Final point to slavery with BAAL'S MONEY From a secular standpoint, money evolves out of barter. In the most primitive conditions people trade goods and services among themselves. This is inconvenient for a number of reasons, one being to find someone who has what you want and wants what you have. The economists call this the double coincidence of wants. Men therefore, look for some common denominator of value. This becomes the medium of exchange and eliminates this need for the double coincidence of wants.It then becomes possible to trade what you have for a purchasing medium and hold it until you can find somebody who has what you want and in turn is willing to accept that purchasing medium. A requirement of this process is that the common denominator has to be freely acceptable to all of the participants in the marketplace. In the Western world that good in terms of which all others are measured is gold, particularly in international trading. Silver served this purpose to a greater extent in domestic trading. Once the medium of exchange was identified, then the government knew what to tax. Governments could then extract value to support themselves and ultimately enslave the people. The means by which governments take control over this common denominator of value is to put their mark upon it. It is at that point that the inflationary process begins. Sooner or later the government insists that men deal with the metal and only the metal that has its mark on it. This becomes the coin of the realm. Any other purchasing medium is made illegal. By that simple step, the government gains control over the common denominator metal in its function as money. But there are still limitations to the degree that the monetary system contains something of substance, particularly a substance over which the government has no control. For this reason the government has a vested interest in having the people rely more on its mark than on the substance. Keep in mind that one of the most pervasive programs of government is conquest and enslavement. During the Roman period, for instance, the mark on the money was the image of Caesar. Because the people were more reliant on the image than the substance, Caesar was able to progressively corrupt the substance, then remove the substance and otherwise debauch the currency. The practice consisted of melting down and/or mixing the gold or silver with a metal of lesser value. Hence, the statement in Isaiah 1:22, "Thy silver is become dross. . " The coins are then reissued, keeping the surplus metal to make more coins. In this way the government wound up with more images than at the beginning. This was a progressive practice. The currency contained less and less of real value as the government would continue successive rounds of debasement and the people became more and more reliant on the mark. There were issues of coin in which the process went from gold to silver to bronze and finally iron, all having the same image and claiming to be the same denomination. Even the iron was debased to the point of gravel. In all of this the government was the beneficiary of the confiscated value. It was, however, very inconvenient, due to the mechanics of the metallic coinage. The requirement that the government physically handle the coins in order to melt and restrike made this a costly process. Once the printing press came along, it was a new ball game. It then became a simple matter of transferring the mark to which the people had already become accustomed, to paper. Once the people accepted the mark on the paper, it was a small next step to remove the original substance altogether. At that point they were left with nothing but paper images. That eliminated the difficulty of having to call in the coin in order to debase the currency. All that is necessary is to print more of the paper images. This makes it possible to corrupt the money more rapidly and much more thoroughly. It comes to an end when the paper is worth no more after it is printed than before. As that point is approached, the people wake up to what is happening, and they refuse to deal in the money any longer. Monetary reform takes place when the people repudiate the currency. Then the government is forced to institute a monetary reform. Otherwise, it has lost its hold on the people. At the point of repudiation, the people begin to trade with one another by barter. This makes it impossible to quantify transactions from a tax standpoint. The government has then lost its ability to maintain itself. Not only has it lost its ability to tax, but since its money is refused by the people, it cannot play the spending game any longer either. Under these circumstances it is clearly in the government's best interest to have monetary reform. This point usually comes as no surprise to the authorities because they knew what was going on all the time. The government is, therefore, generally prepared to implement the reform and thus minimize the time during which the government has lost control. Generally the reform consists of some multiple of the old unit to one of the new unit. The new unit may even be called the same thing, but it will be distinguished so that the the people can tell the difference. It may be called something else. This has the advantage of fostering trust since the new ' unit has no history of being untrustworthy. This is something like relabeling snake oil. The snake oil salesman either has to change his labels often or keep on the move. The government cannot move on. The important thing is that every label is a mark, and every mark, a graven image. To some degree both metallic and paper money suffer the same drawbacks to inflation. That drawback consists of the fact that as the end approaches, the weight in volume of the paper required to do business becomes so great that people begin to smell a rat. This has happened several times. A good example is the inflation in Germany between 1919 and 1923, at the end of which it took up to 4,000,000,000 D.M. to 'buy a loaf of bread. It began with 1 D.M. buying a loaf of bread. In that instance the government left those who trusted in the money with 1/4,000,000,000 of their original value. Inflation, then, is a "rip-off ' of monumental proportions. The paper which is something of substance tends to tell tales on the powers that be. Reality exposes unreality. This is the primary reason for the hatred of gold by those in authority. The substance gives the people an indication that something is wrong. It provides visual and quantitative cues. For those with eyes to see, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. To the degree that the people are forearmed against inflation it becomes less effective at "ripping them off." If inflation made a quantum leap with the advent of the printing press, the next quantum leap is fairly obvious. It is to go from paper units to accounting units without paper, a credit system. In an accounting system nothing is of substance, not even paper, but simply debits and credits. All of this is made possible by computers. The increasingly popular eredit card is the best example for the present. The international equivalent of the credit card is the Special Drawing Right, the S.D.R. As with other transitions in this inflationary flimflam, the S.D.R. began by being tied to something of value in the same way that paper currencies began by being tied to metallic monetary units. As with the paper transition, the thing of value is eventually removed as the base of the system. As gold was withdrawn as backing for our domestic currency, so gold is being withdrawn as a standard of value for the S.D.R. in international accounts. Once you have S.D.R.s, then you no longer need printing presses or paper. The inflationary process becomes much more difficult to identify. We can see the havoc that this difficulty is raising in international markets. This difficulty is revealed at the point of and by monetary substance. While that substance is only paper, we can still see the individual currencies under attack. The substance is the indicator or warning that there is something wrong. Since the government is responsible for what is wrong, it doesn't really want to correct the problem. No government in history has ever fought inflation because governments cause inflation. However, the game requires that the governments pay lip service to the fight against inflation. Without deception, the people would quickly get into a substance that would protect them from the practice. A necessary part of the game then is deception. People have to be deceived, or the system doesn't work. In international markets we see this in fluctuating currencies. This gives all of the governments involved a vested interest in eliminating their own currency. It is at the point of currency conversion that it becomes obvious that something is wrong. What we are looking at is the death of Western world currencies (including Japan) more or less simultaneously and in a cyclically downward spiral. Where the monetary authorities are concerned, it is obvious that what is needed is an accounting system on the domestic front as well. That would be a system of no substance, not even paper, in order to hide what is going on. According to John Maynard Keynes, "There is no more sure or certain way to overturn the existing social order than to debauch the currency, for it enlists all the hidden forces of economics on the side of destruction, and in a way that not one man in a hundred can detect." Before this domestic credit system will be of any value internationally, however, there needs to be a common unit of account. A possible interim step, therefore, is a common currency for the Western world, quite possibly a paper currency. That currency will establish a common unit of account or a common number system. This would reverse the monetary impact of the confounding of the language at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:7). All of this is leading to the ultimate numbering system of the fourth kingdom of Daniel (Dan. 7:23- 25). It is these debits and credits and governments' vested interest in them wherein resides the inherent link between taxation and numbering. Not only is this made clear Biblically, but it is clear in the history of the world, at least the history of the Western world, as well. This numbering process is the means by which the government controls the people. Where, then, are we on this road to corruption? Presently we see the Western world currencies all losing value, more or less simultaneously. Any appearance of stability in the process is just that, an appearance. It is only apparent relative to currencies that are declining faster. All of the currencies are going down. A possible and likely next step may well be that the chaos and stagnation or possible decline in the living standard may be resolved by a common currency. This, no doubt, would be offered to us as a panacea to eliminate the chaos and bring back prosperity. And in the short run it may even have that effect. Inherent in any common currency system is a common power structure. We will take a closer look at this aspect in another chapter. The important thing here is that a common currency will mean that everyone everywhere will be "ripped off" at once. The likely impact of that common accounting unit will be continued inflation. It will still be a mark, only then a mark that is held in common by the Western world. It will still be the work of man's hands and subject to his control. And, indeed, it will be controlled for the purpose of gaining and consolidating power. It will just be a bigger and more universal means of stealing the wealth and enslaving the people. This would be an interim step allowing time for the computer technology, which is already qualitatively adequate, to gain the distribution required for a universal credit system. The timing of all this is just about right, given current rates of inflation and the way that those rates of inflation would be mirrored by a common currency. By the time the common currency becomes suspect and repudiated by the people, the ultimate monetary reform of the age would be ready for implementation. All computer transactions would be cleared through one central computer which would keep track of everything. Whether or not we see, at that point, a numbering system where the number is actually placed on the person, we would certainly be close to such a system. Whether by laser or electronic tattooing that shows up in a special light or doesn't show up at all but is simply recordable by magnetic sensors, the technology is already here. 0nce there is a total credit system, the only complaint that is left is the possibility of losing the card. The obvious answer is to put the number right on the person. 0nce that is achieved, there is no way to go beyond that ability and power. Thus, the corruption would be complete from a secular perspective and, we know, from a Biblical standpoint as well. That will be a system that contains nothing of substance. That will be a system that God's people shouldn't and need not be caught up in (Rev.14:9-11). That will be a system totally consistent with our present direction. That is where the present corruption is taking us. It isn't some future that is an apparition and irrelevant now. It is a future that is in harmony with the corruption that is taking place right now, We rationalize,"If I don't deal with people by this means, how am I going to survive?"; "If I don't use paper money, what else is there?" That rationalization answers itself, for that is precisely the ultimate question that will be put to the saints. When the alternative is beheading (Rev.20:4), the question becomes very real: Without this number, how will I survive?" There is an answer, and it could apply now just as well as then. In most respects that rationalization is no better now than it will be then. The fact that we make the statement, "How else can I get along; therefore I'll accept the mark of the beast," will be no justification. The prevailing and final problem from a monetary standpoint is a reliance on the work of man's hands, a reliance on the flesh, rather than a reliance on God's provision. In this sense, our monetary system is already the "mark of the beast." We have a tendency to console ourselves that things are not really that bad, that it is acceptable to go on as we are, to permit or even to be a part of what is happening. Therefore we continue to deal with one another in the monetary system of Babylon just as though everything was all right. We might note, in this connection an argument from Scripture that would seem to have greater relevance here than to the subject where it is most often used namely the stumbling block argument. (1 Cor. 8:7, 9-13). This argument is often directed toward drinking. Our point here is that it applies at least as well to our handling of money. Whatever our attitude may be toward our presence here on earth during the reign of the beast, whether we are here at that time or not, if we are caught up now in a practice that we may be able to handle and escape from and there are those who will stumble because of our refusal to come out of Babylon (Rev. 18:4), their acceptance of the mark of the beast will be on our hands (Ezek. 3:18). The stumbling block argument would seem to ask us once again, not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of those around us: What's keeping you? JAMES JAY FERRIS