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Part2
YourBest
STMENT
In che September issue we showed that money is not the root of al/ evil. We explained what
money real/y is, how it originated and how our whole banking system developed. In this
concluding installment, you will discover who is the true source of wealth and what is your best
investment.
N ONE
side of a
five-dollar bill
1 have in my
hand , it says:
" I n God we
trust. " I t is
through a grea t
deal of controversy tha t this state–
ment has remained on our money.
But what does
this
mean? Unfortu–
nately, l 'm afraid it doesn ' t mean
much more than the hollow circular
reasoning behind the expression
"Federal Reserve Note," which was
explained in the previous install–
ment.
In fact, when you understand what
money is, it seems that there must
have been a typographical error in
the printing of this currency.
lt
should read, " In
this
God we trust."
Surely you have heard the expression
"the
almighty do/lar"!
We do literally trust in that physi–
cal piece of paper to bring us our
needs- to supply us with goods and
services of our choice a t the time of
our choice. Our trust is in the money
itself and in what stands behind the
money- the economy of the nation.
There is a deeper hypocrisy in bring–
ing God into the picture than might
be
supposed. Let's read again that verse
from the Phillips translation mentioned
last month. "Tell those who are rich in
24
by
David Jon Hill
this present world not to
be
contemptu–
ous of others, and
notro resrrhe weight
of their confidence
on the transitory
power of wealth but on the
living God,
who generously gives us
everything
for
our enjoyment" (1 Timothy 6:
17).
God's message clearly throughout
the Bible is t hat we should put our
trust in Him, not in princes or gov–
ernments or land or money or people
or inst itutions, but in Him! This does
not mean that the land and the re–
sources on that land, and the money
and everything else that is freely giv–
en to us from God, is evil of itself or
should not be
used
freely; but that in
the use of it we should a lways main–
tain our ultimate trust and faith a nd
confidence in God and not in any of
these
things!
It's all too easy to focus
on the physical.
Source of Our Wealth
Let's understand where the wealth
comes from in the first place- the
real wealth! T he Eternal God is the
Possessor of the heavens and the
earth as well as being their Creator.
lt
is He that made the earth habita–
ble for mankind in the first place. It
is that great God who put the abun–
dance of wealth into the earth for
man to dig it out. It was a loving
Creator that covered the millions of
square miles of the surface of this
globe with riches beyond imagining
in the natural resources we not only
take for granted, but greedily dest roy
beyond measure as we consume
them.
That same great God made a cove–
nant with aman called Abrabam and
promised that man that if he would
serve Hi m unswervingly,
if
he would
pul his absolute and total and com–
plete trust and confidence in the liv–
ing God, no matter what, that He in
turn would share as a co-owner with
Abraham this entire earth and in–
deed even the entire universe! And
you share in that promise if you are
Christ's and heirs to that promise
made to Abraham (Galatians 3:29).
That promise God made to Abra–
ham was dual: Part of the promise
showed that Abraham was to have
that inheritance from
Godforever.
In
order for that to happen, Abrabam
had to have offered to bim eternallife
as well asall of thosegreat possessions,
or else the sad and incisive truth would
cometo pass that Christ mentioned in
the New Testament:
If
aman gain the
whole world and lose his life, what has
hegot? (Matthew 16:26.)
In Which God Do We Trust?
So the great God who
gave
all the
wealth is rather upset when He sees
Himself denied by those possessing
and using that wealth and yet sees
His name mockingly printed on the
nation's money!
In Hosea that God says: " Little
The
PLAIN TRUTH Oclober/November 1979