FRNs and the Tithe
I was blessed to learn the truth about fiat money and the privite banking cartel called the “Fed” at a very early age. It has helped me keep “money” in its proper perspective over the years. We work hard to produce things of real value here, a bushel of green beans, a gallon of maple syrup, a basket full of blackberries and other kinds of real wealth. We only generate enough federal reserve notes(FRNs) to pay for things that must be paid for with FRNs. Truth be known, I sometimes have hard time getting that much 
Anyhow, thats how we choose to live. Most agrarians are doing the same, which leads me to address a problem in the church. As mentioned in the comments of the last post, christians are neck deep in the pagan economic system. This is most evident in how the church veiws the tithe. It is ussumed that each member of the church trades his labor for FRNs and then gives 10% of those little pieces of paper to church. When someone, out of biblical conviction, refuses to take part in deceptive game they are left with no real means to pay God’s tax. Some say that you should sell the extra produce and give the FRNs to the church. This misses the point though. There should be some way to tithe your increase without first trading it for worthless paper. When I have asked elders in the past about this, I ussualy get the “give some to the food bank” responce. This is an area that we should be focusing some attention to. We should challange our elders to help us tithe real wealth to the church. Last year I started bringing extra produce from the garden to church and telling the congregation to take home what they wanted. Is it the answer? No, but its a step in the right direction. Who knows, perhaps our grandchildren will bring back the tithe barn.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Scott, you’re right on the money, if you’ll pardon the expression. I think you should just do as you feel you should be doing - bring the increase to the elders. Distributing it is part of the responsibilities that they have been called to fulfill. Our responsibility is bringing in the sheaves, theirs is what to do with it. They can’t take a pass, but neither can we use them as an excuse not to do what we should.
Think about the great volumes of agricultural goods that the country produces, and what it would be like if it was tithed on…
I wish more theonomists would quit arguing about whether to tithe gross or net on our fiat money, and tackle this issue (in their own lives, not on the internet!). Thanks for posting on this Scott.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:28 am
“Think about the great volumes of agricultural goods that the country produces, and what it would be like if it was tithed on… ”
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Of course this would require a HUGE change the way christians think. I think your right about just doing our part and kind of forcing church leadership think about this stuff. I have struggled over the years, about how laypersons can make any kind of difference in the church without over stepping our bounds or causing “trouble”. I think this is one way we can at least get the conversation going.
March 15th, 2007 at 11:43 am
The big problem is that we are no longer a society of producers, but consumers, which means that people need money for nearly everything. The concept of tithing tangibles is is foreign to God’s people because they have gotten so use to the virtual world funded by the virtual “money” of the FED.