History 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 conventionally a Christian term that signifies the contribution of one tenth of one’s earnings as donation to one’s Church as a type of Church giving. However, every other religious system has similar practices within itself. In Islam the word used is ‘Zakat’. In the Sikh religion of India the name for it is ‘Dasvandh’ which again signifies setting apart a tenth of one’s earnings for pious acts. It was Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru who started the practice. The sacred texts of Hinduism like the Bhagavadgita and the Upanisads state that ‘true alms’ is that which is given as a part of one’s duty in the right place and at the right time to a worthy individual, from whom nothing is expected 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.
But still tithing as a confirmed tradition was established only after Exodus. Tithes were routine in the olden days through much of the Near East and also later in Carthage, Lydia, and Arabia.
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–: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.
Current day Tithing
Despite it’s origins in the Bible and ancient Christianity, today it is a special way to give every time you receive. Giving EVERY time you receive is such a powerful form of giving because it allows the giver to experience something incredibly powerful – more on that later.
Let us have a little more of history. Malachi 3:10 is the section of the Bible that Christians hold in importance when they deliberate on tithing. Many Christians do tithe to their church as they feel that they are duty bound to do as per the rules of the Bible. Many Churches have all throughout maintained that their members should tithe to the church to help it conduct its activities. The core of giving is its voluntary nature and its delightful experience, without which it does not get its ideal effect – if in fact you are hoping to create an ideal effect 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.
In an article in Wall Street Journal regarding tithing named ‘The Backlash Against Tithing’, Suzanne Sataline says, ‘As Churches push donations, congregants balk; ‘that’s not the way God works’.’
Unfortunately, the potent mix of ideology, power equations, and a narrow perspective, can often give rise to a Jekyll and Hyde situation – the perfection of giving being lost in the mishmash and mix-up of mysticism. Despite the conflict, tithing is still a complete and amazingly forceful action that anyone can carry on to turn their lives around to come face to face with a more plentiful direction.
For those who are desirous of understanding the Christian perspective of tithing there is unlimited material available to read. For those who are interested in understanding the reason WHY tithing is so wonderful, continue reading.
Why is Tithing so powerful?
This is indeed a very compelling question because if you just blindly carry on something without any idea of what it indicates, you could be proceeding 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 look at the real ‘why’ of how regular giving creates more we have to move into the world of Quantum Physics and Quantum Mechanics. The laws in this world are not the same as in our physical or Newtonian world.
The movie ‘What the Bleep’ describes the quantum world through simple examples. The movie segment linked below describes a little about how matter becomes waves and acts like fluids when observed from a quantum physics perspective : http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1349535/4653525.
The movie paints the picture of a startling world visible from a quantum space. When a line of electrons is fired through a plate with a cut in it onto a wall – predictably, it would hit the wall straight across the cut in a single line.
If the same experiment is done using an energy wave that has the properties of a water wave, again one can get an expected outcome. As the surge hits the plate the tendency for the wave is to ricochet but still because of the cut, some parts of the wave goes in through that cut. Emerging from the cut, the wave spreads out in an arched way, thus resulting in a new wave more or less similar to the old wave. It is exactly like the experiments one would have done in smaller classes regarding the behaviour of waves. It hits the wall opposite with a lot of force at the point just opposite the cut and hits with lesser strength all around the wall. This is just like the pattern the electrons create.
If one more cut is made in the plate and a wave sent through, the result would again be foreseeable – two lesser waves would emerge through the cuts and when these come into contact with each other, they would stop being separate and would give rise to an interference pattern. Many small waves would then strike against the wall opposite producing a stripped effect. All these are normal behavioural patterns as far as wave energy is concerned and so fully expected.
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 overall properties of the world appear to be solid in nature, it does seem that it has enough of properties of a liquid as well – flux or liquid energy, which behaves like fluids in the physical world. The laws of physics clearly state that liquids that are alike in nature are attracted towards each others, while those which are unlike each other has a tendency to segregate and form its own group. The ineffective combining of water and oil is an example of this. Chromatography shows clearly the dispersion in clear bands of one substance into the many substances of which it is made of, just like larger collections of human beings split into smaller groups of people sharing common passions, strengths and interests.
The key is that when we give we feel joyful and experience joy. As a giver we receive the most divine gifts of all the gift of joy. Often we think that it is the receiver of a gift that receives something and it often overlooked that the giver actually is the greatest receiver. If you’re not too sure about this, then watch yourself around children and see how you feel when you give to them and observe how you feel no matter how they respond.
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.
So even if we may turn to quantum physics for our solutions, they are very much there right in front of us. Similar attracts similar – simple. Wherever you look you see this going on. Lions group together with lions, students interact with students, women form groups with women, men makes friends with men, ‘poor’ likes to be with ‘poor’ people and ‘rich’ with ‘rich’ people. And in the same way – givers prefer the company of 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 a psychological aspect to giving regularly. Even though at first this aspect doesn’t seem connected to the emotion of joy – in the end it directly connects us to the feeling of joy.
When we share an item with someone – particularly something that we ourselves do not possess in abundance – we are sending a persuasive communication to our own brain that life is trustworthy. When we give something and later analyse the act we are connecting with the trust. The converse of trust is terror. So again, a group of terrified people are not likely to be happy and fine and so no one would find them appealing. On the other hand, a gathering of trustful people would themselves be happy and would attract many others to share their perfection. So finally when we believe the belief gets transformed into happiness and again we are very near to love – the most important thing that all of us are searching for.
So the gist of what has been overlooked for years is right in front of us for any one to build a relationship with it with ease. My son got a lot of cash for Christmas and I enquired how he was going to spend it. He said he was going to put aside much of it. I asked him how much he would like to share. He had not even thought of it as a possibility until I gave the idea to him. What is likely to happen if our first response to getting something was to give something away – is it likely that we will know more of happiness?
Transaction based donating – or transaction based benevolence
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 single payments is connected with the ups and downs of profit so it is an easy way of giving. The rule is that whenever you get something you give proportionately – easy. If you have a bad season you might give, but less depending on sales. And when business is better one can give more.
A key factor of transaction based venture is that a person can celebrate the joy of giving mutually with everyone involved – clientele/commune – personnel – and venture itself. A customer knows that when he buys from a business he is giving without having to expend anything other than the time to select and buy from that outlet he experiences the power of giving – reason for the conventional CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility, to change instantly to Customer Social Responsibility, with the ability of the customer to effectively respond to the sharing by valuing the venture and have that added sensitive though subtle reason, for opting to do business with the venture.
Your staff also get to share in the joy of giving because every time they are personally involved in creating a sale, they know directly they have helped give something to someone in need. This experience is powerful within a team because it can be used in so many ways such as team motivation and staff incentives.
Any venture, even a completely new one with no profit margin, can manage Buy1GIVE1 transaction-based giving – there are no problems in every sense to be part of it and everything is controlled by the business. The payment amount per deal begins from as low as one cent and rises to any large amount the person can decide with every business left to choose their own type of gifting and providing to sustain on the basis of their business type and success. There is simply no justification not to give in this manner when the advantages that ensue from giving are so many. Enterprises that are presently giving to a cause can easily change over very promptly and effortlessly to Buy1GIVE1 transaction-based giving while still helping the same cause giving additional substantial benefits to the venture.
At the end of the day commercialised giving is the current day reincarnation of tithing that is simple and manageable for any person, anywhere. Now that we recognize that it is not about the amount that we give such as a specific percentage, but only about the fact that we are giving that is making all that effect. When we enter the brotherhood of givers we move into a restricted and exclusive world that only those who give can enter. And if you do not begin giving today, you may not ‘get’ giving and never will till you begin. So get going.
‘We’re not here to donate to ‘get back.’. We’re here to give more and more.
Find out more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing.
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