The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten Commandments

Gary North

The question must then be raised: What was it about the Ten Commandments which made possible the development of capitalism in the West, and nowhere else, except in cultures influenced by an already capitalistic West?

My answer: It was Western man's confidence in the validity of the Ten Commandments which alone created free market institutions in world history.

Is it therefore not sufficient to ask: Is capitalism Christian? It is not sufficient to answer that the ethics of Christianity is generally in accordance with the ethics of capitalism. It is not sufficient to appeal to natural law in the Christian West as the foundation of capitalism.

What must be asked is a far more controversial question: Is orthodox, Bible-based Christianity inherently capitalistic? In other words, in cultures where the Bible is preached from Genesis to Revelation, will there be an innate tendency for that culture to adopt a free market economy? Therefore, is socialism inherently heretical biblically? I answer: "Yes."

The Sinai Strategy is a detailed look at the Ten Commandments and their social, political, and, especially, economic implications. But why should you devote the many hours that it will take to read this book? Here are a dozen possible reasons.

You want to understand the Ten Commandments better.

You want to understand economics better.

You want to know more about the importance of the Ten Com- mandments in history.

You want to answer theological liberals who attack the Ten Com- mandments as valid only in an ancient agricultural world.

You want to answer political liberals who insist that Jesus was a socialist revolutionary, or close to it.

You want to see if the Bible sets forth moral and judicial principles that inevitably produce a free market economy if widely obeyed.

You want to answer skeptics (humanists and pietists) who insist that "There is no such thing as Christian economics."

You want to know if the Ten Commandments are an unbreakable unity.

You want to know why Christians take a day off on Sunday rather than Saturday.

You want to know if the civil government should prohibit people from working on Sunday.

You want to know how the Ten Commandments should be applied in the modern world.

You want to know how the Ten Commandments ought to be numbered and why.

This is a revised edition of a book published in 1986.

To download The Sinai Strategy, click here:

Don't forget to sign up for my free letter, Tip of the Week. It offers practical money-making and money-saving information. The subscription box is here: www.garynorth.com.