Wealth Comes From The LORD

God gives us the ability to get (Heb. 'asah; to do, work, make, produce, deal with) wealth.  Not a banker, or a rich and fruitful land, or beautiful glass and steel sky scrapers full of bureaucrats.  God alone.

Deut 8:18 "And you shall remember the LORD your God, for [it is] He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as [it is] this day.

Deut 8:7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones [are] iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.

Deut 8:11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest--[when] you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell [in them]; and [when] your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, [in which were] fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end--

Deut 8:17 then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'

I believe that it is possible to have tools of commerce that help us to remember from where our salvation comes.

The LORD Who Sees (Jehovah Jireh)

The LORD takes care of us.  I believe that any system of commerce that doesn't help people to remember where their wealth originates from cannot be good in the long term. There must be a tight coupling between the creating of wealth and the creation of "money", so that the blessings of God can be directly converted into financial power within the economy.

If there are multiple intermediaries that must be entertained, convinced and paid before this can occur then it isn't clear that it is God -- not the loan officer or the bureaucrat -- who gives the power to create or deploy wealth.  Fiat monetary systems require the owners of wealth to "borrow" money from some central issuing authority at interest; until that is done, the creation of wealth is typically of little use in the economy (with the exception of direct barter, with its natural limits of scale).  The banker must be convinced of the value of the wealth pledged, and a constant stream of interest payments must be maintained or the wealth is taken to repay the loan.  Who is the wealth owner likely to "thank" in a system such as this?  The LORD, or the banker?  Furthermore, where is the wealth in this equation?  Why is the "money" coming from a party that has no wealth?

Direct Money Creation

Therefore, one of the fundamentals of a reasonable system must be: Money, the means to transact commerce, is directly coupled to the ability to create wealth.  If the credibility of the wealth owner cannot yet be measured (eg. they are young, or immigrants and not yet credible), then someone -- anyone -- must be able to vouch for them in the transaction.  The specific results of this are that whosoever the LORD blesses with wealth can directly employ that wealth by creating "money", and (if necessary) whosoever the Holy Spirit leads to vouch for the youth or foreigner can assist them in doing so until they have established their own credibility.  No central authority can be required to accomplish any of this, because it would replace the Holy Spirit with a "religious" spirit; substitute rules for revelation, replace liberty with law.

1 Cr 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?  Or saith he [it] altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, [this] is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

The Mighty God (El Gibor)

God mightily protects and provides for us, and he also expects us to bless others as we have been blessed, especially the widow and orphan, and others.  If the monetary system prevents the free lending of money, without Usury (meaning not time limited) to our brethren when in need, it cannot be Godly.

This means that there cannot be a Usury equation at the heart of money creation, as there is in all Fiat (ie. not wealth back, but Government backed) monetary systems.  Since the money is not actually backed by wealth and can therefore be created at will, there is an artifice used (Usury, interest) to make it costly to keep money in circulation.  Otherwise, it could be drawn out (printed) without bound, never to return to the central bank, causing infinite inflation. 

Usury Prevents Giving

In a monetary system where (necessarily by law), some central authority with no wealth of its own is given the authority to create the only legal money, there must be some limitation or "throttle" on how much money is produced in relation to the total wealth (things subject to purchase with said money) in the system.  Too much money vs. wealth, you have Inflation, too little, and Deflation occurs (the value of money rises with respect to the goods).

Therefore, most monetary systems require the presentation of a high quality debt note of some kind (usually a government bond, such as a US Treasury Note) for "deposit" at the central bank, which then creates the money it lends to the bank to fund loans.  Later, when the bank repays the central bank loan, the total paid to the central bank is greater than the amount of money it originally issued; this difference (the Compound Interest Paradox) disappears from the economy.  Furthermore, banks are normally required to only have on the order of 10% reserve compared to their outstanding debts and investments.  This allows each $10 deposit to be in turn deposited at the central bank for a fresh $100 in money, which is immediately loaned out, at interest, creating an additional $90 of liquid capital.  This is used to purchase goods and services, re-deposited and again loaned out to create yet more loans at interest, and so on.

Therefore, every unit of liquid capital in existence, from the one initially created by the central bank, and every one in circulation due to the amplification by subsequent bank loans, is draining capital (the regular interest payment) away from the wealth creators towards the bankers, and a portion of it (the interest paid to the central bank) ultimately out of the society towards the (usually foreign) cabal owning the central bank.  It is quite literally being pulled back out of circulation by the constant tug of these payments.  Even if the current holder is not paying that interest, someone is, and he must pull capital from elsewhere to either make the interest payments, or repay the debt.  This makes it impossible for a society which uses such a monetary system to follow God's directives on commerce.

Deut 23:19 "You shall not charge interest to your brother--interest on money [or] food [or] anything that is lent out at interest.  To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess.

There is nothing inherently wrong with charging Interest, or God would have forbidden it completely.  It must, however, be fundamentally possible for a civilization to exist and transact commerce freely without it.  Furthermore, it must be possible to aggregate large amounts of money together to accomplish large goals, or the monetary system will fail to provide the flexibility and scalability required of it by modern society.  Fortunately, it is possible for a wealth backed monetary system to accomplish these goals, without the pernicious effects caused by basing the creating of money on the charging of usury.  We investigate these things in depth in subsequent chapters.

For a more detailed examination of what a monetary system not based on Usury might look like, see:

Owner Credit System