The Continued War on Cash
The heads of government, the mainstream media, and banking institutions have become obsessed with the idea that currency is evil. Because cash cannot be traced or controlled, it is blamed for drug dealing, terrorism, money laundering and tax evasion. The solution to this problem is the introduction of a cashless system that will allow the government to monitor all transactions.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the black market in mind when he ordered the withdrawal of current 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation. Modi said that while people could exchange their old notes for new bills at banks or post offices until the end of the year, or deposit them in their accounts—they are now no longer allowed for daily transactions.
“To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the 500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight that is 8 November, 2016,” he said in a televised address to the nation.
Finance secretary Das said there had been a disproportionate rise in the number of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in circulation in the last five years.
The 500 and 1,000 notes, which are worth around $7.50 and $15 respectively, are the largest bills in use in India. The average Indian only makes about 200,000 rupees or $3,000 a year. Numbers logic would call for the printing of 5,000 and 10,000 notes; but that would make it easier for the criminals to haul around the cash used for their fraudulent schemes.
The sudden move has triggered total panic in the nation. The Indian people are lined-up at banks trying to deposit their cash or exchange it for new notes. All types of business transactions that depend on cash have come to a standstill. The value of the rupee has dropped on foreign exchange markets.
The Indian government has a history of trying to restrict the financial options of its citizen. In 2013, the government imposed a 10 percent import duty on gold to dampen demand for the precious metal in the world’s second biggest consumer.
The rich people of India have no trouble escaping taxes and exchange rules. Their money is safe in Swiss and Singapore bank accounts. Over the past decade, some $439 billion left the country, according to estimates from the Global Financial Integrity group in Washington.
When the dust settles in India, I doubt the government is going to have a large windfall from taxable money that suddenly appears in the bank accounts of their citizens. India’s largest employment sector is agriculture—which employs literally hundreds of millions of people. It is completely exempt from paying income tax. The only people who do regularly file income taxes are believed to be salaried employees at big companies whose bosses file for them.
Despite widespread chaos and economic uncertainty in India following its surprise announcement, UBS Bank analysts think Australia should follow India’s lead and scrap its 100 dollar bank note. UBS supports the move because it would increase bank deposits in Australia by about 4 percent.
One major victim of the war on cash is the 500 Euro note. In May, the European Central Bank said it will no longer produce the 500 Euro note because of concerns that it could help facilitate illegal activities. Politicians and bankers would also like to get rid of the $100 U.S. note, Switzerland’s 1,000 franc note and Britain’s 50 pound note.
I think it is a great danger to allow government to use excuses to restrict access to cash currency. Governments should exist for the pleasure of the people, and not the other way around. It just seems that a demonic spirit is driving the world closer and closer to the point where the financial powers will be able to dictate how we live our lives.
Anyone who has a basic understanding of Bible prophecy should recognize the danger of cashless system. The Bible predicts that the Antichrist will use a financial system that allow him to enslave the world. All who fail to receive the mark of the beast will be locked out of the banking system. Because the 666 mark will occur within the Tribulation hour, believers in Christ have the hope of escaping this sinister financial system.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev.13:16-17).
–Todd
Heaven’s Post-election Priorities
News pundits are pontificating in every direction about what President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s priorities will be come January 20, 2017.
We are told about building the wall on our southern border. There is much talk about repealing and replacing Obamacare. We hear about the new president’s intention to power up the faded U.S. military and to do away with many of the executive orders that he believes have helped bring the American economy and social structure to an unacceptable status.
The new president’s priorities are, of course, important. We welcome new direction as we sense reprieve from the God of Heaven this election has brought. The prayers of God’s people, as I’ve pointed out previously has, I believe, helped win that reprieve from what seemed impending judgment.
Perhaps correction would be the most appropriate term. God’s people prayed that God would hear from Heaven and would put the nation on a course correction.
This, He seemingly has done.
He intervened a century ago to make a profound course correction following the raucous Gay Nineties and the debauched era following World War I termed the Roaring Twenties.
Writer John Steinbeck captured this corrective era in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. And, it was indeed an era when the crops of corrective judgment, whose seeds of refusing to follow the God-designed course for America had been planted more than a decade earlier, came to fruition.
Again, the tremendous Dust Bowl of the 1930s, I’m convinced, was a corrective easure while God prepared the American people for the Second World War–a conflict God didn’t cause, but certainly used to temper and harden this nation to make it ready to meet its destiny.
That destiny was primarily to bring modern Israel to birth on May 14, 1948. Also, to spread the gospel to the world through advancing communications technologies. The United States was blessed, economically, from that point, making it the wealthiest and most technologically advanced nation that has ever existed.
So, while Mr. Trump’s political agenda is important, even critical, to achieving worthy, laudable goals in turning America in the right direction, Heaven’s priorities are truly the matters for which God’s reprieve have been so mercifully given.
Of course, the Church (all born-again believers) should take this reprieve as a mandate to recapture moral ground–to roll back some of the social evils the Obama administration has brought forth–most through executive fiat. It is that very Church which has, in my estimation, allowed this slide toward the moral abyss through her acquiescence.
However, that said, I am convinced that the same two major issues are involved in this God-given reprieve.
Heaven’s post-election priorities again involve 1) seeing to it that the gospel message is carried forth throughout the world; and 2) that the nation Israel continues to have the most powerful nation on the planet as an ally and protector.
It is beyond argument that God doesn’t need the United States to protect Israel. But, it is also beyond argument–to my way of thinking, at least–that the Lord has used America to act first as midwife in birthing Israel into modernity and then to act as guardian during decades since that rebirth. The Lord of Heaven has chosen America for this specific function, it is likely, for as long as the planet remains in the pre-Tribulation era.
There will come a time when Israel will be under the wrathful hand of Antichrist and the rest of the world. God will intervene directly at that time. Daniel the prophet, passing along the angel’s words, puts it this way:
“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” (Dan 12: 1)
So, while we watch the unfolding of post-election aftermath, let us view things through the prism of Bible prophecy. We are not about to go into an era that offers prospect of the Church building Heaven on earth as the Kingdom-Now purveyors would have it. All is further stage-setting for the Rapture of the Church and the appearance of the son of perdition .
But, it is a reprieve from Heaven we are witnessing and living, so let’s keep in mind Heaven’s priorities.
The Great Commission is still the top priority. Bringing as many lost people as possible into God’s family before the time of Tribulation is our post-election mandate.
–Terry