Page 17 - Ending Your Financial Worries

blessings one could ever imagine – spiritual, eternal blessings. You can read about this in Romans 11:33, Philippians 4:19, and 1 Timothy 6:17, to list just a few scripture passages.
Now, we need to examine the application of the tithing laws in today's world.
As presented in this booklet, for many years the general instructions to the church membership had been to simply tithe on one’s gross income. After all, the gross amount is what the government uses to determine how much to tax the individual. However, in the early 1980's, when evidence was presented to Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong regarding the exorbitant taxation in various Scandinavian countries (over 60% of personal income), he quickly realized that tithing on one’s gross income in those countries would amount to economic disaster for brethren in those areas. Thus, Mr. Armstrong's decision was that brethren facing excessive taxation should tithe on the net, rather than on the gross of income. Furthermore, since all areas of health and social care were provided for in those same high-taxation nations, brethren living there were exempted from paying third tithe (as were the church and Ambassador College employees as of the early 1980’s).
This was a “breath of fresh air” for many church brethren who had been overburdened by heavy taxation. Also, few realized at that time that self- employed people (farmers, for example) had already been instructed (individually) to deduct their “cost of doing business” (business expenses) prior to figuring the amount on which to tithe. However, Mr. Armstrong died before he could address the matter of excessive taxation in the United States and how that affected tithing in this nation. Nonetheless, the principles given us in the Word of God now deem it appropriate to clarify this issue at this time.
The subject of tithing and how it forms part of God's principles of wise money management (please see the Book of Proverbs) is covered in general in this booklet. Our focus in this update is the application of tithing in today's society. More than 3,000 years ago, God instructed the nation of Israel to set aside a tenth (tithe) of their INCREASE and turn it in to the tribe of Levi. “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD” (Lev. 27:30). We must understand that this was prior to Israel desiring and then installing a king. While that society was primarily agrarian or farm-based, today we have a diverse economy where most people derive a cash income from their employment. There are various deductions withheld from one’s income.
Based on Jesus’ statements in Matthew 22:21 – “Render [pay] therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are