Is God bad at Math?

Find:

Is God bad at Math?

Published by sam - 20/10/07 - 04:10:20 pm

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I was just reading the comments from Forbes 400 Richest Americans and Jason Dean brought up a good point about giving:

Warren Buffett gave very little (relatively speaking, of course) to charity until his recent huge gift to the Gates Foundation. His rationale was that he could grow his money more effectively if he held on to it, thus making for a larger (eventual) gift. He was right. So in a way, it could be argued that Bill Gates is making a mistake by giving so much to charity at this stage in his life. Perhaps his wealth could be better served creating more jobs and more wealth through investment, compounding his massive wealth, for an eventual mammoth gift at an older age, like Buffett.

Mathematically, I agree completely - If you have $10,000 now, you could give it or you could invest it for 30 years (at 11%) and have over $250,000 to give.

I read that Benjamin Franklin did something similar by creating trusts that kept his money invested for decades after he died to keep growing. So rather than giving away the million he had when he died, he let it grow for another 50 or so years. Then at a specified point, Ben had instructed in his trust that libraries be built with the money. You can assume that his million would have grown to tens of millions, thus being far more effective.

Scripturally, I think I find a contradiction in Proverbs 3:27-28…

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.

and Deuteronomy 18:4 (and many other similar verses) points out:

“You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep.

I think I can say with confidence that the Bible does NOT endorse the “save it all up then give” method. This is a little bit of a struggle for me, because the mathematical portion of my brain can see the enormous benefit.

I really enjoy and have a whole lot of fun giving. It is such a liberating experience and I would miss out on most of it if I waited until I was rich and old. Maybe that is why the Bible encourages us to do it now. Or could it be that God is just bad at math?

What do you think - give now, or give later?

Source:http://www.christianpf.com/is-god-bad-at-math/

Bookmark To

Add 'Is God bad at Math?' to Del.icio.us

Add 'Is God bad at Math?' to Feed Me Links

Add 'Is God bad at Math?' to Yahoo My Web

Add 'Is God bad at Math?' to Stumble Upon

Artículos relacionados

Finding your financial personality

October 20, 2007 | Personal Finance |

No Comments »

RSS feed for comments. TrackBack URI

Welcome to Personal Money Management Expert,the blog where you can find advices to save money and to earn more with each dollar. If you want, it's possible to suscribe by mail and receive all news by e-mail.