AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF TITHING ON FINANCIAL PROSPERITY OF AN INDIVIDUAL (A CASE STUDY OF SELECT CHRISTIANS IN UYO LGA)

ABSTRACT

Christianity is a religion that has several obligations and responsibilities. Christians generally observe these religious rites dutifully as demonstration of their faith in God as well as to satisfy their individual aspirations. Down through the ages Christians are taught that God‟s blessing can be accessed through various means. As we have seen, people have been paying tithe since the days of Abraham and Jacob (Gen. 14:20, 28:22) and probably before. Tithe is part of a system that funds God’s church. It is the greatest source of funding and the most equitable method for carrying out His mission. In today’s cultures, the majority of Christians give relatively little to fund the mission of God. If every Christian gave an honest tithe, the result would be “almost unimaginable, simply astonishing, nearly beyond comprehension.”—Christian Smith and Michael O. Emerson, Passing the Plate (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 27. In every age, God has had people who were willing to fund His mission. All of us have a responsibility to understand and work together to finance this global task. We cannot afford to be disorganized, careless, or haphazard about funding the mission. Our challenge is far greater than when the people and the Levites said to Nehemiah, “ ‘We will not neglect the house of our God’ ” (Neh. 10:39, NIV) and more daunting than what faced believers in the 1800s. Today, members and clergy must be united spiritually and pull together financially in a way that meets global objectives and funds the mission. This paper therefore attempts to unravel the facts behind an empirical analysis of the impact of Tithing on financial prosperity of an individual (a case study of select christians in Uyo lga)