Worried
About Your Investments?
Place All
Your 'Stock' In Other People Instead
by Pastor
Paul J. Bern
For a
website view, click
here :-)
I
stream videos on my computer in the evening when I'm not busy with
the on-line ministry God has
entrusted me with. I don't bother with cable or satellite TV, they
want too much money for those subscriptions, especially the broadband
providers like Comcast and Charter. One of the social media outlets I
use is You Tube (not a plug or an ad here, OK?), where there exists a
proliferation of survivalist and/or “prepping” channels, as well
as many more devoted to hawking the benefits of investing in silver
and gold instead of stocks, bonds, futures or commodities, etc. The
common theme of all these videos is that the US dollar is going to
crash due to its impending replacement as the world's reserve
currency, most likely by the Chinese Yuan.
So
the idea behind these videos I've watched (I'm not naming names) is
to get out of the stock and bond markets altogether, which may not be
such a bad idea. But their 'solutions' are not so hot, if you ask me.
Take the money from the liquidation of your investments, they're
saying, and put it all into silver, gold, and digital currencies, of
which Bitcoin is probably the most well-known. Still other videos,
who have these self-appointed doomsday specialists as their paid
sponsors, urge their viewers to stock up on weapons, ammunition,
water and nonperishable food, plus things like first aid supplies and
barter items. It's not that I find anything wrong with their ideas,
but what disturbs me about this is that most of these purveyors of
gloom and doom are Christians. If they are in fact Christian, then
why don't they read their Bibles? Yes, I know there is much written
about the End Times, or Last Days, throughout the Bible. The Book of
Revelation, the prophets Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah, the prophetic
chapters of Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13 in the Gospels – all
have much to say. The problem I'm having is that the above Scriptures
are only a part of the story, and the remainder isn't being
emphasized enough.
The
gold and silver everyone is hoarding will crash, right along with the
currencies that they are traded in, as it is written in Ezekiel
chapter 7, verse 19: “They
will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be
treated as a thing unclean. Their silver and gold will not be able to
deliver them in the day of the Lord’s
wrath. It will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs, for
it has caused them to stumble into sin.”
In times past when disasters struck, the first thing people would
take as they were fleeing would be their silver and gold. It was the
one thing they could use for a universal currency. But this time
around, when the debt-based economies fail that set the price of
precious metals and other related commodities (such as crude oil or
natural gas), the value of any given commodity will also evaporate.
The only thing that precious metals and natural resources and related
commodities will be good for at that point will be for bartering
purposes.
All
right then, you may say, if gold and silver will have no value during
the End Times, and assuming Ezekiel was right (which he was!), then
what will be left? Food and water? Guns and ammunition? How about
fuel, weapons, or tools? Granted, all of these have value during good
times and bad, but these things are not all there is to life, nor to
preparedness. There is one thing that is far more valuable than all
of the above, and that is the human soul, as it is written in the
books of Moses: “For
you are a people holy to the Lord
your God. The Lord
your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the
earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”
(Deuteronomy 7: 6) Now the word “holy” means to be set aside, or
to be held in reserve, for only the most special of occasions. That's
how God views us – we are his “treasured possessions”!
Silver
and gold have no value in God's sight, because God has already made
them both. It would be like expecting Henry Ford to buy himself a
Ford Model A when he already had a Lincoln or two. In a somewhat
similar way, we can't expect God to value gold or silver more than
the human soul, as the apostle Peter explained so well: “18)
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or
gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to
you from your ancestors, 19) but with the precious blood of Christ, a
lamb without blemish or defect. 20) He was chosen before the creation
of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21)
Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and
glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. 22)
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that
you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from
the heart. 23) For you have been born again, not of perishable seed,
but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”
(1st
Peter 1: 18-23)
Verses
18 and 19 explain what I'm trying to say here so perfectly that I
will simply move on with little comment, except to say that instead
of investing in silver and gold or digital currencies – all of
which are tied to the US dollar, either directly or indirectly –
should be supplanted with an immense investment in human capital.
Square One of that people-investment should be the salvation of
Christ, who gives us all our sense of worth by being purchased with
his blood, which he shed on a cross. No silver or gold was required.
“22) Now that you have
purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere
love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23) For
you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of
imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”
We are to obey Jesus and follow his commandments because Jesus Christ
is truth personified. We have been born again as imperishable,
whereas before we had all received a death sentence.
I
have one more thought about the fruitlessness of investments here in
the Last Days, and it comes from the apostle Paul: “You
were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.”
(1st
Corinthians 7: 23) If the blood of Jesus is the only real investment
that will still hold its value after our lives are over, investing in
gold, silver, Bitcoin, antiques, collectibles and anything else you
can think of will ultimately turn out to be a waste of time and
money. The only worthwhile investments are the giving of our hearts
and minds, first to Christ because he has died for each of us, and
secondly to each other. In both cases, they are to be done
unconditionally and without reservation. That means we are charged
with the duty of loving those who are unlike us, such as those with
different skin color, or of a different religion. So if you aspire to
be a big-time investor, let's start investing in the most precious
commodity of all – the human soul.
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