The Ezra Factor, Part II
I've been reading a book with a premise that is optimal for my next home page piece considerations. It is Rethinking Money, and I thought I'd peek around a bit in it to see if these guys really get into what's what with value assessment.
Sadly, they don't. Sure they get into how macroeconomics works and how banks work and how alternate currencies are the latest and greatest and all that. But all they do is blither about how radical their new conception of money is when it is merely a rearrangement of the old one. There is only one thing that would demonstrate any meaningful substance in a book about changing the way we do value assessment.
That would be if it includes mention of Jesus Christ. Indeed it would only mean anything if the book flat-out declared that any change in the way we do value assessment comes only through Jesus Christ.
Lessee, now, let me look through the index and see where Jesus is mentioned, lessee here, ummm, looking -- looking -- looking... not in the J's, not in the C's, not in the M's (thought maybe "Messiah" or even "meaning" -- um, perhaps... yeah, I agree... nahhh)
Not surprised.
He's nowhere. In fact, he's nowhere in any of these tomes. "Here's the new thinking on money!" "Here's the most radical thinking on economics!" "Here's the newest greatest bestest radicalest of all radical ideas there could ever be way to do financial stuff wow!" All of them really just amount to the latest value extraction instruction manuals.
This one, Rethinking Money, tries real hard to be above it all and be kind and gracious and all that. But even these authors can't get beyond the spiritual, slipping into its conclusion some new age pap about oneness and togetherness and connectedness and all that. Without Christ they realize they must have something spiritual. The ones that don't have any overt spiritual message just have the more covert one that is along the lines of "Let's just all get along you guys! Come on!"
Sorry. Can't do it without Christ. In fact you will do human sacrifice without Him, necessarily.
Don't think you are? Sorry again. But you are captivated by the disinformation ravenously consumed by committed World inhabitants. I'd touched on it in my webzine home page piece, and again in my last post.
In thinking more about that, the whole misrepresentation thing, and about how we like the fabrications others form about themselves rather than the reality. Thinking thinking thinking, I thunk about how much people do indeed want to get past the fabrications to that core reality, if only to share those realities however unsightly with friends and confidants so we can feel more righteous than others. Quite unrighteous, yes.
While the essence of the evil that gossip is, it more importantly demonstrates that it is indeed the righteousness of a thing that is at the core of what we are about.
What is righteous? What is the truth about righteousness?
I think we know. I think our acquired knowledge of good and evil (remember the Garden?) tells us that, but I think we can't help but chose the evil. The only way back to good is by Christ and by living out His righteousness. Still can't get it? Look again at all those new finance / new money / new economics tomes and tell me what is really different about them without Christ. Tell me, please -- be honest.
Getting all the way back to the Ezra factor again, I was blown away by what happened at the end of the seventh chapter. Go ahead. Look at it. Right there, seventh chapter of the book of Ezra, Old Testament, about a third of the way into the Bible. Time when the exiles were returning from conquered Babylon to Jerusalem to build the Temple, something like 500, 400 B.C, around then.
The king, the officially ordained potentate, the one who authoritatively sits in the seat of Caesar, this king unequivocally, undeniably, unquestionably tells his governing officials not to tax those who're genuinely restoring the nation of Israel, as exhibited here in the rebuilding project. Essentially: "Those who're working hard for the Kingdom of God, they can't be taxed." Later is this contrast -- go ahead, look at it there: "But take everything from those who are doing nothing," essentially that's what he's saying.
Right after all that there is thanks to God for making sure the king does what he's supposed to be doing -- allowing the Kingdom to flourish without any World interference.
Does the church today actually, truly, genuinely have that commitment?
Or does it shimmy up to Caesar, compromising its pure devotion to Christ and the Kingdom and its work through its disciples, and as such forfeit the potentates' God-empowered good graces to see God's work is done?
What's that? You don't think these churches to that? Check it out: do they have formally established 501c3 non-profit tax-exempt obligations? If they do, they are telling the Darius of the current day that they'd rather have the things Darius is about rather than the things God is about.
Wow. I can then see how a Darius would rather crush that kind of thing, simply because it so reeks of double-mindedness and hypocrisy and malicious misrepresentation and...
and yes...
Unrighteousness.
Sadly, they don't. Sure they get into how macroeconomics works and how banks work and how alternate currencies are the latest and greatest and all that. But all they do is blither about how radical their new conception of money is when it is merely a rearrangement of the old one. There is only one thing that would demonstrate any meaningful substance in a book about changing the way we do value assessment.
That would be if it includes mention of Jesus Christ. Indeed it would only mean anything if the book flat-out declared that any change in the way we do value assessment comes only through Jesus Christ.
Lessee, now, let me look through the index and see where Jesus is mentioned, lessee here, ummm, looking -- looking -- looking... not in the J's, not in the C's, not in the M's (thought maybe "Messiah" or even "meaning" -- um, perhaps... yeah, I agree... nahhh)
Not surprised.
He's nowhere. In fact, he's nowhere in any of these tomes. "Here's the new thinking on money!" "Here's the most radical thinking on economics!" "Here's the newest greatest bestest radicalest of all radical ideas there could ever be way to do financial stuff wow!" All of them really just amount to the latest value extraction instruction manuals.
This one, Rethinking Money, tries real hard to be above it all and be kind and gracious and all that. But even these authors can't get beyond the spiritual, slipping into its conclusion some new age pap about oneness and togetherness and connectedness and all that. Without Christ they realize they must have something spiritual. The ones that don't have any overt spiritual message just have the more covert one that is along the lines of "Let's just all get along you guys! Come on!"
Sorry. Can't do it without Christ. In fact you will do human sacrifice without Him, necessarily.
Don't think you are? Sorry again. But you are captivated by the disinformation ravenously consumed by committed World inhabitants. I'd touched on it in my webzine home page piece, and again in my last post.
In thinking more about that, the whole misrepresentation thing, and about how we like the fabrications others form about themselves rather than the reality. Thinking thinking thinking, I thunk about how much people do indeed want to get past the fabrications to that core reality, if only to share those realities however unsightly with friends and confidants so we can feel more righteous than others. Quite unrighteous, yes.
While the essence of the evil that gossip is, it more importantly demonstrates that it is indeed the righteousness of a thing that is at the core of what we are about.
What is righteous? What is the truth about righteousness?
I think we know. I think our acquired knowledge of good and evil (remember the Garden?) tells us that, but I think we can't help but chose the evil. The only way back to good is by Christ and by living out His righteousness. Still can't get it? Look again at all those new finance / new money / new economics tomes and tell me what is really different about them without Christ. Tell me, please -- be honest.
Getting all the way back to the Ezra factor again, I was blown away by what happened at the end of the seventh chapter. Go ahead. Look at it. Right there, seventh chapter of the book of Ezra, Old Testament, about a third of the way into the Bible. Time when the exiles were returning from conquered Babylon to Jerusalem to build the Temple, something like 500, 400 B.C, around then.
The king, the officially ordained potentate, the one who authoritatively sits in the seat of Caesar, this king unequivocally, undeniably, unquestionably tells his governing officials not to tax those who're genuinely restoring the nation of Israel, as exhibited here in the rebuilding project. Essentially: "Those who're working hard for the Kingdom of God, they can't be taxed." Later is this contrast -- go ahead, look at it there: "But take everything from those who are doing nothing," essentially that's what he's saying.
Right after all that there is thanks to God for making sure the king does what he's supposed to be doing -- allowing the Kingdom to flourish without any World interference.
Does the church today actually, truly, genuinely have that commitment?
Or does it shimmy up to Caesar, compromising its pure devotion to Christ and the Kingdom and its work through its disciples, and as such forfeit the potentates' God-empowered good graces to see God's work is done?
What's that? You don't think these churches to that? Check it out: do they have formally established 501c3 non-profit tax-exempt obligations? If they do, they are telling the Darius of the current day that they'd rather have the things Darius is about rather than the things God is about.
Wow. I can then see how a Darius would rather crush that kind of thing, simply because it so reeks of double-mindedness and hypocrisy and malicious misrepresentation and...
and yes...
Unrighteousness.
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