God's Economy

When nations on earth refuse to recognize God as the Creator, their governments assume ownership of that which God has created.

The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, recognizes God as the Creator, and so its government recognizes His ownership of all that He has created.

This is perhaps the most fundamental truth of the universe--recognizing the validity of Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Out of this truth comes all valid law. Any law that does not proceed from this truth is fatally flawed.

The Kingdom of God is certainly "within you," as Jesus said. But this does not mean it has no outward manifestation or application, as some have assumed. The Kingdom of God includes everything that He has created--both heaven and earth. And in the full manifestation of the Kingdom, it must include all that He has created.

That means all of mankind, all the dirt, the trees, the animals--everything. The Apostle Paul even includes the intangible, invisible things such as power and dominion. The purpose of creation is not complete until all that God has created (and owns) is reconciled to Him. That is, it must all come under His dominion, not against its will, but in total harmony with Him.

All of this BEGINS with people. More narrowly, it begins with believers. More narrowly still, it begins with the overcomers, who are the first to become the manifested sons of God. In fact, it begins more narrowly still with Jesus Christ Himself. But Jesus Christ has already been manifested as the Son of God. We are now near the end of Stage Two, where the overcomers will become the manifested sons of God at the time of the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

So far, God has been working primarily to raise up a small group of overcomers who will be given the divine authority to rule with Christ "upon the earth" (Rev. 5:10). Once God has trained His rulers--a few from each generation over a period of 6,000 years or so--He will empower them with the spiritual authority to begin the real work of re-claiming all that rightfully belongs to God.

That work involves reclaiming all land from every nation, all dominion from every government, all people of every race and tongue, and all natural resources that God created. Will this take place over night? Of course not. Will the overcomers be sent out to confiscate all of this from those usurpers who have laid claim to God's property? Not at all. If God had wanted to do this, He would have done it a long time ago. His plan and desire is to win the hearts of the people through love, not through fear and force.

The Church generally knows nothing of this work that lies ahead, because apart from the overcomers, they do not have the primary calling to do that work. Their vision is limited to Passover or Pentecost, and they know little or nothing about Tabernacles. Thus, they lack the vision to prepare for the work and ministry in the Age to come. The Church is planning to retire when Jesus comes. The Church wants to do all the things they were unable to do while working on earth--such as playing harps and walking in the park on streets of gold.

Great portions of the Church have no concept of putting all things under the feet of Christ. They cry crocodile tears over the nameless, faceless sinners out there who do not know Christ--but many of them know at least one person that they want to burn in hell. This may be an ex-husband, or Hitler, or Stalin, or Nero, but the bottom line is that such people do not really want all men to be saved.

But some of us have a vision for the work ahead; and if God has given us such a vision, He is also preparing us for the "greater works" yet to come.

The land laws of the Bible are the basic economic laws for a Kingdom nation. The day will come when we will see Kingdom nations on earth functioning under those laws. The people will be set free from the current Babylonian laws of debt-usury that have put them into economic bondage. It is interesting that when Babylon conquered Jerusalem in the days of the prophet Daniel, the people were taken into captivity, but then they appeared to prosper in Babylon. It was prosperity in captivity. After two or three generations in Babylon, most of the people did not want to be set free. Most did not want to return with Zerubbabel to build the Kingdom of God in Canaan.

We are in the same situation today. But God has raised up a remnant who have the vision of Zerubbabel, God's "signet ring" (Haggai 2:23). It is to build the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Those who are satisfied with the prosperity of Babylon are not qualified for this great work. It is pioneer work, and it involves some hardship and opposition.

But I am convinced that God has called some with an understanding of economic matters to figure out what it means to establish an economic system worthy of the Kingdom of God. We already see its counterfeit, called the Prosperity Message--a way of extracting more money from people with promises that God will repay the givers a hundredfold for whatever they give that particular ministry. The counterfeit sees nothing wrong with usury (interest on money), and so they have bought into Babylonian economic immorality.

Paula White, for instance, has a megachurch in Lakeland, Florida. She is in bankruptcy and foreclosure by a so-called Christian mortgage company from which she had borrowed money. This company was specifically established to "service" churches. In other words, they focus specifically on charging interest on loans to churches. That is biblically unlawful. It is a SIN, because sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).

The laws against usury in the Bible tell us that it is lawful to charge interest to a Babylonian, but not to a fellow citizen of the Kingdom. I realize that it takes a bit more thought to know how to apply biblical morality to a Babylonian culture, but this should not be hard to understand. The problem is not a lack of understanding. The problem is that the Church no longer sees usury as a sin, because it has set aside biblical law and replaced it with Babylonian law.

So now Paula White is in financial difficulty, and Christians are fighting each other in bankruptcy court. Business is business. Business as usual. Don't let God get in the way of business. In this way, Babylon has invaded the heart of the Church.

To put money in the bank at 3% interest is not a sin, because a bank is a Babylonian entity. But to loan money to a citizen of the Kingdom is an entirely different matter.

The root problem is that the Church has stopped using the biblical definition of sin found in 1 John 3:4 and all through Paul's writings. Instead, they have focused upon Paul's statement that "whatever is not from faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23). That statement is certainly true, but it is not a DEFINITION of sin, but a characteristic. Faith comes by hearing, and the Hebrew word for both hearing and obeying is shema. Faith, then, is a matter of obedience. Obedience implies a command, or law to obey.

The modern banking beast (the one that comes from the earth in Rev. 13:11-18) has convinced the Church that usury is no longer a sin. And so America and the whole world has been placed into Babylonian bondage to this beast. The Church has largely accepted usury as a way of life and sees no contradiction between obedience to God and the practice of usury. This is one reason God put us into a usury-banking captivity in 1914 with the Federal Reserve Act.

It is therefore important that we repent of our sin and obey God by faith. If we have faith in God, we will be obedient to Him and accept His ways, rather than the ways of our Babylonian masters.