Volume 12, Number 1, July-August 2008
Treasures
In Heaven
by John E.
Robinson
(This author
is no relation to the late John Robinson who once edited the Worldwide News and In Transition.)
In Matthew
In the first part of
the 20th century, we experienced a brief period of prosperity, which was
followed by the Great Depression, beginning with a stock market collapse in
1929. Then in 1933 President Roosevelt came up with a solution he called the
New Deal. In the World Book Encyclopedia, it says he borrowed vast amounts of
money to finance this New Deal. Today that debt is still with us, and growing
at an unbelievable rate. But if the road to economic freedom is as simple as
borrowing money without repaying it, then why didn’t my dad tell me about that?
What the encyclopedia doesn’t tell us is, whom
Some time ago, I was
in my local bank and I asked the manager of the bank a tongue in cheek
question. I asked her how secure our money is, since a bankrupt government
backs it. She gave me a thoughtful smile and responded, “Well it’s been that
way as long as anyone can remember.” Then she said, “But if people couldn’t get
their money they would raise a lot of commotion.” Somehow, I wasn’t comforted
by her response.
Where does our
nation’s borrowed money come from? Most of it comes from the Federal Reserve.
Who owns the Federal Reserve? According to Alan Greenspan, it is nominally
owned by private banks. Where do they get their money? According to Alan
Greenspan, it is “fiat” money, which means that it’s not backed by anything
tangible. It’s somewhat like play money that you would use in a Monopoly game.
What is the motivation of these lenders? According to Alan Greenspan they have
a “shabby little secret” whereby they can accomplish a hidden confiscation of
wealth. I got this information from a six page article entitled “Gold and
Economic Freedom” that Greenspan wrote back in 1966 before he was involved with
the Federal Reserve. It’s found in a book by Ayn Rand entitled Capitalism—The
Unknown Ideal.
You have heard the old
expression that cheaters never win, and that’s true in the long run; but
sometimes in the short run they do very well. And though seventy years is a
long period of financial prosperity, it is a pretty short period in the time
span of the rise and fall of nations.
So how does all this
affect us? Basically we live in a fantasy world financed by our nine trillion
dollar debt to the international bankers. If we were to face financial accountability
today, our standard of living would be reduced very drastically to say the
least. This may explain why so few people understand or even care to understand
these issues. Most of us would prefer to live in our fantasy world. Some would
say that we know the economy will collapse someday but we might as well enjoy
it while we have it. That is a little bit like saying, “Well I know this ice is
thin, but we might as well enjoy the skating party while it lasts.” Or you
might even compare it to saying, “We know that one end of the big building we
live in is on fire, but we’re not going to fight it or leave until it begins to
affect where we live.”
The atmosphere that
goes with our economic situation is not conducive to righteousness. It is
somewhat like doing business with the mafia. There are some advantages, but
someday it is bound to catch up with us, or our children or our grandchildren.
• Pride
• Fullness
of bread
• Idleness
• Failure
to help the poor
Most people would
agree that
In Luke 19:22, 23,
Yahshua compared loaning money on interest with reaping where you have not sown
and gathering where you have not strewn. In the book of Proverbs it is called
unjust gain.
But what is happening
today is actually much worse than what the Bible describes. In those cases, it
appears that the person actually had something of real value to loan, upon
which interest was collected. Whereas, today, the banking system can make money
from nothing, loan it out at interest, and then collect that interest from
someone who has to do real work to earn the money to repay it. Alan Greenspan
calls it “a hidden confiscation of wealth”.
How did this get
started?
The American Peoples’
Encyclopedia says in their article on banking, “With the revival of trade in
the 11th and 12th centuries,
So what was the
attitude of the church? According to
In Deut.
John Calvin was one of the first
theologians to teach that it was okay to charge a “reasonable” amount of
interest. This was a convenient position for him to take because he was from a
wealthy family. But one of the reasons his teaching caught on so well was that
he lived during the infancy of the industrial revolution, where the leaders thought
they needed commercial banking to make any headway.
One of the effects of
the industrial revolution was the disintegration of the family. When men began
to leave home in order to work in the factories 60-70 hours a week, women were
left with greater domestic burdens and children were seen as burdens instead of
assets or blessings. Today, our children are routinely shuffled off to day care
centers while grandpa and grandma have been moved to the nursing home, all in
the name of progress. Another sign that something is amiss can be found in the
fact that many of us live in relative luxury while multitudes don’t even have
adequate water for drinking or bathing.
In 1828, President
Andrew Jackson said to a group of investment bankers trying to persuade him to
renew their charter, “You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by
the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank
injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before
morning.”
But over the years, the elected
leaders fought less, and the bankers gained more control. Today, our global
economy is heavily dependent on the banking system and the fiat money created
it creates. Ultimately, it seems that some group of people will prevent anyone from
buying or selling without a certain “mark of the beast” (
As we have accepted the
industrialized version of agriculture in our society we are beginning to lose
control of our food supply which leaves our personal and national security at
tremendous risk. As we yield control to the international corporations, our
soil is becoming depleted. Additionally, our minds and bodies are being
diminished due to the lack of proper nourishment which leaves us unable to
function rationally.
Am I suggesting we
return to an agrarian society? Obviously, we are a long way from that
presently, and moving further away every day. But when Yahshua returns, men will beat there swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Today, our swords and spears are
billion dollar war machines, and, I have heard this said many times, war is
good for the economy. It is true that military conflicts do frequently result
in governments utilizing deficit spending in order to finance them and this may
give the economy a boost in the short run. But, my oh my, what a price there
will be to pay in the long run.
Someone once said, “To have what
you want is luxury—to be able to do without is power.” We have lots of luxury
in our society today but very little power. Actually, it’s our insatiable
desires that allow other people or nations to have power over us. If the
average consumer weren’t obsessed with obtaining the lowest price (at any cost)
then Wal-Mart wouldn’t have been able to get a stranglehold on the retail
market today. Not many people in positions of power can resist feathering there
own nest, but our government is ruled by it’s own people ( to some extent) and
we tend to vote for policies that are convenient for ourselves in the short run
but destroy us in the long run.
What is the solution
to our problem? In a nutshell it is this. Let’s not labor for the meat that
perishes, but, rather, let us labor for the meat that endures forever—and teach
others to do the same. Will that solve our monetary problems? In a word, “yes.”“But
seek first the
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What Happened to Our Government? |
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This is the first of several
articles we hope to run on secular governments and economic systems. Throughout the 1500s through
the 1700s, there were “Protestants” who protested the rule of the Roman
Catholic Church and kings who claimed to rule by “Divine Right”. They
believed that government should be minimized and that individuals should be
responsible to their creator and to each other. These Protestant Christians
often believed it was their job to understand the Bible and implement its
principles in the church and civil government. Life got much better. In the
later 1800s, Christians began to take the approach of “pietism”—that civil
government was only for the unrighteous and “good Christians” should stay out
of it. Even today, many Christians do
not want to be involved in secular governments. They believe that Christians
should just pray for good leaders to be in power. But God has promised not
to answer those prayers. Please read on. There was a time when “public
servants” represented the people and had very limited power. Now, the people
have allowed the civil governments to become so strong that they fear
them—but people, including Christians, would rather have the strong civil
government than risk what might happen if we tried to curtail its powers.
Instead of having the judges and representatives that God said would be best,
and letting God be our king, we have opted for a president-king, and a lot of
other little kings in the form of government agencies, local governments,
etc. Notice what happens when people ask for a king: So Samuel told all the words of
the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. 11 And he said, “This will be the behavior of the
king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his
own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 He will appoint captains over his thousands and
captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his
harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers,
cooks, and bakers. 14 And he will take the best of
your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his
servants. 15 He will take a tenth of your
grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. 16 And he will take your male servants, your female
servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will
be his servants. 18 And you will cry out in
that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the
Lord will not hear you in that day” (1Sam Now, some will say, this
doesn’t apply to me because I don’t vote. If our constitution eliminated the
office of president if too few people voted in the presidential election, not
voting might accomplish something. But as it is, if all but one person in the
country became a non-voting Christian, that person could still vote for
himself and become president. 100 million people could not remove him by
“non-voting”. Non-voting simply says, “I want whoever all the other voters
elect”. The practical truth of the matter is that if all of the present
non-voters would expend their collective energies to locate, encourage
and vote for righteous people, they could change the nation. In our present
system, the only peaceful way to oppose a president who rules like a king is
to vote for leaders who are against such excesses. Certainly some candidates will
promise one thing and do something else when elected; and others may gain
power thru vote fraud. God will judge these secret evils committed by the
people who misuse their enormous responsibilities (Rom |