29 August 2023
First, a message to those who have been trying to reach the SouthFront website. It's a bunch of folks telling the truth about the war in Ukraine. Their address was confiscated by the US government, but it's back up again here with a different URL (southfront.press).
On with our regularly scheduled post...
As Covenant believers, we have a foot in two realms of existence. We can surely understand the fallen realm, as we remain subject to its limitations. However, we also see with spiritual eyes the moral truth that cannot be reduced to mere facts. Further, we can see spiritual movements and understand how God is not limited by our fleshly reality. Our God has promised to reconfigure reality to suit His purposes, and routinely does so. That's built into the Covenant.
For humans outside the Covenant, they already have serious problems understanding their reality without miracles. Most people do not understand, for example, why crypto currency cannot be used as money. On the other hand, moving ordinary fiat currencies into a computer, as electronic credits, is the future of our financial system.
As the linked article notes, there has been a very longstanding human legal argument that property is property, but money is not property. I can come to your home and reclaim any property that I've loaned you, and it's perfectly lawful. If you buy a stolen car, the real owner can take it as soon as they find it, and you lose everything. But if I try to recover cash I've loaned you, it's theft. Property can be wholly unique, but cash is wholly fungible. The existence of serial numbers on currency doesn't change this. Crypto currency is traceable like unique property; it is not fungible like money.
We can understand that. We can also understand how the human world outside the Covenant cannot imagine a way to build economic prosperity without the rules of credit and money supply. The likes of Bitcoin cannot be used in a credit system such as ours. The linked article goes on at length why not. Most people do not understand the distinction between money and credit, and how they play off against each other in our economy: "money has a general and permanent value, while credit has a particular and precarious value."
Fiat currency is the latter; it is credit, not actual money. The linked article favors the use of precious metals as money, but recognizes it is wholly unlikely to happen. Please note that, while prices in credit/currency have fluctuated greatly in human history, the value of basic commodities priced in gold has remained virtually unchanged for centuries.
The author offers the same complaints as every other economic libertarian about fiat currencies and the new Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). He appeals to legal precedent and global customs regarding money and credit. The problem is that oppressive elites are not bound by such things unless they choose to play by those rules. They have already ditched the rules in some other areas; what could keep them from doing it with money and credit?
Just because it won't work by the old rules does not prevent the banking elite from changing to a new set of agreed rules. Indeed, we should expect the common confusion of the people about the current system, with the certainty of confusion about the new system, to be in the elites' favor. That it may be wholly impractical will not stop them.
The prospects on the human level are not good at all. But the decisions of human oppressors cannot tie the hands of our God. His ways will eventually overtake any man-made system, one way or another. What can we do to prepare for His ways to crush human folly?
Taking the whole picture together, the most important thing you can do is invest your current credit liquidity (American dollars) in real property. If your convictions lead you to buy real estate, go ahead. For most of us, that's out of reach. The next best thing is to purchase things you know you can use, regardless of whether you actually end up keeping any of it. They can be bartered. The point is to be faithful with the resources He grants you, and the best way to do that is to prepare for a broad range of possibilities.
So, buy stuff that will work when the system does not: hand-powered tools, bikes, guns, precious metals (I would emphasize silver unless you have an awful lot of money), etc. If you live in rural areas, think about animals as transportation and food, structures to house them, or the means to grow crops, or to harvest natural resources. If you have a high confidence in the petroleum supply where you live, then think about what kind of vehicle you can use and maintain.
I prefer to de-emphasize food storage unless you can afford to invest in serious long-term storage facilities. Even canned food has a shelf-life. I'm not saying don't keep a stock of canned goods, but that it's not a major concern except for short term use against economic shocks. Thus, you might consider keeping a rotating stock; don't just buy and forget about it in your storage bunker.
The focus is not actual survival, but serving the Kingdom if you do survive. Yet, none of this advice is peculiar to the Covenant; it would be the same to anyone. The issue with the Covenant is first and foremost trusting the Lord enough to stay faithful to the Covenant. In your own mind as a believer, you must remain aware of the tension between Covenant boundaries and the reasoning of outsiders who run human government and corporations. If you walk in your convictions, embrace the outcomes, knowing that your life is already forfeited to the Cross.
At the same time, be aware that Jehovah does keep His promises. Those who obey typically experience miracles of support for what matters to God. Whatever it is that devours everyone else will exclude you. I can testify that the Lord is far more indulgent than you can imagine, granting your prayers for things that really don't matter, simply because it is His nature and promise to the faithful. I've struggled at times to transfer property to others to avoid wasting His generous supply. In the past few years, I've simply given away stuff I thought I wanted, but which turned out to be superfluous. That's how rich our Father is to His children.
Do not fear the coming economic collapse. Prepare to exploit it for His glory.
Comments
DarkMirror
The other thing with crypto is that there's a usage gap for the technology, and that filters out folks who can't be bothered. Maybe that's to their benefit? Like you pointed out, it's just another possible point of outside control, not to mention it'll go poof after the next Carrington event.
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