Banking on the Kingdom

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1. Banking on the Kingdom

To understand how the Church handles things like banking accounts, we need to understand the full purpose, function, and nature of the Church. In the days of Rome, just as today, the transfer of funds from one place to another produced a need for what has become known as Banks. In Herod’s Temples the Royal Treasury stored large capital reserves managed by the ministers for the benefit of the people. The tables of the money changers were actually a part of this national “bank”¹ or royal treasury,² even receiving a compelled offering.³ Things in the kingdom of God had changed since the day of Moses.

“These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.” John 8:20

The word treasury is from gazophulakion, meaning “the royal treasury” and “guarded vault or chamber.” It contained millions of dollars in silver, deposited in large chests which held the collected contributions of the citizenry for the running of the government, and to support the common welfare.

Even Diana’s temple at Ephesus was nothing more than a world bank built by the commitment of over 127 different nations who deposited funds in their vault. It was the most secure depository in all the Mediterranean, and also invested in lucrative commercial and social enterprises on an international basis.

Ephesus, and the temples of Herod under the administration of the Pharisees and Sadducees, indulged in practices which Moses and Jesus opposed. As the Messiah, He spoke against the Corban of the Pharisees with its social entitlements and compelled offerings. They were storing up silver and gold within a central government⁴ to provide the benefits of social security, but allowed an exercising authority over the people in the gathering of those contributions. This centralized power tempted and corrupted the ministers, and subverted the word of God by taking away the charitable choice exercised by the people.

“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.” Mark 12:41

Jesus, the anointed King, was setting policy for the repository of the public treasury. The words ‘over against’ were from katenanti meaning “before one i.e. he being judge”. He was instructing men within the royal treasury in John 8. “Jesus … came again into the temple, and all the people came unto Him; and he sat down, and taught them.” There are many words in the Bible translated into ‘set’ but in John 8:2, “sat down,” which is from “kathizo,” meant: “to set, appoint, to confer a kingdom on one.”⁵ These are specific words of authority.

Jesus desired charity and forbade benefactors who exercised authority. When there were serious needs among the people during Claudius’ reign, instead of calling upon Caesar,⁶ it was the Church who provided assistance to the people by way of the ministry of Barnabas and Saul.⁷ The Church service to the living body of Christ in the modern world must be as real as that Church of the first century. We must be as concerned about other congregations as we are about our own in an effective and world-wide way.

Banks may open an account for the Church without external numbering of other forms of government, nor be required by law to apply for or obtain such numbers. Properly trained overseers may assist in such accounts. The Church should also not make a practice of using a private party to do Church business, even on a small scale. If the need for an account arises in the congregation, there are alternative financial institutions which can be structured more in line with the Church polity than banks. But if the Church approaches a bank from the proper status it may use a bank account as a foreign situs trust by way of a pass-through account in the ministration of its sacred service and duties. The Church may produce letters of introduction and credence, along with other documents to assist in these endeavors.

If a church has a need for a financial account it will need to select an acting minister and alternates to fulfill those duties if the acting minister became incapacitated. There must be at least one ordained minister of the Church acting as overseer. The Holy Spirit is our Protector, but if there is no named protector an officer(or officers) of a state might be tempted to assume jurisdictional control of the Church.

Although we have referred to this arrangement as a ‘Sacred Purpose trust’ the emphasis is not upon the word ‘trust’ but upon the words ‘Sacred Purpose’. In one sense it is like an altar of God and should not be confused with a statutory trust that could be regulated by the State. An offering is entrusted to the control of the minister, but the status of the overseer is critical to the autonomy of that altar of the Church.

Since the offerings are entirely given to God, into the control of the minister of trust, the people’s act of faith is not like a grantor trust. The corpus of the gift may only return to the people by way of hope and charity. The gift is like bread cast upon the water, or the burnt offerings upon the altars of the past. Once an offering is given the minister of this sacred altar of the Church must choose how it shall be used like those unregulated or unhewn stones of those ancient living altars of worship.⁸

The choice of ministers should be prayerfully made. The protector or overseer of any church service is under some important restrictions laid down by God through Christ, Moses, and Abraham. The overseer has no control of the administration of property. He may appoint or withdraw the appointment of an elected Minister of trust. The people in congregation must elect their ministers and choose their offerings.

The overseer must be an ordained minister of the Church. Assets held in faith are no longer under the control of, nor are they the property of the congregation, and nor the overseer but Christ’s. When you choose someone to minister in the service of the congregation, you must choose with this precept in mind. They belong to God. The ministers of trust are merely ministering as a bondservant of Christ.

Ordained Ministers are required to meet the conditions of Christ. Other ministers are considered “commissioned” or “licensed” ministers acting ex officio by an appointment of an ordained minister. The purposes of these structures are to serve God by serving one another in faith, hope, and charity. Men have often chosen ministers in the past who exercise authority over their neighbor and themselves. They have given up their right to choose due to covetousness, and have gone under the authority of others.⁹

Applying to other governments for a determination letter is a way of granting the power of termination. The Church must only have overseers whose prayer is to obey Christ. The Church is “one form of government” established by Christ and neither it nor its overseers may go under the power of any.

The Church and those overseers of the Church operate according to the perfect law of liberty. The people are free and the ministers are titular. Every man is returned to his family and to his possessions. Each family is an altar of clay in service to his fellow man by the divine inspiration of Our Father. The people and their ministers have no exercising authority over each other.

This is the kingdom of God at hand. The free will choice takes forgiveness and thanksgiving, love and patience, faith and hope and knowledge of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

1The word for “table” of the moneychangers which Jesus overthrew is the same word for “bank” in Luke 19:23 In the Greek today the word trapezia still means bank. Bank is from the Italian banca meaning bench.

2Gazophulakion a repository of treasure, especially of public treasure.

3Salome- Alexandra (about 78 BC), that the Pharisaical party carried an enactment by which the Temple tribute was to be enforced at law. Alfred Edersheim’s book The Temple. See Thy Kingdom Comes, The Hasmonean Appeal.

4Deuteronomy 17:17 “... neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”

5kathizo another (active) 1) to make to sit down 1a) to set, appoint, to confer a kingdom on one 2) intransitively

6Acts 11:28 “And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.”

7De. 19:15 “... at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

Luke 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Matthew 11:2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, Luke 19:29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called [the mount] of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,”

8 See the book Thy Kingdom Comes.

91 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

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The Free Church Report presents a unique path for the modern Church according to the nature of the first century Church by explaining the duty and purposes of that institution appointed by Christ. While Rome declined under runaway inflation, corrupt government, martial law, and endless threats of war, the Christians found an alternative to the men who “called themselves benefactors but exercised authority one over the other.”
The early Christian knew rights and responsibilities were indivisible. They sought the right to be ruled by God by taking back their responsibility, through the service of “called out” ministers who lived in the world, but were not of it. Their government benefits came through a divine network instituted in their hearts and minds by faith, hope, and charity under the perfect law of liberty as their Qorban of the unrighteous mammon failed the Roman society. Order

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