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Recommended Books

Christians are supposed to:

• be a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6).
  
• be witnesses of God’s love, justice & law to the world
  (Luke 4:18-19, 21, Matthew 5:18-20).
  
• maintain and teach everything Jesus taught (Matthew 28:19-20)
  
• discern between good and evil (Genesis 3:22).
  

Some Christians are to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).
Knowledge is therefore vital to the Christian life.

The following secular books are highly recommended for expanding one’s knowledge and horizons, and for the reasons listed below.

• These books serve as a reminder that we live in an evil world.
• They are an antidote to Christian complacency. There is much to think on and do.
• We need to know how the world works, and where it is headed.
• Reading these books is good exercise in applying Christian principles (God’s laws) to the world.
• These books will expand our spiritual horizons if we apply God’s laws to them.
• They prove God’s laws continue to function and are necessary. Ignoring God’s laws is the fundamental reason why there is so much suffering in the world.
• Justice is a major part of Jesus’ love.
• They show why Christians must separate from the world.
• They hint at what the world could be, and the Bible shows us what it should be.
• The anti-Christ will come. These books show why that is inevitable. Christians must be ready. We must recognize him when he does come. We must have a viable alternative to the current system. Only then will we be capable of teaching others to withstand the anti-Christ. Only then will we be ready.
• Righteous living involves much more than simply being good or being religious. It encompasses politics, economics, sociology, science, history, technology, and everything in this world.
  
  
  Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities. -- Isaiah 14:21
  
  The nations raged, but thy wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, for rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear thy name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. -- Revelation 11:18
  (Italics added. Both quotes are from the RSV.)

The Little Earth Book

It's all here in one short little book (almost everything that is wrong in the world). Most of the articles are only one to two pages long. Find out what and how much the rich nations owe the poor nations. Learn about environmental degradation, the insanity of genetically modified foods, the plundering of resources, economic development that doesn’t mean a thing... and much, much more.

Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man

The other books recommended on this page show you what is going on. This book gives the why. It’s about power and greed. The story is as old as mankind (with a new deadly twist). Rich nations are deliberately corrupting the leaders of poor nations to entice them into deep debt. Where bribery and cajolery fail, assassination and military force are used. The only way to get out of debt, is to sell what the rich nations want: land, resources, and labour. Unfortunately, the debts are so great nothing can pay them off. Inevitably, even the people’s rights are sold. Once the ‘rights’ are sold off, the poor nations control nothing even if they later change the government.

The Hunger Machine

World hunger is not caused by food shortages, but by a lack of justice and power. (Injustice suspends the right to life, and the powerless cannot buy or access food.) This book clearly demonstrates that the world system is structured to favour the wealthy. It is the wealthy who own the means of production and distribution. (They have the wealth to buy justice and power.) In most cases, they utilize it to further increase their ownership and means of control. Even foreign aid (food and money) is arranged to benefit the few at the expense of the many. The majority on earth have no say in their governments. Even if they have some political power, their governments are “bound” by international trade agreements or enslaved by debt.

No new scientific or technological advance will solve the problem of world hunger if the current system is not replaced or radically reformed.

This is one of those rare books that shows how our current world functions (however illogically or dysfunctionally). Well documented with numerous case studies, it is an “eye opening” read.

God said no one was to profit from food (Leviticus 25:37). This is one of the laws in the Bible that hardly anyone ever mentions.

Many well-meaning Christians fight world hunger by donating money, expertise and food. Read this book to discover why such efforts are only a drop in the bucket. Perhaps the real Christian response should be more than just offering handouts and salvation leaflets. It is time to think outside the box of charity.

Odious Debts

How did the developing world end up under a load of crushing debt? This very readable book traces the flow of money through history, politics and economics. The fault lies not just in the loose lending practices of the wealthy industrial nations, but also in massive ill-conceived development projects, and the sale of weapons to prop up nondemocratic elites. In every case, the international financial system enriches the wealthy and impoverishes millions.

When debt becomes unmanageable, the IMF and World Bank offer loan restructuring at a price: the sale of national sovereignty. Poor nations are “opened up” to the full forces of globalization when they are at their weakest.

God never wanted entire nations perpetually enslaved by interest (Leviticus 25:4-13). He fixed the Sabbath day for rest, the Sabbath year for the poor, and the Jubilee year for the cancellation of all debts. Christians barely remember these three practical gifts from God. It is time to restore these vital lessons from the Bible.

Silent Theft

Who owns what? Our current economic and political system is based on private ownership (i.e. private capital). Everything (land, rights, goods, money) is owned by an individual, a group or a corporation. But is this really the entire picture?

The real picture comes when one asks “Who owns the environment?” or “Who owns the air?” This is a “hole” that capitalism does not cover: collective rights, or what used to be known as “the commons”.

This book documents the “private plunder” of natural and public wealth, the privatization of what used to belong to everyone (or no one), and the sale of publicly owned or publicly developed resources.

According to Bollier, capitalism and its antithesis communism describe only parts of a greater principle. It is “the commons” that truly describe human society. There can only be individual rights if there are collective rights from which they devolve (i.e. a community that recognizes individual rights). In exploring this principle, Bollier proposes a more just and equitable economic system that is especially friendly to the environment.

God is the true owner (Genesis 1:1). We are only stewards. If God was not exploitive of His creation, can we (even if we are given temporary dominion) as stewards exploit His great gift?

The early church had everything in common under a voluntary system (Acts 2:44-45). No one has ever tried to investigate how this may have worked. Although Bollier’s book is secular and does not mention religion, this is the first description I have ever seen of the principle that was active in the early church: gift giving. (An “economy” of gift giving mirrors the ultimate giver of all, the God of creation.)

To escape the world’s way, and return to the principles Jesus left his disciples, Christians must return to God’s laws and learn from the early Jerusalem church.

Why The Emphasis On God’s Laws?

The mission outlined at the top cannot be fulfilled if we do not know the basic laws in the Bible. Without them, at the very least we have no idea of the true relationship between Jesus and God’s laws¹. Our understanding and appreciation of Jesus’ sacrifice would be incomplete and inaccurate. Without them, at worst, we are doing nothing in this world to ready ourselves and others to receive God.

Do God’s laws apply to our complex modern world? If we believe in an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and omnibenevolent God, how can we then turn around and say we don't trust a part of His word? How can we say He wouldn’t be able to write a message simply enough for us to understand and apply? To say that the Bible only applied to the ancient world runs counter to faith.

Jesus warned that God’s laws are here to stay. Christians and the world are suffering devastating consequences by ignoring and downplaying these laws. The secular books above (even without mentioning God) testify that God’s laws continue to function!

These books remind us the world is a fallen world and therefore evil. If the world is not the anti-Christ system already, it easily can and will become such. An evil world system cannot and will not continue. Most importantly, it must not be supported by Christians.

If you do not believe this, you can throw out the book of Revelation and disregard practically every statement of prophecy found in the Bible. What is left would hardly be God’s word, and not worth believing.

These books show how the world “works” and point to “another way” of living even though they do not fully articulate it.

Christians already have this “other way.” Unfortunately only the early Jerusalem church ever made an effort to develop it. God has already told us how He wants us to live. We need to restore what the Holy Spirit gave us 2000 years ago.

These books show us the “macro” forces at work in the world. We need to understand these forces in order to avoid being a part of them. We have to work out how God’s laws function. Only then can we withstand worldly forces. We must live as a counter to the world system. This is the only way Christians can successfully separate from the world, and prepare for the end times.

If we don’t know the difference between God’s way and the world’s way, how would we recognize the Anti-Christ when he comes? What alternative would we offer the world?

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