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of heaven and earth íntervening, a
great cry of
lament
shall go up: "And
the merchants of the earth shall
weep
and
mourn
over her [the end-time
Babylon which controls the world at
the return of Christ); for no man
buyeth
their merchandise any more:
The merchandise of gold, and silver,
and precious stones, and of pearls,
and fine linen, and purple, and silk,
and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and
all manner vessels of ivory, and all
manner vessels of most precious
wood, and of brass,' and iron, and
marble, and cinnamon, and odours,
and ointments, and frankincense, and
wine, and oil, and fine flour, and
wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and
horses, and chariots, and slaves, and
souls of men.... The merchants of
these things,
which were made rich
by her,
shall stand afar off for the
fear of her torment, weeping and
wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that
great city, that was clothed in fine
linen, and purple, and scarlet, and
decked with gold, and precious
stones, and pearls!
For in one hour so
great riches is come to nought .
..
"!
(Rev. 18:11-17.)
God's Economy
Along with all her other monstrous
debts, public and prívate, the United
States of America has a debt to its
Creator God! This past year alone
that debt amounted to a figure in
excess of 200 billion dollars! "How
can that be?" you say. That can be,
because that figure is roughly
one~
tenth or ten percent of our gross na–
tional income for this year. One–
tentb of that which we worship
as
a
god instead of giving it to God.
"Will aman rob God? Yet ye have
robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have
we robbed thee? In tithes and offer–
ings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for
ye have robbed me,
even this whole
nation" (Malachi 3:8, 9).
Yes, any nation, forgetting its
God, wandering godless in a godless
world, . refusing to recognize its debt
to its Creator is guilty in the light of
this scripture.
This nation spends, on its defense
alone, an amount
billions
greater
than its tithe would be!
It
trusts in its
manufacturing ability and armies to
preserve it in the face of enemies; it
26
trusts in its economy to sustain it
financially. It trusts in its technologi–
cal know-how to continue to produce
a giant volume of goods from the
good
earth-rather
than trusting in
the
Creator
of the good earth!
Let's notice just briefly, in contrast
to the world's way of doing business,
what God's way of doing business is.
Instead of God
Loaning
us sorne hard
piece of metal which we would agree
with Him represents wealth, God
gives
us the earth! Out of that earth
by His generous laws, sustained by
His might every second, come the
untold riches God designed to be ours
in the first place: that is
one hundred
percent of everything we have!
Instead of requiring us to pay back
that 100 percent to Him every year
plus 30 percent, or 20, or any other
figure we might pick (where we
would
get
tha t percent 1 don't
know!), God gives us the full
1
00
percent and requests that we return
to Him
ten
percent!
It's
al/
His!
But He tells us tbat if we have our
faitb and trust and confidence in
Him, then we will return to Him that
which is His anyway. But He only
requires
one-tenth
of all the 100 per–
cent He has
given us free/y in the
first place!
If
we put our trust in Jiim rather
than in the manufactured goods or
the cold metal that comes from the
earth, then His promise is that He
will pour us out such a blessing that
ther.e will not be room to receive it!
That the crops of the next years will
exceed those of the years before.
That our health, our well-being, our
safety will be ensured-this promise
applies to every individual as well as
to every nation! (See Malachi 3:8-
12.)
Things Money Can' t Buy
· As you well know, happiness cannot
be purchased with money. True !ove
cannot be purchased with money.
Health cannot be purchased with
money. Safety from our many ene–
mies cannot be purchased with mon–
ey, and certainly eterna! life cannot
be
purch~sed
with money! Salvation,
forgiveness of sin, sonship in the
Kingdom of God cannot be pur–
chased with money. Not even by the
faithful paying of tithes and otfer–
ings!
Let's notice an unusual statement
made by God in the book of lsaiah:
"For thus saith the Lord, Ye have
sold yourselves for nought; and
ye
sha/1 be redeemed without money"
(Isaiah 52:3).
That's good news!
To think that, very soon, the great
God who made everything is going to
set His hand to save the world! To
think that God is not going to require
payment of any kind but gives freely
all those things which cannot be pur–
chased is good news!
The purpose of this Work ofGod is
to see that as many people as possible
realize that the time of God's inter–
vention is at hand. That it is time for
all of us to check our securitíes, to
examine our true wealth, to find out
what it is we have our faith in and
how confident we are in the true and
everlasting values of good character
as described by our Maker!
And so, as it goes on to say in verse
7
of tbis same chapter in Isaiah:
"How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good
tidings, that publishetb peace; that
bringeth good tidings of good, that
publisbetb salvation; tbat saith unto
Zion, Thy God reigneth! The watch-
. man shall lift up the voice; with the
voice together shall they sing: for
they sball see eye to eye, when the
Lord shall bring again Zion" (verses
7-8).
Use Money God's Way
No, money of itself is not evil- it is
how we think about it or what we do
with it that is either evil or good. So
those of us who know and believe this
truth from the innermost part of our
beings
have pul
our confidence and
faith and trust in God and His prom–
ises. To prove this, in every way we
endeavor and strive to
do
what God
says, whether it is with our time, our
effort and energy, or our money. Je–
sus Christ put it very aptly in the
New Testament when He ·said:
"Where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also" (Matthew
6:21).
If we trust in money, whatever its
form, to solve our problems, give us
health, protect us, heal and help us,
The
PLAIN TRUTH October / November 1979