The Sins of Our Financial System
Fiat Money, Usury, and the 8th Commandment

In This Article:

• The 8th Commandment and the Westminster Larger Catechism
• How fiat money violates “false weights and measures”
• Usury by volume: the truth about APR and long-term debt
• The welfare state, Social Security, and receiving what is stolen
• Wasteful Gaming and the stock market
• Our Christian duty under WLC Q141

This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Part 1 covers fiat money, fractional reserve banking, and how money is created. Part 3 presents the biblical alternative through the Infinite Banking Concept.

The 8th Commandment and the Westminster Larger Catechism

The 8th Commandment states Thou Shalt Not Steal (Ex. 20:15). Written by God on stone tablets, this command presupposes and establishes the right of personal property. Without the existence of personal property, the prohibition of taking something that does not belong to us would be meaningless.

The Reformed exposition of this short four-word command runs far deeper than a simple prohibition on theft. The Westminster Divines recognized that each commandment included both duties required and sins forbidden (WLC Q99). In their exposition of the 8th Commandment (WLC Q140–142), they catalogued what faithfulness to this commandment actually demands — and what it actually forbids:

Q142: “The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, man-stealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen; fraudulent dealing; false weights and measures; removing landmarks; injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression; extortion; usury; bribery; vexatious lawsuits; unjust enclosures and depopulations; engrossing commodities to enhance the price [monopolies or cornering], unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming [gambling]; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us.” (Westminster Larger Catechism, 1647)

With that standard in view, consider how many of these sins our modern banking and monetary system commit.

Theft… receiving anything that is stolen… fraudulent dealing… false weights and measures… injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts… usury… engrossing commodities to enhance the price… wasteful gaming.

The list is not incidental. It is systematic.

False Weights and Measures: Fiat Money and Inflation

Fiat money is a false weight and measure (Ligonier, 2007) by definition. Part 1 of this series demonstrated how money created from nothing through fractional reserve lending has no commodity backing — no gold, no silver, no real stored value. Every dollar printed beyond what the economy produces dilutes the purchasing power of every dollar already held by working citizens.

Inflation is not an accident of economic policy. It is the mechanism by which wealth is transferred from those who hold currency to those who control its creation — the banks and their institutional allies. This is injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts: every long-term agreement denominated in dollars is being quietly renegotiated in favor of the debtor-state and against the saver, without the saver’s consent.

Fractional reserve banking compounds this by creating money that does not exist and charging interest on it — driving individuals and their government into perpetual debt which is, by the Westminster standard, man-stealing.

Usury by Volume: APR and the True Cost of Debt

There are no federal usury laws in America. Under a proper federal system this power is delegated to the states — but the states are not exercising it responsibly either. For undocumented loans, interest rates are limited to 5–15% APR. For loans agreed to in writing, there is no limit, on the assumption the debtor has read and understood the terms.

The Truth in Lending Act’s Misdirection

Under the auspices of consumer protection, the Truth in Lending Act mandated disclosure of the Annual Percentage Rate in a standardized format. But APR alone is not enough information — and it deliberately shifts attention away from what matters.

A 5.3% APR over one year is not usurious. But 5.3% over 30 years means paying $300,000 for a $150,000 house. That is usurious interest when considered by volume. Would the American consumer make the same purchasing decisions if they understood the true cost? At minimum, those earning $50,000 a year would not be financing $50,000 vehicles on 84-month notes.

Keynesian Economics and Debt Slavery

The demand-side economics encouraged by Keynesians actively discourages frugality and promotes debt as a virtue. The so-called “paradox of thrift” — the notion that saving is economically harmful — is central to the Malthusian, anti-Christian philosophy of John Maynard Keynes. The government, enraptured by these ideas, issues stimulus checks and suppresses interest rates to “stimulate” the economy. Both cause inflation, transferring wealth from citizens to bankers and their mercantilist allies.

The Welfare State: Receiving What Is Stolen

Inflation is not the only mechanism of financial theft in the modern system. The welfare state takes from one citizen by threat of force and redistributes to another — some as individual welfare, some as corporate welfare.

Social Security as Ponzi Scheme

Social Security tax is not held in a trust fund. The Social Security tax withheld from every paycheck is not set aside in an account against your Social Security number, growing at interest, to fund your future retirement. Money is fungible — those tax dollars are spent on any government program Congress chooses. Benefits are not withdrawals from a fund; they are direct transfers of wealth from current workers to current retirees.

Today, for every person receiving Social Security benefits it takes the “withholding” of 2.8 workers to fund them — down from 5.1 workers per recipient in 1960, and projected to reach 2:1 by 2050 (Peterson Foundation, 2022). The “trust fund” is projected to be insolvent by 2035 (Paul, 2025). This is the definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Government Welfare and WLC Q142

Social Security and every form of government welfare amount to “withholding from our neighbor what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves” by the power of the vote. All while encouraging “idleness and prodigality” instead of the responsible stewardship scripture requires for our own provision. It also fosters “inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods” — discouraging private charity because citizens assume the government mandate has replaced their personal obligation. As James Madison noted, charity is no part of the legislative duty of government.

Wasteful Gaming and the Stock Market

Even the approved instruments of “saving” fall under the Westminster condemnation. Stock market participation in its dominant retail form, broadly promoted as responsible investing, is more accurately described as wasteful gaming.

What “Wasteful Gaming” Means

Gerhardus Vos explains gambling as sinful because it attempts to gain wealth without rendering equivalent value. If the gambler wins, Vos says, he gains another’s property without giving equivalent value in return. If he loses, he wastes property entrusted to him by God. True Investing, by contrast, involves allocating resources with the expectation of generating income or profit over time through productive enterprise. For the retail investor, stock market participation, despite being framed as investing, frequently aligns with gambling’s dependence on unpredictable outcomes with little or no knowledge, rather than with the diligent, controlled resource management scripture demands.

The Speculative Reality

What is the line between gambling and investing? Day trading gives us a good place to start.

In day trading, the individual buys and sells shares with in the same day, aiming to profit from short term price fluctuations, using techniques like “momentum trading”, “scalping”, and “breakout trading”. They are buying because they believe someone else will pay more for it later. He may study earnings, technical indicators, economic data, or algorithms. More information may make his speculation better informed, but it does not make it something else. His anticipated gain still depends upon an unknowable future price.

Extending the holding period doesn’t resolve the problem. The day trader is merely trying to use historical data to turn probability in his favor with no concern for the company as a productive element of the economy. He still aims to gain wealth without rendering equivalent value.

Contrary to Warren Buffett’s counsel to buy businesses not stocks, retail investors buy shares hoping prices rise. But that price is determined by what other market participants are willing to pay. Market sentiment, expectations, fear, enthusiasm all affect that price alongside business fundamentals and the ever increasing money supply.

Many opt for mutual funds believing that expert management reduces speculation. It does not. If someone gives their equestrian friend $100 to bet on races on their behalf, they are still gambling. The expert placing the bet does not absolve the one who funded it. Every prospectus carries the disclaimer: “Past performance is not indicative of future results.” This is not merely legal boilerplate. It is an admission of the speculative nature of the enterprise.

The Mathematics of the Financial Industrial Complex

There is a myth that investing can be reduced to an automated, mathematical exercise in diversification (Cook, 2025) — “evidence based investing”, the capital asset pricing model, Monte Carlo simulations of portfolio performance, probability-of-success calculations from proprietary software. These are the extrapolation fallacy wearing a lab coat. They are marketing designed to make the client forget the previously mentioned disclaimer.

The house always wins. In the stock market, the house is the financial industrial complex. John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, described the arrangement plainly in a 2009 interview with Steve Forbes:

“It turns out that you [the retail investor], who put up 100% of the capital, you took 100% of the market risk, are getting about 25% of the market’s return. And the croupiers, who of course put up 0% of the capital and took 0% of the risk are getting 75% of those compounded, long-term returns.” (Bogle, 2009)

One common defense remains: over the long run, the stock market goes up. But rising nominal prices do not necessarily mean equivalent increases in productive value. One reason broad indexes rise over time is monetary inflation. As the supply of money and credit expands, more currency competes for existing financial assets, driving up share prices. Some of what appears as investment return is merely a consequence of the money losing purchasing power, not simply businesses becoming more productive. And as discussed earlier, that process is not neutral. Newly created money enters the economy unevenly, benefiting those positioned to receive and deploy it earlier while reducing the purchasing power of those who receive it later. A rising index can therefore reflect both real productive growth and the effects of a monetary system that harms our neighbor.

Is Every Stock Purchase Gambling?

So is every stock purchase gambling? No.

Ownership in a productive enterprise can be a legitimate investment. But calling something an investment does not make it prudent stewardship. A Christian should be able to explain what he owns, why he owns it, why he owns it in that proportion, and what productive activity he expects to generate his return.

If the answer is simply that markets have risen in the past, that diversification reduces risk, or that someone else will manage the portfolio, then the activity deserves greater scrutiny. The expected gain still depends heavily upon uncertain future prices and the willingness of future buyers to pay more.

The issue is not whether a transaction carries risk. The issue is whether we are exercising the provident care Scripture requires over property entrusted to us, or merely placing that property into a system we do not understand and hoping probability works in our favor. The language of investing should not prevent us from asking that question.

Our Christian Duty Under WLC Q141

What standard should govern our financial management? The Westminster Divines answered that question in the same breath they condemned the financial system’s sins — in the duties required by the 8th Commandment:

Q141: “The duties required in the eighth commandment are, truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce between man and man; rendering to everyone his due; restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right owners thereof; giving and lending freely, according to our abilities, and the necessities of others; moderation of our judgments, wills, and affections, concerning worldly goods; a provident care and study to get, keep, use, and dispose of those things which are necessary and convenient for the sustentation of our nature, and suitable to our condition; a lawful calling, and diligence in it; frugality; avoiding unnecessary law-suits, and suretyship, or other like engagements; and an endeavor, by all just and lawful means, to procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others, as well as our own.” (Westminster Larger Catechism, 1647)

Gerhardus Vos summarizes the scope of this commandment: “The general scope of the eighth commandment is respect for the sanctity of property… Property or wealth is created by God and entrusted to man for his use in glorifying and serving God. It is therefore a stewardship committed to man and for this reason must be respected. Thus, the eighth commandment requires not only that we refrain from stealing our neighbor’s property, but that we acquire and take care of our own.” (Vos, 2002)

This standard is comprehensive. It is not enough to avoid stealing. We have a positive duty to protect our neighbor’s property as well as our own. To give and lend freely according to our abilities. To procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others as well as our own. That duty means we must not contribute to their loss of purchasing power through inflation caused by fiat money and fractional reserve banking — even passively, through unthinking participation in a system designed to extract wealth from them.

If our current financial construct is inherently sinful as the Reformed tradition demonstrates, an alternative is not merely desirable. It is required. Part 3 of this series presents that alternative: the Infinite Banking Concept as a biblically consistent method of taking private control of the banking function (storage, movement, and repayment) in your own family economy.

Ready to take the first step toward a financial system consistent with your values? Schedule a free 30-minute clarity call with William Fullington to learn how IBC applies to your situation.

Semper Reformanda

References

Bogle, J. (2009, January 12). With all thy getting, get understanding. (S. Forbes, Interviewer). Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/2009/01/09/intelligent-investing-bogle-transcript-Jan12.html

Cook, V. (2025, February 28). Trump’s slush fund. Mises Institute. https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-slush-fund

Ligonier Ministries. (2007, September 14). Money and inflation. Ligonier Ministries. https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/money-and-inflation

Paul, T. (2025, January 23). Will Social Security run out? Here’s what could happen to your benefits. CNBC Select. https://www.cnbc.com/select/will-social-security-run-out-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

Peterson Foundation. (2022, August 4). The ratio of workers to Social Security beneficiaries is at a low and projected to decline further. https://www.pgpf.org/article/the-ratio-of-workers-to-social-security-beneficiaries-is-at-a-low-and-projected-to-decline-further/

Vos, J. G. (2002). The Westminster Larger Catechism: A commentary. Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Company.

Westminster Assembly. (1647). Westminster Larger Catechism. https://thewestminsterstandard.org/westminster-larger-catechism/

William Fullington is the founder of Reformed Finance LLC and an Authorized Infinite Banking Practitioner with the Nelson Nash Institute. He is a licensed life insurance producer and retired Air Force officer who helps Christian families understand the Infinite Banking Concept, whole life insurance policy design, biblical stewardship, and the importance of controlling the banking function in their family economy.