# A Biblical View of Economics



## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 3, 2005)

How would you develop a _biblical view_ of economics and culture which would transform a society from a non-Christian system *into* a Christian system?


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## RamistThomist (Aug 3, 2005)

*GARY NORTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Ok, sorry I was having fun with that one.


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## crhoades (Aug 3, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Draught Horse_
> *GARY NORTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
> 
> Ok, sorry I was having fun with that one.



Seriously though...He has dedicated himself to writing 19 biblical economic commentaries as well as supporting books not to mention numerous newsletters and LewRockwell articles. I do not see how one could seriously try to develop a biblical view without at least consulting his works:
http://www.christianciv.com/North_Economic_Commentary.html


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## RamistThomist (Aug 3, 2005)

> _Originally posted by crhoades_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by Draught Horse_
> ...



When it comes to sheer writing talent, he wins the battle hands down.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 3, 2005)

How would you summarize 19 commentaries and other sundry writings into a paragraph or so on this topic for this thread?


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## RamistThomist (Aug 3, 2005)

> _Originally posted by webmaster_
> How would you summarize 19 commentaries and other sundry writings into a paragraph or so on this topic for this thread?



Free market, maybe? I am weak on economics and would feign display my ignorance. I defer to my betters on this one.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 3, 2005)

Calvin wrote alot on some of these ideas. I'll check there as well.


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## wsw201 (Aug 3, 2005)

Forget Gary North. Go with John Robbins!!!


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 3, 2005)

Protestant Work Ethic and The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

[Edited on 8-3-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 3, 2005)

The Religious Tradesman by Richard Steele


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## Arch2k (Aug 3, 2005)

> _Originally posted by wsw201_
> Forget Gary North. Go with John Robbins!!!



I know that there are many on this board who do not care for anything Robbins says, but I have listened to his series of lectures on economics and they are quite good...but then again, I am not theonomist like most on this board. Suprisingly, free market is what Robbins promotes as well if I remember correctly.


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## RamistThomist (Aug 3, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Jeff_Bartel_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by wsw201_
> ...



Robbins is decent on economics; I have listened to a number of his lectures. Most on this board are NOT theonomists. Robbins takes the same view as Machen on economics (Christianity, Education and the State, ed Robbins) which is the same view that Bahnsen takes on economics.


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## VanVos (Aug 3, 2005)

Here's a statement by ICE, Gary North's ministry 



> The perspective of those associated with the ICE is straightforwardly conservative and pro-free market. The ICE is dedicated to the proposition that biblical ethics requires full personal responsibility, and this responsible human action flourishes most productively within a framework of limited government, political decentralization, and minimum interference with the economy by the civil government.



This to me is a accurate summary of biblical economics.

VanVos


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## TimeRedeemer (Feb 1, 2006)

Adam Smith self-consciously elucidated the laws of God's liberty in _Wealth of Nations_.

If there are really, foundationally, only three kinds of economy: command economies, tradition economies, and free market economies, then from a biblical point-of-view...

Command economies would be the worst. They enslave. They are strongest monkey as leader economies. Everything is centralized. Communism in our era is a prime example. Atheists love command economies.

Tradition economies limit one's horizons (you do what your father or family does). The two great escapes are the miliary and the cloth. The spiritual state of a people can be real and higher in a tradition economy than a command. 

Free market economies require the most liberty and cooperation and rule of law. They promote more flow of information as well. Liberty and the flow of information is what is most conducive to the plan of God. 

That the most biblical school of Christianity - Calvinism - helped create and meshed so well with free market republics says something. 

(Note: most economies will have elements of all three basic types, but will have as its center-of-gravity just one. For instance, the most policed communist economy will usually have a very active free - black - market raging underneath, usually for the 'elite'.)

Some thoughts from my limited forays into the subject...


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## RamistThomist (Feb 1, 2006)

I was browsing through Sproul Jr's _Dollar Signs of the Times_ yesterday. So far it is very good, if basic. It is Mises for dummies!


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## JWJ (Feb 1, 2006)

> _Originally posted by wsw201_
> Forget Gary North. Go with John Robbins!!!


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## RamistThomist (Feb 1, 2006)

> _Originally posted by JWJ_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by wsw201_
> > Forget Gary North. Go with John Robbins!!!



I have no problem wiht John Robbins on economics. When Greg Bahnsen reviewed (read: massacred) _Theonomy A Reformed Critique_ he made heavy use of a collection of essays edited by John Robbins on Machen: _Christianity, Education, and the State_ and praised Robbins for doing such a fine work! Bottom line--Robbins has done much good in the past (his devastation of natural law is superb) and can be read with profit if read with discernment.

But for fun read here: Go Ahead Tax Payer, Make my day!


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## Civbert (Feb 1, 2006)

> _Originally posted by wsw201_
> Forget Gary North. Go with John Robbins!!!



Here ya go: Christianity and economics lectures.


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## Puritanhead (Feb 1, 2006)

> _Originally posted by C. Matthew McMahon_
> How would you develop a _biblical view_ of economics and culture which would transform a society from a non-Christian system *into* a Christian system?




Succinctly stated, that the Bible recognizes property rights is manifest in the commandment "Thou shall not steal," and while God is said to be Lord of all creation, he gives us finite humans stewardship over some of the things and realty over this earth, and rights inherent in the fruits of our labor. 

Most economic questions reverberate back to the Bible's recognition of property. Verses in Proverbs, that say, "The laborer is worthy of his wages," convey that a man is owed his due, and should not be defrauded by an employer.


The allocation of resources by the free play of supply and demand is the only economic system that is conducive to the freedom, happiness and prosperity of a nation. The free-market prospers within a prudent civil and legal framework for prosecuting acts of force and fraud, enforcing contracts, and upholding private property rights.

Robert Nisbet's works illustrate how the intermediary institutions and allegiances between the individual and the state have been continually encroached upon by statism and centralization. In recent years, the line between society and the state has become increasingly blurred like the ancient Greek Polis.

Nisbet achieved notoriety for his groundbreaking manuscript, entitled _The Quest for Community_. His thesis therein was remarkable, for he asserted that the preoccupation with community was a result of the displacement of the intermediary institutions between the individual and the state whether the family, neighborhood, church, or voluntary and civic associations. The displacement of these institutions so vital to civil society and the accompanying obsession with community was precipitated by the activities and structure of the modern state. The centralised state has dissolved the natural bonds and allegiances of civil society. Much of the later twentieth century social pathologies, dependency, poverty, and rampant crime perhaps owe in part to authentic community being grinded in the millstone of central state authority.

An ideal economic system needs to coincide with a political system based on principle of subsidiarity, as a centralized regime will predictably stifle economic freedom. Politics interplays with economics. A Christian system of economics, most assuredly cannot develop in a statist society. America despite a strong market economy, liberalized marketplace compared to Europe, still has a public sector that allocates nearly forty-five percent of our nation's economic resources. Dare I say America is a little statist?

Today, even when we consider revitalizing the moral fabric of society, we somehow cannot think of such considerations with public policy formulation or some concerted action of state power... Federally-funded faith-baith initiatives? This shouldn't be.

*Books*
I recommend that you read Wilhelm Roepke's _A Humane Economy_ and examine the moral dimension of economics and forget all the sterile utilitarian rationales for a market economy. I submit these books for consideration as well:

_Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded_ by Samuel Gregg is a good book. It elucidates on various economic principles, and weighs some Scriptural evidences in support of the market economy, and helps if sterile utilitarian reasoning isn't your cup of tea.

_Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of our Day and the Search for the Truth_ is a good book on the Christian worldview, as pertaining to various disciplines. It has a whole chapter on economics.

_Larceny of the Heart_ by R.J. Rushdoony critiques the inflationary state, and the immorality of fractional-reserve banking, central banks, and monetary systems that expropriate wealth from those who hold money through inflation.

Hope that helps.


[Edited on 2-1-2006 by Puritanhead]


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## RamistThomist (Feb 1, 2006)

I just read Sproul Jr's _Biblical Economics._ It is a nice intro. 

He makes a jab at theonomists and then propounds a theonomic argument on the next page. Its a lot of fun to read.


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## Vytautas (Jul 21, 2006)

How would a Christian answer the questions in this economic quiz?

http://www.mises.org/quiz.asp


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## Puritanhead (Jul 22, 2006)

*My feedback response*

I do believe that this quiz is helpful overall. However, my concern is not acing the _Austrian_ exam, and being deemed a "purist." I didn't expect to get all Austrian answers. In fact, I have a bone or two to pick with the Austrian school of economists, and particularly the new generation of its adherants, which I dub the Neo-Austrians. The Neo-Austrians skewed the legacy of Mises and Bohm-Bawerk, who originally critiqued the consequences of misguided state intervention, and they took it one step further. The Neo-Austrians consider the state something that can be dispensed with, and have subjected Austrian economists to reinterpretation for their decisively anti-statist preferences. Regarding the State: _Abusus non tollit usum - Wrong use does not preclude proper use._ 

I dislike sterile utilitarian reasoning, and tend to favor an economist like Wilhelm Roepke, and his book _A Humane Economy_, which opens us to the moral dimension of economics. From a philosophical perspective, I take issue with Mises' epistemology, though I grant that I do not adequately understand it myself.

I very much recognize the interplay of economics with the body politic, hence the importance of recognizing human action, and the misguided application of bad economic policy. So, I appreciate the public choice economists.

My understanding of economics was shaped originally from a non-intellectual appreciation of the virtues of free enterprise, hard work and private property, which I had from a young age, and it was reinforced by father who is a man possessed of business/economic acumen. So, common sense is a good foundation. The intellectual observations merely butress what my empirical senses tell me. At around age 17, I discovered the Foundation for Economic Education and found their resources indispensable. I became enamored with Mises, Hazlitt, Hayek. Likewise, in college I read some _public choice economists_ and supply-siders, and of course Milton Friedman. So, my perspective is heavily imbued with the influence of the classical Austrian economists, and tempered by the Chicago-school and Public Choice theorists.

Objectively, free-markets find their vindication in Biblical foundations, which recognize property in both money and private property such as realty.

The dumbest thing I have ever done to date regarding economic thought is consider and entertain protectionism in my later college years, albeit a moderate protectionism, which I have since repudiated. I was misguided in my perception of the consequences wrought by inflationary monetary policy, which distorts everything in the economy, including overseas trade, which the U.S. does increasingly on credit with foreign borrowing. However, once you study the nature of exchange, division of labor, and comparative advantage... the illogic of protectionism and its asymetrical, zero-sum view of the economic sphere falls apart. It fell apart in my mind, because I realized you had to operate from basic microeconomic principles which most protectionists don't even acknowledge, because they are for lack of any nice words are _irrationale, illogical nuts_. For all of Pat Buchanan's hue and cry about how free trade is "socialist," he basically embraces Marx's labor theory of value, and has a shallow picture of the world with trade being a zero-sum game. Protectionism is in essence "socialistic." Read Frederic Bastiat's _The Law_. The protectionists seek artificial privilege through the subversion of the law.

Now, I affirm the Austrian theory of trade cycle. The economic woes we perceive in our time, and even the distortions in trade balances, owes to the distortions caused by the monetary mechanism (i.e. Federal Reserve) which artificially creates credit through monetary inflation, and its misguided attempt to regulate interest rates. It causes exacerbated cycles of boom and bust, and the decline of the U.S. Dollar through inflation. It's a _post hoc_ fallacy of the highest order to scapegoat foreign trade, even though us Americans have found an outlet for our excessive U.S. Dollars in the form of overseas purchases.

*The e-mail response given to me:*



> Your score is: 94 / 100.
> 
> Each question is followed by an Austrian School answer (4 points), a Chicago School answer (2 points), a Keynesian-Neoclassical School answer (1 point), and a Socialist answer (no points)--all broadly defined.
> 
> ...


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