Wealth Management Through a Post-Millennial Lens

you are watching the chorus in the chaos podcast relevant and reformed Thinking

by bringing a Biblical world view and a Christ centered Focus to the

conversation hello and welcome to the chorus in the chaos podcast my name is Jack and I’m joined by a very special

guest Josiah Stow from uh Dominion is back with us uh Josiah how are you doing

pretty well how about you I’m good I good thank you and uh Josiah and I were interacting on uh Facebook a week or two

ago and uh the topic of financial wealth management looking at one’s finances

through a post-millennial worldview the discussion came up and uh he he he

suggested I thought it was a really good idea let’s get hop on a let’s put two mics in front of us and talk about what

that means what does it mean for you know to look at one’s finances and financial stewardship through a

post-millennial worldview so anyway well that that’s the that’ll be the episode uh josi anything else you want

to introduce yourself I don’t know you’ve been on the podcast before but just in case people missed it it’s been a little while so  yeah my name is

Josiah still I am the founder of dominion wealth strategists the only distinctly reformed financial consulting

firm uh there are other reformed individuals who work in finance but as far as I could tell we’re the only

company that is distinctly reformed uh so just helping people take dominion over their over their financial sphere

so obviously that’s on my mind pretty well top of Mind almost all day every day uh and then on top of that I’m a

Reconstructionist uI’m a Baptist as well which I hear is a conflation of terms a full-blown Reconstructionist so

post-millennial presuppositional theonomic calvinistic covenantal all that good stuff in the the same vein is

like RJ Rush duny Gary North David Chilton before he became a prist uh and and that sort of General I suppose C

adjacent uh theological tradition yeah it’s a lot of big words oh we’re gonna

get into big ones don’t worry uh what’s your super infralab serian views uh yeah

we we got plenty of big words in in this theolog the space yeah I I don’t think we have enough time to no I’m just

kidding  but let’s let’s jump into it so so let’s talk about a theological foundation and that’s influence on

financial stewardship so kind of where our discussion began and where I think it’s a good place to start here uh I’ll

just kind of ask you point Blake and and and you might want to Define some terms along the way right ubecause some of

our listeners may or may not know all those words but how does a because I half those words I don’t even I’m just

like I’ll have to Google them as I go along I guess what does chat GPT say this no  how does a post-millennial

worldview right you might want to Define what that is very short very succinctly but how does a post-millennial worldview

shape the way just generally shape the way Christians should think about wealth and financial stud kind of paint the

picture for us yeah uh so post millennial is essentially someone who believes that Christ wins here on the

earth without the need for direct and violent intervention uh that it’s not just a

general upward Trend but we actually do see Victory here on the earth that the the Earth is fully redeemed space and

time under Christ’s feet Until the Last Enemy is death and that the means through which he accomplishes that is

through his body namely the church yeah so it’s a generally I know ales and prills don’t

really like this term when used to describe post Mills but it’s an optimistic view of History like we won

and we are continuing to win so we will see a general upward trajectory with regards to the christianization of the

entire planet yeah uh the ganization of the planet and it’s uh not the violent upheaval that the the dispensational

premillennial would would hold to like a recreation it’s actually just a redeem of the creation  so I’d say that’s the

the general obviously there’s a lot more we could get into in the post millennial sphere uh I tend to hold a little bit

more to the puritanical postmillennialism where there is a thousand a literal 10,000 year Golden

Age but not so far as Jonathan Edward’s historicist view uh where for

for me it seems like history will be in an upward trajectory and then when Christ does return everyone’s going to

look back in history and say wow hey you’re right the last Thousand Years have been basically a golden AG how

about that yeah but a bruised Reed he will not break a dimly burning Wick he will not put out it’s going to be

gradual slow and to counter my old dispensationalist arguments when I was a

dispensationalist uh not perfectly consistent we will have backsliding we will have times where where things don’t

go perfectly well we will have entire nations not crumble into the sea per se uh but but fail uh and become de

christianized for a time like we do believe in a general upward Trend not that every day is objectively better

than the last and there will be no no backsliding ever and in fact there is still the final uh rebellion in judgment

and so we do believe in a huge backslide uh that will happen down the road so that that just a general misconception

about what postmillennialism holds to but it’s just that Christ wins on the earth and we don’t decapitate the head from the body in that victory yeah well

said well said so of the course and the chaos uh admins or podcast hosts I am a

post millennialist I’m I’m the only one the other two guys are not, hence why I’m here and they’re not debating us uh but

no well well said so okay so if someone has a post-millennial worldview, if they believe that things are generally

getting better that the gospel conquers Christ conquers and you know we’re not headed we’re not in a pit things are not

basically on a downward trajectory until Christ comes in at the 11th hour and says things that’s the that’s the inverse view but a lot of people have it

would be like the the Left Behind view right the opposite of that but if

someone has this post-millennial world view how does that influence wealth how does that influence Financial

stewardship yeah how should it I say right in a couple of key ways mostly because uh we have a longer time Horizon

I think uh a lot of post-millennials still believe that we’re practically still in the early church that uh if

you’re aill Christ could return at any time because it’s just a spiritual fulfillment of the church age uh but

when you’re postmill we do expect to see The Last Enemy as death there are still

more enemies that Christ has has yet to conquer through his body so we have a much much longer time scale it could be

tens of thousands of years uh I mean I personally if if there are going to be more Christians in heaven than Heretics

in hell we have a lot of work to do a lot more people need to be saved yeah and then that needs to last for a very

long time so if you’re thinking out a thousand Generations instead of a thousand days uh things are going to

shift dramatically with regards to your financial planning you’re not just planning for your children which my

parents barely did because they were expecting the Rapture any day now 1988 right 88 reasons why the Rapture is

going to happen 1988 my grandparents are assured still somehow that I’m living in

the last generation and then I’m gonna you know be proven wrong when I end up being raptured you know three and a half

years into the tribulation because they’re they’re pre wrath um so they’re they’re still very assured of that so the planning is incredibly shortsighted

let’s do whatever we can with the finances we have now or the the assets that we have now to maximize our impact

over the next three and a half years seven years yeah one generation as opposed to well let’s let’s slower let’s

build better uh and the the analogy I think is most helpful is um if I told

you if I gave you like a bunch of bricks and I said build the tallest tower you can in 10 seconds you might stack the

bricks end to end right I I’ve got 10 seconds I’ve got to get as tall as I can it’s going to be an unstable structure

but you you got somewhere right but if I say here’s a bunch of bricks here’s some mortar and then in the next year build

me the tallest tower that you can well okay now you’re now you’re you’re going to be clearing off the ground might dig

a little bit of a foundation you might you might pour some concrete you might uh all right well let’s let’s lay the

bricks out in this way and you might start way wider right you’re going to build maybe like a pyramidal structure

because you want it to last for the ages uh so it’s going to be an entirely different structure and you’re building

it in an entirely different way if your time Horizon’s different um and

more more as a dig dispensationalism we don’t believe that this world is going to burn away in a fervent

heat so what we build here matters there’s there’s an aesthetic argument it’s just not it’s not just that we do

good work it’s how we do it and it’s how long it lasts and it’s how beautiful it

is in the inter room uh there’s a whole bunch of a whole bunch of distinct differences

uh not only with end goal in mind but the means to get there um and of course

that’s that’s very broad I’m sure we could get into specifics but essentially are you planning for your great great

great grandchildren’s retirement account are are you planning for um your

last name to be associated with uh with like a Signet ring eventually um are you

trying to build your family house um are you buying property where where your great great grandchildren might sit

under the shade that your grandkids uh the trees that your grandkids plant

right how are you stewarding the land um because again as a dispensationalist I didn’t really care about recycling or

the environment or anything like that who cares about global warming it’s GNA get a heck of a lot hotter here in about three and a half years right um so it it

just changes so much about your value structure and the and the way you want

to get where you want to go it changes everything as far as I’m concerned yeah you mentioned cultivating um a place for

someone to sit in the shade right like Generations down the line and maybe think of Genesis 128 the Dominion

mandate right so so how how does that does that how does that influence it to you right and uh tell what I should have

had it pulled up beforehand but I’m a terrible podcast host let me make sure I I don’t misquote it uh Genesis 1 128 and

God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the

fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth so this nature

of of putting creation underneath us and and having dominion over it right to me

those two things align pretty well with what you were what you were describing right but elaborate on that right

because it’s not just dominating it’s taking Dominion which is more a matter of stewardship than a imposition of

one’s will yeah right uh to to a point it’s an imposition of one’s will because if we get into the um get into the

exegesis of Genesis 1 um the only time God calls something very good is when it

directly correlates to the potential for human flourishing right there are other steps necessary in creation for human

for other steps to happen but it’s only when a step is directly taken that God calls something very good um right uh so

like making the Stars also that’s great we’re not made for the stars but the firmament the the space in between the

waters above and the waters below where man lives that’s good yeah right uh having the birds and the fish that’s

great but having the green plants that’s good right um so everything is

everything in creation is designed or was designed by our creator for our good

and for us to co-create with him and I’ll Define that because that might that

might ruffle some feathers uh not ex nillo but God creates the dirt we make

the mud pile right or we make the bricks uh he has created every atom and we

don’t we don’t make any new ones um we do destroy some sometimes nuclear energy

that’s a fun one creating turning matter directly into energy every once in a while um but the amount of matter the amount of energy that God has given us

is static more or L we don’t we don’t add in that realm but we do take the raw

elements that he has given us and we gardenize them uh where God created Eden here you go there there’s the picture of

what creation could look like Adam uh now go out from Eden and gardenize the

rest of the world you had a perfect sinless creation and you only had one Garden wasn’t the

planet of Eden it was the Garden within Eden that Adam was meant to go out and and replicate take dominion over the

rest of the earth and turn it into a place of human flourishing um so when when you have

that strong of a mandate in the created order um it’s it’s veiled it’s corrupted

a bit with with the entrance of sin and the fall but it cannot be destroyed it

is inherent to Creation it is a place for human flourishing and a place for man to take dominion over uh and no

matter how hard we try we can’t get away from that Dominion mandate yeah we end up turning it into a a garden uh or

because of our sinful Fallen nature we end up domineering over it uh and and

basically uh creating a place instead of human flourishing we have sinful flourishing we have we have sin and

death flourishing because of the actions of men uh actions taken that are sinful um so with with all of that as as a

precursor um the Dominion mandate financially basically means that we need

to take th those immaterial things uh well I suppose currency stores of value

uh there’s gold in the land of havila in in Genesis 2 it’s a a medium of exchange and a store of value that’s given to man

directly when there’s only two people on the planet right here as you create

civilization and promote human flourishing you’re going to need some way to fractionalize your bartering system so that you can more efficiently

make exchanges of value and the the store or when you do good work you

create wealth uh and so that wealth that you create will need to be exchanged uh

in some way shape or form so you’re not trading entire houses for flocks of entire flocks of sheep yeah U but you

can fractionalize that and say yeah I’d like a glass of water and here’s a thing that is representative of the value of one glass of water or however you want

to do it because water should be free that’s one of the things that God gave us that should not be commoditized nestly um not that I have strong

opinions on that I’m from California so I’ve got really negative opinions about Nestle um so uh it it’s going to change

your entire view that the if if postmillennialism is true then the

Dominion mandate is still binding in this day and age and on this Earth yeah

not a new heavens and a new Earth not not a total recreated order but this one

which means we need to steward the planet we need to not uh support the industries that are polluting the planet

uh we need to not participate in behaviors that we should not be uh promoting directly or indirectly uh and

we need not be hyper suspicious or um I suppose the

word would be isolationist from the systems and the World At Large we

actually need to participate in them those that we can meaningfully participate in uh and reform th those

things that are are being done poorly uh so I I do see a lot of not not typically

the ones that end up sitting down with me um but I do see a lot of Christians um basically hyper wey of the stock

market like oh no that’s that’s the the gross evil thing that where business is done uh and like Disney is evil and

Tesla’s evil and Apple’s evil uh and meta is evil therefore I can’t put money

in the stock market and good conscience because uh there there’s evil things happening there right so okay also don’t

go outside cu every single War has happened out there um right so we need to deak u a little bit more of an

intentional approach a little bit more of a militant approach even there are systems out there that are corrupt okay

let’s go fix them and God’s not just going to hand them to us on a silver platter it’s going to take work it’s

going to take effort it’s going to take time and it’s going to take way more thought than most people tend to give it credit for

right and we have a longer time Horizon in which to do all of that thinking and that planning and that somewhat hostile

takeover um and then those systems are going to be better off because we did that uh because who else who’s a better

Steward of the earth uh than those who have a right view of reality and are working under uh directly under the

guidance of God himself yeah yeah well said so I think as we talk for so

listener you can figure out when we’re recording this I think as we talk president Trump is announcing his

decisions on all the tariffs and stuff so I I’ve purposely turned my phone down so I like wouldn’t get all these alerts

uh but that’s happening as we speak and you mentioned the stock market and very likely uh tomorrow will be volatile in

the stock market one way or another because of this um so thinking about the stock market how does how does this post

millennial worldview if you if you if you look at the world and say okay I want to be a good Steward I want to have I want to have a Godly disposition and

dominion over Wealth Management how then should one deal with the volatility of the stock market yeah and

just a quick disclaimer in case any SEC ear are listening I am not in any way shape or form soliciting for the

purchase of stocks mutual funds ETFs or any of that uh nor nor specifically

telling any individual to buy or sell uh any of those assets so yeah how should Christians deal with volatility in

general um it depends uh again situation to situation I’d say most of the people

who are actively in the stock market shouldn’t be uh I think there there’s a far lower threshold for uh stock

purchasing than there ought to be uh where anyone with five dollar can just start buying portions of entire

companies uh whether they understand what that company’s doing or not uh and you need a heck of a lot more than just

a ticker symbol and uh you know five-e to dat history of a price in order to know uh whether one should make that

purchase in the first place right uh and anything less than about 15 20 ,000 really isn’t worth putting out there

anyway you are incurring a ton of risk for not a meaningful gain in actual dollars back high yield savings will get

you 5 percent so if if you’re eight to 15% is if that’s not a meaningful amount

of money where where that rate of return would be sizable um it’s not worth it

generally speaking so if if you’re not if you don’t have enough money

to worry about losing at all in the stock market you shouldn’t be in the stock market um but with volatility uh

essentially the the stock market does not like chaos uh economies don’t like chaos they like predictability they like

knowing that if they purchase the thing it’s going to end up at their place uh and it’s going to look the same and it’s

going to have the same features and it’s going to be identical to the thing that they ordered right uh and they they want to know that tomorrow they can resell it

for a similar price um so when you’re introducing tariffs and as uh

how would you say it as chaotically as our current sitting president is doing where it’s on the docket this month and

it’s not on the docket the month after and uh suddenly Canada shoots up a

tariff and he shoots it right back yeah um this whole ball game is is not not

driving well with uh with with stockholders U because we don’t know what the future is going to look like

and a lot of the value of the stock market is predicated upon future hypothetical gains right yeah investors

investors want to know with they want to go into with predictability like you said and and when it changes every other day there’s everyone that you you you

create sell-offs you create T like all thisa you said chaos I mean that’s basically what it is it’s irrational

Behavior because no one knows what’s happening yeah I it and it can be uh even rational Behavior as long if if

it’s done predictably can can do some some upsetting in the stock market but generally there’s slow moves and if we

want to get real technical the only movement in the stock market is typically uh subjectivist value and

brownie in motion with only a little bit of movement over a long period of time of actual value

ad again getting hyper technical here but basically uh with systems that large there’s going to be up and down movement

that is more or less unpredictable right um I mean meaningfully mathematically

unpredictable that’s why anyone who’s like trying to time the market they’re a goofball it doesn’t work dollar cost

average um unless you have some insight or knowledge in which case that’s illegal don’t do that uh so or or you

know you’re a senator or something um right uh but for for the most part

yeah markets do not like chaos they don’t like unpredictability so with uh with the tariffs uh and a president that

I don’t think most people expected to win this time um it it’s introduced a huge amount of chaos and therefore have

it’s taken a lot of legitimate value out of the marketplace since a lot of that value was predicated upon predictability

uh that and to to get into tariffs specifically um foreign countries don’t

pay our tariffs we do it’s it’s a cost that’s mov yeah it’s passed on very

directly to the consumer so if you have a huge consumerist Nation like the United States and you put a tariff on

other countries that we import things from it’s not going to stop the Imports uh certainly not while the United States

isn’t a particularly huge Powerhouse with regards to Manufacturing but we can’t get silicon other than from

Taiwan like there there’s some stuff going on in Texas right now to kind of get the tooling over here but there’s a huge switching cost the United States is

going to have to incur before manufacturing comes back here that’s what I think Trump is hoping is going to

happen he’s trying to move more manufacturing here so that the United States is not just a country of managers but a country of producers that our

wealth is Meaningful instead of just hypothetical um but in the interim it’s

going to really hurt the economy uh every everything’s going to get more expensive because we are

importing a lot uh an awful lot of things uh and even businesses that you

would think are like americanmade it’s there’s a lot of imported Parts there’s a lot of imported materials uh that are

involved in that process so if everything suddenly gets much more expensive 25 30 125% more expensive uh

depending on which tariff we’re talking about which which item um we’re going to have to absorb that cost in the meantime

and the average American isn’t in a position where things can get more expensive for them we’re already at a

huge deficit the average American is already $6,000 plus dollars in credit card Deb is already $500 plus thousand

dollar in debt in total including their mortgage um so it’s It’s Gonna Hurt

pretty bad for a while um and you can thank the president for that and the

tariffs um but this is a it’s a bitter pill to swallow because the United States does need to be a productive

Nation yeah we can’t sustain we obviously have not been able to sustain

being a country of managers uh of of middle management and Corner offices yeah um so it’s it’s going to hurt it’s

not going to be pleasant it’s going to hurt even worse now um than it has been the past couple of years uh but that’s

in hopes that long term we end up actually being a productive Nation ganizing the planet the proper way

instead of just taking advantage of the slave ntion uh slave labor of foreign countries and and the yeah relative

cheapness of their products because of that we’re going to have bring it back home things are going to be more expensive but eventually things will

stabilize uh food in the United States uh is going to be cheap compared to the or relative to the dollar we’re going to

have cheaper Commodities relative to things uh and then luxury goods can go

back to luxury prices and basic necessities can come down from luxury

prices and just be Baseline again uh like like our parents and grandparents used to have back when America actually

made things yeah yeah I’d agree with that I’m you’re the financial expert I’m not but I am in the business world I in

the business world and uh and I would agree I think this is going to be painful I think the tariffs are are

going to be pretty painful um but it’s like ripping off a Band-Aid at some point we have to do it because yeah

we’ve become so reliant on others there’s no easy way to do this and when you factor that in with the debt ceiling

and and the national like it’s it it is a compounding recipe for disaster right

um yeah so near-term it’ll hurt longterm the hope is it is it is help

yeah like a five to 10 year switching cost it’s not going to be a pleasant turnaround right yeah oh yeah yeah yeah

exactly okay well let me ask you this um you know going back to thinking about

postmillennialism and you know we want to as post millennialist uh we want to

be with the gospel transforming the culture redeeming it to the kingdom of Christ improving things so what role do

financial planning play in preparing one for cultural transformation and say a

Christian influence on society yeah um and that that’s actually a pretty simple

one altogether uh so who who is the current head of the Department of government

efficiency uh that’d be Mr musk right that’s Elon Musk you know why he’s currently the head of the Department of

government efficiency because he’s efficient I don’t know yeah he’s incredibly efficient and there’s

actually a few reasons kind of a trick question so one he’s incredibly wealthy he’s a he is a man of particular power

and influence and his power and influence is directly or fairly directly correlated to his amount of wealth right

right there are those who like to be out in the open with their uh with their power and influence like Elon Musk um

but there are a lot of uh very powerful people who do not want to be in the Limelight who are perfectly fine pulling

very big strings and affecting huge changes from the shadows and generally

they’re not the kind of people you want with power and influence and the only reason they have it again is largely

because of money right uh money is the economic authority to allocate resources

that’s the simplest definition I’ve been able to come up with yep who should have

the authority to allocate resources probably those who have a

right view of reality uh so there’s a moral onus almost a a yeah there there is a morality to

making sure that Christians have a lot of wealth that they have that power that influence uh and that they are the ones

affecting the right changes in the world it’s been in the hands of reprobates long enough and we’ve seen what they’ve done with it I think it’s about time

that the wealth of the wicked that’s stored up for the righteous ends up in the hands of the righteous yeah y um so

that that post-millennial view is just okay we have problems plenty we have people in bad people in high places uh

but they do lose so maybe we should do something

about bringing that future that we know is going to happen a little bit closer

to now uh and taking the actions necessary to to monetize the escaton to

use some more big words um but we we need to bring that forward and there are actions that we can take that are meaningful right now um and they they’re

going to start with just taking Dominion of your own household I think concentrically working outward from there right wh why to to Jordan Peterson

does have this particular thing right he’s wrong about a lot uh but taking the Yung out of out of

Jordan Peterson um why are you trying to change the world when you don’t even have a clean

bedroom why why are you trying to take dominion over the entire nation or over an entire company when you don’t even

have a a nicely manicured front lawn if you can’t take dominion over 25 square feet 2 200 square feet however

big your lawn is I I don’t think you have any business trying to play in these larger systems uh so you need to

do so at home first first make sure that you have a really stable Financial household which again is going to be

difficult that doesn’t mean it’s not your responsibility to accomplish uh over the next you know five 10 years or

so so take dominion over your own household make sure your own um your own money is in order that you have proper

savings that you have a high discretionary income that you’re not leaking money out out of places you shouldn’t uh that you are tithing and

you are giving to the church right uh so support yourself support the family support your community uh your your if

you have a a support your company uh and then move outward from there uh and if

enough people do that if enough Christians do that if uh or when as the

gospel Goes Forth uh we’ll find out little by little it happens little by little

richer and richer people end up becoming Christians or Christians end up becoming richer and richer people uh we end up

slowly but surely and efficiently and biblically taking over the these positions of of position power and

influence having the money to make the changes we want to see in the world and bettering the entirety of of humankind

and human promoting human flourishing on our way yeah uh so it’s it’s very simple it’s it’s just the the gospel message

right uh yeah teach the or disciple the Nations teaching them all that I have

commanded you um and slowly but surely could could be centuries could

take Millennia um but with it the sure confidence that will happen we don’t

have to worry about the ends just the means and we already know what we should

do right how does how does a Christian balance balance this building for the

kingdom building say generational type wealth but also um say generous giving like how how

does what is what is the recipe for that what does that look like for for somebody yeah uh since I I do financial

planning not as a cfp for the cfps listening uh I do financial planning I’m

not a financial planner Financial Consultant uh also not a financial adviser there’s a lot of

protected terms in this industry um so how how how do we how do we do that uh

balancing generous giving and building one’s own household and it starts at home right I I see a lot of people way

overextended or giving to like International Mission groups when they aren’t even tithing at their local

church so I think a reorientation of sort there’s an order Al Morris an order of your loves for for those of you who

are trending on Twitter um and there’s also an order financas right an order of your finances you ought to do things in

a certain way in a certain order uh and you cannot pour from nmd

Cup right you want to give generously that’s wonderful why are you giving money you

don’t have uh in fact there was a story of a uh lady in the I think it was the 1100s

um I think it was in Jerusalem

Jerusalem uh prolific

charity uh let’s see if I can find her yep AR we go uh melisende queen of

Jerusalem powerful ruler influential person um actually is is this her this

might not be her by the way uh sorry it’s it’s like thread of a thought um there’s an incredibly influential person

back in the day in Jerusalem if I recall during the 10 1100s um who was known for her charity like that’s all she did she

gave to the poor gave to the poor gave to the poor and when she ran out of money to give to the poor she took out a

bunch of loans to give to the poor give to the poor give to the poor I just had a huge heart for it when she ran out of

traditional loans from the Templars and the other people in the area she found other people she could borrow money from just to give to the poor give to the

poor give to the poor she entirely wrecked the economy h and put her kingdom in substantial

amounts of debt and I believe uh several military conflicts ended up happening

because of that people died believable yeah people died because of her uh what we might say is untethered or giving

that was entirely untethered from reality right so there there has to be a limit on your generosity and you have to

fill up your own cup before you can pour it into somebody else’s if your financial household is not in order you

have no business business being generous with your money be generous with your

time you might have a surplus of that uh be generous with your hospitality right

you may you may have a surplus of that be generous with your vegetables from your garden if you have a surplus of

that but if you don’t have a surplus if you don’t if you’re not even meeting basic needs you have no business giving

yeah uh keeping in mind as well sort of as a dig David plat we’re not called to

give sacrificially as a normative means right it’s not normal to give

sacrificially but the biblical mandate is to to grow right the even just the parable of the talents you were given

something to Steward go make it bigger right Adam was given the garden go make

it bigger go make it better um Isaac or Jacob uh was given a flock of goats go

make it bigger right uh so the whole Dominion mandate is to take something

and to produce more of it uh to take a a couple grains of Wheat and get a wheat

field uh and and to produce 30 60 100 times more uh and the church is not a

sphere it’s not a organization that is designed to grow

things in at least economically right uh most churches do not have a growth fund they’re not investing their dollars for

better for worse uh and so when your money goes to the church keep in mind it stops growing it just gets spent and if

the church has a surplus they’ll find ways to spend uh they don’t like holding on to to Capital generally speaking um

so while you may be giving your two copper coins the last thing that you have and you’re thinking that you’re

being generous because you’re misinterpreting the the widows might Parable uh but you’re you’re trying to be generous and then the church uh has

an extra two copper coins that they don’t need uh and instead of putting it away and letting it grow they’re going

to donate it to a par church ministry and suddenly your extra1 bucks that you were able to S you know you managed to

drum up and wanting to give to charity is used to BU folding tables across the country for an aana

event right it’s not the way that these things are designed uh biblically to to

be run the family is the smallest economic unit the family is where money

grows uh so instead of giving above and beyond and sacrificially it’s better

just to keep that money to to invest it and I mean that colloquially for the As CC uh to to make sure that it’s growing

in in some meaningful assets that are meaningfully productive um so that later on down the road your children and

grandchildren can give abundantly and generously even beyond what you are capable of um but for for the generation that

doesn’t have much to give they ought to just grow what they have and for th

those who do have much to give let them take on that burden in fact there there’s verses in the New Testament

about the the extra responsibility of the rich to to use their wealth right they are the ones who are going to be

giving uh above and beyond to the church because they have that abundance um yeah

and I suppose I’ll I’ll stop that thought there there’s there’s another one coming we’ll get yeah no it’s good so so what in light of that if if

someone wants to be doing better in this way what are some pitfalls that they can avoid what are some Financial pitfalls

that are common and that you know listeners or Christians of this podcast should be like you know what I I need to

be I don’t want to fall into this like what are some examples yeah uh there’s a lot

um I could say what’s generally common but nearly every single budget I look at has different problems uh so it’s it’s

hard to give General blanket advice everyone needs to pay less uh for for their shoes maybe um because there I did

have a client who’s way overpaying for shoes that’s that’s for sure like 200 bucks a month on shoes wow yeah it was

her hobby um but uh I’d say common pitfalls I see areas that uh I might

highlight fairly often um utilities comes up first just uh going down the list of my head utilities uh ideally

Across the Nation about $300 a month for gas water electric and trash there’s

some areas like Phoenix Arizona and one particular area of Arkansas and one area of Connecticut that go outside of that

range because you’re uh your electricity company has a functional Monopoly in that area and they don’t have good

infrastructure um but generally I see people overpaying for that so seal up your doors and windows don’t leave your

doors open in the summer or the winter uh make sure you have proper insulation in your house and you’ll save a lot more

than You’ think uh in that particular area um I also see people uh paying for

cars at all uh they have a car payment I don’t like car payments you are buying a

depreciating asset with debt so not only is the asset getting less and less valuable but you’re being charged uh

interest in order to make that happen so I would generally recommend as long as you’re not upside down on a loan and you

have the capital to buy a car outright to buy a car outright um that that’s a really common one so like blunder of a

financial maneuver um I see people overspending on their tithe because they’re calculating it based on gross

income not net income not not actual abundance or take-home pay I’ve got a whole article on tything if you’re curious about uh that let me ask let me

let me pause you there because I I’ve heard I’ve heard debating stuff this may be a we maybe this good tent yeah it’s a

tangent so saying someone that if you’re calculating 10% it should be on net not

gross because the argument I’ve heard otherwise is quote un quote First fruits

yeah God first fruits God should get his 10% before the government gets theirs right uhuh um okay first of all uh I

don’t know how many of your listeners was raised on a ranch or an agriculture but there’s a huge

misconception as to what first fruits actually are it’s the fruit that ripens on the vine before the primary harvest

the one the the fruit fruit that would have fallen off the tree and rotted if you hadn’t given it to the Levites that’s first fruits all right

it’s the first run through to to get the the early ripening fruit right um so

with that out of the way stop using that as an argument to to give 10% gross um

no generally uh I just want to take a more historical approach uh assuming that you have a fair number of Presbyterians Ang reformed Baptists uh

assuming different levels of continuity or discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments uh the Old Testament tithe

10% of your Storehouse and you did it three times a

year um 10% of the Levites which was essentially a tax government and church

uh 10% to the festival tax actually the festival tithe where everybody brought 10% of their Storehouse with them to

Jerusalem for the Festival of booths and whatnot so everyone had a common Storehouse and nobody went hungry right uh and the P tie as well uh which I

think was more of a municipal thing so every city would have a common Storehouse that the poor could eat from because the corners of the fields were

not always readily available um so that’s like 27.1% of your of your entire Harvest if

you never ate anything out of your own Storehouse right 10% 10% 10% um so with

that in mind your tithe should be 30% right uh if we’re going to be you know

full full continuity and it should be out of your Storehouse of your grain and the fruit of the tree uh but most of us

aren’t putting zucchini and uh and uh wheat in the offering basket but

assuming that it’s money instead of uh produce what you are produ productive

with or what the fruits of your labor about that um then I want you to go to

an ancient e Eastern Jew you know travel back a couple thousand years and then ask them what their mortgage payment

was ask them what their utility payment was oh water bill you you mean like from the stream the stuff that falls out of

the sky right again I don’t think water should cost anything uh from from the sistern yeah yeah he fell out of the sky

um there there are a whole lot of operating costs that we have that are foreign in multiple senses from from the

context in which the tithe was given and what ended up in the storehouse was after the operating costs

of the day right uh where the the the bull uh don’t throw or yeah do not

muzzle the ox while while he’s working so he would have eaten from the fields um the thief comes in and Steals and

destroys the corners of your fields are left for the for uh there was pestilence and there was disease uh and there was

uh you know thieves right uh so what whatever you actually managed to harvest you would also pay a portion of that to

the workers of the Harvest uh some is lost in the threshing and winwing process so whatever ends up in your

Storehouse was after your operating costs and your operating costs came directly out of the field so if we going

to bring that forward to today you have operating costs you have an ox uh so to

speak it’s just going to be a metaphorical one uh you have the Thief that comes in and Steals and destroys and his name his name is Uncle Sam he’s

a relative uh he he comes in and takes a portion of your crops right so you have all of these sort of operating costs and

what actually ends up in your Storehouse is the money you have that was not already spoken for before you ever

earned it so For Better or For Worse I think that is a a more more analogous or to

bring that to today it would be your discretionary income uh plus any of your

line items that are like formally luxuries right so if you if you have like a pipe

tobacco uh budget probably don’t exclude that from your tithe calculation uh if

you have um I don’t know a dining out budget probably don’t exclude that from your um from your tithe calculation but

we just want to make sure that we’re being faithful and not legalistic you also don’t see the 10% tithe reiterated in the New Testament at all uh but it

does tell us to give generously and that the worker deserves his wages so we instead of having and if you’re trying

to go 10% what you’re really asking is what’s the lowest possible number I can give God uh and that that he won’t smite

me for and I can kind of get away with um so the general the New Testament seems to be more aligning instead of

hard rules as a list meta ethic here are the attitudes you ought to promote and it’s a generous giving out of your

abundance right so if and I think that’s about as exhaustive of a conversation on

the ti probably right no interesting answer interesting answer yeah

and I’ve talked with a lot of pastors about this some were happy with it some were definitely not um but it does seem

to be the the most consistent exegetical argument for what you should tithe from uh we’re not ancient near Eastern

Jews we’re not narian Society we don’t have a currency that’s literally made out of gold and silver we are in a Fiat

State digital currency uh with a lot of immaterials that we’re pretending are

valuable um and you’re dealing with operating cost that are just excessive

uh you’ve basically been pressed into surf them without even realizing it because you’re you’re getting bred in circuses in the form of really cheap

TVs uh and so we need to take our actual economic State into account before we decide to give super generously out of

money that isn’t real and uh is given to us even though we know most of it is

going to go right back out the door again what is your actual productive take-home and then if you can give

generously out of that do so there you go okay okay good answer all right so we

begin to wrap up um here in the last few minutes you know if if we have

Christians who who want to change what they’re doing right they want to make changes can you talk for a minute about

Dominion wealth some of the services you guys offer and how those directly contribute to uh say generational wealth

long-term planning post-millennial worldview like what are you guys doing with with clients and customers that

really facilitate Christians and and in in clients to move that way to to be

more in line with that with that path yeah and I I want to start with saying uh any if any of you at home have gotten

any value out of this at all um don’t don’t let the well because we’re we’re

free I’ll just start with that uh we do not charge for our services so I know a lot of people will be like uh oh I don’t

I don’t I don’t have enough money to go talk to a finance guy I don’t uh I don’t have enough assets for them to manage or

or however you want to think through it there is really no barrier for entry you could be dirt poor you could be living

on debt you could be actively using credit cards to pay your mortgage you should come sit down with us uh the only

services that we charge for are Estate Planning and that’s if you need a trust durable Financial power attorney Advanced Healthcare directive only about

$2,500 by the way cheapest I’ve ever been able to find it because I you I set the price um and are business coaching

so if you want to start a business and you don’t want to make a bunch of really stupid mistakes I’ll I’ll help you do that but you need to replace

my time uh for price for Price everything else free properly free um so

please just come sit down with us uh I’d say the best advice I can give is go get proper advice um because any blanket

advice is going to be helpful for some and probably legitimately counterproductive for others like oh go

sell your house because you’ve got too much house some people don’t and selling your house would be a bad idea probably

the worst Financial move some people could make um oh you should go sell your car well some people that’s actually a

cash flowing asset they might not uh selling your car might be a bad idea uh

spend less on groceries maybe uh because some people have health concerns and actually uh buying cheaper groceries at

Walmart may end up increasing their medical bills uh and so it’ be a bad financial move overall uh so please go

go talk with a competent professional uh we’ve got seven agents who would love to sit down with you you might end up

sitting down with me uh and talk through everything uh we go over your budget first and foremost right we want to make

sure that you’re being you’re honoring God with how you’re choosing to allocate your funds uh or how you’re not choosing

to allocate your funds just how incidentally some money moves uh we want to make sure that you have a plan for

every dollar that you make and that every every single store of value every

single medium of exchange that you’re utilizing uh is being used in the most efficient way possible um ideally so

that your great great grandkids don’t have to worry about being hyper efficient with every single and they can

afford a little bit of a a waste that goes goes to the poor incidentally um we

also help with debt management huge thing in the United States uh I think I’ve mentioned some statistics already

but that’s that’s on EV nearly every single budget that we work with every single data sheet that we work with there was a pretty substantial um amount

of debt uh in fact we we did recently break a record we had one guy with about $200,000 in credit card debt wow right

and we we walked them through the process here’s the most efficient way to pay it down it’s not the snowball by the way that’s the second least efficient

way to pay down your debts it’s psychologically helpful I suppose but you’re being charged High interest rates

in the meantime so we we T we Target by interest rate more of an avalanche than a snowball um and Deb consolidation

loans or 0% intro credit cards for balance transfers to to save you a little bit of interest in the meantime we’ll talk through all the options and

and find you a way forward that’s going to get you out of debt the fastest way possible that that’s whether or not you

take it or whether or not that’s the right path for you uh we also talk through that but I’ll make sure that you at least know what

would be the best way forward um we also help with savings accounts right uh there’s a couple of banks I like

utilizing that have really good high yield checking high yield savings um and making sure that you you have like a

month’s worth of uh of money in advance in your checking account you have half that or $2,000 whichever one’s bigger in

your savings account at the same bank and then maybe three to six months worth of income maybe closer to nine months if

you’re in a Commission job uh worth of saving so that you never have to go into debt when you’re in a position of

security and strength you can use your own money all the time it’s great and

then anything over six months that’s where insurance comes in that’s to make sure that those catastrophic Financial failures don’t have to come out of your

own pocket and dollar for dollar usually insurance is a phenomenal way to do that they’re called alator contracts for a

reason uh you’ll never pay as much as that insurance policy will pay out if you have to use it yeah right that’s the

way it goes um so also take care of your life insurance make sure that you can take care of the Widow and the orphan

postly if necessary and as cheap as we can reasonably get it with with the proper benefits that you’re looking for

uh we even Tak to account cash value life insurance because it’s not the worst thing in the world um we want to

make sure that you’re getting uh every sector of the financial services industry uh as something to place under

Christ’s feet as his foot stool uh we also take care of um uh Legacy planning

as I mentioned right so we help with Wills trusts durable Financial power attorneys uh Advanced Healthcare

directives right uh and got a whole lot more we do basically everything there

there’s a reason our tagline is all of Christ for all of life and all of Finance for Christendom um so six basic

General steps but again if there’s anything going on financially in your life we’re here as a resource to help

you put it to good work uh or to get out of a bad situation or to help you get into a better one uh we’ll talk you

through like USDA FHA Loans if you want or and FHA Loans uh if you’re looking to

buy a house or getting real estate investing uh we’ll talk you through when to form an LLC or or an es Corp or a C

Corp right or when you need a bookkeeper uh we we will talk you through absolutely everything that that you need

oh we also have a health insurance guy and a tax guy uh we do have a real estate investor guy so we’d be happy to

help you out uh and and properly take dominion over your finances again free of charge and I don’t think you’re GNA

find a better deal than that free is pretty cheap free is pretty darn cheap pretty cheap yeah all right jiah how can

people find you right yeah you might want to so uh easiest way is probably to go

to www. reformed. money uh we did put it right on the nose there uh it’s a

redirect to our website Dominion wealth strategies.com and a lot easier to spell uh you can also find us on Facebook at

Dominion wealth strategists uh we’re on X uh Dominion ws and I think we’re on

Instagram but I don’t actively manage that one so you’re probably better off

uh just following us on Facebook and X very good Josiah thanks for hopping on and talking about finances

postmillennialism uh yeah fascinating stuff very good stuff and uh any

anything else any closing words of wisdom any quotes any um I don’t know

anything you want to leave the people with as we uh as we the theme music will come in here in a moment and uh you know

you can give them something good sure thing H so I say first and foremost you don’t have to be a post millennialist to be a Christian uh you don’t need to have

perfect dominion over your finances in order to uh to be a Christian first and foremost you need to have a right

relationship with God and you need to understand the gospel as it’s presented and handed down to us that uh uh that

God became man lived a sinless life died on the cross uh Priti death for for your

sins and that he rose again on the third day and he’s coming back soon whether that be in in five years or 10,000 our

hope is ultimately in him and while we’re here the Bible provides everything you need for life and

godliness to include your finances there is a ton of advice in Proverbs uh

Ecclesiastes uh the Psalms even uh Deuteronomy Exodus uh and in and in the

New Testament providing meaningful really solid Financial advice

um and then unfortunately we’re we’re now so far removed uh with regards to

our context that some of it needs a little bit of updating and translation for us and we’re here to help you do

That um wealth is a tool of dominion right uh and I mean that it’s here to

help you take Dominion God gave us money for a reason uh and I would hope even if you don’t utilize our services that you

Take that just a little bit more seriously amen, yeah well say all right jiah well thanks so much this has been

Jack and Josiah with the chorus and the chaos podcast until next time.