Conclusion to Part 4
If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God so as to keep all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you above all the other nations of the earth. All these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 28:1–2).
This passage makes it clear that positive sanctions in history that are the result of covenant-keeping should be regarded as the blessings of God. They are visible confirmations of God’s covenant with his people. God’s people are obedient, as the covenant requires. God is generous, as the covenant promises.
If this system of economic cause-and-effect is no longer an aspect of God’s covenant with His people, then there is no possibility of developing an explicitly Christian economic theory. This observation also applies to social theory in general. If there is no explicitly Bible-based system of cause-and-effect in history, then Christians must explain cause-and-effect in terms of theories other than the Bible’s theory. They must import alien theories of causation into their thinking, and then find some way to legitimize this importation in the name of Christian ethics. Jesus warned against this practice. He said that men cannot serve both God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). [North, Matthew, ch. 14] When Christian scholars import these alien theories of social cause-and-effect, they deceive themselves into believing that they are developing a uniquely Christian outlook. They baptize one or another covenant-breaking theory by calling it Christian. They do not understand that the theory they are baptizing is covenant-breaking. Why not? Because they do not believe that there are social and economic laws that are part of God’s covenant with His people.
To argue that the system of causation that Moses declared to the generation of the conquest is no longer in force is to strip Christianity of its unique capability of bringing comprehensive redemption to society. If there is no cause-and-effect between obedience to God’s laws and success in history, then Christianity is incapable of presenting a message that will deliver the social institutions of any era from the covenantal rebellion that is the result of original sin. It would mean that Christianity’s message of redemption is not comprehensive. It is not capable of redeeming the nations from their comprehensive rebellion against God and His laws. This would mean that sin will continue to reign supreme until the final judgment, despite the effects of the gospel in redeeming individuals from their sins. Sin is seen as exclusively personal, having no relevance for the institutions in which Christians have responsibility. Christians see themselves as honest participants in social, economic, and political institutions that are in rebellion against God and His laws. They see their task in life as sustaining the humanists’ world order.
If this outlook on God’s Bible-revealed laws were true, this would mean that the Israelites had greater authority, greater responsibility, and a far greater potential for bringing redemption to the world’s institutions than Christians possess. This would mean that the Old Covenant empowered covenant-keepers to bring the message of redemption to the world in a far more effective way than the New Covenant empowers covenant-keepers. Under the Old Covenant, according to Moses, obedience to God’s laws in every area of life was a means of evangelism. “Look, I have taught you laws and decrees, as the Lord my God had commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land which you are going into in order to possess it. Therefore keep them and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear about all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what other great nation is there that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is whenever we call upon him? What other great nation is there that has laws and decrees so righteous as all this law that I am setting before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:5–8). [North, Deuteronomy, ch. 19]
By abandoning the ethical cause-and-effect system that God gave to Israel, modern Christians have surrendered most of the world’s institutions to covenant-breakers. They have done this in the name of ethical neutrality. Covenant-breakers have insisted that they are ethically neutral in demanding that all people honor civil laws that are independent of God and independent of the Bible. Christians have agreed with them. This is why Christians who possess legitimate authority and therefore personal responsibility in any area of life regard themselves as honest implementers of an ethical system that rests on this presupposition: “The God of the Bible has no authority to tell covenant-breakers what to do.” This is not what Moses taught. This is not what David taught. This is not what the prophets of Israel taught. Christians implicitly and sometimes explicitly insist that there was a fundamental discontinuity with Old Testament ethics that was implemented by Jesus and continued by the apostles. But this was not what Jesus taught. “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have come not to destroy them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you that until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things have been accomplished. Therefore whoever breaks the least one of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17–19). This is not what Paul taught. “But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. We know this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for a lawless and rebellious people, for ungodly people and sinners, and for those who are godless and profane. It is made for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for sexually immoral people, for homosexuals, for those who kidnap people for slaves, for liars, for false witnesses, and for whatever else is against faithful instruction. This instruction is according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (I Timothy 1:8–11).
Why did Jesus insist that there is an irreconcilable war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of mammon? Why did He insist that a person who is not with him, is against Him (Matthew 12:30)? Why is a day of rest in every seven mandatory for all mankind? That was how God created the world. That was why Moses insisted that Israel must obey the sabbath (Exodus 20:8–11). [North, Exodus, ch. 24] God owns the world. He owns it because he created it. He mandates a 10% payment by all humans to Him. They do not pay it. Even Christians rarely pay it. They do not believe that the principle of the tithe is built into the creation. They believe that they are autonomous from God. This economy is manifested in their budgets. Then they are surprised when the state intervenes and collects far more than the tithe.
With respect to the calling, throughout history men have pursued their jobs, which put food on their table, as if their jobs were their callings. But, as men have grown wealthier, new areas of service have become possible. Men can now afford more than just putting food on their table. They have spare time. They have money. They can therefore afford to pursue services to others that match their God-given talents, even though their service does not earn money. Men ignore their callings. They ignore their families. They pursue money at the expense of everything else in their lives. Then they do not understand why they feel empty. They do not understand why the money does not satisfy their longings for meaning and purpose in life. They have no theory of the calling. Even Christians are confused in this respect.
The bride price is God’s means of establishing continuity between the productivity of society in history and the world beyond the final judgment. I have explained why the capital, especially wisdom, that men accumulate through history will be the inheritance of the church in eternity. This should give great confidence to Christians regarding the long-term positive effects of their work in history. It should make them more faithful workers. The church of Jesus Christ is the bride of Christ, and God the Father will give the whole world to the church because Jesus has given the whole world to the Father. This is a message of comprehensive optimism. It is a message of hope. Hope is basic to entrepreneurship. It is basic to the exercise of dominion in history. Christians should appropriate this hope for themselves.
These are economic issues. They should be incorporated into Christian economic theory. They are aspects of God’s covenantal rulership over the affairs of mankind. It would be a serious mistake not to incorporate these issues into Christian economics.
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The complete manuscript is here: https://www.garynorth.com/public/department196.cfm