Lux Lucet

There were at least a three noteworthy events in the financial markets this past week. In the first place there was outgoing European Central Bank (ECB) head Mario Draghi’s announcement of what some are calling QE Infinity (Infinite Quantitative Easing). According to Draghi, the ECB will begin asset purchases at the rate of €20 billon per month for as long as it deems necessary, “to reinforce th accommodative impact of its polity rates.”

Translating all this central bank talk into plain English, Draghi has committed the ECB to counterfeit an absurd about of money on a monthly basis just to make sure the European economy doesn’t collapse. Further, there is no definite stopping point to this program. Draghi’s policy is both sinful and incompetent. It is sinful, because it violates the Bible’s clear teaching that differing weights and measures are an abomination to the Lord It is incompetent, because it fails not only to address the real reasons for the economic problems in the nations that use the Euro currency, but actually makes them worse.

Second was Donald Trump’s calling for the Federal Reserve to lower “interest rates down to ZERO , or less.” This is a remarkable statement by the President, and has left many asking why he made it. The short story is this, the American economy is not as good as what Trump and others have tried to convey and the President is concerned that, if the Fed doesn’t cut interest rates, the stock market will tank and the economy will fall into recession. Neither of these things would be good for his reelection chances.

Of course, neither a Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) nor a Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) would be good for the country, especially for those who rely on interest income from their savings, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the President.

A third noteworthy item of financial news from last week was the sudden spike in the 10-year US Treasury interest rate. The 10-year US Treasury is considered the benchmark interest rate for the entire bond market. More than that, the 10-year Treasury is the benchmark which goes a long way to determining the price of stocks as well.

When interest rates move sharply upward, this means that the price paid for bonds has gone sharply down. Bond interest rates and bond prices move in opposite directions, much as the ends of a teeter-totter do. If yields are going up, this means that there is a selloff in the bond market.

So bonds are selling off, what does this mean? Peter Schiff and Gregory Mannarino have warned that this could portend a larger bond selloff as holders of US Treasuries become nervous about the financial condition of the US. Mannarino is of the opinion that China may be the major actor here.

Another interpretation is that the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) – the ESF is part of the US Treasury Department – is manipulating the 10-year interest rate to make sure that the yield on the 10-year Treasury stays well above the yield on the 2-year Treasury, thus preventing an inverted yield curve, which is a strong recession indicator.

These moves in the bond market are important, yet most people don’t follow the bond market nearly as much as the stock market. But it’s the bond market that controls what goes on in the stock market, not the other way around. If we ever do get an uncontrolled selloff in the bond market – this would mean sharply higher interest rates, remember when bond prices go down, interest rates go up – you would see a simultaneous crash in all markets that derive their value from debt: stocks, and housing in particular.

Put another way, if the bond market tanks, the whole economy tanks.

One thing all three bits of news above have in common is that they are all related to what I’ve called the Ongoing Financial Crisis of 2008. My contention is that, due to the interventions of governments and central banks, the debt problem that triggered the 2008 global financial crisis not only was not solved, but actually made worse. Calls for QE Infinity, ZIRP, and NIRP together shaky bond markets are all symptoms of this.

In light of the fact that the serious problems with the West’s financial system have never been addresses, and given the foolishness of Western leaders, never will be voluntarily addressed, it seems wise to this author for Christians to take steps to protect themselves from a breakdown in the financial system now.

It is this need to get prepared and stay prepared, together with a conviction that very little has been written for Christians by Christians on this subject, that have prompted me to write this series in the first place.

As part of this series on the financial crisis and on getting prepared for it, I have been examining what the Bible has to say about prepping. As a Scripturalist – a Scripturalist is defined as one who believes that all knowledge is either expressly set forth, or can be derived by good and necessary inference, from the 66 books of the Bible – it is critical to ground all prepping the Word of God.

One question to ask is this, Does the Bible support prepping? The clear answer is, yes it does. This can been seen in the numerous, clear examples in the Scriptures of those took steps to prevent suffering and death, both their own and that of others, by taking preventive measures in the face of oncoming catastrophe. “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself,” says Proverbs, “but the simple pass on and are punished.”

A second question to ask is, What should Christians do to get prepared? I contend that Christians must answer this question in the same as the first, by looking to the Scriptures. As part of this series, we’ve already looked at two examples, that of Noah and that of Lot. Today, I’d like to turn the reader’s attention to another obvious example from Genesis, the case of Joseph, Prime Minister of Egypt.

Joseph, Prime Minister of Egypt

The account of Joseph, how he was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers and rose to be second only to Pharaoh, is certainly one of the best known stories from the Old Testament, and it is not my intention to recount all of it here. For our purposes today, the main focus will begin in Genesis 41, which recounts Pharaoh’s two dreams and Joseph’s interpretation of them.

God’s Gracious Warning

After Pharaoh had his two dreams – one involving fat and gaunt cattle, the other full and thin heads of grain – God revealed to Joseph their meaning. As Genesis 41 tells us, these dreams were a warning from God that there would be seven years of plentiful harvest followed by seven years of famine.

This follows the same pattern we saw with Noah and Lot, both of whom were graciously warned by God of a coming disaster and were provided along with the warning a way of escape.

Some may argue that this does not apply today, since we do not have continuing revelation. But this is a foolish objection. While we don’t have prophets and angels pointing out danger and telling us what we must do to avoid it, we have God’s complete revelation in the 66 books of the Bible and the Spirit to illuminate our minds to help us both understand the text and to apply it wisely.

Joseph’s Errors

But while there are similarities to the earlier accounts, there seem to be differences as well. In the case of Noah and Lot, God’s grace was extended to a single family, or at least extended family. But with the Joseph narrative, we see God providentially preserve, not just those within the covenant, but those outside of it s well, by which I mean the pagan Egyptians.

The second difference I aim to propose is, perhaps, more controversial. Where God very clearly provided direction to Noah and to Lot about what they needed to do to avoid being part of an upcoming catastrophe, it seems to me an argument can be made that Joseph was freelancing a bit when he proposed how to survive the famine.

Why do I say this? First, Joseph does not come out and explicitly state that his proposed solution to the famine – having Pharaoh appoint officers to forcibly take twenty percent of the grain harvest for the next seven years and put it in storage – is from the Lord. Regarding Joseph’s interpretations of the two dreams, he said, “God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do”…”the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” But Joseph never says this about his proposed solution.

Second, we know from 1 Samuel 8 that taxes of ten percent or greater are sinful, but here Joseph proposes a tax of twenty percent on the produce of the Egyptian farmers. As John Robbins notes in “Joseph’s Apes,” this twenty percent was not a case of voluntary giving, but rather one of legal extraction. If one accepts the premise that God’s civil laws apply to all societies and rulers, then it is hard to see how Joseph’s recommendation of a twenty percent tax, both before the famine and after the famine (see Genesis 47:24) can be said to be from the Lord.

Third, Joseph proposed taking twenty percent of the grain produced by force, without any apparent compensation, then sold the grain which belonged to the people back to them. The price people had to pay to get their own grain back was such that they ran out of money and had to beg Joseph to buy their livestock, all their land, and the people themselves. At the same time, he was using his position to subsidize his own family, giving them food for nothing. It’s hard not to see this as tyrannical self dealing.

Don’t Rely on the Government

One lesson that follows from the above is that we Christians should not rely on government to save us. We need to do our own prepping, so we’re not in the position of the Egyptians, having to beg bred from the government and being forced to accept the aid on terms favorable to the bureaucrats. Had the Egyptians not relied on the government to bail them out, perhaps some of them could have retained their land.

Natural Disasters and God’s Decrees

One similarity Joseph’s situation had with that of Noah is that they both involved what are commonly called natural disasters. In the case of Noah, it was a cataclysmic flood; with Joseph, it was a famine. But these seeming natural disasters really were the hand of God at work.

With the cases of the flood and the famine, the Bible clearly tells us that they came from the hand of God, “and behold, I [God] will destroy them [sinful men] with the earth”…”God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.”

This is an important lesson for Christians today. The Shorter Catechism teaches us that of the decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Note well the whatsoever, that it leaves nothing outside the decrees of God. If the catechism is right, and it is, then there is nothing that occurs in all the world that falls outside God’s decrees, that is to say his eternal purpose. The things we call natural disasters are really events decreed by God from before the foundation of the earth.

And if the origin of the disasters we face, natural, financial or otherwise, are the same as the disasters faced by the Old Testament and New Testament saints, does it not follow that we must turn to the same source as they for guidance about what to do, namely, the Word of God?

Prepping is Not Just for Ourselves

“I used to live for myself. But when I became a Christian, I stopped serving my self-interests and began living for living for God.”

I’ve heard Christians say this or things like on several occasions. Perhaps you have too. Now I don’t wish to impugn the honesty of those who make such statements. As far as I could tell, they were being sincere. But I can say in all honesty, they were kidding themselves.

The Bible tells us that no man every yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. Jesus Christ himself appealed to the self-interest of his hearers on more than once occasion. For example, he once rhetorically asked, What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses how own soul? The obvious answer is, nothing.

One of the things we can infer from these propositions is that becoming a Christian does not involve losing one’s sense of self-interest. Put another way, self-interest is not inherently sinful. What is sinful is having a false conception of what your self-interest is. For example, a thief thinks it’s in her self-interest to steal his neighbors property. Or take a covetous man, he may think piling up riches is in his self-interest. Yet unless these men repent of their sins and confess the Lord Jesus Christ, they will spend an eternity in hell, which is most certainly not in their self-interest.

I bring this up by way of saying that it is not wrong for Christians to wish to be delivered from the various catastrophes that can befall men in this sinful world. But if that’s the only thing we prep for, then it’s possible we may not be honoring God as we ought.

For example, Joseph’s preparations didn’t just benefit himself, but benefitted all of Egypt. And not just all of Egypt, but his own family as well. Years later, Joseph would tell his brothers, “But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

No perhaps Joseph didn’t have his family in mind when he undertook to lay up grain for the coming famine, but God certainly had this in view. Writing to the Philippians, Paul said, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others.” Therefore, when we prepare for various disasters, let us do so with an eye not only for our own interests, but for those of our family, the household of faith, and our neighbors.

This really gets back to the idea of prepping as a form of witness. As Christians, we prep because we can foresee trouble coming in light of the Word of God. And when that trouble does come, not only can we tend to our own needs, but we may find ourselves in a position where we can give a cup of cold water to another in the name of Christ. Is it not possible this may lead to an opening to discuss the Gospel of Christ with an unbeliever?

Closing Thoughts

By reviewing these three accounts from Genesis – Noah, Lot and Joseph – it is my hope that you have come to see that, not only is prepping consistent with Scripture, but that there are several examples of this very activity found in the pages of the Bible.

It seems to this author that some Christians are reluctant to prep, because they think is shows lack of faith. Let go and let God, they say. This is a mistake. Yes, God has ordained the ends, but he has also ordained the means by which his ends will be accomplished.

God has given us his Word and he expects us to understand it, to assent to it, and to act upon it. Our coming to understand, and assent to, more and more of Scripture is our sanctification. Our acting upon it is not sanctification, but rather the fruit of our sanctification already accomplished through the study of God’s Word. That is to say, our good works are our spiritual fruit, well pleasing to God. One example of good works is properly applying our knowledge of Scripture to evaluate our circumstances and, if needed, taking prudent steps to avoid likely future threats. In other words, prepping.

Finally, the three examples of Old Testament preppers cited so far barely scratch the surface of the material in the Old Testament. But in order to move this series along, it seems good at this point to leave our study of Old Testament preppers and consider some examples from the New. Lord willing, next week I shall discuss prepping in the New Testament, focusing on the teachings of Christ himself.