tithing

We generally restrict tithing to giving 10% of your income to the church. However, it can be a much broader concept. Let me simply list off other examples of tithing

() 1st day of the week (Sunday) is devoted to God
() The Jews gave the of all sorts of things that came from the ground including regular crops, grain, oil, wool, wheat, bread, wine, honey, and every fruit tree. (See list of verses here)
() We often pray before we eat, almost before we take the first fruits of our meal
() Fasting is a stretch, but might apply
() Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve, pretty close after the fall in Eden, both sacrificed stuff to God. Cain farmed and so gave grain, wine, and stuff while Abel kept flocks and gave animal sacrifices. (Read passage here)
() We go to church in the morning, the beginning of the day, as opposed to the evening. The firstfuits of the hours of the day.
() Most praises of God from the Psalms seem to occur in the morning. Likewise I would expect, but have no evidence that offerings and dedication ceremonies typically happened in the morning. ("Morning" in the bible)

Anyway, there might be more but I no more come to mind immediately.

Tithing is the idea that God deserves the first of everything. He is your first thought in the morning, the first person you run to when you're in trouble, the first person you give praise to when things go well, the first person you thank, the first one you point to, the first person to whom you give spending of any sort for you recognize he gave you everything you have, etc.
Honor him.

coverings

Genesis 3. In the beginning of human history, Adam and Eve sin, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, choosing to define right and wrong their own way, now faced with the daunting task of making their own decisions and trying to make it on their own.
A series of events immediately follow of which I will only focus on the last.

1) Adam and Eve realize they are naked - they are weak, naive, exposed, new. We realize this every time we fail, are frustrated at a problem we can't fix, feel defenseless and alone against the world. The word naked in Hebrew is very close to naive. They were out of their depth and scared.
2) Adam and Eve sew fig leaves together to cover themselves. We react to our fear by fixing our nakedness our own way, relying on and manipulating money, intelligence, friends, power, or pleasure to look as if we can handle ourselves.
3) Adam and Eve hear the sound of God walking in the garden. God is real, God can be heard walking around. Gods invisible qualities have been clearly seen since the beginning of the world so that men are without excuse.
4) Adam and Eve hide. We try to deny Gods existence, sinning again. We run away, hoping he won't interfere with our lives.
5) God asks them "Where are you?". Pursuit, relationship. God wants you and he pursues you first.
6) Adam and Eve make excuses. I'm not sure about the significance of this.
7) God curses the snake, Eve, Adam (by way of the ground from which he came) in order. Because our sin is in contradiction to the natural and good functioning of the universe, it creates discord  God makes sure we see this by formally cursing the ground.
8) God makes coverings of animal skins for Adam and Eve. God initiates. God provides a covering - protection. The first sacrifice. The first symbol pointing towards Jesus. A sacrifice which takes away our naivete, gives us understanding of God and therefore good and evil.

The first symbol of Gods provision and gift of Jesus is clothes. I am not aware of any culture at any time in history following that did not wear at least some clothes. Whatever you believe, daily you bear on your body a testimony to Gods promise to you: You don't have to do this on your own, I can give you life, protection, true wisdom, and so much more. Just accept the clothes I offer you, Jesus. They are salvation, the way to life.

Notes:
9)The rest of the events of chapter three are God banishing Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life, the garden, and setting an angel guard over it. We, sinful, are not worthy of the Tree of Life. To allow us to eat it would be a shame and violation of Gods order. Disobeying God means you don't get the benefits of God (some of them anyways, Adam and Eve were still alive).
10) The story goes immediately to Adam and Eve having sex and having Cain. I am not sure of the significance of this. Before I even noticed this I was thinking about the significance of sex, as it is the only time besides showering or something that we are normally naked. There seems to be a connection of making new life or becoming clean with covering, original sin . I don't know what it is however.

Commentary on Russell's "Why I am Not a Christian"

Below are notes I took while reading a lecture by Bertrand Russell titled "Why I am Not a Christian." This text can be found online here.

Making sense of this post probably requires a strong working knowledge of some of the main arguments for Gods existence, moral/justice arguments against Christianity, and teachings in the bible. If you are confused and can't make sense of it though the links or your own research, just drop me a comment request and I'll turn this into prose - though that takes a while and you can ask a specific question if you want a faster response.

Section headings (my explanation) are in bold

The language before the dash is an argument or claim by Christianity (paraphrased from Russell)

The language after the dash is Russells reply (paraphrased how I'd say it and very short)

The language in between slashes, /text/, is my response to Russell

The language in between brackets, [text], is stuff not written by Russell but implied and good to include so that his argument makes sense. 

Why I am Not a Christian – lecture by Bertrand Russell March 6, 1927

An outline summary with responses by Nathan Tonkinson, 4/22/13

Christian belives in – god, immortality, JC was at least “the best and wises of men”

Existence of God – rebuttals of arguments for God (another list of arguments I don't necessarily agree with)

                First cause – who made God? If there must be something without a cause, it may as well be the universe /hm, cool. Deification of universe again. Back to infinite time arguments/

                Natural law (probability of the existence of ordered laws) – science has now moved to where these laws are no longer so amazing. Subatomically many things go by chance /hm, good point/. Natural law, as a description of behavior that is not optional, does not imply a lawgiver. Why did God choose those natural laws? /art, to glorify self/ if by chance then he is not subject to law /of course/. If to make best universe, then he is following a law and you might as well delete the intermediary /if purpose is to glorify self, purpose is wrapped up in the mediator, purpose is also non-deductive (has multiple solutions)/

                Design -  nose designed to fit spectacles: it is silly. Life adapted to environment, not the other way around. /without most of the clocks, life in any form would not be possible, without some of them, even ordered material structures would not exist/. World is defective and so not designed /the fall/. It just so happens that at this point in the slow decay of the universe life is possible /again, cosmological material constants, besides I’d like a better picture of how the universe changes as it decays/. This view of decaying universe is not depressing>suicide /unless man has an inherent hunger for meaning significance/

             Existence of morals – Kant (and others) are blinded by stuff the learn in childhood. Right and wrong >! God. If God > morals then God is not under morals and he is not good. /but God and his glory = good. That is the identifying definition, by Gods infinite properties his glory is self-evident as a good thing, good = alignment with the state of the universe/.

God necessary to solve injustice – if future world unknowable we assume roughly same as here: unjust. /but we say knowable. Signs saying the oranges are better on the lower layers/.

Reasons people really believe in god – taught at infancy and the need for safety person who looks after you. /necessary response would be extensive. Orr-Ewing might help/

Teachings of Christ – Christians do not follow them

                Turn the other cheek [Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:29] [and other principles] - these principles existed before JC (e.g. 700BC Buddhist and Taoism) /sure, moral law is given through consciences which we had before JC/
                /I have my brother to thank for reminding me of the main principle defense against the following arguments (that Christians do not follow Christ's teaching). We don't claim to be perfect. In fact, 1 John 1:8 says if we claim to be without sin, we're lying. So Christians admit we're never perfect. As my genius brother accurately diagnosed, this fallacy of calling out hypocrisy is called tu quoque and is a specific form of the more general ad hominem fallacies./

                “Judge not lest ye be judged” [Matt 7:1-5, Luke 6:37] – but many Christians are judges /you misunderstand the principle, it has to do with superiority, not punishments. See the context in the matthew passage/

                “Give to him that asketh of thee” [Matt 5:42, Luke 6:27-37] – but many Christians disagree with this politically /again misunderstanding, we apply this to ourselves to the extent it benefits others and retains our capability of helping more. We also do not force this principle upon others via government/

                “Go and sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor.” [Matt 19:20-23, Luke 12:29-36] – Christians do not practice this. /same thing as generosity and applies to more rich people (who have enough wealth they’d end up selling stuff, where less right people just end up giving money quantities) please see matthew context. Also see luke context where it is for encouragine people to value God stuff more than this earth/

Teachings of Christ – defects in

                Historically doubtful the existence of Christ /he does not pursue, and so I won’t/

                “You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come” [Matt10:23] – [we have and he hasn’t] /Because they are preaching ‘the kingdom of heaven is near’ (v7) this coming is probably the coming of the kingdom. Debatable since the surrounding descriptors characterize the kingdom but may also characterize the period immediately before (30yr prev). Restricting to Israel also supports the nearer date. Commentaries claim he’s referring to the AD70 destruction, but I don’t buy it. /

                “Some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into His Kingdom” [Matt 16:27-17:2, Luke 9:26-29]– [they did and he hasn’t] /this refers to his transfiguration (the next event recorded), death, or resurrected body, all of which some saw. ‘Coming into’ the kingdom is beginning of it, and the kingdom clearly started after his death (or close to it). Though I will admit the verse immediately before is about the end times Please read context./

                “Take no thought for the morrow” [Matt 6:31-34] – not practical if he’s not back yet, so he assumed he’d come back soon /out of context. This refers to not worrying and trusting in God to provide. It does not eliminate long-term planning. You have more of an argument from 1 Cor 7:8, 25 etc. Though this is not a command and is in light of not being attached to the world (v31-35)./

Personal morals of JC – defects in

                Belief in hell – doctrine of hell gives rise to torture /does this even deserve a response? No, torture was around long before/

                Malicious acts such as legion into swine [Mark 5:1-17, Luke 8:27-39] - /nature is just around to glorify him, if death of swine makes the town believe in him, it’s good.

Cursing of fig tree [Matt 21:18-22, Mark 11:12-4, 20-24] – not justified /Fig tree, idk. Notes say sometimes fig tree had early crop and full of leaves may indicate a few figs. Just a physical parable like the prophets/

Bad results of Christianity

                Religion commonly defended because it produces morals – it does not necessarily /non-driver, I agree largely. Logical end extrapolation results in amorality and instinct to selfishness and anarchy (eh…sot of, no barrier to bad action when not get caught, so criminality is rational)/

                Terrible things done in the name of religion – unacceptable /Done where religion is enforced with strength in the government. This is not supposed to be. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s; do not pass judgment, etc. The perpetrators are misusing religion, using religion as an excuse or misinterpreting truth. Considering the other wars of history, the holocaust, red china, oppressive colonialism, the mob, etc. I think it is not quite so bad either/

                Catholic church would outlaw birth control for parents who are known will have disabled children – this is unacceptable /that’s the catholic church law, not a law in the bible. Paul in 2 Cor 7 says do not abstain, but says nothing about birth control. (though we assume no murder, must be pre-conception control)/

                In general church morals inflicts suffering and does not produce happiness – this is stupid. /Many virtues are hard to follow and man sins hard to abstain from, but their aim is net happiness in the long run, even within this life. Going to college costs money and time, but it will bring the greatest ‘happiness’ in the long run./

Christianity based on fear

Christianity based on fear of unknown or death or etc and need for safety or guidance. [from a previous section he has taught at infancy and need for safety or guidance] – therefore improper base . /Probably driven more by God forcing himself in our faces (in the past) and the instinct suspicion or hunger for something bigger that what we see now. Romans 1:20, 2:14-15/

                Science can assuage that fear /science can only partially give us confidence. First of all, it only partially describes the world and so does not give us absolute certainty. Second, science may not provide escapes from the fears. So far we cannot escape death.

What we must do

                Conquer the world and fears with science. Don’t abase yourself by saying you’re a sinner /but we’re also sons of God, eventually a whole lot more awesome than science has imagined so far/. Make the best of the world. Progress. Crap.

                //interesting that he uses such strong negative language towards Christianity (here in the end) when it is merely a delusion and old piece of clothing that must be shed. I suppose I may perceive stronger negative than the objective reader (if such a thing exists). He is also legitimately angry that so many of us have not shed this dirty coat for 2000yrs.//

discipline from (proverbs)

Proverbs 10:17 "Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray."

Discipline, correction given to you by your conscience, conviction from God - these things we know we should accept, we know we should even love them, but how and why? I will give you fears we may have about accepting discipline and why we should not fear but love discipline.




1) We (or I) used to be hesitant to receive discipline for a number of reasons.
a) First of all you're being told you're wrong. Well, that's just annoying. I'm wrong again? Please just give me a break! No one likes to be told they're wrong.
b) We fear that we will lose control of our lives - someone else is controlling us. You are obeying some...other conception of right and wrong, some...thing out there you don't exactly understand. You are being asked to submit to an unknown law. Who knows what it may ask you to do?
c) Naturally you will have to change something you were doing and do it differently. We don't like change. We like our sin. That's one of the central properties of sin - we like it. Recognizing that (without admitting that you're in bondage to your habit or desire), is one of the first steps.

2) These fears are...based on falsehood in some instances and irrelevant in others.
a) Proverbs 12:1 "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid."

If you are about to take a bite of what you think is cake - heaven knows what it really is - you'd prefer your friend tells you what it really is. I mean, you may be a little disappointed, depending on whether he shows you where the real cake is, but you'll thank him/her for it. It's really simple, you prefer to know what's true, even if it means you're wrong. The key is you need to trust that what God says in the bible and in your conscience is true. Do you believe they're true? Really? If you don't, go research it. Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is a hefty book useful for many Christian topics. However if you do, in fact, believe it's true, which I hope you do - consider the struggles you have with your conscience, situations where you're trying to find the right thing to do. If you really do believe it's true, the choice is clear pretty often. The struggle you're having is not confusion, it's between what your flesh or mind wants and what your spirit wants. Read Romans 7-8:17

b) There is a solution to the unknown force that disciplines you - research it! God wants to make himself known to you. It's why he wrote the bible. The longest chapter, Psalm 119, is all about Gods law and how awesome it is. Romans 12:2, Jeremiah 31:33-34. God wants you to know his law, his will, his discipline. Another component of it is trust. God's pretty awesome yes? And he loves you yes? So, logically, doing what he says is probably the most intelligent thing to do, yes? Right. And look back on past times he has taught you things, see if you should expect it to be the same this time. Proverbs 3:11-12 "My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."

c) This is the same sort of reasoning as a). Do you want to be a better person? God is offering you a free seminar on how to be a boss at life. All charges paid unbeatable plan download right to your brain. Cheat codes to life. A sneak peak at the end of the story. In fact, these are even better than cheat codes, they don't allow you to misuse them. Free candy is awesome, but it just sits there asking to be eaten, more and more, until you have a huge headache and regret it. God won't let you misuse the power he gives you to a excessively devastating extent. (He will allow you to make mistakes, but only to teach you a lesson). Who wouldn't want such a thing? What more can you ask? That he'd let you do whatever you want? He does not keep you from choosing this path, though he will not keep you from it's consequences. Do you want him to shift the foundations of reality so your sins do not count against you and you will not die? He did that already.

God presented the same deal to the nation of Israel after he rescued them from Egypt. Deuteronomy 30:19-20" This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

3) Concluding remarks
Following God is never easy. People tell you that and you just say 'yeah...whatever' and then when temptation and hardships and confusion comes, Proverbs 5:12 "You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!" You say 'whoa! I don't want this? what's right and wrong? your law is just ugly and hard!'. Right. So is exercise and most of everything else that is good and makes you stronger.

Fight, exercise your will and choose what is right. With time you will gain more understanding and strength. Though it will never get easier you will always become more like Jesus, sanctified. And in the end Proverbs 19:20 "Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise."

4) See also:
James 1:2-5 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."
Romans 2:15 "They [Gentiles] show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them."