Introduction

Gary North - November 17, 2017

Christian Economics: Student's Edition

[Updated: 1/18/18]

Christianity brought a new view of time to the world: linear time. Christianity teaches that there are three periods in history: creation, fall, and redemption. History will end with the final judgment. This view was inherent in Hebrew religion, but the Old Testament only hints at final judgment, mainly in the last three verses of the Book of Daniel. In the New Testament, the doctrine of the final judgment is taught clearly in Matthew 25:31--46 and Revelation 20:14--15.

The rival view of time is cyclical time. It was taught by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It is still taught in Eastern religions. Cyclical time affects the cosmos. There is no doctrine of permanent progress or permanent loss. Individuals are subject to karma: the transmigration of souls. After seemingly endless reincarnations, a truly righteous soul disappears into the cosmic one and loses all individuality. This is the end of its history. But there is no final judgment.

In the Bible, the doctrine of creation occupies just two chapters: Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 3 tells the story of the Fall. The last part of the chapter tells of the beginning of redemption: God separates Adam and Eve from the tree of life. He provides them with animal skins. One or more animals had to die: shed blood. Final judgment occurs after the resurrection of bodies described in Revelation 20:14--15. The final two chapters of Revelation do not refer to history but rather to the post-resurrection, post-final judgment new heavens and new earth. This is not heaven, which is a holding area for souls (Revelation 6:10--11), and it is not hell, which is also a holding area for souls (Luke 16).

The meaning of redemption is tied to the word for redeem: to buy back. Christianity teaches that the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ in history constituted a comprehensive act of redemption. This has paid God for the sins of God's people, who are covenant keepers by the grace of God. The Apostle Paul wrote: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time" (I Timothy 2:5--6). Conclusion: "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men" (I Corinthians 7:23). This has to do with individual salvation.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die--but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:6--11).

This act of redemption on behalf of individuals in history also applies to institutions in history. Jesus made this clear in what has become known as the Great Commission.

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18--20).

Jesus taught His disciples to pray this in what Christians call the Lord's prayer: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). This refers to God's kingdom in history. The prayer asks God to make God's kingdom in history more like God's kingdom in heaven, where there is no sin and therefore no disparity between God's ethical standards and people's obedience in every area of life. This is a request for God's intervention in history in order to redeem society progressively. This is the meaning of the word "kingdom." It refers to the realm of a king. It is not a call for God to end history or to remove Christians from history. This request is followed by two economic requests: "Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (vv. 11--12). The historical context is inescapable. So are the economic implications.

Creation, Fall, Redemption

I return to where I began, although not cyclically: linear history. There is a beginning, comprehensive development, and a culmination. This applies to individuals. It also applies to institutions.

The Bible teaches that no area of life is exempt from the effects of sin. It teaches that redeemed people are to work to extend the kingdom of God into every area of life. If you do not believe this, please write a list of those areas of life that Jesus did not die to redeem. He supposedly has declared to His people the following: "You do not need to work to improve or reform these areas of life. They are neutral areas that are not in any way cursed by the effects of sin. The gospel of redemption does not apply to them. Leave them alone. Focus your attention elsewhere." My prediction: this will be a short list. My warning: there should be nothing in this list. It should be blank.

When we consider the first two chapters of Genesis, we see how things were supposed to be. This is how things were before sin entered the world. This is the world we have lost.

In Genesis 3, we read of the ethical rebellion of man. It is the story of a theft. God placed a judicial boundary around a single tree: "No trespassing." He warned of consequences of violating this boundary.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16--17).

Everything else was allowed, including access to the tree of life. But Eve and then Adam violated the boundary. They committed criminal trespass. They violated God's property rights. This brought initial judgment against the man, the woman, and the serpent. But there was a promise to the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). There will be warfare in history between the serpent and mankind. This conflict will represent the historical conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. This conflict will extend to every area of life, which is an ethical battlefield. There is no escape from this conflict. There is no neutral zone. "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:30). It will continue until the end of time.

In between the fall of man and the final judgment there is a conflict between bondage and redemption. It is bondage to sin and bondage to a sovereign God. Men are always in bondage to one or the other. "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:17--18).

There is no zone of neutrality in this conflict. There is no port in the storm. In every area of life, covenant keepers should ask themselves these three questions:

What did we have before the fall?
What did we lose because of the fall?
How can we get it back?

Economics

This book is about a field of study known as economics. It is the study of how people achieve their goals through exchange. Day by day, moment by moment, we exchange one set of conditions for another. We move closer to the day of final judgment, both individually and cosmically. Using the language of a pre-digital era, the clock keeps ticking.

Because of the structure of God's covenant with men as individuals and mankind in general, individuals possess the ability and the legal right in God's eyes to make offers to exchange goods and services with others. This is how we seek to better our conditions without resorting to theft or violence. We offer to buy, which is simultaneously an offer to sell. "I am willing to trade what I own because you own what I want." In the phrase for which Americans are deservedly famous, "Let's make a deal." The intellectual discipline of economics explores the foundations and ramifications of making deals.

Because this is a book on Christian economics, it is the study of deals under three conditions: creation, fall, and redemption. The fall involved a violation of God's property rights. That was the only way that mankind could fall. The boundary around the tree was the only boundary that God told mankind not to violate. Similarly, the concept of redemption is at bottom economic: the purchase of salvation by Jesus Christ on behalf of His people. He paid this price to God. He did not pay Satan. Satan is a thief and a squatter. He owns nothing of his own on his own.

Christian economics begins with the concept of ownership. This is because it begins with the doctrine of creation. This is where the Bible begins: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). This act of creation established God as the owner of all that exists. "For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10). To understand what we have lost requires that we understand what we had before the fall, and on what legal basis. Similarly, to understand how we can regain what we have lost, we must understand the process of redemption. At bottom, this is a legal matter. The final judgment will be intensely legal. But because the fall was judicially about theft, which is an economic crime, redemption affects economics. It is about buying back the world we have lost, and then improving it, as originally required by God. "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). This was an extension of God's permanent assignment to mankind:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so (Genesis 1:28--31).

With this as background, it is time to begin the inquiry of economics as a manifestation of redemption in history. It asks these three questions:

What did we have before the fall?
What did we lose because of the fall?
How can we get it back?

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The rest of this book is here: //www.garynorth.com/public/department188.cfm