A Book Written For Our Day

Ezra Taft Benson said:

“The Book of Mormon … was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us. … Each of the major writers of the Book of Mormon testified that he wrote for future generations. … If they saw our day and chose those things which would be of greatest worth to us, is not that how we should study the Book of Mormon? We should constantly ask ourselves, ‘Why did the Lord inspire Mormon (or Moroni or Alma) to include that in his record? What lesson can I learn from that to help me live in this day and age?’” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1986, 5; or Ensign, Nov. 1986, 6).

Elder L. Tom Perry echoed this, stating that “the major writers of the Book of Mormon … fully understood that their writings were primarily for the people of a future generation rather than for the people of their own generation. Mormon himself said, ‘Yea, I speak unto you, ye remnant of the house of Israel’... Moroni, the last writer in the Book of Mormon, addressed his words ‘unto my brethren, the Lamanites’ in the latter days.”

In our day, despite living in a modern world and having technology unimaginable to the ancients, there are many parallels we share that are touched on in the Book of Mormon: War, inflation, government infiltration, assassins, populism, social decay and unrest, wealth gaps, corrupt judges, and more.

Let’s continue from last weeks post and specifically get into why I believe the word “slippery” implies there is inflation in ancient American societies.

In Alma 11, we find one of the most detailed descriptions of an economic system anywhere in scripture. As Amulek contends with the lawyer Zeezrom in the city of Ammonihah, the narrative seems to randomly pause to explain the Nephite system of weights and measures, which doubled as their currency (Alma 11:3–19).

This system, established earlier under King Mosiah, was remarkably precise and practical. It used gold and silver as the basis for money, with values tied to a standard measure of grain (likely barley, a common ancient commodity). The law set fixed equivalencies, preventing arbitrary changes or debasement.

In other ancient societies “bimetallism” was used, with gold valued higher and used for larger purchases, and silver being used for smaller daily purchases. It’s interesting to note that in the ancient society of the Book of Mormon, gold and silver coins were interchangeable in value. Bimetallism often led to issues in other economies depending on the supply of each metal available in circulation.

The base unit was the senine of gold (or its silver equivalent), equal to a measure of “every kind of grain.” The system scaled in a binary-like progression (powers of two up to 7), making calculations straightforward:

This commodity-backed system contrasts sharply with modern fiat currencies, which can be printed without limit. The Nephite standard ensured stability: money retained its worth because it was weighed against real goods like grain, and the law prohibited tampering with the measures (Alma 11:22–25 implies strict adherence).

This setup resembles sound money principles; scarce, verifiable, and resistant to inflation. No central authority could whimsically increase the supply of money in circulation; value came from precious metals and honest weights.

In fact many types of money literally mean “weight” or something similar to it. The British pound, shekel in Hebrew means “to weigh,” as do peso (Spanish), mark (German) and lira (Italian) in their respective languages.

The idea of standardizing measurements for various different thing is common and fundamental to a functioning society. The metric system, which has measurements for distance, volume (liquids), solid items (weight), speed, etc, along with the American measurements too.

To do almost anything without consistent measurements, from building houses, to making cars or cooking, would make things very difficult. Similarly, without a verifiable standardized unit of currency, it is difficult to plan for a business or understand the economic environment.

America used to run on a gold standard, as did many governments, but that has not been the case since 1971, when Nixon left the gold standard. You can see a clear demarcation of this change in many historical graphs affecting many different things (see wtfhappenedin1971.com).

Since leaving the gold standard, we now have what’s called “fiat money,” which means money by decree. A piece of paper is worth $20 because the government says so, same for every other type of paper whether it’s $1 or $100. There’s no weight of gold or standard measure of anything behind it. It’s completely unhinged.

It’s incredible how much our financialized world depends on what 12 unelected officials  in suits at the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates; how analysts and investors hang on their every word, stocks will gain and lose based on what is said, and banks and businesses may boom or bust depending on their whims.

These unelected bureaucrats, along with Congress, can print money from the treasury at will, despite there not being enough tax revenue to pay for things. This allows politicians to fund unpopular things, without tax revolts, such as the ongoing conflict with Iran, or ICE.

To put it simply, say you were making a mixture of lemonade using the following recipe.

Ingredient | Quantity

Fresh lemons: 6-12 lemons (depending on size)

Sugar: 1 to 1.5 cups (for simple syrup)

Water: 4-7 cups (to dilute)

Think of the sugar and lemon juice as gold, and the water as paper dollars.

When the water is backed properly by the correct ratio to lemon juice and sugar, you end up with a great tasting drink. What happens when that peg breaks and you don’t use 4-7 cups of water as instructed. You use 8 cups, or 10, or even 15. You can hardly tell at this point that it’s lemonade and end up with a flat La Croix.

The same thing has happened to our dollars. They have been completely diluted and drained of their value.

While the text doesn’t say, we do know that the Nephite’s had a strong monetary set up as explained earlier, where gold and silver were tied to a certain portion of grain.

It’s my hypothesis that as Gadianton robbers infiltrate the government, committing murder to get power and gain, that they did some form of coin clipping similar to Nero and other emperor’s in Rome. This same occurrence is also documented in ancient Greece, Egypt, China, India, Persia and more.

“Yea, behold, the anger of the Lord is already kindled against you; behold, he hath cursed the land because of your iniquity. And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them... Behold, we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone; and behold, our swords are taken from us in the day we have sought them for battle. Yea, we have hid up our treasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land. O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.” (Helaman 13:30-31, 34-36)

These verses in the Book of Mormon highlight theft to some degree, because possessions are taken. I think this is a small subset of what is being described though, because it is observable. When inflation gets high, people turn to theft. This is why you see more and more aisles under lock and key at Home Depot, CVS, Walmart and Target. People aren’t scanning their bananas at the grocery store self checkout. The technical term for this petty theft is literally called “slippage,” and the stores price things to offset this, causing higher prices for honest shoppers.

The majority of these passages though seem to be talking about riches and treasures, which presumably is more likely to be coinage. Three time the phrase slippery is used and it mentions being unable to retain or retain your riches. This is what is happening to the dollar.

The house you see now for $250,000 pre-Covid house you see for sale at the price of $500,000 USD is not actually worth twice as much as before. The money is worth half as much! The government printed it, the lemonade is watered down, and your purchasing power has slipped away. The made up new money went to fund wars and pay government contractors and subsidies. Those closest to the government got the new money first and bought assets, or literally did nothing but open up fake daycares and hospice centers in Minnesota or California, while the rest of us got stuck with higher prices and inflation. Fraud and theft become more and more enticing to get ahead, as hard work and steady 3% raises that don’t seem to be enough to keep up aren’t enticing enough.

In ancient times when “slippery treasures” plagued society, a stable, grain-tied bimetal system offered fairness and predictability. The problem lays with enforcing this through a centralized government entity.

Bitcoin restores a solid denominator to the monetary system, a reliable yardstick that is always auditable and has verifiable total circulating supply. It’s governed by rules and mathematics, not rulers and political pressures, incomplete data and personal preferences.

These principles are worth pondering as we examine further the current economic system and Bitcoin’s unique properties in the next article.