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the rents. The market price is deter–
mined by the buyer-seller ratio.
Cost of materia1s and labor is out–
pacing the rest of the economy, and
even
do-it~yourse1fers
are glum.
What if the bubble bursts, and there
are no buyers? Sources 1 have in–
dicate agricultura! land is the best ·
investment. Anything that will grow
food will be incre.asingly valuable.
The contrast of God's Kingdom
and its economy is amazing: Abun–
dant harvests with the planter fo1-
lowing in the footsteps of the reaper
(Amos 9: 13). Every man with his
own land (under his
own
tig tree).
No heavy taxation for defense be–
cause "nations will not learn war
anymore" and we will "beat our
swords into p1owshares" (lsa. 2: 1-4).
That's the motto of the "United(?)
Nations," by the way- but no way
the UN will ever bring it about.
Jobs
High unemployment is a nagging
headache for most Western econo–
mies. Of course you could move to
China- 1 understand there is no
unemployment there!
Candidate Carter promised sur–
cease of the unemployed. President
Carter will find a frustratingly high
uoemployment percentage fits into
the paradox of jobs going begging
in these next years.
Did you hear about the 61-year–
old man who applied for 24 jobs out
of the local paper-and got
hired
for
20 of them in one week's time?
Many people don't want jobs-they
just want paychecks. And if they can
get them from the government
(whatever that is), then why should
they work for a living? Mark it
down in your little red (for deficit)
book: higher unemployment, more
jobs going begging, higher taxes for
those who do work to pay for those
who don't-and won't.
Contrast God's unemployment
plan which is too simple to be con–
sidered in today's complex world.
Paul spelled it out in the New Testa–
ment: "This should be your ambi–
tion: to live a quiet life, minding
your own business and doing your
own work, just as we told you be–
fore. As a result, people who are not
Christians will trust and respect you,
and you will not need to depend on
others for enough ·money to pay
18
your bilis.... Stay away from any
Christian who spends bis days
in
laziness and does not follow the
ideal of hard work we set up for
you. For you well know that you
ought to follow our example: you
never saw us loafing; we never ac–
cepted food from anyone without
buying it; we worked hard day and
night for the money we needed to
live on, in order that we would not
be a burden to any of you.
lt
wasn't
that we didn't have the right to ask
you to feed us, but we wanted to
show you, firsthand, how you should
work for your living. Even while we
were still there with you we gave
you this rule:
'He who does not work
sha/1 not eat'"
(1 Thess. 4: 11-12;
11 Thess. 3:7-10,
The Living Bible).
The other side ofthe coin is that a
servant
is
worthy of his hire, and for
those who work doubly hard, they
get double pay! And, of course,
there is ample biblicallegislation to
care for the
genuine
needy!
GodsaysHewishesaboveallthings
that we should prosper and be in good
health- that He wants His people to
live off the fatness of the land. And,
after all, He is the one who put all the
riches in the earth!
The only th"ing God demands is
that we don't make the pursuit of
physical things uppermost in our
minds. "So don't worry at all (a bet–
ter translation might be "don't be
overly
concerned") about having
enough food and clothing. Why be
like the heathen? [Now that's a
thought to apply even to the calen–
dar!} For they take pride in all these
things
and are deeply concerned
about tbem. But your beavenly
Father already knows perfectly well
that you need them, and he will give
them to you
if
you give him first
place in your lije and live as he wants
you to.
So don't be anxious about
tomorrow. God will take care of
your tomorrow too. Live one day at
a time [o.r, "sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof'']" (Matt. 6:31-34,
The Living Bible).
Beyond that, God promises us a
share in His eternallife and posses–
sion of the universe- and
that
is a
lot to possess.
Government
"He is governed best who is gov–
erned least," a wise man once said.
God's plan for mankind is to bring
us into His Kingdom as His own
sons, living, acting, thinking as He
. does. Totally self-governing-as He
is!
But what about today's human
governments? More bad news. Gov–
ernment begets government. In
England one out of every four is
working for the government. Here
in the United States we are a little
behind , witb only one out of
five- but give us time- it won' t
take us much longer to catch
up!
Candidate Carter promised us
government reform. President Car–
ter established the first new govern–
ment department in 11 years, and it
is going to cost you aod me twenty
billion
dollars the first year! If you
thought the cost of government was
high before, you will soon realize
that it was only "peanuts" coro–
pared with what's coming!
You had better rememorize
Psalm 23, because we are hea.ded
through the "valley of the shadow
of death." The giant of the West is
curling up into a ball of isolation–
ism, shrinking in fear from the mice
that roar!
Way back in Genesis God prom–
ised us "the gates of our enemies,"
and together with the British Ero–
pire we possessed most of them in
the last century. But we've been
busy giving them away! (Write for
our free booklet
The United States
and British Commonwealth in
Prophecy.)
God promises to take back all the
good tliings He gave us: "1 will no
longer give her rich harvests of
grain in its season, or wine at the
time of the grape harvest. Now 1
will expose her nakedness in public
for all her lovers [biblical language
for " allies") to see, and no one will
be able to rescue her from my
hand" (Hosea 2:9-10,
The Living
Bible).
God uses even stronger language
in Ezekiel 16 (and you'll have to
admit it does seem to fit!): "Prosti–
tutes charge for their services-men
pay with many gifts. But not you,
you give
them
gifts, bribing them to
come to you! So you are ditferent
from other prostitutes. But you had
to pay them, for no one wanted
(Continued on page 34)
The
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1978