Debt, Money, and Stewardship

Biblical Money And Inflation

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Economics and Stewardship

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2017-06-07

Synopsis: John Weaver argues that true money, biblically and constitutionally, is gold and silver by weight, not paper Federal Reserve notes. He traces the history of fiat currency from the Continental to modern times, showing how inflation results from increasing the money supply, and warns that God demands an honest economic system.

[John Weaver] to be here, and I appreciate the Turners coming. And I'd always be willing to pay good men to show up, that's a fact. Good women, too, that's for sure. Might not be able to pay them much, but... Like I tell Alice, I'll pay her, but I'll pay her no attention, so... Wonderful. Well, I tell you what, it's good to be alive, and I'm thankful the Lord is gracious to us.

[John Weaver] I want you to open your Bibles, if you would please, tonight to the book of Genesis, chapter 23. And I will be absolutely honest before I even begin tonight. I did not intend on bringing this message. In fact, this message is actually three hours long, so I'm cutting it way down. But I was asked a question today that I just thought that it probably needed explaining a little bit more. So the message I'm going to be dealing with tonight is not what I would normally deal with, but since this is home folks, I'm going to bring a message entitled Biblical Money and Inflation. I want you to look in Genesis chapter 23, beginning with verse 1.

[John Weaver] And Sarah was 107 and 20 years old. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirgirth-Arba, the same as Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord, thou art a mighty prince among us, and the choice of our sepulchers, bury thy dead. None of us shall withhold from thee his sepulcher, but thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be in your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat from me to Ephraim the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of the field.

[John Weaver] For as much money as it is worth, he shall give it me for possession of a burying place amongst you. And Ephraim dwelt among the children of Heth, and Ephraim the Hittite, answered Abraham and the audience of the children of even all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my Lord, hear me. The field give I thee, and the cave that is therein I give it thee in the presence of the sons of my people. Give I thee, bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land, and he spake unto Ephraim and the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if I will give it, I will, I pray thee, hear me, I will give thee money for the field. Take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephraim answered Abraham, Saying unto him my lord hearken to me the land is worth 400 shekels of silver what is that betwixt me and thee bury there for thy dead and Abraham hearkened to Ephron and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the sons of

[John Weaver] Ed 400 shekels of silver Current money with a merchant and the field of Ephron which he which was in Machpelah Which was before Mamre the field and the cave which was therein and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. And after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, the same as Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field and the cave that is therein were made sure unto Abraham for possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth.

[John Weaver] Now when you begin to mention the word money you actually get everyone's attention because truthfully speaking everyone wants it, everyone needs it, everyone seeks it, but the truth is very few people really know what money is. Practically everyone is fooled when it comes to money. I remember years ago, Alice and I had gone to a restaurant with some friends and we had eaten there and enjoyed their food.

[John Weaver] And I got up to pay my bill and I went to the cashier. There's a young girl and there was no long line. There was no one there. And so I said, I've got a problem. She said, what is it? I said, well, I've enjoyed your food. I've eaten all the food and I have no money to pay this bill. She looked at me, she said, that is a problem. I said, well, although I don't have any money, I do have some Federal Reserve notes. She said, oh, we don't take those. I said, well, you better call your manager because I am in a real problem at this point. And so she called the manager. And the manager came up and I said, sir, let me explain my situation. I said, uh, I've eaten your food. I came up to this lady and I, I told her very nicely and politely that I did not have any money and, uh, but that I could pay her in federal reserve notes. And I said, and she told me that you did not take those.

[John Weaver] He said, uh, that's true. We don't. I said, well, I'm in a real predicament. And I reached in and I said, this is all I've got. Oh, they said, that's money. I said, no, no, no, no. This is not money. This is Federal Reserve notes. And the little girl said, well, if that's not money, why do we call it money? And I said, well, that's because, number one, you don't know what the Bible teaches. Number two, you don't know what the Constitution teaches. Number three, you don't know history. I said, and number four, we've been brainwashed to think that this is money. And she looked at me and she said, you know, that's the sweetest I've ever been called stupid in my life. Well, money is much like the word dollar.

[John Weaver] It's easily pronounced, but few people really know what it is. If I were to hold this up, everyone would say, This is $1.00. It is not. If I were to hold this up, you'd say this is a $5.00. It is not. If I held this up, you'd say that is $10.00. It is not. If I held this up, you'd say that it's $20.00. It is not. I know it says $20.00 at the bottom. However, on the front, it says at the top, it says Federal Reserve Note, which is neither federal nor reserve, and a note is an IOU.

[John Weaver] It is not money by any stretch of the imagination. So it's time that you and I begin to really understand and find out, biblically speaking, as well as constitutionally speaking, what real money really is. In our text, Abraham is buying a field from Ephron out of the children of Heth. There's a transaction that takes place And most of us probably never have understood this particular transaction. In fact, you have to know not only biblical history, but you also have to know biblical manners to understand this text. So Abraham is wanting to bury his wife Sarah. And if you look at verses 10 and 11 again, because Ephron is there and that is the cave and that is the land that he wishes to purchase from Ephron, the owner. Verse 10, And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham and the audience of the children of Heth, even all that went in at the gate of the city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me. The field, watch it now, give I thee.

[John Weaver] And the cave that is therein, I give it thee. In the presence of the sons of my people, give I it thee. Bury thy dead. I want you to notice that Abraham did not say, thank you, I really appreciate that. He didn't say that at all. Because this was just the manner of doing business. If you'll notice what Abraham said in verse 13, and he's speaking to Ephron and the audience of the people of the land saying, but if thou will give it, Pray thee hear me. I will give thee money for the field take it of me, and I'll bury my dead Abraham said I'm willing to pay you and Ephraim Answered Abraham saying my lord hearken unto me the land is worth 400 shekels of silver But what is that between me and thee bury thy dead now? Do you notice what Ephron just did he named a price? Oh? he named a price. And I want you to pay close attention to verse 16.

[John Weaver] Look at what the Bible says. And Abraham harkened unto Ephron and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth 400 shekels of silver, current money with a merchant. Wow. There are three very important truths that are revealed to us about money in verse 16. Number one, first of all, specie is real money. And by the word specie, I mean gold or silver. Only that is money, biblically speaking. Secondly, Money is by weight. He weighed the money to Ephron. And thirdly, the Bible tells us in verse 16, it was current money with the merchant. That is, it was money that was up to par. It was actual, it was the weight was actually accurate. Nothing had been shaved. Nothing had been destroyed. The money was there in full value and in full tail.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look in your Bibles, whole Genesis 23. But look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 25. I want to share something with you that may really surprise you. In Deuteronomy, chapter 25, beginning there, verse 13, and reading through verse 16, God is telling His people exactly what they should have when it comes to money and measures. Look what He says. Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 13 thou shalt not have in thy bag divers or different weights are great in a small Thou shalt not have in thine house divers or different measures are great in a small but thou shalt have a perfect and just weight a Perfect and just measure shalt thou have that thy days may be lengthened of the land which the Lord thy God Give it thee for all that do such things and all that do unrighteously or an abomination to the Lord by God. Now, God says you have to have a perfect weight and a perfect measure. In other words, what he's saying is there must be honesty when it comes to money, when it comes to weight.

[John Weaver] Interestingly, if you will read your Bibles, you're going to find that there are only three specific promises of long life in the Bible. Everyone in this room knows what the first one is. You'll find it in the book of Exodus chapter 20 in verse 12 where the Bible says honor thy father and thy mother that it may be well with thee and that the days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And then of course it's repeated again in Ephesians chapter 6 in verse 3. So God has promised long life then to those who honor their parents. Interestingly the second time the promise of long life occurs is here in Deuteronomy 22 if you want to turn back there very quickly Deuteronomy 22 notice if you would please verses 6 & 7 this may surprise you I've got a message on this passage and and it's it's a wonderful passage But in Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 6 and 7, God says this, Now there it is again. Isn't it amazing?

[John Weaver] The second promise of long life in the Bible is how we treat animals and the families of animals. God forbids a man killing a mother and her young on the same day. So if I'm out deer hunting and here comes a doe and it's a doe day and here's a young little buck right beside her. According to state law, I could kill the doe and I could kill the buck. But according to God's law, I can't. I have to kill the mother and let the baby go or kill the baby and let the mother live. I can't kill them both on one day. And so here in Deuteronomy chapter 22, he's saying, if you find this mother bird sitting upon the nest, you can take the eggs or you can take the young, but you don't take both of them. And the reason you take the young, because the mother bird can live. But if you took the mother bird, the young is going to die. So that'd be essentially killing them both in one day.

[John Weaver] But notice if you would, he's talking about how we treat animals and how we treat the families of animals. So here's a promise of long life. By the way, the Bible says the righteous man regarded the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. But the third instance, the third instance of a promise of long life is found in Deuteronomy chapter 25, and that is where God gives us here the absolute statement about an honest economic system. God promises life. for those who are honest in their economics. Interestingly, he said that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So a false measure and a false weight is an abomination unto God. It not only defrauds people, But it is also an abomination of God. When you stop up and think about a false weight, it's not only a violation of the eighth commandment, thou shalt not steal. It's also a violation of the ninth commandment because you're bearing false witness. You're pretending like it's real when in reality, it's not.

[John Weaver] And also, of course, it's a violation of the first commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Because obviously, if you disobey the eighth and ninth commandments, you've already broken the first commandment as well. So God promises long life now to those who obey. But notice, if you would please, the opposite is true. If you do not obey, then there is a short life. That is, there's going to be death. And it's not just death of an individual, but it's also death of a society as well. When you have a society that is full of nothing but thieves, for all practicality, the society is already dead.

[John Weaver] So fraud in weights is essentially fraudulent money because biblical money is always by weight. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 13 very quickly. Genesis chapter 13 The Bible is telling you about how rich Abraham really was notice if you would In Genesis chapter 13 in verse 2 the Bible says in Abram Was very rich in cattle in silver and in gold Now it is true that silver and gold or real money according the Bible There are other measures of wealth as well, cattle, land, things like that, which are usable and productive. But here he mentioned silver and gold. Did you know that the word silver, the money, occurs 320 times in our Bibles? And the word gold occurs 417 times in our Bible. So evidently God has a lot to say about silver and gold because it occurs so many times in the Bible.

[John Weaver] When you study the Old Testament, you will find that the average, or I should say the common coin, was that of the shekel. And it was the common coin among the Israelites. There was a shekel of the sanctuary. There was a in the shekel of the sanctuary was equal to 20 giras. There was a shekel of gold. There was a shekel of silver. There was a shekel of brass. There was a shekel of iron.

[John Weaver] But everything was by weight. Everything was weighed out.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you how important money is. Think about this. Mayor. Not M-A-Y-O-R, but M-A-Y-E-R, Mayor Amsel Rothschild. the founder of the Rothschild banking system said this, let me issue and control the nation's money supply and I care not who makes the laws. Whoever controls your money actually controls your life and everything about it. So here's a question I want you to ponder tonight. I want you to think about this. If the Bible teaches that silver and gold are real money, and if the constitution of the United States teaches that silver and gold are real money, if history teaches that silver and gold are real money, here's my question. Why is it that you and I do not have real money? Why is it that we seemingly make more quote unquote money than we've ever made in our life?

[John Weaver] And yet we have less. Just recently, I had a brother tell me, he said, I've been making more money recently than I've ever made in my life. And I have less now than I did 10 years ago. Why? Well, you see, everybody talks about inflation, they say the the problem is inflation, inflation, inflation, inflation, that's it. And surely when you talk about inflation, everybody knows that inflation is nothing more than higher prices. And that's dead wrong. Inflation is not necessarily higher prices. Yes, the prices go up, but there is a reason that prices go up. So let me just give you a very quick history lesson. The history lesson comes from the colonial armies when our country was founded.

[John Weaver] When we were fighting England, when the war began, say in 1775, there was only about 10 million in gold and silver and paper currencies in the colonies. Well, a war was beginning, and so everybody needed money. And so the continental currency came into existence. And so the continental government printed this paper money. Some of it was to be backed by gold, and some was to be backed by future taxation. by 1776 they had issued 25 million pieces of paper and of course it began to go down in value between 1776 and 1779 they issued 240 million pieces of paper now just remember there's only 10 million already in existence of gold and silver and paper money at that particular time. And so obviously then, the paper money kept going down, down, down in value.

[John Weaver] If you read the journals of the Continental Congress, it's almost like a satire or at least a tragedy. There were plenty of people who thought that the Continental currency would never ever lose its value. much like the Federal Reserve note today. They think, well, this is money, and we have it now, and we're always going to have this. This is always going to be money. Well, the continental currency is gone. A lot of currencies are gone, that is for sure. And then there were those who wanted legal tender laws, which would force people to take this money. And then there were others who were calling for a total end to the continental currency. Some of you have heard this expression, and you never have known where it came from. But have you ever heard something is not worth a continental? That's not talking about a Lincoln continental, a car. It's talking about a continental currency. It's not worth a continental.

[John Weaver] In other words, the paper was absolutely, totally worthless. And the people began to use the continental currency, especially the soldiers, for sanitary purposes as well as lining their boots to keep the snow and the water out. The continental currency also became known as shin plasters because the soldiers would take the paper money and stick it to their shins where they had scrapes and cuts because that's all the money was good for.

[John Weaver] So obviously, it keeps going down and down. By the way, there are other expressions that are economic expressions as well. And we don't recognize these. It has been common in the South, probably elsewhere as well, but mainly in the South. You hear people say, well, it's not worth a damn. And, you know, everybody thinks that's a slang expression. It's an economic expression. You know where that expression came from? It came from two sources.

[John Weaver] Number one, in England, there were tinkers. And the tinkers would have these pots, of course, that had a little crack in them. And the tinkers would come in and put a little weld on the crack so they could keep using the pot. What some of the dishonest tinkers would take their pots and actually put mud on it and then just put a little coat of metal over that and it would stop the leak until the pot got heated up again and the clay dried out and cracked then it would start leaking. And so everybody would say it's not worth a tinker's dam and then they would say it's not worth a dam talking about damming the pot.

[John Weaver] But actually that expression came into our country from the Duke of Wellington in India, when the English were in India, the dam was the coin of least value in the Indian monetary system. It's like our penny. So when they would say it's not worth a dam, saying, essentially, it's not worth a cent. So originally, that was just simply an economic expression, just like it's not worth a continental.

[John Weaver] So obviously, to show you how worthless the continental became, in 1779, George Washington said that a wagon load of money will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions. In 1779, it took 17,000 pieces of continental currency to buy $100 worth of goods.

[John Weaver] So that just shows you how the currency just simply deteriorated. So we have to understand that obviously what happens then when the value of the money goes down, then prices rise. If you were to take the modern day equivalent of our money and apply it to what George Washington just said, and of course they say, the economists and historians tell us from 1776 to 1779 that corn and rye and beef spike by 24, a factor of 24, labor by a factor of 18, hay by a factor of 10, shoes by a factor of 16.

[John Weaver] So they were saying that basically a loaf of bread would cost you 40 bucks, a box of cereal would cost you 100 bucks, and a gentleman's pair of shoes would cost you 1,600 bucks. That's how worthless the continental currency was. And by the way, I hope you know in Venezuela today, if you go to buy a dozen eggs in Venezuela, It's 140 bucks because they are falling to pieces. It's absolutely worthless.

[John Weaver] So I'm just simply pointing out the fact everything goes up because the value of the money goes down. And by May of 31st, 1781, the continental currency basically just simply died. And John Witherspoon, who was a Presbyterian pastor, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, talking about the worthlessness of the continental currency, said this, He said, for two or three years, we constantly saw and were informed of creditors running away from their debtors and the debtors pursuing them in triumph and paying them without mercy. They didn't want the money because it was worthless. He went on to say in Rhode Island, sources tell us creditors were leaping from rear windows out of their houses or hiding themselves in their attics in order to avoid debtors. Then he goes on to say this, the most vulnerable in society also felt its effects with widows and orphans finding the guardians of their trust funds paying them in currency that was worth a fraction of its face value. In other words, they got the money But it was worthless.

[John Weaver] So stop and think about this. You say, well, I have my social security. I have my retirement. I have my 401k. Well, guess what? Even if you get some of it, if the money's worthless, it doesn't mean one thing. because it's nothing but paper. And right now, it's not even on paper. Right now, it's usually electronic. Did you know, out of all the paper money in the world, if you want to call it money, out of all the paper notes in the world, only 3% is in paper. 97% of the so-called money in this world is electronic. Digits.

[John Weaver] That's why when the power goes out, the banks go down. You can't even walk in and cash a check. You can't do anything because everything is electronics. Pelletier Webster said that when the continental currency died, he was so happy that that evil monster died without a groan.

[John Weaver] Now, don't you listen very carefully because Thomas Jefferson gave us some counsel. Here's what he said. I'm quoting. He said, I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

[John Weaver] Now, you're going to say that some of this stuff cannot happen in our country today. It is already happening. You just don't see it. And it's not on the news because they're not going to tell you about it. But you know that Germany went through what is known as a hyperinflation from 1921 to 1923. If you will just get on the computer and you look up hyperinflation in Germany in 1923, you will see pictures of people wallpapering their walls with money. You will see children playing with stacks of money, making building blocks out of them. You will see people starting fires with money, paper money, because it's worthless. One of my favorite stories is about the German lady who was on her way to the market with a barrel, a wheelbarrow full of German marks, paper money on her way to the market to buy a loaf of bread. On the way to the market, there was a fight. A lot of people standing around watching the fight. She put her wheelbarrow down and she kind of did like this and pushed aside so she could see who was fighting.

[John Weaver] When her curiosity was satisfied, she turned around and someone had dumped her money out and stole the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was worth more than the money.

[John Weaver] Now, the interesting thing is this. Even sailors, a lot of times when they would return, were paid with this worthless paper money, which they could do. couldn't do anything with it. So some of them would take it to the tailor shop and have the tailor make them paper money suits. And then they would just wear the paper money suits downtown and flaunt their riches, which were absolutely worthless. So when you talk about hyperinflation, that is the terminal stage that fiat money reaches. Fiat money is money that is created out of thin air. It's money that's created absolutely out of nothing. Paper money is fiat money. In fact, when you stop and think about it, it doesn't even have to be paper to be fiat money.

[John Weaver] It can be electronic digits. Do you realize that out of every? Fiat currency that is failed. In every nation in the last 300 years. It's been replaced by gold. When the Constitutional Convention met. One of the things that had to be discussed was money. And so here was a proposal under consideration. Listen, the legislature of the United States shall have power to coin money, to regulate the value of foreign coin, to borrow money and emit bills on the credit of the United States.

[John Weaver] So now there is a debate that ensues. James Madison, who's the secretary of the Constitutional Convention, he recorded all of this. Governor Morris, and that was not a position, that was his first name, Governor Morris from Pennsylvania moved to strike out and emit bills of credit on the United States. He went on to say if the United States had credit, such bills would be unnecessary. If they had not credit, it'd be unjust and useless.

[John Weaver] Pierce Butler of South Carolina seconded the motion. Later, he remarked that paper was a legal tender in no country in Europe at that time. Every country in Europe at that time used silver and gold. James Mason of Virginia had a mortal hatred of paper money. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut thought it was a favorable moment to shut the door permanently against paper money. He went on to say, paper money can in no case be necessary.

[John Weaver] Give the government credit and other resources will offer. The power may do harm, never good. James Wilson, another founding father, said he will have a most salutary influence on the credit of the United States to remove the possibility of paper money. George Reid of Delaware thought the words, if not struck out, could be as alarming as the mark of the beast in Revelation. And John Langdon of New Hampshire had rather reject the entire Constitution than to have the words and emit bills. There were two men that were responsible for the hard money clause in the Constitution. Roger Sherman. And John Witherspoon. Roger Sherman was an attorney. He was a statesman. Roger Sherman is the only man that signed all four documents and the founding of this country. He found he signed a document of the continental currency of the Continental Congress. He signed the Articles of Confederation. He also signed the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Constitution. But Roger Sherman wrote a book, it's still available today, a caveat against injustice. And this book is basically against paper money.

[John Weaver] So John Witherspoon was the Presbyterian pastor, also professor, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And these two men had this put in the Constitution. Listen carefully. You can read it, Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. Listen. The Congress shall have power to coin money, and to regulate the value thereof, and of foreign corn, and to fix the standards of weights and measure. Congress does not have the power to print money according to Constitution It has the power to coin money because the founding fathers knew what they just went through And listen to this Article 1 section 10 of the United States Constitution says this no state Shall coin money emit bills of credit make anything but gold and silver coin a tender and payments of debt and No state. So the Constitution says, just like the Bible, that real money is gold and silver.

[John Weaver] Now, I hope you're beginning to ask yourself this. If the Bible says that gold and silver are money, if the Constitution says that gold and silver are money, why in the world do we not have gold and silver? Why do we not have lawful money? Why do we have paper money? Why do we have fiat money? You see, we've been so used to this, we tend to think this is money.

[John Weaver] Let me tell you what happened to me. I was preaching in Canada, and I had some of my books, And people wanted to buy the books. And I would sell them and tell them how much the books were. And they would pay me in Canadian paper money. I don't know if you've ever seen Canadian paper money or not. But it's about the same size, just a tad larger, and different colors, just like Monopoly money. And when they put that Canadian paper money in my hand, the strangest sensation went over me like what a fool I am to give my hard earned work for something that looks like monopoly money. I'm just simply saying We don't understand.

[John Weaver] Ludwig von Mises, who is really one of the fathers of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises said, government is the only agency that can take a valuable commodity like paper, slap some ink on it, and make it totally worthless. So let me ask you this question while I'm on the subject. I said earlier, this is not a dollar. It's not $5. It's not $1. It's not $10. It's not $20, although it has that on it.

[John Weaver] And I can prove that to you. Because you see, according to the Coinage Act of 1792, which has never been repealed, a dollar is a unit of measure. It's like a quart, or a gallon, or an inch, or a foot. A dollar is a unit of measurement. In fact, the money of the United States is to be expressed in dollars. It is a unit of measurement. Most people say, most historians say that our English word dollar actually came from Count Schlick, who began minting coins in 1519 in Joachimsthal, Bavaria. The coins were called schlickenthalers, later thalers, and then dollars. But it came from a silver coin in 1519. Merrill Jenkins wrote in his book, What is a dollar of money? And he wrote this, What is a dollar of money? In the Coinage Act of 1792, it states that the money of a count shall be expressed in dollars. The term dollar is a unit of measurement just like a quart or an inch. In and of itself, a unit of measurement represents nothing. In the Coinage Act of 1792, a dollar measure of gold was a certain number of grams of.999 gold while a dollar measure of silver was a certain number of grams of.99 silver.

[John Weaver] A silver dollar should have been expressed as a dollar quantity of silver. A dollar of gold would be expressed as a dollar quantity of gold. He said you would never go to a supermarket and say you want a quark. or you want a gallon, you have to express a quart of what or a gallon of what? Because a quart is just a unit of measurement. A gallon is just a unit of measurement. A dollar is just a unit of measurement.

[John Weaver] When Alexander Hamilton wrote the Cornage Act of 1792, he simply made into law, when Congress passed it, the market definition of a dollar. And the dollar at that time was the Spanish mill dollar of 371.25 grains of silver. That is the dollar that's mentioned in the Constitution. So a dollar, a silver dollar is 371.25 grains of silver. This definition of a dollar has never been changed. And it cannot be changed.

[John Weaver] You can't change a quart. You can't change a gallon. You can't change an inch. And so this has just basically never ever been changed at all. So why do we not have silver and gold as money? Why do we have legal tender laws instead? Why do you have something like this written on this bill that this note This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private. So I could come up to you to pay my bill.

[John Weaver] And you say, I don't want that. Well, I'm sorry. You either take it or the debt is paid. Because here's a law saying this is legal tender, you have to take it. I stopped at a filling station one night filled up with gas. And all I had was $100 bill. I went in and gave the $100 bill to the cashier. He said, I'm sorry, we don't take $100 bills. I said, well, you're in trouble. Because I already have about $40 worth of gas in my car. And if you don't take this, then the only thing I can do is drive off. And when you call the cops, then what I'm going to say is, I offer to pay you, because it says right here, this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private. And if you don't take it, then that's your problem. He looked at me, he said, well, I don't know what I'm going to do.

[John Weaver] I said, do you have 520s in that drawer? He said, I do. I said, give me the 520s, I'll give you the $100 bill. He gave me the 520s. I said, here's the 40. He was happy. I was happy. I mean, you know, yeah, I should have. But you know, it's just like I paid. I stopped and got gas at another station. I gave the lady 20 bucks. My bill was 16. She gave me back four ones.

[John Weaver] I looked at her and I said, something's wrong. She said, what's wrong? I said, well, I have your gas, and I now have four times as much paper as I had to begin with. I said, I've got more from you than the gas. She said but you gave me a 20. I Said oh, so it's it's it's it's the number that makes it valuable and not the paper. Is that it? What? Well, yeah, she said that's right So I just took a one Federal Reserve note wrote 20 on it said I'd like change for this, please What she says I can't do that you just put it on that So what's the difference me putting on it and somebody else putting it on it? I said, the value does not come from the paper. It does not come from me. It does not come from the number.

[John Weaver] It comes from the confidence that people have in it. And when you begin to think this is not money, then you're not going to have very much confidence in it whatsoever. Well, do you realize that this country used to issue its own script, its own paper money? When Ben Franklin went to England, it was there that he was asked how the colonies were prospering so much. Here's what he said. This is simple. In the colonies, we issue our own paper money or our own money. It's called colonial script. We issue it in the proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry.

[John Weaver] to make the products pass easily from the producer to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to anyone.

[John Weaver] Now you stop and think about that. I'm going to make an application of that in just a moment. So instead of our colonial forefathers borrowing money from the Bank of England, they just printed their own. They didn't have to pay it back. They had to pay no one interest and they control the amount so that it was the way it should be in proper proportion. Although I hate to mention his name. But Abraham Lincoln. Printed greenbacks to carry on the war against the South without borrowing money from the banks. Which many speculate that's one reason He was assassinated in the London Times of 1865.

[John Weaver] Here is the attitude of the European bankers. They said, and I'm quoting, if this mischievous financial policy, that is, printing your own money without borrowing from the banks, if this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its own money without cost, it will pay off debts and be without debt, it will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce, It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America.

[John Weaver] That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." 1865. Salmon Chase, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, wrote an opinion in Knox versus Lee and he summed it up like this, the legal tender quality of money is only valuable for the purposes of dishonesty. So when there's a law that says you must take it, it's because it is dishonest money. Stephen T. Byington, said no legal tender laws ever needed to make men take good money. Its only use is to make them take bad money. Kick it out.

[John Weaver] Let me read something to you that will shock you. Remember, this is in the Cornage Act of 1792. This act has never been repealed. It is still law. It is still on the books. And remember, gold and silver coins were money. Notice if you would, in the coinage act of 1792, if any of the gold or silver coins shall be debased, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of said offenses shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer death. Wow.

[John Weaver] Now, if you took this law and you made it applicable to the Federal Reserve banks and the politicians, it would not be too long before we would have some real lawful money back in circulation. Now, let me tell you where we are today. Everybody says, well, I pay my taxes to support the government so they can so they can pay all these little programs that we've got going. And did you know there's not one penny of your taxes that go to support the government? Every penny that you pay goes to pay on the national debt. The government borrows everything that it wants. And let me just expose this little scam for you. Okay. You see, we could, if we wanted this country, paper money, we could print our own.

[John Weaver] But let's suppose that Congress now needs $10 million, which is a drop in the bucket. And I'm using the term dollars, they want 10 million Federal Reserve notes. So they will fix up a bond and give it to the Fed and say, there's our bond, we want 10 million bucks. And so the Federal Reserve then will contact the Treasury Department and say, we want 10 million bucks printed up. Now, let me tell you something, it costs a nickel or less than a nickel to print $1 Federal Reserve note $5 Federal Reserve note, whatever you want to call it, it's just a reserve. Or if you wanted to print a million, it doesn't cost anymore. You just add the zeros. So the Treasury then prints the money, sells it to the Federal Reserve at cost. The Federal Reserve then loans it to Congress at face value plus interest.

[John Weaver] Now, is that a neat little scam or what? See, this didn't come about until 1913. This whole national debt thing is built on fraud. It's pure fraud, plain and simple. So Merrill Jenkins again wrote in his book, he said this, the greatest hoax on earth is the name of the book. He said, the writers of the constitution knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote in article one, section 10, paragraph one, no state shall make anything but gold or silver coin, a tender and payment of debts. people able to barter with gold and silver coin control government and are free. Loss of the right to trade in gold and silver coin enslaves people to the creators of psychological money. You see, if Congress had gold and silver, there's only a certain amount of gold and silver. You can only do so much. But when you can borrow without limit, there's no limit to what you can do until finally everything crashes.

[John Weaver] I want you to listen to this. Here is Robert H. Hemphill, the former credit manager for the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. Here's what he said. If the banks create synthetic money, ample synthetic money, We are prosperous. If not, we starve. We're absolutely without a permanent monetary system. When one gets a complete grasp of this picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is.

[John Weaver] It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless widely understood and the defect riveted soon. May I tell you something? It's not that it may collapse. It will collapse because you cannot flaunt your nose at God and thumb your nose at him and deny his law and deny his word and think that you're going to escape the judgment and the wrath of God.

[John Weaver] If you will look in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 1, I want you to notice this. Isaiah chapter 1, notice if you would please verse 22. Because God hates fraud. God hates anything that is debased. Look at it. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 22. Here's what God says. Thy silver is become dross, and thy wine mixed with water. You mix dross with silver, and you do not have an honest silver round. You mix wine with water, and you do not have real wine. You have watered-down wine. This is a debasing, and God says that He condemns this debasement. Now, coins may be debased as well.

[John Weaver] In fact, many of you will remember Henry VIII, who was the king of England. One of his nicknames was Old Coppernose. And the way he got that nickname was he had a coin that was made of copper, and then he put a thin coating of gold over it and tried to pass it off as a gold coin. Well, people took it, they'd have it in their pocket, and they'd reach out and pick it up and hand it out. And of course, that little thin layer of gold would come off right in the middle of the coin, right where his nose was. And it would expose the copper, and thus he was called Old Copper Nose.

[John Weaver] because he literally debased the coins. Have you noticed that your coins have ridges around them? If you were to pick up in your pocket a quarter, 50 cent piece, they have ridges around. The reason being is when gold coins and silver coins began to be minted, if it was one ounce of gold or one ounce of silver, then some people would get that, they would take a sharp knife and they would have a little tray under there and they would just shave the edges of that coin and get just a few grains of that gold or a few grains of that silver. And they'd keep doing that to every coin that they got and they'd be passing it off then as one real ounce when it's not a real ounce anymore. And they kept doing that until they got enough to have another coin. And so they began to put ridges on those coins so that everybody could see that the coins were not clipped, that they were there in full value. And you had a real ounce of silver or a real ounce of gold.

[John Weaver] Now, you can take a silver coin, you can take a silver quarter from 1963, and you can take a quarter today. You can drop them both on this wooden pulpit. They're going to make different sounds. Because the quarter in 1963 had 90% silver in it. The one today has absolutely nothing in it. Now, you can debase a coin, that is true. But it's much easier to debase paper. In fact, you can't see your paper being debased. You can see your coin being trimmed. Or you could see the gold or the silver coming off. But you cannot see the paper being debased.

[John Weaver] That's why some of these millionaires in 1929 went to bed millionaires and they woke up the next morning paupers and they were jumping out of the windows. Committing suicide. Because all their money was gone. Are you listening to me? It is the Federal Reserve and the federal government that make inflation. And when the Federal Reserve tries to tell you, we're trying to control inflation, they're not controlling inflation, they cannot possibly control inflation.

[John Weaver] So if you have 500 billion paper notes in circulation, and the fed then prints another five hundred billion and puts them in circulation in theory the money supply has increased by one hundred percent that means the existing currency existed previously is now cut in half it is only worth fifty percent of what it was before so the more money the more paper they print the lower the value of the money that you have so inflation is a decrease in the purchasing power of the money caused by an increase of the money supply. And the more paper they print, the more worthless the paper that you have becomes.

[John Weaver] Now, if you don't believe me, here's a quote from the United States Bureau of Engraving in their booklet, Government Securities. And here is what it says. The Bureau prints approximately 16 million notes each day. The Bureau has the power to create money and almost any amount of it. The only limiting factors are the speed of the presses and the public's willingness to accept it. 16 million notes a day. And they could put 50,000, 5 million, 5 trillion, whatever they want on it.

[John Weaver] Do you understand what is happening? When I was a boy, I could buy a gallon of gas for a quarter. I can still today buy a gallon of gas for a quarter. You say, Oh, come on. It's 250 down the road. I saw it. A 1963 quarter. 90% silver. because it's worth five or six bucks, five or six Federal Reserve notes. So, it is not that the price of gas has gone up, it is the value of the money that has gone down. Do you realize, in 1929, you could buy a brand new car for a thousand bucks. actually less a brand new car for 1000 bucks, usually 600 800 something like that. I can still today buy a brand new car for 1000 bucks, or $1,000 I should say. How can I buy a brand new car today for $1,000 $1,000 in gold, because $1,000 in gold is equal to 30 and 40,000 Federal Reserve notes.

[John Weaver] So it's not again that the price has gone up, it's the value of your money has gone down. And it continues to go down, down, down, down. Let me give you just a couple of examples. Anybody can do this. All you have to do is go to your computer, and when you get your search engine, you type in inflation calculator. In 1900, If you had $1,000, because it was backed by gold back then, if you had $1,000, you could buy $1,000 worth of goods. Today, in 2016, now they hadn't calculated for 2017 yet, but in 2016, It would take $29,245.18 to buy today what you could buy with $1,000 in 1900. Listen to this one. In 1913, that's the year the Federal Reserve came into existence, $1,000 then would buy $1,000 worth of goods. Today in 2017, you would take $24,699.39 to buy the same amount of goods. In 1963, in 1963, you could buy $1,000 worth of goods. Today, or at least last year in 2016, it would take $7,966.93 to buy the same amount that you could buy for $1,000.

[John Weaver] in 1963. I told Cora today, when Alice and I got married 54 years ago, I used to give her 10 bucks a week to buy groceries. I'd kind of fuss at her a little bit if she didn't bring two or three of it back. We would buy enough groceries, bread, meat, milk, everything we needed for a week on six or seven bucks. You can't even walk out of Walmart with less than 200 and it lasts a week today.

[John Weaver] Can you imagine why we're in so much trouble now? Thomas Jefferson said, I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution taken from the federal government, their power of borrowing. Why do we not have silver and gold? Because it can be easily stolen from us through paper and it cannot be easily stolen through silver and gold. I want to end with one illustration. I want to ask you a question. You figure this out. Here's my question. who stole your money. This little piece of paper says $20. Did you know a St. Gaudens $20 gold piece that was minted from 1907 to 1933 was equivalent to a piece of paper that said 20 bucks. In 1933, or 1930, anytime from 1907 to 1933, I could take this $20 bill, go to the bank, hand it to them, I'd like a $20 gold piece. They'd hand me a $20 gold piece, they'd take the because it was backed by silver and backed by gold. And you could just swap it back and forth whichever you want.

[John Weaver] Now, you go to the bank today, and you hand them this and you say, I want a $20 gold piece. You know, they're gonna call the cops on you. Because you've escaped from some mental institution for sure. If you think you can swap this for $20 gold piece, Because a $20 gold piece, even just a regular one, one that's not in mint condition, just a regular $20 gold piece would sell for at least $1,300. So in 1930, you could take this, trade it for a $20 gold piece. You could take a $20 gold piece, get this, just swap them back and forth, it didn't matter. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a $20 bill. That's what it says. It's not. You take this 20 Federal Reserve note bill and put some gas in your car and see how far you get on it. You take a $20 Double Eagle gold piece and just keep yes in your car. And you can drive back and forth from here to California three or four times.

[John Weaver] But only $20 quote unquote Federal Reserve note, you can't get out of the state of Kentucky. So who stole your money? Why is this not worth 1300 bucks? When the double eagle is worth 20, what was worth 1300 bucks and it's nothing but a $20 gold piece. Somebody stole your money. Who stole your money? Here's what I want you to see folks. I want you to see from the Bible. Gold and silver or money from the Constitution, gold and silver or money. From history. gold and silver or money.

[John Weaver] Do you remember the battle between Mark Antony and Augustus Caesar? Mark Antony had teamed up with Cleopatra of Egypt. And Mark Antony was going to fight and rebel against Augustus Caesar. They had the far superior army. But the word got out. Augustus is paying in real gold. And all of those soldiers with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, most of them defected and went to Augustus. And Augustus wiped Mark Antony off the face of the earth. And Cleopatra told herself, why? Over gold, because gold is money.

[John Weaver] So Abraham said, if you want 400 shekels, I'll weigh it out. Here it is, honest money. Honest money. Which means that which is not, is dishonest. Let me tell you what you can do. You can take a million of these and stick them in the bank. Don't touch it. Come back next year. Take the million out. You still have a million. But it's gonna buy less next year than with the ball this year. You've lost money, even if you get paid interest with it in the bank, because the value of it keeps going down. Gold and silver are money.

[John Weaver] We need to be, as our Lord said, as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. If we're going to survive, As a people, we need to understand money. You need to understand what is happening in this country, and you need to understand why we're in such trouble, why we're going to be in even worse trouble in the coming months and possibly the coming year, because we've thumbed our nose at God. God doesn't only demand a godly individual and a godly family and a godly church and a godly government. He also demands a godly economic system. So money, real money, silver and gold, goods, production equipment, things that you can work with, things that you can use.

[John Weaver] And one of these days, you're going to wake up and you're going to go to the store and they're going to say, don't hand me that stuff. I don't want it. What did the Men say the printing press, the only thing that stops us from printing more is the speed of the presses and the willingness of the people to take it. As long as you take it, they'll print it. And the more you take, the more worthless it becomes.

[John Weaver] Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, teach us, help us, build us up in the most holy faith. Give us understanding. May we see how important this issue is, not only from the Bible, but from the Constitution and from history. Help us, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. In his name we ask. Amen.

Biblical Money And Inflation

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	67172051235
Subject	Economics and Stewardship
Course	Debt, Money, and Stewardship
Genre	Sermon
Date	2017-06-07
Dictation Name
Book	Book 070: Debt, Money, and Stewardship — Chapter 5
Source Timed Segments	82

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Text

Weaver introduces the topic of biblical money and inflation, reading Genesis 23:1-20 where Abraham purchases a field from Ephron with weighed silver.

To be here, and I appreciate the Turners coming. And I'd always be willing to pay good men to show up, that's a fact. Good women, too, that's for sure. Might not be able to pay them much, but... Like I tell Alice, I'll pay her, but I'll pay her no attention, so... Wonderful. Well, I tell you what, it's good to be alive, and I'm thankful the Lord is gracious to us.

I want you to open your Bibles, if you would please, tonight to the book of Genesis, chapter 23. And I will be absolutely honest before I even begin tonight. I did not intend on bringing this message. In fact, this message is actually three hours long, so I'm cutting it way down. But I was asked a question today that I just thought that it probably needed explaining a little bit more. So the message I'm going to be dealing with tonight is not what I would normally deal with, but since this is home folks, I'm going to bring a message entitled Biblical Money and Inflation. I want you to look in Genesis chapter 23, beginning with verse 1.

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field.

For as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of

Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.

What Is Money?

Weaver explains that most people do not know what money is, using a restaurant anecdote to illustrate confusion between money and Federal Reserve notes.

Now when you begin to mention the word money you actually get everyone's attention because truthfully speaking everyone wants it, everyone needs it, everyone seeks it, but the truth is very few people really know what money is. Practically everyone is fooled when it comes to money. I remember years ago, Alice and I had gone to a restaurant with some friends and we had eaten there and enjoyed their food. And I got up to pay my bill and I went to the cashier. There's a young girl and there was no long line. There was no one there. And so I said, I've got a problem. She said, what is it? I said, well, I've enjoyed your food. I've eaten all the food and I have no money to pay this bill. She looked at me, she said, that is a problem. I said, well, although I don't have any money, I do have some Federal Reserve notes. She said, oh, we don't take those. I said, well, you better call your manager because I am in a real problem at this point. And so she called the manager. And the manager came up and I said, sir, let me explain my situation. I said, uh, I've eaten your food. I came up to this lady and I, I told her very nicely and politely that I did not have any money and, uh, but that I could pay her in Federal Reserve notes. And I said, and she told me that you did not take those.

He said, uh, that's true. We don't. I said, well, I'm in a real predicament. And I reached in and I said, this is all I've got. Oh, they said, that's money. I said, no, no, no, no. This is not money. This is Federal Reserve notes. And the little girl said, well, if that's not money, why do we call it money? And I said, well, that's because, number one, you don't know what the Bible teaches. Number two, you don't know what the Constitution teaches. Number three, you don't know history. I said, and number four, we've been brainwashed to think that this is money. And she looked at me and she said, you know, that's the sweetest I've ever been called stupid in my life. Well, money is much like the word dollar.

It's easily pronounced, but few people really know what it is. If I were to hold this up, everyone would say, this is $1.00. It is not. If I were to hold this up, you'd say this is a $5.00. It is not. If I held this up, you'd say that is $10.00. It is not. If I held this up, you'd say that it's $20.00. It is not. I know it says $20.00 at the bottom. However, on the front, it says at the top, it says Federal Reserve Note, which is neither federal nor reserve, and a note is an IOU.

Biblical Principles of Money

From Genesis 23:16, Weaver identifies three truths: specie (gold/silver) is real money, money is by weight, and it must be current (honest) money.

And the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. I want you to notice that Abraham did not say, thank you, I really appreciate that. He didn't say that at all. Because this was just the manner of doing business. If you'll notice what Abraham said in verse 13, and he's speaking to Ephron and the audience of the people of the land saying, but if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. Abraham said I'm willing to pay you. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. Now, do you notice what Ephron just did? He named a price. Oh, he named a price. And I want you to pay close attention to verse 16.

Look at what the Bible says. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. Wow. There are three very important truths that are revealed to us about money in verse 16. Number one, first of all, specie is real money. And by the word specie, I mean gold or silver. Only that is money, biblically speaking. Secondly, money is by weight. He weighed the money to Ephron. And thirdly, the Bible tells us in verse 16, it was current money with the merchant. That is, it was money that was up to par. It was actual, it was the weight was actually accurate. Nothing had been shaved. Nothing had been destroyed. The money was there in full value and in full tail.

Now, I want you to look in your Bibles, hold Genesis 23. But look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 25. I want to share something with you that may really surprise you. In Deuteronomy, chapter 25, beginning there, verse 13, and reading through verse 16, God is telling His people exactly what they should have when it comes to money and measures. Look what He says. Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 13, Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. Now, God says you have to have a perfect weight and a perfect measure. In other words, what he's saying is there must be honesty when it comes to money, when it comes to weight.

Honest Weights and Measures

Deuteronomy 25:13-16 commands perfect and just weights; dishonest weights are an abomination. This is linked to promises of long life.

Interestingly, if you will read your Bibles, you're going to find that there are only three specific promises of long life in the Bible. Everyone in this room knows what the first one is. You'll find it in the book of Exodus chapter 20 in verse 12 where the Bible says, Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And then of course it's repeated again in Ephesians chapter 6 in verse 3. So God has promised long life then to those who honor their parents. Interestingly the second time the promise of long life occurs is here in Deuteronomy 22 if you want to turn back there very quickly. Deuteronomy 22, notice if you would please verses 6 and 7. This may surprise you. I've got a message on this passage and it's a wonderful passage. But in Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 6 and 7, God says this, If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. Now there it is again. Isn't it amazing?

The second promise of long life in the Bible is how we treat animals and the families of animals. God forbids a man killing a mother and her young on the same day. So if I'm out deer hunting and here comes a doe and it's a doe day and here's a young little buck right beside her. According to state law, I could kill the doe and I could kill the buck. But according to God's law, I can't. I have to kill the mother and let the baby go or kill the baby and let the mother live. I can't kill them both on one day. And so here in Deuteronomy chapter 22, he's saying, if you find this mother bird sitting upon the nest, you can take the eggs or you can take the young, but you don't take both of them. And the reason you take the young, because the mother bird can live. But if you took the mother bird, the young is going to die. So that'd be essentially killing them both in one day.

But notice if you would, he's talking about how we treat animals and how we treat the families of animals. So here's a promise of long life. By the way, the Bible says the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. But the third instance, the third instance of a promise of long life is found in Deuteronomy chapter 25, and that is where God gives us here the absolute statement about an honest economic system. God promises life for those who are honest in their economics. Interestingly, he said that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So a false measure and a false weight is an abomination unto God. It not only defrauds people, but it is also an abomination of God. When you stop and think about a false weight, it's not only a violation of the eighth commandment, Thou shalt not steal. It's also a violation of the ninth commandment because you're bearing false witness. You're pretending like it's real when in reality, it's not.

Historical Examples of Fiat Currency

Weaver recounts the Continental currency's collapse, German hyperinflation, and quotes from founders like Jefferson and Madison against paper money.

When we were fighting England, when the war began, say in 1775, there was only about 10 million in gold and silver and paper currencies in the colonies. Well, a war was beginning, and so everybody needed money. And so the continental currency came into existence. And so the continental government printed this paper money. Some of it was to be backed by gold, and some was to be backed by future taxation. By 1776 they had issued 25 million pieces of paper and of course it began to go down in value. Between 1776 and 1779 they issued 240 million pieces of paper. Now just remember there's only 10 million already in existence of gold and silver and paper money at that particular time. And so obviously then, the paper money kept going down, down, down in value.

If you read the journals of the Continental Congress, it's almost like a satire or at least a tragedy. There were plenty of people who thought that the Continental currency would never ever lose its value, much like the Federal Reserve note today. They think, well, this is money, and we have it now, and we're always going to have this. This is always going to be money. Well, the continental currency is gone. A lot of currencies are gone, that is for sure. And then there were those who wanted legal tender laws, which would force people to take this money. And then there were others who were calling for a total end to the continental currency. Some of you have heard this expression, and you never have known where it came from. But have you ever heard something is not worth a continental? That's not talking about a Lincoln Continental, a car. It's talking about a continental currency. It's not worth a continental.

In other words, the paper was absolutely, totally worthless. And the people began to use the continental currency, especially the soldiers, for sanitary purposes as well as lining their boots to keep the snow and the water out. The continental currency also became known as shin plasters because the soldiers would take the paper money and stick it to their shins where they had scrapes and cuts because that's all the money was good for. So obviously, it keeps going down and down. By the way, there are other expressions that are economic expressions as well. And we don't recognize these. It has been common in the South, probably elsewhere as well, but mainly in the South. You hear people say, well, it's not worth a damn. And, you know, everybody thinks that's a slang expression. It's an economic expression. You know where that expression came from? It came from two sources.

Number one, in England, there were tinkers. And the tinkers would have these pots, of course, that had a little crack in them. And the tinkers would come in and put a little weld on the crack so they could keep using the pot. What some of the dishonest tinkers would do is take their pots and actually put mud on it and then just put a little coat of metal over that and it would stop the leak until the pot got heated up again and the clay dried out and cracked then it would start leaking. And so everybody would say it's not worth a tinker's dam and then they would say it's not worth a dam talking about damming the pot.

But actually that expression came into our country from the Duke of Wellington in India, when the English were in India, the dam was the coin of least value in the Indian monetary system. It's like our penny. So when they would say it's not worth a dam, saying, essentially, it's not worth a cent. So originally, that was just simply an economic expression, just like it's not worth a continental.

So obviously, to show you how worthless the continental became, in 1779, George Washington said that a wagon load of money will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions. In 1779, it took 17,000 pieces of continental currency to buy $100 worth of goods.

So that just shows you how the currency just simply deteriorated. So we have to understand that obviously what happens then when the value of the money goes down, then prices rise. If you were to take the modern day equivalent of our money and apply it to what George Washington just said, and of course they say, the economists and historians tell us from 1776 to 1779 that corn and rye and beef spike by a factor of 24, labor by a factor of 18, hay by a factor of 10, shoes by a factor of 16. So they were saying that basically a loaf of bread would cost you 40 bucks, a box of cereal would cost you 100 bucks, and a gentleman's pair of shoes would cost you 1,600 bucks. That's how worthless the continental currency was. And by the way, I hope you know in Venezuela today, if you go to buy a dozen eggs in Venezuela, it's 140 bucks because they are falling to pieces. It's absolutely worthless.

So I'm just simply pointing out the fact everything goes up because the value of the money goes down. And by May of 31st, 1781, the continental currency basically just simply died. And John Witherspoon, who was a Presbyterian pastor, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, talking about the worthlessness of the continental currency, said this, He said, for two or three years, we constantly saw and were informed of creditors running away from their debtors and the debtors pursuing them in triumph and paying them without mercy. They didn't want the money because it was worthless. He went on to say in Rhode Island, sources tell us creditors were leaping from rear windows out of their houses or hiding themselves in their attics in order to avoid debtors. Then he goes on to say this, the most vulnerable in society also felt its effects with widows and orphans finding the guardians of their trust funds paying them in currency that was worth a fraction of its face value. In other words, they got the money but it was worthless.

So stop and think about this. You say, well, I have my social security. I have my retirement. I have my 401k. Well, guess what? Even if you get some of it, if the money's worthless, it doesn't mean one thing, because it's nothing but paper. And right now, it's not even on paper. Right now, it's usually electronic. Did you know, out of all the paper money in the world, if you want to call it money, out of all the paper notes in the world, only 3% is in paper. 97% of the so-called money in this world is electronic. Digits.

That's why when the power goes out, the banks go down. You can't even walk in and cash a check. You can't do anything because everything is electronics. Pelatiah Webster said that when the continental currency died, he was so happy that that evil monster died without a groan.

Now, don't you listen very carefully because Thomas Jefferson gave us some counsel. Here's what he said. I'm quoting. He said, I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

Now, you're going to say that some of this stuff cannot happen in our country today. It is already happening. You just don't see it. And it's not on the news because they're not going to tell you about it. But you know that Germany went through what is known as a hyperinflation from 1921 to 1923. If you will just get on the computer and you look up hyperinflation in Germany in 1923, you will see pictures of people wallpapering their walls with money. You will see children playing with stacks of money, making building blocks out of them. You will see people starting fires with money, paper money, because it's worthless. One of my favorite stories is about the German lady who was on her way to the market with a barrel, a wheelbarrow full of German marks, paper money on her way to the market to buy a loaf of bread. On the way to the market, there was a fight. A lot of people standing around watching the fight. She put her wheelbarrow down and she kind of did like this and pushed aside so she could see who was fighting.

When her curiosity was satisfied, she turned around and someone had dumped her money out and stole the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was worth more than the money. Now, the interesting thing is this. Even sailors, a lot of times when they would return, were paid with this worthless paper money, which they couldn't do anything with it. So some of them would take it to the tailor shop and have the tailor make them paper money suits. And then they would just wear the paper money suits downtown and flaunt their riches, which were absolutely worthless. So when you talk about hyperinflation, that is the terminal stage that fiat money reaches. Fiat money is money that is created out of thin air. It's money that's created absolutely out of nothing. Paper money is fiat money. In fact, when you stop and think about it, it doesn't even have to be paper to be fiat money.

It can be electronic digits. Do you realize that out of every fiat currency that has failed in every nation in the last 300 years, it's been replaced by gold. When the Constitutional Convention met, one of the things that had to be discussed was money. And so here was a proposal under consideration. Listen, the legislature of the United States shall have power to coin money, to regulate the value of foreign coin, to borrow money and emit bills on the credit of the United States.

So now there is a debate that ensues. James Madison, who's the secretary of the Constitutional Convention, he recorded all of this. Gouverneur Morris, and that was not a position, that was his first name, Gouverneur Morris from Pennsylvania moved to strike out and emit bills of credit on the United States. He went on to say if the United States had credit, such bills would be unnecessary. If they had not credit, it'd be unjust and useless. Pierce Butler of South Carolina seconded the motion. Later, he remarked that paper was a legal tender in no country in Europe at that time. Every country in Europe at that time used silver and gold. James Mason of Virginia had a mortal hatred of paper money. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut thought it was a favorable moment to shut the door permanently against paper money. He went on to say, paper money can in no case be necessary.

Give the government credit and other resources will offer. The power may do harm, never good. James Wilson, another founding father, said he will have a most salutary influence on the credit of the United States to remove the possibility of paper money. George Read of Delaware thought the words, if not struck out, could be as alarming as the mark of the beast in Revelation. And John Langdon of New Hampshire had rather reject the entire Constitution than to have the words and emit bills. There were two men that were responsible for the hard money clause in the Constitution. Roger Sherman and John Witherspoon. Roger Sherman was an attorney. He was a statesman. Roger Sherman is the only man that signed all four documents in the founding of this country. He signed a document of the Continental Congress. He signed the Articles of Confederation. He also signed the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Constitution. But Roger Sherman wrote a book, it's still available today, A Caveat Against Injustice. And this book is basically against paper money.

Constitutional and Legal Definitions

The U.S. Constitution authorizes coining money, not printing it; the Coinage Act of 1792 defines a dollar as a specific weight of silver, a unit of measure.

So John Witherspoon was the Presbyterian pastor, also professor, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And these two men had this put in the Constitution. Listen carefully. You can read it, Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. Listen. The Congress shall have power to coin money, and to regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and to fix the standards of weights and measures. Congress does not have the power to print money according to the Constitution. It has the power to coin money because the founding fathers knew what they just went through. And listen to this. Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution says this: No state shall coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. No state. So the Constitution says, just like the Bible, that real money is gold and silver.

Now, I hope you're beginning to ask yourself this. If the Bible says that gold and silver are money, if the Constitution says that gold and silver are money, why in the world do we not have gold and silver? Why do we not have lawful money? Why do we have paper money? Why do we have fiat money? You see, we've been so used to this, we tend to think this is money. Let me tell you what happened to me. I was preaching in Canada, and I had some of my books, and people wanted to buy the books. And I would sell them and tell them how much the books were. And they would pay me in Canadian paper money. I don't know if you've ever seen Canadian paper money or not. But it's about the same size, just a tad larger, and different colors, just like Monopoly money. And when they put that Canadian paper money in my hand, the strangest sensation went over me like what a fool I am to give my hard earned work for something that looks like monopoly money. I'm just simply saying we don't understand.

Ludwig von Mises, who is really one of the fathers of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises said, government is the only agency that can take a valuable commodity like paper, slap some ink on it, and make it totally worthless. So let me ask you this question while I'm on the subject. I said earlier, this is not a dollar. It's not $5. It's not $1. It's not $10. It's not $20, although it has that on it.

And I can prove that to you. Because you see, according to the Coinage Act of 1792, which has never been repealed, a dollar is a unit of measure. It's like a quart, or a gallon, or an inch, or a foot. A dollar is a unit of measurement. In fact, the money of the United States is to be expressed in dollars. It is a unit of measurement. Most people say, most historians say that our English word dollar actually came from Count Schlick, who began minting coins in 1519 in Joachimsthal, Bavaria. The coins were called schlickenthalers, later thalers, and then dollars. But it came from a silver coin in 1519. Merrill Jenkins wrote in his book, What is a Dollar of Money? And he wrote this, What is a dollar of money? In the Coinage Act of 1792, it states that the money of account shall be expressed in dollars. The term dollar is a unit of measurement just like a quart or an inch. In and of itself, a unit of measurement represents nothing. In the Coinage Act of 1792, a dollar measure of gold was a certain number of grams of .999 gold while a dollar measure of silver was a certain number of grams of .99 silver.

A silver dollar should have been expressed as a dollar quantity of silver. A dollar of gold would be expressed as a dollar quantity of gold. He said you would never go to a supermarket and say you want a quart, or you want a gallon, you have to express a quart of what or a gallon of what? Because a quart is just a unit of measurement. A gallon is just a unit of measurement. A dollar is just a unit of measurement.

When Alexander Hamilton wrote the Coinage Act of 1792, he simply made into law, when Congress passed it, the market definition of a dollar. And the dollar at that time was the Spanish milled dollar of 371.25 grains of silver. That is the dollar that's mentioned in the Constitution. So a dollar, a silver dollar is 371.25 grains of silver. This definition of a dollar has never been changed. And it cannot be changed. You can't change a quart. You can't change a gallon. You can't change an inch. And so this has just basically never ever been changed at all. So why do we not have silver and gold as money? Why do we have legal tender laws instead? Why do you have something like this written on this bill that this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private. So I could come up to you to pay my bill.

The Federal Reserve Scam

Weaver explains how the Federal Reserve creates money out of nothing, loans it to the government at interest, and causes inflation by expanding the money supply.

But let's suppose that Congress now needs $10 million, which is a drop in the bucket. And I'm using the term dollars, they want 10 million Federal Reserve notes. So they will fix up a bond and give it to the Fed and say, there's our bond, we want 10 million bucks. And so the Federal Reserve then will contact the Treasury Department and say, we want 10 million bucks printed up. Now, let me tell you something, it costs a nickel or less than a nickel to print a $1 Federal Reserve note, $5 Federal Reserve note, whatever you want to call it, it's just a reserve. Or if you wanted to print a million, it doesn't cost anymore. You just add the zeros. So the Treasury then prints the money, sells it to the Federal Reserve at cost. The Federal Reserve then loans it to Congress at face value plus interest.

Now, is that a neat little scam or what? See, this didn't come about until 1913. This whole national debt thing is built on fraud. It's pure fraud, plain and simple. So Merrill Jenkins again wrote in his book, he said this, The Greatest Hoax on Earth is the name of the book. He said, the writers of the constitution knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote in Article 1, Section 10, paragraph one, no state shall make anything but gold or silver coin a tender in payment of debts. People able to barter with gold and silver coin control government and are free. Loss of the right to trade in gold and silver coin enslaves people to the creators of psychological money. You see, if Congress had gold and silver, there's only a certain amount of gold and silver. You can only do so much. But when you can borrow without limit, there's no limit to what you can do until finally everything crashes.

The Theft of Value

Using the example of a $20 gold piece vs. a $20 Federal Reserve note, Weaver illustrates how paper money has lost purchasing power over time.

Now, you go to the bank today, and you hand them this and you say, I want a $20 gold piece. You know, they're gonna call the cops on you. Because you've escaped from some mental institution for sure. If you think you can swap this for a $20 gold piece, because a $20 gold piece, even just a regular one, one that's not in mint condition, just a regular $20 gold piece would sell for at least $1,300. So in 1930, you could take this, trade it for a $20 gold piece. You could take a $20 gold piece, get this, just swap them back and forth, it didn't matter. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a $20 bill. That's what it says. It's not. You take this 20 Federal Reserve note bill and put some gas in your car and see how far you get on it. You take a $20 Double Eagle gold piece and just keep yes in your car. And you can drive back and forth from here to California three or four times.

But only $20 quote unquote Federal Reserve note, you can't get out of the state of Kentucky. So who stole your money? Why is this not worth 1300 bucks? When the Double Eagle is worth 20, what was worth 1300 bucks and it's nothing but a $20 gold piece. Somebody stole your money. Who stole your money? Here's what I want you to see folks. I want you to see from the Bible. Gold and silver are money. From the Constitution, gold and silver are money. From history, gold and silver are money.

Conclusion and Application

Weaver calls for wisdom, understanding of money, and a return to God's economic principles, warning of coming judgment for dishonest systems.

We need to be, as our Lord said, as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. If we're going to survive as a people, we need to understand money. You need to understand what is happening in this country, and you need to understand why we're in such trouble, why we're going to be in even worse trouble in the coming months and possibly the coming year, because we've thumbed our nose at God. God doesn't only demand a godly individual and a godly family and a godly church and a godly government. He also demands a godly economic system. So money, real money, silver and gold, goods, production equipment, things that you can work with, things that you can use. And one of these days, you're going to wake up and you're going to go to the store and they're going to say, don't hand me that stuff. I don't want it. What did the men say? The printing press, the only thing that stops us from printing more is the speed of the presses and the willingness of the people to take it. As long as you take it, they'll print it. And the more you take, the more worthless it becomes.

Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, teach us, help us, build us up in the most holy faith. Give us understanding. May we see how important this issue is, not only from the Bible, but from the Constitution and from history. Help us, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. In his name we ask. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Biblical Definition of Money

Summary: The Bible defines real money as gold and silver by weight, not paper notes.

Evidence: Genesis 23:16 shows Abraham weighing silver as 'current money with the merchant.'

Honesty in Economics

Summary: God demands perfect and just weights and measures; dishonest money is an abomination.

Evidence: Deuteronomy 25:13-16 commands just weights and promises long life for obedience.

Inflation as Monetary Expansion

Summary: Inflation is not rising prices but the decrease in purchasing power caused by increasing the money supply.

Evidence: Weaver explains that printing more paper money cuts the value of existing currency in half.

Historical Failure of Fiat Currency

Summary: Paper currencies like the Continental and German marks became worthless, leading to economic collapse.

Evidence: Weaver cites the Continental currency's worthlessness and German hyperinflation stories.

Constitutional Money

Summary: The U.S. Constitution only authorizes coining gold and silver, not printing paper money.

Evidence: Article 1, Section 8 and Section 10 restrict states to gold and silver coin as legal tender.

The Federal Reserve as Fraud

Summary: The Federal Reserve creates money from nothing and loans it at interest, enriching bankers at public expense.

Evidence: Weaver describes the process of Congress borrowing from the Fed and paying interest on printed notes.

Theft of Purchasing Power

Summary: Paper money has lost value over time, while gold and silver retain purchasing power.

Evidence: A 1963 silver quarter still buys a gallon of gas; a $20 gold piece is worth over $1,300 today.

God's Judgment on Dishonest Systems

Summary: God condemns debased money and will judge nations that violate His economic laws.

Evidence: Isaiah 1:22 condemns silver become dross; Weaver warns of collapse for thumbing our nose at God.

Key Arguments

Specie is the only biblical money

Summary: Gold and silver, weighed and current, are the only forms of money recognized in Scripture.

Evidence: Genesis 23:16 describes Abraham weighing silver as 'current money with the merchant.'

Paper money is not money but an IOU

Summary: Federal Reserve notes are not money; they are notes (IOUs) that have no intrinsic value.

Evidence: Weaver points out the bill says 'Federal Reserve Note' and explains a note is an IOU.

Inflation is caused by increasing the money supply

Summary: When more paper currency is printed, the value of existing currency decreases, causing prices to rise.

Evidence: Weaver explains that doubling the money supply cuts the value of existing money in half.

The Constitution prohibits paper money

Summary: The founders intentionally excluded the power to emit bills of credit, limiting Congress to coin money.

Evidence: Article 1, Section 8 gives power to coin money; Section 10 forbids states from making anything but gold and silver tender.

The Federal Reserve system is fraudulent

Summary: The Fed creates money at virtually no cost and loans it to the government at face value plus interest.

Evidence: Weaver details the process: Treasury prints notes, sells to Fed at cost, Fed loans to Congress at interest.

Legal tender laws force acceptance of bad money

Summary: Legal tender laws are only needed to make people accept dishonest money; good money needs no such compulsion.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Salmon P. Chase and Stephen T. Byington on the purpose of legal tender laws.

Gold and silver preserve wealth over time

Summary: While paper money loses purchasing power, gold and silver maintain their value across decades.

Evidence: A 1963 silver quarter still buys a gallon of gas; a $20 gold piece is worth over $1,300 today.

God will judge dishonest economic systems

Summary: Nations that debase money and defraud people face divine judgment and collapse.

Evidence: Isaiah 1:22 condemns debased silver; Weaver warns that collapse is certain for defying God's law.

Scripture References

Genesis 23:1-20

Context: Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah from Ephron with 400 shekels of silver, weighed as current money.

Genesis 23:16

Context: Abraham weighed the silver, current money with the merchant, illustrating biblical money as weighed specie.

Deuteronomy 25:13-16

Context: God commands perfect and just weights and measures, promising long life for obedience.

Exodus 20:12

Context: The first promise of long life: honor father and mother.

Ephesians 6:3

Context: Repeats the promise of long life for honoring parents.

Deuteronomy 22:6-7

Context: The second promise of long life: letting a mother bird go when taking young or eggs.

Genesis 13:2

Context: Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold, showing silver and gold as wealth.

Isaiah 1:22

Context: God condemns debased silver and watered-down wine as symbols of dishonesty.

Proverbs 12:10

Context: A righteous man regards the life of his beast, cited in context of animal treatment and long life.

Historical References

Continental Currency (1775-1781)

Context: Paper money issued during the American Revolution became worthless; 'not worth a continental.'

German Hyperinflation (1921-1923)

Context: Paper marks became worthless; people used money as wallpaper or kindling.

Coinage Act of 1792

Context: Defined the dollar as a specific weight of silver; debasing coins was a felony punishable by death.

Constitutional Convention Debates

Context: Founders like Madison, Morris, and Sherman argued against paper money, leading to the hard money clause.

Federal Reserve Act of 1913

Context: Created the Federal Reserve System, enabling the creation of fiat money and national debt.

Henry VIII 'Old Coppernose'

Context: Debased coins by coating copper with gold; the gold wore off, revealing copper on the nose.

Battle between Augustus Caesar and Mark Antony

Context: Augustus paid soldiers in real gold, causing Mark Antony's troops to defect.

Abraham Lincoln's Greenbacks

Context: Lincoln printed greenbacks to finance the Civil War without borrowing from banks, possibly leading to his assassination.

London Times 1865

Context: European bankers warned that if the U.S. printed its own money, it would destroy monarchies.

Venezuela Hyperinflation

Context: Modern example of currency collapse; a dozen eggs costs 140 bucks.

Important Quotes

Let me issue and control the nation's money supply and I care not who makes the laws.

Significance: Attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild, illustrating the power of controlling money.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

Significance: Thomas Jefferson's warning about the danger of private banks controlling currency.

The legal tender quality of money is only valuable for the purposes of dishonesty.

Significance: Salmon P. Chase's opinion that legal tender laws enable dishonest money.

No legal tender laws ever needed to make men take good money. Its only use is to make them take bad money.

Significance: Stephen T. Byington's observation on the purpose of legal tender laws.

The Bureau prints approximately 16 million notes each day. The Bureau has the power to create money in almost any amount of it. The only limiting factors are the speed of the presses and the public's willingness to accept it.

Significance: U.S. Bureau of Engraving admission of unlimited money creation.

Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.

Significance: Isaiah 1:22, used to show God's condemnation of debased money.

If the banks create synthetic money, ample synthetic money, we are prosperous. If not, we starve.

Significance: Robert H. Hemphill of the Atlanta Fed describing the absurdity of the monetary system.

Discussion Questions

According to Genesis 23:16, what are the three characteristics of biblical money?

Context: Weaver highlights that money is specie (gold/silver), by weight, and current (honest).

Why does God command perfect and just weights and measures, and what promise is attached?

Context: Deuteronomy 25:13-16 links honest economics with long life.

How does the history of the Continental currency illustrate the dangers of fiat money?

Context: Weaver describes its worthlessness and the phrase 'not worth a continental.'

What did the founders intend by giving Congress power to 'coin money' rather than 'print money'?

Context: The Constitutional Convention debates show a deliberate rejection of paper money.

How does the Federal Reserve system create money and contribute to inflation?

Context: Weaver explains the process of printing notes and loaning them at interest.

Why are legal tender laws necessary for paper money but not for gold and silver?

Context: Quotes from Chase and Byington argue legal tender is for dishonest money.

How does the example of the $20 gold piece versus the $20 Federal Reserve note demonstrate the theft of purchasing power?

Context: Weaver contrasts their values to show how paper money has lost value.

What does Isaiah 1:22 teach about God's view of debased money?

Context: God condemns silver become dross as a symbol of dishonesty.

Applications

Understand what real money is

Summary: Learn the biblical and constitutional definition of money as gold and silver by weight.

Evidence: Weaver emphasizes that most people are fooled about money and need to study Scripture and history.

Recognize the fraud of fiat currency

Summary: See Federal Reserve notes as IOUs, not money, and understand how inflation steals purchasing power.

Evidence: Weaver explains the Federal Reserve scam and the loss of value over time.

Seek honest weights and measures

Summary: Apply God's command for just weights to personal and societal economics, avoiding dishonesty.

Evidence: Deuteronomy 25 commands perfect weights; dishonest money is an abomination.

Be wise as serpents regarding money

Summary: Use wisdom to protect wealth by understanding real assets like gold, silver, and productive goods.

Evidence: Weaver advises being wise as serpents and harmless as doves to survive economic turmoil.

Prepare for economic judgment

Summary: Recognize that God judges nations with dishonest economic systems, and prepare accordingly.

Evidence: Weaver warns that collapse is certain for defying God's law, citing Isaiah 1:22.

Reject legal tender deception

Summary: Understand that legal tender laws force acceptance of bad money and are a form of theft.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Chase and Byington on the dishonest purpose of legal tender laws.

Value gold and silver as biblical money

Summary: Recognize that gold and silver have been money throughout history and retain value.

Evidence: Weaver shows that a 1963 silver quarter still buys gas, while paper loses value.

Teach others about biblical economics

Summary: Share the truth about money with family and church to build a godly economic understanding.

Evidence: Weaver stresses the need for God's people to understand money to survive as a people.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T03:48:34Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T16:28:14Z

Clean Transcript

Biblical Money And Inflation

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

To be here, and I appreciate the Turners coming. And I'd always be willing to pay good men to show up, that's a fact. Good women, too, that's for sure. Might not be able to pay them much, but... Like I tell Alice, I'll pay her, but I'll pay her no attention, so... Wonderful. Well, I tell you what, it's good to be alive, and I'm thankful the Lord is gracious to us.
#1 | 0:00 to 0:28 | cleaned
I want you to open your Bibles, if you would please, tonight to the book of Genesis, chapter 23. And I will be absolutely honest before I even begin tonight. I did not intend on bringing this message. In fact, this message is actually three hours long, so I'm cutting it way down. But I was asked a question today that I just thought that it probably needed explaining a little bit more. So the message I'm going to be dealing with tonight is not what I would normally deal with, but since this is home folks, I'm going to bring a message entitled Biblical Money and Inflation. I want you to look in Genesis chapter 23, beginning with verse 1.
#2 | 0:29 to 1:15 | cleaned
And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field.
#3 | 1:15 to 2:14 | cleaned
For as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of
#4 | 2:15 to 3:12 | cleaned
Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.
#5 | 3:13 to 3:53 | cleaned
Now when you begin to mention the word money you actually get everyone's attention because truthfully speaking everyone wants it, everyone needs it, everyone seeks it, but the truth is very few people really know what money is. Practically everyone is fooled when it comes to money. I remember years ago, Alice and I had gone to a restaurant with some friends and we had eaten there and enjoyed their food.
#6 | 3:54 to 4:24 | cleaned
And I got up to pay my bill and I went to the cashier. There's a young girl and there was no long line. There was no one there. And so I said, I've got a problem. She said, what is it? I said, well, I've enjoyed your food. I've eaten all the food and I have no money to pay this bill. She looked at me, she said, that is a problem. I said, well, although I don't have any money, I do have some Federal Reserve notes. She said, oh, we don't take those. I said, well, you better call your manager because I am in a real problem at this point. And so she called the manager. And the manager came up and I said, sir, let me explain my situation. I said, uh, I've eaten your food. I came up to this lady and I, I told her very nicely and politely that I did not have any money and, uh, but that I could pay her in Federal Reserve notes. And I said, and she told me that you did not take those.
#7 | 4:24 to 5:26 | cleaned
He said, uh, that's true. We don't. I said, well, I'm in a real predicament. And I reached in and I said, this is all I've got. Oh, they said, that's money. I said, no, no, no, no. This is not money. This is Federal Reserve notes. And the little girl said, well, if that's not money, why do we call it money? And I said, well, that's because, number one, you don't know what the Bible teaches. Number two, you don't know what the Constitution teaches. Number three, you don't know history. I said, and number four, we've been brainwashed to think that this is money. And she looked at me and she said, you know, that's the sweetest I've ever been called stupid in my life. Well, money is much like the word dollar.
#8 | 5:27 to 6:22 | cleaned
It's easily pronounced, but few people really know what it is. If I were to hold this up, everyone would say, this is $1.00. It is not. If I were to hold this up, you'd say this is a $5.00. It is not. If I held this up, you'd say that is $10.00. It is not. If I held this up, you'd say that it's $20.00. It is not. I know it says $20.00 at the bottom. However, on the front, it says at the top, it says Federal Reserve Note, which is neither federal nor reserve, and a note is an IOU.
#9 | 6:22 to 7:04 | cleaned
It is not money by any stretch of the imagination. So it's time that you and I begin to really understand and find out, biblically speaking, as well as constitutionally speaking, what real money really is. In our text, Abraham is buying a field from Ephron out of the children of Heth. There's a transaction that takes place and most of us probably never have understood this particular transaction. In fact, you have to know not only biblical history, but you also have to know biblical manners to understand this text. So Abraham is wanting to bury his wife Sarah. And if you look at verses 10 and 11 again, because Ephron is there and that is the cave and that is the land that he wishes to purchase from Ephron, the owner. Verse 10, And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me: the field, watch it now, give I thee.
#10 | 7:05 to 8:12 | cleaned
And the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. I want you to notice that Abraham did not say, thank you, I really appreciate that. He didn't say that at all. Because this was just the manner of doing business. If you'll notice what Abraham said in verse 13, and he's speaking to Ephron and the audience of the people of the land saying, but if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. Abraham said I'm willing to pay you. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. Now, do you notice what Ephron just did? He named a price. Oh, he named a price. And I want you to pay close attention to verse 16.
#11 | 8:13 to 9:18 | cleaned
Look at what the Bible says. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. Wow. There are three very important truths that are revealed to us about money in verse 16. Number one, first of all, specie is real money. And by the word specie, I mean gold or silver. Only that is money, biblically speaking. Secondly, money is by weight. He weighed the money to Ephron. And thirdly, the Bible tells us in verse 16, it was current money with the merchant. That is, it was money that was up to par. It was actual, it was the weight was actually accurate. Nothing had been shaved. Nothing had been destroyed. The money was there in full value and in full tail.
#12 | 9:18 to 10:19 | cleaned
Now, I want you to look in your Bibles, hold Genesis 23. But look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 25. I want to share something with you that may really surprise you. In Deuteronomy, chapter 25, beginning there, verse 13, and reading through verse 16, God is telling His people exactly what they should have when it comes to money and measures. Look what He says. Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 13, Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. Now, God says you have to have a perfect weight and a perfect measure. In other words, what he's saying is there must be honesty when it comes to money, when it comes to weight.
#13 | 10:19 to 11:31 | cleaned
Interestingly, if you will read your Bibles, you're going to find that there are only three specific promises of long life in the Bible. Everyone in this room knows what the first one is. You'll find it in the book of Exodus chapter 20 in verse 12 where the Bible says, Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And then of course it's repeated again in Ephesians chapter 6 in verse 3. So God has promised long life then to those who honor their parents. Interestingly the second time the promise of long life occurs is here in Deuteronomy 22 if you want to turn back there very quickly. Deuteronomy 22, notice if you would please verses 6 and 7. This may surprise you. I've got a message on this passage and it's a wonderful passage. But in Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 6 and 7, God says this, If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. Now there it is again. Isn't it amazing?
#14 | 11:32 to 12:38 | cleaned
The second promise of long life in the Bible is how we treat animals and the families of animals. God forbids a man killing a mother and her young on the same day. So if I'm out deer hunting and here comes a doe and it's a doe day and here's a young little buck right beside her. According to state law, I could kill the doe and I could kill the buck. But according to God's law, I can't. I have to kill the mother and let the baby go or kill the baby and let the mother live. I can't kill them both on one day. And so here in Deuteronomy chapter 22, he's saying, if you find this mother bird sitting upon the nest, you can take the eggs or you can take the young, but you don't take both of them. And the reason you take the young, because the mother bird can live. But if you took the mother bird, the young is going to die. So that'd be essentially killing them both in one day.
#15 | 12:38 to 13:52 | cleaned
But notice if you would, he's talking about how we treat animals and how we treat the families of animals. So here's a promise of long life. By the way, the Bible says the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. But the third instance, the third instance of a promise of long life is found in Deuteronomy chapter 25, and that is where God gives us here the absolute statement about an honest economic system. God promises life for those who are honest in their economics. Interestingly, he said that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So a false measure and a false weight is an abomination unto God. It not only defrauds people, but it is also an abomination of God. When you stop and think about a false weight, it's not only a violation of the eighth commandment, Thou shalt not steal. It's also a violation of the ninth commandment because you're bearing false witness. You're pretending like it's real when in reality, it's not.
#16 | 13:52 to 15:07 | cleaned
And also, of course, it's a violation of the first commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Because obviously, if you disobey the eighth and ninth commandments, you've already broken the first commandment as well. So God promises long life now to those who obey. But notice, if you would please, the opposite is true. If you do not obey, then there is a short life. That is, there's going to be death. And it's not just death of an individual, but it's also death of a society as well. When you have a society that is full of nothing but thieves, for all practicality, the society is already dead.
#17 | 15:09 to 15:45 | cleaned
So fraud in weights is essentially fraudulent money because biblical money is always by weight. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 13 very quickly. Genesis chapter 13. The Bible is telling you about how rich Abraham really was. Notice if you would, in Genesis chapter 13 in verse 2, the Bible says, And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Now it is true that silver and gold are real money according to the Bible. There are other measures of wealth as well, cattle, land, things like that, which are usable and productive. But here he mentioned silver and gold. Did you know that the word silver, the money, occurs 320 times in our Bibles? And the word gold occurs 417 times in our Bible. So evidently God has a lot to say about silver and gold because it occurs so many times in the Bible.
#18 | 15:47 to 17:01 | cleaned
When you study the Old Testament, you will find that the average, or I should say the common coin, was that of the shekel. And it was the common coin among the Israelites. There was a shekel of the sanctuary. There was a—the shekel of the sanctuary was equal to 20 gerahs. There was a shekel of gold. There was a shekel of silver. There was a shekel of brass. There was a shekel of iron.
#19 | 17:02 to 17:28 | cleaned
But everything was by weight. Everything was weighed out.
#20 | 17:29 to 17:32 | cleaned
Now, let me tell you how important money is. Think about this. Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschild banking system, said this, Let me issue and control the nation's money supply and I care not who makes the laws. Whoever controls your money actually controls your life and everything about it. So here's a question I want you to ponder tonight. I want you to think about this. If the Bible teaches that silver and gold are real money, and if the constitution of the United States teaches that silver and gold are real money, if history teaches that silver and gold are real money, here's my question. Why is it that you and I do not have real money? Why is it that we seemingly make more quote unquote money than we've ever made in our life?
#21 | 17:33 to 18:32 | cleaned
And yet we have less. Just recently, I had a brother tell me, he said, I've been making more money recently than I've ever made in my life. And I have less now than I did 10 years ago. Why? Well, you see, everybody talks about inflation, they say the problem is inflation, inflation, inflation, inflation, that's it. And surely when you talk about inflation, everybody knows that inflation is nothing more than higher prices. And that's dead wrong. Inflation is not necessarily higher prices. Yes, the prices go up, but there is a reason that prices go up. So let me just give you a very quick history lesson. The history lesson comes from the colonial armies when our country was founded.
#22 | 18:32 to 19:25 | cleaned
When we were fighting England, when the war began, say in 1775, there was only about 10 million in gold and silver and paper currencies in the colonies. Well, a war was beginning, and so everybody needed money. And so the continental currency came into existence. And so the continental government printed this paper money. Some of it was to be backed by gold, and some was to be backed by future taxation. By 1776 they had issued 25 million pieces of paper and of course it began to go down in value. Between 1776 and 1779 they issued 240 million pieces of paper. Now just remember there's only 10 million already in existence of gold and silver and paper money at that particular time. And so obviously then, the paper money kept going down, down, down in value.
#23 | 19:26 to 20:38 | cleaned
If you read the journals of the Continental Congress, it's almost like a satire or at least a tragedy. There were plenty of people who thought that the Continental currency would never ever lose its value, much like the Federal Reserve note today. They think, well, this is money, and we have it now, and we're always going to have this. This is always going to be money. Well, the continental currency is gone. A lot of currencies are gone, that is for sure. And then there were those who wanted legal tender laws, which would force people to take this money. And then there were others who were calling for a total end to the continental currency. Some of you have heard this expression, and you never have known where it came from. But have you ever heard something is not worth a continental? That's not talking about a Lincoln Continental, a car. It's talking about a continental currency. It's not worth a continental.
#24 | 20:39 to 21:46 | cleaned
In other words, the paper was absolutely, totally worthless. And the people began to use the continental currency, especially the soldiers, for sanitary purposes as well as lining their boots to keep the snow and the water out. The continental currency also became known as shin plasters because the soldiers would take the paper money and stick it to their shins where they had scrapes and cuts because that's all the money was good for.
#25 | 21:48 to 22:22 | cleaned
So obviously, it keeps going down and down. By the way, there are other expressions that are economic expressions as well. And we don't recognize these. It has been common in the South, probably elsewhere as well, but mainly in the South. You hear people say, well, it's not worth a damn. And, you know, everybody thinks that's a slang expression. It's an economic expression. You know where that expression came from? It came from two sources.
#26 | 22:23 to 23:01 | cleaned
Number one, in England, there were tinkers. And the tinkers would have these pots, of course, that had a little crack in them. And the tinkers would come in and put a little weld on the crack so they could keep using the pot. What some of the dishonest tinkers would do is take their pots and actually put mud on it and then just put a little coat of metal over that and it would stop the leak until the pot got heated up again and the clay dried out and cracked then it would start leaking. And so everybody would say it's not worth a tinker's dam and then they would say it's not worth a dam talking about damming the pot.
#27 | 23:01 to 23:42 | cleaned
But actually that expression came into our country from the Duke of Wellington in India, when the English were in India, the dam was the coin of least value in the Indian monetary system. It's like our penny. So when they would say it's not worth a dam, saying, essentially, it's not worth a cent. So originally, that was just simply an economic expression, just like it's not worth a continental.
#28 | 23:43 to 24:09 | cleaned
So obviously, to show you how worthless the continental became, in 1779, George Washington said that a wagon load of money will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions. In 1779, it took 17,000 pieces of continental currency to buy $100 worth of goods.
#29 | 24:09 to 24:30 | cleaned
So that just shows you how the currency just simply deteriorated. So we have to understand that obviously what happens then when the value of the money goes down, then prices rise. If you were to take the modern day equivalent of our money and apply it to what George Washington just said, and of course they say, the economists and historians tell us from 1776 to 1779 that corn and rye and beef spike by a factor of 24, labor by a factor of 18, hay by a factor of 10, shoes by a factor of 16.
#30 | 24:47 to 25:27 | cleaned
So they were saying that basically a loaf of bread would cost you 40 bucks, a box of cereal would cost you 100 bucks, and a gentleman's pair of shoes would cost you 1,600 bucks. That's how worthless the continental currency was. And by the way, I hope you know in Venezuela today, if you go to buy a dozen eggs in Venezuela, it's 140 bucks because they are falling to pieces. It's absolutely worthless.
#31 | 25:27 to 25:57 | cleaned
So I'm just simply pointing out the fact everything goes up because the value of the money goes down. And by May of 31st, 1781, the continental currency basically just simply died. And John Witherspoon, who was a Presbyterian pastor, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, talking about the worthlessness of the continental currency, said this, He said, for two or three years, we constantly saw and were informed of creditors running away from their debtors and the debtors pursuing them in triumph and paying them without mercy. They didn't want the money because it was worthless. He went on to say in Rhode Island, sources tell us creditors were leaping from rear windows out of their houses or hiding themselves in their attics in order to avoid debtors. Then he goes on to say this, the most vulnerable in society also felt its effects with widows and orphans finding the guardians of their trust funds paying them in currency that was worth a fraction of its face value. In other words, they got the money but it was worthless.
#32 | 25:57 to 27:22 | cleaned
So stop and think about this. You say, well, I have my social security. I have my retirement. I have my 401k. Well, guess what? Even if you get some of it, if the money's worthless, it doesn't mean one thing, because it's nothing but paper. And right now, it's not even on paper. Right now, it's usually electronic. Did you know, out of all the paper money in the world, if you want to call it money, out of all the paper notes in the world, only 3% is in paper. 97% of the so-called money in this world is electronic. Digits.
#33 | 27:23 to 28:05 | cleaned
That's why when the power goes out, the banks go down. You can't even walk in and cash a check. You can't do anything because everything is electronics. Pelatiah Webster said that when the continental currency died, he was so happy that that evil monster died without a groan.
#34 | 28:07 to 28:35 | cleaned
Now, don't you listen very carefully because Thomas Jefferson gave us some counsel. Here's what he said. I'm quoting. He said, I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.
#35 | 28:35 to 29:21 | cleaned
Now, you're going to say that some of this stuff cannot happen in our country today. It is already happening. You just don't see it. And it's not on the news because they're not going to tell you about it. But you know that Germany went through what is known as a hyperinflation from 1921 to 1923. If you will just get on the computer and you look up hyperinflation in Germany in 1923, you will see pictures of people wallpapering their walls with money. You will see children playing with stacks of money, making building blocks out of them. You will see people starting fires with money, paper money, because it's worthless. One of my favorite stories is about the German lady who was on her way to the market with a barrel, a wheelbarrow full of German marks, paper money on her way to the market to buy a loaf of bread. On the way to the market, there was a fight. A lot of people standing around watching the fight. She put her wheelbarrow down and she kind of did like this and pushed aside so she could see who was fighting.
#36 | 29:23 to 30:40 | cleaned
When her curiosity was satisfied, she turned around and someone had dumped her money out and stole the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was worth more than the money.
#37 | 30:42 to 30:51 | cleaned
Now, the interesting thing is this. Even sailors, a lot of times when they would return, were paid with this worthless paper money, which they couldn't do anything with it. So some of them would take it to the tailor shop and have the tailor make them paper money suits. And then they would just wear the paper money suits downtown and flaunt their riches, which were absolutely worthless. So when you talk about hyperinflation, that is the terminal stage that fiat money reaches. Fiat money is money that is created out of thin air. It's money that's created absolutely out of nothing. Paper money is fiat money. In fact, when you stop and think about it, it doesn't even have to be paper to be fiat money.
#38 | 30:57 to 32:00 | cleaned
It can be electronic digits. Do you realize that out of every fiat currency that has failed in every nation in the last 300 years, it's been replaced by gold. When the Constitutional Convention met, one of the things that had to be discussed was money. And so here was a proposal under consideration. Listen, the legislature of the United States shall have power to coin money, to regulate the value of foreign coin, to borrow money and emit bills on the credit of the United States.
#39 | 32:00 to 32:49 | cleaned
So now there is a debate that ensues. James Madison, who's the secretary of the Constitutional Convention, he recorded all of this. Gouverneur Morris, and that was not a position, that was his first name, Gouverneur Morris from Pennsylvania moved to strike out and emit bills of credit on the United States. He went on to say if the United States had credit, such bills would be unnecessary. If they had not credit, it'd be unjust and useless.
#40 | 32:50 to 33:19 | cleaned
Pierce Butler of South Carolina seconded the motion. Later, he remarked that paper was a legal tender in no country in Europe at that time. Every country in Europe at that time used silver and gold. James Mason of Virginia had a mortal hatred of paper money. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut thought it was a favorable moment to shut the door permanently against paper money. He went on to say, paper money can in no case be necessary.
#41 | 33:20 to 33:49 | cleaned
Give the government credit and other resources will offer. The power may do harm, never good. James Wilson, another founding father, said he will have a most salutary influence on the credit of the United States to remove the possibility of paper money. George Read of Delaware thought the words, if not struck out, could be as alarming as the mark of the beast in Revelation. And John Langdon of New Hampshire had rather reject the entire Constitution than to have the words and emit bills. There were two men that were responsible for the hard money clause in the Constitution. Roger Sherman and John Witherspoon. Roger Sherman was an attorney. He was a statesman. Roger Sherman is the only man that signed all four documents in the founding of this country. He signed a document of the Continental Congress. He signed the Articles of Confederation. He also signed the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Constitution. But Roger Sherman wrote a book, it's still available today, A Caveat Against Injustice. And this book is basically against paper money.
#42 | 33:49 to 35:12 | cleaned
So John Witherspoon was the Presbyterian pastor, also professor, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And these two men had this put in the Constitution. Listen carefully. You can read it, Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. Listen. The Congress shall have power to coin money, and to regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and to fix the standards of weights and measures. Congress does not have the power to print money according to the Constitution. It has the power to coin money because the founding fathers knew what they just went through. And listen to this. Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution says this: No state shall coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. No state. So the Constitution says, just like the Bible, that real money is gold and silver.
#43 | 35:13 to 36:28 | cleaned
Now, I hope you're beginning to ask yourself this. If the Bible says that gold and silver are money, if the Constitution says that gold and silver are money, why in the world do we not have gold and silver? Why do we not have lawful money? Why do we have paper money? Why do we have fiat money? You see, we've been so used to this, we tend to think this is money.
#44 | 36:28 to 36:53 | cleaned
Let me tell you what happened to me. I was preaching in Canada, and I had some of my books, and people wanted to buy the books. And I would sell them and tell them how much the books were. And they would pay me in Canadian paper money. I don't know if you've ever seen Canadian paper money or not. But it's about the same size, just a tad larger, and different colors, just like Monopoly money. And when they put that Canadian paper money in my hand, the strangest sensation went over me like what a fool I am to give my hard earned work for something that looks like monopoly money. I'm just simply saying we don't understand.
#45 | 36:54 to 38:01 | cleaned
Ludwig von Mises, who is really one of the fathers of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises said, government is the only agency that can take a valuable commodity like paper, slap some ink on it, and make it totally worthless. So let me ask you this question while I'm on the subject. I said earlier, this is not a dollar. It's not $5. It's not $1. It's not $10. It's not $20, although it has that on it.
#46 | 38:02 to 38:42 | cleaned
And I can prove that to you. Because you see, according to the Coinage Act of 1792, which has never been repealed, a dollar is a unit of measure. It's like a quart, or a gallon, or an inch, or a foot. A dollar is a unit of measurement. In fact, the money of the United States is to be expressed in dollars. It is a unit of measurement. Most people say, most historians say that our English word dollar actually came from Count Schlick, who began minting coins in 1519 in Joachimsthal, Bavaria. The coins were called schlickenthalers, later thalers, and then dollars. But it came from a silver coin in 1519. Merrill Jenkins wrote in his book, What is a Dollar of Money? And he wrote this, What is a dollar of money? In the Coinage Act of 1792, it states that the money of account shall be expressed in dollars. The term dollar is a unit of measurement just like a quart or an inch. In and of itself, a unit of measurement represents nothing. In the Coinage Act of 1792, a dollar measure of gold was a certain number of grams of .999 gold while a dollar measure of silver was a certain number of grams of .99 silver.
#47 | 38:43 to 40:31 | cleaned
A silver dollar should have been expressed as a dollar quantity of silver. A dollar of gold would be expressed as a dollar quantity of gold. He said you would never go to a supermarket and say you want a quart, or you want a gallon, you have to express a quart of what or a gallon of what? Because a quart is just a unit of measurement. A gallon is just a unit of measurement. A dollar is just a unit of measurement.
#48 | 40:31 to 41:05 | cleaned
When Alexander Hamilton wrote the Coinage Act of 1792, he simply made into law, when Congress passed it, the market definition of a dollar. And the dollar at that time was the Spanish milled dollar of 371.25 grains of silver. That is the dollar that's mentioned in the Constitution. So a dollar, a silver dollar is 371.25 grains of silver. This definition of a dollar has never been changed. And it cannot be changed.
#49 | 41:05 to 41:43 | cleaned
You can't change a quart. You can't change a gallon. You can't change an inch. And so this has just basically never ever been changed at all. So why do we not have silver and gold as money? Why do we have legal tender laws instead? Why do you have something like this written on this bill that this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private. So I could come up to you to pay my bill.
#50 | 41:45 to 42:19 | cleaned
And you say, I don't want that. Well, I'm sorry. You either take it or the debt is paid. Because here's a law saying this is legal tender, you have to take it. I stopped at a filling station one night filled up with gas. And all I had was a $100 bill. I went in and gave the $100 bill to the cashier. He said, I'm sorry, we don't take $100 bills. I said, well, you're in trouble. Because I already have about $40 worth of gas in my car. And if you don't take this, then the only thing I can do is drive off. And when you call the cops, then what I'm going to say is, I offered to pay you, because it says right here, this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private. And if you don't take it, then that's your problem. He looked at me, he said, well, I don't know what I'm going to do.
#51 | 42:21 to 43:24 | cleaned
I said, do you have five 20s in that drawer? He said, I do. I said, give me the five 20s, I'll give you the $100 bill. He gave me the five 20s. I said, here's the 40. He was happy. I was happy. I mean, you know, yeah, I should have. But you know, it's just like I paid. I stopped and got gas at another station. I gave the lady 20 bucks. My bill was 16. She gave me back four ones.
#52 | 43:25 to 44:00 | cleaned
I looked at her and I said, something's wrong. She said, what's wrong? I said, well, I have your gas, and I now have four times as much paper as I had to begin with. I said, I've got more from you than the gas. She said but you gave me a 20. I said, oh, so it's the number that makes it valuable and not the paper. Is that it? What? Well, yeah, she said that's right. So I just took a one Federal Reserve note, wrote 20 on it, said I'd like change for this, please. She says I can't do that, you just put it on that. So what's the difference me putting on it and somebody else putting it on it? I said, the value does not come from the paper. It does not come from me. It does not come from the number.
#53 | 44:03 to 44:56 | cleaned
It comes from the confidence that people have in it. And when you begin to think this is not money, then you're not going to have very much confidence in it whatsoever. Well, do you realize that this country used to issue its own script, its own paper money? When Ben Franklin went to England, it was there that he was asked how the colonies were prospering so much. Here's what he said. This is simple. In the colonies, we issue our own paper money or our own money. It's called colonial script. We issue it in the proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry.
#54 | 44:56 to 45:44 | cleaned
to make the products pass easily from the producer to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to anyone.
#55 | 45:45 to 45:58 | cleaned
Now you stop and think about that. I'm going to make an application of that in just a moment. So instead of our colonial forefathers borrowing money from the Bank of England, they just printed their own. They didn't have to pay it back. They had to pay no one interest and they control the amount so that it was the way it should be in proper proportion. Although I hate to mention his name, but Abraham Lincoln printed greenbacks to carry on the war against the South without borrowing money from the banks. Which many speculate that's one reason he was assassinated. In the London Times of 1865.
#56 | 46:02 to 46:49 | cleaned
Here is the attitude of the European bankers. They said, and I'm quoting, if this mischievous financial policy, that is, printing your own money without borrowing from the banks, if this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its own money without cost, it will pay off debts and be without debt, it will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce, it will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America.
#57 | 46:52 to 47:29 | cleaned
That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." 1865. Salmon P. Chase, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, wrote an opinion in Knox v. Lee and he summed it up like this, the legal tender quality of money is only valuable for the purposes of dishonesty. So when there's a law that says you must take it, it's because it is dishonest money. Stephen T. Byington said no legal tender laws ever needed to make men take good money. Its only use is to make them take bad money. Kick it out.
#58 | 47:30 to 48:19 | cleaned
Let me read something to you that will shock you. Remember, this is in the Coinage Act of 1792. This act has never been repealed. It is still law. It is still on the books. And remember, gold and silver coins were money. Notice if you would, in the Coinage Act of 1792, if any of the gold or silver coins shall be debased, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of said offenses shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer death. Wow.
#59 | 48:21 to 49:06 | cleaned
Now, if you took this law and you made it applicable to the Federal Reserve banks and the politicians, it would not be too long before we would have some real lawful money back in circulation. Now, let me tell you where we are today. Everybody says, well, I pay my taxes to support the government so they can pay all these little programs that we've got going. And did you know there's not one penny of your taxes that go to support the government? Every penny that you pay goes to pay on the national debt. The government borrows everything that it wants. And let me just expose this little scam for you. Okay. You see, we could, if we wanted this country, paper money, we could print our own.
#60 | 49:09 to 50:21 | cleaned
But let's suppose that Congress now needs $10 million, which is a drop in the bucket. And I'm using the term dollars, they want 10 million Federal Reserve notes. So they will fix up a bond and give it to the Fed and say, there's our bond, we want 10 million bucks. And so the Federal Reserve then will contact the Treasury Department and say, we want 10 million bucks printed up. Now, let me tell you something, it costs a nickel or less than a nickel to print a $1 Federal Reserve note, $5 Federal Reserve note, whatever you want to call it, it's just a reserve. Or if you wanted to print a million, it doesn't cost anymore. You just add the zeros. So the Treasury then prints the money, sells it to the Federal Reserve at cost. The Federal Reserve then loans it to Congress at face value plus interest.
#61 | 50:24 to 51:39 | cleaned
Now, is that a neat little scam or what? See, this didn't come about until 1913. This whole national debt thing is built on fraud. It's pure fraud, plain and simple. So Merrill Jenkins again wrote in his book, he said this, The Greatest Hoax on Earth is the name of the book. He said, the writers of the constitution knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote in Article 1, Section 10, paragraph one, no state shall make anything but gold or silver coin a tender in payment of debts. People able to barter with gold and silver coin control government and are free. Loss of the right to trade in gold and silver coin enslaves people to the creators of psychological money. You see, if Congress had gold and silver, there's only a certain amount of gold and silver. You can only do so much. But when you can borrow without limit, there's no limit to what you can do until finally everything crashes.
#62 | 51:44 to 53:09 | cleaned
I want you to listen to this. Here is Robert H. Hemphill, the former credit manager for the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. Here's what he said. If the banks create synthetic money, ample synthetic money, we are prosperous. If not, we starve. We're absolutely without a permanent monetary system. When one gets a complete grasp of this picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is.
#63 | 53:09 to 53:43 | cleaned
It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless widely understood and the defect riveted soon. May I tell you something? It's not that it may collapse. It will collapse because you cannot flaunt your nose at God and thumb your nose at him and deny his law and deny his word and think that you're going to escape the judgment and the wrath of God.
#64 | 53:44 to 54:16 | cleaned
If you will look in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 1, I want you to notice this. Isaiah chapter 1, notice if you would please verse 22. Because God hates fraud. God hates anything that is debased. Look at it. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 22. Here's what God says. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. You mix dross with silver, and you do not have an honest silver round. You mix wine with water, and you do not have real wine. You have watered-down wine. This is a debasing, and God says that He condemns this debasement. Now, coins may be debased as well.
#65 | 54:18 to 55:04 | cleaned
In fact, many of you will remember Henry VIII, who was the king of England. One of his nicknames was Old Coppernose. And the way he got that nickname was he had a coin that was made of copper, and then he put a thin coating of gold over it and tried to pass it off as a gold coin. Well, people took it, they'd have it in their pocket, and they'd reach out and pick it up and hand it out. And of course, that little thin layer of gold would come off right in the middle of the coin, right where his nose was. And it would expose the copper, and thus he was called Old Copper Nose.
#66 | 55:05 to 55:42 | cleaned
because he literally debased the coins. Have you noticed that your coins have ridges around them? If you were to pick up in your pocket a quarter, 50 cent piece, they have ridges around. The reason being is when gold coins and silver coins began to be minted, if it was one ounce of gold or one ounce of silver, then some people would get that, they would take a sharp knife and they would have a little tray under there and they would just shave the edges of that coin and get just a few grains of that gold or a few grains of that silver. And they'd keep doing that to every coin that they got and they'd be passing it off then as one real ounce when it's not a real ounce anymore. And they kept doing that until they got enough to have another coin. And so they began to put ridges on those coins so that everybody could see that the coins were not clipped, that they were there in full value. And you had a real ounce of silver or a real ounce of gold.
#67 | 55:44 to 56:50 | cleaned
Now, you can take a silver coin, you can take a silver quarter from 1963, and you can take a quarter today. You can drop them both on this wooden pulpit. They're going to make different sounds. Because the quarter in 1963 had 90% silver in it. The one today has absolutely nothing in it. Now, you can debase a coin, that is true. But it's much easier to debase paper. In fact, you can't see your paper being debased. You can see your coin being trimmed. Or you could see the gold or the silver coming off. But you cannot see the paper being debased.
#68 | 56:51 to 57:41 | cleaned
That's why some of these millionaires in 1929 went to bed millionaires and they woke up the next morning paupers and they were jumping out of the windows. Committing suicide. Because all their money was gone. Are you listening to me? It is the Federal Reserve and the federal government that make inflation. And when the Federal Reserve tries to tell you, we're trying to control inflation, they're not controlling inflation, they cannot possibly control inflation.
#69 | 57:42 to 58:22 | cleaned
So if you have 500 billion paper notes in circulation, and the Fed then prints another five hundred billion and puts them in circulation, in theory the money supply has increased by one hundred percent. That means the existing currency that existed previously is now cut in half. It is only worth fifty percent of what it was before. So the more money, the more paper they print, the lower the value of the money that you have. So inflation is a decrease in the purchasing power of the money caused by an increase of the money supply. And the more paper they print, the more worthless the paper that you have becomes.
#70 | 58:22 to 59:12 | cleaned
Now, if you don't believe me, here's a quote from the United States Bureau of Engraving in their booklet, Government Securities. And here is what it says. The Bureau prints approximately 16 million notes each day. The Bureau has the power to create money in almost any amount of it. The only limiting factors are the speed of the presses and the public's willingness to accept it. 16 million notes a day. And they could put 50,000, 5 million, 5 trillion, whatever they want on it.
#71 | 59:13 to 59:57 | cleaned
Do you understand what is happening? When I was a boy, I could buy a gallon of gas for a quarter. I can still today buy a gallon of gas for a quarter. You say, oh, come on. It's 2.50 down the road. I saw it. A 1963 quarter. 90% silver. Because it's worth five or six bucks, five or six Federal Reserve notes. So, it is not that the price of gas has gone up, it is the value of the money that has gone down. Do you realize, in 1929, you could buy a brand new car for a thousand bucks. Actually less, a brand new car for 1000 bucks, usually 600, 800, something like that. I can still today buy a brand new car for 1000 bucks, or $1,000 I should say. How can I buy a brand new car today for $1,000? $1,000 in gold, because $1,000 in gold is equal to 30 and 40,000 Federal Reserve notes.
#72 | 1:00:05 to 1:01:23 | cleaned
So it's not again that the price has gone up, it's the value of your money has gone down. And it continues to go down, down, down, down. Let me give you just a couple of examples. Anybody can do this. All you have to do is go to your computer, and when you get your search engine, you type in inflation calculator. In 1900, if you had $1,000, because it was backed by gold back then, if you had $1,000, you could buy $1,000 worth of goods. Today, in 2016, now they hadn't calculated for 2017 yet, but in 2016, it would take $29,245.18 to buy today what you could buy with $1,000 in 1900. Listen to this one. In 1913, that's the year the Federal Reserve came into existence, $1,000 then would buy $1,000 worth of goods. Today in 2017, you would take $24,699.39 to buy the same amount of goods. In 1963, in 1963, you could buy $1,000 worth of goods. Today, or at least last year in 2016, it would take $7,966.93 to buy the same amount that you could buy for $1,000.
#73 | 1:01:32 to 1:03:06 | cleaned
in 1963. I told Cora today, when Alice and I got married 54 years ago, I used to give her 10 bucks a week to buy groceries. I'd kind of fuss at her a little bit if she didn't bring two or three of it back. We would buy enough groceries, bread, meat, milk, everything we needed for a week on six or seven bucks. You can't even walk out of Walmart with less than 200 and it lasts a week today.
#74 | 1:03:26 to 1:04:02 | cleaned
Can you imagine why we're in so much trouble now? Thomas Jefferson said, I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution taken from the federal government, their power of borrowing. Why do we not have silver and gold? Because it can be easily stolen from us through paper and it cannot be easily stolen through silver and gold. I want to end with one illustration. I want to ask you a question. You figure this out. Here's my question. Who stole your money? This little piece of paper says $20. Did you know a Saint-Gaudens $20 gold piece that was minted from 1907 to 1933 was equivalent to a piece of paper that said 20 bucks. In 1933, or 1930, anytime from 1907 to 1933, I could take this $20 bill, go to the bank, hand it to them, I'd like a $20 gold piece. They'd hand me a $20 gold piece, they'd take the because it was backed by silver and backed by gold. And you could just swap it back and forth whichever you want.
#75 | 1:04:09 to 1:06:05 | cleaned
Now, you go to the bank today, and you hand them this and you say, I want a $20 gold piece. You know, they're gonna call the cops on you. Because you've escaped from some mental institution for sure. If you think you can swap this for a $20 gold piece, because a $20 gold piece, even just a regular one, one that's not in mint condition, just a regular $20 gold piece would sell for at least $1,300. So in 1930, you could take this, trade it for a $20 gold piece. You could take a $20 gold piece, get this, just swap them back and forth, it didn't matter. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a $20 bill. That's what it says. It's not. You take this 20 Federal Reserve note bill and put some gas in your car and see how far you get on it. You take a $20 Double Eagle gold piece and just keep yes in your car. And you can drive back and forth from here to California three or four times.
#76 | 1:06:07 to 1:07:39 | cleaned
But only $20 quote unquote Federal Reserve note, you can't get out of the state of Kentucky. So who stole your money? Why is this not worth 1300 bucks? When the Double Eagle is worth 20, what was worth 1300 bucks and it's nothing but a $20 gold piece. Somebody stole your money. Who stole your money? Here's what I want you to see folks. I want you to see from the Bible. Gold and silver are money. From the Constitution, gold and silver are money. From history, gold and silver are money.
#77 | 1:07:40 to 1:08:27 | cleaned
Do you remember the battle between Mark Antony and Augustus Caesar? Mark Antony had teamed up with Cleopatra of Egypt. And Mark Antony was going to fight and rebel against Augustus Caesar. They had the far superior army. But the word got out. Augustus is paying in real gold. And all of those soldiers with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, most of them defected and went to Augustus. And Augustus wiped Mark Antony off the face of the earth. And Cleopatra killed herself. Why? Over gold, because gold is money.
#78 | 1:08:29 to 1:09:33 | cleaned
So Abraham said, if you want 400 shekels, I'll weigh it out. Here it is, honest money. Honest money. Which means that which is not, is dishonest. Let me tell you what you can do. You can take a million of these and stick them in the bank. Don't touch it. Come back next year. Take the million out. You still have a million. But it's gonna buy less next year than it will this year. You've lost money, even if you get paid interest with it in the bank, because the value of it keeps going down. Gold and silver are money.
#79 | 1:09:35 to 1:10:40 | cleaned
We need to be, as our Lord said, as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. If we're going to survive as a people, we need to understand money. You need to understand what is happening in this country, and you need to understand why we're in such trouble, why we're going to be in even worse trouble in the coming months and possibly the coming year, because we've thumbed our nose at God. God doesn't only demand a godly individual and a godly family and a godly church and a godly government. He also demands a godly economic system. So money, real money, silver and gold, goods, production equipment, things that you can work with, things that you can use.
#80 | 1:10:40 to 1:11:36 | cleaned
And one of these days, you're going to wake up and you're going to go to the store and they're going to say, don't hand me that stuff. I don't want it. What did the men say? The printing press, the only thing that stops us from printing more is the speed of the presses and the willingness of the people to take it. As long as you take it, they'll print it. And the more you take, the more worthless it becomes.
#81 | 1:11:39 to 1:12:14 | cleaned
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, teach us, help us, build us up in the most holy faith. Give us understanding. May we see how important this issue is, not only from the Bible, but from the Constitution and from history. Help us, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. In his name we ask. Amen.
#82 | 1:12:15 to 1:12:34 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T03:48:34Z

Biblical Money And Inflation

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver argues that true money, biblically and constitutionally, is gold and silver by weight, not paper Federal Reserve notes. He traces the history of fiat currency from the Continental to modern times, showing how inflation results from increasing the money supply, and warns that God demands an honest economic system.

Introduction and Text

Weaver introduces the topic of biblical money and inflation, reading Genesis 23:1-20 where Abraham purchases a field from Ephron with weighed silver.

What Is Money?

Weaver explains that most people do not know what money is, using a restaurant anecdote to illustrate confusion between money and Federal Reserve notes.

Biblical Principles of Money

From Genesis 23:16, Weaver identifies three truths: specie (gold/silver) is real money, money is by weight, and it must be current (honest) money.

Honest Weights and Measures

Deuteronomy 25:13-16 commands perfect and just weights; dishonest weights are an abomination. This is linked to promises of long life.

Historical Examples of Fiat Currency

Weaver recounts the Continental currency's collapse, German hyperinflation, and quotes from founders like Jefferson and Madison against paper money.

Constitutional and Legal Definitions

The U.S. Constitution authorizes coining money, not printing it; the Coinage Act of 1792 defines a dollar as a specific weight of silver, a unit of measure.

The Federal Reserve Scam

Weaver explains how the Federal Reserve creates money out of nothing, loans it to the government at interest, and causes inflation by expanding the money supply.

The Theft of Value

Using the example of a $20 gold piece vs. a $20 Federal Reserve note, Weaver illustrates how paper money has lost purchasing power over time.

Conclusion and Application

Weaver calls for wisdom, understanding of money, and a return to God's economic principles, warning of coming judgment for dishonest systems.

Biblical Money And Inflation

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	67172051235
Subject	Economics and Stewardship
Course	Debt, Money, and Stewardship
Genre	Sermon
Date	2017-06-07
Dictation Name
Book	Book 070: Debt, Money, and Stewardship — Chapter 5
Source Timed Segments	82

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Text: Weaver introduces the topic of biblical money and inflation, reading Genesis 23:1-20 where Abraham purchases a field from Ephron with weighed silver.
What Is Money?: Weaver explains that most people do not know what money is, using a restaurant anecdote to illustrate confusion between money and Federal Reserve notes.
Biblical Principles of Money: From Genesis 23:16, Weaver identifies three truths: specie (gold/silver) is real money, money is by weight, and it must be current (honest) money.
Honest Weights and Measures: Deuteronomy 25:13-16 commands perfect and just weights; dishonest weights are an abomination. This is linked to promises of long life.
Historical Examples of Fiat Currency: Weaver recounts the Continental currency's collapse, German hyperinflation, and quotes from founders like Jefferson and Madison against paper money.
Constitutional and Legal Definitions: The U.S. Constitution authorizes coining money, not printing it; the Coinage Act of 1792 defines a dollar as a specific weight of silver, a unit of measure.
The Federal Reserve Scam: Weaver explains how the Federal Reserve creates money out of nothing, loans it to the government at interest, and causes inflation by expanding the money supply.
The Theft of Value: Using the example of a $20 gold piece vs. a $20 Federal Reserve note, Weaver illustrates how paper money has lost purchasing power over time.
Conclusion and Application: Weaver calls for wisdom, understanding of money, and a return to God's economic principles, warning of coming judgment for dishonest systems.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Specie is the only biblical money

Gold and silver, weighed and current, are the only forms of money recognized in Scripture.

Genesis 23:16 describes Abraham weighing silver as 'current money with the merchant.'

Paper money is not money but an IOU

Federal Reserve notes are not money; they are notes (IOUs) that have no intrinsic value.

Weaver points out the bill says 'Federal Reserve Note' and explains a note is an IOU.

Inflation is caused by increasing the money supply

When more paper currency is printed, the value of existing currency decreases, causing prices to rise.

Weaver explains that doubling the money supply cuts the value of existing money in half.

The Constitution prohibits paper money

The founders intentionally excluded the power to emit bills of credit, limiting Congress to coin money.

Article 1, Section 8 gives power to coin money; Section 10 forbids states from making anything but gold and silver tender.

The Federal Reserve system is fraudulent

The Fed creates money at virtually no cost and loans it to the government at face value plus interest.

Weaver details the process: Treasury prints notes, sells to Fed at cost, Fed loans to Congress at interest.

Legal tender laws force acceptance of bad money

Legal tender laws are only needed to make people accept dishonest money; good money needs no such compulsion.

Weaver quotes Salmon P. Chase and Stephen T. Byington on the purpose of legal tender laws.

Gold and silver preserve wealth over time

While paper money loses purchasing power, gold and silver maintain their value across decades.

A 1963 silver quarter still buys a gallon of gas; a $20 gold piece is worth over $1,300 today.

God will judge dishonest economic systems

Nations that debase money and defraud people face divine judgment and collapse.

Isaiah 1:22 condemns debased silver; Weaver warns that collapse is certain for defying God's law.

Scripture References

Genesis 23:1-20: Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah from Ephron with 400 shekels of silver, weighed as current money.
Genesis 23:16: Abraham weighed the silver, current money with the merchant, illustrating biblical money as weighed specie.
Deuteronomy 25:13-16: God commands perfect and just weights and measures, promising long life for obedience.
Exodus 20:12: The first promise of long life: honor father and mother.
Ephesians 6:3: Repeats the promise of long life for honoring parents.
Deuteronomy 22:6-7: The second promise of long life: letting a mother bird go when taking young or eggs.
Genesis 13:2: Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold, showing silver and gold as wealth.
Isaiah 1:22: God condemns debased silver and watered-down wine as symbols of dishonesty.
Proverbs 12:10: A righteous man regards the life of his beast, cited in context of animal treatment and long life.

Historical References

Continental Currency (1775-1781): Paper money issued during the American Revolution became worthless; 'not worth a continental.'
German Hyperinflation (1921-1923): Paper marks became worthless; people used money as wallpaper or kindling.
Coinage Act of 1792: Defined the dollar as a specific weight of silver; debasing coins was a felony punishable by death.
Constitutional Convention Debates: Founders like Madison, Morris, and Sherman argued against paper money, leading to the hard money clause.
Federal Reserve Act of 1913: Created the Federal Reserve System, enabling the creation of fiat money and national debt.
Henry VIII 'Old Coppernose': Debased coins by coating copper with gold; the gold wore off, revealing copper on the nose.
Battle between Augustus Caesar and Mark Antony: Augustus paid soldiers in real gold, causing Mark Antony's troops to defect.
Abraham Lincoln's Greenbacks: Lincoln printed greenbacks to finance the Civil War without borrowing from banks, possibly leading to his assassination.
London Times 1865: European bankers warned that if the U.S. printed its own money, it would destroy monarchies.
Venezuela Hyperinflation: Modern example of currency collapse; a dozen eggs costs 140 bucks.

Important Quotes

Let me issue and control the nation's money supply and I care not who makes the laws.

Attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild, illustrating the power of controlling money.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

Thomas Jefferson's warning about the danger of private banks controlling currency.

The legal tender quality of money is only valuable for the purposes of dishonesty.

Salmon P. Chase's opinion that legal tender laws enable dishonest money.

No legal tender laws ever needed to make men take good money. Its only use is to make them take bad money.

Stephen T. Byington's observation on the purpose of legal tender laws.

The Bureau prints approximately 16 million notes each day. The Bureau has the power to create money in almost any amount of it. The only limiting factors are the speed of the presses and the public's willingness to accept it.

U.S. Bureau of Engraving admission of unlimited money creation.

Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.

Isaiah 1:22, used to show God's condemnation of debased money.

If the banks create synthetic money, ample synthetic money, we are prosperous. If not, we starve.

Robert H. Hemphill of the Atlanta Fed describing the absurdity of the monetary system.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

According to Genesis 23:16, what are the three characteristics of biblical money?

[Context]

Weaver highlights that money is specie (gold/silver), by weight, and current (honest).

[Question]

Why does God command perfect and just weights and measures, and what promise is attached?

[Context]

Deuteronomy 25:13-16 links honest economics with long life.

[Question]

How does the history of the Continental currency illustrate the dangers of fiat money?

[Context]

Weaver describes its worthlessness and the phrase 'not worth a continental.'

[Question]

What did the founders intend by giving Congress power to 'coin money' rather than 'print money'?

[Context]

The Constitutional Convention debates show a deliberate rejection of paper money.

[Question]

How does the Federal Reserve system create money and contribute to inflation?

[Context]

Weaver explains the process of printing notes and loaning them at interest.

[Question]

Why are legal tender laws necessary for paper money but not for gold and silver?

[Context]

Quotes from Chase and Byington argue legal tender is for dishonest money.

[Question]

How does the example of the $20 gold piece versus the $20 Federal Reserve note demonstrate the theft of purchasing power?

[Context]

Weaver contrasts their values to show how paper money has lost value.

[Question]

What does Isaiah 1:22 teach about God's view of debased money?

[Context]

God condemns silver become dross as a symbol of dishonesty.

Applications

Format deepseek deepseek-v4-pro structured study JSON | Source Commentary.net transcript enrichment

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T16:28:14Z