Category Archives: Bible Teaching

Bible Teaching, GSM, Jesus, John: The Seven Signs, Teaching, The Mint

Healing of the paralytic at Bethesda: The third sign

12/17/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

If you have just recently joined us here at The Mint, we are exploring the seven signs that Jesus performed which are related in the Gospel of John.  We recommend that you begin by reading Changing water into wine:  The first sign, and Healing of the Official’s son:  The second sign, for additional context, as well as bookmarking or subscribing to The Mint for updates as we move through this important series.

We are finding that each sign appears to have a central theme, an overarching lesson that Jesus was teaching.  Perhaps this is why John chose these seven out of the seemingly infinite miracles of Jesus that he had witnessed.  In Changing water into wine, Obedience appears to be central to the operation of the Miracle, in the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”

In healing the Official’s son, the operation of blind faith, believing without seeing, is required, “Go your way. Your son lives.” is Jesus’s response as the Official pleads with Him to journey from Cana to Capernaum to heal his son.

Today, as we begin to examine the third sign, the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda, we must be attentive to the presence of an underlying theme, for it is becoming clear that John selected each miracle carefully, and is recounting each one in order to give us something of eternal value, something that we can use today.

In the book of John, the narrative of the third sign immediately follows that of the second sign, beginning in John, Chapter 5, verses 1 – 17.  It begins with Jesus returning to Jerusalem.

The return to Jerusalem

As we pick up the narrative, we find that Jesus has gone to Jerusalem for the second time during his earthly ministry (we know that he went once before with his parents at twelve years of age, making it technically the third time).  This time, Jesus goes to Jerusalem in full view of the religious authorities.  The observant reader will recall that after His Passover first visit, Jesus and his disciples were run out of Jerusalem by the Pharisees for what may be called “excessive baptisms.”  This time, Jesus would have the first of what would be many direct confrontations with the Jewish religious authorities.

Which Feast?

In relating this sign, John does something that at first appears to be an uncharacteristic oversight, he forgets to tell the reader which particular feast of the Jews that Jesus is attending.  This apparent oversight has led come commentators to conclude that Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate Purim, which would have occurred in early March.

However, it is more likely that the feast that John referred to, or didn’t refer to, as it were, is actually the second Passover that Jesus attended during his earthly ministry.  This can be inferred both positively, in that the Passover was referred to as the “Feast of the Jews” and that the explicit Passovers mentioned in John 2:13 and 6:4 require an extra year between them.  This interpretation also allows for the harvest seasons mentioned in Mark 2:23 and 6:39.

It can be inferred negatively as well, in that Purim was not considered a religious feast of the Jews (it would be akin to the 4th of July, in a very stretched metaphor), and that it is unlikely that, due to the climate in Palestine in early March, that the sick persons by the pool would be lying in the open air.

The final arguments against the feast being Purim lie in the narrative itself.  As Jesus performs the sign on the Sabbath, for which the religious take exception to Him, and the feast of Purim cannot be celebrated on the Sabbath.

The greater question, perhaps, is why did John, who meticulously recorded the name of the other Jewish feasts in his gospel, omit the name of this particular feast?  For an answer, as well as beautiful insight into the importance of John, we turn to Dr. William Milligan in the “International Lesson Commentary”, who is here quoted in Volume III–John of B.W. Johnson’s “The New Testament Commentary,”

Why did John, whose custom it is to mark clearly each festival of which he speaks (see 2:13, 23; 6:4; 7:2; 10:22; 11:55; 12:1; 13:1; 18:39; 19:14), write so indefinitely here? The only reply that it is possible is that the indefiniteness is the result of design. The Evangelist omits the name of the feast, that the reader may not attach to it a significance that was not intended. To John,–through clearness of insight, not from power of fancy,–every action of his Master was fraught with deep significance; and no one who receives the Lord Jesus as he received him can hesitate to admit in all his words and deeds a fulness of meaning, a perfection of fitness, immeasurably beyond what can be attributed to the highest of human prophets. Our Lord’s relation to the whole Jewish economy is never absent from John’s thought. Jesus enters the Jewish temple (chapter 2:4). His words can be understood only by those who recognize that he is himself the true temple of God. The ordained feasts of the nation find their fulfillment in him. Never, we may say, is any festival named in this Gospel in connection with our Lord, without an intention on the author’s part that we should see the truth which he saw, and behold in it a type of his Master or his work. If this be true, the indefiniteness of the language here is designed to prevent our resting upon the thought of this particular festival as fulfilled in Jesus, and lead to the concentration of our thought on the Sabbath shortly to be mentioned, which in this chapter has an importance altogether exceptional.”

The significance of the Pool

The Pool of Bethesda.  Up until the 19th century, when archeologists uncovered the site of the pool where Jesus performed this sign, there was no evidence outside of the Gospel of John that the pool existed.  This lack of evidence caused some to argue that the Gospel was written later by someone who did not have first hand knowledge of Jerusalem and chose to use the pool in a metaphorical sense.

The discovery of the pool by archeologists in 1856 did wonders for the credibility of the Gospel of John.

As it turns out, the pool, which was first mentioned in the 8th century BCE, was formed when a dam was built across the short Beth Zeta Valley, creating a reservoir.  The pool is mentioned in two other Biblical texts 2 Kings 18:17 and Isaiah 36:2, where it is referred to as the “upper pool”:

17 The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.

and,

2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway.

As well as in Isaiah 7:3:

3 Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field.

The Bethesda Pool Today
The Bethesda Pool Today

A second pool was then added on the south side of the dam around 200 BCE.  In the first century BC, caves to the east of these pools were turned into baths as part of what was know as an asclepieion, a Roman healing temple dedicated to the god Asclepius.  The symbol for this god of medicine, healing, rejuvenation, and physicians is used today as the symbol for the American Medical Association and is ubiquitous in medical settings.

The site was brought inside the walls of Jerusalem by the expansion of Herod Agrippa around 50 BCE.  The pools, which had been constructed to bring living water into Jerusalem, had been turned into a pagan bath house whose waters are thought to have healing powers.  Naturally, it was crowded with those hoping to become well.

Today, the site of these pools is in the Muslim East Jerusalem near the ruins of a Crusader church which was completed in 1138 CE on a site that what was thought to be the birthplace of Jesus’ grandmother, Saint Anne.

So Jesus, on the Passover, the holiest of all Sabbaths, goes to the pagan bath house, which also happens to be the site that representatives of the Assyrian army stood and publicly humiliated Hezekiah, the King of Judah, before Jerusalem was invaded by them in 701 BCE.  Furthermore, according to later tradition, is near the grotto where his grandmother was believed to have born.

The pool at Bethesda ia a very interesting place, and Jesus has chosen to go there on the Passover.  What would he do?

Stay tuned for more of the third sign and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

Key Indicators for December 17, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.64
Oil Price per Barrel:  $87.48
Corn Price per Bushel:  $7.24
10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.76%
FED Target Rate:  0.16%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,698
MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  0.25%
Unemployment Rate:  7.7%
Inflation Rate (CPI):  -0.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average:  13,235
M1 Monetary Base:  $2,527,700,000,000 LOTS OF DOUGH ON THE STREET!
M2 Monetary Base:  $10,375,100,000,000

Bible Teaching, Jesus, Teaching, The Mint

Healing of the Official’s son: The second sign

12/12/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we continue our series on the Seven Signs of John with the second sign, Jesus’ healing of the official’s son.  First, we must pause to remember the eternal lesson from the first sign, the changing of water into wine that the wedding in Cana of Galilee:  “Do what he says,” for miracles are born out of obedience.

And now, the second sign.

The Journey

Jesus had just returned from Jerusalem, where he had educated Nicodemus on the mechanics of spiritual rebirth at the Passover feat.  On his journey home, Jesus had done something that deeply troubled the Jewish religious establishment of the day, He had taken the more direct and mountainous route home to the Galilee by passing directly through the territory known as Samaria.

This was shocking, because the religious amongst the Jews in those days who resided in Jerusalem went to great pains to avoid setting foot in Samaria, which they saw as the epicenter of paganism and worse, a misguided worship of the One True God, YHWH.

For this reason, when travelling from Jerusalem to the Galilee, they would cross over to the east bank of the Jordan river and go north until they had passed by the Samaritan territory, at which point they crossed back over to the west bank and reached Scythopolis, where they would continue their journey into the Galilee.  This religious quirk added up to 40 miles, or in those days what would have been a hard two days journey, to what was already a three to four day ordeal.

The religious take the long road, as Jesus shows us the straight and narrow
The religious take the long road, as Jesus shows us the straight and narrow

However Jesus not only took the more direct route, he encountered a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and engaged her in conversation, an utterly shocking breach of protocol that caused even His disciples to question what he was doing.  We can only imagine that Jesus did not shake the dust off of His feet after reaching the Galilee, the custom of the religious Jews who were forced to tend to unavoidable business in Samaria, and therefore were forced to “defile” themselves by setting foot on Samaritan soil.

Blind Faith via Shock Therapy

Jesus was returning to the Galilee from Judea, where, as mentioned above, he had attended the Passover and, while there, began to turn the Jewish religious system on its head.  In fact, so many people believed in Jesus as the Messiah as a result of His teachings during the Passover that his disciples were baptizing even more people than John the Baptist, who the Jewish religious leaders had previously seen as their main rival.

As a result of this, the Pharisees, a sect of the Jews who believed in the resurrection of the dead, were planning to come after Jesus, hastening His flight back to the Galilee.

After passing through Samaria en route to an imagined quiet retreat into the Galilee, Jesus found that a great number of people in the Galilee had witnessed the signs he had done during the Passover for they, too, were there.  His reputation has preceded Him, and peace was to prove elusive for the rest of His days on earth.

Under these circumstances, Jesus returned to Cana as a type of rock star.

While in Cana, Jesus was approached by a certain nobleman who asks Jesus for a favor that would become known as the second sign which is related in John 4:43-54:

43 After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee. 44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast. 46 Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

49 The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” 52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” 53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. 54 This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

Now the nobleman’s son was lying on his deathbed in Capernaum, a town on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he encountered Jesus in Cana.  Under the circumstances, we can assume that the nobleman made the 20 mile journey inland specifically to make this appeal to Jesus.  The nobleman would likely have have been prepared to offer his life savings to Jesus if he would come to Capernaum and heal his son.  In Jesus he saw his only hope of saving his son, and he was doing what any loving father would have done under the circumstances.

In this delicate state of mind, the nobleman was about to be shocked, for he was about to learn the difference between hope and faith.  For hope, while poetic, leaves room for doubt. Faith is the opposite of doubt.

For this reason, instead of lovingly agreeing to accompany the man to Capernaum, He rebukes him, “unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”  The man, still in a state of shock, as were Jesus disciples, makes a last ditch effort, now with a bit indignation, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Jesus then shocks the man, who has moved from hope to indignation, into faith as He replies “Go your way. Your son lives.”  In this moment, through Jesus’ words, the nobleman understood that, if he believed that Jesus had the power to heal his son, it would follow that Jesus could do it without having to be physically present.  The nobleman understood, at this moment, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Jesus was Lord.

The nobleman then knew Jesus in the same way the centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 knew that Jesus was Lord, through the operation of blind faith.  The difference between the nobleman and the centurion was that Jesus offered to come to the centurion’s house, which was perhaps not coincidentally also in Capernaum, and left it to the centurion to profess his blind faith which was operating to heal his servant.  The nobleman had no such faith to profess, until Jesus shocked him into it.

Where the nobleman needed his blind faith to be awakened, the centurion needed only ask Jesus and it would be done.

May it be said that in Capernaum, the Lord showed us that blind faith is enough.  When faith and obedience are operating together, there is no limit to what can happen.

Stay tuned for the third sign and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

Key Indicators for December 12 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.69
Oil Price per Barrel:  $86.77
Corn Price per Bushel:  $7.21
10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.70%
FED Target Rate:  0.17%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,712
MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  0.25%
Unemployment Rate:  7.7%
Inflation Rate (CPI):  0.1%
Dow Jones Industrial Average:  13,245
M1 Monetary Base:  $2,457,800,000,000 LOTS OF DOUGH ON THE STREET!
M2 Monetary Base:  $10,275,200,000,000

Bible Teaching, Jesus, Teaching, The Mint

The Gospel of John – Jesus’ seven signs

12/6/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today, we shift gears a bit as we prepare for what will be a very important teaching coming up early next year:

The Seven Signs of John

The Gospel of John is unique in that it contains a plethora of dialogue attributed to Jesus, the Son of God, which are generally set apart in Biblical texts by using a red font.  It is rivaled only by the Gospel of Matthew in this respect.

We have previously explored what we consider to be John’s unique trait and compared him to one of the prophets, Isaiah, who shared this personality quirk:  He was eagerly awaiting the Jewish Messiah.

Today, we will begin to explore the material in the Gospel of John that we are to teach.  The seven miracles of Jesus that John chose to include in His Gospel.  The miracles are important, for John wrote the Gospel near the end of his long life, sometime between the years 90 and 100 CE (He is presumed to have died in 100 CE at 94 years of age), almost 70 years after Jesus had walked the earth.

John witnessed many miracles performed by Jesus, as he was with him throughout his earthly ministry, beginning with his (Jesus’) baptism by John the Baptist.  John witnessed so many miracles that he saw fit to state in his Gospel,

“20:30 Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; 20:31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

So why were these seven signs chosen by John, who perhaps knew Jesus better than anyone while He was walking the earth?  It is the aim of this study to answer this question.

What are the seven signs?

The logical place to start, then, would be to identify the seven signs.  According to most Biblical scholars, yours truly included, the seven signs refer to the following miracles which John chose to relate:

  1. Changing water into wine in John 2:1-11
  2. Healing the royal official’s son in Capernaum in John 4:46-54
  3. Healing the paralytic at Bethesda in John 5:1-18
  4. Feeding the 5000 in John 6:5-14
  5. Jesus’ walk on water in John 6:16-24
  6. Healing the blind at birth in John 9:1-7
  7. Raising of Lazarus in John 11:1-45

From a quick glance at the list, we can see that three of the miracles involve various types of physical healing, two of them involve providing for material needs, and one is a supernatural physical feat.

The final miracle, the resurrection of Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, must stand alone, as it is the astounding and meaningful miracle that has ever been recorded.  It is astounding not only for what took place, but for the fierce reaction which it brought from the religious authorities.

For with this Miracle, Jesus provided an irrefutable proof that He is the Son of God, and it was for this miracle that the religious authorities resolved to kill Him.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.  As with any great journey, we must begin with the first step.

Changing water into wine:  The first sign

Shortly after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he called his first disciples, Andrew and John (the author).  What is interesting is that Andrew and John actually followed Jesus on John the Baptist’s declarations.  As such, they were not called, rather, they recognized who Jesus was, the long-awaited Messiah, and went after him.

Andrew then went and found his brother, Simon (who Jesus promptly renamed Cephas, or Peter).  The next day, Jesus was determined to go out into Galilee, where he found Phillip, who then went out and found Nathanael.

At this point, we understand that Jesus had five men whom are called  his disciples, yet the only one who he personally sought out was Phillip.

This is important, because it shows that, while Jesus did get up and pursue someone, four of his first five disciples started following him because others saw Jesus and recognized him as the son of God.  Let us not diminish the task that Christians have been given in fulfilling the great commission!

Our teacher, Bettie Mitchell of Good Samaritan Ministries is fond of illustrating this by showing us that while we are looking up to God, crying out for Him to “DO SOMETHING!” God is shouting back down at us “DO SOMETHING!”

It is a profound truth that God does not want subjects, He wants partners!

It is not surprising, then, that Jesus almost never performed a miracle without requiring an action or actions which require the individual to exercise faith.  In fact, in most of the signs, Jesus performs the miracles not as a helicopter parent who is making sure that everything is perfect for everyone, rather, he performs the miracles reluctantly, not because he does not desire a positive outcome, but because he is training those who desire and see in him the possibility of a miracle to walk in faith and courage.

Our first example, then, is when Jesus changes water to wine, a miracle that Jesus openly declares that he does not want to perform:

2:1 The third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. 2:2 Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the marriage. 2:3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.”

2:4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come.”

2:5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” 2:6 Now there were six water pots of stone set there after the Jews’ way of purifying, containing two or three metretes apiece. 2:7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” They filled them up to the brim. 2:8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the ruler of the feast.” So they took it. 2:9 When the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and didn’t know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom, 2:10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have drunk freely, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now!” 2:11 This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Apart from Jesus’ reluctance to intervene and the faith it must have required on the part of the servants to take the water, which had been poured in what today may be been referred to as a kitchen sink or a wash basin, and present it to the master of the feast as wine, there is one other curiosity in this narrative which deserves further consideration.

Joseph and His Brethren Welcomed by Pharaoh, watercolor by James Tissot 1836-1902
The first sign of Jesus, turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, has a harrowing parallel to Joseph saving many by providing for grain during the famine in the Near East, circa 1708 BCE
Painting “Joseph and His Brethren Welcomed by Pharaoh”, watercolor by James Tissot 1836-1902

This curiosity consists of the exact words that Mary uses to instruct the servants to listen to Jesus.  While at first they seem trivial, “Whatever he says to you, do it,” we find in them both a simple requirement for the reception of a miracle, as well as an intricate link with the miraculous survival of the Jewish race some 1700 years earlier from a famine in Canaan:

For the words, “What he says to you, do,” are found not only in John 2:5 above, but also in Genesis 41:55.  In Genesis, they are spoken under much different circumstances…or are they?

The phrase that Mary invokes parallel the instructions that Pharaoh gave to all of the Egyptians when they began to cry out to him for grain during the famine in the Near East.  “Go to Joseph, What he says to you, do.”

As we cry out for a miracle, we would do well to pause, listen, and “Do what he says,” for miracles are born out of obedience.

Stay tuned for the second sign and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

Key Indicators for December 6 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.61
Oil Price per Barrel:  $86.40
Corn Price per Bushel:  $7.48
10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.58%
FED Target Rate:  0.16%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,700
MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  0.25%
Unemployment Rate:  7.9%
Inflation Rate (CPI):  0.1%
Dow Jones Industrial Average:  13,074
M1 Monetary Base:  $2,457,800,000,000 LOTS OF DOUGH ON THE STREET!
M2 Monetary Base:  $10,275,200,000,000

Bible Teaching, Book Reviews, Jesus, Teaching

THE LORD IS SALVATION: Proto-Isaiah (Isaiah 1-39)

As we began to study Isaiah’s life, it became clear why he is distinguished as the greatest of all the prophets. Over 600 years before Christ walked the earth; Isaiah was entrusted with the vision of Christ’s coming to rescue humanity. He saw the Messiah, and it changed him forever.

At long last, you can find our latest Ebook on the prophet Isaiah at Smashwords:

THE LORD IS SALVATION: Proto-Isaiah (Isaiah 1-39)

THE LORD IS SALVATION: PROTO-ISAIAH
Bible Teaching, Book Reviews, Jesus

“The Language of God,” a thought provoking ride through genetics and faith

We have recently completed reading a book entitled “The Language of God” by Francis S. Collins.  Dr. Collins is extremely gifted geneticist who was the head of the project which lead to the mapping of the human genome.  This makes him a rock star in the scientific community.  He is also a Christian, which makes him a rock star in the Evangelical Church.  In this book, his aim is to use both his personal faith journey and his revolutionary work as a geneticist to reconcile what would appear to be a long, deep chasm between the two most popular theories regarding the origin of the world:  Evolution and Creation.

Collins takes great pains to appease both camps, and ultimately ends up defending a position which theoretically appeases both:  Theistic Evolution, TE, or what he calls “Biologos.”

The concept of Biologos, as we understand it, is that the earth is indeed billions of years old, yet the process of evolution, which God chose as His creative process, has been intricately designed and nurtured by Him.  As such, it rejects both the literal seven day creation narrative in Genesis and takes it as allegory, which, given the text, may be a defensible position, as well as natural selection as the guiding light of evolution, which, again, given the mathematical improbabilities of random changes evolving into the world in which we live today, may also be defensible.

However, Dr. Collins is such a brilliant mind that, as he studies the question from nearly every angle and offers a rebuttal to the Evolution, Creation, and Intelligent Design theories, His presentation of Biologos, while an attempting to create harmony, leaves itself open to the very critiques with which He so skillfully dismisses the other theories.

Namely, Biologos appears as simply another “God of the gaps” argument which Collins so eloquently dismisses Intelligent Design on its obvious shortcoming:   If you are basing your faith in God on the fact that there are phenomena that cannot be explained, limiting God to acting in only those spheres that mankind does not yet understand, you run the danger of having your faith shaken if and when science provides an irrefutable, natural explanation for an occurence once thought possible only through divine intervention.

Dr. Collins’ rebuttal of the literal seven day creation also rang empty.  In the single page with which He addresses the theory, He fails to raise any other argument apart from the fact that there is undeniable proof that the earth has been in existence for billions of years.  He then implies, from His revolutionary work on the genome, that all living things share a remarkable similarity at the base level, which he logically extrapolates as proof that all that we see is the result of an evolution from a base form.

While Biologos may help those who cannot imagine that the very concept of time itself may be flawed to sleep at night, both His elaborate defense of the mechanism of evolution and haste in dismissing the creation narrative in Genesis leaves the 47% of us who do believe in the literal young earth creation story feeling somewhat slighted, as the crux of the question lies in two different perceptions of time which Dr. Collins discounts without addressing objections as he so skillfully does when rebutting pure evolution and Intelligent Design.

To sum up a lengthy explanation of our position, that not only the perception of time, but time itself is subjective, we ask the following question:  Is time currently flying by for you, or does it seem to be dragging on forever?

No matter how one responds, the question itself implies that the perception of time is relative when taken against creative processes.  If time is flying by, this implies that your perception of your ability to create is outstripping your perception of the time available to dedicate to creative tasks.  If it is dragging on forever, it could be said that you are creating things at a pace more rapid than you had allowed based on your perception of time.

So it is with the observance of natural phenomenon.  Evolutionary theories imply that creative processes involved in genetic mutations take place over a constant flow of time.  Anyone who has realized a creative activity will quickly recognize that the flow of work or ideas which leads to observable outputs is hardly constant, rather, there is a burst of activity, followed by a consolidation and revision, and finally an output.

Our conclusion, albiet informed by nothing more than our logic, is that evolutions that appear to have taken billions of years to be realized at a constant rate of change, are the product of a burst of creative activity which has then slowed, and consolidated since its inception.  The rates of change, observed in genetic mutuations and carbon dating, which we take for a fact now, cannot be extrapolated backwards nor forwards as constant rates of change simply because current rates of change have been observed and calculated in the past 100 years.

We must say, however, we are not a scientist, rather, a philosopher in this sense.  Our position may or may not be defensible.  Only the broken yardstick of time will tell.

Puns aside, we find ourselves in agreement with Dr. Collins’ premise that basing one’s faith in literal interpretations of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, leaves one open to any attacks on those interpretations which necessarily present a crisis of faith for those who lean on them.  In place of literal interpretations, he offers both the existence of the nearly universal moral code amongst the human race, as well as the well documented eye witness accounts in the Bible, namely the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as irrefutable evidence that God exists and has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus.

He then adds what we consider the most reliable proof of God’s existence and care for mankind, that we can have a personal relationship with our Creator.

We also enjoyed Collins’ presentation of C.S. Lewis’ brilliant argument for Christ’s diety as presented in “Mere Christianity:”

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”

While the book does not go as far to settle the debate regarding the origins of the world as one might believe, the true gem of this book lies in the appendix, where Collins explores the ethical implications of his work on the human genome in a style which is truly awe inspiring.

Perhaps the most striking example is His observation that those who oppose stem cell research on ethical grounds must also oppose in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures to be consistent, for during IVF, fertilized human eggs which are in the early stages of development are routinely

Bible Teaching, Jesus, Teaching

Teaching the Bible – The Inspirational Character

The pages of the Bible are full of characters.  The characters may be explicitly identified in the Biblical narrative, or, as we have explored by way of the Bible Play earlier, implicitly present.  As the teacher, it is extremely important to identify the inspirational character in the narrative that is being explored.

Bettie Mitchell, the founder of Good Samaritan Ministries, described the appearance of inspirational characters in the following way, “Anyone willing to lay down their life for others IS A BIBLICAL CHARACTER…God himself is the inspirational character of the Old Testament.  In the New Testament, those who came into contact with Jesus became inspirational characters”

You will notice the above statement appears to expand both the range of inspirational characters to every Biblical character as well as the opportunity to become a Biblical character to anyone willing to lay down their life for others.

In order to understand the concept of the Biblical and inspirational character, we must first understand something about the Bible.

The Biblical record has been carefully passed down to us by the Jews, who see the Old Testament as not only the history of their people, but a sacred text entrusted to them by God which is to be shared with the entire world.  In this sense, Judaism is unique to many religions who view their sacred texts as proprietary information, accessible only to those with the proper spiritual credentials.

It is odd, then, that the Old Testament should not be a book which has been carefully edited to make the Jewish people appear especially heroic.  In fact, it may be said that a great deal of the Old Testament deals with the Jewish people’s shortcomings when establishing and attempting to fulfill their covenant with God.

In the same way, the New Testament may be seen as a compact version of the same, self depreciating narrative of the origins of Christianity.

Yet the point of the Biblical narratives, which have been carefully preserved and widely disseminated against all odds, is not to justify the position with relationship to God of Jews and Christians, rather, it is to point out that it is impossible for anyone to claim a place of privilege with regards to The Holy One.

As one reads through the Bible, it quickly becomes apparent, as early as the second chapter, that the performance of good deeds is not a preresiquite for inclusion.  While being a Biblical character may bestow upon the individual a certain amount of fame, it does not automatically qualify them as an inspirational character.

Yet there is one action that is and always will be pleasing to the Holy One, it is the act of starting where one is and desperately seeking after God. 

Isaiah, an example of an Inspirational Character
“Here I am. Send Me!” Isaiah, an example of an Inspirational Character
{18th century Russian icon of the prophet Isaiah located in the Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Northern Russia, painted by an unidentified artist during the first quarter of the 18th century.}

The desperate seeker, from Isaiah declaring “Here I am! Send Me!” (Isaiah 6:8) to the Apostle John, who, upon hearing John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God (John 1:29), arose and ran after Him, to the desperate man or woman today, crying out in the middle of inexplicable pain and loss for answers, the desperate seeker is the inspirational character.

The one who is constantly seeking and moving towards God, the one who chooses to turn the other cheek, to lay down their life for others, to accept and carry out the hard assignments, to walk humbly with the Holy One, to seek justice despite incurring personal injury, to love their neighbor as themselves, they are the inspirational characters. 

Seek them out, in the Biblical narrative, within yourself and all around you, and you will find them.  Once the inspirational character has been identified, the class will be greatly enriched as you, as the teacher, encourage the class to experience the Biblical narrative from their perspective.

Once identified, it is extremely important to supplement your knowledge of this person by exploring them as they appear in other Biblical narratives, if any, as well as other credible historical references that may be available.  The class will connect to the the Biblical narrative and the assignments presented only to the extent that they connect to the inspirational character.

Further, one of the goals of the class setting is to bring the class as close as possible to the inspirational character, so that they may be in a position, as the inspirational character was, to accept the assignments which are presented to them as individuals.  For one, it may be to reconcile with a family member, for another, it may be to pick up their mat and walk, for another, it may be to accept a position of influence to root out corruption.

Whatever the assignment may be, the inspirational character will help those in the class to find the courage to seek out and accept them.  For the Lord is with those who seek, and great blessing awaits those who are willing to say, along with Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me!”

As you and the class explore the text together and are lead by the Holy Spirit, it will become evident that all of those present have the potential to be the inspirational character in their home, workplace, and beyond.

Bible Teaching, Jesus, Teaching

Bible Teaching – Avoiding Distractions

We must remove the distractions and say only what is eternally important.

Today, perhaps as never before in human history, people find themselves in the middle of a constant battle for their attention.  When people enter the classroom to hear the Word of God, this battle intensifies.  As such, the teacher is not only fighting for the class to hear the Word of God in a fresh way, they must first fight through any number of distractions which are competing for the attention of the class.

The distractions generally take one of two forms.  There are the obvious distractions such as cell phones, external noises, and whispering amongst students.  These obvious distractions are best ignored and will usually fade as the Word of God begins to captivate the class.

The more subtle form of distraction is the type of distraction which masquerades as a search for an understanding of the Biblical text.  The key to avoiding these subtle distractions is twofold:  1) Remember that we are reading the Bible as if we have never opened it before and, 2) Take pains to reiterate that the Word of God is for each and every person in the class.  As such, it must be understood that the Word is being taught and received in an intimate fashion, regardless of the size of the class.

For example, when teaching the story of Creation presented in Genesis, there may arise a question as to whether the days of creation are literal 24 hour days or are meant to represent a longer periods of evolutionary change.  While this may be a profound theological question which inspires a lively debate in the class, you can see how allowing the class to be distracted by this debate destroys any opportunity for the class to receive the words of Genesis in a personal fashion.

For example, in Genesis 2:7, we are confronted with the following,

“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

God breathed life into Adam
Imagine, the Living God breathing in our nostrils! www.thebricktestament.com

That is intimate!  Imagine, the Living God breathing life into our nostrils!  A theological debate can add nothing to this beautiful imagery, and while scholarly debate may appeal to the intellect, it will do nothing to radically change the lives of those who listen.

When teaching the Word of God, scholarly debate is a distraction to be avoided.

As teachers, we must remove the distractions and say only what is eternally important.  Only then can the class take the cup of the Word of the Living God and drink it deeply into their souls.

Bible Teaching, Events, Jesus, Rapture

Its Rosh Hashanah 5773, is your lamp lit?

Today marks the beginning of the Jewish high holiday Rosh Hashanah, a celebration of the new year, a celebration of the creation of the world.

We are convinced that the Messiah, Jesus, is returning.  We are equally convinced that it has not been given to any man to know the exact time of his return.

What we do know is that we will know the season of his return.  The interpretations which we have heard of Jesus’s declaration recorded in Matthew 24:36 generally center around the premise that some sort of series of great catastrophes will be unfolding and a series of signs will be in some stage of fulfillment, implying that these things will mark the season of Jesus’s return.

Here at The Mint, we subscribe to a much simpler and more profound understanding of this scripture, drawn from an understanding of the Jewish wedding ceremony.  Jesus will arrive during the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere.

In fact, based on the timing of His death and resurrection, the Passover, we believe that His triumphant return will logically take place over Rosh Hashanah.  The celebrated Feast of Trumpets.

Feast of trumpets by Aleksander Gierymski (1850–1901): Painting of Hasidic Jews performing tashlikh (ritual washing away of sins) on Rosh Hashanah, placed on the banks of the Vistula River in Warsaw.
Feast of trumpets by Aleksander Gierymski (1850–1901): Painting of Hasidic Jews performing tashlikh (ritual washing away of sins) on Rosh Hashanah, placed on the banks of the Vistula River in Warsaw.

Not necessarily this fall, mind you.  For it is impossible to know for certain.  If one were to attempt to pick a specific year, the logical choices would be one of the upcoming Jubilee years, 2018 (starting on Rosh Hashanah 2017 on the Gregorian calendar) or 2068, or the final year of the 6000 year Jewish Calendar, 2240.

Yet it could be tomorrow, or the next day, as Rosh Hashanah has the element of uncertainty as to precisely when the new moon occurs.  This detail fits nicely with Jesus’s declaration that we would not know the day or time.

With all of the things that are happening in the world, many have begun to speculate that the end is nigh.

Clearly, the end is always nigh, and calamities such as the ones humanity is currently suffering have always taken place to some degree ever since mankind chose to disobey God and turn their back on their Creator.

Today, with billions of us on the planet, these calamities are multiplied to a staggering degree.  The good news is that God’s grace and mercy are experienced in abundance as well, and this will overcome all suffering and calamity as He daily establishes His Kingdom within and amongst us.

As Rosh Hashanah begins, we hold fast to our faith, cleanse our minds and spirits, and resolve to love and forgive as God has loved and forgiven us.  The Messiah is coming, the trumpet is about to sound!

Is your lamp lit?

Bible Teaching, Jesus, Rapture, What to expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end

Rapture!

8/20/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

We have recently released our latest e book here at The Mint entitled:

Eschatology and Money: A brief look at what is to come

For as long as we leave it up, it can be had for free over at Smashwords.com.

As the title suggests, it is a brief look at what is to come in the monetary realm as the Biblical prophecies regarding the end of the world unfold.  While nobody can predict when or exactly how these events will play out, it is important to be aware of them and, if necessary, take the gift of time afforded us in the here and now to make the proper adjustments to one’s relationship to both their money and The Living God.

The Beauty of Rapture

Students of Eschatology will note our belief in a pre-tribulation rapture.  For those unfamiliar with the term, the concept of rapture is the taking up, out of this world, of we who accept Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Jewish Messiah.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection undeniably changed the world.  He is the ultimate expression of God’s mercy towards us.  To us it is logical that we are to be called up to heaven to watch God’s final judgments unfold from the safety of our new home with Him.  Admittedly, anyone who has taken the time to read the book of Revelation would be either masochistic or insane to not want to subscribe to a pre-tribulation rapture.

Even so, there are strong arguments which find support in scripture for a “mid-tribulation” rapture or even a “post-tribulation” rapture.  Further, there are those who believe that the book of Revelation is simply an allegory for events which occur from time to time throughout history.

Given the seemingly sound, yet grim, alternatives, on what basis can we have confidence that this pre-tribulation rapture is true?

As stated above, the basic logic of our worldview leads us to this conclusion.  God loves us jealously and mercifully.  He is bringing the judgments described by John to the earth to prove once and for all the He is the only God.  For those of us who already understand this, the display of sovereignty and wrath is unnecessary and inconsistent with who He is to us.

However, if God is making one last merciful attempt to call His creation to Him, the events in described in Revelation are perhaps the only way to get their attention.  The time of evangelism of the living saints will be over.  Were God to allow those of us who have already chosen to give our lives to Him to suffer further through the tribulations, it would only serve to cause confusion amongst those whom He will call during the time of tribulation.

For those who believe that God will need many witnesses at that time, would not the rapture of the saints, who would disappear without notice, be perhaps the most powerful witness since Jesus himself first appeared?  We argue that many who witness the rapture but do not partake in it will be God’s most fruitful evangelists through the tribulation that is to come.

To apply this logic to the events examined in our e book, for the believer, the test of allegiance that will take the form of the mark of the beast appears to be, has already been passed.

Beyond logic and into Beauty

Yet beyond logic, or perhaps to further affirm it, there is a beautiful symmetry between God’s first universal act of redemption, at the resurrection of Jesus which occurred on the date of a Jewish festival call the Passover, and what will be His final act of redemption before He returns to physically reign, which we believe will be at the time of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish day of atonement or judgment.  It is also known as the Feast of Trumpets.

Jason Hommel has written extensively regarding the Feast of Trumpets being the appointed time of the coming rapture of the saints.  Through his insights, we gather a greater glimpse of the beauty of Jesus’ plan to rapture His bride, the church.

For the rapture will not be an emergency airlift operation of a people in distress, this is what the day of our salvation from sin was.  No, the rapture will be Christ knocking at our door to take those who are prepared and have our lamps lit to our wedding feast with Him.

Somehow the word beauty seems inadequate.  For God has given us the model of the Jewish wedding, a seven day celebration which begins at an unexpected time.  This is consistent with the scripture, “You will know not the day nor hour, but the season.”  It is also consistent with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, which generally takes place over a period of two days for the simple reason that no one knows exactly when the new moon, which marks its beginning, will occur.

You will notice that while we may be certain of the time of year which Jesus will come, no one is certain as to which year it will occur, nor the specific date, the only certainty is that the doors of heaven will be swung wide open at that time.

It is just as God intended it, and it is beautiful.

Rosh Hashanah for the year 5773 (or 2012, according to the Gregorian calendar) begins on September 16th.

Is your lamp lit?

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

Key Indicators for August 20, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.37
Oil Price per Barrel:  $95.83
Corn Price per Bushel:  $8.15
10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.81%
FED Target Rate:  0.13%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!
Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,621 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  0.25%
Unemployment Rate:  8.3%
Inflation Rate (CPI):  0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average:  13,272
M1 Monetary Base:  $2,308,300,000,000
M2 Monetary Base:  $10,037,100,000,000

Bible Teaching, Jesus, Teaching

A Recent Teaching on Money

Our long suffering readers will note that we have been on a haitus.  It has been a busy time, full of classes, exams, and trees falling.  Don’t worry (or worry if you must), The Mint will return soon.  In the meantime, we wish to provide you with what we hope will be a valuable resource.

They are teaching notes from a class we gave recently to a group of interns at True Life Fellowship.  If you are interested in Money or need to teach on Money and don’t know where to start, feel free to use this as a starting point.  Faithful readers will recognize much of the material.  We pray that it will be a blessing to you.

Enjoy and Stay Fresh!

TEACHING NOTES

PART I:  IS MONEY EVIL?

READ DRAMATICALLY:  “So you think that money is the root of all evil?”…”Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

Francisco d’Anconia, character in the novel Atlas Shrugged, Copyright © 1957, by Ayn Rand:

DISCUSSION QUESTION:  Is money evil?

Money is not evil, what, then, is evil?

Radix malorum est cupiditas – Latin for “The root of evil is greed” – Original Greek “Root for all the evil is the love of money.”

“For the love of money is the root of all evil”

–Paul 1:Timothy 6:10

Greed = Covetousness , “Thou shalt not covet…”

THIS DISTINCTION IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT!

ICE BREAKER ACTIVITY: The baby is crying, the doorbell is rining, and the water in the bathtub is running over the top onto the bathroom floor, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  You are home alone, what do you do first?, second? last?  PAIR UP and tell your partner what you would do first and why.

Symbolic internal priority

Baby =  Family

Door = Friends

Bathtub = Money

There is no wrong answer, it is important to understand this about yourself.

DISCUSSION QUESTION:  What type of relationship do you have with money?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PART II:  WHAT IS MONEY?

What is Money?  What is my relationship to money?  What am I to do with the money I am entrusted myself?  How much time should I spend worrying about money?  To Grapple with these questions is to question many things that we take for granted.  It can be an unsettling experience.

We will begin our session with a brief exploration of what is money is.  This is important, and it may be the only time in your life that you are presented with this information.

We’ll begin with a few quotes:

READ DRAMATICALLY

“Money is the most important subject intellectual persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it is widely understood and its defects remedied very soon.”
–Robert H. Hemphill, former credit manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

“All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.”
–John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson

“Lenin is certainly right. There is no subtler or more severe means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
— John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff

DISCUSSION QUESTION:  What are the attributes of money? 

First, it should operate as a medium of exchange.  Will other people accept this item in trade for something else?  Second, it should operate as a unit of account.  Can the item be easily divided without destroying its value?  Third, it should be a reliable store of value.  Will the item purchase the same amount of goods in ten, twenty, or three thousand years from now as it will today?  And fourth, it should be anonymous.  Can the item be freely transferred amongst parties?

Do Federal Reserve Notes fullfill this definition?  Why not?  BECAUSE THEY ARE DEBT, which by definition can NEVER BE MONEY.  On a societel level, it is the equivalent of a person ingesting sugar instead of protiens.  It may taste sweet and keep you running for awhile, but in the end, it will permanently damage your organism.

QUESTION: So what is money?

After reviewing the attributes above and reviewing all of known human history, we can conclude that, in an overwhelming majority of cases, precious metals, namely Gold and Silver, are best suited to serve mankind in the role of money.  As a medium of exchange, they are universally recognized.  As a unit of account, they are divisible with destroying their content.  As a store of value, Gold and Silver are not easily pulled from the ground and coined for use (they cannot be “debauched”).  And as for providing anonymity, they can be freely transferred.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PART IV:  HOW SHOULD I MANAGE MY MONEY?

Budgeting – Healthy Habits

Questions to ponder:

Why do you need a budget?

Benefits of budgeting:

  • You have a base of data from which to make decisions.
  • You can isolate expenses and work to avoid unwanted increases and even reduce them.
  • It is an important financial guardrail.

How many here have prepared a budget?  How many use that budget?

Most of us know what a budget is and some of us may even know how we are doing relative to our budget.  I would like to share with you some tips that you can use when creating your budget as well as some healthy habits, which will help you stick to it.

Tips for creating your budget:

Think Easy Maintenance – If you are using a computer spreadsheet, use one you are comfortable with.

Include the kitchen sink – Throw into your budget anything you are currently doing as well as those things you think you may want to do which involve shelling out cash.  Finally add the things you hope you won’t have to do but, if you have to, you will have to shell out cash for them, too.

Be a Conservative – It is better to underestimate your income and overestimate your expenses and to be pleasantly surprised than to assume everything is going to go well and to get shocked when an emergency drains your accounts.

Don’t forget taxes – Whether they be of the sales, income, property, or use variety, taxes are unfortunately a large part of the average American’s budget.  While somewhat difficult at first, you will have a clearer picture of your finances if you record your gross paycheck as income and then record the deductions before net pay as expenses or transfers.  It is a bit painful, but it will greatly help you make some key decisions making in the future.

Or depreciation – Perhaps the most overlooked expense line in a family budget is that of depreciation, or what may be more easily understood as “the wear and tear expense.”  Depreciation is simply recognition that anything, a car, house, etc. deteriorates over time and will likely need repair.  Contemplating depreciation allows you to unconsciously develop a rainy day fund to deal with unexpected repairs or regular maintenance.

Large ticket purchasing tip:  The difference between a good investment and a bad one is often determined at the time of purchase.  Learn to buy large ticket items, cars, houses, etc. out of season (that would be the winter in most places) and be sure to negotiate a price reduction for any major repairs.  This will make your depreciation expense (which is a function of the purchase price of an asset) more tolerable and help you sleep at night.

Note:  Depreciation and asset valuation are part of what I call “balance Sheet budgeting, which we will get into more today.

A note on Health insurance – This is perhaps the fastest rising cost for most families.  Consider focusing on a healthy lifestyle and reducing your health coverage to major medical or other type of high deductible plan.  However, do not give up so much coverage that you risk forgoing necessary treatments in the case of an emergency, you do not want to be faced with a tough life or death decision and have it boil down to finances.

Assume inflation (CAN JUMP BACK TO “WHAT IS MONEY” IF THERE IS TIME AND INTEREST)– Ever since the Federal Reserve took over control of the nation’s money supply in 1913, the US Dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power.  In 1971, then President Nixon officially took the US Dollar (and world’s monetary system) off of the gold standard, the decline accelerated.  The value of the dollar continues to decline at a rate somewhere between 2% officially and 10% unofficially each year.  It is important to recognize rising costs as a fact of life and consciously plan to increase your income accordingly.

Which brings us to income.  How exactly does one increase their income at a 2-10% pace each year?

Economize and value your time!

Moonlighting or Self Employment – What can you do to help others when you are not at work?  Would they pay you for it?

Acquire new skills at your present job and constantly seek advancement, which in most cases will increase your chances of getting a raise or promotion.

Passive income – For most, passive income is not an option until we collect social security or can draw on a 401K or other retirement plan.  This is why you save, but it will not fill your income gaps while you are younger and working.  However, the concept of passive income becomes very important when considering…

Investments – If you have some input as to how your retirement money is invested, it is best to choose investments that provide a growing stream of passive income.  That is, investment in companies which make real things which people want and are willing to pay for.  If there are no good alternatives, the next best thing to do is to purchase gold or silver coins and to take possession of them.  Store them in a hidden safe on your property.  Gold and silver will hold value against a depreciating currency and have the added advantage of incurring no maintenance costs or taxes while you hold them.

Jesus’ words on money –

Full text from NIV:

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar

 15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”

 18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

   Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

 22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A15-22&version=NIV

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to the Lord what is the Lord’s”

With this statement, Jesus recognizes that everything is God’s, and at the same time, that God recognizes private property in dealings between men.  This is often a point of confusion. 

He also creates an eternal separation between a person’s soul and their money.

Additional Healthy Habits:

Debt elimination – Check your budget to ensure that you have a surplus with which to pay back the debts (via depreciation line or an operating surplus), if not, make adjustments (belt tightening, if you will) until you do have a cash surplus.

Start paying back the smallest debts first.  Paying a debt off will help you build momentum and create habits in order to pay off bigger and bigger debts as you go along.

A great resource for this is Gary North’s “Deliverance for Debt” Debt reduction course.  It is free and you can subscribe via email.

http://deliverancefromdebt.com/

Stealth Saving – Pay an extra $5 to $10 on utility bills each month.  After a few months, you will have a free month of utilities.

Open a separate savings account which you do not see online, etc.  Fund this account first every month.  Make it difficult to access, open it at a seperate bank from the one that you normally bank at.  This will force you to think twice before using it.

Pay cash for items – There is something about cold hard cash that makes you think twice about spending and helps solidify the limit on how much you can spend.  Cash disappears, plastic doesn’t!

Keep the change – Pay cash for items and accumulate the change throughout the day.  At the end of the day, dump it in a 5 gallon water bottle.  When it is full, take the money to the bank and go on vacation.

80 – 10 – 10 plan – This is mentioned by many and the general idea is that you live on 80% of your income, save 10% and tithe (give to your local church) 10% of your income.  This seems logical but…

Why tithe?  Apart from the numerous Biblical references, tithing is not one of the Ten Commandments.  So why do it, especially when you are in debt?

Tithing, apart from helping keep the lights on at your local church, has the incredible habit forming benefit of forcing one to focus on their income.  God knows that you can spend all day in a defensive position, cutting costs and desperately clinging to maintaining what you have.  This is an expense focus.  It has many benefits in the material world, but it is worthless in God’s Kingdom.

God wants you to have an income focus.  “What can I do to serve others that is most highly valued by them?” should be the question on your mind.  Remember, “The greatest amongst you shall be servant of all.” 

Tithing forces you to focus on your income first, which will naturally get you focused on serving others rather than maintaining and increasing your own possessions.  It may seem strange, but serving the greatest number of people has the unique benefit of increasing one’s blessing.

God has made his creation perfect, and the economic laws are eternal and He can be trusted.  Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you.” (Look for versre)

Additional resources:

The Bible:  Daily study of God’s word will give wisdom in guidence in every area of your life, finances included.

Mint.com:  A free expense tracking software which accesses your online bank account information once you give it permission

Turbotax.com:  An online income tax calculation tool.  There is a charge to file your taxes with the software.  Tip:  To avoid the charge and get the benefits of a free tax advisor, use turbotax to calculate your taxes, then copy the information to a paper form and mail it in.  This is a great way to be aware of changes in the tax code without having to do hours of research.

Dailyreckoning.com:  A great resource for alternative investments.

APMEX.com:  An online precious metals dealer which sell gold and silver coins at reasonable prices.

deliverancefromdebt.com:  Gary North’s debt elimination course mentioned above, free of charge.

Questions?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PERSONAL STORY ON MONEY

I was first unsettled by this same question in a class on Monetary Policy at the Universitat de Barcelona in the Spring of 2004.  The professor held up a small jar full of shredded green paper and asked us if we knew what it was?  The answer, it turns out, is that the jar was full of $50,000 worth of US Dollars that had been removed from circulation and destroyed.  Simple enough, right?  Dollar bills wear out, you have to replace them.  However, her (the professor’s) point was that what we use as money does not exist in a real, tangible sense.  It is an invention created to meet the policy demands of the fiscal and monetary authorities.  It is an invention that can be created and destroyed at whim.

I was taken aback, trying to catch my breath!  She went on to  explain that Corporations, businesses, etc. are simply “money machines” which strive to minimize money inputs and maximize money outputs.  The difference between the inputs and outputs is what we call profit.  This is obvious enough and it was logical that she would share this insight with our MBA class which was being trained to manage said Corporations.

Something in my mind short circuited in trying to reconcile the logic of a Corporations’ reason for existence being to create money and then seeing that same money end up shredded and destroyed in rather large quantities.  The motor of my mind was so seized up that I managed to miss nearly every question that day on a pop quiz that tested our knowledge on “What is the proper reaction, in terms of monetary policy, to various economic data points?  Should you move to increase or decrease the money supply?”  The questions I did answer correctly were likely due to my misunderstanding the question (I was still learning Spanish and Catalan) rather than any grasp of accepted policy remedies.

In retrospect this day was the day that completely changed the way in which I viewed US Dollars, Euros, and all other paper currencies of the world.  You see, I was answering all of the questions about monetary policy using the assumption that the monetary authorities wanted to maintain the value of the currency that they were managing.  I was dead wrong.  So if they are not trying to maintain the value of these currencies, what are they trying to do?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PART V:  WHAT DID JESUS SAY ABOUT MONEY?

THE WORD

“Be not deceived.”
— Jesus and Paul in the New Testament

Jesus, during his ministry, talked about money more than any other subject EXCEPT for the Kingdom of God.

QUESTION:  What does Jesus teach about money?

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s

Jesus Christ speaks with authority.  As such, his words often astounded and confused those, whom in the days when he physically walked the earth nearly 2000 years ago, had aligned both their activities and mindsets with the authority of this world.  An authority which works to suppress the knowledge of the Living God.

The first passage that we will investigate is related in Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:14-17, and Luke 20:21-25.  It is focused on what appears to have been a brief verbal exchange between Jesus and a group of spies sent to ask a question of him by the religious authorities.  It appears to take place in courtyard of the Second Temple in Jerusalem around the time of the Jewish Passover, which today is celebrated at the time of year that is known as Easter in the Christian tradition.

Interestingly enough, it seems that people 2000 years ago were as eager to avoid paying taxes as they are today.  In an attempt to catch Jesus advocating for tax avoidance, the religious leaders, who wanted to get rid of Jesus, send spies to trap him in his words.

In response, Jesus not only foils their attempt at trapping him, He provides the world with a simple monetary concept with wide ranging consequences.  He challenges the spies not on whether or not it is right to pay taxes, but rather on what they are using as money.

When asked whether or not it was right to pay the Roman Imperial tax, Jesus stated the obvious, “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”  Given that the coin used to pay the tax belonged to Caesar (the Roman Emperor) to begin with, it should be no problem to simply give it back to him when he asks for it.

The obvious yet staggering implication is that money and coinage given by an Emperor may at some point be demanded back by that Emperor, therefore it is foolish to accumulate money and coinage issued by an Emperor as a store of one’s wealth.

Jesus’ response cut to the heart of monetary theory by questioning not what they were doing with their money, but what they were using as money.  The people’s choice to use the Emperor’s money had enslaved them to the Emperor in a way that no army or jail master could, and they were eager for a way out.

In those days, Emperors had made a habit of declaring themselves gods and demanding allegiance.  The Jews were peculiar in that they refused to recognize these imposters and instead steadfastly worshiped the Living God.  However, the Jews also had become accustomed to conceding certain aspects of their allegiance to the Emperor in an effort to survive as a people.

Jesus, with a simple statement, challenged them to get off the fence, for the fence would one day be burned down and they would have to make a clear choice between ultimate allegiance to the Emperors of this world or to the One True Living God, who alone is worthy of glory and honor and praise forever and ever.

Today, circa 2012, it is customary for most people exchange their labor for paper or digital currency issued by the Emperor.  For most, it appears to be a matter of survival.  Yet some 2000 years ago, Jesus sternly warned us against this.

Why would Jesus have opinions on what we use as money?  Jesus knew that a person’s heart would be where their treasure was.  One day, God’s people would be presented with yet another ultimatum which would require them to assent forever throwing their lot in with either the world’s system or The Living God.

When and how would this ultimatum present itself?  What form would it take and what would be the price for holding steadfastly to The Living God?  The answer to these questions had already been partially revealed to Daniel some 600 years before, and was going to be completely revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos some 70 years later.

BIBLE PLAY:  PARABLE OF THE Parable of the Unforgiving servant Matthew 18-21-35

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
— Luke 6:35

READ BIBLE TEXT – CHOOSE CHARACTERS, ACT, REFLECT

When JESUS came to declare the year of the Lord’s favor, the Jubilee, He not only declared FORGIVENESS OF SINS, but also the FORGIVENESS OF DEBTS.

FORGIVENESS:  AMISH STORY?

Thank you for your time.

Bible Teaching, Jesus, Uncategorized

Lessons from John’s gospel, chapters 1-3

This year, it is our privilege to get to know John, the author of a good portion of what is now the New Testament.

There is much to learn.  Today, we had two revelations as we began our journey:

Revelation one has to do with what we willthe mechanics of rebirth.  It is written in John 1:12-13 that those who believe in Jesus, the Messiah, are given the right to become children of God.  How does this miracle occur?

It was revealed to us as the spirit of God penetrating the believer.  It is a miracle, yet we will attempt to describe it as clearly as possible.  The Spirit of God descends as a mere drop of oil on the head, which then enters the body, as if flesh were not a barrier.

Russian Orthodox icon of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, 18th century (Iconostasis of Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia
Russian Orthodox icon of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, 18th century (Iconostasis of Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia)

This drop grows larger until it fills the entire physical presence of the believer, for it is the essence of the Lord permeating the flesh of the believer.

This was confirmed as we read the next line, John 1:14:  The Word BECAME FLESH and dwelt amongst us.  This vision and John’s choice of descriptive language reveal the deep understanding and intimacy that John has with the Father.

It is no mistake that in Chapter 3, the third witness of this truth appears as John recounts Jesus’ shock in John 3:10 that Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, would be ignorant of the mechanics of spiritual rebirth.  Nicodemus’ ignorance is striking because He was a Pharisee, one who believed in life after death and the coming of the Messiah.

The second revelation is that John was one of two disciples of John the Baptist, whom upon witnessing the baptism of Jesus, immediately followed Jesus and asked where He was staying.  The other was Andrew.  Both of these first disciples told their brothers that they had found the Messiah.  The brother of Andrew was Peter, and the brother of John was James.

John, like Isaiah before Him, was eagerly awaiting the Jewish Messiah.  While He was a fisherman by day, his spiritual thirst attracted Him to John the Baptist.  His perceptiveness drew Him to Jesus.

The spirit of Isaiah was upon John, and the Spirit of the Living God is upon all of us.

We encourage you to join us on this journey, we will be studying the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Revelation, and The Acts of John.  We will also look back to Proto-Isaiah for the source of this passion for the Messiah which He and John shared.

We would love to have you along and to hear your insights as they are revealed.

Bible Teaching, GSM, Jesus, The Mint

Never Compromise: Murder, Robbery, Decriminalization, and the Slippery Slope

6/8/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

As the world continues to hurtle towards a form of financial armageddon, at The Mint, we have become increasingly reflective.  Ed Harrision of Credit Writedowns, recently posted regarding the causes and effects of the current financial crisis/recession/depression which much of the western world now finds itself in.

In the essay, Mr. Harrison observes that one of the root causes of the financial crisis is the combining of financial deregulation with desupervision and the decriminalization of financial crimes.

The most notable example of this phenomenon has been the MF Global Bankruptcy.  On the surface, it would appear that the firm purposely helped itself to its clients’ segregated funds in order to cover the firms margin calls which it received in those gloomy days in late October of 2011.

In layman’s terms, this is robbery.  Yet in the parallel universe of the insane “debt is money” monetary system in which we live, John Corzine, the CEO of MF Global at the time and supposedly the one who is ultimately responsible for the firms actions, is able to freely walk the streets after telling a series of Congressional committees that He had no knowledge of the “transfers” (read: theft) of client’s funds which were illegally used by MF Global in a desperate attempt to stave off the firms imminent collapse in late October of 2011.

We do not wish to further flog Mr. Corzine, or for that matter, Jamie Dimon, who, as the CEO of JPMorgan, served as an accomplice to the theft (for JPM happily took the missing client funds as collateral in the fateful transfer), for their consciences, if indeed they have one, must be flogging them daily without mercy.

We do, however, wish to flog the idea of decriminalization when it comes to the financial industry.  Like sending remotely controlled drones into war, the digitalization of the world in financial matters gives the actors involved a false sense that they are operating not in the real world, but in a virtual world where they alone are acting.

How does this false perception of reality play out and, more importantly, differ from what is commonly understood as real life?

In the example of the remote controlled drone, the drone facilitates acts which more resemble murder than self defense, for it is much easier to convince a teenager, who has been raised playing video games where the actions taken on the screen have no real world consequences (save wasting otherwise valuable time), to kill someone if it can be done by giving them a video game control and a sofa from which to guide their armed drone into real world combat over half the world away.

The experience for the teenager on the sofa is similar to that of the video game and, as such, has the effect of removing the real world consequences of having murdered persons who posed them no existential threat.  It is as if the distance both dehumanizes the very real interaction which is taking place.

So it is with financial crimes.  As persons begin to conduct a great portion of their financial transactions, especially those involving large sums of money, in a virtual world with little or no human contact, it becomes easier for persons who have access to the funds of others to shun their fiduciary duty and use the funds of others for their purposes without their consent.

While the technical medium employed is an electronic transfer, the actions similar to those taken by Mr. Corzine are more accurately described as robbery.

Yet as of today, Mr. Corzine has not been accused of a crime.

The problem is not that crimes such as murder via remote controlled drone and robbery via wire transfer take place, for robbery and murder have been unfortunate parts of the human experience since the dawn of time.

Nor is it a problem that the means to commit these crimes exist and are used as a normal part of life.  For remote controlled airplanes and electronic wire transfers may have great benefits.

No, they problem is that the misuse of these mediums has been largely decriminalized.  Those who use them to commit crimes can now justify their actions behind a smokescreen of words and those who should be holding these persons accountable appeal to some good greater than Justice that is being served:  Security and Financial stability.

However, without Justice, security and financial stability are mere illusions.

What is important is to have a belief in one’s principles which is firm enough so that it is impossible to compromise them, even when holding to them causes one personal injury.

Bettie Mitchell, the founder of Good Samaritan Ministries, recently shared the story of how her father visited her one day, unannounced, when he was 70 years of age.  This was unusual because she knew that her mother had not sent him, which had always been the case in the past.

She knew that what he was to say was important, and that it did not come from him, but from the Holy Spirit.

Her father arrived at her house, she let him in.  He entered, sat down and told her the following:

“When I was your age, I had all of the spiritual gifts that you have.  Then I began to compromise.  Never Compromise.”

With that, Bettie’s father got up, and walked out.  There was nothing more to be said, the message had been delivered.

There are principles by which one must live their lives which cannot be compromised upon.  Put a different way, it is much easier to stand by one’s principles 100% of the time that 95% of the time.

Once one compromises on their principles 5%, or even 1% of the time, they begin to go down a slippery slope.  They are constantly searching for the next patch of firm ground upon which to stand as they find themselves caught sliding down an increasingly unstable incline.

How easy it would have been to simply stay on the level path, even if it did take a little longer to get to one’s destination.

Today, while lawmakers, Judges, and central bankers struggle to find their moral compass as they slide further down the slippery slope they have set out on, we challenge each and every one of you, fellow taxpayers, to stay on the path, where it has always been wrong to steal, and it has always been wrong to murder.

For it is this increasingly narrow path that leads to life.

Stay tuned for further sections and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

Key Indicators for June 8, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.30

Oil Price per Barrel:  $84.10

Corn Price per Bushel:  $5.92

10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.64%

FED Target Rate:  0.16%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,595

MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  0.25% AWAY WE GO!

Unemployment Rate:  8.2%

Inflation Rate (CPI):  0.0%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12,554

M1 Monetary Base:  $2,306,000,000,000

M2 Monetary Base:  $9,790,100,000,000

Bible Teaching, Healthy Habits, Personal Finance

Budgeting – Healthy Habits Part II – Income

4/18/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we had the privilege of sharing these budgeting tips that you, fellow taxpayer, are currently indulging in, with our wife’s mothers group.  It was a great experience and we were pleased that nobody fell asleep during the presentation.

Let’s face it, budgeting falls closer to most people’s definition of chores than their definition of entertainment.

Mothers (and Fathers) are wise out of necessity.  They are forced to plan for not only their own needs but also those of others.  For most of them, budgeting is old hat.

As such, we found ourselves preaching to the chior, which is always a pleasant experience.  We pray that you are in the chior as well, fellow taxpayer, as today’s installment on income is vitally important.

The M2 money supply measure is on the cusp of crossing $10 TRILLION for the first time ever.  Bedford’s law states that it will take less and less time to cross $20 trillion, and so on.

What does it mean?  It means that prices are about to shoot up in a nasty way, and it will be much more important to increase you income than to attempt in vain to control your expenses, as most will choose to do.

{Editor’s note:  If you need a refresher on Expenses, please check out Part I of this series}

So how does one go about increasing their income?  In a general sense, it can be summed up in the following phrase:

Economize and value your time!

More specifically, putting this phrase into action can take many forms, such as:

Moonlighting or Self Employment – What can you do to help others when you are not at work?  Would they pay you for it?

Acquiring new skills at your present job and constantly seek advancement, which in most cases will increase your chances of getting a raise or promotion.

Generating passive income – For most, passive income is not an option until we collect social security or can draw on a 401K or other retirement plan.  This is why you save, but it will not fill your income gaps while you are younger and working.  However, the concept of passive income becomes very important when considering…

Investments – If you have some input as to how your retirement money is invested, it is best to choose investments that provide a growing stream of passive income.  That is, investment in companies which make real things which people want and are willing to pay for.  If there are no good alternatives, the next best thing to do is to purchase gold or silver coins and to take possession of them.  Store them in a hidden safe on your property.  Gold and silver will hold value against a depreciating currency and have the added advantage of incurring no maintenance costs or taxes while you hold them.

Jesus’ teaching on money via a response to a question on tax evasion:

We have recently explored the phrase “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to the Lord what is the Lord’s” in the context of eschatology, or the end times.  Now, we will briefly examine this phrase as it applies to our relationship to money and property.

With the above statement, Jesus recognizes that everything is God’s, and at the same time, that God recognizes and enforces private property rights in dealings between men.  This is often a point of confusion.

He also creates an eternal separation between a person’s soul and their money.

Below is the full text of this brief but important interaction as it is translated in the NIV.  Please read and let us know below if you arrive at a similar conclusion:

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar

 15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”

 18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

   Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

 22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Wait, we are talking about budgeting, right?  Why are the words of Jesus important and relevant?  Tune in tomorrow for a final dose of healty habits as well as an explanation of the practical benefit of tithing, the curious ritual in which the devout give 10% of their income to a religious institution.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

 

Key Indicators for April 18, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.66

Oil Price per Barrel:  $102.82

Corn Price per Bushel:  $6.01

10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.98%

FED Target Rate:  0.16%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,642

MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  0.25% AWAY WE GO!

Unemployment Rate:  8.2%

Inflation Rate (CPI):  0.3%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,033

M1 Monetary Base:  $2,355,700,000,000

M2 Monetary Base:  $9,926,800,000,000

Bible Teaching, GSM, Jesus

TEACHING HOSEA

The following is yet another excerpt of a book which we have recently completed about teaching the Bible which focuses on some techniques that may be little known and are certainly seldom practiced today.  Here we present “Teaching Hosea,”  Enjoy!

Taken from “Hosea: A teacher’s guide for those who are lead to teach the book of Hosea”

TEACHING HOSEA

With these teaching tools in your tool belt, it is now time to approach Hosea.  The following sections are tools designed to acquaint you with the prophet and the world in which he lived.  It is by no means exhaustive and is no substitute for your own investigation on the subject.

Keep in mind that teaching the Word of God is not a journalistic exercise, nor is it similar to writing an academic paper.  As such, there are no formal rules with regards to citing your sources or using previous academic work to support your statements.  In fact, citing sources in an attempt to gain credibility with your class may have just the opposite effect.

The Word of God is its own authority, and you, who have humbly submitted yourself to guide the class through the Word of God, will speak on its authority to the degree that you allow the Holy Spirit to operate both in your life and in the class that you are guiding.

An 18th century Russian icon of the prophet Hosea located in the Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Northern Russia, painted by an unidentified artist during the first quarter of the 18th century.

It will be obvious to all when you state an opinion that is purely your own, and you should not be afraid to speak into the class that which you are lead to say simply because you cannot find it cited somewhere else.  For what you are to speak is something new, and many may be healed by what you say at the Lord’s direction. Again I say, do not be afraid to speak it.

The setting and character development which will greatly enrich the class can and must be investigated both inside and outside of the Bible.  The Bible did not take place in a vacuum, and neither should your teaching of the Bible take place in a vacuum.  There is a wealth of information being discovered today which is serving to support the Biblical narrative as God’s creation bears witness to His Word.  It is your job as the teacher to investigate and bring what is required of this information to your class.

The balance of this book is a summary of my own investigation into Hosea, and I pray that it will supplement your own study of Hosea.  You are free to use of it what you deem appropriate for your specific audience.

Stay tuned for more teaching tips and purchase the book itself here.  Trust Jesus and stay fresh!

Bible Teaching, GSM, Jesus

The Bible Play – Getting to Know the People of the Bible

The following is another excerpt of a book which we have recently completed about teaching the Bible which focuses on some techniques that may be little known and are certainly seldom practiced today.  Here we present “Getting to Know the People of the Bible,” a wonderful way to deeply explore the Biblical text in a participatory Group setting.  Enjoy!

Taken from “Hosea: A teacher’s guide for those who are lead to teach the book of Hosea”

Getting to Know the People of the Bible

While reading the Bible is a great discipline, it is at least equally important that the Bible be understood through the eyes of the characters who are both explicitly and implicitly a part of the story. Many of the characters in the Bible are unnamed, such as the soldiers who guarded the tomb of Jesus.

While it is possible to read the Bible and focus on the main characters, there is a tremendous amount to be learned from a study of the Bible through the eyes of all of those who were actually present at the event.

How can this be accomplished? It is possible to read any number of commentaries, speak with pastors, friends, and read related histories with the goal of accomplishing a complete understanding of the event and the eternal truth that God is trying to teach.

However, there is a superior and much less time consuming way to intimately know the characters of the Bible. That is, to role play, or become them for a time, if you will, for yourself. This miracle can be accomplished by what we call a “Bible Play.”

The Bible Play is to be accomplished in a class or other type of group setting. The teacher or the group will decide which part of the Bible that they are to act for the play. This is usually done by the teacher, but in a smaller group can be done by prayerful consensus.

Once the part of the Bible to be explored has been decided, the teacher is to read the story once through, stopping each time a new character is introduced and acknowledging the character by name to the class. At this point, it is important to mention that characters can include animals and inanimate objects as well.

After the first reading, the teacher calls for a time of prayer, in which everyone, the teacher included, is to choose which character in that they are to become. The Holy Spirit will guide this process, for each person present has something unique to learn and be healed of in this exercise.

During the time of prayer, the Lord may reveal characters which are not explicitly mentioned in the Biblical text as being present as being there. This is completely valid as long as the group unanimously agrees to the inclusion of the up until now unmentioned character.

Once EVERYONE has a character (for none may be simply observers to this exercise), the teacher will identify the physical space in which the play will take place. The characters are to take their initial places in the physical space, collaborating with everyone in the group until there is agreement upon the basic starting places and areas for interactions amongst the characters as called for in the Biblical text. This does not have to be done in exhaustive detail, but there must be agreement as to the areas described to enable the interactions amongst characters in the Biblical text to occur.

If the story calls for two or more physical locations, such as Jonah on the boat, in the belly of the whale, and then in Nineveh, it is important to understand that these physical spaces should be completely separate from each other. You are not simply setting scenes on a stage, the entire Bible play and all involved must become alive.

After the characters and spaces are chosen, the play is to begin. Everyone must participate and there is no rehearsal. In the Bible there were no rehearsals, and to fully understand the character through the activity of the Bible play the events must be encountered naturally, without preparation or prior coordination other than the agreement as to spaces mentioned above.

An 18th century Russian icon of the prophet Hosea located in the Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Northern Russia, painted by an unidentified artist during the first quarter of the 18th century.

The teacher or assigned narrator (which is also a valid and required character) begins to read the story and the action begins. If a character is to speak, the narrator may give the line to the character, but the person playing the character must speak it aloud. This detail is powerful and adds much to the play.

Once a character is completely done with their action, they may follow along with the narrator and watch what unfolds unless their character is specifically called to stay with the story. In many cases, the participant may find what their character did after the interaction called for by the Biblical text. This knowledge may be important and cannot be discounted. The participant is to be the character until the reading of the Biblical text is complete.

At this point it is important to mention that no one, not the teacher nor the narrator are to assume the role of a director, for it is the Holy Spirit who directs the play.

After the story is complete, all participants are to share what they learned about their character during the Bible Play. Much healing is accomplished by during this time of reflection.

The Bible Play is the best method by which to know the characters of the Bible, for during the play, they are truly there with us. There is cannot be accomplished any other way. One may read 1,000 books about Hosea but until you have actually seen, heard, or been him, you will never truly know him.

Stay tuned for more teaching tips and click here to purchase the book.  Trust Jesus and stay fresh!

Bible Teaching, GSM, Jesus

Setting

The following is another excerpt of a book which we have recently completed about teaching the Bible which focuses on some techniques that may be little known and are certainly seldom practiced today.  Here we present the all important element which we call the “Setting,” which, as you can imagine, is not what it seems.  Enjoy!

Taken from “Hosea: A teacher’s guide for those who are lead to teach the book of Hosea”

Setting

As we alluded to earlier, there is a power that is unleashed by simply reading the Word of God as if you have never read it before.  A key to this power being released is the teacher’s ability to bring the class into the setting of the Biblical text.

An 18th century Russian icon of the prophet Hosea located in the Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Northern Russia, painted by an unidentified artist during the first quarter of the 18th century.

Setting, in this sense, is more than historical facts and data. It is more than an understanding of the people, places, economic, religious, and geopolitical circumstances which are present at the time the text is taking place in.  All of these are important elements of setting and can be aids to the class’s understanding of the text, however, for the Power of The Living God to be released into the room, something more is required.

The class must miraculously be transported to the time and place of Biblical account to be transformed.  The teacher guides the class to this place by humble submission to the power of God at work in the room.  In this place, all of the class’s previously formed conclusions about the Biblical text are shattered as they are transported to the place and time where the Biblical text takes place.  It is no longer a story or lesson, the room is alive as each person through supernatural selection assumes their place in the Biblical account as it is actually taking place around them.

Each person in the class is healed as the Spirit of The Living God teaches through each one of us as we experience the text as is written, not as it is interpreted by the teacher, but as it is spoken aloud to the class.

The teacher must balance elements of timing, relationship, and content as the healing presence of the Holy Spirit moves through the room.  The setting is given by The Lord and communicated through the teacher to bring healing as we open the Bible as if we have never opened it before.

Stay tuned for more teaching tips and purchase a copy of the book itself here.  Trust Jesus and stay fresh!

Bible Teaching, Economics, Jesus, Monetary Theory, Of Money and Metals

The Bible Clearly Explains the Consequences of a Debt based Monetary System

2/28/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Yesterday we took our fellow taxpayers for a detour which is leading us into what, for some, may be uncharted waters.  These waters are commonly known as the Bible, or the Word of God.  While seemingly unrelated to the discipline of economics and specifically monetary theory, it is important to gain an understanding of the Bible for two reasons:

  1. It is the most widely read book in the history of the world to date
  2. In its labyrinth of narratives, poetry, song, and prophecy, it provides the only coherent framework within which humans, who have been given the gift of reasoning, can understand the world in which they inhabit and what they are to do with their time here.

If only for these reasons alone, it is of the utmost importance that the Bible be understood if we are to gain any meaningful understanding of what is called the “economy” and our specific area of interest, monetary theory, as these disciplines make absolutely no sense without an understanding of the framework in which they operate.

Regardless of one’s preconceived judgments about the Bible’s ability to provide this framework, it is important to understand that a number of one’s fellow humans believe that the Bible provides this framework.  With this given, it can be inferred that this belief is, in whole or in part, is driving their choice of actions. 

A Bible Handwritten in Latin in Malmesbury Abbey, Wilshire, England. Transcribed in Belgium in the year 1407

However, if you remain unconvinced or simply do not have time or motivation to undertake a careful study of the Bible, we will relate what we understand, it is in no way a substitute for one’s personal and corporate study of the Bible, but we appreciate your confidence.

The lessons of the Bible are important and we reiterate, without an understanding of the framework of the Bible, nothing that is going to take place in the future will make sense but will appear to simply occur at random:

Truly we tell you, the events to come have been foretold.  The Kingdom of God is advancing.

What does it have to do with money?  Why is a proper understanding of what we use as money important?

We are glad you asked, allow us to explain:

The current monetary system which most of the Western world uses to each day is built on debt.  Debt, at its essence, is built a faith that persons will perform certain actions in the future.  Performance of these actions from the debtor’s perspective is homogenized as being able to order delivery of the debts of others to the creditor in order to satisfy the debt.

This activity and its consequences are conveniently summed up in Bible as the parable of the Unforgiving Debtor, which can be found in the Bible in the book of Matthew, Chapter  18, verses 21-35.

Wrapped up in a narrative which will take under two minutes to read, the final consequences of using debt as money have never been more clearly stated.  Please give it a read, it is important.

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

 

Key Indicators for February 28, 2012

Copper Price per Lb: $3.86

Oil Price per Barrel:  $106.55

Corn Price per Bushel:  $6.53

10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.93%

FED Target Rate:  0.10%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,784

MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  1.00% AWAY WE GO!

Unemployment Rate:  8.3%

Inflation Rate (CPI):  0.2%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,005

M1 Monetary Base:  $2,137,600,000,000

M2 Monetary Base:  $9,763,200,000,000