1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits,* and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 2 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the local governors, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 3 Then the local governors, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
4 Then the herald cried aloud, “To you it is commanded, peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. 6 Whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace the same hour.”
7 Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
8 Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and brought accusation against the Jews. 9 They answered Nebuchadnezzar the king, “O king, live for ever! 10 You, O king, have made a decree, that every man that hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image; 11 and whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. 12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not respected you. They don’t serve your gods, and don’t worship the golden image which you have set up.”
13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. Then these men were brought before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar answered them, “Is it on purpose, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t serve my god, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15 Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good; but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. Who is that god that will deliver you out of my hands?”
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If it happens, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.”
“Simeon Solomon – Shadrach Meshach Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego by Simeon Solomon, 1863
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the form of his appearance was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. 20 He commanded certain mighty men who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their pants, their tunics, and their mantles, and their other clothes, and were cast into the middle of the burning fiery furnace. 22 Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 These three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the middle of the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste. He spoke and said to his counselors, “Didn’t we cast three men bound into the middle of the fire?”
They answered the king, “True, O king.”
25 He answered, “Look, I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are unharmed. The appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”
26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace. He spoke and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!”
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the middle of the fire. 27 The local governors, the deputies, and the governors, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, that the fire had no power on their bodies. The hair of their head wasn’t singed. Their pants weren’t changed, the smell of fire wasn’t even on them.
28 Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.”
30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
Today our Pastor gave a profound teaching on this chapter. There are two eternal lessons we can all take from Daniel 3:
When you are in an impossible situation, do not play along, hold true to your values. Further, when they throw you into the fire, know that it is the fire that frees you.
When you are in the fire, don’t miss the fourth man who is there with you. Jews believe it to be the Archangel Michael, Christians believe it to be Jesus, and in both cases it is the Living God who is with us in the trial.
In our brief but necessary excursion into the wild world of Eschatology here at The Mint, we have endeavored to bring to your attention, fellow taxpayer, what one can expect in the Monetary Realm as the world comes to an end.
To be clear, we are not predicting when the world will come to an end, for only God alone can determine this, rather, we are sharing our interpretation of what will take place regarding man’s relationship to his money and possessions as the inevitable trials and tribulations which will take place begin to unfold.
First, a brief review of parts I and II of the series:
Part I – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s: Around 2000 years ago, Jesus reiterated the importance of a mark in determining monetary ownership, stating that since the mark of Caesar is on the coin used to pay the tax to Caesar, it is proper to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
With this simple statement, Jesus reaffirmed both the complete Sovereignty of God as well as the validity of private property held by men in God’s view.
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.
Not surprisingly, the same is true today.
Part II – The Vision of John: Roughly 60 years after Jesus’ declaration, the Apostle John was given a vision of the events that would transpire before Jesus returned to the earth to reign triumphantly.
{Editor’s Note: This is not unprecedented; in addition to the vision of Daniel which we will discuss today, a vision of Jesus’ first coming was given to Isaiah some 700 years prior to the event.}
The Revelation of St John: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, by Albrecht Dürer, Woodcut
John’s vision, recorded in the book of Revelation, covers a great deal of topics and is perhaps the most widely studied book when it comes to Eschatology. In this series, we are specifically concerned with only the portion of the vision which is commonly referred to as the “Mark of the Beast.”
In our review, we stated that the “beast (satan)” will at some point in the future demand the worship of all men. Specifically, he will ban all worship of the One True God and cause a statue to be set up, which God refers to as the “abomination which causes desolation,” and demand that everyone on the earth render worship to the statue.
One tactic that will be used to coerce mankind into worshiping the statue instead of the One True God will be to require mankind to accept a “mark” on their physical body in order to be able to buy and sell.
The choice to accept or deny this mark will be the watershed moment for the inhabitants of the earth at that time. They will be forced to choose to either throw their lot in with satan, whose kingdom is being destroyed forever, or the One True Living God, whose Kingdom is established for eternity.
On paper, the choice is obvious. However, given the deception which satan employs in an attempt to manipulate mankind, much perseverance will be required.
The prospect of losing title to all of their possessions and not being able to buy or sell may be too much for even self professed Christians to bear, and many, faced with the choice to continue their way of life within the system or to presumably wander the earth as Cain was, may be tricked into capitulating to satan’s tactic and accepting the mark.
We wrote yesterday that the Rapture will occur before any of the tribulations, including the dreaded choice of whether or not to accept the “mark of the beast,” takes place. Therefore, if the end times which John writes of seem like too much to bear (as it is for us,) we implore you to begin trusting Jesus today.
If you have just made or have already made a decision to trust Jesus, you may stop reading and begin a life of praise and service to God.
However, for those who are unfortunate enough to be living on the earth during the perilous days to come, the third and final passage which we will consider is intended to give them a measure of hope, as well as the timeframe which one must be prepared to endure.
Fortunately, God has given us, circa 2012, a guide to the end times. For the vision of Daniel regarding the end times, related in the book of Daniel, Chapter 12, taken together with the vision of John in Revelation gives us the specific time frames that the “Mark of the Beast” will be required to be used for buying and selling within the earth’s system.
It is clear from John’s vision that the imposition of the mark will coincide with the erection of the statue which God calls the “abomination which causes desolation.” Therefore, according to Daniel 12:11-12, the time frame from the beginning of the tribulations until the time that the decision to accept or reject the mark is presented to all of those on the earth at that time, will be 1,290 days, or approximately 3 years and 6 months.
If one finds him or herself on the earth at this time, we advise you to use those 1,290 days to prepare at least 45 days of rations.
Why 45 days? Because 45 days is the period of time which one will have to refrain from buying or selling if you still desire to accept Jesus and reject the mark of the beast. As it is related in Daniel 12:12:“Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of 1,335 days.”
Again, 45 lonely days is all one will have to refrain from buying or selling as a consequence of wisely rejecting the mark of the beast. During this extremely short period of time, the beast will appear to have complete control over the monetary realm.
Then, the fraudulent monetary and religious system that the beast has attempted to impose on the earth will collapse, and all of the earth will fall into a deeper tribulation as a result. However, it is clear from Daniel’s vision that those who refused to accept the mark of the beast will be blessed.
We are aware that this is but one of many interpretations of the events surrounding the end times. It is our prayer that you will find both comfort and a call to action in our interpretation of what is to come.
45 days may seem like a long time, but with the proper preparations, all of the peoples of the world who remain during the coming tribulation may eagerly await the coming of Jesus without fear and full of hope.
God is faithful and will quickly answer honest and earnest prayer. We encourage everyone to study the Bible and to seek God in order to develop their own understanding of what is to happen and what they are to do.
It is clear from Jesus’ answer to the spies’ question that He ascribed little importance and value to the coinage of Caesar. This flew in the face of what to most people believe about money on a subconscious level.
As we have explored in this space before, the current monetary system, where money is debt, creates an unnatural link between human beings, a sort of mutual slave/master relationship in which each and every person within the system finds themselves ensnared.
How does Caesar ensnare people in this system? By simply placing his mark on the coinage, the coin becomes Imperial property. The next step is to pass a series of laws, commonly known as legal tender laws, which obligate people to use the coinage in trade and commerce.
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” therefore, may be seen as a call out of the system of Imperial coinage and tribute. If one remains in the system by accepting and using the coinage in exchange for goods and labor, they remain a slave to the empire and all of the money bearing his mark which they have accumulated belongs to Caesar.
Today, some 2000 years after Jesus’ words, most of the western world lives in a system where not only does the modern day Caesar lay claim to their money via a mark, but also their future output by means of debts which are incurred as a necessity in the face of the declining real world value of the Imperial coinage in trade.
And yet it is only money, nothing more. Jesus stresses both private property rights and God’s divine sovereignty over all when He continues, “and to God what is God’s.” implying that everything is God’s while recognizing the right for Caesar to lay claim to all Imperial coinage via the mark.
This brings us to the second passage which we will examine as we continue our eschatological dabbling into what to expect in the monetary realm as the world comes to an end.
The Revelation of St John: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, by Albrecht Dürer, Woodcut
The second passage relates to us a portion of the vision given to the Apostle John as he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea circa 95 AD.
The passage, Revelation 13:14-18, is a source of widespread discontent amongst Christians who are paying attention as it warns of a time when all people on the earth will be forced to make a permanent choice between accepting the “mark of the beast” and “buying and selling.”
The discontent stems from the perception that one will be forced to accept the mark, and as a consequence presumably be forever estranged from Jesus, to be able to put bread on the table for themselves and their families. On the surface, this discontent is completely understandable.
Yet in light of the coming rapture of the Church, it is also completely unfounded for the true believer. Allow us to explain.
At the Mint, we are of the opinion that Jesus will rapture us (those who have accepted Jesus as their savior) before the inhabitants of the earth are faced with this fateful decision. This opinion is based on the parallels between the rapture and Jewish wedding traditions, where the bride (the Church of Christ) is swept away for seven days.
The parallel is that Jesus will come to sweep us away and hide us in his house (heaven) for the seven years of the tribulation which were revealed to John in his vision. This interpretation is supported by everything else that Jesus said about the end of the world.
While nobody knows exactly when Jesus will come, it is reasonable to expect that He will return around the time of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The first coming of the Messiah, Jesus, was the culmination of the Jewish Passover which occurs in the springtime. It could logically follow that the second coming of Jesus would occur during the harvest time around the Feast of Trumpets. Though we do not know the time of Jesus’ return, we will know the season.
If you, too, would like to share this joyful fate, we encourage you to choose today to trust Jesus. At this point, you may stop reading and begin a life of praise and service to God.
In the unfortunate event that one chooses to decline God’s loving invitation and finds themselves on the earth when humanity is faced with the ultimatum to either accept the mark of the beast or to be denied access to a perceived economic necessity, namely, “buying and selling,” please read on, for there will still be time to choose eternal life with God, but it will involve a seemingly difficult decision.
There is no shortage of speculation as to what form this “mark of the beast” will take, ranging from barcode tattoos, implanted microchips, and even the choice to worship on Sunday. Here we do not wish to add to the speculation.
Rather than focus on the substance which the mark will take, it is more important to focus on what it will mean, for at the time of the ultimatum, the choice they are being asked to make will be subtle and at the same time, crystal clear for all of mankind.
God’s enemy, satan, desires to occupy the place of God in people’s lives and the obligation to worship an image and accept a mark will be his final, desperate attempt to obtain all human worship for himself through a final deception.
It is clear that this desperate attempt will fail, yet that even some of those who are following Jesus may be led astray. For this reason, it is important for all to be aware of the choice which is being presented.
The acceptance or denial of the mark will be a choice that all those on earth will be forced to make and it appears to be the final watershed event in human history. The choice for those living at that time will be clear to them and the consequences eternal.
The choice is the following: Will you accept the mark and throw your lot in with the world which you can see or will you deny the mark and throw your lot in with the unseen God, and as a consequence subject yourself and your family to being ostracized from the world system to face hunger, persecution, and torture?
Denying the mark will likely be similar to losing title to all of one’s assets and loss of access to the banking system.
In other words, it would mean being shut out of the system.
The choice that each person makes at that time will then be clear for all to see. It will symbolize either entitlement to goods, services, and protection in the world system or being cast out of it to wander the earth as Cain did.
Those who desire to throw their lot in with God at that time are then presented with the some very important questions here and now: How long can you and your family survive without access to your assets or the banking system? Is it worth it to resist the mark and live as wanderers? Won’t God understand if I take the mark and forgive even this transgression?
To the first two questions, only you can provide the answers. The Bible is clear as to the answer to the third question, and from what we read in Revelation 14:9-12, it appears that the answer is no.
So, then, the true believer is left to prepare to live outside of the system until Jesus comes for them, to keep their lamp lit until the groom comes, as it were.
But for how long? That, fellow taxpayer, is the exciting part, and it will have to wait until tomorrow.
We search for answers, yet the questions are trumping them right now. This phenomenon is inherent to human existence. People are always chasing after knowledge. In the Bible, the book of Daniel speaks of our times when the Angel tells Daniel in his vision:
“But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
A little bit of knowledge sparks a thirst for more knowledge, which, once quenched, sparks an even greater thirst for knowledge. Like Carmex, which soothes one’s chapped lips for a time only to dry them out again, which appears to create a perpetual “need” for to the product, knowledge provides answers and understanding which lead the enquirer to even more questions, and the cycle repeats itself.
The phenomenon expresses itself in markets in the form of a search for a “final price”. In a free, unfettered marketplace, this price, in money terms, represents all that is known about the value of the good that is being exchanged for money at that point in time. However, this “final price” is in and of itself a new data point to be considered, as is the exchange of goods which it represents. This changing data necessarily creates a new “final price” which, by definition, takes into account all factors know about the value of the good and so on.
Ever since we decided to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the chase for knowledge has continued and will continue until Jesusreturns.
But what does this have to do with the US Dollar, let alone Beer?
We are glad you asked as we were getting a bit side-tracked. Our personal search for knowledge has brought us to the most recent of the endless questions that need to be answered:
When will Central Bank Currency Regimes and Sovereign Governments admit they are bankrupt and be allowed to default?
This is an URGENT and very important question as the entire financial world cannot progress until this question has been answered.
To be clear, most western governments and their Central Bank run currency regimes are now technically in default. They have been ever since they began to “solve” liquidity problems via money printing or “Quantitative Easing” (QE for short).
The acts of Quantitative Easing, which have been embarked upon by the US, Euro, and Japanese Central Banks is only necessary when the faith based currency regime in question has failed. The necessity to print money which is not demanded by the market nor provided at market prices provides concrete proof that people are no longer willing to further enslave themselves by incurring additional debt.
As we have explained in this space before, debt is the lifeblood of the currency regime. In these mindless confiscatory monetary systems where the only way to create money is to coax someone else into incurring debt, shrinking debt is the equivalent of someone pushing the currency regime’s self destruct button.
But instead of recognizing this fact for what it was, a failure of the system, much of western civilization continues in willful denial. Soon, however, everyone will be rushing for the exits.
But we promised you a beer, fellow taxpayer, so crack yourself a cold one (on your own dime, of course, this is, after all, a free newsletter) and see if you tell us what the Federal Reserve Notes that we currently use as money and Schlitz Beer have in common?
What do Schlitz and the Federal Reserve Note have in Common?
Need a hint? Think quality, or lack thereof.
Give up? Here are the answers, as always, we invite inquiring fellow taxpayers to add to this list by commenting below.
First, both Federal Reserve Notes and Schlitz were once the gold standards of their product class (currency and beer, respectively). Federal Reserve Notes took the place of US Dollars in 1913 and maintained the US Dollar’s tradition of quality and enjoyed increased market share until finally overtaking the British Pound Sterling as the world’s currency of choice. In the beer industry, Schlitz rose to overtake rival Pabst as the most popular beer in the world in 1902.
In the 1970s, the Schlitz brewing process was changed to make use of high temperature fermentation in order to further speed production. This change and subsequent changes in the formula had disastrous results which came to a head in 1982. On the US Dollar front, then President Richard Nixon began to tinker with the US Dollar formula in the 70s, namely making the US Dollar no longer convertible into gold. This watering down of the dollar supply had disastrous effects which also came to a head in the early 1980’s.
Both Schlitz and the US Dollar then continued to generally decline in status for close to 30 years.
In 2008, however, the old Schlitz formula was discovered and has been revived by Stroh’s Brewing Company to give new life to an old beer that everyone had left for dead.
Circa 2011, the US Dollar is still yearning to return to the “gold convertibility” formula that made it so insanely popular for the first half of the twentieth century.
*See MINT Perceived Economic Effect Rate Chart at bottom of blog. This rate is the FED Target rate with a 39 month lag, representing the time it takes for the FED Target rate changes to affect the real economy. This is a 39 months head start that the FED member banks have on the rest of us on using the new money that is created.
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