Ever since the earliest recordings of history, there have been individuals that have sought to gain an unfair advantage over others in many aspects of life, especially in the area of commerce.

One recent example is where the National Milk Producers Federation settled a lawsuit alleging antitrust conspiracy in slaughtering dairy cow herds, reducing herd sizes causing scarcity to justify higher product prices. Now the defendants (Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., Land O’ Lakes Inc., Dairylea Cooperative Inc. and Agri-Mark Inc.) have not admitted guilt but agreed to a court settlement of $52,000,000.

Seems to me they were manipulating their weights and measures (supply and demand) since 2003 to increase their profits.

Dishonest scales has been a common method to gain an advantage … to unfairly tip the scales in one sides favor to achieve their goal.

In most cases, this use of dishonest scales is a sin committed by the powerful against the simple, the naïve, or the sojourner. Thus, the merchant or seller is more likely to be the one using dishonest measures to defraud their customers when selling a product or service and preying upon the ignorance of his customer.

This is why God commanded we have just standards of weights and measures…

In the absence of just standards, there can be no confidence in honestly dealing with one another.

From the earliest period of their history the Israelite’s understood the necessity of an accurate system of weights and measures, and an honest handling of them. The first legislation in the interest of economic righteousness in general is found in Leviticus 19:35 and Deuteronomy 25:13–16, and the prophets constantly denounced the use of false measures in later history (see Amos 8:5; Hos. 12:8; Micah 6:10; see also Prov. 11:1; 16:11; 20:10).

Honest scales; Honest weights

You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. – Lev. 19:35-36

While this passage actually encompasses a much greater span of transactions (four measurements of judgment, length, weight, and volume), I am going to focus in this article mainly the measurement of weight as it relates to money and commerce.

Until coinage was introduced after 600 B.C., foodstuffs and other goods were obtained through barter in the marketplace or purchased with weights of precious metals (silver and gold).

The way that business was conducted during this period was that every shopkeeper would have their own ephah (an ephah is a unit of dry measure, roughly equivalent to about 23 liters), and their own stone, and would parcel out portions of products based on how they filled the ephah or balanced against the stone.

It’s interesting to note these words follow previous verses that instruct the people of Israel to love the stranger who resides among them as they love themselves. It’s as if honest scales and weights are a “practical application” of the golden rule (Lev. 19:18; Lev. 19:34; Matt. 7:12; and Lk 6:31), to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God. – Leviticus 19:33-34

A few verses earlier, they were commanded to not steal or deal falsely with others.

You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. ‘You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the LORD. – Leviticus 19:11-14

As a universal rule, the Israelite’s were to do no wrong in social intercourse and trade with weights and measures of length and capacity; but to keep just scales, weights, and measures.

It was stressed in the Old Testament that you have ONE ephah, and that it be clean and untainted, so that the measure was the same everywhere anyone traveled. What was commanded was that you never substitute “ephah v’ephah”: having one measure for some people, and a different measure for others.

Underlying the three main religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are these social laws contained here and indeed throughout the Pentateuch. The laws of the Pentateuch restrain the behavior and limit the power of ‘rulers’, that is of government, of top executives and of the establishment, of those in positions of trust, responsibility or authority, no matter whether secular, religious or military, no matter what the hierarchy or organization.

Persons are not to put themselves above others by grasping power or satisfying personal desires at the expense of others. And a nation or ruler (person in position of trust, responsibility or authority) has to follow these laws and abide by them if they wish ‘to prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children’.

Divers weights, a great and a small

We are to deal honestly in our transactions with one another as Lev. 19 commands, and… we are to also deal honestly in both sides of the transaction: buying and selling.

All commodities traded and sold, as well as precious metals used as money, were required to be measured and weighed according to established standards. Their measure in length, capacity, volume, weight, and value all had prescribed units e.g., shekel, bath, omer, ephah, cubit, gerah, dram, etc. (today the dollar), which no one was allowed to deviate from.

Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God. – Deut. 25:13-16

Weights, for the most part, were made of stone, and in the renewal of this command in Deuteronomy 25:13-16, it is forbidden to carry “stone and stone” in the bag, i.e., two kinds of stones (namely, for weights), large and small; or to keep two kinds of measures, a large one for buying and a small one for selling. Using different stones for buying and selling would be cheating both seller and buyer.

The principle of this prohibition is clear: It is forbidden to use a short weight/measure when weighing out the produce sold, while using a large weight/measure when weighing out the money received in payment. It is deceitful, unjust, and unfair. Dishonesty in our transactions is an abomination unto the Lord and apparently results in a shortened existence in the land that we live. Dishonest gain always brings a curse on men’s property, families, and souls.

Let’s say someone comes to me and offers to sell me grain. I want a couple of pounds. I’ll give him a couple of ounces of silver in exchange for his grain. I take out what God’s Law calls a “large” weight, announcing that it is a shekel (call it a pound). It is in fact more than a pound. I put it on one side of my scale, and fill the other side with my neighbor’s grain. When balanced, I have more than one pound of grain. Now I take out my “small” stone, and, announcing (dishonestly) its weight, proceed to weigh out my silver. It is called “small” because it is less than what I say it is. When balanced, I have given my neighbor less silver than bargained for in payment for (more) grain. Thus, I have stolen from my neighbor.

Standards of Measurement
The command for just weights and measures assumes that there are recognized standards for calculating weight, capacity, and length in a given marketplace or geographical area. A just weight or measure would conform exactly to the established standards.

An unjust weight or measure would make claim to be in conformity to these standards but would deviate from them.

Thus, the use of a false weight or measure involves both deceit and theft; deceit, because it is purported to be what it is not; theft, because it leads the buyer to spend more money than the commodity is actually worth — the buyer thinks he is getting a certain amount and is willing to pay that amount for it, when in reality he is getting less than what he pays for; the difference between the standard weight and measure and the false one constitutes the amount of the theft. Therefore, the use of false weights and measures is a form of theft and a violation of the Eighth Commandment against stealing from our neighbor. (William O. Einwechter, Just Weights and Measures)

As we see in Scripture, honesty in our commerce is dependent upon honest weights and measures.

The standard measure was defined for the Israelites in Lev. 27:25 (according to the sanctuary shekel).

And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel. – Lev. 27:25

The shekel is the basic unit of weight in the Hebrew as well as the Babylonian and Canaanite systems, though the exact weight varied from region to region and sometimes also according to the kind of goods for sale. The Mesopotamian system was sexagesimal, based on sixes and sixties. So, for example, the Babylonian system used a talent of sixty minas, a mina of sixty shekels, and a shekel of twenty-four gerahs. The Hebrew system was decimal like the Egyptian, though the weights were not the same. There seems to have been three kinds of shekel current in Israel: (1) a temple shekel of about ten grams (.351 ounces); (2) the common shekel of about 11.7 grams (.408 ounces); and (3) the heavy (“royal”?) shekel of about thirteen grams (.457 ounces). The smallest portion of the shekel was the gerah, which was 1/20 of a shekel (Exodus 30:13; Ezekiel 45:12). The gerah has been estimated to weigh .571 grams. Multiples of the shekel were the mina and the talent. According to the account of the sanctuary tax (Exodus 38:25-26), three thousand shekels were in a talent, probably sixty minas of fifty shekels each. The mina was probably fifty shekels (as the Canaanite system), though Ezekiel 45:12 calls for a mina of sixty shekels, and the early Greek translation reads, “fifty.” The mina has been estimated at 550 to 600 grams (1.213 to 1.323 lbs.). (Holman Bible Dictionary)

Money is to be of a standard fixed weight of a precious metal (silver, gold, etc.). Gen. 23:15-16; Exod. 30:13; Deut 22:19; 1 Kings 10: 14; 2 Kings 5:22-23; 2 Kings 6:25; Neh. 5:15; Jer. 32:9-10. While gold was on occasion used in monetary transactions, silver became the common form of money so that the word used for money was keceph (silver), as in Gen. 23:13 – I will give thee money (silver) for the field.” Silver was thus money, a measure of value, and a medium of exchange. The word shekel (shaqal, ‘to weigh’), it should be noted, was a weight and not a coin, as is also true of the English pound and American dollar. At this time in history, the people did not use coins in their transactions. There was no coinage until the Persian period after 500 B.C.

Why does the Bible demand “just weights and measures”?

The answer seems clear. False weights, false balances, false scales – these are all used to plunder and steal, which of course the Lord abhors.

The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight. – Prov. 11:1

Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. – Prov. 20:10

The Lord’s ideal was just weights and measures (Leviticus 19:36; Proverbs 16:11; Ezekiel 45:10); but dishonest manipulations were all too common (Proverbs 20:23; Hosea 12:7). Archaeologists have discovered weights that have been altered by chiseling the bottom.

Using false weights and measurements often transcends mere fraud and becomes outright oppression.

On a national scale, false weights and measures are used to dominate and oppress whole classes of people. Wars and “bread and circus” welfare programs are not cheap, and outright taxation has never been popular. As a way around this, dishonest rulers have sought to indirectly confiscate wealth by debasing money and issuing a decree that the money had to trade at full value. This is known as “fiat money,” and can either be a dishonest coin or something like a piece of paper that has no intrinsic value at all.

Since ancient times, whenever a coin circulated through the treasury of an unjust ruler, he would either shave off portions of the coins, using techniques known as clipping or sweating, and mint more coins with the shavings. Or he would re-mint every coin, debasing it by mixing a less valuable metal with the precious metal. For example, at the time of Christ, the Roman Denarius was about 97% pure silver. By A.D. 253, it was 35%. Their silver had literally become dross (Isa. 1:22). Dross is a symbol of impurity. The wicked are pictured as dross (Proverbs 25:4; Psalms 119:119) that renders the whole of society impure. Both Isaiah 1:22, Isaiah 1:25 and Ezekiel 22:18-19 speak of silver turned to dross as a picture of Israel’s lost righteousness. A biblical example of gold becoming dross can be found in 1 Kings 14:25-28, during the reign of Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt came and plundered Jerusalem. He took away all the gold shields that King Solomon made. Rehoboam, replaced these with bronze shields.

Banks, Moneychangers, and Goldsmiths

Ancient Israel had no lending institutions or banks in the modern sense. Commercial transactions and the lending of credit were entirely in the hands of private individuals, landowners, and merchants. Banks did appear during the period of the the third to second millennia B.C. in Mesopotamia mainly as a vehicle for making loans at interest. The Israelite’s were forbidden the charging of interest on loans (Ex. 22:25; Lev. 25:36-37; Ezek. 18:8). According to these statutes, only foreigners could be charged interest on a debt (Deut. 23:20). During Assyrian and Babylon kingdoms, there are records of loans dating back to the 2nd millennium BC that were made by temple priests/monks to merchants.

The widespread introduction of coined money after 500 B.C. and the expansion of travel and commerce in the Roman empire aided the establishment of banking institutions in the New Testament period.

Some who were involved in finance, however, took advantage of the large number of currencies in circulation in Palestine. Farmers and merchants came to them to weigh coinage and exchange it for the Tyrian drachma favored in the city. The regulations regarding the Temple tax in Jerusalem (Ex. 30:13) also worked in the financiers’ favor – these were the fellas Jesus accosted in the Temple.

At the Feast of the Passover pilgrims would come from various countries. Whatever currency they might bring, it had to be exchanged for coins that were acceptable by Jewish standards, that is, bearing no symbols violating the Second Commandment. Of course a small fee was paid to the changer.

The “moneychangers,” known as kollybistes, charged a fee of 12 grains of silver (a kollybos) and set up their tables in the Court of the Gentiles. They exchanged foreign currency for the silver didrachma required by the law (Matt. 17:24). Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple may have been in part a response to the unfair practices of these money-changers (Matt. 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; John 2:14-16).

With sums coming into the Temple from Jews throughout the empire, the Temple itself became a bank, lending money to finance business, construction, and other programs. Is it any coincidence that most of the big bankers throughout history have Jewish ancestry?

Banking in the modern sense of the word can be traced to medieval and early Renaissance Italy, where “merchant banks” which were first invented by Italian grain merchants. Originally intended for the finance of long trading journeys, their methods were applied to finance the production and trading of grain. Merchant banking progressed from financing trade on one’s own behalf to settling trades for others and then to holding deposits for settlement of “billette” or notes written by the people who were still brokering the actual grain. And so the merchant’s “benches” (bank is derived from the Italian for bench, banca, as in a counter) in the great grain markets became centers for holding money against a bill (billette, a note, a letter of formal exchange, later a bill of exchange and later still a cheque).

In the 12th century, the need to transfer large sums of money to finance the Crusades stimulated the re-emergence of banking in western Europe. In 1162, King Henry the II levied a tax to support the crusades—the first of a series of taxes levied by Henry over the years with the same objective. The Templars and Hospitallers acted as Henry’s bankers in the Holy Land. The Templars’ wide flung, large land holdings across Europe also emerged in the 1100–1300 time frame as the beginning of Europe-wide banking, as their practice was to take in local currency, for which a demand note would be given that would be good at any of their castles across Europe, allowing movement of money without the usual risk of robbery while traveling.

Because actual gold or silver can be inconvenient to physically carry around and made you a target for thieves, the warehousing of money grew in popularity with banks and goldsmiths, metalworkers who specialized in working with gold and had sufficient security for the safe storage of valuable items. They would issue a paper receipt to the customer and charge a warehousing fee to protect the gold or silver. These receipts would initially exchange at the same value as the gold or silver they represented. As long as the bank held all the money in reserve, its promise to pay was good, even if every depositor wanted his money in full at the same time.

Eventually scheming men learned how to use banking to defraud and rob their neighbor in violation of the law of just weights and measures. Some dishonest smiths realized that nobody ever came in for their gold and silver at the same time. These smiths started issuing more receipts than they had gold on hand in the form of loans, and the fraudulent modern practice of fractional reserve banking was born.

In fractional reserve banking only a part of the deposits are kept on hand to redeem the notes of depositors. The rest is invested or issued as credit. This means that the banks promise to pay is actually a fraud that will succeed only so long as the depositors do not demand more of their money than that which has been held in reserve. When this happens, the depositor who gets there too late finds that his money is gone (i.e., has been stolen by the bank!). Fractional reserve banking also involves the practice of loaning out more money than a bank has on deposit. This contributes to the debasement of money and a mans wealth by the inflation of the money supply. (William O. Einwechter, Just Weights and Measures)

In 1609, the Bank of Amsterdam (Amsterdamsche Wisselbank) was founded where coins were taken in as deposits based not on the face value, but on the real value of their metal weight, with credits, known as bank money, issued against them. And so was created a perfectly uniform currency. This, along with the convenience and security of the new money – and the guarantee of the city of Amsterdam, caused the bank money to trade at a premium over coins. The Bank was at first a strictly deposit bank with 100 percent backing, but secretly allowed some depositors to overdraw their accounts as early as 1657 and later provided large loans to the Dutch East India Company and the Municipality of Amsterdam. By 1790 these loans became public and the premium on the bank money disappeared, by the end of that year the Bank virtually admitted insolvency by issuing a notice that silver would be sold to holders of bank money at a 10 percent discount. The City of Amsterdam took the Bank over, and eventually closed it for good in 1819.

By the end of the 16th century and during the 17th, the traditional banking functions of accepting deposits, moneylending, money changing, and transferring funds were combined with the issuance of bank debt that served as a substitute for gold and silver coins. By the end of the 17th century, banking was also becoming important for the funding requirements of the relatively new and combative European states. This would lead on to government regulations and the first central banks.

A New Kind of Money: Debt

Prior to the 17th century most money was commodity money, typically gold or silver. The continued violation of the law of just weights and measures led to a new kind of money. This was the goldsmiths’ debt rather than silver or gold coin. When ungodly rulers saw that they could take advantage of the new debt-money situation, they granted monopoly privileges to a single bank or a cartel of banks to print fiat money. Fiat money is money that derives its value from government regulation or law and is without any intrinsic value. The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning “let it be done” or “it shall be,” as such money is established by government decree. This newly created fiat money would be lent to the rulers, who would spend it first before the prices adjusted for the devaluation of the money.

The U.S. Constitution

Prior to the writing of the U.S. Constitution, colonists were familiar with fiat money, or bills of credit. These types of notes were issued in the British colonies in America, particularly in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Massachusetts. The most notable example being the “Continental” issued by the U.S. Congress before the Constitution was written. Like ALL debased fiat currencies, this too collapsed and became worthless.

Understanding God’s Laws regarding just weights and measures and knowing how corrupt leaders use unjust weights and measures to oppress it’s people, America’s founders enshrined this Biblical concept into our Constitution. The founders wanted gold and silver to be legal tender, not fiat money, and they did not want to financial powers to reside with a central bank.

Article I, Section 8 gives Congress alone the right to coin (create) money and regulate the value thereof.

The Congress shall have Power To… coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; which they did in the Coinage Act of 1792.

The Congress fixed the monetary unit of the United States as the silver “dollar” and defined the dollar as a unit of measure of 371.25 grains of pure silver or 416 grains of standard silver.

Similarly, a dollar of gold is 1/20th of an ounce of gold. Look at a $20 Liberty or Saint Gaudens and you will see the face value defined as $20 which corresponds with the weight of 1 ounce of gold.

Thus, America has a just weight and measurement… the silver dollar, and no constitutional amendment has changed it. What is a Dollar?

Furthermore, the U.S. Constitution prohibits fiat paper money, or the emitting of “bills of credit.” (Art. 1, § 10, ¶ 1) That provision reads:

“No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.” …

In Federalist Paper No. 44, possibly the most authoritative source for constitutional interpretation, Madison explained the provision:

“The extension of the prohibition to bills of credit must give pleasure to every citizen, in proportion to his love of justice and his knowledge of the true springs of public prosperity. The loss which America has sustained since the peace, from the pestilent effects of paper money on the necessary confidence between man and man, on the necessary confidence in the public councils, on the industry and morals of the people, and on the character of republican government, constitutes an enormous debt against the States chargeable with this unadvised measure, which must long remain unsatisfied; or rather an accumulation of guilt, which can be expiated no otherwise than by a voluntary sacrifice on the altar of justice, of the power which has been the instrument of it. … No one of these mischiefs is less incident to a power in the States to emit paper money, than to coin gold or silver. The power to make any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts, is withdrawn from the States, on the same principle with that of issuing a paper currency.”

Paper currency, whether backed by silver, gold or anything else, wasn’t the hard money authorized by the Constitution. Honest money is honest weights and measures of silver and gold.

Federal Reserve Notes are paper fiat debt obligations. Fiat currency of any kind is a mechanism of wealth transference from the public to a privileged elite – through inflation and loss of purchasing power. It creates debt for the many and wealth for the few, especially when a private banking cartel controls it.

“There can be no legal tender in this country….but gold and silver. This is a constitutional principle….of the very highest importance.” – Daniel Webster

Abraham Lincoln violated the law of just weights and measures and the U.S. Constitution in order to finance the American Civil War when he issued fiat paper United States Notes popularly known as ‘greenbacks’. Their issue was limited by Congress to just slightly over $340 million and later withdrawn from circulation during the 1870s.

In the 19th century, the rise of trade and industry in the US led to powerful new private merchant banks, culminating in J.P. Morgan & Co. It was J.P. Morgan along with a small group of other elitist bankers and politicians who secluded themselves for 10 days at Jekyll Island to write the primary features of the Federal Reserve Act that created the Federal Reserve System.

In creating the Federal Reserve System in 1913, Congress violated the Constitution it was sworn to uphold and defrauded the American public into accepting a growing globalization by international bankers. The US Federal Reserve clearly violates Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and their fiat currency violates Article 1, Section 10. How this system of unjust weights and measures has been upheld is beyond me, especially in light of the Supreme Court ruling in 1935 that Congress cannot constitutionally delegate this power to another body. I guess it’s the same as in any other rebellion against God’s laws… it will eventually be judged and the people will again be carried off into captivity.

By World War I most nations had a legalized government monopoly on bank notes and the legal tender status thereof. In theory, governments still promised to redeem notes in specie on demand. However, the costs of the war and the massive expansion afterward made governments suspend redemption in specie. An attempt was made to assert currency stability by anchoring it to wholesale gold bullion rather than making it payable in specie. This money combined pure fiat currency, in that the currency was limited to central bank notes and token coins that were current only by government fiat, with a form of convertibility, via gold bullion exchange, or via exchange into US dollars which were convertible into gold bullion, under the 1945 Bretton Woods system. From 1944 to 1971, the Bretton Woods agreement fixed the value of 35 United States dollars to one troy ounce of gold. Other currencies were pegged to the U.S. dollar at fixed rates. The U.S. promised to redeem dollars in gold to other central banks.

Setting up a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system, the planners at Bretton Woods established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which today is part of the World Bank Group.

Due to the inflation caused by excessive printing of dollars to finance the Vietnam war, ever increasing social programs, and the negative U.S. trade balance, other nation central banks began demanding fulfillment of America’s “promise to pay” – that is, the redemption of their dollars for gold. In the first six months of 1971, $22 billion in assets left the U.S. and on August 5, 1971, Congress released a report recommending devaluation of the dollar, in an effort to protect the dollar against “foreign price-gougers.” This led to a complete system collapse when U.S. President Richard Nixon ended the convertibility of the US dollar for gold.

Following the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971, the world banking powers Group of Ten introduced their next new world order attempt to maintain their global financial ponzi scheme in the signing of the Smithsonian Agreement which devalued the dollar to $38/ounce and attempted to balance the world financial system using a new currency created by the IMF called SDRs. Special drawing rights (SDRs) were set as equal to one U.S. dollar, but were not usable for transactions other than between banks and the IMF. The end of that system came in March 1973 when the major currencies began to float against each other. By 1973, the gold value of the dollar was again devalued from $38.02 to $42.22 per ounce.

See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her— but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them. – Isaiah 1:21-23

Our own government has been one of the greatest offenders when it comes to unjust weights and measures, and our silver has become dross. If you don’t believe me, look closely at a dime or a quarter minted after 1965. They are worthless melted-down coke cans coated with a shiny substance that looks like silver. Until 1964, US coins (except pennies and nickels) contained 90% silver. Starting in 1965, dimes and quarters were converted to their current nickel – copper composition. Half-dollars (now produced in limited quantities) had 90% silver. It then dropped to 40% in 1965 and by 1971 all US coins (except pennies and commemorative mintings) contained nickel and copper and no silver – a good example of debasing. As for paper currency, it’s just paper.

Today’s crisis is the fruit of the actions taken by corrupt politicians and bankers over the past 100 years in violating the law of just weights and measures. While America hasn’t yet experienced anything that meets the official definition of hyperinflation, the dollar has lost about 96% of its purchasing power since 1913. Compare this to the Roman Empire where it took about 300 years for the currency to lose 65% of its value. Since 1971, when $35 would buy one troy ounce of gold, the dollar has been so devalued that it now takes more than $1,500 to buy that same one troy ounce of gold.

1%. The book that the financial establishment doesn’t want you to read.: The first ever behind-the-curtain look at how banks really function, and their impact on society.
This book gives a genuine behind-the-curtain look at how banks really function and their impact on society. It reveals that banks create most of the money in an economy, not the state. It shows why inequality and discrimination against out-groups are institutional. It explains the banking mechanism that transfers wealth from the many to the few over time. It shows that, unlike almost all other industries, the banking sector enjoys unparalleled protection by the establishment against competition.

Money is Debt

If nothing more, understand that our existing monetary system combines money, credit and debt into a dishonest system of empty promises in exchange for future ones.

There is no eventual payment, only unfulfillable assurances to new generations that will be forced to pay for the debt now accumulated. It’s a moneychangers dream – ever-expanding debt and a continuing interest rate stream, masquerading as wealth creation for the people. It’s in fact a system of bondage and indebtedness benefiting the few at the expense of the many, a modern-day feudalism. It’s how an elite 1% got to own 70% of the nations wealth.

In the 1920s, Josiah Stamp, Bank of England president said:

“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with a flick of the pen (today a computer keyboard) they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits.”

Today, the “money” that we are forced to use by decree (legal tender laws) is printed, distributed, and controlled by civil government, and is not honest money at all; it is based on fraud, deception, and systematic debasement for the purposes of political control.

The monetary policies and practices of the United States and other countries clearly violate the law of just weights and measures because through the manipulation of the money supply they deceive the people and steal their wealth through inflation. (William O. Einwechter, Just Weights and Measures)

“It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” — Henry Ford

For example most people have a misunderstanding about what inflation is. Inflation does not refer to a rise in prices. Rather, rising prices are caused by inflation – inflation of the supply of money in the economy.

Although far more efficient than replacing the silver in coins with zinc, even the ability to print up paper dollars on the printing presses is small potatoes compared to the Federal Reserves control of banks and their computers. Who among the wicked can resist turning some worthless substance into wealth? In fact, today’s banks create wealth ex nihilo – “out of nothing.”

Today, wealth is created out of debt.
Here’s how it works according to a book published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (a branch of the U.S. Central Bank), entitled, Modern Money Mechanics: A Workbook on Deposits, Currency and Bank Reserves.

• The actual process of money creation takes place in commercial banks. Demand liabilities of commercial banks are money. These liabilities are customers’ accounts. They increase when the proceeds of loans made by the banks are credited to borrowers’ accounts.
• Banks can build up deposits by increasing loans and investments.
• Expansion [inflation] takes place only if the banks . . . increase their loans or investments. Loans are made by crediting the borrower’s deposit account, i.e., by creating additional deposit money.
• Expansion continues as the banks . . . increase their loans . . . crediting borrowers’ deposits – creating still more money – in the process.
  .

When inflation gets out of hand, what does the government do? It raises interest rates. This makes it more costly for consumers to go to the banks and create more money to spend into the economy and raise prices.

The Federal Reserve System was created precisely to manipulate the money supply and allow the government to buy the things it wants – including the votes of the middle and upper classes – by giving them the power to buy the things they want – “at low, low, interest.”

And the most important fact to remember: every act of “credit expansion” which is undertaken by borrowing, is an act of currency debasement — an act of creating false weights. It is an abomination to God.

“We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it”. — Congressman Louis T. McFadden in 1932

Currency is a store of excess production (you have produced but not yet consumed, and are storing it as an agreed-upon medium of exchange – the currency). If the government can create unlimited amounts of this stored productivity out of thin air (whether by traditional printing or just by changing a couple of lines in a balance sheet), then what does that say about our measures? It’s not like they actually produced anything when they created this excess store of production, right? They just printed paper money. They just changed the scales, the measures, the standards.

Inflation helps those with first access to money “it’s a little known fact that inflation benefits those with first access to money, such as the banks, the wealthy (via rising asset prices), and the government (think rising sales taxes and property taxes when prices go up). Everyone else gets screwed … Bernanke’s policies are nothing but theft, robbing the poor, for the benefit of banks and the wealthy.” (Mike Shedlock, Inflation is No Miracle Cure, Impossible to Inflation Out of this Mess)

Inflation (whether speaking of an increase in the supply of money, or of a rise in prices) is caused by debtors who exploit an unBiblical money system to their own advantage. Going into debt is offensive to God and is self-destructive (Romans 13:8; Proverbs 22:7). It is precisely our debt that is supported by a false system of money that will ultimately be our destruction.

Punishments for not using just weights and measures.

Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”— skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done. “Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt. – Amos. 8:4-8

Modern Man does not understand the connection between violence and debased monetary systems. The Prophets did. Micah’s message that those who use unjust and deceitful weights are wicked is similar to Ezekiel’s:

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? The voice of the LORD will call to the city— And it is sound wisdom to fear Your name: “Hear, O tribe. Who has appointed its time? “Is there yet a man in the wicked house, Along with treasures of wickedness And a short measure that is cursed? “Can I justify wicked scales And a bag of deceptive weights? – Micah 6:8-11

America, the richest nation in the world where a majority of the people profess to be Christians, should heed the warnings of the Apostle James.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted ; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure ; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you. – James 5:1-6

What can we do to restore just weights and measures?

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.” – Thomas Jefferson

If America has any hope in surviving the inevitable economic collapse and avoiding God’s punishment, we must abolish the Federal Reserve and restore our money to the Constitutionally defined just weights and measures… that is commodity backed money issued and controlled by the people’s representatives in Congress.

If we continue to violate the Eighth Commandment (Exodus 20:15) and instead follow the 5th Plank of Communism, we will suffer the same calamity that every nation before us suffered when they ignored God’s laws… destruction.

The current debt based system is designed to keep you and your children enslaved in a perpetual system of ever growing debt. Current global economic crises are symptoms of a unsustainable debt system that will eventually collapse leaving most people destitute and desperate for relief.

Rather than trusting your money in the debt based paper currency market, you should be storing away some silver and gold.  This can be easily done by dollar cost averaging your precious metal purchases now.

We should immediately start using gold, silver, and other forms of money. If you own a business, start accepting gold and silver coins/medallions/bars as trade. If you do private work for someone, or own rental property, accept gold and silver as trade. If you believe that your product is superior to anyone else, you can require gold and silver as payment. By the way, when you collect a $50 gold American Eagle coin for your services, you now have the purchasing power of $1600 in Federal Reserve Notes.

Additional Reading:

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