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The Christian Case for Bitcoin: Bitcoin redeems money. How does this affect Christians and why we should care.
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. - Romans 12:9-10
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. - 1 John 3:18
Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. - 1 Corinthians 10:24
The above verses are but a few of the ways in which the apostles sought to articulate to early churches what it meant to think and live as Christ did. John and Paul sought to articulate in plain language the radical worldview through which Christ and his people see the world. Such a vision stood in stark relief to the Roman world into which Christ and his Gospel were born.
Celebrity sophists and their vapid speeches filled the public square. Small business owners faced increasing pressure to either openly or secretly decrease the quality of the goods and services they offered in order to try to keep pace with an increasingly devalued Roman currency. Cesar and his government placed ever-increasing pressure through fear, taxes, and forced worship upon penalty of violence in order to try to maintain peace throughout its multicultural empire.
Amidst so many complicated issues and increasing justification to think and act to the contrary, the apostles advocated the same path that their crucified and resurrected Lord had counter-cultural self-sacrificial love of God and neighbor. A burning desire to know Christ through knowing his pain, his lack, his fullness, and his eternal life.
They were called to look down the most dominant empire in the world to that point and declare with their mouths and lives, “No God but Christ.” From the perspective of the Roman and Jewish powers that were, it was a fools errand, yet God has been using the foolish things of the world to bring to nothing the things that seem strong, important, and real since the beginning of time. In the span of two centuries the Church turned the world upside down by refusing to budge an inch on their God-defined and love-borne action, regardless of the risk and inconvenience involved.
The cultural climate in which Church finds itself in 2021 is not nearly as different from the early church as one might imagine. Celebrity worship and social media lend undue credibility and importance to the most extreme and novel voices, enabling them capture the attention of tens of millions, especially the young.
Microprocessors and the internet have created an increasingly interconnected and multicultural world. One hundred years of central banking has seen the US dollar lose 99% of its purchasing power and enabled endless wars to be waged the world over.
And that doesn’t even take into account the carnage that has been waged upon the most vulnerable peoples globally via their currencies.
Governments the world over have become hopelessly encumbered by debt while confidently asserting that they have everything under control. Their behavior has also normalized unsustainable levels of debt among their citizenry, leaving an increasingly large percentage dependent upon government safety net programs for their daily bread, a responsibility that does not belong to them.
How should the church respond to all of these challenges? The answer is the same today as it was 2000 years a radical self-responsibility and commitment to the word and work of God. A dogged refusal to be swept along by the “inevitable” tide of man-centered, sowing and reaping denying, future forsaking Christ-less secularism.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. - 1 John 3:18
Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. - 1 Corinthians 10:24
The above verses are but a few of the ways in which the apostles sought to articulate to early churches what it meant to think and live as Christ did. John and Paul sought to articulate in plain language the radical worldview through which Christ and his people see the world. Such a vision stood in stark relief to the Roman world into which Christ and his Gospel were born.
Celebrity sophists and their vapid speeches filled the public square. Small business owners faced increasing pressure to either openly or secretly decrease the quality of the goods and services they offered in order to try to keep pace with an increasingly devalued Roman currency. Cesar and his government placed ever-increasing pressure through fear, taxes, and forced worship upon penalty of violence in order to try to maintain peace throughout its multicultural empire.
Amidst so many complicated issues and increasing justification to think and act to the contrary, the apostles advocated the same path that their crucified and resurrected Lord had counter-cultural self-sacrificial love of God and neighbor. A burning desire to know Christ through knowing his pain, his lack, his fullness, and his eternal life.
They were called to look down the most dominant empire in the world to that point and declare with their mouths and lives, “No God but Christ.” From the perspective of the Roman and Jewish powers that were, it was a fools errand, yet God has been using the foolish things of the world to bring to nothing the things that seem strong, important, and real since the beginning of time. In the span of two centuries the Church turned the world upside down by refusing to budge an inch on their God-defined and love-borne action, regardless of the risk and inconvenience involved.
The cultural climate in which Church finds itself in 2021 is not nearly as different from the early church as one might imagine. Celebrity worship and social media lend undue credibility and importance to the most extreme and novel voices, enabling them capture the attention of tens of millions, especially the young.
Microprocessors and the internet have created an increasingly interconnected and multicultural world. One hundred years of central banking has seen the US dollar lose 99% of its purchasing power and enabled endless wars to be waged the world over.
And that doesn’t even take into account the carnage that has been waged upon the most vulnerable peoples globally via their currencies.
Governments the world over have become hopelessly encumbered by debt while confidently asserting that they have everything under control. Their behavior has also normalized unsustainable levels of debt among their citizenry, leaving an increasingly large percentage dependent upon government safety net programs for their daily bread, a responsibility that does not belong to them.
How should the church respond to all of these challenges? The answer is the same today as it was 2000 years a radical self-responsibility and commitment to the word and work of God. A dogged refusal to be swept along by the “inevitable” tide of man-centered, sowing and reaping denying, future forsaking Christ-less secularism.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 8, 2021
6 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 11, 2022
I really admire this author and his conviction for truth and justice. As a Christian HODLer myself, I’ve struggled to have meaningful conversations about Crypto (specifically Bitcoin) with other believers for a variety of reasons.
1) I don’t want to be THAT guy that won’t shut up about crypto. For better or for worse, our passion for Bitcoin has become a meme which is a hard stigma to overcome in conversation.
2) Crypto still seems to get grouped into fringe topics and conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theorists in general can be…a lot; but CHRISTIAN conspiracy theorists are a whole different animal. I struggle to have meaningful conversations with Christian Flat Earthers because they have religious conviction behind their beliefs.
I’m starting to realize, to those uneducated about crypto and the injustices of fiat systems, I definitely come across the same way. It is SO obvious to me that the fiat system is a lie and goes directly against our values of honesty, equity, and justice…but to make such an admittedly bold claim turns off many believers. Yes, our greatest commandment is love…but I see that many Christians think the end of love is just being nice to people when it should go MUCH further than that. We should be the salt of the earth, bringing good into the world which SHOULD include pursuing justice.
I REALLY love how Melder steers us away from an almost cultish mindset on Bitcoin and straight towards our needs that only Jesus can fulfill. Bitcoin is NOT our savior, Jesus alone is. Bitcoin is only an incredible tool He has given us to bring good into the world.
3) End Times Prophecies - Most other believers will understand this. This was MY holdup before I got into Bitcoin as I feared buying in would be participating in the new world order and possibly the mark of the beast.
My favorite part of the book was how Melder explains how Bitcoin goes directly against the ideas behind the antichrist, the mark of the beast.
I give 4 stars out of 5 because I’m petty and do get distracted by spelling errors and also because I think I expected the apologetics section to be different than it was. HOWEVER, I did appreciate how this section showed the parallels between Jesus, the gospel, and Bitcoin.
At the end of the day, I really can’t recommend this more and also highly recommend researching and considering contributing to the author’s “Bitcoin Lake” project in Guatemala. This is a really cool way to be the hands and feet of Jesus to create lasting change for the people most disadvantaged by our current systems while also opening up opportunities to share the good news.
1) I don’t want to be THAT guy that won’t shut up about crypto. For better or for worse, our passion for Bitcoin has become a meme which is a hard stigma to overcome in conversation.
2) Crypto still seems to get grouped into fringe topics and conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theorists in general can be…a lot; but CHRISTIAN conspiracy theorists are a whole different animal. I struggle to have meaningful conversations with Christian Flat Earthers because they have religious conviction behind their beliefs.
I’m starting to realize, to those uneducated about crypto and the injustices of fiat systems, I definitely come across the same way. It is SO obvious to me that the fiat system is a lie and goes directly against our values of honesty, equity, and justice…but to make such an admittedly bold claim turns off many believers. Yes, our greatest commandment is love…but I see that many Christians think the end of love is just being nice to people when it should go MUCH further than that. We should be the salt of the earth, bringing good into the world which SHOULD include pursuing justice.
I REALLY love how Melder steers us away from an almost cultish mindset on Bitcoin and straight towards our needs that only Jesus can fulfill. Bitcoin is NOT our savior, Jesus alone is. Bitcoin is only an incredible tool He has given us to bring good into the world.
3) End Times Prophecies - Most other believers will understand this. This was MY holdup before I got into Bitcoin as I feared buying in would be participating in the new world order and possibly the mark of the beast.
My favorite part of the book was how Melder explains how Bitcoin goes directly against the ideas behind the antichrist, the mark of the beast.
I give 4 stars out of 5 because I’m petty and do get distracted by spelling errors and also because I think I expected the apologetics section to be different than it was. HOWEVER, I did appreciate how this section showed the parallels between Jesus, the gospel, and Bitcoin.
At the end of the day, I really can’t recommend this more and also highly recommend researching and considering contributing to the author’s “Bitcoin Lake” project in Guatemala. This is a really cool way to be the hands and feet of Jesus to create lasting change for the people most disadvantaged by our current systems while also opening up opportunities to share the good news.
February 3, 2022
As a Christian and Bitcoin advocate, I had high hopes for this book, but it was quite disappointing. Largely because I felt like I was reading a series of tweets. This is literally true at the end of the book, but stylistically true throughout much of the book. It is hard to see any sort of lengthy flow of ideas beyond a paragraph or two and many conclusions are made without good reasoning behind them. There exist some nuggets of good ideas in here, but you'll have to extract them on your own and build up your own supporting evidence to keep holding on to them because the book doesn't help much in that regard. :(
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews