It’s right in front of us, but we do not see. I’m not talking about the coronavirus or the bailout packages or the stay-at-home orders. Nor am I talking about the banking issues, small businesses going bust, mega corporations in trouble, or all the unemployed. The “Titanic” (fiat financial system) has come to a halt. Nobody knows if what we have is a slow leak or a gushing hole, and they don’t bother to look. The majority of passengers are still dancing the night away, depending on the well-paid mechanics to fix the problem and get us moving again. But the truth is we are sinking.
I’m a spiritual person, and I believe the Bible is full of spiritual wisdom. How people have interpreted scriptures throughout history is something different, but any way you look at it, there are golden nuggets in the text. One of the most intriguing is about what we do not see that directly impacts our lives; “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12 | NIV). This is important, as we have seen a tidal wave of truth overtaking the nation, facts that took decades or more to be known: Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Larry Nassar, the Theranos fraud, the college admissions scandal, and much more. Cover up after cover up, fraud after fraud has come to the surface of society, along with a whole slew of disasters.
In the same spirit, I think there’s more than meets the eye with this pandemic. A great illusion, a gigantic secret, is on the verge of being blown away, and there’s a covert war that’s trying to stop it. As a Christian, I have learned that God is to truth as Satan is to lies, that truth and lies guide opposing spiritual forces that steer our lives. This is spiritual law, regardless of your religious beliefs. Truth is synonymous with light, lies are synonymous with darkness, and both are complete opposites that cannot physically coexist in the same space. The Bible is packed with scriptures about light and darkness, but the gist is that God does not and cannot exist in the darkness. Darkness is fueled by lies which keep out the light. You can hide anything in the darkness, except for light. When light penetrates darkness, the darkness ceases to exist. In the same way, when truth penetrates lies, the bondage that those lies created is broken.
Because of the way our brains work, truth isn’t always obvious, and being able to find the truth, face the truth, and uphold the truth about ourselves, our humanity, and our world, is severely lacking in modern-day society. I see lying as the source of bondage and truth as the path to freedom. There are no good lies and bad lies, any more than there are good thieves and bad thieves. They all usher in the spiritual forces of darkness. They all create bondage for everyone involved. They all keep people from being themselves, from knowing themselves, and from living the way God intended them to live. They all control feelings and behaviors. You may convince yourself that your lies are okay, but that in itself is a lie. Lies are the gateway for the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil. Lying allows evil forces to enter into your life and take over.
Something we all know—rulers, authorities, and the powers of this dark world are propelled by deception. These forces have power outside of the truth and the light, and they will do anything to retain their power, even if it’s illusory, because that power has overcome the love in their hearts. But when things fall apart, their lying, schemes, and frauds will be exposed by the truth. Sharp beams of light will reveal what lay hidden in the darkness. Truth is eternal, truth is light, and truth is God. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). To any thinking Christian who follows the Bible; we are to search endlessly for truth, and cling to it tightly, no matter the cost. If we don’t pay the price of truth in our own lives, then we are thieves of transient imaginary power. Likewise, if we do not look for the truth, especially in opaque situations, then we are choosing to be slaves of the lies and darkness.
So here’s the greatest illusion protected by darkness. It is the reason for covert war, and it impacts the entire world. The U.S. dollar is not money. That’s right, it’s NOT MONEY. Getting people to believe it was money is the greatest deception of all time, of the entire world. The characteristics of money are durability, portability, divisibility, uniformity, limited supply, and acceptability. The U.S. dollar is not durable, and it’s not issued in limited supply. It became the world reserve “currency” because the U.S. had the most gold. Gold is real money; gold cannot be printed. It’s the only reason the dollar existed, as an IOU for gold (see the Bretton Woods Agreement from 1944). The IOU (the dollar) holds no intrinsic value since it is no longer backed by gold. The U.S. chose to PRINT FOR POWER, and you can’t print gold. Unless maybe you’re God?
In the same way that government came into existence to serve the people from a portion of the people’s productivity, the dollar came into existence to serve the people’s gold. The government is now pretending to be God (instead of a servant of the people) as the dollar is pretending to be gold (instead of an IOU). This begs the question: Is money evil? No, money is not evil—money is power. It can be used for good or evil, for Jesus or Satan, but never both. Matthew 6:24, from Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount (KJV) says, “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.” I have heard from some pastors that mammon is money, but it is not. Mammon comes from Mammona, which means wealth, not money. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines Mammon as a biblical term for riches, “often used to describe the debasing influence of material wealth.”
American Christianity, and all Western spirituality, is confounded by what appears to be mammon, man’s wealth, privilege, good health, and a plethora of “blessings” that most of our ancestors didn’t have the luxury of beholding. Most of our ancestors didn’t have the ability to put their currency to work in “stocks” and “bonds” and have it grow to infinity, or sell Christian books and make millions. Are we special? Lucky? Blessed? Our ancestors had to labor and produce in order to survive. Government came to exist by extracting from its people’s productivity. The dollar was able to exist as an IOU for gold. Yet on March 23, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced it would purchase an unlimited amount of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities, to support the financial market, as if it were God, even though the economy is not producing. We all know the government can’t print gold.
There’s a problem when a currency is backed by unpayable ever-growing debt, and production comes to a halt, and there’s a problem when 30% or more of your lenders are from other nations and then you monetize your debt, and debase your currency. Do you see where I’m going with this? The truth is, if you live in society, and you’re not completely off the grid, then currency is really important. It is the backbone of everything we have and do, and thus everything we are capable of in the world. Currency determines if you have a car, what kind of car you have, what kind of home you have and how many, land you can use, what you eat, what you spend 40+ hours a week doing for a living, what you do in your free time, whether you get botox or not, whether you can buy supplements, get medications, treat illness. Every single person, whether they like it or not, is enslaved by currency.
This is a long post, but it’s important for me to finish my thoughts. People have been playing games in the stock and bond markets and the economy for long time to make their wealth grow. If you’re involved in this process, then you know that it hasn’t mattered what companies actually produce, or if they are profitable, or if they are solvent, or if they are righteous, or if righteous people run them. You just chase what goes up and short what goes down (based on where government sends its green paper). You just put your currency in the machine and watch it grow! It’s a form of gaming, a type of gambling. Christians and non-Christians alike have piled into the machine to multiply their wealth with no regard for the spiritual forces they are supporting, and no research to figure it out. They simply trust the system, trust their advisers, and don’t see how anything can ever go wrong or change. The stock market always goes up, or back up, right? At least until the evil empire collapses!
Yet, everywhere we look, there’s lunacy, moral degradation, and it goes on and on. People are lost, and I believe it’s Mammon, which I define as fake wealth, worldly wealth, a house made of straw, nothing that lasts, the opposite of everlasting, cheap money, easy credit. Mammon is the illusion of real wealth, it’s government’s IOU disguised as gold—it’s governments pretending to be God. It’s the pretending to be powerful when you have no clothes. Mammon exists because people use their currency to invest (a form of tithing) in things that go up rather than things that are righteous and real and just. Being a Christian means more than going to church, getting involved in groups, and giving 10% to the church to pay staff and rent or a mortgage. It means using your time and resources to further the Kingdom of God, not the Kingdom of Mammon. If you have an IRA and you don’t know where every dollar is going, then you’re tithing to the forces of evil.
I’ve looked at the stock holdings of mutual funds held by “Christian” investment companies and they’re no different than the rest. So if you have currency, the first thing I’d suggest is you get on the right side of the battlefield, by getting those dollars out of Mammon and into the Kingdom of God. Think of your investment as a tithe. Invest in things that PRODUCE, PROFIT, GROW, things that Jesus would support, things that you truly value which support your beliefs. We need to stop blindly putting our resources into whatever goes up, just to make it grow. That’s Mammon…that’s the Kingdom of Darkness disguised as a beacon of light…that’s the money printing machine fueled by lies that craves more and more control. If you don’t have the time to do research, then start a business. Produce, profit, and grow yourself what furthers God’s Kingdom. The global economy is changing, and lots of new businesses will emerge.
Luke 16:9 is a very interesting scripture, about Mammon, man’s money, currency…. “And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” In other words, since we are stuck using currency, we should use it wisely. Go ahead and put that currency into the corrupt market, but buy the right things. Buy what you believe in, not what you think will make your currency grow. Go ahead and play their games, but do it wisely, knowing the power of money and understanding how it works in the spiritual realm. If you are a Christian, then you must understand that you are a living pawn in a game of chess between dark and light forces. You can’t play both sides. You are either in the evil system, playing like everyone else does, or you are restrategizing and maneuvering through the lies to win the game. It’s not who has the most money, like Monopoly; it’s who takes out the King.
Think of your future this way, the market could collapse 90% and the dollar is on its way to becoming worthless with all the borrowing and printing our government is doing. That’s reality. That’s what is coming. It doesn’t matter how soon we get out of the coronavirus lock downs. The damage is done and things aren’t going back to the way they were before. Not a chance in the world are we going back to the way it was before with all the debt. The best case scenario is to come out of a depression and into a recession and kick the can further down the road. It’s time for people to open their eyes, ears, and think. It’s time to get right with God and get on the right side of spiritual finance. When you invest in frauds or whatever goes up, you are tithing to those forces, you are supporting their business practices and what they do, and you will be subject to the repercussions when the truth is fully revealed.
The Bible doesn’t tell us about the spiritual forces of evil without also giving us the weapons to fight. Ephesians 6:13-18 explains: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
The very first weapon is TRUTH and the second is RIGHTEOUSNESS. This is very telling, and the most critical thing you can do right now is align your finances and your life with the Kingdom of God. Just as there is no such thing as good lies, there is no way for you to support both Mammon and God. If your finances are in the stock market and they are in mutual funds and ETFs, then they are surely supporting evil forces. The only way out of this is to pray about what you should support, and go all in fearlessly. I don’t think it’s too outrageous to say “Invest in what you believe.” What’s outrageous is the free-for-all money machine, investing in forces you think will rule, rather than things that support your values. If you want God to rule, if you want truth to rule, you need to invest and tithe with backbone and strength. The government is buying up the market, and many investors will ride the wave, but it’s time to grow up and get serious about what’s coming and your role in it.
“Outstanding, sophisticated, and mesmerizing…a spiritual intrigue similar to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.” —ForeWord Reviews