Chapter 17: Paper Money

“Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” Ecclesiastes 8:11

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the region’s cultural, governmental, and economic systems broke down. It was a regional “Great Reset” of historical significance. Once again, the door was open for the ekklesia to appeal to local communities to incorporate the Principles of Kingdom Building in the design of new economic and monetary systems. Once again, they failed to answer the call.

Instead, the church adopted the economic model practiced by the nations they began to occupy. The coins, of course, continued to bear the images and inscriptions of gods and men. Free from meaningful opposition, Satan turned his focus toward another region of the world.

The next two chapters cover a 1600-year chronology of the birth and development of paper money. Though not necessarily the most exciting, I included them because paper money is the predecessor of today’s monetary system, which is nothing short of an abomination to God. It is important to know the spiritual origins of this system and the method Satan used to spread it worldwide.

Much of what follows is derived from Ralph T. Foster’s work entitled Fiat Paper Money – The History and Evolution of Our Currency.[1] It is a highly detailed and impeccably sourced book. I recommend it to anyone interested in historical details.

We begin our journey in China. For thousands of years, the Chinese paid homage to the spirits of dead ancestors through the ritual burning of valuable gifts such as gold, silver, copper, and silk. This demonic practice^[2] provided an opening for Satan, and he took full advantage.

Early in the seventh century, Satan and his monetary princes convinced the Chinese people that instead of burning items of genuine value in their rituals, they should substitute “religious paper.” This would allow them to keep back for themselves the actual value of tangible items. Because paper was easy to make and cost little compared to precious metals and silk, the idea became popular, and the use of “religious paper” spread rapidly.

To appease their gods, the Chinese inscribed their paper with images and inscriptions of the items of value that it replaced: gold, silver, copper, and silk. Then, demonic “spirits” convinced the Chinese people that they preferred paper sacrifices over valuable items. They are recorded to have said:

“I have no use for your copper cash; I desire cash only made from white paper.”^[3]

Using religious paper to represent value was Satan’s opening bid to alter the global monetary social contract. Far from the eyes of the growing church, the terms of the Chinese monetary system were re-written to include an item that could be easily manipulated and produced in unlimited quantity. If the kings of the earth thought debasing coins was an easy way to steal the economic energy of their citizens, they had yet to witness the full extent of Satan’s schemes.

As the ekklesia slept in Europe and Asia Minor, Satan took the opportunity in China to sow an aggressive variety of tare into the global monetary system. The following is a summary of how the use of paper money expanded from ritual sacrifices in China to domination of the global monetary system a thousand years later:

600 – 750 A.D.: “Money shops” sprang up in China as a means by which commodities of various forms could be exchanged and held in deposit for safekeeping. These money shops were among the first to develop paper promissory notes^[4] and commodity vouchers representing the assets they held. Anyone could redeem the vouchers for the actual commodity at the money shops.

750 A.D.: The negotiable draft note became an official credit instrument designed to transfer large sums of value over great distances. While not technically a monetary item, the people using it referred to it as “flying money,” and historians recognize it as a precursor to the widespread use of paper money.^[5]

750 – 1000 A.D.: Sixteen merchants in the small providence of Szechwan China issued notes denominated in a weight of iron called chiao-tzu (exchange medium).^[6] Over the next 250 years, they traded freely among the people, marking the first paper money used by the average citizen.

1000 A.D.: The chiao-tzu private paper money system failed, leaving the citizens of the Szechwan region decimated. Rather than abandon the failed system, in 1024 the imperial Sung treasury renegotiated a monetary agreement to print and issue another form of chiao-tzu notes. It was the first “government-issued” paper money.

1153: When the Chin Tartars conquered the Sung Empire, they discovered paper money and decided to adopt their own version. It too, was government-issued. However, it was the first to be protected by “legal tender” laws, which means the government can require citizens to accept it as a means of payment.

1200 – 1234: Once again, the paper money system proved unstable. As the Mongols expanded their territory, the Chin could not fund an adequate defense. In 1235, the Mongols overtook the region.

1253: Europe was concerned about the approaching Mongols and sent scouts to assess the threat. One of these scouts was a Franciscan friar named William van Ruysbroeck. During his expedition into Mongol-held Chinese territory, he became the first known Westerner to record the concept of paper money.^[7]

1271: Marco Polo also discovered Chinese paper money during his travels to the East. Upon returning to Italy, he attempted to explain its use to government and religious leaders. However, they properly identified the spiritual origin of this abomination. The Bank Note Reporter stated:

“The doge (chief magistrate of Venise) and the cardinal (Pope’s cousin) looked at these … notes in awe and dismay. The hen scratch writing was not in Latin or Greek but in a secret language, most likely the language of the devil. They proceeded to burn these notes and accused Polo of heresy.”

As a result, government leaders rejected paper money in Europe. Unfortunately, a seed was planted. Satan would bide his time, patiently waiting for the right moment to exploit the situation and allow the seed of paper money to bear its poisonous fruit.

1298: In Sir Henry Yule’s work called How the Great Kaan Causeth the Bark of Trees, Made into Something Like Paper, to Pass for Money All Over His Country, Marco Polo described at length how the Chinese manufactured paper money and how it created wealth.

“Now you have Heard the ways and means whereby the Great Kaan may have, and in fact has, more treasure than all the kings in the world; and you know all about it and the reason why.”^[8]

1370-1400: Facing a severe decline in their copper and silver reserves, the Ming Dynasty turned to paper money. Rather than lie to their people about its value, they issued the first “fiat” paper currency. “Fiat” simply means “by decree.” Fiat paper money is money because the government says it is.

1400: Legal tender laws mandated that the people could only use Ming Dynasty government paper as money. However, many people ignored the law and sought to use silver as money instead.

1400-1550: With trade routes between Europe and China decimated by the black plague, both regions were eager to re-establish trade. In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan returned to Spain from an expedition around the tip of South America loaded with Chinese merchandise. This established a new and profitable trade route known as the Spanish Galleon Trade.^[9]

1573-1661: Thousands of tons of silver were loaded onto Spanish galleons and sent to China.^[10] In return, the Spanish purchased Chinese silk, spices, porcelain, and other goods. The success of the Spanish Galleon Trade replenished China’s depleted reserves of silver.^[11]

1636: With plenty of silver to use as money, and after centuries of hardship due to failed paper money systems, an official of the Chinese Imperial Treasury denounced paper money as unfit for use in any capacity. Without government support for paper money, Chinese leaders officially abolished it in 1661.^[12]

This thousand-word summary of the first thousand-year reign of paper money doesn’t adequately convey the level of control Satan gained over the Chinese people’s economic energy through their use of it. Nor does it convey the suffering they experienced because of its repeated failures. Once again, real people with real families suffered incredible hardship because of money that was designed and controlled by the kings of the earth. God loved the Chinese people. We cannot overlook their suffering. He didn’t.

Paper Moves West

Unfortunately, paper money became a virus as contagious as the black plague–and as deadly. Paper money spread via the trade routes as travelers who encountered it became enamored with the possibilities of simply “printing” riches and wealth. The ekklesia was the only group of people who could accurately diagnose and treat this disease. Unfortunately, they remained absent from the monetary system negotiating table. The following brief historical account helps answer the question, why?

1620: A small group of Christians struck out for a new land, seeking to live according to biblical principles. They believed they could build the Kingdom of God on earth in their lifetimes.^[13] A prominent English Puritan lawyer named John Winthrop declared: “We must hold the familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make one’s condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in this work, as members of the same body.”^[14]

These settlers understood the Principles of Kingdom Building. They had the best opportunity in centuries to establish an economic and monetary system based on them. Unfortunately, without church leaders teaching them the need to oversee these systems, the settlers were left unequipped to stand against the adoption of image-based coins and paper money. As expected, the disastrous consequences directly impacted their goal to build the Kingdom of God.

1660 – 1680: The Industrial Revolution and the rise of nation-states transformed the economies of the West, including the colonies in America. Governments, banks, and the private sector formed new alliances. Desperate to support growth, fund social programs, and wage war, government officials gave central banks the exclusive right to create legal tender.

We can trace the origin of this alliance to an agreement between the Bank of the Estates of the Realm (Sweden’s central bank) and the Swedish government. Within twenty years, the Bank of England also adopted this practice. Because the British Empire dominated the global landscape, it set the stage for central-bank-issued legal tender to spread worldwide.^[15] The bankers’ alliance with the government placed them in a privileged and protected position. They began to issue paper money currency in quantities well beyond the bank’s official deposits of physical gold and silver (known as specie).

1642: Government officials in Massachusetts began debasing their specie coins to meet the needs of their expanding colony and to finance their frequent skirmishes with the French colonies in Quebec.^[16]

1690: Government officials in Massachusetts printed the first fiat paper money in the Western world. The purpose? To pay their soldiers. We cannot overlook the symbolism of this historical event in both timing and location:

• The first Christians from England settled in Massachusetts. They wrote the Mayflower Compact to establish their covenant with God to build His Kingdom in the new land.
• Seventy years later, their government leaders adopted a form of money designed by Satan to oppose building God’s Kingdom.
• The government succumbed to the lure of paper money to finance war.

The descendants of those who settled a colony that pledged to uphold God’s principles in this new land were the first to bite the paper money apple. This historical marker serves as a warning of the depth of deception and evil that Satan has embedded in the world’s monetary systems.

1700 – 1750: It was not long before other colonies followed Massachusetts. By 1740 every colony except Virginia had issued their own fiat paper money. Ten years later, Virginia also succumbed for the same reason as Massachusetts—to finance war.

1751 – 1770: The British government witnessed the carnage that paper money had brought to the colonies and issued a decree prohibiting its use as legal tender. By 1764 the British Parliament required that all outstanding paper money in the colonies be retired and replaced by specie (gold and silver coin). These coins, however, still bore the images and inscriptions of modern-day Caesars, leaving intact the generational curse associated with graven images and idols.

1775 – 1780: The Continental Congress issued fiat paper money to pay for the Revolutionary War. The note became known as the “Continental.” Local farmers and merchants, however, refused to accept it. They preferred “hard coin” (gold and silver) in exchange for their valuable goods and services because they suspected that the paper notes would be worthless after the war. They were right.

1791: After considerable debate and opposition, the United States Congress granted a twenty-year charter to the First Bank of the United States.

1810: John Adams was concerned that the new banking system appeared poised to help consolidate power within the federal government. In a letter to his friend Benjamin Rush, he wrote:

“Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course… An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time.”

1816: Once again, after tremendous debate and opposition, Congress granted a twenty-year charter to the Second Bank of the United States.

1819: Central bank mismanagement of money brought about the first nationwide depression in U.S. history.^[17] Until then, economic downturns were limited to regions where local bankers engaged in poor lending practices.

The struggle between the powers of the states and the federal government intensified. As John Adams feared, the federal government increasingly claimed the sole authority to dictate the terms of the monetary social contract. Little did he know how prophetic his words would be.

1833 – 1836: President Andrew Jackson called the central bankers “a den of vipers.” He successfully closed the Second Bank of the United States in 1836.

1862: President Lincoln’s Legal Tender Act allowed the National Treasury to issue paper money. These “greenbacks” were not immediately redeemable in gold and silver. Their purpose was to fund the Civil War.

As the historical summary outlined in this chapter shows, Satan continued, mostly unopposed, in his march to steal, kill, and destroy through the world’s monetary systems. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the world economy began to change. The Industrial Revolution transformed the economy in profound ways.

A major shift also began within the structure of monetary systems that were re-designed to support this “new economy.” It turns out that the carnage created by image-based coins and paper money had only begun. As difficult as it may be to imagine, the consequences of the ekklesia’s continued absence from monetary oversight were about to get much worse—and very personal.

Chapter 18: From Paper to Debt

“The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” Proverbs 22:7

In the early-to-mid twentieth century, several events occurred over a seventy-year period that should have provoked shouts of protest from the ekklesia. Each violated multiple biblical principles, and not just those associated with Kingdom building. Murray Rothbard’s book, A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II is an excellent source for understanding these events, which are summarized as follows:

• In 1907, the United States experienced a “banking panic,” which indirectly led to the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.
• The Fed’s “easy money” policies (relaxed lending standards) led to explosive growth in the production of goods and services in the 1920s.
• The stock market crash in October 1929 caused billions [trillions in the value of today’s dollars] of paper profits to vanish overnight.
• The Federal Reserve was ill-equipped to deal with a national economic downturn. Its policies helped usher in the Great Depression.[18]
• In the early 1930s, a series of “bank runs” occurred when people demanded that the bank give them “constitutional money,” which was gold and silver specie.
• Without enough gold to satisfy demand, banks failed across the nation.
• President Roosevelt responded by declaring a week-long “bank holiday.”
• The Emergency Banking Act and an Executive Order made it illegal for American citizens to possess more than a small quantity of physical monetary gold.
• For every twenty dollars’ worth of specie turned in, the government paid its citizens twenty new paper dollars.
• Less than a year later, the government devalued the paper money by declaring that its newly acquired gold was worth thirty-five paper dollars per ounce.
• New paper currency amended the contract printed on each note and removed all references to the paper being redeemable in gold or silver.
• In the lead-up to World War II, physical gold flowed from European countries to the United States to protect it from the Germans.
• Following the war, the United States was able to dominate the world economy because of its victory and the fact that it held most of the world’s gold.
• In 1944, the Bretton Woods Accord established the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
• The United States abused this privilege by printing dollars in excess of the gold available for backing. The European nations grew nervous and began trading their paper dollars for gold.
• By 1963 the United States’ gold reserves barely covered liabilities to foreign central
• By 1971 gold reserves had plummeted to twenty-two percent. Central banks worldwide began to move funds out of the United States and into Europe and Japan. The world had lost confidence in U.S. dollars as the reserve currency.
• On August 15, 1971, President Nixon “closed the window” on international gold convertibility. Foreign central banks could no longer redeem U.S. currency for gold. The Bretton Woods Accord collapsed.
• World leaders quickly put a new treaty in place. The Smithsonian Agreement readjusted the value of currencies worldwide based on the current economic conditions. They hoped to stabilize the currency markets by “fixing” various nations’ currency values against one another.
• In 1973, the U.S. again devalued the dollar. This act placed too much strain on the system, and the Smithsonian Agreement collapsed. Since then, nations have based the value of currencies on nothing but “confidence” in each government’s ability to manage the purchasing power of its currencies.

This Can Not Be True

After the collapse of the Smithsonian Agreement, the kings of the earth embarked on reckless monetary policies in search of a system which they could control while becoming enriched. Satan was all too happy to lead them into something more destructive. Today, all national currencies in the world have the following characteristics:

• The system is designed and managed by central authorities.
• Monetary items (dollars, yen, yuan, euros, etc.) are defined by the government via legal tender laws.
• Central banks have exclusive rights to issue monetary items.
• Monetary items are created only by issuance of a debt instrument.
• The debt instruments charge interest that must be repaid along with the principal.

Yes, it’s true. Our present monetary system creates monetary items, not by pouring metal or even printing paper, but when a bank makes a computer entry on a keyboard. That keyboard entry creates a new loan to an individual, business, or government. Each unit of money you have in your possession represents a debt owed by someone else. The implications of this are difficult for most people to grasp until they realize:

Today’s monetary system makes nearly everyone a debt slave.^[19]

It takes some time to comprehend the implications of that statement and it’s likely worse than you think. Let me explain.

The central government borrows money created by the banking system. It uses the money created with those keyboard strokes to fund much more than infrastructure and programs like social security and health care. It also regularly enters trading floors with organizations that perpetuate all sorts of evil. Abortion. Unjust war. Modern-day bread and circuses. And the list goes on…

That is not the worst of it. You are indirectly brought onto those trading floors. A portion of your economic energy goes to them in the form of taxes, and you cannot say “no.” Through tax laws, the government forces you to “strike surety” for its debt. Scripture is clear on this subject.

“Do not be among those who give pledges, among those who become guarantors for [someone else’s] debts.”

Proverbs 22:26

If you object and refuse to pay your taxes, the government will seize your property. If you continue to hold your position, your new home will either be on the streets or in prison. That is the definition of a debt slave.

Now, let me be crystal clear. I do not encourage you to become a tax protestor and refuse to pay your taxes. To do so would be pointless and foolish. The kings of the earth will always have their monetary systems. As you will discover in Part 3 of this book, we should focus our energy elsewhere. Therefore, Jesus’ advice to Peter, “however, so that we do not offend them…” still holds true today.  

As a member of the ekklesia, it is your responsibility to know the terms of today’s monetary social contract. This book was written in part to expose a system that is currently draining you of resources that were meant to build the Kingdom of God. Absent this knowledge, you are powerless to change the terms and create a new system based on God’s principles. Regardless of whether you are a national leader, mother, father, or young adult, you now have an opportunity to participate in changing those terms.

The need to make these changes has taken on a new sense of urgency. In 2020, the world took on trillions of dollars of new debt to counter the economic downturn associated with a pandemic. The enormity of this new debt has pushed the global debt-based monetary system to the verge of collapse. All debt-based monetary systems contain a structural flaw that makes a collapse unavoidable. The following illustration will demonstrate why:

• A bank extends you a personal loan for $10,000 at 5% interest. It is a balloon loan, with payment of the principal and interest due one year later.
• The $10,000 is created and given to you when you sign the loan papers, and an entry is made in the bank’s computer.
• One year later, you owe $10,500.
• That $500 in interest must be paid with debt-based money.
• As a result, somewhere, a person, business, or government must create a loan so that the money to pay the interest can come into existence.
• A person, business, or government then owes interest on that new $500 of debt.

Now, consider that all the world’s money is created through the issuance of debt. Interest accrues on the debt. Therefore, the system must issue a constant supply of new debt to create new money to service the interest on the money already in circulation. This cycle never ends. Both debt and the supply of money must always continue to expand. If it stops, the system will collapse in a massive downward spiral of debt defaults.

This is the description of a Ponzi scheme.

You may ask, “Can’t people and governments just pay off their loans?” Actually, no. Where will they get the money to pay back both the principal and interest? It would have to be created using… debt. Even if it were possible, paying off a loan causes the money that was created when it was issued to disappear. That means if everyone paid off their loans, the entire money supply (except paper cash and coins) would vanish. The system is insane.

This Ponzi scheme structure of debt-based monetary systems requires a companion economic system to ensure continual economic “growth.” It does not matter what the economy produces. It could be cars or computers—or pornography. With a debt-based monetary system in place, the economy must grow to service the new debt issued to do what? Provide money to grow the economy!  

If growth stops, or worse yet, the economy goes into recession (shrinking output) or depression (demand destruction), businesses will fail and default on their loans. People will default on their credit cards. And guess what? Debt defaults have the same effect as if the loans are repaid. The money disappears!

This reality has left today’s central banks in a major bind. They must inject hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars whenever an external shock threatens to slow the economy. And during these downturns, who is the primary borrower that the system relies on to “stimulate” the economy? The central government? That is what bankers and government officials tell us. However, the “borrower of last resort” is you, the taxpayer.

This system is fundamentally flawed, and it is evil.

Since the financial crisis of 2008, the world’s central banks have been working overtime to hold this scheme together. The recent pandemic and geopolitical turmoil have done nothing but magnify the problem. The system is close to its saturation point. The central bankers recognize the need to transition to a new system before losing control of the monster they created. The question is, how will they do it, and under what economic conditions?

Unfortunately, Satan wasn’t satisfied with dominating the world’s monetary systems. He also managed to embed the traditions of men deep within the world’s economic systems. He combined debt-based money and economics with such stealth that today’s ekklesia has fully embraced one of these economic systems—even though it systematically destroys the identity of God’s people with predictably tragic results.

Chapter 19: Economics – Meet Charles Darwin

“Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:1-3 (NKJV)

Congratulations! Because you made it through the last two chapters, you know more about monetary history and the workings of our present system than 99% of all people on earth. It may be far more than you ever thought you wanted to know. However, you now understand why global debt is continuously in the news and how it has let to what the kings of the earth are calling the “Great Reset.” You know that, once again, God has presented the ekklesia with an opportunity to incorporate His Principles of Kingdom Building into a new monetary system.

Most importantly, you understand that this time the ekklesia must take its place at the negotiating table. Now that we have exposed the traditions of men that are deeply embedded within our monetary systems, it’s time to turn our attention to today’s modern economic systems. Get ready. These systems are not what has been taught by the education system of the kings of the earth.

As previously discussed, after Pentecost, the church embraced an economic system that was built according to the Principles of Kingdom Building. While it was in place, the Kingdom of God grew exponentially. Unfortunately, over time the ekklesia drifted away from the economics of the Kingdom. This enabled Satan to unleash the spirits of control and competition on the development of modern economic systems. As a result, today we have two dominant theories for creating and managing value within a modern economy. It should be no surprise that one of these two spirits dominates each system.

The first economic system we will examine is socialism. As you may have guessed, the spirit of control dominates its activity. In this system, leaders use their authority to take ownership of the means of production of both natural and human resources.

Socialism violates numerous biblical principles. It prohibits each citizen from freely choosing where and how to deploy their labor. The state controls their economic choices, taking whatever portion of economic energy is necessary to advance its goals. It intentionally limits resources that flow into organizations that protect the emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of its citizens. The last thing Socialists want is to encourage a person to be secure in their identity as an imager of God, as this is both empowering and liberating.

Under socialism, state leaders see themselves as gods who supply the people’s basic needs. Like Caesar, these privileged and power-hungry leaders treat the nation’s citizens as strangers, extracting economic energy from them to build their own kingdoms. As a result, God’s imagers are unable to walk in the fullness of the gifts, talents, and wisdom that He gave them. Like Pharaoh during Joseph’s time, the state cannot efficiently allocate and manage natural and human resources. Production stagnates. The system traps people in a downward spiral of hopelessness and despair. Economies built on socialism often suffer a slow and painful death.

Despite its history of misery and death, many people are attracted to the idea of socialism. Why? There are two primary reasons. First, it is the only system offered as an alternative to capitalism. When a person is presented with an either/or choice, it is easy for the opposition to sell their alternative simply by pointing out the flaws of the existing system and the harm it is causing to people and the environment. This opens the door for some Christians to justify socialism as they point to the following verses in Acts 2 and 4:

“And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”

Acts 2:44-45

“And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.”

Acts 4:32-35

When Christians cite these verses, they miss a first principle of the Christian life. God gave mankind free choice as the basis for all relationships. Never in the early church were people compelled, by the church or government, to turn over the possessions that God had given them to steward. They did it from hearts connected to their new Kingdom as they embraced the principles of cooperation, stewardship, abundance, and identity, and recognized the need in their present circumstances.

Furthermore, Christians create an unresolvable contradiction when they cite these Scriptures as justification for socialism. On the one hand, they acknowledge the success of the Principles of Kingdom Building. However, those principles are incompatible with state control over the means of production. Cooperation cannot thrive in an environment of coercion and control. This reality alone invalidates a key tenet of socialism.

God assigns the responsibility of stewardship to each individual. He also empowers each person to develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit, who will help them discern God’s will as they work with fellow imagers and deploy the resources they acquire. A secular state discards individual stewardship and replaces it with state ownership. This invalidates another key tenet of socialism.

The state believes that resources are scarce, and as such, must be carefully managed by those with superior intellect. This idea directly contradicts the principle of abundance and thus invalidates a third key tenet of socialism. 

A cursory examination of socialist economic systems shows that they nullify the very Principles of Kingdom Building that were active in the Acts 2-4 economy. Therefore, we can conclude that Scripture does not support socialism.

The West’s Greatest Challenge

Now we turn our attention to the second major economic model widely practiced today—capitalism. Most people in the Western world are taught, since they are old enough to run a lemonade stand, that “Capitalism is the best economic system ever devised by man. It has created more prosperity and lifted a greater number of people out of poverty than any other economic system in history.” This is true. However, let’s examine more closely how and why it achieved this distinction.

First, the statement, “it’s the best system ever devised by man,” carries undertones of humanism for a reason, as you will soon learn. Second, the claim that capitalism has “lifted a greater number of people out of poverty than any other economic system,” while technically accurate, is only because of opportunity. Although many nations today have adopted some form of capitalism, none have adopted an economic system based solely on the Principles of Kingdom Building.

I submit that if we could compare the production of abundance (according to Jesus’ definition) in the early church with that produced by today’s form of capitalism, I believe God’s system would prove to be vastly superior on a per-capita basis. The official definition of capitalism will help us understand why:

“[Capitalism is] an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”

Capitalism was initially built upon several core principles. The first two are:

• Private ownership of the means of production (capital goods).
• Free choice in what to produce, whom to sell to, and at what price.

Now we come to a major reason that I wrote the first eighteen chapters of this book. They established a theological and historical framework to understand the damage inflicted on humanity when the spirits of control and competition drive humans to act out of fear of scarcity. I have addressed the spirit of control and its relationship to socialism. Now it is time to turn to the spirit of competition and its relationship to capitalism.

As difficult as it may be for many to accept, competition and ownership, as understood and practiced by many, if not most followers of Jesus, are the leaven in capitalism. Unfortunately, this leaven has so thoroughly permeated the system that competition is now the primary driver behind capital creation and acquisition, as well as management of the flow of goods and services. Furthermore, ownership has replaced stewardship, turning the heart inward to deploy the fruit of competition to serve the “owner,” who we see as ourselves. Meanwhile, the bride of the true owner of everything – the Lord Jesus Christ—settles for leftovers given in the form of tithes and offerings.

Over the last century, competition in the marketplace has become so intense that businesses still operating today are seen as the “winners” in a marketplace game characterized by “survival of the fittest.” This “neo-Darwinian” form of capitalism has become so pervasive that it influences how humans relate to one another in nearly every aspect of life.

• We align with political parties and compete for power.
• We compete with our neighbors for jobs in our communities.
• Church leaders compete with other churches to fill seats in their venue.

I must tread carefully as I address this next subject. While healthy competition through participation in sports can be a noble pursuit, it is also fraught with danger. In most of the developed world, star players in professional sports become idols. People spend hundreds of dollars on “merch.” Millions become depressed when their team loses the “big game.” Riots even break out in cities where they win the “big game.”

In smaller communities, loyalty to high school sports teams creates an environment of tribalism and division between families and communities. When I was growing up in rural Nebraska, high school sports teams defined the boundaries of who you could associate with. Asking a girl from a rival town out on a date could jeopardize your physical well-being. That is not an exaggeration.

You don’t have to take my word for any of this. Consider your own experience. Nearly everyone reading this book has attended a sporting event, whether a little league baseball game or a professional football game. I ask you, have you witnessed any of the following behavior there?

Idolatry, strife, outbursts of anger, envy, drunkenness, disputes, dissensions, or factions.

Most would answer “yes” to many, if not all of them. Consider that these characteristics describe many of the relational struggles of those outlined in Part 1 of this book. Some of you may recognize that these behaviors are listed in Galatians 5, just before the “fruit of the Spirit.” There is no denying that this “fruit of the flesh” is often manifested where there is intense competition. This reality should cause us great concern because of what Paul said immediately after listing those behaviors.

“Those who practice such things [idolatry, strife, outbursts of anger, envy, drunkenness, disputes, dissensions, or factions] will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Holy Spirit, help us now.

It is tempting to rationalize a way around what Scripture clearly states about the dangers of competition. Everyone living in the Western world has a personal stake in supporting capitalism, despite the flaws that enabled it to become perverted beyond its original form and exploited by those with power and money. It’s all we know. And now Scripture is challenging the very foundation of that model. We need help to break down the walls we erect when faced with something that requires an entire paradigm shift in our thinking. We find that help in Galatians 5.

“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Galatians 5:13-18 (NKJV)

These two types of “fruit” identify the kingdom that a person’s spiritual image aligns with and, thus, which kingdom their labor will build. Just before listing them, Paul does two things. First, he points us to Jesus’ command to love our neighbor—the very outcome the Principles of Kingdom Building will produce. Second, he directly addresses the danger of the spirit of competition.

The Greek word for “bite” means “to wound the soul, cut, lacerate, rend with reproaches.” The Greek definition of the word that is translated as “devour” is “to strip one of his goods.” Throughout this passage, Paul also uses words like “disputes” and “dissensions” (depending on your translation) and ends his teaching with this statement:

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”

Galatians 5:25-26 (emphasis mine)

The Greek word translated “challenge” means to “combat or contest with.” Therefore, we can conclude that Paul’s teaching draws a sharp contrast between cooperation and competition. When applied to economics, it is nothing short of an indictment of neo-Darwinian capitalism.

• Neo-Darwinian capitalism manifests the same behaviors that Scripture tells us, in no uncertain terms, won’t simply hinder us, but will prevent us from inheriting the Kingdom of God.
• A companion debt-based monetary system is designed to feed its growth and destruction.
• Nowhere in Scripture will you find a command or principle that directs God’s people to compete with one another to acquire resources of any kind.
• The fruits of the flesh, manifested by neo-Darwinian capitalism, would have destroyed the fledgling nation of Israel and the early church as they competed with their neighbors for basic needs to survive.

This critique of capitalism is likely to generate considerable pushback from some people. They may turn to talking points such as the fact that competition has historically driven down prices and made goods and services more affordable to more people than systems based on control. They may point to the proliferation of innovative new products that would not have existed had it not been for competition in the marketplace.

I understand those arguments and concede the points! However, they do not settle the debate. A less corrupt form of capitalism than we have today may be the best system the kings of the earth can offer. And yes, because of that, we must interface with that system. However, followers of Jesus can, and in fact are commanded, to do better. [20] As you will soon see, we have the tools today to create a system that does not compromise God’s principles. It can free us from the leaven in Neo-Darwinian capitalism and the disastrous consequences we have experienced by embracing it, beginning with falling prey to…

Century of the Self

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the media’s increasing influence over the public threw gasoline on the fires of neo-Darwinian capitalism. The remainder of this chapter combines what we have learned thus far with observations from the award-winning 2002 BBC documentary The Century of the Self.[21]

This documentary tells the story of how one man worked with businesses, banks, and the government to change people’s buying habits by manipulating their perceived identities. It is no coincidence that the economic boom it generated created an environment where a debt-based monetary system evolved along with its counterpart—the neo-Darwinian capitalist economic model.

The documentary begins during World War I with the story of Edward Bernays, the nephew of the notorious psychologist Sigmund Freud. Freud was known for his view that human behavior is based on repressed animal feelings, which he believed was a product of evolution. Notice that Charles Darwin has already entered the picture. While highly controversial at the time, Bernays accepted his uncle’s theories and used them in an entirely new way.

During World War I, the U.S. government retained the young Bernays to promote the war effort through the “Committee on Public Information.” He was so successful that, at the age of twenty-six, President Wilson asked him to attend the Paris Peace Conference. Before the conference, Bernays helped craft a message portraying Wilson as a liberator of the people. His message received unprecedented accolades. Bernays reasoned that if such propaganda worked during wartime, it should also work during peacetime. 

Before Bernays entered the picture, advertising concentrated on providing information to influence buying behavior. Facts meant something. However, when Bernays returned to the United States, he took advertising in a new direction. He started the first “public relations” company in New York, using Freud’s ideas to create a framework to make money by manipulating the “unconscious thoughts” of the masses.

Bernays crafted messages to alter how human beings viewed themselves. He believed that if you could get people to connect their identity to a product by manipulating their emotions, you could get them onto a trading floor where they would hand over their hard-earned money for nearly anything. It’s easy now to see Satan’s method of operation at work, is it not?

The first broad-based public experiment Bernays undertook was to attack a long-standing and deeply embedded cultural taboo—women smoking in public. He approached the challenge by framing cigarette smoking as a symbol of male power. He then championed women who smoked publicly as challengers to male power and oppression. The tag line of his campaign? “Torches of freedom.”

Bernays combined a deeply held value in the post-WWI culture (freedom) with an act of rebellion and manipulated women into believing that the two were the same. It directly appeals to Genesis 3:16b: “Yet your desire will be for your husband.” The goal was to separate women from their identity as free imagers of God and then enslave them through an addiction that undermined their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

It worked. Soon, it was socially acceptable for women to smoke in public. In reality, it had nothing to do with rights or equality. Bernays simply did it as an experiment to manipulate humans through feelings and separate them from their identity. The cigarette companies stood ready to capture these orphaned women and turn them into cigarette buying machines. His experiment was diabolical in both design and execution.

With his first commercial “success” behind him, Bernays broadened the number of markets in which to deploy his scheme. He created advertising messages that linked irrelevant products to the image people wished to project. It did not matter whether the image was a lie. All that mattered was that it increased their status with their friends or within the community.

Soon companies created new magazines to promote specific images that men or women wanted to project of themselves. Film stars began to endorse products. Moviemakers began to place products in predominant scenes in their films. Car manufacturers made their products a symbol of male sexuality. Women were encouraged to express themselves through their clothing. As a result, throughout the early 1920s, huge new department stores were established across the nation to accommodate the demand produced by this new exploitation of capitalism.

Competition to Control the Masses

On October 29, 1929, in a single day, the stock market crash undid an American economy and culture that Bernays and his business partners had painstakingly created over more than a decade. As the Great Depression set in, people stopped buying things based on wants and desires. Out of necessity, they returned to buying only what they needed. It seemed that the era of consumerism was dead.

Politicians in Washington D.C. picked up on Bernays’ methods to “influence” the masses. They planned to position big government as the people’s savior from the Great Depression. Meanwhile, big business had its own plan. For the next twenty years, an ideological battle ensued around who could best use Bernays’ manipulative tactics to advance their agendas. The Roosevelt administration wanted to sell the public on government spending, which would draw power to big government. Big business wanted to entice the public back into consumerism, which would restore lost profits.

The public was given a choice. Either accept capitalism and the manipulative behavior of business owners within the free market or allow a quasi-socialist government to gain more control over the economy through regulation and public works projects. It was a “binary choice” set up to manipulate the masses, and it worked wonderfully for nearly one hundred years.

When the people chose the New Deal and more central government control, big business countered by creating the National Association of Manufacturers, whose stated goal was to restore the connection between democracy and capitalism. However, Bernays had come up with a new tactic for them.

He proposed that companies longer focus on creating an emotional attachment between citizens and their products. Instead, they should create an emotional attachment between citizens and the company itself. Enter the era of “corporate branding.” Tying individuals’ identities, and thus, their pocketbooks to a company brand became successful beyond any CEO’s dreams.

I recall clearly how well this strategy played out in my small hometown in rural Nebraska, where kids argued which was better—John Deere or Case, and Ford, Chevy, or Dodge. It didn’t matter if the products provided the same utility. Nearly every family developed loyalty to one or the other. Corporate branding shifted the debate away from function and reliability to how well their advertising tied family or individual identity to their brand.

Businesses soon learned how to connect this activity to avarice, creating an insatiable appetite that caused people to connect themselves to a company’s identity. When successful, meaningless features hyped as “must-have innovations” made the cash registers ring. In America, “keeping up with the Joneses” made it easy to separate people from their identity, common sense, and money.

Slowly but surely, free will and the ability to resist marketing machines and social pressure became a thing of the past.^[22] The spirit of competition set off an identity war. People connected their self-worth to their ability to proudly flash the latest toys and show that they lived the “American Dream” better than their neighbors. Today, businesses have made an art out of connecting people’s identities to their corporate brand. From sneakers to cell phones, the logo is often now more important than the utility value of the product.

Friends, it is all just one giant manipulation by Satan to separate us from our identity as God’s imagers and stewards of Creation. As soon as we fall prey to it, we repeat Eve’s sin. We reach out and take control of what was never ours, claiming ownership for our own purposes. At that moment, Satan wins. He deceives us into thinking we deserve to build our own little kingdom where we selfishly devour the fruit of our labor.[23] Our economic energy then builds his kingdom.

I trust you now clearly see the spirits of control and competition at work in both socialism and capitalism. Satan is happy to let us argue about which is better, as both accomplish his goals of image separation, ownership, environmental destruction, and destruction of family, community, and national identity. In so doing, both systems separate us from access to the wealth and abundance that the true owner – our Lord and King Jesus Christ – intended for us all to enjoy. It’s time to stop falling for Satan’s trap and admit that both socialism and Neo-Darwinian capitalism are traditions of men that God never intended His people to use to build His Kingdom on earth. Only by doing so will we begin the process of seeking something better for the body of Christ, and by extension, for all of humanity.

[1] Fiat Paper Money, Amazon.com

^[2] Deuteronomy 18:10-11, 1 Samuel 28:3

^[3] A Study and Translation of Tang Lin’s Ming-pao Chi, 254

^[4] Promissory Note, Investopedia

^[5] Lien-sheng Yang, Money and Credit in China, 51

^[6] Lien-sheng Yang, Money and Credit in China, 52-53

^[7] Ruysbroek, The Mission of Friar William Rubruk: His Journey to the Court of the Great Kahn Omgoke, 1253-1255

^[8] The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 423-426

^[9] Dr. Eugene Lyon, “Track of the Manila Galleons”, National Geographic

^[10] Ralph T. Foster, Fiat Paper Money, 49

^[11] China and Eastern Trade: Brief Notices of the Earliest Intercourse of British Ships with China. (1836), 97

^[12] Lien-sheng Yang, Money and Credit in China, 68

^[13] Marshall/Manuel, The Light and the Glory, (1977), 145

^[14] Winthrop Papers, Volume II, 292-295

^[15] John Kenneth Galbraith, Money: Whence it Came, Where it Went, 1975.

^[16] Murray Rothbard, History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II, 50

^[17] Murray Rothbard, History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II, 123-124

[18] https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great_depression

^[19] Proverbs 22:7

[20] John 18:36, Romans 12:2

[21] Century of the Self – Happiness Machines, Documentary by the BBC, 2002, YouTube

^[22]  https://bettermarketing.pub/free-will-willpower-are-becoming-a-thing-of-the-past-heres-what-you-can-do-about-it-58799091fb8a

[23] Luke 12:13-21