Why is the world's RICHEST nation also the world's chief DEBTOR nation?
Why are the WELL-PAID Americans DEEPEST in debt?
America is seemingly under an economic CURSE, resulting from broken economic LAWS.
America, Britain, and other debtor nations need to learn these laws and obey them.
This article reveals those basic laws, and shows how YOU can prosper in the midst of a debt-ridden society.
THINK OF IT! — a world filled with peace and prosperity, a happy new world in which nobody need have any financial troubles.
That is the coming UTOPIA — the wonderful World of Tomorrow!
But why isn't there a utopia today? Why, instead, do we have the twin evils of inflation and recession, with chronic unemployment and skyrocketing welfare costs?
There is no one thing that plagues more people today than the constant worry of employment and making ends meet. Let us UNDERSTAND! There is a reason, a CAUSE, for it! [Editor's Note: If you are currently out of a job, we invite you to read our article "How to Find a Good Job" which discusses several usable, common-sense techniques in obtaining employment]
 |
Why Stupendous DEBT?
When you stop to think about it, never in the history of the world were any nations so seemingly rich as are the English-speaking and the Western European nations today. Our people possess more developed resources and national wealth than any people ever had before. Yet these very nations owe public and private debts so HUGE that the next ten generations will not be able to pay them off!
The U.S. alone owes around $2,000,000,000,000 — that is two trillion dollars — in gross public and private debt! That means every individual American averages about $10,000 of this gigantic debt. Or, a family of four owes, in public and private debt, $40,000.
SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG! We have lost sense of the value of money. And no wonder. What most people simply don't know, today, about their financial problems is that there are definite LAWS in motion — invisible, yet inexorable laws, which regulate economic conditions and personal finances.
World Ignores These Laws
Let us understand how these FINANCIAL LAWS would operate to bring about a utopia — both national and individual — if we would obey them.
Everything produced — money and the things money will buy — comes from the earth. You didn't produce the earth — GOD produced it! You merely apply energy in thinking and planning and in labor to the earth, which God created and owns. Where does the energy you expend really come from? It comes from God. You do not create it. You merely utilize what GOD supplies.
God even set your thinking processes in motion. You are entirely dependent on Him for your life.
|
Yes, all has come from God. It is GOD who sustains, preserves in motion, guides and directs all the natural forces and energies. God is not a Creator Emeritus. He is the living DIRECTOR of the universe. It is GOD'S LABOR — His thinking, planning and creating — that really produces all. Therefore, God has a claim to OWNERSHIP of all you have taken for granted that you produced. His claim is VALID. It is PRIOR to yours. Notice what God Almighty says:
"The earth is the Lord's [ETERNAL's], and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Psalm 24:1).
These inspired words are repeated in the New Testament in I Cor. 10:26.
Yes, even the money — the gold and silver — is God's. "The silver is MINE, and the gold is MINE, saith the ETERNAL of Hosts" (Haggai 2:8).
Only the foolish DARE to deny this claim of God! Let us admit it then.
Our income BELONGS to God until He releases it to us.
How God's Law Regulates Your Wealth
God is concerned about you. He has your interest and welfare in mind.
He therefore set FINANCIAL LAWS in motion regulating, for our benefit, that portion of His WEALTH which your thinking and your labor extracted from the earth and developed.
God's LAW respecting what you earn is like a contract. He allows you to work on Its EARTH, to use a part of the earth for food and other materials for your livelihood — to utilize its soil, its timber, its water, its coal and oil, and to manufacture products from it. In turn, God wants you to understand you are working with Him in partnership — MAINTAINING AND DEVELOPING WHAT HE CREATED.
But God is GENEROUS. In this partnership, He turns over to you as your own not 5% or 20% or even 50% — but 90% of all that you produce! And even the small fraction which He reserves for Himself, He has directed to be used for the purpose of disseminating to the PEOPLE His message. Through that message God reveals His (Continued from page 12) laws of life that if we follow, free us from financial fears and worries and give us peace of mind and enduring happiness, abundant joy and LIFE ETERNAL!
Think of it! God uses the ONE tenth of all that we produce to help improve us materially and spiritually, and to reveal to this UNHAPPY, spiritually bankrupt WORLD THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS LAWS WHICH, IF OBEYED, WOULD PRODUCE UTOPIA! God keeps NOTHING for Himself.
God's financial laws are for MAN'S GOOD. Obedience to His laws brings BLESSINGS. "Prove me [by returning to God His tenth] now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a BLESSING, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:10).
When the nation violates His laws, that nation brings CURSES upon itself — fears, worries, frustration, and ultimate national suicide! "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have ROBBED me, even this whole nation." "Wherein have we robbed thee?" "In tithes and offerings" (Malachi 3:8, 9).
But God has ordained that if He receives His rightful 10%, as a partner, of what is produced from the earth, the 90% which He gives us will soon grow bigger and accomplish more for us than we alone could ever have done with the entire 100%.
God actually pays us for keeping our part of the CONTRACT! "And all nations shall call you BLESSED: for you shall be a delightsome LAND, saith the Eternal of hosts" (Malachi 3:12).
It is time we understood the duties we owe our Creator. The nations today have robbed God. They are withholding from Him what is His. They are under a curse. No wonder world leaders find no lasting solution to their recurrent financial woes. BUT you, individually, can prosper by tithing, no matter what the nation does.
Why Abraham Prospered
Abraham was prosperous. He knew the laws which bring financial prosperity. He tithed!
Abraham paid his tenth, or tithe, to God's representative. That representative who collected the tithe was the High Priest Melchizedek (Heb. 7:1-2 and Genesis 14:18-20).
Tithing was known from the earliest times — centuries before the time of Moses.
The King of Sodom was present with Abraham when he paid Melchizedek the tithes. The Bible would not have termed the Sodomites wicked sinners unless they had a knowledge of God's Law as a result of Melchizedek's ministry. Sin would not have been imputed to them if they had not heard and known the Law — (Rom. 5:13).
Abraham obeyed God's Law — including the law of tithing (Gen. 26:3, 5).
That's why Abraham prospered!
Remember, tithes belong to Melchizedek. The tithes were paid directly to Him in patriarchal times for the purpose of carrying on God's ministry which was then centered at Salem, or Jerusalem.
But in Moses' day a change took place. Melchizedek ordered the establishment of a covenant — the Old Covenant. As long as that covenant lasted, a change had to be made in the law regulating tithing. Tithes were still to be paid to Him, but through MEN acting as His representatives. God's ministry through the Levites became a material, ritualistic ministry of reminding an entire nation of their failure to obey His laws.
The Levites used the tithes to minister to the people in the manner God had commanded for that time. Melchizedek, High Priest in heaven, still supervised — but stepped into the background, letting men perform rituals that reminded the people of sin and of the plan of God. The Levites did not preach the spiritual message of the Kingdom of God.
Melchizedek Ministry Reappears!
Melchizedek of the Old Testament again appeared as the High Priest of the New Testament. As High Priest, He came as the Lamb of God to sacrifice Himself for the sins of all those who had lived before His coming and for the sins of those who would live after Him, so they could enter the coming Kingdom of God.
He came to qualify as world ruler. He came to train messengers who would proclaim to an unbelieving and slumbering world His imminent return to establish God's government here on earth. He is Christ — OUR PRESENT HIGH PRIEST!
Let's compare the Old Testament Levitical priesthood with the New Testament ministry established by Jesus Christ for carrying out His Work today.
In OLD TESTAMENT TIMES between the time of Moses and Jesus — under the Old Covenant, God's ministry was purely national, for Israel alone. Its blessings were purely material — promises of earthly wealth and power in return for obedience. There were no spiritual promises for salvation. A constant round of animal sacrifices were required as a reminder of sin. The people had no promise whatever of salvation, for the Holy Spirit, which makes a change of nature and salvation possible, was not promised to the people until after Christ came and ascended .(John 14:26; 16: 7; Acts 2:38).
Melchizedek (the One who became Christ), selected the Levites under the Old Covenant as His ministers. MEL-CHIZEDEK ALSO ORDAINED A TEMPORARY CHANGE IN THE TITHING LAW — HE TURNED THE TENTH HE HAD ALWAYS PERSONALLY RECEIVED IN PATRIARCHAL DAYS OVER TO THE LEVITES FOR ADMINISTERING HIS WORK.
He thereby supported the LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD. There was no spreading of the Gospel. God's PLAN then called for the LEVITES to teach the people the law in the LETTER. And the people were commanded to support them.
TODAY, under the New Covenant, there is no need of the Levitical priesthood.
Jesus Christ — the Melchizedek of the Old Testament — came to this earth to inaugurate a NEW KIND OF MINISTRY — A SPIRITUAL MINISTRY — a ministry of SALVATION, a ministry of WARNING, of PROPHESYING of His imminent return as world ruler!
Melchizedek, "who abides high priest continually," assumed the form of a mortal man, which no Levite could do, and paid for the sins of all mankind, as the Lamb of God. As a result, the Father has made available His own Holy Spirit to us. It is the power which makes possible the keeping of God's LAW IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT Of attitude.
Jesus Christ also chose His original twelve disciples, or ministers, while He was on earth. Today all true ministers of Jesus Christ are called by special spiritual call from God through His Holy Spirit. Christ, commissioning His ministers today, says: "This GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the END [of this age] come" (Matt. 24:14).
That Gospel is reaching millions, worldwide, today through this very magazine — and The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast, The PLAIN TRUTH and the colorfully illustrated booklets. The lives of thousands are being changed. It is making possible, for hundreds of thousands, the more abundant life Jesus preached (John 10:10). That Gospel message includes the laws that bring financial prosperity — the tithing law.
We are subsidized by no one! Our work is made possible only through tithes and offerings received from those who, as Co-Workers, are interested in furthering the Work God has commanded to be done at this time — through the ones He has chosen to do it! We do not ask the public for contributions. Jesus didn't. But we are commanded by God to tell the people His laws just as Jesus did. It is up to the people to obey God!
God has commanded that we carry His warning-witness message to all the world. We cannot charge for it. God has commanded that His Gospel go free to all: "Preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand . . . freely ye have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:7-8). God places the financial responsibility of furthering His Gospel work upon those who understand His way. And God will prosper them for it.
What Happens When God's Laws Are Broken
Soon, the United States and Britain — descendants of the ancient House of Israel — are to suffer national calamity — just prior to Christ's second coming. Why?
Malachi 3 gives the answer. This prophecy can be for no other time — look at the date! It can be for no other time than today, and for no other people than modern-day Israel — Britain and America today — for God addresses it to the people living in the day of Christ's second coming (verse 2). Always we have erred (verse 7). God says to those in our land today — you, if you are guilty — "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation . . . in tithes and offerings" (verses 9, 8).
What do you think God will do? Something different than He has always done for disobedience? No! Listen! Joel 1 says He will weaken the nations with famine, then Ezekiel 5:5, 12 shows He will raise a foe against us who will remove us from our land. Our nations haven't paid God His rent, so our people will be removed from their land!
THIS IS A SERIOUS THING — and the time is fast approaching. BUT you, individually, can escape IF you study God's revealed Word, repent, believe and obey Him.