God put gold in the ground for Adam. And the gold was good! Heaven has streets paved with gold. Had Adam not sinned, he may eventually have made Eden into a replica of Paradise in heaven complete with streets paved with gold. Perhaps Adam may even have decided to make a golden house which God could come to during His daily afternoon walks and talks with Adam, like the Temple which John saw in heaven.
Later God gave land to the twelve tribes of Israel. The land was to be a perpetual inheritance, never sold outside of the tribe. Moses also instructed the nation not to charge interest except to non-citizens.
At that time God also promised extra fertility to His people. The numbers of offspring produced by His people was to be considered a measure of how blessed they were and of how influential they could become.
All of this was a shadow of the restored Paradise which is now reserved for us in heaven and which shall be revealed at His coming and Kingdom, thanks to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
In the meantime, even though the Kingdom is within us, and not outward, nevertheless some of heaven's value-system with regard to material wealth may be able to shine out from within us into our families and community in this present world, even though the extent to which this may happen may be limited on this side of the Resurrection due to persecutions and physical death.
Let's consider how that may happen. Imagine acquiring land without having any intention of ever selling it. You wouldn't care about rising or falling real estate prices. Your purpose would be to bequeath the land to perpetual generations. Your future descendants would never need to purchase the land on which they build their family home.
Imagine acquiring gold, and other precious metals and gemstones - not to sell them again - but to own them perpetually and to use them to keep improving the value and beauty of your family property. You wouldn't hope for rising prices nor care about falling prices. Your purpose would be to keep and enjoy for generations.
Imagine an economy that didn't charge interest within itself. The boom/bust or inflation/recession economic cycle wouldn't exist. Foreign debt would forever be replaced by a trade surplus.
A key difference between that and other wealth-creation strategies is that it neither depends on nor can be affected by price changes.
With that view of wealth, imagine then hoping to produce as many children as possible. If each generation has five children, in the 100th year you will have multiplied into 4,678 people; or approximately 45,000 if each generation has eight children; or half a million people if each generation is blessed with twelve children. Imagine the influence on society this makes possible.
And imagine if all Christian families in the nation adopted the same value system. Imagine if each Christian family purchased acreage, not to hope for price rises so they can sell, but with the intention of keeping the land as a family inheritance for perpetual generations.
And imagine if each Christian family acquires gold and precious metals and gemstones, not to hope for price rises so they can sell, but with the intention that each house that gets built on their properties undergoes continuous and lavish improvement and beautification and remains in the family forever.
Imagine if each Christian family multiplies in 100 years to become thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
And imagine if each family never charges interest to a fellow family member.
In 100yrs, each Christian family could almost become a village, community or city of its own, let alone the influence that they would have in their existing communities.
Whilst the fertility rate amongst the rest of the nation's population remains below 2.0, in the second generation more than one half of all the children born in the nation will have come from those Christian families. And by the 100th year, tens or hundreds of millions of people will belong to the Christian church in the nation.
All of this could be achieved in just 100yrs, simply by adopting the heavenly/Edenic/Mosaic/Gospel paradigm of wealth: that is, adopt a view of wealth-creation that neither depends upon price rises as a stretegy nor can be negatively affected by falling prices.
It's amazing how many common wealth-creation strategies actually depend on price rises in order to succeed. For example, nowadays if people by real estate or gold, they do so hoping that instability in the economy will force prices up, so they can sell.
But God didn't put gold in the ground so Adam could hope that other people's economic misfortune would force the price of his gold up so he could finally get some advantage. No, God put the gold there so Adam could keep it and enjoy it. Same with the real estate.
True wealth is not created when instability in the economy unrealistically inflates the on-paper value of your asset. You've really created wealth only when the value of your asset has been improved in real terms: for example, if you've improved the land by building a house on it; or by decorating it with pure gold; or if you have produced something such as crops, animals. And especially if you've multiplied by having children.
Then it can be said that you have increased your wealth.
But if your wealth has increased on-paper only, then you are merely reflecting the instability and misfortune in the economy without having truly increased your wealth in real, Biblical terms. You can still be affected by a downturn in the economy. You are still depending on instability in the system.
When all along God gave us a blue-print for a wealth that promotes stability in the economy and that lasts forever.
But better still is the eternal wealth that awaits us at the coming of Jesus Christ!
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