Preface
My readers have made their desires abundantly clear through all of the feedback I’ve recently received.  By the way, THANK YOU to all who have taken the time to respond with thoughts and questions.

The consensus is this: “Brad, we understand the fact that our nation’s economy does not follow the path God set forth in His Word.  Give us some practical examples and ideas of how we can lead and take care of our families!”

I will lay the basic foundation of a biblical plan at the end of this article.  But first, I’m still not convinced that people truly understand exactly WHY our economy is so wretched.  I’ve been agonizing for a long time for a proper analogy that can help people to understand the difference between their labor and what they get paid in a debt-based economy.  I think that I’ve found one that may work.

Many of you may wonder how I can get so passionate about the concept of economics.  You may not like my answer.  My passion comes through fear - absolute, stark, gut-wrenching fear.

My fear is not towards man.  The worst man can do is kill me.  Then I would get to see my Heavenly Father and be with Him for eternity!  No, my fear is of God.

Proverbs 3:9-10 states: “Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the first fruits of all your increase;  So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.”

Do you now understand my fear?  God wants us to honor Him with the “first fruits” of our increase.  How do we typically go about this in our current culture?  We might give tithes and offerings with cash or check.  We might even give gold or silver that we have purchased.  But what do they ALL represent?

“Money is a claim on the future labor of a person or a group of people.”

Are we honoring God by giving Him tokens representing the future labor of other people?  Are we honoring God by pretending that gold and silver is better – even though we purchased it with tokens representing the future labor of other people?  Does God even care about our money?  Isn’t His interest more in wanting the first fruits of our labor that went into obtaining the money?  Are we giving ANY of our labor to God?  Or are we giving ALL

If we’re not truly giving God the first fruits then can we expect our Heavenly Father to fill our barns with plenty and overflow our vats with new wine?

Have we joined forces with an evil and corrupt monetary system to where all Christian financial books now talk about “responsible” ways to handle money, even though our money is an abomination to God?  Have we lost the ability to understand that all of our gold and silver is also an abomination?  After all, it was purchased with claims on future labor and can only be sold for claims on future labor.  Doesn’t God want the first fruits of OUR

All the World’s a Stage
The title to this section is a quote from William Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It”.  It sets the table nicely for an analogy to how our economic system functions.  Many people I speak with have a tough time breaking the link between the hours they work and the check they receive on payday.  It’s hard to contemplate the fact that one’s completed labor is not reflected in one’s pay.

Here’s the analogy.  Pretend that our entire economic system around the developed world is a series of theatrical plays.  The plumber going to fix a leaky faucet is but one scene in one play.  The homeless person begging for quarters on a street corner makes up another scene.

It used to be, prior to the late 1600’s, that the performers in life’s various plays would be paid some amount of money that was directly proportional to the demand for their labor.  In the case of the beggar, he depended on the generosity and compassion of others for the quarters he gathered.  All money was based on the completed labor of those living within a particular society.

Then the international bankers got involved.  They convinced the governments of the world that more power and control could be attained by changing the definition of money to be based on the future labor of the masses.  Nations no longer needed to worry about overthrows from taxing their citizens too much.  Instead, they could just promise the bankers the future labor of the citizenry in return for the issuance of currency based on that promise.  The international banks gained control of the future labor of the world, while the nations were able to get as much money as they wanted to further their agendas – just by making more future labor promises on the backs of their people.

International banks became an organization that we’ll term “MasterTickets”.  They managed the scheduling and pricing of all future theatrical plays that would be occurring throughout the developed world.  In addition, MasterTickets (banks) determined exactly how many tickets would be given out for these plays.  There was also another caveat – only theatre tickets could be used to purchase and goods and services from that time forward.

People continued to go to work each day.  They pretended that the money in their paycheck was based on the labor they had just completed.  They were wrong.

You see, the plays that go on each day throughout the world are simply a fulfillment of labor on behalf of the actors – paid to those that previously held tickets for those plays.  Once a particular play has finished then the labor involved in the performance of that play is completed.  Likewise, the tickets that were previously sold for that play are now worthless.  The play is over.  The labor is done.  The tickets (representing the money supply) are gone.

What would happen if all the tickets for all of the plays were used up?   It’s simple, no tickets equals no claims on the future labor put into future plays, which equals no money – since money is claims on future labor.

Because of this, the actors in all of the various plays do get paid, but those payments are not derived from the labor of their acting.  Instead, the actors are all paid with tickets to future theatrical performances.  The money (tickets) in their paycheck represents the future acting labor of somebody else, or some group of people.

The actors now go to church on Sunday.  They give their Heavenly Father some of their tickets as “first fruits” offerings.  In reality, those tickets represent somebody else’s labor that hasn’t even been completed yet.  The actors gave all of their labor to man during the performance of their plays.  There is no completed labor left to honor God.

Some actors took some of their tickets and purchased gold and silver.  They then gave this gold and silver to God.  That offering was also based on the future labor of other people.

Here’s the immense danger.  Are we, in effect, saying “Here God.  Please take my first fruits offering that is a promise of Joe’s future labor”?

This is what drives my passion.  I’m giving all of my labor to man and giving God promises of somebody else’s future labor.  That scares me.

The Beginnings of a Solution
The answer to our economic problems should be obvious by now.  We need to get back to a system where our money is only based on our completed labor.

Let me share a deep, dark secret with you.  I don’t have the answers…

“What? All economic writers have “THE SOLUTION®”.

Sorry.  I don’t.  This is the point where we can either have a conversation to discuss and plan productive and attainable steps to where we can again honor God with our true first fruits – or we can go read the latest Christian economics book of how to make the best of things in an evil monetary system.

Folks, this has nothing to do with gold and silver.  I’m not trying to bash them – but that is the wrong fight.  I’ve already shown how gold and silver represent the future labor of man just the same as fiat currency.  The issue is honoring God with the first fruits of our completed labor.  It’s about money once again being based on that completed labor – and absolutely nothing else.

The next step is yours.  Write me back with your ideas.  Let’s humbly seek the wisdom and mercy of our Heavenly Father as we roll up our sleeves and get to work.  Real work.

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