“In the Christian community today, there [is] more blindness, rationalization, and unclear thinking about money than anything else.” Money and possessions are an intriguing topic that happen to be the most discussed topic in the Bible, mentioned over twenty-three hundred times, and is an issue of life that is prevalent today as it has been over the past six-thousand years of mankind. Through this paper, I hope to establish a biblical concept of wealth, specifically regarding the areas of spending, debt, financial planning, and how a biblical perspective is superior to what culture condones and aspires for.
If you were to ask the average person if they believed whether or not money can buy one’s happiness, many would likely say no; but if
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Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” There is a sense of dependency and burden that is associated with indebtedness, and “God warns the Christian not to be any man’s servant (1 Cor. 7:23), but to maintain freedom to serve Christ.” The Bible also contrasts our financial indebtedness to our sin, our greatest debt, and those who find liberty in both can attest to the relief when pardoned. Financial bondage can easily increase due to apathy and the concept of compounding. It can prevent the Christian, who is freed from sin internally, from fulfilling his calling to be a steward by remaining a slave externally to his master of debt, hence the name Mastercard® some would suggest. “Debts and sins are more than we think them. They accumulate insensibly, and we are willing to forget them.” The worldview that many have is to enjoy now and pay later, a matter of hedonism, “the ethical theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life.” Solomon, arguably one of the richest and also wisest men of all history, offers his wisdom and warning in the book of Proverbs saying that those who love pleasure, including wine and oil, will be a poor man and will not be rich. Culture has become so self-reliant on how they obtain money that they neglect to …show more content…
And much of corporate America can attribute their success to this strategy by conservatively leveraging themselves and using liquidity and profitability ratios as reasonable measuring scales. But this does not mean that the burden is still not prevalent despite the surety of profitability. The investing debtor will make his projections and how long it will take him to repay while making a profit; “however, this projection of future income is dubious, because it presumes upon an uncertain future…James [4:16] describes the businessman’s presumptions upon the future as ‘boastings,’ and ‘evil’ boastings at that. ‘An impious and empty presumption which trusts in the stability of earthly things’ is wicked.” Do current bankruptcy filings not demonstrate the potential downfall many businesses experience from gambling on their projected profitability and other unfortunate circumstances that may arise? By no means am I in a position to bring utter disdain and judgement against all forms of debt and neither are more than eighty percent of Americans that find themselves in this issue. But I believe having a biblical understanding of debt is necessary for both the Christian individual and businessman alike. It is not wrong to
The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of the article called “Can We Keep Our Promises?” by Robert D. Arnott, and to help better understand the three key risks facing each investor.
John Stapleford’s book, Bulls, Bears, and Golden Calves, provides a thorough overview with a Christian perspective of economic and ethical analysis. He reviews the moral challenges of macro, micro, and international economic issues. Stapleford covers a variety of important public policy issues such as self-interest, economic efficiency, and private property rights. He begins the book by laying a foundation of ethical thought and an analytical framework. Stapleford provides a Biblical perspective on the practical issues facing our current society. For example, there are three billion people in the world who live on less than $2 a day (Stapleford, 2009). The wealthy Americans continue to get richer. The greed and lawlessness of America’s corporate boardrooms is increasing. Legalized gambling continues to increase every year. The expansion of pornography and its accessibility to America’s younger generations has become a rapidly growing epidemic (Stapleford, 2009). This text is grounded solidly in biblical principles. A number of the problems he discusses are not specifically addressed in the Bible, but one of the author's strengths is to develop a Christian rationale for contemporary issues, based on biblical principles. An example of this skill is found in his forceful chapter on "False Hope . . . The Boom in Legalized Gambling" (Stapleford, 2009).
Jesus never proclaims that possessions or money is inherently evil, but he does warn against the danger of greed. Jesus does not attack money and possessions, but speaks against becoming enslaved to things of this world. Kraybill proclaims, “We too easily bow down and worship at the altar of materialism.”(Kraybill 2011). Kraybill explains that Jesus’ intentions were to have us apply the same structure and economic principles of the Jubilee to our entire life. The Jubilee system requires that the rich distribute what they have evenly, just as God distributes his love to us all without judgment. Jesus encourages us to practice this on a daily basis. Jesus builds his teachings around serving and loving others first. The pleasures of the world should never be the main focus of our life. Jesus teaches that only when we live our lives in this way can we truly see the Kingdom of God. If we allow money and possessions to be the ruler of our lives they will choke our spiritual growth and we will never be able to live out the true purposes of our lives. Jesus also teaches that we should not get caught up worrying about money or possessions. Faith that God will provide everything we need is all we need in the Kingdom of
In the essay “Judaism and Economic Reform”, Norman Solomon, a Jewish-American journalist, presents a compelling argument on the basis of the need for economic reform while providing simple religious base solutions. While discussing two major economic problems that plague the world’s current economy, Solomon introduces the Jewish view of the global economy and their general view on economics as a whole. With this introduction to the Jewish worldview of economics we as readers are able to transition into understanding Solomon’s solutions of education & using Jewish law to improve the current state of the global economy. Although Solomon’s ideas of education and relying on Jewish law to improve the global economy seem logical, Sallie McFague, a Christian theologian, provides a different yet similar viewpoint of improving the global economy in her essay “New House Rules: Christianity, Economics, and Planetary Living”. Her discussion of ecological and neo-classical economics forces the reader to revert back to Solomon’s essay to analyze his methods of fixing the current global economy.
Carnegie, Andrew. The Gospel of Wealth. 391st ed. Vol. 148. N.p.: North American Review, 1889. Print.
In Andrew Carnegie’s “The Gospel of Wealth” he outlines what the rich man’s responsibilities to the public is regarding his wealth. Andrew Carnegie was one of his times wealthiest men and wrote this in 1889. He states that, “Our duty is with what is practicable now-with the next step possible in our day and generation. It is criminal to waste our energies in endeavoring to uproot, when all we can profitably accomplish is to bend the universal tree of humanity a little in the direction most favorable to the production of the good fruit under existing circumstances (Carnegie 23-24).” In his writing he talks about the best way to dispose of the wealth one has acquired. The remainder of this paper will address the
...e 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.” (1 Timothy 6:17)
Richard’s purpose is to remind Christians about the importance of loving neighbor and to teach how Christians can help the poor with their hearts and minds. He relates an important commandment in the Bible, “Love your neighbor,” with the economics by using the concept of “consequence of action.” He promotes the Christians to live a life which God is expecting for them to live by learning about the economics. He wants the Christians to stop justifying ourselves that we love each other when we are not, and he wants us to truly understand God’s intention of putting “love your neighbor” as one of the important commandments. As we study economics, it is important to understand that we should not focus on worldly issues and that we should not forget about God’s commandments. Moreover, this article teaches the Christians that we don’t need to be afraid to study economics because we can use the economics to obey God’s
“.everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the objective of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, ‘doing business’” (Camus 4). Citizens’ unawareness of life’s riches and pleasures shows their susceptibility to the oncoming plague.
Bradley, Anne. 2013. Biblical Foundations of Economic Principles: Four Essential Elements of Economic Progress. The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics. http://blog.tifwe.org/four-essential-elements-of-economic-progress/ accessed April 3, 2014.
“A Millionaire in Blue Jeans?” One of the most valuable principles is found in the very first chapter. Our authors do a wonderful job at dispelling any delusions we have regarding what a Millionaire looks like. I had long assumed, like many others, that the Millionaires of America were the hyperconsumers and elaborate spenders. In fact, we learn that just the opposite is true. I came to understand that, “Wealth is not the same as income”. (The Millionaire Next Door, p. 1, Stanley & Danko) In many cases, income is not at the forefront of relevancy when determining whether someone will become wealthy. There are several factors involved, but ultimately, if a person spends their entire income, the number value of said income simply doesn’t matter. The old age adage regarding spending less than you make is of much more importance. In the Church, this is referred to as ‘living below our means’. We have often been counseled to exercise restraint regarding our spending habits, and have also been commanded to obtain a level of financially secure by building up our savings, staying out of debt, and living within our means. (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball, (2006), 11423) It seems rather silly that a large percentage of our population would be under the assumption that living a large lifestyle, along with the accumulation of fancy things, would somehow equate to wealth. After reading the book, I have come to understand that many of us have an extremely distorted relationship with money, in the assumption that money is to get and spend, while those who are authentic accumulators of wealth understand that money should be invested and stored up as a measure of safety and peace.
money is the only way for one to live a life of luxury. When inheriting
The authors examine scripture from various places in the bible to make their case that the bible is full of economic advice. Additionally, the authors state (2010), “for centuries, cultures have looked to the Bible as a rich resource that has helped people think about the way morality and economics come together.” (Hill & Rae, 2010, p. 23) The author’s most basic understanding is that morality and economics are intertwined, and in order to fully understand economics one must understand the bibles economic standards. The authors laid out seven biblical teachings on issues such as economics, wealth creation, poverty, injustice, and assets throughout the book.
Much of scripture speaks to the issues of money and taking up cause for the poor, who are among the most vulnerable in society. The Old Testament has a key theme of protecting the powerless. The powerless in biblical times were often the most financially vulnerable within society, yet God cares for them. Kyle Fedler explains that God’s favoritism seems to rest with the poor and oppressed, and to reject those members of the community, is to reject the God that so deeply loves them. Within our society we often show our favoritism not to the poor, but to the wealthy. Our society runs off of individualism. That individualism blinds us to the needs of
Christianity and Wealth 'Jesus said to the rich young man, "Go, sell all that you have and