What are you afraid of?

Afraid - now, that’s an interesting word in our language. We use that word to signify a variety of things, don’t we?

Taken literally, “to be afraid” means something is causing us terror, anxiety, or is a potential threat. When we ask, “What are you afraid of” we might be asking someone who is acting terrified what the source of that terror is. They are standing there anxious, or crying, or with a concerned, fearful expression, and the question is naturally, “what is causing your fear?”

What are you afraid of?

But sometimes, and very often in fact, we use the phrase idiomatically in the sense of, “Why do you hesitate?” When we are afraid of something, it can lead to paralysis. Uncertain or wary of the outcome, we become unable to act, and thus we use the word “afraid” to represent hesitation, not really “fear” in the original meaning. So, when we ask the question, “What are you afraid of” we aren’t really trying to find the source of the fear - the person may not really be afraid at all - but are asking what source of uncertainty prevents the person from action. We may also ask someone, “what are you afraid of!” in a jeering or taunting manner. It’s kind of a challenge to someone, accusing them of being hesitant for no good reason.

I’m afraid you are right.

Now, that’s a different meaning of “afraid” isn’t it? When we reply to some statement that way, we don’t mean that we have some paralyzing fear because of what the person said. In this case it is a sense of “belief” in what was said. We could also say something like, “I believe you” or “I agree” or even “I trust what you say even though I don’t like the idea.”

It’s strange, isn’t it? One word can have this wide variety of meaning based on how we use it. The original meaning of “afraid” shifts through similarity and idiomatic usage until the meaning is almost opposite of where it started. The same thing shows up in the usage of the word “fear” in the Bible. Sometimes fear refers to that paralyzing negative emotion born from a sense of potential or immediate threat. But, many times, fear is used in the Bible to mean reverence and awe, or to mean a trust and obedience that comes from awe. The “trembling” that represents terror of something comes to also mean a “trembling” in awe of something and then that awe leads to trust and obedience. That’s what this means:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever. (Psa 111:10)

Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. (Psa 112:1)

Backup a little… Psalms 111 through 113 really should be treated as one Psalm. Read them all together and you’ll see that all those Psalms are connected by the repeated phrase “Praise ye the Lord.” Psalm 111 begins with a description of God’s works and then at verse 10 shifts to talking about the nature of those who “fear” God. Psalm 111 also establishes the theme of “endurance” - the things of God stand fast and do not dissipate or fall away. Psalm 112 (which is what I am going to talk about here) is a continuation of Psalm 111:10.

Notice the context carefully. The verses preceding Psalm 111:10 are all talking about the glorious things that God has done and will do. Why should we be afraid of God because of that? We don’t generally praise the things we are fearful of, do we? The meaning of “fear” in 111:10 has to be understood in that context. It is the sense of “trembling in awe” because of the awesome things that God has done. When we understand His majesty, power, integrity, and justice, we begin to gain wisdom - the knowledge of God’s ways - and act obediently (delight in His commandments) because of the wisdom of God’s ways. Out of that obedience, that “delight” in following God’s ways, righteousness is born in us. And that righteousness establishes the character of the man who “fears” God.

Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish. (Psa 112:1-10)

Throughout this Psalm there is an association of two things: righteousness and endurance. Look at all the qualities of the man who has learned to fear God. Notice that in every case the Psalm speaks of things that do not fade away, or dissolve, or dissipate. His offspring continue and are blessed, he has sufficient wealth to not only provide for himself and family, but to also lend and to give to those who are poor. The evil that is coming against the righteous man will perish while the righteous man remains. Because of his trust (faith) in God, because of his delight in God’s ways, that righteous man gains something vital: He is not “moved” ever. He can stand fast whatever the situation. He is not afraid. This is God’s promise to us.

How many times a day do you hear people speak words of fear? I hear it all the time. I hear people moan and bemoan the concerns and evils of this world, whining and wailing about how awful it all is. Sometimes the fear is over personal things like paying the bills, or keeping a good job, or sending the kids off to a good school. Sometimes it is over larger things such as the potential of terrorism, of war, of economic disaster. I would have to say that they are afraid of “evil tidings” continuously. They hear on the news of the awful things that happen. They obsess over everything from potential economic disasters, natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars, political intrigues, and on and on and on. And I hear that there is “nothing we can do” or I hear that “we better do something drastic” or … Some even shout and scream, “Why doesn’t somebody do something.” Hmmm. Kind of like, “What are you afraid of?”

So, what are you afraid of?

Do you “fear” God? Or, do you “fear” evil tidings? Are you standing there, unmoving, hesitating, unable or unwilling to act, because you are afraid of “evil tidings?” If you dwell on the evil tidings of the times it can lead to a continuous internal terror that leads to immobility. You can become unmoved for all the wrong reasons. That’s not good.

Or, are you standing there, unmoved by evil tidings because you have the courage born out of an awe of God’s power and a total trust in Him? To be in awe of God, perfectly trusting in Him, allows us to stand firm against the evils of this age. To be “unmoved” in that sense doesn’t mean standing there unable to act. It means that the threat of evil in this world will not cause us to change our trust in God. We stand fast in the knowledge of His deliverance and the “evil tidings” do not become a source of fear. We do not lose our “fear” of God because of a “fear” of the things of this world. That’s good.

So, what are you afraid of? Are you concerned about the goings-on out there and obsess over what might happen, when it might happen, or what might happen to you? Learn to fear God - listen for His voice and keep to His ways. Be firm because of your understanding that Jesus has already defeated the evil of this world. If you are in Him, and He is in you, the evil tidings of this age will wash over and around you while you stand unmoved. That is living by faith, and when we learn to live that way, it removes the fear of the things of this world and we find that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Praise Ye The Lord.

This is the best and surest way to get past any fears we have. When the terrors come, when the perceived threats and uncertainties seem to overwhelm us, we should immediately break out in praise and worship. That point of fear is the precise moment when we most need to glorify God. Reminding yourself of the awesome power and glory of God is the quickest and surest way to regain your footing so that you will not be moved in the face of evil tidings.

It’s just past tax time in the U.S. again and I think I want to talk about the so-called Income Tax. This is a little risky because I’m going to tell people some things that the ruling elites apparently don’t want you to know. I’m also going to upset people on both sides of this tax issue. On the one side, you have the conventional thinking that taxes are a necessary evil to pay for government, but the income tax is legit and anyone opposed to it is a threat to the society. On the other side you have the “tax protestors” who have reams and reams of documentation attempting to prove that most people don’t owe the income tax. In my opinion, both sides are completely wrong in understanding the income tax.

The only book I ever read that got it right is a work of fiction called ‘CRA$HMAKER.’ (http://www.crashmaker.com). I think the book is still available and I highly recommend it. Although it is a fictional story, it explains the nature of the U.S. monetary system and the role the income tax plays in that system. You see, the taxing system is really for the purpose of monetary control, not government revenue.

Think of it this way: If you had a printing press in your basement and could print all the money you ever wanted to spend, how much revenue would you need to collect? There is no need for the U.S. government to get revenue from anyone. But (and this is a big BUT) if you just issue money beyond what the economy can use, the excess money will be continuously devalued as it seeks a place to be spent. It’s what most people call inflation – even though it is not the same exactly as what classic economics would call inflation.

I’ve been using the term ‘money’ here, but what we are talking about is not really money in the ancient and correct meaning of that term. Money was defined in the old dictionaries as “gold, silver, and some copper coins” and excluded things like notes, bills, and other forms of credit. What we use as money today is pure credit.

When I want to trade my surplus for what I need, it is useful to have some intermediate form of payment. That way, I don’t have to have exactly what you want in order to trade with you. We use this ‘medium of exchange’ to avoid having to directly barter for everything. Money serves that purpose but also serves an additional purpose in that it can be traded at some point in the future. If I don’t think the thing you are offering me in trade can be used by me or traded to someone else in the future, I won’t do the trade. So, money also acts as a store of value – I can displace my trade into the future without loss to me. Thus, money can be anything that is universally accepted in trade in the future. For that reason, the various metals, as well as certain types of manufactured items like knives, fishhooks and shovels, become the standards for trade.

However, there is something else I can accept in trade. If I am willing to do so, I can accept your promise to pay in the future instead of immediate payment. That would be called an IOU or promissory note of some type. In short, I would be extending credit to you. I give you something of value today in exchange for something of value in the future. Since the credit agreement moves the trade into the future it works a lot like money. There are other aspects of credit, of course, but that’s the idea in a simple form. Because credit can work in commerce the same way as money, most economists treat money and credit as identical. They should not do that, in my opinion, because the two are not the same.

The difference between credit and money is subtle but very important. In the case of exchange with money, there is no risk to me that you will fail to pay in the future. I may not be able to trade the money in the future for what I could trade today, but I am almost guaranteed to get something in exchange. In the case of credit, the credit is only as good as the borrower. If I take a note from you and you die or otherwise default before paying me, I get nothing. Furthermore, if I need to exchange for something today, I have to find someone willing to accept your IOU. That can be a problem, so societies developed credit management institutions called banks.

The real role of the bank is not to store money or lend money to people. What a bank does is act as a credit intermediary. The banker takes on the obligation of deciding who is a good credit risk and who is not, and replaces the private guarantee of the individual with the backing of the bank. That makes the credit instrument marketable and more likely to be accepted in trade. So long as the banker is responsible and accurate in his assessments the bank can be a benefit to a society. If the banker gets it wrong, the whole society suffers the consequences.

To cut a long story short, what happened over time was that societies shifted from using money for trade to exclusive use of credit. That’s the situation as it stands in the U.S. and most of the world today. We don’t use money, we use credit. Most of the time it works, but there are several potential problems with a credit system.

The first problem is that people may not want to accept credit. They may very well demand something tangible in exchange. Remember, in order for something to be useful as money it must have a universal acceptance in trade. In and of itself, credit does not have that ability. This is one of the functions of the tax system. The only things you can use to pay taxes today are Federal Reserve Notes or Government debt (i.e. T-Bills). That creates an artificial demand for the credit instruments of the U.S. government and banking system. Even if you didn’t want to use their credit in trade, they can force you to acquire it by demanding taxes from you. Since the court system backs this up as well, the money takes on an artificial value.

The second problem happens as people pay off their debts. Since all money is someone’s debt, if all the debts were paid off there would be no money. Unless someone continuously issues new credit into the system, the repayment of debt would bring the economy to a halt. The result would be the same as classic deflation of the money supply. No one would be able to buy or sell since there would be nothing to use for that purpose. Therefore, the U.S. government and banks must continuously issue replacement credit in order to avoid an economic collapse. This is also factored into the taxing system. In many cases you are better off tax-wise by borrowing the money to buy something rather than buying directly with savings. You would be taxed on the interest of the savings, or possibly lose value of the saved money, and would not get a tax credit against the interest of the borrowed money.

The third problem is a more typical one. Since credit is a promise to pay in the future, a failure by the borrower to repay leaves outstanding credit in circulation that has no ability to be redeemed. It has to be written off and removed from the system. This also can reduce the amount of available money and lead to economic problems. Since the bank issued the credit, it is the bank that will suffer the loss. It’s little wonder then that the U.S. government backs up the banks and insures that the citizens will get something even if the bank fails. In short, they practically force you to use the banking system in order to trade and protect yourself from loss.

Finally, there is the problem of over-issue of credit. If too much credit is issued, the credit will get discounted. In effect, the face value of the notes and bills doesn’t represent their purchasing power any more. A note may say “twenty-dollars” but its purchasing power may only be equivalent to ten dollars. Most people today call that ‘inflation.’ It is NOT inflation – it is another form of deflation. The confusion comes because people look at the face value of the note and have nothing to compare it against. In reality, if you decrease the purchasing power of the note, the effect is the same as having less money in circulation. I don’t care how many letters they have after their name or how many degrees they have hanging on the wall – the economists and money experts usually get it wrong. The over-issuance of credit and subsequent discounting will typically lead to deflation, not inflation. Let’s take a hypothetical example…

Assume we have one twenty-dollar gold piece and one twenty-dollar bank note redeemable for gold in circulation. I can go buy the proverbial new suit of clothes and pay for it with the gold piece or the bank bill. The price is the same. Now consider if the bank note is discounted to one-half face value. In other words, that twenty-dollar note will only buy ten dollars worth of goods. If there was only that one twenty-dollar bank note available the effective money supply would have been cut by one-fourth. Unless the banker issues another twenty dollar bill, there will be a reduction in the available money supply. Issuing more credit under those circumstances is not inflationary. It simply restores the purchasing power that was lost through discounting. Now, if I went the tailor I would need forty dollars in bank notes to buy the suit. But, I could still buy the suit for a twenty-dollar gold piece. In reality the price of the suit of clothes has not changed at all but if I am measuring values in terms of the face value of the bank note it appears that the price has doubled. Getting people to treat the face value of credit instruments as a measure of value is one of the greatest feats of mind-control ever accomplished. People think they are under an inflationary economy and act appropriately when in fact they may be facing severe deflation due to credit discounting. I believe that is the situation we are in right now. In any case, you cannot simply look at the quantity of credit being issued or the retail prices and determine if you are in an inflationary money situation. It is much more complex than that.

With all of that as background, you can now understand the income tax. The government of the United States does not need revenue to operate but does need to balance the amount of credit in circulation. What the tax system does is act as a combination credit sponge and economic influence. It soaks up the credit before people can use it through the withholding and estimated tax payment system. That allows the government to reissue new debt into the system in a near-continuous stream. They can increase and decrease spending and taxes to control the flow of credit through the economic system. They can use tax credits and deductions to influence economic decisions as well. That is what the income tax is for.

In case there are those that don’t believe what I have written here, the evidence will be found in the comments made before Congress during the hearings on the Revenue Act of 1942 and the Current tax payments act of 1943. They have not truly told the American people what they were doing or why. They want you ignorant so that you won’t mess with the system. Borrow and spend, pay your taxes and be a good little peasant on the feudal estate.

So, what’s the point of this little rant? As far as whether you pay taxes or not, I don’t really care. I’m not out to change the system, so don’t bother me with arguments or trying to convince me to do this or that. I wrote this because understanding of the monetary system is central to understanding the conditions we live under and how they will play out in the future. Once you grasp the fact that credit systems are inherently unstable unless there is a centralized control system, you can see where the world is headed and how it will get there. Credit is seductive. It allows people to acquire what they want without having to first work to get it. If you control the amount of credit you control the economic and political conditions of a society. Once the people buy-in to that type of system, they are automatically enslaved to those who control the credit stream. Shut that credit stream off and everything goes into chaos. Turn that stream back on and things get better. It is a form of societal control and conquest.

Can you understand how it is possible to reach the point where men cannot buy and sell without approval of the monetary system controllers? If you can’t get access to the credit system, you are simply locked out of the economy for the most part. Under those conditions, most people would bend the knee to the controllers in order to obtain some type of provision for existence. To avoid the “Beast” and not take its “mark” it is necessary to be able to function outside of the world credit system. Ponder on that…

 I’ve been busy lately and haven’t updated this blog much as a result. See, I’ve been working on my own music software system. I’m kinda obsessed with it in fact. In a way, it’s silly to write something like that. There are a lot of good programs that you can buy for not much money. The software I have been using for the past two years is a combination of something I wrote and the CSound program. CSound is free, and really can do anything you want to make it do - so long as you can understand digital signal processing functions, that is. But, I wanted something more interactive, so it was either buy a program or write my own. I’m writing my own.I’m writing my own software in part because… well, because I can. I’ve been writing software for twenty-seven years, so it’s not like I don’t know how. I have had to learn some new things, however. I have had to understand things like digital filters and reverb delays and how to make a digital oscillator run in real-time. But, mostly it’s no different than any other software.

Also, I’m writing my own software because the way I write music is very different from the way most commercial music is written. What is available for sale makes very nice sound, is easy to use and looks really cool, but it just gets in the way when I start composing. So, I’m doing software for me, even if no one else wants to use it.

But, I think, maybe I shouldn’t “waste time” on something like this. After all, I’m not looking to sell it and make money, I don’t need to do it, so what’s the point? Shouldn’t I be spending my time doing something “spiritual” instead of spending a lot of time writing something that is just for me? The point… hmmm… well I guess the point is…

There is some misunderstanding about what a spiritual life is like. We tend to separate in our minds the “spiritual” things from the “worldly” things. That’s where people get into problems I think. Everything we do should be done “spiritually” - no separation into different categories. Every moment of our lives can be spent in communion with God. Yes, even when we are doing things like writing software. Because…

Well, I have to back up a bit here. Have you ever asked the question, “Why did God create a physical plane of existence and put us in it?” After all, most of the problems we run into, and much of the reason we lose a spiritual sense of life is due to physical things. We get hungry. We get tired. We get sick. We have to work to make a living. And on and on it goes. Pretty soon it is easy to get distracted from the life of the spirit and get bogged down in the physical things of this existence. Wouldn’t it have been better to just exist as a spiritual being from the beginning and leave it at that? So, why, I asked again and again, would God create something like this?

Well… because He can. Ok. That’s kinda silly, but it’s like me writing music software. I can do it, it interests me to do it, and there is a fascination and excitement in creating something new and different. There is also excitement in solving all the little problems, the unknown things that come up that I never thought would have to be dealt with. In other words, creating things is fun. God is a “creator” - He makes things because He can. We, as created beings, have been given that same sense of desire to create. And, so we do.

But, philosophically, there is something more to it than that. God, we say, is omniscient. He knows all that can be known, and all that will be known. So, the question becomes, how does God experience things like “surprise” and “uncertainty?” It’s a philosophical paradox. If God cannot be surprised then He cannot “know” everything. If He can be “surprised” then He also doesn’t know everything. Hmmm. So, to put it in terms that we can perhaps intuitively understand, God created a limited, time-bound, physical plane of existence and put limited beings in that world so that He could observe “surprise” and “uncertainty” and “discovery” and … well you get the point.

This is something that bothers people. As a rule, we don’t really like uncertainty. Most human endeavors are oriented towards controlling the things around us, including the future, so that we are not “surprised” by events and get overtaken and overwhelmed by events running “out of control.” That’s certainly true of the worldly aspects of life, and that desire to control will creep into the spiritual life if we are not very careful about it. Pretty soon, all things spiritual are forgotten in the endless quest for physical survival and control. Man in that state is no longer the “image and likeness” of God.

Now, this is the essence of the challenge that Satan threw down before the throne of God. Once you introduce a limited being (man) into a physical plane of existence where uncertainty can cause wrong choices to be made, it is almost certain that somebody, somewhere will make a mistake. Corruption, not perfection, will enter into the physical plane of existence. So, Satan accuses God of doing something that creates imperfection. (Read the book of Job for the Biblical version of what I just said.)

At first, and for a long time, it looked like Satan was right. It looked like God had done something terribly wrong. How could the spirit of God enter into and interact with an imperfect, limited creation without becoming corrupt? There are those today who will make the same accusation against God and against those who follow Jesus Christ.

The answer, however, was given in the person and life of Jesus Christ. Jesus proved that Satan was wrong. Jesus did not become corrupted by physicality and remained in a state of wholeness and oneness with God. By doing so, Jesus overcame and threw down Satan. Satan was proven to be a liar and a false accuser of God. It only took one man, a perfect man, to show that it could be done. Our hope of perfection then, is to have THAT SAME SPIRIT OF CHRIST WORKING IN US. It is not our strength, our knowledge, or our ability to control things that will change us and the world. As Paul wrote in Romans, “If you have not the spirit of Christ you are none of his.”

Now, back to where I started. Creating a new piece of software is an adventure for me. It can be very frustrating at times, but also is very rewarding when the thing actually works and starts doing something interesting (like playing sound out the computer’s speaker). There is a sense of joy in the creation of something new and a sense of accomplishment in the process of discovering how to do something. I really think that these acts of creativity and discovery are a large part of what God intends for us to do with this life. Life should be a constant adventure of discovery of all aspects of this Creation. It can be a very “spiritual” thing in fact. We can sense, in our own limited way, the joy of God in His creation and also His desire to see it come to the perfection that He intends. Likewise, if we walk in the spirit, even in mundane things, God walks with us and senses our own sense of wonder, uncertainty, and joy of discovery.

We should be creative, not imitative. We should seek the unknown and not just be safe in the all-to-familiar and controllable things of life. To know uncertainty is to really experience who and what we were created for.

Of course, this is what ‘faith’ is about, too. We have to trust that if we walk with God, secure in His will, He will lead us into the good things of this physical life and beyond. Even though we do not see perfection and completion manifested in this world, we seek those things in faith because God has promised them to us. Faith involves both certainty and uncertainty. There is uncertainty in how our journey in this life will take place and where it will lead. Yet, there is certainty that if we allow the spirit of God to lead, we will arrive at the right destination. And so, we walk by spirit, in faith, even in the ordinary things of life.

Oh, in case you were wondering… I’m serious about the music software. Here is a little Jig I wrote to test out various features and see if they were working…