, the Canaanite king and priest (Genesis 14:20). Tithing was also common in former Lydia, Carthage and Arabia. The practice of tithing was espoused by the early Christian church, and was discussed in councils at Tours in 567 and at Macon in 585. Formal recognition to these was given under Pope Adrian I in 787.
The practice of tithes in some Christian churches is contentious for the reason that it is putting into operation an Old Testament idea to a New Testament establishment (the Church). No proof is available in the New Testament that tithing can be applied to Christians. Actually, it was mandatory only for Jews living in the promised land to pay the tithe even according to the Old Testament, as it was in practice a form of income tax that was necessary to help not only the government of the then Israel, but also the shrines and the priestly class.
Modern day Tithing
In spite of its origins in the Bible and olden day Christianity, nowadays it is a perfect way to give every time you get something. Giving EVERY time you get things is such a perfectly beautiful form of giving as it allows the giver to feel in fullness something indescribably powerful - more on that afterwards.
But back to a bit of history. Malachi 3:10 is the part of the Bible that Christians relate to when they talk about tithing. Many Christians tithe to their church because they feel it is their given duty by the Bible to do so. Many Churches now and in the past insist that their members tithe to the church to sustain its activities. In essence though, unless giving is done from free will and a with joyful focus, it does not achieve its greatest result - if in fact you ever want to create a direct result by giving.
Disagreements about Tithing
Tithing has often been a controversial subject.The question of should a Christian pay tithe is often raised in many Christian circles.
An article has been published in Wall Street Journal about tithing under the title ‘The Backlash Against Tithing’, in which the writer Suzanne Sataline says, ‘As Churches push donations, congregants balk; ‘that’s not the way God works’.’
Unfortunately, the mix of ideology, desire to control, and a limited perspective, can often create a Jekyll and Hyde result - the simple purity of giving being lost in the mist and confusion of theology. Despite the controversy, tithing is still a totally and amazingly powerful action that anyone can do to turn their lives around to face a more abundant direction.
For those who wish to understand a Christian perspective in tithing there is no limit of materials to read. For those who want to understand the reason WHY tithing is so powerful read on.
Why is Tithing so amazing?
This is indeed a powerful question because if you just mindlessly follow something without knowing some key background pointers you may be heading in the wrong direction.
If more of the people who do regularly practice tithing knew exactly why tithing is effective when done in the full spirit of a perfect gift, then it could possibly release a better yearning to give even more. And for those who give not on a regular basis, it could motivate them to give every time they get something.
To analyse the real ‘why’ of how routine giving leads to more we have to understand something about Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Physics. The laws of these realms vary a lot from that of our own material or Newtonian world.
The picture ‘What the Bleep’ paints the quantum world through easily graspable examples. The link to the movie here gives some details about how matter gets converted into waves and behaves like liquids when seen from a quantum physics angle: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1349535/4653525.
The film portrays a wonderful world seen from a quantum space. When a beam of electrons is shot through an opening in a plate onto a wall - as is expected, it would hit in a straight line on the flat surface just opposite the opening.
If the experiment is conducted by using an energy wave that reacts the way a water wave does, one gets a foreseeable result. As the wave strikes the plate it rebounds off the plate but where there is the opening, a part of the wave goes across through the opening. Coming out of the other side of the opening, the surging water moves out in the pattern of an arc, resulting in a new wave just as in the old laboratory tests done in schools in analysing wave patterns. As the surge of water strikes the wall across, it will have maximum force in the middle straight opposite the opening and will have lesser force all across the wall. This is exactly like the line the electrons make.
If we added a second slit in the plate, again we would get a predictable result with the wave experiment - two small waves would appear through the slits and when those new waves touch each other they would cancel each other out creating an interference pattern. Several waves would now hit the wall making a stripped affect on the wall. All this is as expected for wave energy behavior, so nothing new here.
Here is where the whole experiment takes on an entirely different direction. When electrons are sent through the two cuts in the plate, what should ordinarily result are two lines in the wall opposite. On the contrary what one sees is a stripped appearance with an intersecting pattern. This is unbelievable. The matter seems to have been turned into a wave. We can perhaps imagine that electrons were hitting against each other and ricocheting and causing a wave pattern; so if electrons are sent across separately the result should be different. But it is not, it is the same. The explanation has to be that the electron leaves as a single particle, and splits into a wave on collision with the plate, then goes across through the cuts and intervenes with itself after that on the other side. This idea of solid having fluid properties -or mattering acting like a wave - is totally surprising. The world is much more than we understand it to be.
Though the world that we live in appears to be hard and solid, it is perhaps possible that in reality we are living in a place that has more properties of a fluid - liquid energy or persistent movement of a fluid, which reacts more like the fluids in our material world. According to the rules of physics, similar fluids have a tendency to congregate, while those with dissimilar properties tend to diverge and remain separate. A typical example of this is oil and water. Chromatography explains how a single substance can break up into its individual components in clear bands the way groups of people break up into smaller ones with common interests, potencies or aims.
The essence of it is that we feel total fulfilment when we give a thing to another. The act of giving, the sense of bliss of it, is the greatest of all gifts. It is wrongly understood that he who is in receipt of the object is the only receiver and people fail to notice that it is the one who gives who is the real recipient. If you’re not still convinced, then look at yourself among children and see how fulfilled you become when you give to them whatever their reaction be.
When we understand that we are first giving to ourselves when we give and that we do this because we want to feel joy then we have a key. This key unlocks the door of understanding to giving. And when we give repeatedly the momentum builds up just like a wave getting bigger and bigger the more we add to it with our giving.
The fact that we feel joyful when we give changes our energy literally - we feel better and in that moment we are more attractive to other people. Have you experienced someone on the street selling something that you don’t want such as tissues and normally you do not buy, but one day you do and the only reason why is because the person is happy and smiling? You may have experienced the same with buskers playing music on the street.
A contended individual radiates a natural magnetism that draws others to him and in doing so he enriches himself. It is clear-cut. They pull towards them both those who are desirous of experiencing that feeling as well as those who have already known the richness of it.
Exactly like water and oil, those who give and those who do not give are compartmentalised in different groups. And the ideal place where one can receive something is there where givers congregate! But you can remain in that group only as long as you gift things! Givers enjoy giving to others who give.
We may be able to look at quantum physics for resolving things, but these are very much in front of us all the time. Alike attracts alike - right. See what is going on all over the world. Lions like to be with lions, students like to be with students, women prefer the company of women, guys like other guys, ‘poor’ people prefer to be with ‘poor’ people and ‘rich’ people like to form groups with ‘rich’ people. And yes - givers like to make friends with givers.
So if you every give from guilt then it will have the reverse effect for you - you will attract others feeling guilty and guilt-feeling people are not usually that joyful and happy. Guilt is a short step away from anger emotionally; so people giving from guilt often make the jump in that direction. Where as joy is almost at the top of the ladder of human emotions - and the jump from there is just to love - which we are all looking for.
So when you initiate the act of giving, you are very close to knowing perfect love - really wonderful to know that it is. More so as we know that most people are continuously trying to find love. We now know that the answer is so easy - begin giving! And gifting money is only an aspect of giving - giving on the whole will create a special place of joy for us, no matter how ‘little’ the amount.
There is also an emotional aspect to giving consistently. This aspect might not in the beginning appear to have connections to the sensation of joy - in the end it completely bonds us to the absolute bliss of joy.
When we gift a thing - especially a thing which is definitely not in surplus in our lives, we are sending a strong message to ourselves that life is reliable. When we have accomplished the act of giving and afterwards see that act in retrospect we understand that we can form a perfect relationship with that reliability. The opposite of reliability is fright. A group of frightened people are unlikely to be happy and delighted and so will not be able to attract any one. On the contrary, a group of reliable people would be contented and so would be quite appealing to those who are seeking such enriching experiences. At the end of the day, when reliability gets transformed into delight and again we find ourselves very close to that which we yearn most - love.
The sum and substance of what has been ignored for years is fully in front of us for anyone to bond with in finely. For Christmas my son got a good amount of money. I queried him as to what he planned to do with all that money. He replied that he wanted to set aside almost whole of it. Then I enquired how much of it he would like to give to someone. It was something that he had not even taken into account until I introduced the idea. What would be the result if upon receiving anything our first consideration was to give away part of it - do you think we would know delight in abundance?
Transaction based charity - or transaction based generosity
This takes us to the force of transactional giving. Many enterprises give when they have enough of money to give. When they do not have much they do not prefer to give. So their possible levels of joy fluctuate depending upon market variations - they do not have any restraint. But whoever gives EVERY time they get something is in charge and has their relationship with perfect joy forever.
Transactional giving rather than total giving is based on the highs and lows of business and so is a self-evident way of giving. The method is that when you get something you also give something - straightforward. If your business is bad you might give but according to the income. And when business is marking a rising graph, giving can also improve.
One of the key powers of transaction based giving is that you can share the joy of giving so easily with all stakeholders - customers/community - staff - and business. Because a customer knows that when they buy from you they get to give without it costing them anything except the energy to choose and shop with you they feel ownership of the giving - hence traditional CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility, coverts readily to Customer Social Responsibility, with your customer being able to powerfully respond to the giving by talking about you and have an additional emotional albeit intangible reason, for choosing to continue shopping with you.
Your personnel will also be able to partake in the happiness of giving as every time they manage to close a sale, they realise that they have managed to give something to a needy person. This is an extremely satisfying experience especially in a team as it can get converted into motivating the team and encouraging the staff.
Any commercial transaction, including profitless ventures, can do Buy1GIVE1 transaction-based giving - there are absolutely no prohibition to entering and the business decides most of it. The charity amount per operation starts from just a single cent and rises up to any amount of dollars with each venture choosing his or her own level of donating and giving to help and support completely based upon their business type and productivity. There is absolutely no reason to refuse to donate in this manner when the advantages of giving are so endless. Commercial ventures that are presently giving to a purpose can change very fast and without difficulty to Buy1GIVE1 transaction-based giving while continuing to support the same issue delivering more visible results to their enterprise.
When the game is over business -based giving is a present day form of tithing that is practical and possible for anyone, at any place. Now that we realise that it is not about the actual money that we give such as a tenth of the income, but only the fact that we are gifting it that makes the change. When we enter the fraternity of donors we move into a special and fortunate world that only those who give to others are allowed to enter. And unless you start giving today itself, you just may not start doing it and might never will till you start. So begin today.
‘We’re not here to donate to ‘get back.’. We’re here to give more and more.
Buy-1-Give-1 (B1G1/BOGO) is now becoming a global “movement” led by Buy1GIVE1. Visit Buy One Give One - Buy1GIVE1 for recent updates. Add this to your site with links active and intact. You are welcome to reprint this article - but get your own unique content version here.
Related Blogs
- Related Blogs on marketing advertising