In his celebrated 1994 work The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, evangelical historian Mark Noll dourly concluded that evangelical’s “intellectual sterility” had produced “virtually no insights into how, under God, the natural world proceeded, how human societies worked, why human nature acted the way it did, or what constituted the blessings and perils of culture.”[1] While I have written elsewhere that Noll’s thesis exaggerates the current situation, there is some truth in his statement.[2] Evangelical Christians have too often limited the application of the power and authority of the gospel to individual salvation, ignoring its application to the rest of life.
In this essay, we’ll consider the theological foundations for the study of economics. Though we may be tempted to be intellectually lazy by ignoring the subject, economics is vitally important to people who deal with money and labor or are active in governing a land by casting their votes. Without a firm grounding in Scripture, we’ll be vulnerable to the sly whispers of “the cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Eph. 6:12, ESV). More importantly, we’ll be guilty of denying the power of the gospel over all areas of life.
What Is Economics?
When we consider economics, we’re attempting to describe and explain the accumulated activities and relationships of individuals laboring within a society. At the most basic level, this means studying the labor of individuals in particular vocations. However, individuals live in community, and the labor of each member relates to the broader society. By expanding the scope of our investigation to the level of society, we perceive a “vast network of patterns and powers in terms of which all of life’s necessities and values are parceled out and exchanged.”[3] As humans labor within a society, ordered structures (“patterns”) of interaction channel their efforts. Seeking to understand these patterns in relation to the labor of the individual is economics. Or, as Harry Veryser puts it, “Economics is the science of human action.”[4]
People have understood the patterns of economics differently, developing various economic theories. Capitalism and socialism are the two dominant theories active in the modern world. Advocates build each approach on a particular theological and philosophical understanding of the world. Unfortunately, they’re “more often deployed as surface-level expressions of political identity.”[5] We need to avoid this reckless approach to engaging in public discourse and governmental policy if we want to avoid being ruled by demagogues.
Theological Foundations
In the beginning, God gave man work. The opening narrative of Scripture shows Adam and Eve living in an “agrarian temple” before God. As the caretakers of the garden, they were commanded to work and tend the created order placed under their stewardship (Gen. 1:26–28). Thus work is good. However, sin has subjected all of creation to its deleterious effects (Rom. 8:20–22). As God confronted the guilty trio in the garden, He doomed that pain and frustration would be embedded in man’s work (Gen. 3:17–19). Even though God placed a “curse upon the ground because of man’s sin,” He also “blessed and glorified the labor of man.”[6] Since that fateful day amid the garden’s foliage, work has been a marred blessing, bringing us suffering along with gratification, consternation along with joy, and temptation along with satisfaction.
As Adam and Eve walked past the flaming sword of the cherubim and descended into the rest of the created order, sin continued to grow and affect their lives. Before long, a division developed among the laborers of the world. Certainly by 3000 BC when Ur and Egypt began to develop as societies (if not before), a clear distinction had emerged between rulers, priests, and everyone else. Important people didn’t work with their hands; slaves did. The division between important labor and unimportant labor has evolved over time, but the basic assumptions remain.
However, according to God’s Word, all vocations are valuable, as long as they’re not inherently immoral (such as prostitution or theft). Adam and Eve were farmers in the garden before the Fall, highlighting the goodness of agricultural work. Time and again in Scripture, God worked through common folks to effect His plans, such as shepherds (e.g., Jacob, Joseph, and David), farmers (e.g., Noah, Gideon, and Elisha), fishermen (e.g., Peter, James, and John), and craftsmen (e.g., Bezalel, Oholiab, and Hiram). Jesus grew up working with His earthly father Joseph who was a carpenter (Mk. 6:3). In addition, as Martin Luther noted, God has divinely called all believers and thus every believer’s vocation (“calling”) is important.[7]
Since labor is good and all vocations are divine callings, Christians have a special duty to carry out their work with excellence. Our first parents were given the task of cultivating the garden, making “it a better place, a well-tilled place, a managed place.”[8] Paul explained that, even though we’ve left the garden, we must do as unto the Lord, whatever work to which we’re called (Col. 3:23). Laziness and shoddy work are not merely bad business practices; they are immoral ones (Prov. 15:19; Mt. 25:26).
Hard work and diligence often bring wealth, which many in our society regard with suspicion or contempt. However, Scripture clearly shows that wealth is good unless man turns it to sinful purpose. God is the author of wealth (Ps. 24:1; Jas. 1:17). Creation itself is the outpouring of His abundant wealth as gift, or as Annie Dillard writes, “The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.”[9] In several instances in the Bible, wealth is held by the just (Abraham, Job, and Joseph of Aramethea) and in others by the wicked (Nabal, Ahab, and Annas).[10] Therefore, wealth is a good thing created by God but is subject to our actions, whether righteous or wicked.
We must also attend to how we accrue wealth. The Bible clearly states that God honors private property. The eighth and tenth commandments (do not steal or covet) both imply the justice of private property by stating that taking someone else’s property, or even desiring to take it, is wrong. God gives everyone the property they possess as stewards, and neither society, nor government, nor anyone else has any claim to it.[11] Transferring wealth under honest terms of commerce is appropriate, but God clearly states that He punishes fraud and theft (Exod. 20:15; Lev. 19:36; Prov. 16:11). John Calvin noted that governments are also bound by these regulations.[12] Wealth that is sought through “theft or government extraction creates moral decay that can be seen in individual lives and in broader social institutions.”[13]
Labor applied to property results in products that can be exchanged for other objects. In determining what we’re willing to part with in exchange for the object of our desire, we assign it a value. While this may seem like an obvious point, misunderstanding the nature of value has led to many wrong turns in economic theory. For the moment, we need only affirm that economic values are relative in nature. They are set by the needs and wants of the buyer and seller of any given product.[14] In fact, Scripture illustrates this point. When Jesus explained to His disciples that the widow who dropped two small copper coins in the offering box at the temple gave more than all the wealthy who had put in large sums, He was highlighting the relative nature of value (Mk. 12:41–44).
Though wealth is a gift from God, poverty isn’t necessarily a function of His wrath as we just saw in the instance of the poor widow. In some cases, Scripture is clear to say that sin, such as laziness, will most likely result in poverty (Prov. 19:15). However, Solomon also explained that the righteous may be poor and that their lot is better than the wicked who is rich (Prov. 15:16; 17:1). God commanded the Israelites to treat the poor justly but without favor and to offer assistance to them in their need (Exod. 23:3, 6, 11).
Perhaps one of the most poignant examples of the righteous living in poverty can be found in the book of Hebrews. As the writer of Hebrews came to the end of his reflection on the heroes of the faith, he despaired of finishing the list, releasing instead a torrent of effusive praise for those who, among other things, “went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb. 11:37). Surely, God cares for the poor as well as for the wealthy.
Conclusion
A sound economic philosophy will derive its strength from a solid Biblical foundation. From our quick overview of Scripture’s teachings on the various aspects of economic thought, we find that God calls all people to work with excellence in all vocations so that they might enjoy His creation in worship before Him. The wealth accrued from honest labor is a good gift from God that we have a responsibility to use rightly. Yet poverty is not a sin or even necessarily the result of sin. Rather, God cares deeply for the poor. With these foundations, we can think more deeply about economic systems and their effect on societies.
[1]Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1994), 137.
[2]For my critique of Noll, see Phillip T. Morgan, “Thomism to Augustinianism: Free Will Baptist Bible College and the Hybrid Christian Education Model” (presented at the National Association of Free Will Baptists Theological Symposium, Moore, OK, October 23, 2018).
[3]Herman E. Daly, “Sustainable Economic Development: Definitions, Principles, Policies,” in The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land, ed. Norman Wirzba (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2003), 63.
[4]Harry C. Veryser, It Didn’t Have to Be This Way: Why Boom and Bust Is Unnecessary—and How the Austrian School of Economics Breaks the Cycle (Wilmington, DE: ISI, 2012), 148.
[5]Marco Rubio, “What Economics Is For,” First Things, August 26, 2019; https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/08/what-economics-is-for; accessed September 7, 2019; Internet.
[6]M. L. Hollis, The Dignity of Labor (A public address to the graduating class of Amory, Mississippi, High School on May 24, 1959; available in the National Association of Free Will Baptists Historical Collection in Welch College Library, Gallatin, Tennessee).
[7]Chad Brand, Flourishing Faith: A Baptist Primer on Work, Economics, and Civic Stewardship (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian’s Library Press, 2012), 17.
[8]Ibid., 4.
[9]Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (New York: Harper Perennial Classics, 1999), 17.
[10]Brand, 28–30.
[11]Wayne Grudem, Politics According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 262–63.
[12]John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2008), 259.
[13]Brand, 30.
[14]Veryser, 37.
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