Transfer of Wealth - How Will It Happen

In the Christians circle, there are much prophecies about the transfer of wealth at end-times. Do a Google search on "End Time Transfer of Wealth" and you will find many articles. I will use this topic as an illustrations of doing better Bible Study with the 5W1H Method.

The 5W1H Bible Study Method
5W1H stands for What, Who, Why, Where, When and How. It is good to have a mind map template to start with. Choose a mindmap software like xmind (xmind.net), or freemind, or freeplane. Here is a template:


We arrange the 5W1H on the left and the Topic of interest on the right. We begin by filling the topic with "Transfer of Wealth" and begin with a simple but commonly cited Bible verse that talk about it - Proverbs 13:22b ‘A sinners wealth is stored up for the righteous’ .

We then try to answer the 5W1H questions on the left. When we have an answer, we move it to the right. The 'WHAT' in the verse is 'Wealth'. We can add more on the meaning of wealth - what is wealth, with the additional subtopics. In the context of Prov 13, we did not find any specific type of wealth. The first part of 13:22 mentions inheritance. Hence, we can take it that wealth has the generally meaning as we understand it.

We get the following:

We continue with the remaining questions like Who, Why, etc and try to answer with as much Biblical support as possible. A possible stage that I reached is as follow:
"HOW" is where most Controversies Are
As we try to answer the final question 'How', we know the verse itself does not tell us much. Most often, we fill in with our own ideas or imagination of how it will be done and we propagate our own favorite doctrine of how it will happen. The safe guard is to get the 'How' from other parts of the Bible. This is also a critical key to the correct understanding of the Bible.

Differentiate the Vision & Process (How)
Most bible promises are 'Vision' statements. The 'how' to realize the vision are situational and person dependent and the Bible are not specific. The Bible does prescribe a very clear value framework (like the 10 commandments, the fruit of the spirit of love, kindness, ... Gal 5:22-23, the Proverbs, etc ) to guide the process of execution. The 'how' cannot violate the value principles laid down by the Bible. The value principles are actually success principles (not restrictions) that leads to realization of the vision. See Freedom and Its Myth of More Freedom is Better

Find the How from Other Parts of the Bible
From doing the 5w1H analysis, we find that the Prov 13:22 is a vision statement without the How. We are not at liberty to decide what the how should be. We must read the other parts of the Bible to get the answer. There are other verses that provide more information - e.g. Ecc 2:26, Deu 8:18. These 2 verses tell us that God gives us wisdom and ability to create value and wealth. We know of inventors that said God gave them the ideas to innovate new things or show them where to find the precious minerals upon which great wealth were created.
We can find such stories of Joseph, 4 Lepers in Syrian Camp etc. God has many methods for transfer of wealth. It is specific to the particular situations. Expect natural and super-natural methods!

Keys are
1. Seek God & Get wisdom. Each situation is specific and unique even though general principles apply.
2. Trust & Obey
3. Stay within the Kingdom Principles & Values. God does not violate His own principles and order. This is a validation check in our execution of wealth creation.

The Details on the Transfer of Wealth
Please see the mind map below for a more comprehensive exposition on the topic.


Update 22 Aug 2012
In Exodus, the wealth, transfered from the Egyptians to the Israelites, was actually the payments for 400+ years of slavery that the Israelites suffered under the Egyptians. It was the pay-back time.