Separatism as a Fundamental Principle of Christian Agrarianism, Part 2-B
Posted by Michael Bunker editor@biblicalagrarianism.com
Before you read this part, go read Part 1-A
Read Part 1-B
Read Part 2-A
Mammon
“Worldly-mindedness is as common and as fatal a symptom of hypocrisy as any other, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold of the soul, under the cloak of a visible and passable profession of religion, than by this; and therefore Christ, having warned us against coveting the praise of men, proceeds next to warn us against coveting the wealth of the world; in this also we must take heed, lest we be as the hypocrites are, and do as they do: the fundamental error that they are guilty of is, that they choose the world for their reward; we must therefore take heed of hypocrisy and worldly-mindedness, in the choice we make of our treasure, our end, and our masters.” (Matthew Henry)
In the next several parts we will be discussing separation and its importance as it relates to the Kingdom of God. In this part we will specifically be discussing the Kingdom of This World and the system of Mammon which gives it power. Throughout all of human history, and throughout the entire Bible, there are two opposing kingdoms in view. We will be discussing these contrasting kingdoms in depth, but it is necessary here that I discuss some very important principles concerning these kingdoms; principles that are often forgotten or confused by students of the Word.
The Kingdom of This World
There is a kingdom, which is actually made up of all the worldly kingdoms (Matt. 4:8), which is referred to by Jesus repeatedly as “this world”. This kingdom has a ruler or spiritual prince (the word “prince” means “ruler”) also called “the god of this world”, has other spiritual principalities and powers, has earthly princes or kings, has its own wisdom, and has a fashion (an external condition, a culture, style, or system) also known as a “course”. It is important to note that Satan, the prince of this world (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11, Eph. 2:2), is not the rightful King or Prince of the earth. That position was originally given to Adam as man. Satan, therefore is a usurper prince, who has gained his authority by deceit and by the willful consent of the governed, and not by rightful inheritance.
This kingdom of this world is referred to throughout the Bible and in many of Jesus Christ's discussions, sermons, and teachings. It is important that we point this out, because the modern mantra of “in the world, but not of it” - taken to mean “just like the world in the flesh, but spiritually separate” - teaches that there is no discernible difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of This World. There are two prominent errors, mentioned before in this series, that lead to a dangerous and erroneous view of the Kingdoms:
The futurist and dispensationalist view that the Kingdom of God is still future, and that no one enters the Kingdom until they die. In this view, the Kingdom of God is heaven and the spiritual realm, and Christ was bringing and instituting no real Kingdom during His earthly ministry. This view invalidates separatism because in it there is nothing to separate from and nothing to separate to; and it promotes worldliness and denies all that Christ had to say about the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom Now, Theocratic, or Reconstructionist view that the Kingdom of God came fully and completely during the time of Christ or shortly after that, meaning that Christ has already come and instituted His Kingdom, which is of this world, and things will get better and better as Christians “christianize” wordly institutions and bring all things under the rule of Christ. In this view, as we have mentioned before, the Kingdom's of this world have already become the Kingdom of God, and God has no intention of returning to destroy the wicked and to bring a new heaven and a new earth. Christ has already returned (at some point invisibly) to rule, the seventh trumpet has sounded, and there is no difference between “this world” and Christ's kingdom, therefore there is no need for separation. This is the worldview and system that the Papists have tried to push for over 1400 years, and the Church of England and other national “churches” have tried to institute for several hundred years.
We will discuss the two separate and distinct kingdoms more in the next part, but for now it is important for us to examine what Jesus Christ and His Word has said about the difference between “this world”, and the Kingdom of God.
First, we should note that the Kingdom of this World is not vanquished and overthrown until the last trumpet:
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev 11:15).
Paul confirms that this last trumpet will not be “invisible” or some confusing and indiscernible moment in history (like the destruction of Jerusalem), but will be the moment when all Christians of all time are “changed” and are given incorruptible bodies. The earthly bodies of corruption will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God, but those who are Christ's will be changed and given incorruptible bodies. This is true of the righteous dead, who at this time will rise from the dead, and of the living:
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1Co 15:50-55).
It is naturally in the Devil's interest to confuse the kingdoms and to cause professing Christians to err by convincing them that they have nothing to fear in worldliness. Both the futurist and the preterist, both the dispensationalist and the reconstructionist, are able to deceive people by convincing them that they can stay in the world without fear or danger. But the Bible says that the two kingdoms, The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of This World, will remain distinct and separate until the last trump, when God's children will be changed and receive incorruptible bodies. If you have not received your incorruptible body yet, then the last trumpet has not sounded, and you are accounted with either the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of This World. You live according to the fashion (or “course”) of one or the other (1 Cor. 7:31). The Bible says that if you live according to the fashion or course of this world, then you are still deceived and in the power of the Prince of This World:
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2).
John Gill says this of the “course of this world”: “the course of it is their custom, manner, and way of life; to which God's elect, during their state of unregeneracy, conform, both with respect to conversation and religious worship: great is the force that prevailing customs have over men; it is one branch of redemption by Christ, to deliver men from this present evil world, and to free them from a vain conversation in it”. Because of the prevalent errors in discerning between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of This World, most professing Christians have been convinced that there is no difference, and that there is no “course” or “fashion” of this world that identifies men according to which Kingdom and Prince they serve.
Like I said earlier, we will get into some depth on the subject of the Kingdoms in the next parts, but for now it was necessary that I identify and prove that the Kingdom of God is separate and distinct from this world, and that it has separate and distinct characteristics, and operates according to different principles. The Kingdom of God came with Christ, because Christ IS fundamentally the Kingdom of God, and as in any other Kingdom, Christ's Kingdom has its own society and culture, its own economy, its own fashion and course. It came with Christ, but will be fulfilled and perfected at Christ's return at the last trump.
Knowing that there are two separate kingdoms with two separate masters, let us hear what Christ says about one of the fundamental differences that exist between the two kingdoms:
“No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him” (Luk 16:13-14).
Now, let me tell you that there are some of you reading and hearing this right now who believe yourself to be in the Kingdom of God, and to be under the Headship and Kingship of Jesus Christ, but who serve mammon and mammon alone. Now it is time that we study what this means, so we can identify error. Separatism naturally involves a sword: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12). Note that the Bible says that covetousness and the service of mammon identify those who are still servants of the Prince of This World. The “passport”, mark, or citizenship papers of the children of this world lies in covetousness and the service of mammon. I want to note again that this is why Satan and his prophets push the prevailing errors concerning the two Kingdoms. Deception requires that men not be able to see God's intention and purpose in separation. People remain in the Kingdom of This World, and subject to the Prince of This World, because they cannot see the Kingdom of God - “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In order to be able to separate from the Kingdom of This World, you need to be able to see it, and in order to see it, you must be born again.
Ok, all of this has been preface to our latest history lesson. Today we are going to track some of the history of the Kingdom of This World, and its system of mammon, so you can see what it looks like today.
Mammon is defined several different ways, and we can get a more full understanding of the essence of it by studying these definitions:
Riches, wealth; or the god of riches.
The false god of riches and avarice.
Wealth, wordly gain.
Mammon is the personification of the earthly and worldly desire for more wealth or money than is necessary. The Bible teaches, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1 Tim. 6:8). The service of mammon is the sign or mark of those whose hearts are on this world, and not on the world to come. It is critical that we understand these things, and that we know history, because an understanding of money (and mammon) is necessary in order for us to know God's mind when it comes to separatism and agrarianism. It is the love of money and the service of mammon that keeps men in bondage to the world.
The History of Money
In studying the history of money, it is important that we first get rid of the colonized deceptions that pervade our thinking. Money as we know it (coins and paper) are a relatively recent invention. When the word “money” is used in the Old Testament, it is not speaking of coins and paper used as currency. First let me say that the word “money” is actually from the Latin moneta, which means "mint, coinage," and is derived from Moneta, a title of the Roman goddess Juno. Coins were minted outside of the temple of Moneta, and it is from this practice that man has derived the name of money. Please also remember that, from this time, money became an inexorable part of human worship in the Kingdom of This World, and became a central pillar of most worldly religions. It is not unimportant that our Lord, the rightful King of Creation, was betrayed for money.
Some will insist that money has been around forever, and that it has always been a central reality in the history of God's people, but when you read the term “money” in the Old Testament, for example when Abraham bought the cave and field of Machpelah for money, it is not at all speaking of coinage and paper that we call “money” today. Let us read the account:
“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” (Gen 23:7-16).
This event happened sometime around 1859 BC, but the use of silver as money had been around for some time before that. We read here that the “money” used by Abraham was actually silver. It was not paid in coins, but had to be weighed out in “shekels”. The shekel weight had been established by the Babylonians as part of the Babylonian system we are studying here from around 3000 BC and it was related to an established weight of barley. The word shekel did not refer to a coin, but to an established weight (such as a “gram” or an “ounce” is an established weight). The word “money” in our English Bible is translated from the word kehsef which means “silver”.
Back Even Further
For the first 1600 years of the world, exchange, and commerce were accomplished through trade and barter. In some cases and places, due to an intrinsic problem with barter (called “the coincidence of wants”) a system of credit was created, where a basic standard was set, and an intermediate nonperishable item was used to eliminate the coincidence of wants. For example, if you raised dates or figs, which are perishable, and you desired to trade for wheat or goats – it would be necessary (in order for there to be a straight trade) that someone “coincidentally” was wanting to trade goats or wheat for figs or dates at precisely the time when your crop was harvested and ready for trade. This problem is called “the coincidence of wants”. In order to mitigate against this problem, a third crop or item may be utilized to bridge the distance. You might go ahead and trade the figs and dates for a future crop of wheat or for some future number of goats. In the interim, the owner of the wheat or goats might give you some valuable item that is valuable but nonperishable (like wine, salt, or silver, etc.) to hold until which time he is ready to redeem them with the wheat or goats that you need. But the point is that for 1600 years mankind had no real need for what we call money. Until the wicked descendants of Cain began to build cities (which necessitate money, debt, and specialization) every man lived an agrarian existence, and he produced from the ground most, if not all, of what he needed to survive. Trade and Barter existed, but they were actually quite rare. Most men survived by God's providence from the land, and did not have any need for more than they could eat, drink, wear, or live on for their survival. It is so common for man to look at history through glasses tinted by his own experience, that it is very difficult for modern man to even conceive of a world without money.
Abraham was considered a very wealthy man, and it is said he had gold and silver, so people automatically assume that he was one of the idle rich like we have around today. But wealth in that time was measured in a wholly different way. You see, there was no need – in fact it would have been wasteful and ridiculous – to have more than you need. It is said that Abraham was “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (Gen. 13:2). Note that cattle is mentioned first, because it was the primary measure of wealth and store of value. The term “cattle” meant cows, oxen, sheep, asses, and camels. So it is true that Abraham was wealthy, but we must also remember that Abraham was the patriarch of a very large clan. His family and servants numbered in the many hundreds, if not thousands. Abraham had a lot of mouths to feed, and he properly managed his large herds and flocks for the maintenance of himself, his family, and all those for whom he was responsible. Abraham was considered wealthy, as we have seen, but an examination of the time and culture will cause us to reject that Abraham's wealth was anything like what we call “wealth” today where men gather to themselves mountains of irrelevant and unimportant items, and invest large amounts of money in decorations, entertainment, and so called “stores of value” (like stocks and bonds). There would have been no need for more animals than could be managed for the production of food, clothing, and supplies for the amount of people for whom Abraham was responsible.
I pause here to note that we read in Genesis the 13th Chapter that Abraham was wealthy and had many cattle and herds, and so was his nephew Lot. They were both so wealthy that they could not dwell together in the same land anymore, so Abraham desired to separate from Lot (who evidently operated on different principles) and so he gave Lot the choice of what direction he will go. Lot chose the plain of Jordan near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham chose to dwell in the land of Canaan, which was without cities, and was more conducive to agrarian success. Ok, I will return to the discussion of the wealth of Abraham, but we have to take a side road here to discuss Lot – since, although Lot ought to be the poster-boy of separatism and God's preference of agrarianism over urbanism, Lot seems to have become the hero and spokesmen for worldlings everywhere who all fancy themselves to be Lot. So let us look at this for a moment...
It is said by worldlings and syncretists that Lot was saved for his own righteousness, but the Bible says he was saved by the intervention of Abraham (an agrarian separatist) (Gen. 18) and because “God remembered Abraham” (Gen. 19:29).
It is said that Lot is not an example of separatism, though God clearly took vengeance on the wickedness and urbanism of Sodom and Gomorrah, and separated Lot out from it before it was destroyed.
Let's review the story...
Lot, due to his choice of living near the cites of Sodom and Gomorrah, lost his wealth and was rescued by God's grace alone from the destruction of those cities. God determines to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, even with Lot and his family in it, but Abraham intercedes with God to spare Lot (Gen. 18), who is his kinsman. Lot and his family (his wife and two daughters) are physically removed from Sodom in order to save their lives. Lot is ordered by God in a Christophony not to stay or stop in the plain, but to flee all the way to “the mountain”. The mountain is a type of Mount Zion and of Christ's Kingdom. Lot is too afraid to flee to the mountain, even though his eventual destruction in the plain of Jordan is evident, so he begs God to allow him to stay in a small city (Lot even mentions twice that it is just “a little one” ), and God agrees for Abraham's sake not to destroy that one small city (Gen. 19:17-21). Lot and his daughters are scarcely saved and his wife perishes even as Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. It is said that Lot is spared for Abraham's sake, not his own (Gen. 19:29). Later Lot repents of staying in the small city, and flees to the mountain, only to there become (by God's providence) the father of the wicked Ammonites and the Moabites.
So just maybe worldly syncretists do not want to claim Lot as their spiritual father.
Back to our discussion of wealth. The system of barter and trade changed slowly. First, as we have seen, men began to look for an intermediate commodity, such as salt, wine, or silver, that could be used as a store of value to help with barter and trade. So long as men lived rural and agrarian lives, there was little need for much silver or gold, and very small amounts of these metals were held as a store of value – and then only to offer relief from the “coincidence of wants”. With urbanization and specialization, came the need for money and for the ability to acquire, hold, and expand it. The Babylonians first systematized the exchange and use of money, as it became fundamental to the new Babylonian urban culture. Hammurabi, the first king of the Babylonian Empire, in his famous code, created extensive rules and laws governing the creation, use, and exchange of money. This is the beginning of the world's system of mammon.
For another 1000 years, the Code of Hammurabi and the first Babylonian system of commerce was used throughout the known world. But then, even as this first Babylonian system of money and exchanged reigned in the world, Nebuchadnezzar came to power in Babylon.
There are two main events in the life of this Nebuchadnezzar that we need to study. The first is the dream he had in Daniel the 2nd Chapter.
In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the king awakens from a dream that he cannot remember. The dream troubles him, so he calls forth all of the Chaldean mystics and Magicians, and all the astrologers and sorcerers, but they are unable to tell him either the substance or the meaning of the dream. Because of this, Nebuchadnezzar grows very angry and orders the death of all the wise men and advisors in Babylon. Arioch, the king's captain reminds the king of Daniel, the wise man of of the captives of Judah. Daniel tells the king he will give him the interpretation after prayer, and retreats to be with his friends and pray for the interpretation. The interpretation is given to Daniel, who then gives it to the king:
“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure” (Dan 2:31-45).
Here Daniel gives the king of Babylon both the dream he had dreamed, and the interpretation thereof. The king had dreamed of this great image (an idol or statue) made of various metals and materials, and he had watched as a large stone, cut out without hands, crushed the statue, which crumbled into dust or chaff and was blown away of the winds. The stone that smote the feet of the statue then grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Now, Daniel also gives Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of the dream. Nebuchadnezzar would be the first of four great kingdoms which would ruler over the people of the earth. The Babylonian empire, of which Nebuchadnezzar was the king, would be the gold kingdom. The kingdom would eventually fall and be replaced in order and time by three subsequent empires. The second kingdom, the silver kingdom, is given for us in the Bible as the Kingdom of the Medes and the Persions (or the Kingdom of Medo-Persia). The third kingdom, the kingdom of brass is the Empire of the Greeks. After the fall of the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire (the fourth kingdom) will arise. The fourth kingdom is very interesting and deserves our attention. The fourth kingdom will be the kingdom that remains in power until the end of the age. The fourth empire begins as iron, then as it travels down the legs and into the toes of the statue (through time) it becomes a conglomeration of iron and miry clay. From history we see this fourth kingdom develop first as the Roman Empire, which after it's fall becomes the empire of the Roman Papacy, which reigns through its conglomeration of secular and religious power, in an ever weakening way, until the Lord comes to destroy it.
Now, we need to note that this whole system is one statue. It is one system, even if it is ruled and shaped at different times by different world powers. Each system flows into the next, and the single beast portrayed by the statue still exists as one beast when it is destroyed by the stone, which is Christ.
Daniel tells the King that a very great and awful beast system will be developed, and that he, Nebuchadnezzar is the head and originator of that system. This system will be a culture, a dynasty, a financial and an economic system, and a single kingdom (called the Kingdom of This World) that will dominate history until it is destroyed by Jesus Christ. The final incarnation of this beast will have attributes of all the previous kingdoms, and will add the attributes of each successive system as they are amalgamated into one beast.
Let's move on to the second important event of Nebuchadnezzar's life.
In Daniel Chapter 3 we read that Nebuchadnezzar, apparently smitten with the fact that he was the head of gold, or having become obsessed with gold, and possibly in an attempt to forget or eradicate the idea that his golden kingdom would be replaced by lesser kingdoms in succession, built an image much like the one in his dream, only he had it built (or gilded) completely in gold. Let's read about it:
“Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon” (Dan 3:1).
So we note that Nebuchadnezzar made the image 60 cubits high, and 6 cubits wide, which number, 66, is the precursor of the mark of the eventual beast it prefigured, 666, which ought to help direct us in the right direction concerning the spiritual root and direction of image and its purpose. The number 6 is the number of man, and the eventual beast (the system begun here at Babylon but completed in the end of time during the fourth (or Roman) period, would be a system of worship that is man-centered, so the final six would not be evident in this typological image of gold. The image of gold was built for worship, and as a religious idol, it was forced upon the people of Babylon as a god. It prefigures a man-centered system of economics, and society that will have all the attributes of the four kingdoms built into culture and lives of the people. The event was being held, it was said, during an economic convention in Babylon where all of the great men and authorities in the kingdom were coming together to unite under this kingdom of gold. Howard B. Rand in his Study in Revelation says this:
“Here we have an account of the birth of the gold standard, when by solemn decree it was made a controlled medium of exchange, the possession of which became essential to those who would buy and sell in the world markets”
From this point onward, the world had created a system for itself where wealth was no longer defined as the ability to abundantly feed, clothe, and care for your family and servants from the land. From this point on, wealth required the acquisition and holding of the means of exchange, instead of actual property, land, cattle, etc. The intermediate means had become the idol, and metals – which you cannot eat, which will not provide you shelter, and with which you cannot use to clothe yourselves – had become the primary form of “currency” and measure of wealth. As is natural among wicked men, the rationalization was eventually made that carrying and holding gold and silver was no longer practical. Soon coins of inferior materials were substituted for those of gold and silver. Silver, the original form of money, was soon phased out in favor of gold backing alone. It was not long before paper money came into existence, originally backed by gold held in storage at “banks”, but eventually it was backed by nothing but the word of lying governments. Paper and coin would be phased out in favor of digital money, wealth would be measured by blips on computers, and by the amount of debt one can handle while still appearing wealthy. All of this was designed in order to allow wicked men to fall farther and farther away from the garden from which they originated. Without this system of money and without this Babylonian economic system, cities would collapse, and men would be forced to return to the land and produce from it – or perish.
God, in the brilliance of the creation, had abundantly provided for Adam and all of his progeny. So long as God's children remained separate from the system of “the world”, and so long as they were solidly based in an agrarian system according to God's command, they flourished and produced untold wealth. But man, through covetousness and greed, created an economic system that enslaved him; that would not allow him to buy or sell (trade within the urban economic system) unless he was willing to become fully invested in the system; unless the system was worshiped and enthroned in his life. This system, the Babylonian beast, is the system we call “The Kingdom of This World”.
Since the blood of the Babylonian system is money, the love of money (greed and covetousness) became necessary for success and survival in that system. This system and love is what is called Mammon in the Bible. Mammon is not just a corrupt money system, but it is worldly-mindedness and the culture and society that is created, through the generations, by Mammon worshipers.
Contrasted here are the two systems:
The Kingdom of God, where God's sanctified people rely on Him solely for their food, shelter, clothing, etc. and for the means of life.
The Kingdom of This World, where worldlings rely on themselves, mammon, and their corrupt economic and social system for the means of life.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Mat 6:19-25).
This is to say that today, as you read this, you serve either God or mammon. One or the other. And this is not a mystic declaration. It is real and practical and has real evidences. If you life in the world, according to the rudiments, course, and fashion of the world, then you are serving mammon – regardless of where you say your heart is. You cannot say that you live in and according to the world culture, but you are separate from it in your heart, because that would be to say that you are successfully serving two masters, which Jesus says is impossible.
This is not to say that in no way should you concern yourself at all with eating, drinking, or for raiment for your body. This is saying that the use of unauthorized means in order to obtain these things is forbidden. To rely on the world is idolatry. Reliance on the world, and its Babylonian system, is the serving of mammon. God is not changing his mind here and telling us that utilizing proper means (agrarianism, farming, gardening, etc. whereby God provides for us) is wordliness. In the proper Agrarian/Separatist system, it is God that provides for us, and according to His own principles, not according to the rudiments of the world.
Separatism is a fundamental principle of Agrarianism because both are pillars of God's Kingdom, and both are necessary for a right view and a right mind towards God's Kingdom.
In the next part, if the Lord wills, we will discuss the two kingdoms, and we will go into greater depth on how the great deception concerning them has progressed.
I am your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
