The world we live in bows to the god of mammon. Pursuit of materialism and money has become the core value of most people the world over.

Obsession with material gain is the organizing motivator that drives the world's economies. It is also one of the greatest sins of our time. And abundant sin begets abundant curses.

The idea that both God and mammon control the outcome of the world's financial structures might at first sound confusing.

But it's true!

God sets the rules for success or failure in every human activity. But the worship of mammon messes up humanity's potential to enjoy the long term blessings and prosperity that come from applying the principles of God's laws—such as "You shall not steal" and "You shall not covet ..." (Exodus 20:15, 17).

That's why the sub prime mortgage crisis and its potential to collapse U.S. housing values is a curse that just keeps on giving—exposing the symptoms of a deep, worldwide spiritual crisis. Wrong values and practices of finance infect every nook and cranny of the global economy.

Presently millions of Americans face the threat of being forced out of the homes they purchased under manipulated circumstances. You, your friends, relatives or coworkers may be hurt—perhaps very badly—before the effects of these irresponsible loans come to an end.

The price for playing God

God gives no one the right to rewrite the laws of basic prosperity. Anyone trying to change His rules is playing God—trying to usurp His authority.

Tragically, Wall Street's barons of banking and investments have been playing God on a mind-boggling scale for the last five years. These few thousands of people control or influence how money flows throughout the world—deciding who gets it, who doesn't and on what terms.

Bowing to the allure of mammon, many Wall Street bankers, underwriters and promoters—with unsuspecting cooperation from consumers—have for decades promoted the idea that easy credit is the foundation of prosperity.

It is not! That's the big lie behind the economic crisis of today.

The foolish idea of replacing the ethics of hard work, savings, and sound investment as the foundation of prosperity was wrong. But more than wrong, it is evil to attempt to turn the endless debt extended to relatively poor people into endless supplies of gold for rich people.

Ill gotten gain

After 9-11, Wall Street handlers of trillions of dollars of assets manipulated the reigns of credit markets to lure millions of Americans to take on trillions in mortgage debt under the false promises of rising home values and easy repayment schemes. Investment bankers repackaged and sold these to greedy investors for high returns.

Thousands of executives rejoiced over the legal but outrageously unethical compensation for these massive transactions in fool's gold. Wall Street investment bankers, traders, specialists, and analysts and their management executives took home over $25 billion Christmas bonuses in 2006 alone.

What was new was the gigantic scale of this foolishness. Banks, investors, and insurance companies, on the grandest scale the world over, bought the notion that Wall Street could change reality itself—and rewrite the biblical principles behind prosperity or depression. Even watchdog agencies that rate debt were obscenely compromised while U.S. political leaders turned a blind eye or bought into the scheme.

The destruction of assets and wealth—millions in mortgages and other financial instruments—is wreaking havoc in the world's credit and finance structure. Credit markets are in serious recession all over the world. It is threatening meltdown within weeks.  

Already U.S. stock markets have erased $3 trillion in equity value. As of February 2008 there's a $2 trillion loss in home property values, with as much as $5 trillion more to come.

By one measure of averaging, that would equal approximately $60,000 in asset value for each family of 4 in the United States that has been lost already. The possibility of this loss tripling within three years has been suggested by economists from both Goldman Saks and Yale University.
 
If you are among the majority of Americans who own their own homes, you have experienced a loss of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of dollars in the value of your house. Some feel they have been robbed. Indeed, you may be among them.

Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13). Eventually, serving mammon brings ruin to those ensnared by its temptations, which proves yet again that when men in power in this world play God everybody gets hurt.