Will there be money and the exchange of money buying and selling in the Kingdom of God?
I am not talking about the people in the millennium and the white throne judgment periods. I am sure there will be money used in buying and selling among the people. Many of the statutes and judgments of God have to do with money, with buying and selling, and God's statutes and judgments will be part of the law of the land.
But in God's family, among His Spirit-born sons and daughters, the resurrected saints made God, will there be money and the exchange of money?
I don't think so. I don't think there will be any need. We will be living the give way of life for eternity under God's rule. Each of us will be given a job to do in the family of God, and we will do our job the best we can motivated by outgoing concern for those we serve. Money will simply be unnecessary.
But in Satan's system, money is needed. Why? Satan's way of life is based on selfishness, love for self greater than love for others. Money, buying, selling, and trading, become necessary because you can only get the cooperation of others by offering them something in return. So if you want someone to do something, you have to bargain. You have to trade. "If you do this for me, I'll do something for you." You can't rely on the other person to help you based on love.
Satan is probably the originator of trading. "By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God: and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones" (Ezekiel 28:16).
In the millennium and white throne judgment, during periods when human beings will be in the process of making their choices and decisions between God's way and Satan's way, money and trading will be used, because money can be used based on either love or greed.
But when everyone has made his choice, in the kingdom and family of God for all eternity, in the new heavens and new earth, when everyone is living the way of love, money and trading will not be necessary.
Here is a list of links to previous posts in past years in this blog relating to the meaning of the fall holy days and the Feast of Tabernacles:
A Stumbling Block - The Fate of the Billions Who Never Heard of Christ
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2008/05/stumbling-block-many-people-have-in.html
Why God Is Not Trying to Save Everyone Now
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2008/10/why-god-is-not-trying-to-save-everyone.html
God Is Not Trying to Save Everyone in this Age
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2008/11/god-is-not-trying-to-save-everyone-in.html
Is Elijah in Heaven?
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2008/12/is-elijah-in-heaven.html
Day of Trumpets
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-of-trumpets.html
Day of Atonement
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-of-atonement.html
The Work of the Millennium Has Started!
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2010/09/work-of-millennium-has-started.html
The World's Loved Ones Are Not Lost
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2010/09/worlds-loved-ones-are-not-lost.html
The Meaning of the Day of Trumpets
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/09/meaning-of-day-of-trumpets.html
Atonement and Fasting
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/atonement-and-fasting.html
The Difference Between the Kingdom of God and the Millennium
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/difference-between-kingdom-of-god-and.html
The Millennium Will Be a Time of Joy for God Too
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/millennium-will-be-time-of-joy-for-god.html
Unity in the Bride of Christ
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/unity-in-bride-of-christ.html
The Millennium Prepares for the White Throne Judgment
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/millennium-prepares-for-white-throne.html
The Last Great Day Shows God's Mercy and Justice
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/last-great-day-shows-gods-mercy-and.html
The First 500 Trillion Years
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-500-trillion-years.html
God Expresses His Love Towards Us by the Secrets He Reveals to Us
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2012/09/god-expresses-his-love-towards-us-by.html
Learning Love by Doing in the Millennium - Preparing for the White Throne
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2012/10/learning-love-by-doing-in-millennium.html
The White Throne Judgement Is a Blessing for the Church of God
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-white-throne-judgement-is-blessing.html
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4 comments:
I have to admit that I've not given it that much thought. Will money be necessary in the KOG? I guess I don't know enough about the typical daily, weekly and monthly events in the life of a spirit being to know if it is needed or not.
I've always read Ezekiel 28:16 in that trade already existed, but Satan aggressively and selfishly pursued it. And, you can barter. Money isn't needed.
In fact, money itself is just a symbol. It only holds the value that society gives it. If a dollar is worth a sack of potatoes, then that is what society says it is worth. Since we won't need to eat in the Kingdom, it won't be as valuable, but Jesus did sit down and eat in front of the disciples after appearing to them post-resurrection. So, that, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, suggest that eating can be a part of a spirit being's existence and enjoyment.
I guess what I have a problem with what you present is that if Satan invented commerce, then why would God allow it in the Millennium? In fact, why even allow Christians now to use it, for that matter?
I think this whole subject is food for thought, and your comment helped me think about it more.
You are right that money has no value except as a medium of exchange. And I agree that there will be eating and drinking among spirit beings in the kingdom of God. We will be able to enjoy food if we wish though we will not require it. I have always pictured the kingdom of God as a family where the father and mother provide good things for their children and the children help with the chores, not necessarily for money. Members of a family help each other out because they want to, not because they are paid for it. If a sister asks her brother for a car ride to the store, she does not usually have to say, "well, it would cost about $7 for a taxi, is it ok if I only pay you $5 because I am your sister?" Yet, I suppose there can be buying and selling even in a family.
Perhaps Satan's sin was in aggressively pushing commerce and trading in a selfish and competitive way and not inventing it, as you suggest.
There is one principle of God that may be one of the things that is a basis of trading: covenants. By covenant, I mean the making of a promise, perhaps in return for a promise, and both sides keeping their promises. So in the matter of the Old Covenant, God made a promise to protect and bless Israel physically as a nation if Israel promised to obey Him and kept their promise. Both sides exchanged promises on that basis: God promised to bless Israel and Israel promised to obey God. In a sense, that is a kind of "trade". It was a deal of some kind, like a business contract. Yet there are differences. People usually make business contracts out of a desire to get, but God's motive was to give.
It may be that Satan was the originator of trading and commerce for selfish, competitive motives, with each side expected to try to get the best of the deal, looking out for his own interests, without equal regard for the interest of others.
As Satan is the inventor of business trading and commerce, why would God allow it in the millennium or even among His family today? Money can be used for good or wrong purposes. So God's way of life, the "give" way of life, of outgoing concern for others, can be used with money or without it. We can use money for good reasons, to give to others who are in need. In that sense, God's way of life is more flexible: it can work with money and it can work without money. But Satan's way of life is based on selfishness, and without outgoing love to motivate people to help others, money and trading become almost a necessity under Satan's system of selfishness. Satan can also use fear to motivate. I am thinking of different economic systems: carnal people are motivated to work in a free market economy based on greed, while in Stalin's Soviet Union people worked motivated by fear. Maybe Satan built both systems to see which is more effective, greed or fear, and if so, it seems greed has won the contest.
But money and trading are ideal for God's purpose of testing and training mankind until all have made their decisions. God's children and children of this society can live side by side, using money and trading, with this society using money motivated by greed and God's children using money motivated by love. And God never wastes an opportunity for something good, even if that opportunity came as a result of someone's sin. Lucifer sinned and became Satan, but God used the result as a opportunity to test mankind and teach us lessons for 6,000 years. Korah and his companions sinned, yet God counted the censers of the men who sinned as holy because they were presented before God, and He had them used, not thrown away (Numbers 16:36-40). David sinned with Bathsheba, yet God chose their son Solomon to be king after David. So even if Satan invented money, God will not waste the opportunity that money presents to test and train mankind while man is making his decision between Satan's way, motivated by greed, and God's way, motivated by love.
Seeing as how money in this world has proven to be a means to equalization, and a means to achieve one's heart's content (ideally if not realistically), and considering the vanity of this form of idolatry, I cannot imagine money playing any role in the Kingdom since our Creator will have Returned us to an adam and eve like paradise.
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