If it's all just a game, a big scam, then shouldn't we work
to beat the system and lessen our tax burden? We certainly don't want to pay
taxes right?
For me there are other factors too. Any of these setups involve
taking large sums of money and investing them in the market. Personally I'm
opposed to this. I am aware of the many arguments that defend market investment
and I'm also aware there are people who pervert some of Christ's parables in
order to defend this. God willing I will write another piece in the near future
that will address some of these terrible abuses of Christ's parables.
On paper the market is one thing. It's investing in companies to promote their growth. You're part of a profit making enterprise and simply receiving a return or dividend on profits. This has an element of truth if you take your money, park it in a company and just leave it there for the long term.
In reality it doesn't work that way. Companies work to
manipulate their stock's value. Speculation
and market forces can create fictitious capital... yes, that's a concept given
to us by Marx. We can utilize a concept without embracing the totality of his
system. His criticisms were often valid. His solutions were just as bad as the
problems he criticized.
Not long ago there were a series of reports on IBM and how
they worked to manipulate the value of their stock. It's an interesting lesson
in how the markets really work and frankly how arbitrary these values are. The
whole system smacks of manipulation and deceit.
For those invested in mutual funds and other similar
entities, or for that matter any fund that's managed by someone else, the
behaviour is often quite literally a form of conservative gambling. By
spreading out the risk the fund managers are often able to stay ahead of the
game. But when you look into derivatives, credit default swaps and all the rest
you're left with a bad taste in your mouth. It's hardly as simple as just
investing in a company and participating in profits. That's a rather simplistic
understanding of what's actually happening.
I know in terms of Capitalist orthodoxy it's all just
innovation and ways of generating new income. In truth it's one large shell
game. Sure a lot of people do well and make tremendous amounts of money. But
many do not and there are always people who lose and are taken advantage of.
The global costs are beyond words when we look at the cost
of the American financial system in terms of multi-national corporations,
resource extraction, usurious loans and lawsuits, corporate raiding etc...
Not to mention destroyed lives and the toll that takes on
families and thus society as a whole.
It's all done through the utilization of funds provided by
middle class America, the average investor. It's all built on top of the
machine that so many Americans are participating in.
I know everyone can say... well, it's not my fault. I'm just
invested in this or that fund.
I guess ignorance is bliss.
I believe in a concept called the Cognizance Imperative. I
believe that once we're made aware of the reality of a situation we are morally
bound to act on it. As Christians self examination is a mandate. We are to
examine our motives and our actions. As we are sanctified and grow in grace we
continue to probe our lives and are confronted with sin. A sure sign of
sanctification is one's consciousness of their wretchedness and depravity.
Those who embrace forms of Perfectionism show a decreasing
understanding of God's standard of Righteousness and thus the full import of
Christ's saving work and the price that was pain in securing this redemption.
They are trapped in a false gospel of works righteousness and in the end
denigrate the value and import of Christ's work. Trusting in themselves they
slip into Pharisaism.
Living un-examined lives is not an option for Christians.
Parking vast sums of money into investment schemes that we choose to be
willingly ignorant of is immoral and does not eliminate culpability.
We must pay our taxes but that doesn't mean that it's right
to invest wholesale in the American system... one I believe to be perhaps the
most immoral the world has ever seen. Again, it's nothing new, just read
Revelation 18. America is but one of many Babylon's and the Church has laboured
under delusion and helped it take on the 'mystery' aspect... as one of the many
False Zion's produced by the heretical vision of Christendom.
Do we just play the game like Dave Ramsey and so many of the
other financial advisors seem to counsel?
Should we try and beat the system, play the game and beat it
by finding all the ways to manipulate the law, find the loopholes and avoid
paying tax so that we can protect what is ours and we (falsely) believe we have
earned?
Obviously I'm speaking rhetorically.
What's the alternative?
We can beat the system by refusing to play the game,
standing our ground and walking with integrity.
We will be poor and at the bottom of society but we will be
laying up our treasures in heaven
The middle class dream values financial security and a
standard of living that generates social respectability.
Please re-read the Sermon on the Mount, not to mention the
epistles and even the prophets and show me where security and respectability
are Christian values. Show me where these are things we should seek after or
respect.
In fact the opposite is true.
Dave Ramsey and those like him teach forms of Consequentialism.
This is simply a way to say the Biblical formula doesn't work in the real world
and thus we don't have to follow it. It's merely an ideal. It was never meant
to be actually followed.
Am I saying we can follow it perfectly? Am I saying that I'm
free from anxiety about tomorrow? Of course not.
Yes, the world system is one big scam. The magnitude of it
weighs heavily on me. I feel like I'm learning more every single day and as
I've mentioned elsewhere when I hear Mohler and others suggest that if we just
get some good Christian values into the workplace we can change America's
culture, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. These children don't seem to grasp
the magnitude or even the nature of the problem. They have not even begun to
apprehend the level of sin. Coming from so-called Christian leaders this is
more than a little disturbing.
Of course grasping this also destroys one's appreciation for
and veneration of the American project. It's only a problem when you've made it
into an idol and confused Nationalism with Christian piety.
Don't play the game and don't try to beat the system by
beating them at their own game.
Refuse to play and thus beat the system. It makes us
vulnerable but as we come to a fuller understanding of the Kingdom and what it
means to walk by faith we are in fact emboldened.
Take my house and possessions but you can't hurt me. You
can't break me. Christ is my Lord and I will not put my confidence in princes
nor will I depend on man for help. I will not trust in riches or the promises
of serpents. I would rather be poor and walk with integrity than participate in
a project that exploits the poor of the earth and a system that rapes and kills
in order to feed the death machine.
The Mark of the Beast is the world system. It's those who
demonstrate Satanic thought and action. Instead of bearing the Seal of Christ
on their thoughts and actions, the head and the hand, they embrace the world
system which like all false systems is in the end Satanic.
If you don't play the game it will be as if you can't even
get by. It will be as if you can't even attain to the cultural norm when it
comes to the standard of living.
It's not a matter of scanning an implanted microchip at a
grocery store. It's simply being able to have access to the larger society. The
passage in Revelation 13 is symbolic and thus somewhat hyperbolic. There are
times when it becomes more severe than others. There were times in the Middle
Ages when Christians could barely survive and had to take to the forests and
mountains.
In some ways that was easier. You could disappear. But we're
not called to do that. We're called to be martyr-witnesses, to suffer and
endure. We're called to be an Altar-Community living in the midst of the
pagans. Our very presence and our non-conformity is a finger of doom pointed at
them, a reminder of the coming Judgment. Our lives should be both a conviction
to their conscience and a testimony to the otherworldly peace we possess and
share.
If we're getting along in this world and playing the game
then we need to re-think the implications of the New Testament and our calling
in this life. We're not understanding what it means to be a citizen of the
Kingdom and what we're called to. We're not discerning the signs of the times
nor grasping the depravity of our culture and the evil nature of our financial
system.