A Biblical Worldview on Economics

When the author of the great seminal tome, Civilization, was asked to define civilizations; he declined saying only that the greatest truth lay in that which was created at the time. There is great truth in the buildings and artifacts of the time, he said.

Trying to view economics from a Christian perspective, I find myself in a similar situation to Lord Clark. Also secular writers and the media have to a huge extent written Christianity out of the very history Christianity created in the first place.

With few exceptions, if we apply the success test, the greatest economies are those founded by Christians upon Christian principles, the Christian ethic and upon Christian conscience. The more devout the nation, the greater the liberty and the wealth creating ability. However even successful non-Christian societies rely upon the market system and the rules and conventions created by the Christian states. The more faithfully they follow the model, the more successful they are.

This is indeed a difficult subject. Perhaps there is no such thing as Christian economics. But there is such a thing as economic systems created and shaped by Christians and the Christian conscience and by Judeao-Christian values, all under Gods guidance often prayerfully sought. Also one can very quickly discern Christian characteristics and biblical characteristics in economic and social systems.

These Christian drivers and characteristics have been and remain (in no particular order) love, faith, honour, order, duty, truth, integrity, diligence, perseverance, hard work, respect for family and authority, humility, selflessness and tolerance.

The distinguishing features, mostly biblical, that underpin economies founded by Christians and/or on Christian norms and values include: Respect for life; law and order; peace; a hard currency; independence from others and dependence on God; limited government; freedom; growing democracy; charity; stability; health; chastity; kindliness; generosity; a sense of maintenance; eternal vigilance; never pinning ones faith on Princes; separation between Church and State; freedom of the press; honouring and putting a high premium on property ownership; an independent judiciary; long term thinking (Westminster Abbey took 400 years to build, Milan Cathedral 500 years), in other words an intergenerational view of life. What is capitalism other than deferred consumption.

Physical characteristics of these successful societies are unwalled villages, unfenced houses, churches in every town and village and active and charitable giving. (In the UK 36 charities are launched every day. They are hugely generous and blessed.)

All of these drivers and characteristics can be re-laid straight back to the Bible. Exodus 10:15 “You shouldn’t steal”. Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet…anything that belongs to your neighbour”.

1 Kings 21:3; Ezra 7:23,24 etc. The book of Proverbs is full of guidelines, as are many others. Together they make up the formula for successful societies and economies.

We know also from experience what we should not do. We know that secular state socialism has failed catastrophically in central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and everywhere else. The most recent casualty, Zimbabwe. State ownership and control of all wealth can only lead to the tyranny of the few who actually run the state over the many, subservient to the state. Such a political and economic system develops a life and a bureaucracy of its own.

Characteristics of such States include: kangaroo courts; lack of media, freedom and liberty; suspicion; secret police and closed societies; public ownership of land and the means of production; growing corruption and state violence.

The profit Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:11-18 writes:


“This is what the King who will reign over you will do. He will take your sons and make them serve in his cavalry…. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his
attendants …He will take a tenth of your flocks and you yourselves will become his servants.”

The prophet says wealth will be distributed but not at all equally. Rather those who prove to be useful to the state will be more greatly rewarded, irrespective of the true needs of the people. Some servants will get more than others!

Does all this sound familiar?

An important reason for failure is of course, that coercive socialism and creeping centralization (which is the direction in which we in South Africa seem increasingly to be moving), with its pre-modern communitarian emphasis is concerned not with the production of wealth but with its distribution, with spending rather than saving.

I have had the pleasure of doing business in or visiting over 70 countries in my life. I have spent much time in Northern Europe and North America, Africa and Asia and I have noticed that even when truly democratic socialist (voluntary socialist) examples are held up to us as successful states, one finds that the democratic socialist state is living in parallel with the inherited achievement of a democratic capitalist system (expounded by Scottish Christians like Adam Smith and David Hume) or is piggy backing on to such a system, using its momentum and ability to create and produce wealth in order for the socialists to distribute the fruits of capitalism. As these fruits begin to diminish these societies disintegrate or have to revert to the original market system on which they were founded to get things going again
(Sweden) or to keep things going (U.K). The recent privatization, outsourcing and lowering of taxes we see in Europe and elsewhere (Thatcheris and Reagonomics) are good examples of the latter. Socialist states sometimes become completely dysfunctional and disintegrate and have to start again, looking to successful societies for role models. (USSR and Africa are examples). The free market system of course is under constant review, correction and improvement.

Sir Winston Churchill said that whilst it was true that capitalism distributes wealth unevenly, socialism distributes poverty evenly. President Mugabe is finding that out. With globalization, companies in socialist jurisdictions that are heavily regulated or taxed, outsource their production to less regulatory or cost effective environments often causing unemployment. Even here, 30 pharmaceutical companies have stopped manufacturing in South Africa since 1994. Nike is another example that has been in the media with its shoes being made cheaply in Vietnam. South Africa’s top mining, insurance, industrial and information technology companies have already re-located from South Africa i.e. Anglo-American, the Old Mutual, S.A.B and DIDATA.

In fact for every R1 directly invested in South Africa by foreigners we now invest R1,85 abroad. That is one reason why our government has changed to a world-wide residence tax system. People, however, will simply not transfer wealth from low tax to high tax environments or from low risk to high risk environment.

In a country like South Africa with its huge social needs and upliftment challenges, it is vital that perspective be kept on the essential need for wealth creation; in order for our society to be able to live up to the expectations for delivery of a “better life for all” (ANC slogan). If the economy fails, democracy fails viz. Zimbabwe.

Liberal and liberation theologians have, also in South Africa, distorted our situation by accepting wealth as a given, flagging only the moral problem of wealth distribution. But wealth is never a “given”, wealth needs to be created.

Anyhow the state is usually a poor distributor of wealth. The family, the church and Christian charities are generally far more efficient in the distribution of surplus wealth or aid. Even the World Bank is now working with the church and religious organizations to achieve cost effective and honest aid distribution. Firstly, charities (the definition of charity is Christian love) and voluntary giving creates choices and competition. If you don’t like one charity you can donate to another – with the state there is no choice, as welfare is a government function. The Salvation Army estimates that between 93 and 97% of what it collects reaches its intended purpose. The remainder is used for administrative purposes, namely the cost of collecting and disbursing money. The percentages are almost reversed with government welfare programmes. Often the greatest beneficiaries of welfare programs are the state bureaucrats. Charity is aimed at getting people back onto their feet; welfare often breeds dependency. We cannot pretend however that the state has no role to play in the modern state. There is a role for an adjudicator, aside from the historic roles in defence, law and order and foreign policy.

Capitalism of course is based upon deferred consumption, in other words upon saving and investment. Intelligent, thoughtful risk taking is only made possible by confidence and faith; (on what lies beyond the Cross). However anxious we may be, however much we may wrestle with what is right or wrong, we can do what we do because we have the grace of God behind us; directed by our Christian conscience and by thinking Gods thoughts after Him.

The Bible is of course is silent on things like electrification, the internal combustion engine and the information super-highway but the ethical and moral principles underlying right human behaviour as set out in the Bible, are as fresh and relevant as the day they were written. What we can be certain of is that the Bible advocates limited
government. We, as Christians, must recognize that in all things we must accept God as the source of all wealth and prosperity and that “Biblical government is self government and a true Biblical economy is where free men trade their goods and services without let or
hindrance from the state” (Rev Brian Abshire - Biblical Economics 1999)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about human creativity, also in the economic sphere as consistently Christ-centric. He talks of labour “not as a creation out of nothing, like God’s creation” but “a making of new things on the basis of the creation by God”…”Government maintains created things in their proper order… but it can’t itself engender life, it is not creative”. People are creative.

Even some churches, because they rely upon voluntarism, find the power of the state to coerce fascinating and irresistible to make people do good and to make them give. The state begins to play God and to make important irreversible choices on our behalf. It is a fatal blind alley. The churches and charities must beware of being co-opted by the government. It is a siren song.

Lying at the heart of the Christian conscience and human creation is liberty. The freedom to choose between right and wrong: to make conscience driven choices. Any attempt to lesson those choices – for the state to make choices for us – in my view is not of God. Only God through the Indwelling Spirit can help us make the right choices at a personal level.

At a worldly level, the rules that govern us ideally should be made in democratic parliaments, founded under God. If those parliaments are to survive they need to have a significant ongoing Christian presence to guard the values and norms upon which they have been founded and to guide the decision makers.

Finally today the economy is shaped by and involved in every walk of life: Industry, commerce, financial services, mining, fishing, forestry, sport, entertainment and tourism. The work place is everywhere, the economy is everywhere. It challenges us every day. We however need remember only God, the Creator of all things is everywhere and that He is in control.

Certainly however, Christians need to get involved and stay involved.

May I recall for you some personal experience and observation.

The Christian State, the United Kingdom, have given us so much and they have been so very Blessed. I had the privilege of serving at the Court of St James’s and working there, and from there world-wide.

In London I have worshipped in great churches with great Christian leaders. Leaders like John Stott, Richard Bewes, Dick Lucas and others. I have interacted with the Palace, with Downing Street, with Fleet Street, with Parliament, both the Commons and the Lords, with Canterbury. I have visited and spoken at meetings and dinners of over 50 of the 101 worshipful companies that run the City of London.

Britain gave us the agricultural revolution, then the industrial revolution and the financial revolution. There is no doubt in my mind that the Christian faith and ethic have been the mainspring of their high achievement. One needs to live with the people to begin to understand their Christian humility, in spite of their great power and influence. (they are of course used to wealth).

Today some 80% of all financial assets managed in the European Union are managed in Britain. Greater London alone has a bigger economy that Austria or Sub-Saharan Africa.

Why? Why do people give the English their money to invest? The British invented central banking, auditing, company structures and company law – but there is a more important reason: Simply because they are trusted. Their word means something. They honour contracts. Their law is fair and independent. Their civil service is honest and beyond reproach. All of these attributes are the fruits of Christianity.

The ACDP of course is committed to dynamic change, economic growth and for the inclusion of as many South Africans as possible being drawn into the economy. We however do not wish to reslice the economic cake, we wish to bake a bigger cake, with bigger slices for all. To this end we would seek to accelerate privitization; reduce the strangulatory effects of labour legislation and external private property rights to the maximum.