ECONOMICS AND THEOLOGY

There has been an attempt to separate what cannot be separated. This has been attempted in every branch of human knowledge. All knowledge has to have a base but we are living in an age when knowledge has been separated from its foundation. Thus, present day knowledge is without a foundation. This means that knowledge cannot be put together into a comprehensive whole. Knowledge will be fragmented. When knowledge is fragmented the world becomes fragmented and man’s policies will bear the same quality.

Modern education is not based upon the principle of unity and plurality. Unity and plurality are theological concepts. God created the world and He has defined the way that the world works. He has built into the fabric of creation unity and plurality. Unity and plurality are also expressed as the one and the many. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity explains unity and plurality. God is a unity and a plurality simultaneously. All three persons of the Godhead are equally God i.e., they are ontologically God and God’s personages all have different functions or the concept of the economical Trinity.

All knowledge is theologically based. Theology is the unity of knowledge. The different subject matters are the plurality. Thus, theology controls all knowledge. The analogy of a tree with its branches gives us a spiritual look at what knowledge should represent. All areas of knowledge come from the same source. This makes knowledge unified, not fragmented. Every separate area of knowledge has a similar source and thus can be traced back to its original source.

Economics is a branch of theology. Economics is permanently attached to its source and attempting to separate it will have disastrous results. Since God is Spirit, His word is spiritual. All of God’s word is law based. The law is spiritual. Therefore, all knowledge is spiritual and is law based. This makes economics a branch that is governed by particular laws. One of the most familiar of these laws is the law of supply and demand.

Two Commandments that are not mentioned in economic literature but apply anyway are "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not covet." If something is true, the opposite is also true. When someone steals what are they stealing? They are stealing private property. The Eighth Commandment prohibits stealing and at the same time enforces the right to enjoyment of private property. The prohibition against coveting has the same kind of idea behind it as stealing. You are prohibited from evilly desiring your neighbor’s personal property.

Modern education needs to be reformed. Reformation can only take place when the church realizes that the law of God governs His world that He created. Economics is not a science but it is applied wisdom. Frugality is a branch of wisdom and wisdom is a branch of theology. There is a hierarchy of knowledge. Being able to recognize this hierarchy will enable one to progress in God’s world. The Christian should never be ashamed to admit that economics is theologically based.

SURVIVAL OF THE WISEST

Today is Earth Day. What is Earth Day? Earth Day is the open admission that the religion of the world is worship of the creation rather than the Creator. It is worshiping the effect rather than the Cause. It is idolatry right out in the open. This is not surprising as the official religion of the government school system is evolutionary. This leads right into atheism. Man becomes his own god under this scenario.

It does not matter what man believes because he still lives in a world that has a Creator and He has established the laws that govern the world that man lives in. God’s government is based upon ethical cause and effect. This cause and effect proceeds from the spiritual to the physical. The condition of the heart determines the actions of the individual. An evil heart will produce evil actions and of course, a good heart will produce in accordance with its own kind.

What the atheist or idolater does not realize is how utterly devoid of understanding they are. Anyone who listens to these dolts will be led astray in how the world works. Man does not think that there are economic laws but there are and these laws are first subjective and work their way into the objective world. The evolutionist believes in survival of the fittest. This survival is based on physical strength. Physical strength is dependent upon the direct method in economics. The direct method is a world that is devoid of capital.

The wise or frugal man realizes that he needs capital and thus uses the indirect method in supplying his needs. The frugal understand the importance of Deuteronomy 4:5-6, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."

Keeping God’s law will ensure the survival of the wisest. It is the wise who inherit, not the physically strong. The wise can outsmart the physically strong. The physically strong cannot think and therefore are limited in their abilities to effect right policy. The physically strong can only be employed in certain industries that do not require much mental thought. So the physically strong will eventually be working for the frugal, the ones who understand finance and economics.

The market system belongs to the wise, not to the physically strong. The market is the subjective decisions of all participants. The wise understand that all action begins mentally and actions in the market are ethically determined. The wise will get and control the upper hand. A good example is athletics. The owners buy the services of the physically strong. Athletics is more about physical skill than mental. When an athlete is no longer able to compete physically, his career is over. The wise never have to get out of their professions because they do not have to get out of the market. Their minds will carry them through.

DECLARING BANKRUPTCY

It is apparent to those who have eyes to see that there are more ignorant people than intelligent. When defining intelligence, I have in mind the use of wisdom. Another way to say this would be there are more fools than wise people. We are living in a day of foolishness. People, who should have learned the lessons of life by now, keep making the same mistakes over and over again. They are not only slow learners, they are non learners.

Those who are wise have understanding and the foolish have no understanding. This will always be the case. Some things in life are predictable. Listen to what someone says. Their words will betray them as to what they believe about the world in which they live. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The Lord Jesus is talking about the law of identity. Wisdom comes out of the mouth of the wise and foolishness out of the mouth of fools.

What is in the heart of the individual precedes his actions. If a man’s heart is full of foolishness, then his actions will be of the same kind. The reverse is true of the wise man. There are only two possibilities of living, being wise or being a fool. There is not a third option available. Which is it going to be? The majority of people have chosen the way of foolishness because they lack understanding. They have been trained in idolatry in the government schools and it shows in their decisions.

Before someone legally declares bankruptcy , they are first spiritually bankrupt. They have violated the biblical principle of avoiding debt. They have sold their souls into slavery because they lack the ability to control their spending. When someone is a spendthrift, it demonstrates an inability of controlling one’s person. It is a lack of self control and thus, self government. The principle is always the same, "If you do not discipline yourself, someone else must discipline you." In this instance, the bankruptcy court has jurisdiction over you.

Someone who declares bankruptcy has demonstrated that he is unable of controlling his financial affairs. This is symptomatic of a heart of foolishness. During the present time of financial crisis bankruptcies are increasing despite it being harder to declare bankruptcy. A bankruptcy attorney complained that he is working seven days a week and has more business than he can handle. Being overextended is not wise but this over extension took place spiritually before it manifested itself openly.

Foolish people do not understand the principle of frugality. The wise know that the route to riches is to spend less than you earn. This means the wise will have a surplus. This means the wise have disciplined themselves to save. Not only to save but they save their funds systematically. Setting aside 10% of your income systematically i.e., every time you get paid will result in a good balance. The wise also tithe 10% of their income. They pay God first and God ensures that they are always taken care of. The foolish have no God watching out over them.

NOT SOUGHT AFTER

According to experts in writing, you are not to write your sentences using negatives. I obviously do not care much what experts have to say. If these supposed experts knew anything about thinking, they would recognize that if something is true, the opposite is true. When defining something in the negative, I am at the same time defining it in its positive form because the opposite would be the case.

What people go after is an indication of the way that they think. The rule is that the subjective comes before the objective. Thought or the lack of thought precedes actions. What people do is what they have thought about previously. Actions are not random. Even if the thought is in an instant, there was some thought prior to any action. This being the case, it is interesting what people will seek after.

In the current economic crisis, people are finding out that they are overextended in their budgets. It is apparent that they did not have a clue as to what a budget does and how to operate one. They did not want to be bound by any constraints. You hear much about how people have been reining in their spending. You mean that they were not doing this before? It is apparent that these people lack financial acumen and this is the reason why they are in the financial condition they are.

What is not sought after? Economic wisdom. Wisdom is what these people lack and yet they do not seek what they need. It is like the people who need to lose weight but do not because they haven’t a clue how to do it. We are living in an age where more money is spent on education and yet, stupidity reigns supreme. Wisdom is not a sought after commodity and yet it is the key to economic and financial success.

What is sought after? The lottery and unemployment benefits. If someone loses their job, their new job is to find a job. What unemployment does is take away the incentive to find another job. Why try to seek a job if you are already getting paid? Those who play the lottery are looking for a quick way to become rich through no effort of their own. Lottery players and those on unemployment have no ambition and no initiative. They make poor employees and this may be the reason why they lost their jobs in the first place.

When economic hard times come, the first to lose their jobs are the marginal performers. Producers do not lose their jobs and if they do, they make it their ambition to secure another position as soon as possible, even if it means taking a job that pays less than their previous one. Economic wisdom comes from listening to good advice. In the multitude of counselors there is wisdom the Proverbs say. Those having difficult financial times seek advice from all the wrong sources. They do not seek economic wisdom, just government handouts and another lottery ticket.

PRICING A PRODUCT

It never dawns on us just how much knowledge we possess. I hear a lot about simplifying our lives. The thought is that by becoming less civilized that our lives will be made simpler. However, your life does not become simpler, it becomes more arduous. Civilization actually makes life simpler and more enjoyable. It becomes simpler because of the division of labor. Within the division of labor, the complexities are worked out and we benefit from this and our lives are enriched.

We do not need to possess exhaustive knowledge just true knowledge as Cornelius Van Til said. This means that we are made wealthy by the knowledge of others. I do not have to know how to manufacture an automobile. All that I need to know is how to operate it. Since I am an end user of the automobile, all that I care about it is that it does what it is supposed to do, provide transportation.

There are many factors that go into making a decision. Each factor must be weighed accordingly. A decision is a unity and the factors comprising the decision are the plurality. Thus, all decisions are based upon the Christian doctrine of the Trinity of unity and plurality. This makes thinking complex by nature. The ability to think in terms of complexity is something that God has gifted us with because we are made in His image.

Being made in God’s image has an effect in the economic world known as the market. Pricing is a phenomenon of the market. Economic decisions cannot be made without prices. Prices are to be rational expressions of the law of supply and demand. Prices have to be determined before offering a product for sale. Prices are an essential feature of the market system. Prices lead to an orderly functioning of the market. Prices allow you to know how much to allocate in your budget for the products that you need.

Prices are established where value is established, subjectively. Prices are objectively based but subjectively determined. The essential point of pricing is what the market will bear. In other words, those in charge of establishing prices do so based upon what they think they can get for their product. Those who establish prices have to have a feel for the market they are servicing. They have to be aware of the market conditions in which they operate. Pricing can be considered an art rather than a hard science. Production costs establish a starting price. Production costs are objective but they are not the final price.

Entrepreneurs operate more based upon their gut instincts rather than any hard science. Entrepreneurs are not academics. They are doers and accomplishers and market makers. They do not follow text books. Entrepreneurs have their money on the line. Therefore, their pricing must reflect the market conditions in which they operate. If they set the price too low, they will sell a lot but not make money and if they set the price to high, they will not sell enough. This is why when determining price, there are many factor to consider, making it complex. Consumers benefit from entrepreneurs dealing with complexities and offering a price for their product. This simplifies things for the consumer.