Economics

Modern economic theory is the voice of fools trying to create absolute certainty in a world where uncertainty is inherent and inescapable.

The Marxists try to create absolute certainty of income to every worthy citizen.

They fail.

More recently, the Greenspans pronounce they have perfected economic theory, and that we will never experience a major recession again.

It sounds ominously like the makers of the Titanic, who purportedly quipped that even God Himself couldn't sink it.

God didn't bother. It only took an iceberg.

Even as Greenspan utters his senseless rhetoric, a great gaping hole has been ripped in the side of the ship of the U.S. Economy.

So much for certainty.

Some things are inherently uncertain.

Minimise the uncertainty, sure. But you're an idiot if you think you can eliminate it.

Life is uncertain. Always has been. Always will be.

Those who thrive will be those who learn how to live with inherent uncertainty.

My own wife was desperately impatient to find out if she's pregnant or not.

Waiting until five days before the first missed period to use the pregnancy test was just too painfully long.

Others, for thousands of years, amazingly managed to wait for days after the missed period, and even then not be totally sure.

And amazingly, the human race survived.

What's wrong with not knowing for a while?

What's wrong with finding out a little down the track?

Science can tell us more things sooner, but we're less patient than ever, even for the things that we can find out quicker than ever before!

The real problem is that patience requires trust. Trust that things will work out OK.

The more you trust, the less a bit of wild uncertainty will bother you.

But what's to trust?

For Greenspan and Marx, not much. Human incisiveness. That's about all.

If I can't trust that somehow, things will work out OK, then I have to force things to work out OK. Without trust, fear compels us to convince ourselves that we've worked God out of the picture, and that our clever policies or special programmes will guarantee the end result.

At such times, God doesn't need to lift a finger. Nature itself comes and devastates our plans. Or God rewards us with the fruit of our own ideas. We got what our programmes guaranteed us. Only it wasn't what we thought.

Amidst the wash of competing ideas, there is one idea that holds true. It doesn't guarantee fiscal success to every applicator. But it does guarantee general success, societal success, success over time to the vast majority of average adherents. And even for what few don't "succeed", it does provide a place. And not a place of exploitation. A system where all can prosper, and if any don't, they still are cared for.

The idea is embodied in the Biblical principles of economics. Ideas as old as the world itself, but as relevant as the sun.

Give. Create. Produce. Invest.

Avoid debt like the plague.

Treat others in all transactions as you would want them to treat you.

There is enough to go around. And Biblical principles would go a long way to ensuring all are fed.

In fact, they'd guarantee it. If only we all followed them. But of course we won't.

God's idea of certainty is "do it My way, and I'll see to it that your needs are met as I see fit".

But we don't like that.

"If it doesn't involve a fixed salary, a certain quality of goods on my table, and a night at the theater at least twice a month, I'm not interested."

We want our T.V.

But more than that, we want to see the mechanisms by which our livelihood will be preserved indefinitely into the future.

If we can't see it, we don't trust that God can figure it out.

So we resort back to our halls of folly, fiddling with numbers, debating ideas, creating "perfect" systems that fail catastrophically, time and again.

Uncertainty is inherent. God promises to provide - if we follow His ways - and that provision does not necessarily mean we'll get exactly what we want, and it especially means we will not always be able to see where tomorrow's food will come from!

So we have a choice :

- do it God's way? Inherent uncertainty but the certainty of overall progress and God's provision at least for our most elementary needs - not necessarily enough to keep us in the manner to which we've become accustomed! But an environment in which goodwill, companionship and universal charity prevail.

- or follow yet another scheme, supposedly destined to give us certainty at the level of comfort we set for ourselves, without reliance on an external God. Nice idea. Never works in practice. Death and misery are the common results.

So what are these "God's ways" of economics that supposedly lead us to a higher plane if applied universally and consistently?

I thought you'd never ask.

They're principles that I apply in my business and family life. And so do thousands of others.

They don't work overnight miracles. But they do work lifetime cures, and intergenerational and societal transformation.

It involves looking at how God designed things, and - shock-of-shocks - actually fitting in to the overall design, instead of fighting against it!

* God never designed man to be in debt. Avoid it. (In stark contrast, every modern monetary system is predicated on debt.)

* God never designed man to be lazy. Get up and invent something. Or help someone else. There is unlimited potential wealth if we would all just rally to a good cause - whether the menial cause of growing vegies for ourselves and our neighbours, or the mammoth cause of fighting the exploitation of women. If you don't know where to start, just start somewhere! Take initiative, and support others in their initiatives.

* Consume moderately.

* Produce more than you consume, and give and sell and save the balance. Savings are not selfish - they increase your ability to help others around you - whether by direct gifts at times when their own resources are insufficient, or by investment in production infrastructure which results in greater production output which results in more to give.

* Respect the land. Grow some of your own vegies. Plant some fruit trees. Support natural and organic farming methods. God designed us to live off well-balanced land. Treat land in the way God designed!

* Give. You never have too little to share.

* Follow God's principles of morality. Murder and other crimes bring natural and supernatural retribution. You might not believe it, but history shows it. Innocent blood defiles land. Kill innocents -> nation ruined. Cambodia. Russia - with all of Stalin's purges. Nazi Germany and Germany's current economic misery. Oh - don't get me wrong. There are myriad factors involved. But morality is certainly one of them. And God's morality was designed for optimal human health and happiness.

* Whatever you want people to do to you, treat them the same way.

And there are many more, or at least, the preceding could be broken down into many sub-points.

If we live as God intended, we can embrace life's inherent uncertainty with the certainty that in the end, everything will work out OK. Fight that, and your "certain" castles will sink in the sand.

Faith On Film Festival

So me an' my newly wed got ourselves over to the Faith On Film festival to watch The Disposable Ones and Trade.

Trade. Watch it.

Or don't.

The Disposable Ones. Don't watch it.

But Trade...

... watch it.

Or don't.

See, it's rated R18+. And it does contain some short snippets of nudity. And it does portray ("without showing anything") an act of rape.

So in fact, it's not all rosy.

But then again, neither are the facts on which the movie is based.

50,000 to 100,000 young women are kidnapped and smuggled into the USA every year, as sex slaves.

Never to see their family again.

Never to have a family of their own.

Never to work the jobs they want, or visit the places they want.

Never to choose whom they'll have sex with, or when.

Never to see the light of day, except when their captors want.

50,000 to 100,000 of them.

Every year.

"Trade" is not for everyone.

But it may be for you.

Watch it.

Or don't.

http://www.movieschangepeople.com/

Why betrothal?

Short answer : Because this is the relationship between Christ and His bride, and because human marriages are explicitly intended by God to reflect Christ's marriage.

Christ has made an irrevocable commitment to His bride, and His bride is irrevocably promised to Him in marriage. The wedding feast has not yet taken place. The marriage is not yet consummated. Christ waits patiently and eagerly for the day He comes to claim His bride.

Right now, Christ is in Heaven, preparing a place for His bride.

He can return at any time.

He will return.

This is the explicit Scriptural teaching of the relationship between Christ and His bride (the Church). It also exactly fits the Scriptural clues as to the definition of betrothal.

Caveat : Does this mean that any Christian who chooses engagement instead of betrothal is sinning? No. But does it mean that Christians who wish to honour the Lord in this way can do so by way of an irrevocable engagement, also known as a betrothal? Yes.