Well, actually HWA's "Tips" being too lazy, unwilling, or unable to express it himself evidently. I also don't recall HWA offering to end my financial worries with mere "tips".
Not taking the "tips" had real consequences as I recall for both member and minister
A few tips on ending your financial worries
Ending Your
FINANCIAL WORRIES
by Herbert W. Armstrong
©Copyright 1959
What Most People Don’t Know
There is something you probably don’t know about your income. If there is anything people are jealous of, it is the money they earn. They usually work hard for it. And they want full freedom in deciding for themselves what they do with it.
People say: “What I earn is MINE — I can do what I please with it!”
But is the money you earn really your own? Don’t be too sure. Notice these FACTS about your income you probably haven’t known!
What you earn is not yours!
The man who says, “What I do with the money I earn with my own labor is nobody’s business — I produced it — it belongs to me,” is mistaken.
What you earn, by work performed or investments made is not yours — not any of it — that is, not UNTIL …!
And here is what most people don’t know about their income!
There are two prior claims on your income. One, of course, is taxes.
Human governments, by virtue of MAN-made laws, are able forcibly to extract from your incomes not one tenth, but an average of over ONE QUARTER, a vast amount of which is mis-spent. Jesus said we are to pay taxes — render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s — be subject to the powers that be. Governments, therefore, have exercised a PRIOR right to one quarter of your income — and in the case of salary or wages, governments take it out BEFORE YOU get your pay.
But the first claim is GOD’S claim. You probably never realized this fact before — but it is a fact. God Almighty the living CREATOR-RULER of the universe claims it all — every dollar — every pound — every franc — every mark. Your Maker who gives you the very air you breathe tells you it all belongs to Him, not to you!
But didn’t you earn it? Didn’t YOU produce it?
Not exactly! Everything produced — money, and all that money can buy — comes out of the earth. You didn’t produce that! God created that. You merely applied certain energy in physical action and in thinking to what God had created and owned. And God created even that energy you expended — He created your thinking processes. He not only created, originally, but He sustains what He created, including all force and energy."...
Therefore GOD HAS A RIGHT to take, or dispose of what you regard as your income AS HE WILLS. He OWNS it. It is not yours, it is HIS!
So God, the rightful OWNER of your income, has MADE A LAW respecting its disposal and its use. By virtue of being Creator and Sustainer of the earth and all in it, God is supreme RULER and LAWGIVER...
God takes only ONE tenth. And after you have been honest in PAYING God’s tenth to God’s chosen representative, then — AND NOT UNTIL THEN — God has decreed that the other NINE tenths becomes legally YOURS!
THAT’S GOD’S LAW! (Note: Hey wait! I thought it was just a "Tip"?) Not a penny of what you earn, or a penny’s worth of the value of what you produce, is YOURS — it ALL belongs to God to do with as HE directs. But God has legally directed that after you have honestly paid Him the one little, small tenth He requires for His use, then the other NINE tenths He gives to YOU. Then, and not until then, you can rightfully claim OWNERSHIP over that nine tenths. Then and thereafter it is YOURS to do with as YOU decide.
When we get our thinking straight — when we get UNDERSTANDING — when we stop to realize HOW MUCH of what we have was provided by GOD — then we realize how LOVING, how GENEROUS, how solicitous for our welfare God is.
Thanks for the tips!
Any "tips" on upcoming Holyday Offerings?
HWA said: Human governments, by virtue of MAN-made laws, are able forcibly to extract from your incomes not one tenth, but an average of over ONE QUARTER, a vast amount of which is mis-spent."
ReplyDeleteHerbert, Herbert, let us not talk about misspending of taxes and tithes.
What a strange gospel. "God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He created all that exists, including all that has ever lived or will live. He alone is the Eternal."
ReplyDelete"But he needs your money."
"...and instead of collecting/using it directly he wants you to give it to that soft, flabby guy over there who has never spent a day of his life working hard for his sustenance."
What an inspiring message!
It is ironic that HWA would call anyone lazy. I remember my late father talking with someone who knew HWA back in the early 1920's who said HWA only had an advertising job for a brief time but the one thing everyone who knew him in his early adulthood said was that he was lazy and would absolute not do any physical labor.
ReplyDeleteThe above line of reasoning that Bob is parroting is a minister favorite, and is garbage. God instructs that "a labourer is worthy of his wages." This is cause and effect, and is implicit in the rest of Bobs argument that God owns everything because He created it. God cannot by whim take peoples hard earned money. It would be immoral. That people only own their 90% after they tithe is manipulative garbage without any scriptural or moral proof.
ReplyDeleteGod does in a technical manner own everything, but this is only exercised to punish people or nations by destroying their wealth.
Bob sounds like a commie when he rails against ownership. By contrast in Matthew 20:15 "aren't I allowed to do what I will with my own." This is repeated in Acts 5:4 "after it was sold, was not the money yours to dispose of?"
This is another example of HWAs church being primarily morally commie. That is, tyranny, no mention or respect of rights, and defacto property rights.
If you earn it, you own it!
Anon 7:24 PM
ReplyDeleteGood points raised.
If you earn, you own it.
Except if you are a member of the cog movement.
Even though the HWA missive about ownership can have many debatable points, it at least allows for your private ownership after "ponying up your tithe".
ReplyDeletePack , by contrast , demands virtually 100% with his ridiculous "common doctrine".
Tonto
DeleteSort of. Lording it over their members means that the ministers are controlling their members property. Private ownership is therefore defacto. Members are acting by permission rather than right.
This is the problem in these splinters. Ministers have been abusing their members for so long, that members don't grasp freedom or rights. Just like in all abusive relationships.
Well said 9:06 AM.
Delete
ReplyDelete"God Almighty the living CREATOR-RULER of the universe claims it all — every dollar — every pound — every franc — every mark"
Thankfully all of my Pesos are not wanted by God!
When was the last time anyone was given God's account number so they could make a deposit directly?
ReplyDelete"Thankfully all of my Pesos are not wanted by God!"
ReplyDeleteYou got that right! Pasadena HQ looked down upon Mexicans as second-class citizens. As long as they stayed in Mexico and away from the righteous anglo's then things were cool. They were uneducated gentiles according to one evangelist.
The first tip on ending your financial worries is to never attend a church that teaches tithing. If you want to donate that is your choice. Second tip is to never attend a church where the leadership won’t disclose top level salaries. Third tip is to never attend a church where top level men live high above the standards of average members.
ReplyDeleteLast tip, I don’t need a church telling me how to manage my finances.
Jim-AZ
Thanks for the tips, Jim!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point of debating an ancient article from 1959? The world has changed so much. The WCG doesn't even exist.
ReplyDeleteMakes you laugh when in the Church they cry out "old news" "living in the past" even over a 18 month time, yet on here the same ones debate an out of date 1959 article. Ha!