Rollo Tamasi
Well-Known Member
NO!Talking taxes...... should Churches be tax exempt?
Should donations be tax exempt?
By doing so we put ourselves under the control of the government.
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NO!Talking taxes...... should Churches be tax exempt?
Should donations be tax exempt?
Yes, the leadership in the house church is important.
I agree. It's very important, just like it is in the other churches.
We had good leadership, I think even better than in the churches in town.
But others might have a different opinion, lol.
Who does the leader of the House Church answer to?
The rest of the group.
How do you avoid becoming a clique or a cult?
How do you avoid becoming a clique or a cult?
I never saw any home church in our area turning into a clique or a cult.
I did see it happen with "established" churches, lots of them turning into dead bones.
Tell us about your experiences.We have diffeence experiences
If a 'church', whether house or not, is involved among the community it is entitled to claim charity status and either not pay tax or to claim tax back.
By belonging there will be a statement of belief which is useful if a leader does start to stray.
The English word "church" was not in the bible(s) until the KJV came out. The king of England, King James, wanted an English translation of the bible. He gave his translators 15 rules to use. The 3rd rule was when you get to the Greek word (ἐκκλησία) "ekklesia" translate it with the English word "church." Normally ekklesia is congregation or assembly.Most of the time they did meet in houses, even though as Rollo Tamasi pointed out the Apostles as well as Jesus also taught in temples and synagogues. Heck, jesus taught on the mount at least once.
Marymog pointed out that they didnt have other options. This is true... It was at the time a reletively small movement and one hated by the Jews and Pagans.
I want to point out 1 Cor 11:18. Paraphrasing, Paul says that when they came together "in the Church", he heard about divisions. When you read that chapter in context he was talking about an actual building of sorts, or at least a place. He wasn't talking about the body of believers as the church. He was talking about the meeting place.
. Its a longshot imo.
Many years ago when I was still working full-time one man filed for his monthly Social Security checks but decided to help out his debt ridden Uncle Sam by donating his checks back to the government. He took the paper checks [no direct deposit in those days] each month to the local Social Security office and insisted that they take the checks. They had no instructions on how to proceed other than give him a receipt for his checks. Someone had to write some new procedures in order to handle such returned money. I doubt they had to use the procedures very often. Also seemingly his gesture has not made a significant dent in the debt.If you want to mess up the income tax system, do this, like a friend of mine did:
He figured he was not going to take hand outs from the government.
So, he decided to throw the government's family allowance checks in the wood burner.
Of course at the end of the tax years he did not report it on his income taxes.
This messed up the government so bad, the whole thing took 5 years to get it straightened out.....
Of course the government figured he got the money, and they had to backtrack every year to see if the checks were cashed.
My friend thought this was the most funny way of messing up their system.
The English word "church" was not in the bible(s) until the KJV came out.
This is partially true. The 3rd rule was not to change the translation from church to assembly.He gave his translators 15 rules to use. The 3rd rule was when you get to the Greek word (ἐκκλησία) "ekklesia" translate it with the English word "church."
Normally ekklesia is congregation or assembly
As far as I'm concerned churches should NOT receive subsidies etc, God can and will take care of it's own, we don't need the government for that.