From a secular standpoint, money evolves out of barter. In the most
primitive conditions people trade goods and services among themselves. This
is inconvenient for a number of reasons, one being to find someone who has
what you want and wants what you have. The economists call this the double
coincidence of wants. Men therefore, look for some common denominator of
value. This becomes the medium of exchange and eliminates this need for the
double coincidence of wants.It then becomes possible to trade what you have
for a purchasing medium and hold it until you can find somebody who has what
you want and in turn is willing to accept that purchasing medium. A
requirement of this process is that the
common denominator has to be freely acceptable to all of
the participants in the marketplace.
   In the Western world that good in terms of which all
others are measured is gold, particularly in international trading. Silver
served this purpose to a greater extent in domestic trading. Once the medium
of exchange was identified, then the government knew what to tax. Governments
could then extract value to support themselves and ultimately enslave the
people.
   The means by which governments take control over this
common denominator of value is to put their mark upon it. It is at that point
that the inflationary process begins. Sooner or later the government insists
that men deal with the metal and only the metal that has its mark on it. This
becomes the coin of the realm. Any other purchasing medium is made illegal.
By that simple step, the government gains control over the common denominator
metal in its function as money.
   But there are still limitations to the degree that the monetary system
contains something of substance, particularly a substance over which the
government has no control.
        For this reason the government has a vested interest in having the
people rely more on its mark than on the substance. Keep in mind that one of
the most pervasive programs of government is conquest and enslavement. During
the Roman period, for instance, the mark on the money was the image of
Caesar.  Because the people were more reliant on the image than the
substance, Caesar was able to progressively corrupt the substance, then
remove the substance and otherwise debauch the currency.
   The practice consisted of melting down and/or mixing the gold or silver
with a metal of lesser value. Hence, the statement in Isaiah 1:22, "Thy
silver is become dross. . " The coins are then reissued, keeping the surplus
metal to make more coins. In this way the government wound up with more
images than at the beginning. This was a progressive practice. The currency
contained less and less of real value as the government would continue
successive rounds of debasement and the people became more and more reliant
on the mark.
   There were issues of coin in which the process went from gold to silver to
bronze and finally iron, all having the same image and claiming to be the
same denomination. Even the iron was debased to the point of gravel. In all
of this the  government was the beneficiary of the confiscated value. It was,
however, very inconvenient, due to the mechanics of the metallic coinage. The
requirement that the government physically handle the coins in order to melt
and restrike made this a costly process.
   Once the printing press came along, it was a new ball game. It then became
a simple matter of transferring the mark to which the people had already
become accustomed, to paper. Once the people accepted the mark on the paper,
it was a small next step to remove the original substance altogether. At that
point they were left with nothing but paper images.
   That eliminated the difficulty of having to call in the coin in order to
debase the currency. All that is necessary is to print more of the paper
images. This makes it possible to corrupt the money more rapidly and much
more thoroughly. It comes to an end when the paper is worth no more after it
is printed than before. As that point is approached, the people wake up to
what is happening, and they refuse to deal in the money any longer. Monetary
reform takes place when the people repudiate the currency. Then the
government is forced to institute a monetary reform. Otherwise, it has lost
its hold on the people.
  At the point of repudiation, the people begin to trade with one another by
barter. This makes it impossible to
quantify transactions from a tax standpoint. The government has then lost its
ability to maintain itself. Not only has it lost its ability to tax, but
since its money is refused by the people, it cannot play the spending game
any longer either.

   Under these circumstances it is clearly in the government's best interest
to have monetary reform. This point usually comes as no surprise to the
authorities because they knew what was going on all the time. The government
is, therefore, generally prepared to implement the reform and thus minimize
the time during which the government has lost  control. Generally the reform
consists of some multiple of the old unit to one of the new unit. The new
unit may even be called the same thing, but it will be distinguished so that
the     the people can tell the difference. It may be called something else.
This has the advantage of fostering trust since the new ' unit has no history
of being untrustworthy. This is something  like relabeling snake oil. The
snake oil salesman either has to change his labels often or keep on the move.
The government cannot move on. The important thing is that every label is a
mark, and every mark, a graven image.

   To some degree both metallic and paper money suffer the same drawbacks to
inflation. That drawback consists of the fact that as the end approaches, the
weight in volume of the paper required to do business becomes so great that
people begin to smell a rat. This has happened several times. A good example
is the inflation in Germany between 1919 and 1923, at the end of which it
took up to 4,000,000,000 D.M. to 'buy a loaf of bread. It began with 1 D.M.
buying a loaf of bread. In that instance the government left those who
trusted in the money with 1/4,000,000,000 of their original value.
   Inflation, then, is a "rip-off ' of monumental proportions. The paper
which is something of substance tends to tell tales on the powers that be.
Reality exposes unreality. This is the primary reason for the hatred of gold
by those in authority. The substance gives the people an indication that
something is wrong. It provides visual and quantitative cues. For those with
eyes to see, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. To the degree that the
people are forearmed against inflation it becomes less effective at "ripping
them off."
   If inflation made a quantum leap with the advent of the printing press,
the next quantum leap is fairly obvious. It is to go from paper units to
accounting units without paper, a credit system. In an accounting system
nothing is of substance, not even paper, but simply debits and credits. All
of this is made possible by computers. The increasingly popular eredit card
is the best example for the present.
    The international equivalent of the credit card is the Special Drawing
Right, the S.D.R. As with other transitions in this inflationary flimflam,
the S.D.R. began by being tied to something of value in the same way that
paper currencies began by being tied to metallic monetary units. As with the
paper transition, the thing of value is eventually removed as the base of the
system. As gold was withdrawn as backing for our domestic currency, so gold
is being withdrawn as a standard of value for the S.D.R. in international
accounts.
   Once you have S.D.R.s, then you no longer need printing presses or paper.
The inflationary process becomes much more difficult to identify. We can see
the havoc that this difficulty is raising in international markets. This
difficulty is revealed at the point of and by monetary substance. While that
substance is only paper, we can still see the individual currencies under
attack. The substance is the indicator or warning that there is something
wrong. Since the government is responsible for what is wrong, it doesn't
really want to correct the problem. No government in history has ever fought
inflation because governments cause inflation. However, the game requires
that the governments pay lip service to the fight against inflation. Without
deception, the people would quickly get into a substance that would protect
them from the practice. A necessary part of the game then is deception.
People have to be deceived, or the system doesn't work.
   In international markets we see this in fluctuating currencies. This gives
all of the governments involved a vested interest in eliminating their own
currency. It is at the point of currency conversion that it becomes obvious
that something is wrong. What we are looking at is the death of Western world
currencies (including Japan) more or less simultaneously and in a cyclically
downward spiral. Where the monetary authorities are concerned, it is obvious
that what is needed is an accounting system on the domestic front as well.
That would be a system of no substance, not even paper, in order to hide what
is going on. According to John Maynard Keynes, "There is no more sure or
certain way to overturn the existing social order than to debauch the
currency, for it enlists all the hidden forces of economics on the side of
destruction, and in a way that not one man in a hundred can detect."
   Before this domestic credit system will be of any value internationally,
however, there needs to be a common unit of account. A possible interim step,
therefore, is a common currency for the Western world, quite possibly a paper
currency. That currency will establish a common unit of account or a common
number system. This would reverse the monetary impact of the confounding of
the language at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:7). All of this is leading to the
ultimate numbering system of the fourth kingdom of Daniel (Dan. 7:23- 25).
   It is these debits and credits and governments' vested interest in them
wherein resides the inherent link between taxation and numbering. Not only is
this made clear Biblically, but it is clear in the history of the world, at
least the history of the Western world, as well. This numbering process is
the means by which the government controls the people.
   Where, then, are we on this road to corruption? Presently we see the
Western world currencies all losing value, more or less simultaneously. Any
appearance of stability in the process is just that, an appearance. It is
only apparent relative to currencies that are declining faster. All of the
currencies are going down. A possible and likely next step may well be that
the chaos and stagnation or possible decline in the living standard may be
resolved by a common currency. This, no doubt, would be offered to us as a
panacea to eliminate the chaos and bring back prosperity. And in the short
run it may even have that effect.
   Inherent in any common currency system is a common power structure. We
will take a closer look at this aspect in another chapter. The important
thing here is that a common currency will mean that everyone everywhere will
be "ripped off" at once. The likely impact of that common accounting unit
will be continued inflation. It will still be a mark, only
then a mark that is held in common by the Western world. It will still be the
work of man's hands and subject to his control. And, indeed, it will be
controlled for the purpose of gaining and consolidating power. It will just
be a bigger and more universal means of stealing the wealth and enslaving the
people.
   This would be an interim step allowing time for the computer technology,
which is already qualitatively adequate, to gain the distribution required
for a universal credit system. The timing of all this is just about right,
given current rates of inflation and the way that those rates of inflation
would be mirrored by a common currency. By the time the common currency
becomes suspect and repudiated by the people, the ultimate monetary reform of
the age would be ready for implementation. All computer transactions would be
cleared through one central computer which would keep track of everything.
   Whether or not we see, at that point, a numbering system where the number
is actually placed on the person, we would certainly be close to such a
system. Whether by laser or electronic tattooing that shows up in a special
light or doesn't show up at all but is simply recordable by magnetic sensors,
the technology is already here. 0nce there is a total credit system, the only
complaint that is left is the possibility of losing the card. The obvious
answer is to put the number right on the person. 0nce that is achieved, there
is no way to
go beyond that ability and power. Thus, the corruption
would be complete from a secular perspective and, we know, from a Biblical
standpoint as well.
  That will be a system that contains nothing of substance. That will be a
system that God's people shouldn't and need not be caught up in
(Rev.14:9-11). That will be a system totally consistent with our present
direction. That is where the present corruption is taking us. It isn't some
future that is an apparition and irrelevant now. It is a future that is in
harmony with the corruption that is taking place right now, We
rationalize,"If I don't deal with people by this means, how am I going to
survive?"; "If I don't use paper money, what else is there?" That
rationalization answers itself, for that is precisely the ultimate question
that will be put to the saints. When the alternative is beheading (Rev.20:4),
the question becomes very real: Without this number, how will I survive?"

   There is an answer, and it could apply now just as well as then. In most
respects that rationalization is no better now than it will be then. The fact
that we make the statement, "How else can I get along; therefore I'll accept
the mark of the beast," will be no justification.
   The prevailing and final problem from a monetary standpoint is a reliance
on the work of man's hands, a reliance on the flesh, rather than a reliance
on God's provision. In this sense, our monetary system is already the "mark
of the beast." We have a tendency to console ourselves that things are not
really that bad, that it is acceptable to go on as we are, to permit or even
to be a part of what is happening. Therefore we continue to deal with one
another in the monetary system of Babylon just as though everything was all
right.
   We might note, in this connection an argument from Scripture that would
seem to have greater relevance here than to the subject where it is most
often used namely the stumbling block argument. (1 Cor. 8:7, 9-13).

   This argument is often directed toward drinking. Our point here is that it
applies at least as well to our handling of money. Whatever our attitude may
be toward our presence here on earth during the reign of the beast, whether
we are here at that time or not, if we are caught up now in a practice that
we may be able to handle and escape from and there are those who will stumble
because of our refusal to come out of Babylon (Rev. 18:4), their acceptance
of the mark of the beast will be on our hands (Ezek. 3:18). The stumbling
block argument would seem to ask us once again, not only for our benefit, but
for the benefit of those around us: What's keeping you?
 
JAMES JAY FERRIS

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