That Financial Human Sacrifice is Indeed One of the Worst
I thought, huh, aren't there a lot of other inane things out there that're killing us way more? The Ukraine war racketeering pushing us to WWIII? The climate change hysteria the policy demands of which will lead to millions of deaths worldwide from completely unnecessary energy resource depletion? The Covid lockdown idiocy that still ravages huge segments of what should be the most advanced intelligent parts of society? Yeah, those and several more are really, really bad.
But that monetary unit exploitation in the name of really spiffy virtue-signaling among the extraordinarily well-off mandarin class...
In fact just today I saw a tweet from a guy who I like to read, Jeffrey Tucker, someone I've referenced before as someone really good to pay attention to -- but whom also very much, like so many, given over to the Catholicist way to look at things simply cannot say that Jesus Christ and dwelling in the Kingdom is the way out -- in which he laments the horrors around much of which is caused by that manipulation.
I'd made mention of the massive scam that is every single crypto effort including bitcoin, but did not make mention of one of those forms that many are dreading the most: central bank digital currencies. The idea is that eeeevil government will be able to heavily (and unconstitutionally) regulate your x, y, or z commercial or financial activity by having a draconian grip on that value assessment tool.
The problem is it just doesn't matter. Once again 97% of all monetary transactions are made digitally now anyway, so any bank or financial institution may just do the dirty work for them. They already do. Some will screech, "Then let's just have bitcoin measure everything! Get outta that centralized control bullshit!"
One of the main problems with that is bitcoin is just a major avenue for people to get paid for the worst criminal activity. This is why, you may loathe the government with all your guts, it is a fully legitimate function of the US Congress to establish that unit of account, the dollar, and even though it and the Fed do do a bang-up crappy job of it, the issue again is not the unit but what people do with it.
Sinners will exploit and find new ways to exploit, all the time, every time, and when you're rich it is harder to not do that. This is why Jesus wasn't censuring rich people when He said "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for the rich to get into heaven," He was making a statement about exploiters.
Speaking of Scripture, do you remember what one of the first things God said to Cain after he'd murdered his brother? He said, "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." Wow. Even more amazing is what James writes in his letter a couple millennia later, something I'm sure God looks upon with great sorrow right now: "Look! The wages of the workers you failed to pay are crying out against you... the cries [of those workers] have reached the ears of the Almighty." Dang. You'd be hard-pressed to find anything in James that doesn't convict an exploiter and lead him to repent if only he decides to pay attention.
The main main point in making a declaration about the top-ranked evil of value assignment manipulation is that while those things themselves are evil and those who do them will have a reckoning some day with God, they are instrumental as a clear demonstration of how sinful man can be, and the only thing that is good for is for the observer of such behavior, especially that behavior of oneself, for him or her to turn 180 degrees and go to Christ.
That's it.
Only Him.
Yes, you get the Kingdom thrown in, but it is Christ and His saving work and your faith in that and in that alone that gets you what you truly, fully, exclusively desire: a deep, rich, eternal, abiding fellowship with your Father.
The message from my pastor in church this morning featured an anecdote that was particularly meaningful. A while back a newspaper issued a question to several schnazzy religious, maybe even political power players of some stripe, and they fielded responses. The question was "What is wrong with the world?" Certainly all kinds of hifalutin remarks were sent in -- and to be honest I'm no different here with my own lengthy pontificatory blog posts, you know, this thing is really bad and that thing is really bad and "Oh my lions and tigers and bears!" I'd like to think I'm sharing a few things of value, however, but still.
Anyway, the pastor finished by citing what renowned apologist G.K. Chesterton sent in. Again, "What is really wrong with the world today?"
His response:
"I am. - Signed, G.K.C."
Thuh end.
I am what's wrong.
And there is absolutely nothing I can do about the heinously exploitive things I do with those around me, much more with my own character and integrity. I have no excuse myself, and I can't even blame any rich and powerful commercial, financial, or political figure because in many ways they only do their evil because I'm here doing mine.
Until I have my own reckoning with that, and a whole lot of people have a reckoning with that, then we're going to have the world Jeffrey Tucker so perceptively sees all around him. And worse.
When a whole lot of people do that, and God moves mightily among them, that's when there'll be what I've called apocalyptic revival. In my view that does involve seeing the World System for what it is, and the Kingdom for what God has introduced to anyone who wants it. It is right there, Jesus and His nail-scarred hands waiting for you to join Him there.
I pray for that all the time.
Would you join me in doing that?
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The image is from TheStreet website in a 2019 article about the anxiety surrounding the strength of the dollar. Go figure...
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