How much more forcefully can I say it? The time has come, and it is long overdue, when Christians and conservatives and all men and women who believe in the birthright of freedom must rise up and reclaim America for Jesus Christ.
This is our land. This is our world. This is our heritage, and with God’s help, we shall reclaim this nation for Jesus Christ. And no power on earth can stop us.
—D. James Kennedy—
Key point: The biblical worldview addresses every arena of life, not just those areas tend to think of as religious. Because Satan has invaded and claimed territory in the areas of history, public policy, and economic thought as well as theology, it is way past time for the church to bring biblical truth to bear in all of these areas. Here are some Bible studies that will help.
Here are three Bible studies on topics churches desperately need to be talking about in light of biblical truth, but for the most part are not.
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- Principles of Liberty: Ten Biblical Truths Embedded in the Declaration of Independence — A Five-Session Bible Study Series
- Principles of Economic Liberty: The Biblical Case for Free Enterprise — A Six-Session Bible Study Series
- Could Jesus Have Been a Good Teacher Without Being God? Upholding Jesus’ Deity and Absolute Truth in a Relativistic Age — A Single-Session Bible Study
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All these studies are available at www.discoverbedrocktruth.org/bible-studies. I released the first one in June of last year and the third in September. You can read summaries of these here and here, respectively.
Today I’m releasing the second study in the list above, and I fervently hope all three of them will be used by pastors and Bible study leaders everywhere to help Christians explore some hot-button topics they otherwise might find difficult or awkward to discuss.
None of the studies is political in any primary sense. Does the Bible have things to say about the government? Absolutely! We are foolish to ignore these biblical teachings, and we’ve been ignoring them for far too long. These studies touch on far more than government, however. Their only agenda is to find out what Scripture teaches with regard to all the themes involved and to shed the light of God’s Word on them. The materials are designed for groups, but individuals can benefit from studying them on their own.
Principles of Economic Liberty
How can a Bible study on free enterprise benefit us today?
Think carefully for a moment. We hear a great deal of talk today about the merits of socialism. We even hear that
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- Jesus advocated socialism and that
- the early church practiced it in Acts 2:44-45 and 4:34-35.
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A close examination of the passages in Acts and of other relevant portions off Scripture, however, refutes both of these ideas. How could Jesus have been a socialist when, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16, He had landowner ask, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” This rhetorical question aligns perfectly with free market principles.
Free Enterprise Is All About What it Means to Be Human
Here is an outline for the series. Let’s briefly explore the theme of human dignity, which we dive into in Session 3. Daniel Lapin, an orthodox rabbi, has observed,
The atheist himself recognizes that, to be true to his credo, he must reject the free market because it is appointed by a God in whom he does not believe. The world still awaits a society that has embraced atheism and also operates a successful free market.1
As I wrote the study, I came to understand in a fresh way that a core tenet of free enterprise, a primary principle that makes it work, is that humanity is unique among all living things on earth, because God made them in His image. Carefully read this from Session 3:
We can clearly see the qualitative superiority of people over animals and machines in economic transactions. We might be able to program a machine to calculate which of several purchase options would be the most “cost effective,” but people bring preferences, desires, instincts, drive, and emotions to transactions that influence their decisions and that no machine can duplicate. Moreover, while an animal can, in a sense, “understand” basic physical activities like eating and sleeping, it cannot begin to comprehend the experience of making a purchase or closing a sale. Economic decisions and exchanges, unlike eating and sleeping, have a spiritual component, one that only humans, who have been made in God’s image, can fully experience and appreciate.
In an exercise in Session 3, participants are asked to brainstorm qualities that set human beings apart from other created things, especially living things. Here are some examples: People appreciate music, wear clothing, wear jewelry, have preferences regarding how to spend their free time, and have hobbies and special interests. People also have an innate sense of right and wrong and will appeal to it when they feel another person or a certain situation has been unfair to them. A page providing background information states,
While no list is exhaustive, each one still is extremely helpful. People are indeed special. Consider this question: Can the traits or qualities named have resulted from mere chance—random forces at work over many millions of years? Even if (and this is a really big if, but for the sake of conversation, let’s imagine it) random, evolutionary forces resulted in life, how could these forces have given human beings such abstract, idealistic qualities? How could any sense of morality and ethics emerge from random, material forces? The immaterial cannot arise from that which is only material.
Back to Session 3 itself:
To acknowledge that human beings have “inherent rights,” or rights that are theirs simply because they are human (translation: rights that are theirs because God created them in His image), is to affirm that human beings are unique and special. It is to admit at least the possibility that God’s “fingerprints” are all over each individual person. This the atheist cannot abide.
But human beings are special. They are unique. And their uniqueness is obvious to anyone who is willing to hear what “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” declare. Their uniqueness also is obvious to everyone willing to observe economic transactions under the free market system and honestly interpret what they tell us about people — and their Creator.…
Can you now see why Rabbi Daniel Lapin is correct when he says,1 “The atheist himself recognizes that, to be true to his credo, he must reject the free market because it is appointed by a God in whom he does not believe. The world still awaits a society that has embraced atheism and also operates a successful free market”?
Emphasize: The free market is not only a system that God has appointed; it’s also one that, having been appointed by God, unambiguously promotes an environment in which human freedom and dignity, along with rights tethered to duties, readily will thrive. These qualities testify to God’s image in man, so the atheist is compelled to reject the system that upholds them…
…and embrace socialism.
Maintaining a Delicate Balance
What are the components, or traits, on which the free market relies? Here are sixteen.
Let’s zero in on the 15th item — Integrity & Trust. How are these maintained, so that the system of free exchange doesn’t unravel completely? A significant part of the answer is what the study in Session 6 calls “Divine Guardrails,” or the guidelines for fair trade God has revealed in Scripture. For example, Proverbs 11:1 states forthrightly,
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight.
Session 6 emphasizes that God is a just God who demands justice in human transactions and in human relationships. We hear a great deal of talk about social justice today, so we need to understand how justice as presented in Scripture and social justice differ. After going through this series of studies, you will know.
Please consider exploring “The Biblical Case for Free Enterprise” by studying the material presented in “Principles of Economic Liberty” in a group or on your own. I heartily recommend the other studies as well. All of them are designed to help you mine “Nuggets of Truth from God’s Word and World.”
Such an adventure represents a search for a commodity more valuable than rubies, silver, or gold.
Ready, set, go!
Copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
top image credit: Lightstock
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Note:
1Rabbi Daniel Lapin, America’s Real War: An Orthodox Rabbi Insists that Judeo-Christian Values Are Vital for Our Nation’s Survival, (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1999), 217.
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