“I have to laugh at the concept of going back to the gold standard. There isn’t enough gold in the world to accurately back the current size of the US economy, let alone that of the world. That was the reason we left gold behind as “collateral for our monetary supply; it limited economic growth.

Let’s all face it: Debt is with us to stay. The question Christians should be asking themselves is this: At what point does our economy affect our Christian walk? At what point does the desire for economic security overcome our desire for Christ?”

Again I did not say that the U.S. should return to the Gold Standard. What meant was that our current economic system and monetary system cannot be said to be Biblical in any shape or form. And accept it or not the Gold Standard is much closer to a God honoring monetary system than a Fiat money system. As the value of Gold is set by open demand. And the is the assumption I was making.

Also you do make statement that follows along wiht God’s Word about the increase in lawlessness and the scientific principal know as “increasing entropy”

Entropy is the increase of disorder. It says that ALL systems go from states of order to an eventual state of complete disorder. And the universe if left on its own will move to a state of complete disorder.

Sound familiar? Entropy is known as the the fundamental law of fallen creation.

so what you say about debt being here to stay, fits with the Bible’s premise of increasing lawlessness, and Science’s premise of Entropy.

Everything we see about our economy today, and how it functions, each facet at one time was considered immoral. That is until that immorality became of wide enough acceptance to make it a legal activity. (An increase in lawlessness, or entropy)

So it begs the question, how much of how our economy functions should Christians be involved in? And it goes to your point of:

” At what point does our economy affect our Christian walk? At what point does the desire for economic security overcome our desire for Christ?”

Desiring to have a more God honoring monetary system or economic system is not a desire for more “economic security” It is a desire to honor God, and it is a desire to be the light, to be the salt, to the dying world around us.

So the opposite could be said in your comment: At what point does our desire for material wealth and to be part of dubious financial dealings at the expense of Biblical Principles overcome our desire for Christ?

I believe that our closeness to God is inversely proportional to how much we integrate ourselves into the immoral systems around us. We are to be world denying, not world confirming.

1) The gold standard was tried in numerous forms (gold bullion in the mercantilist era, true gold standard of the pre-Depression USA, and the Bretton-Woods gold standard we used until the 1970s). Every system failed in one way or another, the most spectacular being the Great Depression. The countries that kicked the gold standard earliest (i.e. Germany) were the fastest to recover. The USA was the last to recover, largely because the Fed couldn’t add enough liquidity to the market due to the gold standard.

2) Adam Smith notes extensively in “Wealth of Nations” that rampant money inflation took place under the mercantilist gold standards; governments simply dilute the purety of the bullion, adding other metals instead. This doesn’t mitigate against John’s point regarding “sound money.” But please note that government can manipulate the money supply easily, no matter what commodity it’s linked to.

3) So instead of using a volatile commodity to anchor our money, why not just have an inflation target? Or link money growth to GDP growth? It’s a similar concept, and it satisfies the need for “honest scales.”

Let’s all face it: Debt is with us to stay. The question Christians should be asking themselves is this: At what point does our economy affect our Christian walk? At what point does the desire for economic security overcome our desire for Christ? At what point does the mark of this world get stamped on our forehead instead of the mark of God? Because once we’ve taken the mark of the world, it’s hard to turn back. At a certain point, the trumpet will sound, and that mark will determine our eternal future.