Money and Wealth (Part 1) - Introduction, What Money is


 

Money and Wealth (Part 1) - What Money is, Money is Not Evil I. Money is as much a part of life as is any other thing. 1. Money answers all things (Ecc 10:19). A. Money can’t solve all your problems, but it can solve a lot of them. B. Managing money well will prevent many problems from arising. 2. Most decisions in life have to do with money in one way or another. 3. The Bible therefore has a lot to say about money and wealth. 4. Money can be a blessing or a curse, a help or a hinderance. 5. If you manage money well, happiness and wellbeing will result. 6. If you manage money poorly, sorrow, stress, and misery will result. II. How a person uses money will tell others a lot about him. 1. A person who saves a significant amount of his income is wise. 2. A person who spends all he makes and saves little or nothing is foolish. 3. A person who saves all that he can and spends and gives little or nothing is miserly. 4. A person who gives liberally to God and His work is faithful and wise. 5. A person who does not give to God and His work is unfaithful and foolish. 6. A person who gives to others is generous and faithful. 7. A person who never gives to others is stingy. 8. A person who gets a raise and spends the same amount of money as before is wise. 9. A person who gets a raise and saves the same amount of money as before is foolish. 10. A person who gets an inheritance and spends it quickly is a fool. 11. A person who gets an inheritance and saves most of it, and enjoys a little of it, is wise. 12. A person who takes out a loan for something is discontent, impatient, immature, and foolish. 13. A person who waits to buy something until he has saved up the money to pay cash for it is content, patient, mature, and wise. 14. “Remember that a person who is foolish with money is foolish in other ways too.” (H. Jackson Brown Jr., The Complete Life’s Little Instruction Book, #663) 15. The way a person uses money will reveal his principles, or lack thereof. A. “The good thing about principles is that they make life easy. I have heard it said that when someone bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made.” (Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover, p. 150) B. I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Ramsey. Having well thought-out, Biblically-based principles which one holds to firmly without wavering makes life easier and greatly improves the quality of one’s life. C. One of the many principles that I live by is that I will never go into debt for anything, God being my helper. D. Therefore, many of my life’s decisions were automatically made without any deliberation. III. What is money? 1. Money n. - 1. a. Current coin; metal stamped in pieces of portable form as a medium of exchange and measure of value. b. Applied occas. by extension to any objects, or any material, serving the same purposes as coin. c. In mod. use commonly applied indifferently to coin and to such promissory documents representing coin (esp. government and bank notes) as are currently accepted as a medium of exchange. See paper money. 2. Money is a commonly used and accepted medium of exchange. A. Items that function as money usually have the following characteristics: i. Intrinsic value ii. Durability iii. Divisibility iv. Uniformity v. Portability vi. Limited supply vii. Acceptability viii. Noncounterfeitability B. Because they have all these qualities, for thousands of years gold and silver have functioned as money. 3. Some history of money A. Historically, money consisted of precious metals such as gold and silver, and the value of the money was according to its weight (Jer 32:9-10). B. Shekel - 1. a. An ancient unit of weight of the Babylonians, and hence of the Phœnicians, Hebrews, and others, equal to one-sixtieth of a mina (see mina1 1). b. A coin of this weight; esp. the chief silver coin of the Hebrews. C. The dollar used to be a unit of weight of gold and silver. i. "A dollar was first defined in the Mint Act of 1792 as 371.25 grains of fine silver, exactly the weight of the Spanish mill dollar, which was the most common coin in colonial America and which continued to circulate legally in the United States until 1857, 70 years after the signing of the Constitution." (Peter Schiff, Crash Proof 2.0) ii. "No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;" (US Constitution, Article I Section 10). iii. The US was on a bi-metallic standard (both silver and gold) which was problematic because the ratio of gold to silver would vary and Gresham's Law would cause the higher valued metal to disappear from circulation. D. In 1934 the US government made it illegal for US citizens to own gold. E. In 1965 the silver was taken out of quarters and dimes. F. In 1971 the "gold window" was closed, and foreign governments were no longer able to redeem gold for dollars. i. At that point the dollar became a purely fiat currency backed by nothing. ii. With gold-backing gone, nothing was left to restrain the Federal Reserve from printing as much paper money as they wished, and inflation exploded. G. This wicked policy of debasing the currency is not new. i. The Jews were doing it thousands of years ago, "making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?" (Amo 8:4-6) ii. Ephah - A Hebrew dry measure, identical in capacity with the bath; see bath n.3; it is variously said to have contained from 4½ to 9 gallons. H. God hates this kind of thing (Pro 20:10; Lev 19:35-36). I. Inflation robs savers of their purchasing power, and it also creates the business cycle which ultimately ends in a bust which destroys the jobs and lives of innocent people. J. Enough talking about the government's mismanagement of money―let's talk about yours.
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