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Js money the "root of a/1 evil"? What is money anyway? Where did the idea originate?
What about interest rates and "paper gold"? Does the Bible condemn wealth and
riches? Where does wealth come from in the first place? Most important of al/, what
will happen to that wealth within your lijetime? What is the true source of wealth?
oney matters!
Walk into a
bank and your
whole manner
changes. An
aura of awe
makes people
use hushed tones in the marbled
mausoleums of Mighty Money! The
building itself exudes an atmosphere
of absolute confidence- if not the
confidence of salid stone, brick, mar–
ble, thick polished oak, high-ceil–
inged basílicas of the old-fashioned
banks, then it is the modern confi–
dence of concrete, steel and glass
with clinical and controlled luxury
displayed in plush carpets and pieces
of modero art.
As a customer you are treated with
friendliness, politeness and sinceri–
ty-but always with a certain austere
reserve, a certain understandable and
fully expected distrust on the part of
the moneylender toward the money–
needer. It 's something we take for
granted.
You have confidence that the bank
is adequa te to supply your need. You
hope the bank will have enough con–
fidence in you to risk supplying your
need. v ·ou know certain securities
will have to be produced to bolster
the bank's confidence in your ability
10
What is your best investment?
by
Jon Hil l
to repay- your land, your home,
your life insurance, your auto, your
ability as a wage earner ...
all
will
be free! y open to scrutiny, as of
course will your past record of bill
paying-your credit rating.
It's not that debt is not respect–
able. Debt is demanded. l t is a red–
ink society from the impossible na–
tional debt to individual insolvency.
Everybody does it!
lt's hard- no, difficult, if not near
impossible-to make ends meet, to
live within your means. But that's al!
right. Nobody else can either. In fact,
since the early thirties, when the gov–
ernment decided it would be better to
mortgage the future than to pay for
the present, a climate was created in
which it is uncomfortable
not
to be in
debt.
Nationally speaking, that mort–
gage on the future is just about due
to be paid- and when all the notes
come due at once we're going to dis–
cover a fantastic and horrible truth:
The richest natlons on earth are
bankrupt!
But that comes later in
this article. Let's get back to
you.
Does God Condemn Money?
Despite sorne
misquote
of the Bible
you may have heard about money
being the root of all evil, let's prove
unequivocally at the outset that nei–
ther God nor His Word, the Bible,
condemns money. There is nothing
unholy or inherently evil in money or
a bank. As with all things, God's
principie is: It is not the thing which
is evil, but what is
done
with the
thing; the attitude toward the thing.
What the Bible does say is, "For
the
/ove of money
is the root of all
evil ... "
(1
Tim. 6:10). Even this is
poorly translated in the King James
Yersion and is better understood as
rendered by J. B. Phillips: "For
lov–
ing
money leads to all kinds of evil,
and sorne men in the struggle to be
rich have lost their faith and caused
themselves untold agonies of mind."
No, God is not against money of
itself. Abraham, the father of the
faithful, the friend of God (James
2:23),
was a very rich man (Gen.
13:2) an.d was familiar with the use
of money (Gen.
23).
David, a man
after God's own heart (Acts
13:22),
during his lifetime gathered up
tons
of gold and si lver, prccious stones
and costly jewels ( 1 Chron.
29).
Though there were many poor men
God used in the history of this world,
there were just as many, if not
more,
rich men in His service- if that sur–
prises you, check your Bible and
prove this truth.
The paradox of the problem of
riches is solved by the principie men–
tioned in the same sixth .chapter of
Timothy quoted above. Most of the
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1979