Such a Time as This

Above is a video of a Bible study recorded by the adult minister at my church.  I think it is a good compliment to what I have to say.

You may have heard that a few weeks ago that the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates to almost zero.  This was so that the Federal Government could borrow money at lower interest to pay for an anticipated stimulus package to give everybody $1200 and to bail out businesses.  Now they’re talking about another round of stimulus, which will mean more borrowing and more National debt.  The Fed does not have any money, they just create it out of nothing when they loan it.  The result will be that the value of the dollar will go down and prices will go up.  The President, the Congress, and the Fed can create dollars out of thin air, but they can’t create wealth and prosperity.

Many people are buying non-perishable items in large quantities because of this.  Others are doing it out fear that the items (like toilet paper) will become unavailable. Others are buying precious metals or stocks because they are cheaper at the moment and they anticipate that their resale value in dollars will be higher as a result of the inevitable inflation.  These investors are expecting that the economy will recover, but if it doesn’t, then it won’t be good investment.  How do they know that COVID-19 won’t keep coming back year after year like flu?  Maybe there will be a long-term effective vaccine.  Maybe there will not be one.  In that case, food, medicines and necessities will be of great value, but gold, stocks, and dollars will be of no use.  Revelation 18:17 (ESV) says, “For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste."

From a selfish, atheistic point of view, the best thing for you to do is buy non-perishable necessities as you can for yourself while the price is still low.  But if God exists, if He is in control of everything, and if there is a Day of Judgment coming, then your paradigm should be much different.   That being the case, you should be thinking about using your resources as wisely as you can, but not primarily for your own personal preservation, but for the good of your community and especially in regards to saving their eternal souls through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Real Reason Why Gas Prices are High

I wrote this letter to WAKW my local Christian radio station:

Dear Sir,

This morning, one of the DJs (Kurt Wallace) posed the question, why have gas prices gone up so sharply? I was driving to work at the time, so I couldn’t call in. I tried when I got to work, but there was no answer. One caller called in and said that the reason was that OPEC cut production. This may be the reason for the recent hikes, but Kurt also mentioned that the last time oil was at $100/barrel, gas was only $3.00/gallon. The fact that OPEC cut production doesn’t explain this, because if this was the real reason, then oil would be priced much higher than $100/barrel now. This could be explained by the fact that there are fewer refineries, but I have an alternative, more fundamental reason that most people aren’t aware of.

The amount of money that the federal government takes in taxes (including income, estate, excise, gas, and tariffs) is not nearly enough to pay for all of what the federal government spends. It borrows massive amounts of money from anyone who loan it (private citizens, corporations, Saudi Arabia, China, etc.). Even after taking on all this debt (which is $9.5 trillion and counting), they still fall over a $1 trillion short every year. To pay for all these expenses, they simply create new money to pay for it. This devalues the dollar, which in turn causes inflation. This increases the cost of both the oil and the cost of refining it.

The federal government spends massive amounts of money on:

the Center For Disease Control, educational grants, the FDA, FEMA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Department of Energy, the redundant Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education (so that they can figure out what is the best way to teach our children how we evolved from slime and what is the safest way to fornicate themselves)… etc, farm subsidies, oil subsidies, and healthcare subsidies (some of this money goes to Planned Parenthood)…etc.

They are also spending massive amounts of money on:

the trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 767 overseas military bases, border security on the Iraq/Syria border, border security on the Iraq/Iran border, border security on the South Korea/North Korea border (while our own border security suffers), weapons for Israel, weapons for enemies of Israel, and tons of other international aid/interventions.

So when you pay higher gas prices (or higher prices on anything else), remember that these are things you are paying for. When planning your family’s budget, you need to factor in what the federal government is spending as well as your own expenses. Whether they raise your taxes or devalue the dollar, you always have to pay every penny of it.

Sincerely,

Matthew Miller