Whose Economic Plan Is Superior?
A commentary by Randy Stiver
United Church of God Pastor, Columbus and Cambridge, Ohio
In this time of U.S. presidential and vice-presidential debates,
whose plan for solving the world's long term economic problems
will work best?
But wait! If you live somewhere besides America, don't assume
you should be disinterested. Consider a very recent conversation
my wife had with a youthful proprietor of a cell phone store.
His comment was that he, because he'd invested in Europe,
felt safe at the outset of the current economic crisis until
last week when banks in England, Holland, Germany and others
started staggering. "But I think I'm still OK because
I've also invested in Asian markets" he continued.
"You think?" she replied, "This crisis is going
to affect everybody around the world."
My wife, the bubble popper!
The best economic plan
Amazingly, a truly viable, non-partisan economic "bailout" plan
is already on the table. It was crafted long ago for a worldwide
crisis that will begin with many similarities to the present economic
situation—a crisis from which the world will be rescued by
the direct intervention of Jesus Christ. His economic plan will
permanently make things right—though that is still a while
in the future.
Unfortunately, no nation is willing to apply the details of Christ's "bailout" plan
now. It's inconsistent with man's selfish, greedy, obstinate
human nature to pay serious attention to what God says. Even Jesus
Christ once exclaimed, "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and
do not do the things which I say" (Luke 6:46)?
The basics of that plan
What you are not hearing in any of the current American presidential
debates are the economic laws that Jesus Christ's coming government
will enforce, the same basic laws that Moses was divinely inspired
to record ages ago in the Holy Scriptures. Many of the details can
be found in Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 15. Here are four main
points of that "bailout" plan:
Family inheritances of productive land will provide the economic
base for all societies. The complex and complicated systems of modern
high finance will be simplified to reflect divine decency and order.
Extended families will help one another in times of financial difficulty.
Modern real estate laws will be very much out-of-date, many rendered
null and void. Non-urban property inheritances will not be sold
in perpetuity, only leased out for a time if some irresponsible
heir should mismanage it.
Every fiftieth year Christ will declare a Jubilee—a year
free from regular planting and harvesting. Crucial advance preparations
will be made.
Temporarily displaced children will then be able to return to their land
by rightful inheritance. These children or grandchildren will have
the freedom of renewed economic opportunity dropped into their laps,
not having to endure generations of deprivation because some ancestor
lacked wisdom.
Fifty years, even in today's economy, is a fundamental long-term
business cycle. Our world ignores God's plan and suffers the
painful consequences of periodic and deep economic recession or
depression as wealth is cyclically distributed in the population.
The biblical Jubilee Year adjusts the natural and cyclical ebb and
flow of wealth throughout the economy.
- The seventh year land Sabbath
Land based wealth will slow down the pace of society, giving everyone
time to be able to "smell the roses" and not just the
coffee filled with flavored high fructose corn syrup that enables people
to race frantically from place to place. Humans can then synchronize
their lives with the biorhythms of the divine creation of which
they are a part. Count on the seventh year land rest cycle to inspire
fine art, music and other beauties that require more time to contemplate—creative
opportunity.
Land based wealth also requires investment in natural soil fertility—not
the expensive, chemical cocktail laced, inert, inefficient, soil
of most farms today. Every seventh year crop land will neither be
planted nor harvested—the land will rest and naturally build
micro-biologically based soil fertility, resulting in healthier,
happier people!
In conjunction with the land Sabbath, every seventh year personal
debt will be erased, curbing the urge of financiers to make irresponsible
loans. Today's bankruptcy laws are merely poor facsimiles
of God's "year of release."
All the bright-future talk of the present presidential candidates
and other political leaders accounts for little compared to the
incredible plan for economic freedom that the one true Messiah,
Jesus Christ, will give to our world's stressed and worried
population.
  For
a head start on the rest of mankind, let me suggest that you examine
some of the basic principles that Christ will apply in His Kingdom.
Simply request or download our free, stimulating booklets, Making
Life Work and The Gospel of
the Kingdom.
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