Short-Selling Stocks and Combative Kingdom Investment

 

The “short squeeze” of GameStop has already faded from the headlines, but the war between the hedge fund managers who “short sold” its stock and the retail (private) investors who took revenge by artificially boosting its value holds important lessons for us in these latter days. Recently, the Kingdom of God has been under assault on every front in particularly ruthless ways. Our ancient adversary sees his chance to “drive down” to zero the perceived value of Kingdom investment in the hope of causing people to sell out in panic, thus making the “stock” drop even further. He also hopes to create paralyzing fear that keeps even true believers from holding onto their “shares” in the Kingdom, let alone taking bold new risks for the King.

Two similar parables told by Jesus compare the resources that God has given us to capital that can be used in the “stock market of life” for the advance of the Kingdom. Both describe how a powerful man divided his estate among his servants before leaving for a journey: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey” (Matthew 25: 14-15). Upon his return, he called his servants to account for what they achieved with those resources. 

In the parallel parable, the reason for his journey is made clear: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, “Do business till I come.’ But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us’” (Luke 19:12-14). This man was none other than Jesus who ascended to heaven to receive the Kingdom and to return to reign. His servants are called to continue doing business with his resources in the meantime, despite being surrounded by a hostile population that rejects his authority. 

There is always an element of risk in investing in any kind of stock market – including the “stock market of life” that contains much more than mere finances. This stock market touches every aspect of our life decisions, and courage is required in order to continue investing even when evil forces attempt to destroy the profitability of the shares we hold. Satan is like a hedge fund manager, trying to “short squeeze” every believer who has invested in the Kingdom like a retail investor. His goal is to destroy our resolve and to erode even our hope of a fair fight in a free market. He also wants us to lose sight of the fact that Jesus will return in triumph, punishing his enemies and rewarding his faithful servants. 

Now is the time to respond with all-out “economic warfare” for our King! It may seem that Satan is succeeding in driving down the value of our shares, but we can act by investing all the more – thereby driving the price back up and making the predatory hedge fund run by our enemy pay dearly. Unlike the GameStop story, in which the hedge fund managers of Wall Street eventually will subdue the retail investors, every true step of faith we take now will yield eternal value for the Kingdom. Satan’s empire may seem invincible now, but one day his stocks will crash.

How do we wage economic warfare of this type? Each person needs to understand what God has placed under his oversight, and then decide how best to use those resources – while refusing to surrender to fear or selfishness. Maybe we need to free up more of our time to minister to the needy, to build relationships and to share with the lost. Maybe we need to pour ourselves into intercessory prayer. Maybe we need to open our bank accounts for the Kingdom as though this is an emergency (and it is!).  

Even those who feel like they have nothing to give will be singled out for praise by Jesus himself if they take these steps in faith: And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had” (Luke 21:1-4). 

God will lead us if we come with a heart ready to invest everything we are and everything we have. A ruthless enemy may be willing to use any form of economic / spiritual warfare against us, but these challenges should actually be seen as investment opportunities. Our decisions will prove whether we believe that Jesus is truly coming back from that “long journey” – and this life is a series of opportunities to express that faith in God in a practical way. 

The movie Persona Non Grata tells the story of Sugihara Chiune – the Japanese diplomat who used his position to issue six thousand visas to Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi advance, despite the position of his superiors. In one scene, his assistant says to him: “The world is a wheel that goes around. Hitler may be on top right now, but one day the wheel will turn and he will be at the bottom.” Chiune responds: “When the wheel does turn, let us make sure that we have no regrets.”

It is our turn to combatively invest in the stock market of life on behalf of the King. May we grab hold of every opportunity, and may our faith help others catch a glimpse of the value and of the ultimate victory of our King and his Kingdom. When we are called to account, may we have no regrets and may we hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21; Luke 19:16). May the fear of what is coming upon the world only give us more motivation to risk it all for the one who gave it all for us. 

The illustration is taken from the Money & Markets website. 

Father, Forgive Them for What They Will Do

 

Stories of the persecution of early believers at the hands of Roman emperors have been engraved on the collective memory of Christians all over the world and down through the centuries. The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus wrote that, following the burning of Rome, “Nero falsely accused and executed with the most exquisite punishments those people called Christians, who were infamous for their abominations…” He added that Nero had punished them “not so much for the crime of burning the city, but for hatred of the human race” (The Annals, 44.2-4).

Tacitus’ report, though perhaps biased due to his disdain of Nero, confirms the worst suspicions of Christians regarding the brutality of the Roman Empire. However, few readers pay attention to the fact that Tacitus himself seems to confirm the accusation leveled against the Christians of harboring “hatred of the human race” – indicating that even he may have seen Nero’s actions as justifiable in some strange way. Even fewer have ever stopped to consider that the Romans may have had logical reasons for their repression of the belief in Jesus Christ. 

Christians understandably bristle at any attempt to justify the utter cruelty that the early believers faced, and indeed it is clear to anyone with spiritual discernment that the true source of the campaign of eradication against them was the Devil’s hatred of all God’s children on the earth. Even so, it is worthwhile to consider the perspective of the Roman establishment as they sought to ensure peace and tranquility in the vast Roman Empire. This closer look is particularly useful as humanity descends into another dark age that may end up eclipsing that period. 

The Roman Empire faced huge administrative challenges and the threat of instability was never far off. The first couple of centuries of the spread of Christianity coincided with the rise of cults that mixed religion and politics – especially in the Asia Minor region. Rome saw the spread of new faiths and the forming of exclusive societies by its subjects as a threat to peace – as shown by Emperor Trajan’s letter to Pliny the Younger: “If people assemble for a common purpose, whatever name we give them or whatever reason, they soon turn into a political club” (Letters, 10.34). The Romans also viewed respect for their idolatry as evidence of submission to their authority, and therefore saw the Christian refusal to worship any other god as political treason and as a potential cause of spiritual volatility due to angering the gods.

Today, we are heading back into a very similar situation. A massive campaign of intimidation by the world elite has turned the majority of humanity into a nervous and jittery herd of largely compliant sheep. It is up for debate whether the information spread by leading figures is true or false, but it is clear that the goal is domination rather than empowerment. In a situation like this, fear is a powerful motivating factor as the survival instinct kicks into high gear. Anyone who dares to violate the will of the “gods” is seen as a threat to stability and survival. Soon to follow are the accusations that “hatred of the human race” motivates this refusal to bow the knee. 

We as believers may soon face the wrath of the truly fearful masses if we hold the line against the lies. They may not have the deeply diabolical intentions harbored by world elites, but they are afraid – deeply afraid – and therefore unpredictable. “…The god of this age has blinded [their minds]...” leaving them without the light of the Gospel to combat the darkness (2 Corinthians 4:4). They are as helpless against the wolves as sheep without a shepherd, as “strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). This god-free situation paradoxically leaves them vulnerable to fulfilling Jesus’ words that “the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service” (John 16:2).

In all honesty, we would act no differently if we faced the current crisis without a true relationship with God. We, too, would see the current events sweeping the globe as an existential crisis for humanity requiring the complete surrender of every shred of God-given freedom and dignity. We, too, would soon forget that our lives ultimately are in God’s hands. We, too, might be persuaded that climate change is a threat demanding immediate action to bring about depopulation. We, too, could react to any dissenting opinions as a clear and present danger to society requiring an end to free speech in order to preserve the peace. We, too, might come to the conclusion that all non-compliant religious beliefs must be eradicated for the sake of survival. 

Inquisition-like thought police and a humanistic attempt to survive without God is the next stop on the journey at the current rate. Peter did warn us to do our best to avoid causing needless trouble: “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter” (1 Peter 4:15-16); “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed” (1 Peter 3:15-16). Even after our best efforts, persecution will come. That is a promise.  

Thank God that his cause will ultimately prevail, but it is important in the meantime for us to understand what motivates the masses of humanity surrounding us. This comprehension should move us to deep compassion for them, and prepare our hearts ahead of time to ask God from the depths of his heart beating inside of us: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

The illustration is taken from the following website. 

Loneliness, Social Distancing and God's Embrace

 

During the height of one of the lockdowns this past year, a student of mine from California entered the online class I had opened while I was still muted and invisible. An older lady with a pleasant yet slightly mournful countenance, she began talking with one of the other students about how she cannot wait for our weekly sessions together – not knowing that I was hearing everything. My heart broke for her when I realized that she saw the class as the one glimmer of hope and human connection in a world now enforcing loneliness and social distancing. All I wanted to do was simply reach out and give her a hug to try to comfort her in some small way.  

As an online lecturer since even before the outbreak of COVID-19, I have noticed the human need for companionship among my students become ever more apparent and acute as the dreary months have dragged on. Loneliness, to put it bluntly, is a little foretaste of hell. God’s very first observation about our humanity summed up the horror of it all: “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Indeed, this was the very first thing in the whole world that he declared to be not good! 

In the western culture, a twisted version of individualism and the destruction of family and social connections had already taken a bitter toll on the human psyche before we heard the phrase “social distancing” for the first time. However, even in cultures where being physically alone is almost impossible, the gnawing pain of loneliness within us can be a silent killer of the human soul. God created us for meaningful human connections, and we naturally wilt and wither away in their absence. 

Loneliness and the fear of being alone are often directly connected to other issues in our lives – from various forms of addictive behavior to the trail of broken relationships that many of us leave behind in our search for companionship. The pain of unfulfilled longings can lead us to view ourselves as unlovable and unworthy of human contact. Those who claim to actually enjoy being completely alone may simply have reached a point of amputating that part of their consciousness in order to stop the pain. 

Logically, the pain of loneliness could be solved by simply having meaningful contact with other human beings. However, our hearts will ultimately remain empty if contact is not made within the context of our even more important relationship with God. The true balance is found in rejoicing in his supreme role as our father, while realizing that he longs for us to live in community with loving siblings (Psalm 22:22; Hebrews 2:12; Romans 8:29) and that he loves to set “the solitary in families” (Psalm 68:6). 

Now, how can we see the heart of God at work today in this area of our lives? After all, the strictest forms of enforced social distancing prevent people from reaching out for true human connection. In the past year, I have become convinced that there is something profoundly evil about this enforced loneliness and that its dangers likely outweigh any benefits by far. Nonetheless, God has allowed human companionship to become scarcer precisely when its importance has become more obvious.  

We find a partial answer to the dilemma in the story of Gideon. Outnumbered and perhaps feeling a bit alone, Gideon likely could not believe it when God asked him to reduce his ranks even further – all the way down to three hundred (Judges 7:1-22). God knew exactly which soldiers he wanted to place around him during the battle. The others may not have been made of the material that Gideon would be able to rely on, and might have ended up weakening his own resolve or even betraying him.

We are also at war today, and while we may wish that we had more comrades surrounding us, we should remember two facts. First, God created us with the need for companionship and he will tenderly care for us. Second, it may be that many of the people that he is removing from our lives are not supposed to fight alongside us in the battles ahead. Ultimately, he knows better than we do which companions we truly need in our lives, and he can judge their character in ways beyond our abilities.

Pain accompanies the loneliness in our hearts, and shame often prevents us from simply admitting that we feel alone. Even if we overcome that obstacle, fear can keep us from trusting God to supply all our emotional needs for companionship. And yet, I can see him watching over us, guiding us closer together even in times of social distancing, and singing over us a song that we will hear in full only in heaven: 

I've been waiting to watch you realize

What all your longing was for
And I've been waiting to show you the thread of grace
That ran through all your pain…

And I've been waiting to see you tremble as you're embraced
By a world saturated with my love
I've been waiting for the day when at last I get to say
My child, you are finally home…

Every tear you cried dried in the palm of my hand
Every lonely hour was by my side
Every loved one lost, every river crossed
Every moment, every hour was pointing to this day…

Indeed, the famous verse about him singing over us is found in a context that tells of how he will gather his people together after a time of trouble (Zephaniah 3:14-20)! 

This post goes out to all who are lonely in these dark days of social distancing. He sees you, he knows your need, and he has not forgotten your pain. Somehow, may he send one of his faithful servants to simply hug you in a way that will alleviate the pain and remind you of the promise of the eternal embrace of his everlasting arms. 

The illustration by Peter Wever was taken from the Tutt' Art website.