The Dominion Covenant: Genesis, Gary North's 1987 Economic Commentary on Genesis: Free Download.
Jan. 24, 2011
I began writing this book in the spring of 1973. I continued to work on it for the next nine years. I wrote one chapter/passage per month initially. In September 1977, I increased this to ten hours a week, 50 weeks a year. I have stuck to that schedule ever since.
The first edition appeared in 1982.
I continued to write. My commentary on Exodus 1-19 appeared in 1985. My commentary on the Ten Commandments appeared in 1986. The second edition of Genesis appeared in 1987.
Hardback copies are still sold by American Vision. Price: $4. That is a whale of a deal. Order here.
The PDF is here: //www.garynorth.com/DominionCovenant.pdf
So what? Here's what.
Have you ever wondered:
Why Genesis 1:14-18 is more hated by humanists than Genesis 1:1The Dominion Covenant: Genesis is the first volume of a multi-volume commentary on the Bible. It is specifically an economic commentary -- the first one ever published. It asks (then answers): What does the Bible require of men in the area of economics and business? What does the Bible have to say about economic theory? Does it teach the free market, or socialism, or a mixture of the two, or something completely different? Is there rally an exclusively Christian approach to economics?
Why Darwin was successful in winning converts, when others had failed
Why God never intended that Adam should rest on the seventh day
Why Adam refused to rest on the first day as a principle of life
Why gold is money (After all, you can't eat gold.)
Why socialism increases pollution
Why pagan cultures have high interest rates
Why the Bible says that growth can be a blessing
Why the population explosion is morally required
Why Hong Kong was wealthy when Red China wasn't (What is the key resource?)
Why the Social Security System is going broke
How old Jacob really was when he left home (You'll hardly believe it.)
What the Bible teaches about personal financial planning
Modern economic thought is humanistic to the core, whether conservative, libertarian, Keynesian, Marxist, or whatever. All schools of thought begin with the presupposition that man is the measure of all things, and man's mind is capable, apart from biblical revelation to interpret the world correctly. This is why modern economic theory is in the process of disintegration.
The Dominion Covenant: Genesis sets forth the biblical foundations of economics. It offers the basis of total reconstruction of economic theory and practice. It specifically abandons the universal presupposition of all modern schools of economics: Darwinian evolution. Economics must begin with the doctrine of creation.
The Dominion Covenant: Genesis represents a self-conscious effort to rethink the oldest and most rigorous social science in terms of the doctrine of creation. Every social science requires such a reconstruction. The "baptized humanism" of the modern Christian college classroom must be abandoned by all those who take seriously God's command that Christians go forth and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28).
We must begin with the doctrine of creation if we are not to end in total chaos. This is the central message of The Dominion Covenant: Genesis. God's curse of the ground (Genesis 3:17-19) made scarcity an inescapable aspect of man's existence. This is the specifically economic starting point for Christian economics. Apart from these fundamental presuppositions, economics is inescapably irrational and self-contradictory.