Cover

We have chosen a twenty dollar bill falling out of the sky. This is a kind of first fruit or harbinger of more falling, and even failing dollars to come.

A twenty dollar bill seems appropriate for present purposes because, on it is a picture of Andrew Jackson, an early and very strong opponent of central banking.

The sky in the background is from a painting by the author's mother, Katherine N. Ferris, and we are confident has the approval of heaven where she now resides.

Our title, "Are You Worried Yet?" we trust serves as a contemporary wake up call, in the distress of the days immediately following the credit collapse of 2007-08.

We had hoped to get this to you sooner. In any case, we are hopeful that, by now the reader is getting a clearer picture of the rest of our title: "Where Is Money Taking Us?"

During the years of revision, 2003 to 2008, the chosen title was a well known sound bite: "For Love or Money." That well known phrase puts the question where Jesus summed it up: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

Here the idolatry of the Old Testament is boiled down to a choice between "mammon" or money or the "stuff" of this world or another "master." The title we had chosen suggested the other "master" - love. Idolatry boils down to misplaced confidence.

A Biblical understanding of money must inevitably take us in the direction of love. Those who are forgiven much, love much. It is in the love of God where we must place our confidence.

We have keynoted our three books with Bible illustrations by Gustave Dore (1832-1883). The Book One illustration is titled "Adam and Eve Driven Out of Eden." This is where our need for money begins. In Paradise there was no need for money, because there was abundance enough for those who dwelt there. With Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden, the human race entered, what economists refer to as "the economics of scarcity." Our source couple left "more than," and entered "less than."

In the place of "less than" - the place of scarcity, there are only two alternatives to money, robbery or love. When money is supplied or controlled by money changers, chose who change the provision of God into a license to steel, then money itself, becomes the hand maid of robbers, and thieves.

The Bible is the written disclosure of the love of God. In it God's love is presented against a background of human frustration, failure, dysfunction, and indebtedness. In our frustration we make bad choices. That's just what "less than" people do.

Confidence in "mammon" or the world's stuff is misplaced. It is not the wise choice. It is the choice of "less than." This book and the Bible are all about "choosing wisely." Only the love of God can produce "more than" people. "More than" loves, because love is its source. "Less than" takes because it has nothing to give.

Cast out to the east, the Biblical source couple went east, in the direction of the "good gold" of the land of Havilah. This good gold is about The Love of God.

In the past 40 years of looking deeper into the gold of Havilah, the author has concluded that there is something more. It is this better than "good gold" that is explored here and offered to those who are looking for the greater meaning of the mess we're in.

Matthew 6:24

Luke 7:36-50

"You have chosen wisely" is a memorable sound bite from the movie, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

Gen. 2:11, 12

Romans 8:35-39

Abstract

The Bible is a mystery ultimately unlocked and interpreted by The Spirit of God. It is a "Code Book," the understanding of which is hidden in parables. It is said of Jesus,

"All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."

On another occasion Jesus said: "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." This to say, that the mystery of God's word is hidden in a code unlocked only by the Spirit of God.

There are two parables that are particularly important for our understanding. The first one is the parable of male and female, the sexual parable. The second is the parable of gold. These two parables are intertwined from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end.

There is a rather interesting statement written in the novel, Atlas Shrugged. It is a statement that sees the connection between the two subjects, gold and sex, but in context comes up somewhat short of full understanding or Biblical "knowing":

"Do you remember what I said about money and about the men who seek to reverse the law of cause and effect? The men who try to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind? Well, the man who despises himself tries to gain self esteem from sexual adventures, which can't be done, because sex is not the cause, but an effect and an expression of a man's sense of his own value."

It is vital that we understand these two parables. To miss the point is to be ultimately lost. While Ayn Rand came into a great deal of insight, even where the connection between sexual choice and money is concerned, she appears to have been blind-sided in her metaphysics in a way that resulted in tragic relational dysfunction, not only for herself, but for many in her sphere of influence.

The subject of money in the Bible can be looked at or approached on a number of levels. The two most obvious being an earth bound level, and a spiritual level. On either level, gold is the touchstone of monetary truth or Biblical truth set in a monetary context. Gold is the Biblical choice as a medium of exchange for the transfer of value from one person or place to another. Gold in this capacity is not ultimate, however, but it is essential for the impartation of a truth, which is ultimate. By probing the Biblical meaning of money and markets, we can get some idea of where alternatives to gold are taking us in the Biblical short run.

In the monetary arena, as in so many others, the contest between good and evil is very present. Gold is the stand in for ultimate good, and evil is something the Bible most often refers to as the" work of man's hands." This is the source of idols or graven images, and by the end of the Biblical story, graven images boil down to mammon. Mammon can be boiled down to money, because "money answereth all things."

Quoting Rand once again: "Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, "Account overdrawn."

As this book goes to press the second time, the days may well be upon us when the account is marked "overdrawn."

Central Banks, which create money out of nothing, are the very fountainhead of graven images. The integrity of graven images is their worthlessness - in the end they can be exchanged for worthlessness - count on it - that is the integrity of idols. The value of graven images is delusional - temporary - residing in the hopes and eyes of idol worshippers - adherents of the monetary denomination. The central banking system represents the "systematic theology" of money.

This is as close as I dare get in describing the content of this book as it relates to the monetary world around us. According to the Bible it is not my business to judge the things of this world. Rather it is our business to make judgments concerning the church. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "what is it to me to judge outsiders" do you not judge those who are inside? But God judges the outsiders. Put away the evil person from among yourselves."

Two other passages of the Bible come to mind at this time, and in this connection, "For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" The other passage is: "to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things; to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God..." Viewed from a monetary perspective, the "manifold wisdom of God" is best seen through the portal of gold. Looking at the end through that portal, it is possible to see life. It is the church which was/is to be the witness of that portal.

The end of graven images is death. The Bible makes this point with earth shaking clarity. It was never intended that the medium of exchange of the household of God should be graven images. The medium of exchange of God is love, and how grateful we must be to discover that the love of God is good for enemies. Only the integrity of gold can teach us about this love. For the present, at least, the monetary choice for the people of God must be the gold of God's love. All else is lies and robbery.

"Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not be in haste.¬ÝAnd I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.¬ÝAnd your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."

Finally: After years of searching the Scriptures on various subjects, it has become clear that any attempt to represent the Bible on any subject without ending up with love, is to have missed the point some where along the way. Where economics and human government are concerned, it is critically important that we understand the difference between "take it or leave it" and "take it or else." The medium of exchange of free men is gold ’Äì "take it or leave it" money. The medium of exchange of slaves is fiat money, ("legal tender") - "take it or else" money. The medium of exchange of lovers is supplied at the cross. Gold is the provision of God. Fiat money - graven image money is a misrepresentation - a false claim and a false god.

Format:

For a number of reasons we have divided the handling of the subject matter into three books, two volumes, this being the first.

Matt. 13:34, 35

John 6:63

Gen. 1:27, 2:22-24, Eph. 5:31, 32

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, Random House, New York, NY, 1957, Part 2, Chapter 4, page 489.

Revelation 9:20, for instance

Ecclesiastes 10:19

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, Random House, New York, NY, 1957, Part 2, Chapter 4, page 489.

1 Corinthians 5:12, 13

1 Peter 4:17, 18

Ephesians 3:9, 10

Isaiah 28:15-18