Christian Economics: Student's Edition
[Updated: 1/18/18]
I do not expect any of my suggestions in these four chapters to be taken seriously by most pastors and most laymen in American congregations unless there is a huge economic crisis. The tradition of American Christians' political support for the welfare state goes back to the mid-1930s: President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Theological support goes back to the late nineteenth century, when the social gospel was first introduced to Northern Protestant congregations.
If this book is read by large numbers of Bible-believing Christians in the Third World, these ideas may be accepted more readily. But Christians do not have political power in the Third World. They are voices crying in the wilderness. I hope that they will attempt to implement some of my recommendations in Part 4 with respect to individual, family, and church covenants. It is better to start now than later. It is better to start small than not at all. But with respect to civil government, Third World Christians must bide their time. They must build up their churches, families, and capital. They must do what they can locally to gain experience in Christian service.
American Christian voters are not ready to hear fundamental criticisms of the modern welfare state. They really do believe in social salvation (healing) through legislation. So, why did I write Chapter 19 on civil government? First, because I think that my position is true. I have a moral imperative to write what I think is true. Second, there is going to be a monumental economic crisis which will extend into all of Western politics when the world's welfare states go bankrupt. They will not be able to meet the promises made to generations of voters. Tens of millions of retired people will find their promised incomes from the civil government cut off or delayed. They will have to go to their children for support, as parents have since Adam's generation. Today, they believe they have voted scarcity out of their lives. They have not. They will learn the hard way that political promises are not safely trusted.
This massive default on inter-generational payments will take place in all Western welfare states. It will bring into complete disrepute the whole idea of the welfare state. Hundreds of millions of Western voters will ask the leaders of the generation of the great default this question: Why didn't you tell us? The answer is obvious: because the politicians who sounded a warning would not have been re-elected. The public does not wish to hear the truth.
The great default will force a rethinking of the political structures and presuppositions of the humanistic West. There will be a search for explanations for how this happened. Many explanations will be offered by fringe groups as well as disillusioned political insiders. There will be a growing receptivity for the ideas that I have presented in this book. I want this book to serve as a clear-cut statement to the generation of the great default that somebody with an understanding of Christian economics sounded the alarm before Western politicians admitted publicly that there was a problem.
There are built-in negative sanctions in every covenant-breaking institution, trend, or movement. Their arrival may be delayed. They are always denied by leaders in these institutions and movements. But they always come.
It is imperative for future Christian leaders that a remnant within the churches sounds the alarm now. It will be crucial that during the crisis, critics of the welfare state be in a position to say: We told you so. We also told you why. You did not listen. You had better listen now.
Most people will not listen until the crisis is upon them. But they deserve a warning.
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