Why is it, despite continued prosperity,
that millions of families are burdened with debts — worried about an insecure future?
There is a cause — and here is the cure.
RIGHT NOW there is a major crisis in money. Interest rates are climbing.
Inflation is ballooning.
In the U.S., according to latest figures, widows and retired workers on social security are finding their savings dwindling — their standard of living dropping.
In Britain, Prime Minister Wilson has been forced to adopt an austerity program.
Why the Crisis
Here is what's happening — and why.
Look, first, at Britain. Under the Socialist Government, wages have been rising the first six months of this year at the rate of 7 percent. But production has stagnated. Last year, increases in wages and salaries exceeded the increase in national output by 2 billion dollars! Inflation resulted. The British pound sagged. National bankruptcy threatened if the trend were not immediately reversed. The Government was forced to act. Now Britons face a recession within a few months.
Look, next, at what's happening in the U.S. Despite general prosperity, millions of elderly widows and retired workers are less well off than they were ten years ago. A recent government statistical report reveals these facts. The real income — after adjustments for federal taxes and higher living costs — is down almost 3 percent for widows on social security. Retired workers' real income is down almost 4 percent since 1956.
For most Americans, however, salaries and wages have risen faster than the cost of living. Latest U.S. Government statistics reveal these facts:
Workers in the clothing industry, for example, are over 6 percent better off than they were in 1956. Bank employees, almost 12 percent. Steel workers, over 17 percent. Construction workers, 22 percent. Auto workers, 30 percent. Federal Government employees, almost 36 percent. And large farm operators, 47 percent better off than in the depressed year of 1956.
In other words, people in almost all walks of life are better off today than ever before in spite of limited inflation.
Then why do so many continue to have financial problems? worries over job security? nagging debts?
The Cause
There is a cause for every problem — and a cure.
But what do we see today? Instead of getting at the cause of their problems, .people want to treat the penalties! Medical doctors, for example, generally treat the sickness, not the cause of the sickness.
When it comes to money, people don't seek the cause of their problems. They attempt to treat the effect. If they are too heavily in debt, or their monthly payments are eating up their salary checks, they look for an "easy payment plan," or open up a revolving charge account, a credit checking account, or step to a bank offering "insured ready cash."
Is it any wonder that those who are in debt usually remain in debt?
These varied easy credit arrangements do not solve the financial problems of most people. They perpetuate them. They keep people in the habit of overspending, of stretching out payments — with heavy hidden interest rates.
Families already in debt are persuaded to think there is an easy way to get more and pay later. The emphasis is on getting, not giving.
The fundamental cause of financial problems is going the way of human nature. Human nature wants to get, wants to satisfy and please the self. It wants to satiate the fine senses. If we see some object especially appealing, the senses immediately exert a pull on the mind. We suddenly find ourselves wanting to have it. Instead of asking ourselves whether we can afford it, we seek an easy out through some financing plan.
It's time we looked at human nature for what it is. Human nature exemplifies the way of getting. It is the way of lust, of covetousness, of greed, of vanity. Uncontrolled, it leads to financial ruin.
Human nature is the opposite of God's basic law — the Ten Commandments. The law of God was given to man to teach him the way of giving, of helping, of loving neighbor as much as self. It was given, if you please, to teach us how to keep out of debt — how to rightly use our income. Yet how many people today have been misled into believing that the law of God is evil, harsh, cruel, and bad for us? Is it any wonder that so many religious people are poor, debt ridden, financially insecure? It ought to be just the opposite!
Financial Law Regulates Income
The reason for financial problems is broken law! It is time we recognized that God set laws in motion to govern everything in the universe. There are laws of physics and chemistry, laws of health and success, and financial laws.
But how many people follow them today?
You probably did not know there is a fundamental law God set in motion to regulate your income. If you break that law you suffer financial penalties. Most poor people stay poor because they are breaking that law. Prosperous people would be free of worries and even more prosperous if they would keep it.
Those who do keep it find the solution to their financial worries. It provides them the feeling of security they never had before.
That law is based on the fact that God created all that is. What you think is yours is not really yours — that is, not until you have paid God His part. Then God gives you the rest as your own, for the work you have exerted. Perhaps you never looked at your income that way before. But you could not produce anything if God had not first created the materials with which you work.
To teach us this lesson God reserves a certain portion for Himself — then gives you all the rest. Most people never pay God what's His. They keep it themselves. They in effect steal it.
Now the portion God reserves for Himself is a tiny fraction of the whole of our income. It is only one tenth. The tenth which God reserves for Himself is called a tithe. It is an old English word meaning "tenth."
Cannot Afford to Tithe?
Of course you have heard of the man who couldn't afford to tithe.
That is the very reason he needed to!
If he had begun to tithe, he would soon have been able to! He would have begun to prosper. Here's how.
The tenth that God reserves for Himself is only a small part of the total income. The 90 percent that is left God gives to you — and at the same time becomes your Partner. He in a sense enters into your work or business with you to see that you prosper.
But at the same time the tenth which He reserves for Himself is just big enough to make people think! To make them become conscious of their money — to make them budget and plan for the future.
Tithing teaches you to think and plan how to spend your money. You will soon find you are saving so much more that now your 90 percent goes farther than the previous 100 percent you were keeping for yourself.
But that's not all. When you have paid God what is His, He in turn puts it to work and lavishes it back upon you in spiritual blessings. He actually keeps none of it for Himself. He sends it back to the world in the form of broadcasting and publishing the truth — the good news of the happy world tomorrow.