probinson said:
Well, this explains much of what you've written.
My relationship with the Father is number one in my life. My Father has never told me anything that goes contrary to scripture. It may go contrary to man's interpretation of that scripture, but it does not contradict His word.
So, your
perception of what you
think God is telling you is the higher authority than our Heaven'y Father's written word? Your
feelings are the acid test of how you interpret the Bible?
If there are churches that are abusing the tithes and offerings of their people, then those churches will answer to God. This isn't a problem at my church. Far more money is given to meet the needs of others than for upkeep of the building. Thus making this point completely irrelevant to me in my situation.
Indeed? Well, I can say that scripture shows us that one red cent being spent on the expenditures of the organization from the primary portion of the congregations's giving is clearly a violation of scripture. You seem to take much for granted simply on the basis of an assumed proportion.
Good point. These other 149 people at work are constantly worried about whether or not they'll have a job tomorrow.
We weren't talking about who was worried about what. We were talking about the fallacy of your standard of measuring God's providence.
And to answer your other question, 6 people above me were let go. All of the executives took a small pay cut. No one was promoted.
That's no great revelation. Upper management gets cut quite often these days when downsizing takes place.
There are many faithful tithers who experience loss of jobs and financial difficulty. We live in a fallen world. Even Malachi's statements made no promises that God's blessing would guarentee the lack of individual suffering. Malachi was addressing a
nation, and those promises were promised to the
nation as a
whole, not to each and every individual. It was never Malachi's intention to lead astray any soul into thinking that tithing faithfully meant that all individuals would be free from suffering loss in a fallen world.
Faithful tithers still get sick and die.
I must say, common sense is lost on you.
Then why am I the one standing upon the same foundation as Christ and His apostles, which is scripture? You said yourself that your experiences and feelings dictate how you interpret scripture, therefore the word of God being a lower authority than your experiences and feelings. At least, that's they way you came across.
Seriously. Would God bless me like this if I were doing something horribly wrong? Come on.
There's no right answer to the wrong question. I already quoted to you where the Lord Himself stated that He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust alike. Your thinking that a mere question proves your case is nothing but an exercise in futility.
You want to get hung up on the fact that the tithe was food. Fine with me.
I also asked if you could show us otherwise, and your response was nothing more than a continuing stream of emotional hubbub. Refusal to answer, by any other standard, is still an admission of not having an answer.
You can believe what you want. I believe tithing is a principle.
So long as it's a principle you have established for yourself. That's fine. I never had a problem with that. However, saying that the Lord blessed you
because you were tithing faithfully, therefore an upswing in your employment and promotion is nothing but casting your bait and sinker out into an empty field in the hopes of catching a fish. That suggests that you are following some requirement that many others are not following. Tithing is no guarentee of anything, especially when tithing to that which is antithetical to scripture if it abuses the primary portion of believer's giving. You unknowingly indicated that you have no absolute way of knowing that your organization isn't mishandling what it's given. All you offered as an attempt at proof otherwise is saying "far more money" is used for meeting needs. That proves that you really have no clue as to if your organization is mishandling the primary portion or not. I suspect that you don't even know what the primary portion is.
It has to with your heart and your attitude and is an avenue for God to bless us.
This serves as yet another example of your belief that tithing is something all of us should be doing. Well, I must say that your assumption that Malachi's statements were meant as promises to individuals, such as ourselves, who are not under the Law, that we also share in a promise offered to a
nation that was still under the Law, that simply makes no sense.
Tell me, where did the Lord authorize you to transplant from the Law what happens to appeal to our sense of right and wrong? You are just as guilty of misinterpretation as any other you have accused thus far.
BTW
Great post probinson.
