The Many. The Humbled. The Unemployed.

(by blogger Paul Angone)

For a long time, I was an Unemployed. I won't say exactly how long I was such; just that it was longer than William Henry Harrison's term as President and shorter than James Garfield's. (Thank you Wikipedia.)

One day you're confidently standing on - the next, you're laid off. Your obvious expendability, slightly humbling. Like not playing in the playoff game and your team still winning 54 to 7 without you.

But hey, us Unemployed, we didn't like our job that much anyway, right? Yes, maybe being an Unemployed is one of those blessings in disguise, an open window next to a closed door, a glass of lemonade produced from our severance package of sour lemons. Maybe we've been given exactly what we've prayed for all along – our life back!

Time, truly, is now on our side. We can wake up at 10:45 AM and stay in our pajamas until 1:00 PM, calling all our cubicle-confined-friends to let them know of this eating-Captain-Crunch fact. We can exercise at 2:30 PM at the gym; every machine usually occupied by the sweaty, after-work-mob, now waiting for us with pristine, open arms. We can eat First Dinner at 4:30 PM, then Second Dinner at 7:00. Go to bed at 9:00 PM or 2:30 AM, it doesn't matter. We are our boss! Sure we don't pay well, but we have our freedom.

Now we have time to finish all those projects – clean out the garage, finish that scrapbook, and finally write that article for our favorite website.

Better yet, we can even start constructing that novel, hammer out that business plan, or find that lead guitar player for our band.

Yes, maybe this unfortunate termination is going to be an unfortunate, fortunate. Maybe God does have his hand on this, working all things out for good like we've been promised. Years from now we'll look back at this time in our lives and say, (on our interview with Jay Leno, after our book/band goes international) "You know Jay, it's funny. Life really began the day I got laid off."

But if there's a "heads" on one side, there's a "tail" on the other. And unfortunately around the month-unemployed, still-can't-find-a job anniversary, the tail hits a growth spurt.

First, there's no denying that your bank account has taken quite ill. First Dinner – now consists of chicken, Second Dinner – shrimp. Not these actual meats mind you, but broth-flavors for your bowl of Top Ramen.

Then your ad on Craigslist for a guitar player only gets two responses. One from a thirteen year old who plays the violin in his music class, Tuesday and Thursday. The second from a guy named Rosco, who doesn't seem to really play any instrument whatsoever, but desperately wants to meet in person to "figure it out from there." Umm…

Then someone asks you for the 49^th time, "Soooo…what do you do for a living," making sure to ask just loud enough for everyone to hear. A question which makes you grimace, forcing you to put on that conversational magic show once again as you attempt to pull a rabbit out of your hat that died two weeks ago.

Now it's 2:30 PM. On a Tuesday. You're prostrate on the couch, watching that Saved by the Bell DVD set you secretly own, getting angrier with every episode because how can Screech be on television for ten years and I can't even get hired at Starbucks!!! Where's that bottle of wine! (I might be speaking from experience here.)

Yes, being an Unemployed begins losing its luster, the shine turning quite dull. You can never truly relax, because you don't feel like you've ever done anything worth relaxing from. Discouragement, Depression, and Despair begin silently following you around like three sick dogs, jumping on your lap whenever you sit down.

"God, why have you forsaken me? You saved the lepers, tax collectors, and prostitutes. Now please God, save me – an Unemployed!"

However, after watching Disc Four of my Saved by the Bell set, I decided to open my Bible and stumbled upon this verse:

"Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us" (Romans 5:4-5).

This verse starts with "suffering," and funny enough, suffering can actually mean suffering. And I guess every step from suffering to perseverance to character to hope is not a Sunday stroll through the park. Perseverance is doggedness. It's a steadfast and long-continued application, action, and belief in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and discouragement. It's continuing forward, one simple step after another, with shoes smothered in drying cement.

Why in the world did I think the reality of this verse was going to be easy? Why did I think people would lavish praise on me throughout the job-searching process, as I took one gritty, unglamorous step after another? I forgot that we praise perseverance only after someone has completely and officially persevered.

I need to keep moving forward, get creative, and look for ways that God is changing my course. Perseverance doesn't necessarily mean continually running head first into that brick wall, if there's a half-open door to the right. Perseverance means an unwillingness to not hope. To refuse disbelief. Perseverance is an all-consuming trust that God is working out everything for our good. Even when it feels quite the opposite.

Maybe you're not even unemployed. With so much shifting around us – in the church, the nation, our world, you don't have to be unemployed to be suffering. But in this time of 7.5-Richter-scale-shaking, let us hold tight to Hope. (And by that I don't mean bear-hugging Obama. Secret Service doesn't like that.)

No, let us cling to our ultimate Hope. Let us remember that the "testing of our faith is developing perseverance" and becoming faitheverance – forming something within us that is forever indispensable.

God, grant us all – Unemployed and not, the strength to move forward in Faitheverance.

Even in these times of doubt, let us be obsessed with Hope.

God save us: the Many, the Humbled, the Unemployed.

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Debt-free Money

The Constitution of the USA demands that money must be printed and issued by the government debt-free and interest-free.

The first American colonists had practiced this system and made it legal. They had no tax-collecting machinery; they printed paper money to pay for public works. They established a government that rejected direct taxation and financed the building and maintenance of schools, hospitals, roads and ports, as well as all other government expenditure, with freshly printed paper money. By experience they found that it was not possible to issue unlimited quantities of paper money; that the purchasing power of this money depended on supply and demand.

To maintain stable prices and full employment, and create prosperity for all who performed some useful work, they had to ensure that the paper money in circulation did not exceed in value the goods and services offered for sale. They found that too much paper money caused prices to rise, caused inflation. In this case the further printing of money must be suspended.

On the other hand, prices fell when too little paper money was put into circulation, so more money must be issued to avoid deflation. All the American colonies which observed this simple rule became prosperous in a very short time, enjoyed stable prices for their products and had no unemployment problems.

However, this honest, straightforward monetary system was not to the liking of some European financiers who were determined to impose the dishonest system that had already prevailed all over Europe for 200 years.

On 22^nd December 1913, in flagrant violation of the American Constitution, they succeeded by deception, bribery or blackmail in persuading the American Government to hand over the right of printing and issuing money to their private institution: The Federal Reserve Bank. Since then, whenever the government has needed additional money not covered by taxes, it is no longer allowed to issue it debt-free and interest-free and use it for public expenditure, but is forced to borrow it from banks in exchange for Bonds on which taxpayers must pay interest in perpetuity. The Federal Reserve Bank pays for these Bonds with freshly printed dollar banknotes. In this round-about way the American Government is made to pay interest when borrowing its own money!

The banknotes printed by the Federal Reserve are really government property because the American Constitution does not allow a private bank to print and issue dollar banknotes; they may be printed only for the account of the American Government and are therefore government property.

Then the Federal Reserve has the audacity to resell these Bonds to anyone who will buy them at interest which turns out to be mainly foreign governments. In the present day, China and Japan have bought a large share of these Bonds.

Besides, on 22^nd December 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank contracted that every banknote printed and issued by them would be redeemable in gold or silver. If this redeemability was abrogated the contract fell away, the right to issue dollar notes became null and void; this would make the owners of the Federal Reserve counterfeiters.

In addition, Americans have been made to believe that the Federal Reserve is not a private bank but a government institution, and that the money printed and issued by the Federal Reserve is government property.

Very little is known of how some unidentified financiers, 300 years ago, succeeded in persuading the rulers of Europe to hand over to them their prerogative of issuing money; it has been kept secret. All we know is that Holland was the first country on the European continent to be tricked into accepting the Bankers' chains. That is why the system of making debts and paying interest is often called "Dutch Finance".

By misnaming their private bank "The Federal Reserve Bank of the US", these financiers created the impression that it was a government institution and that the money they printed was government property. This was the reason why so few citizens came to the Federal Reserve to exchange their paper banknotes for gold. Everyone had full confidence and believed that it would always, without fail, exchange all paper banknotes for gold. And so these financiers were able to print and issue millions of paper banknotes without any gold cover which they lent out at interest like real money.

But in 1932, under Franklin Roosevelt, even this unreal gold standard was lifted and the Federal Reserve was no longer required to back up Bonds with gold.

From time to time there have been people who investigated our money system and had the courage to expose its phoniness. Exposure had no effect because our government, which had the power to bring about change, simply ignored it or, supported by the Media, ridiculed and defamed potential liberators or destroyed them.

Here is the story of what happened to one of them, Louis T. McFadden, for 12 years Chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee of the House of Representatives. McFadden, after thoroughly investigating the American money system, on 13^th January 1932, addressed Congress in the following fashion: "We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks. Many people think that they are United States Government institutions but they are not. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the US for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers, foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers, and rich and predatory money lenders. On account of the Federal Reserve's operations we ourselves are in the midst of the greatest depression we have ever known. From the Atlantic to the Pacific our country has been ravaged and laid waste by the evil practices of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Banks. At no time in our history has the general welfare of the people of the US been of a lower level or the mind of the people so filled with despair. Recently in one of our states 60,000 dwelling houses and farms were brought under the hammer in a single day; 71,000 houses and farms in Oakland County, Michigan, have been sold and their erstwhile owners dispossessed. Every effort has been made by the Federal Reserve Board to conceal its powers but the truth is that the Federal Reserve Board has usurped the government of the United States. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will. The member banks of the Federal Reserve were deceitfully and disloyally foisted upon this country by the bankers who came here from Europe and repaid us our hospitality by undermining our American institutions."

With this speech McFadden established himself as a potential liberator from the Bankers' chains. He clearly realized:

>> that the terrible depression had been created artificially by the Federal Reserve and its member banks;

>> that it was a gigantic attempt to destroy the middle-class society, not only in the US but worldwide, by deflation;

>> that the depression could be cured overnight by doing away with the Federal Reserve and its 12 member banks, which had created the depression by withdrawing 8 billion dollars from circulation;

>> that all members of the American government were nothing but loyal, well-paid clerks of the stockholders of the Federal Reserve.

If in 1932 America had done away with the Federal Reserve and put back the 8 billion dollars into circulation, the Great Depression would have vanished like magic and World War II would probably never have taken place. What happened next?

On two occasions gunmen made attempts on McFadden's life. He was preparing to break the full story when he collapsed at a banquet and died. It is highly suspected that he was poisoned. Men who oppose Superbankers are not blessed with a long life; their presence in paradise is usually urgently required.

Our history books hide the fact that the American War of Independence was instigated by the stockholders of the "Bank of England" – another non-governmental private banking institution. They denied the colonists the right to print and issue their own money. When the owners of the Bank of England became aware of the very successful aforementioned money system of the colonists, they pressured the English government and in 1764 the English Parliament declared the American banknotes illegal and forbade the further printing and issuing of banknotes by the settlers. Their former prosperity in ruins, the Americans felt they could not put up with such glaring injustice any longer and revolted.

Our governments are assisted by all kinds of "scientific" advisers, But these advisers seem to hold their jobs because they are prepared to support any ties the Bankers may invent to advance there aims even if well-established facts contradict them. These advisers try to cure inflation with high interest rates and depressions. And they try to cure depressions with lower interest rates and big government spending.

Both inflation and depression could be permanently cured almost overnight simply by replacing our dishonest monetary system with the honest one of the first American settlers.

In practical terms this means we must at once begin to print and issue, debt-free and interest-free, NEW banknotes redeemable in gold and exchange them for unredeemable ones at the rate of 10, 20, 100 or 1,000 unredeemable ones for ONE redeemable one – according to how many unredeemable ones are then in existence and according to the then ruling price of gold. In addition we must force the still unknown stockholders of our Federal Reserve to pay back in gold at least a portion of the billions of profit realized by defrauding us and demand that they also pay the arrears of income tax on the fortunes they have made by creating money out of paper.

If ever we are no longer ruled by the supreme masters in the art of lying and deceiving we can discard the gold cover. Hitler, with all of his faults, had no gold when he established an honest monetary system, but for every mark he printed and issued, he required an equivalent of a mark's worth of work done or goods produced. This is why the Superbankers saw Hitler's stable currency as a giant threat to them.

In conclusion, can we ever bring our country back under an honest money system which our early settlers prospered with? The Federal Reserve System seems like a giant snowball rolling down a steep hill – possibly unstoppable. But we have been established as a government "of the people, by the people and for the people". Can the PEOPLE overcome the present devious banking system and gain back the freedom they so richly deserve??

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Fulfilled Prophecy

Visions and prophecy seem to hold an irresistible attraction for people. The movie "2012" just came out on DVD and is being rented and bought in massive numbers.

The movie uses Mayan and Aztec predictions that the end of the world would come on December 21, 2012. The special effects are spectacular. Hollywood productions often use prophecy as their main themes and plot points.

Unlike Hollywood plots, biblical prophets accurately predicted hundreds of specific events – sometimes in detail – many years, or even many centuries, before their occurrence. Not only were these biblical predictions comprehensive and far-reaching, they were largely independent of each other – making their precise fulfillment all the more astounding. This is good evidence for the supernatural accuracy and authority of the Bible. Here are just a few examples:

>> Some time before 500 BC, Daniel predicted the date of Jesus' public ministry. He further predicted that the Messiah would be killed and that his death would take place before Jerusalem was destroyed for a second time (Daniel 9:25-26).

>> Around 700 BC, Micah named a particular town, Bethlehem, as the Savior's birthplace (Micah 5:2).

>> In the fifth century BC, Zechariah said the Messiah would be betrayed for the price of a slave, specifically 30 pieces of silver (according to Jewish law) and that this money would be used to buy burial ground for poor foreigners (Zechariah 11:12-13).

>> Both King David and Zechariah predicted the Messiah's manner of execution roughly 400 years before crucifixion was invented. Furthermore, they said the Lord's body would be pierced but his bones, unbroken (Psalm 22, 34:20; Zechariah 12:10).

>> Isaiah foretold Cyrus by name more than a century before his birth and of his triumph over Babylon, Egypt, and many other nations, plus the decision to allow the Jewish exiles to return home without ransom (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1, 13).

>> Both Jeremiah and Isaiah prophesied Babylon's demise (Isaiah 13:17-22; Jeremiah 51:26, 43).

>> Jeremiah claimed the then-fertile land of Edom (part of present-day Jordan) would one day become a barren wasteland (Jeremiah 49:15-20).

>> Some 2600 years ago, Daniel had three visions that predicted in detail the rise and fall of the Persian-Median Empire and the Greek-Macedonian Empire and the rise of the Roman Empire (Daniel 2:31-45, 7:1-11:35).

Remember that the motive of God's prophets has always been abundantly clear – calling people to repentance and to worship of God. So we have to question the motives of so-called "prophets" in power who draw attention to themselves and their own powers as, for example, the Mayan priests.

If great special-effects in movies turn you on, then "2012" is probably the ultimate disaster movie. But take its prophecy with a grain of salt.

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