Much of the hostility toward private wealth comes from the same impulse: hatred of its ability to insulate the citizen from the will of the state. Money empowers resistance; it gives one the ability to buy some gold coins, for example, and thereby hold a measure of independence from the monetary monopoly of the state; to send children to a private school and avoid the brainwashing of the public education monopoly; to open a foreign bank account and provide oneself with protection against legal confiscation schemes. Propaganda alleging the immorality of inherited wealth is also a reflection of the assault on the family. Before he dropped into noumenal oblivion, Charles Reich wrote that private property “guards the troubled boundary between individual man and the state,” but that there is a new wealth that has replaced it, one dispensed in myriad forms by the state. Increasingly, therefore, “Americans live on government largesse – allocated by government on its own terms, and held by recipients subject to conditions which express ‘the public interest.’ ” People who are thus described are more likely to be compliant servants of the authorities than are those who earn their living by giving value to private citizens who prize what they have to offer.
Idols for Destruction – Herbert Schlossberg
The Resistance – Unholy Dualism – Part 3B – Economics
Statement 4: On Economics
What about Economics? How is our dualism seen here? Again many Christians do not think the Bible has much to say about Economics, when in fact, it is a central topic of Scripture. This is going to be a longer section because to the degree this topic has been neglected or dealt with superficially we ought to correct common unbiblical assumptions on wealth.
God created mankind for dominion over the earth. We were designed to rule over it and develop it and build a God-honouring culture. Wealth is an integral part of this. As early as Genesis 2 we see that God has placed gold nearby ready for his vice-regents to find. Although ultimately owning everything, God plainly approves of private property and disapproves of the confiscation of this property. We see this implicit in the Ten Commandments numbers 6 through 10. It is wrong to steal a man’s life, his wife, his property, his reputation or even to enviously covet what he has.
Read MoreRiches and the Christian
Wealth is something Christians in the West should certainly think about because, by any objective standard, we are all wealthy. We have at our fingertips more than the great kings of old could have dreamed of. Sure, some of us have less than others, but even those who are relatively poor in our nation are wealthy by biblical standards, so when we read passages in Scripture on wealth, we should read these with our ears pricked up.
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
I Timothy 6:17-19
One of the great dangers we face is demonizing wealth. This has been a common course in church history. We still hear it today from many Christians. Wealth corrupts and turns hearts from Christ. Thus, from the pulpit, we will often hear of the dangers of wealth and the importance of giving it away – especially to the church! Of course, it is true that wealth can corrupt our hearts. Moses warned the Israelites of this truth in Deuteronomy. Moses was worried that when Israel was settled in the Promised Land that they would become complacent.
Yet for all that, many saints have been rich. Abraham the father of faith was a very wealthy man. Here in writing to Timothy, Paul urges his son in the faith to charge the wealthy not to put their hope in wealth but God. At the same time, he avoids associating sin with the wealth itself. Instead, he reminds Timothy that it is God who richly provides everything for our enjoyment. Wealth is a blessing from God, and something we can enjoy without guilt. Sure it can be turned into a curse when we make it our hope, but like any good thing that comes from God, it should direct our hearts to God, and then to others in love and generosity. If God has blessed you with wealth, and if you are reading this from a phone in a home in a Western country, he has, then thank God for your wealth. Enjoy it, and bless others with it by sharing the blessings you have received.
This generosity lays up a firm foundation for the coming age. By giving and sharing we take hold of what is truly life. Just as Christ by giving up his riches and losing his life provided life, we too by giving ourselves and our wealth reflect Christ and reflect the paradoxical truth of his universe that giving of self is the only way we can lay hold of life.
Tactics in Evangelism
I read the following in an interesting series on Christian capitalism by Tom Addison. He has a lot of good things to say about how Christians can use wealth for the kingdom, and I really appreciated his antidote to the somewhat negative view of wealth common in evangelicalism.
For too long, Christian donors have been too focused on retail evangelism and not sufficiently focused on what I call intellectual logistics. In war, it is said that amateurs and wannabes study tactics, whereas masters study logistics. Logistics is the art of having the right resources in the right place at the right time so tactical opportunities can be maximally advantaged. Evangelism was simply a lot easier even a generation ago when our culture had a consensus on the reality of God, sin, and man’s need for forgiveness. When a lost person shares those concepts with the church, it only takes a moment of personal crisis, or personal conviction, to make the final leap to a personal saving faith.
This is part of the reason I split my giving. I know some pastors argue that all your giving should be to the church and that church leaders should decide how best to use that for the kingdom. However, it has been my experience that many Christian leaders lack the sufficient wisdom to play the long game. Why are our leaders not pushing Christian education as one? It doesn’t take a prophet to see that we are losing our children and our strength because we are giving our children to the enemy to educate. So why are we not investing in schools that will help us train our children up?
Instead, we aim for low hanging fruit with walk-up evangelism and learned gospel presentations. These are all well and good, but this approach works best when there is a certain cultural knowledge of the historic faith. That time is almost over, and therefore, our strategy needs to develop. Addison goes on to suggest how it needs to develop.
When none of the preliminary ideas are held in common due to years of Satanic propaganda in the media and school – there is no God, no morality, no sin, no life after death – evangelism becomes ten times more difficult. The personal crisis or personal conviction that before might have led to a conversion now simply adds to a general sense of despair and a desire to drown those feelings in entertainment, drugs, or materialism. Before we can reap the harvest, we must sow, water, weed, and cultivate with Christian education and Christian values.
That is why I now funnel a large percentage of my giving into Christian education. Yes of course I still support my pastor and church, but because Christian leaders in New Zealand often do not understand the times we are in, I know that I (and other Christians who do) must put as much money as we can into Christian education. And I know this is having fruit among groups that our churches do not tend to reach. A Sikh or Hindu child who hears the gospel every day for 10 years or more is much more likely to come to faith (humanly speaking) than a Sikh or Hindu university student who has grown up in a government school and is hearing the gospel for the first time. I think it’s time that we Christians who see these things put continuous pressure on our leaders until they get this long term thinking. Imagine the impact the gospel could have in New Zealand if we were providing a quality gospel education for children from all faith backgrounds. Yes it is intensive and takes a lot of resources, but it is long term thinking that will reap long term rewards.
Wilson on Socialism
Grinding poverty can certainly come about through natural disasters – famines and so on – but the thing we really need to be on guard against is organized and coercive poverty, by which I mean socialism. Socialism is the drive to control the free choices of other people, especially in the future, in order to prevent them from doing things that seem stupid to the self-appointed organizers, but which will lead to staggering wealth, or so the organizers say, three generations from now.
Douglas Wilson – Ploductivity