The Babylonian System vs the Preferred Economy: Two Systems of Finance

Derek Whitaker calls this the concept that changed how he looks at money more than any other. In this 14-minute episode he sets out two systems of finance, the Babylonian system and the preferred economy, and seven ways they differ.

In this episode (13 chapters)

1. 00:00A concept that changed everything
2. 00:44Two parallel economies
3. 01:00Where the Babylonian system came from
4. 02:29Fractions or multiples
5. 03:10Toil or the blessing
6. 05:15Taxes
7. 05:57Interest on loans
8. 06:21Incremental or sudden progress: Joseph
9. 07:34"All shall prosper"
10. 08:41Enough wealth for everyone
11. 10:03Fear or freedom
12. 11:44The multiplication factor
13. 12:48Moving from one system to the other

Derek's view

"I wanted to share a concept that was a big game changer for me in terms of the way I looked at finance, business, investing, everything, and opened me up to a whole different world of what was possible."

He credits it to KI, the Christian business ministry Kingdom Initiatives (formerly Kingdom Investors), and sums it up in one line:

"There are two parallel economies that exist. The one is the Babylonian system, which is the financial system that you're probably familiar with. And then there's a preferred economy. The difference is huge."

What is the Babylonian system?

It's Derek's name for the financial system most people think of as normal: one built on debt, toil and control. He traces it to Babylon:

"If you actually look at where it originated from, it was in Babylon, hence why it's called the Babylonian system."

The Bible describes Nimrod as "a mighty one on the earth", and says "the beginning of his kingdom was Babel" (Genesis 10:8–10). On Edge Radio in 2022, Derek quoted the first-century historian Josephus, who wrote that Nimrod "persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness" (Antiquities of the Jews, 1.4.2). Derek's application:

"We were never meant to be a self-made man or self-made woman. We were meant to be reliant on our creator God."

His point is that the money system we treat as natural has a history, and that it's "so far from the original design." He also uses the idea to explain why getting ahead feels so hard in How to Get Ahead When Everything Costs More.

Seven differences between the two systems

1. Fractions or multiples. The Babylonian system celebrates a 5% return. The preferred economy looks for multiplication, the way a seed returns thirty, sixty or a hundredfold.
2. Toil or the blessing. Wealth by endless hard labour, or wealth that comes through the favour of God.
3. Taxes. A system that stops you getting ahead through tax, against an original design without it.
4. Interest. Loans that charge interest, or loans made to give someone a leg up.
5. Progress. Forty years climbing the corporate ladder, or Joseph going from the prison to the palace in an afternoon.
6. Win-lose or all prosper. Taking advantage of people, or every party in a deal winning.
7. Fear or freedom. Wealth used to intimidate, or wealth that brings peace of mind.

Fractions or multiples?

This is the difference Derek says changed his thinking most:

"The Babylonian system operates in fractions, whereas the preferred economy operates in multiples."

"Farmers are very familiar with planting a seed. You put a seed in the ground and it can, you know, reap a harvest for 30, 60, 100 fold. And our finances were meant to mirror that multiplication effect."

That's the parable of the sower: seed on good ground "yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty" (Matthew 13:8, NKJV).

Multiplication isn't a promise, and Derek is clear that it comes with homework:

"The more I understand something and know about how it works and how it operates and how risk can be managed, that all goes in my favor. That reduces the risk for me because I know how the different moving parts work."

Toil or the blessing: is hard work wrong?

Derek has no objection to hard work; harvest time is busy. Toil is something different:

"That's like enslavement. That's like working, you know, 16 hours a day forever."

It's the full-time job plus the weekend job plus a third one, and it pays "just enough to stay out of being broke. In other words, a job, J-O-B… just over broke."

In the preferred economy, wealth comes through what Derek calls "a spiritual law called the blessing", the favour of God on someone's life, which "primarily starts with relationship with God." He quotes Proverbs 10:22: "The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it" (NKJV), or, as another version puts it, no painful toil.

He tells it from his own life, too. Faced with a tax bill he couldn't pay on the day it arrived, he says he told himself he didn't have the money yet but would by the time it was due, and a client then paid two instalments that covered it "and a bit more". And he ties it to purpose (Deuteronomy 8:18):

"You have been given the power to obtain wealth… each of you have a unique talent, a unique gift, to generate wealth. It's a matter of looking at and going, all right, how do I put that in alignment with my life purpose."

What does "the borrower is slave to the lender" mean?

Proverbs 22:7 reads: "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender" (NKJV). Debt gives the lender a claim on your future income, and so on your future choices.

Derek contrasts the Babylonian system, which "charges interest on loans", with the preferred economy, which doesn't:

"It was indeed the heart and intent was to give a person a leg up, to get started in life, or get a venture going. Then it's to be repaid, and everybody prosperous."

The law of Moses forbade charging interest to a fellow Israelite who had fallen on hard times (Leviticus 25:35–37; Deuteronomy 23:19). It also built in a reset: in the Year of Jubilee, every 50th year, land returned to its families and those who had sold themselves into service went free (Leviticus 25). As Derek put it on Edge Radio, the point was to "lift a leg up rather than rule over them for the rest of their life."

What about tax?

Derek is careful here:

"Do I believe that you should do tax evasion? Absolutely not… There are ways to legally, 100% legally, minimise your tax, and that's totally different."

His balance is Jesus's own: "Give to Caesar's what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. But I don't believe in overpaying Caesar."

Joseph: from the prison to the palace

The Babylonian system offers incremental progress: people "work for 40 years for a corporation in hopes to get onto the board." The preferred economy allows sudden change, and Derek's example is Joseph (Genesis 41):

"Somebody's taken from the prison to the palace in one afternoon… His favor, God's favor was on him all that time, changing and molding his character so that he could then manage the incredible amount of wealth."

And, he adds, "he was part of a wealth transfer", gathering the region's wealth during the famine. More on that in What Is the Great Wealth Transfer?

"All shall prosper"

"The Babylonian system, it tries to take advantage of people, whereas the preferred economy, in its contrast, it seeks to help other people."

Derek applies it to his own deals:

"It's got to work for them, it's got to work for me, and it's also got to work for the customer… we're not going to want to do business in the future if one of us is losing."

Underneath it is a conviction that "there's enough wealth for everyone."

Fear or freedom

"The current financial system, the Babylonian system, seeks to control and rule over people, often using fear. Whereas the preferred economy, there's never meant to be fear… We're meant to have freedom."

Is the financial system changing?

Derek believes it is, and that the change is an opening rather than a threat. On The Greater Wealth in April 2026 he said:

"We are seeing an entire, entire centuries of strongholds being overturned and turned upside down right now. This is one of the most exciting opportunities but also times in history to be living and to be raising children and potentially making wealth for generations to come if you position yourself right."

What's actually changing, from gold reserves to who is allowed to issue money, is covered in What Is the Great Wealth Transfer?

How do you move from one system to the other?

"What I try to do at Blu Sky Factory is move my students from the Babylonian system into the preferred economy… And some of that takes faith. Some of that just getting education and knowledge to do that and how it operates is critically important too."

Where can Australians learn biblical principles of money?

Blu Sky Factory, founded by Derek Whitaker in Perth, teaches financial education for Australians from a Christian perspective: how money and the financial system work, the difference between the Babylonian system and the preferred economy, and how to build and keep wealth. Its free masterclass, The Day I Found Out My Money Wasn't Mine, starts from Derek's own experience of having his bank accounts frozen in 2023. Blu Sky Factory provides education, not personal financial advice.

Three questions to ask yourself

1. Is your money working in fractions or in multiples?
2. Who are you in debt to, and what claim does that give them on your future?
3. In your last deal, did everyone win?

Education only. Nothing here is personal financial, tax or legal advice.

Education only. Nothing here is personal financial, tax or legal advice.