As I mentioned last night, I googled "the Bible and the free market" and came up with top 9 links. Now is the time for me to read the contents of these links.
The content of the 1st and the 4th links is the same. The sites are Godonomics and beliefnet. The article's title is Bible and Money: Why God Supports Free Market Capitalism. The blogger used two verses from the New Testament to explain his reasons why God supports free market: 2 Corinthians 3:17 and 1 Timothy 5:8. The reasons he mentioned are freedom, voluntary exchange, private property, economic incentive, and prosperity. You can find all of them in free market, and they are consistent with the teachings of the Bible.
Let us skip Gary North's article for now and go next to the forum link. The question asked in the forum is "What does the Bible say about free markets, capitalism, regulation, micromanagement etc.?" So far, as of December 11, 2014, 2PM, there are only 5 replies plus the opening post. We will limit our attention only on the opening post and our concern is only related to Bible and capitalism. We will skip contents related to other subjects. Let us see how the thread starter thinks concerning the relationship between the Bible and the free market.
There are 3 lines of thought that caught my attention. The first one is this statement:
"The Bible supports free markets because wealthy property owners already follow God's law."
This is followed by a verse from the Old Testament, Proverbs 15:6.
The second is the fourth paragraph:
"Granted, some of the richest people in the world are Saudi Arabians, but even if they are hellbound they are doing God's work. We know this because God is rewarding them. If they were not doing God's work, they would be poor."
The third is the conclusion:
"In short, we support free markets, and freedom isn't free. We support limited government: government that limits the rights of non-Christians."
I find these statements problematic. The first sentence fails to distinguish between two types of "wealthy property owners." The thread starter simply assumes that wealthy property owners already follow God's law. With the kind of economic and monetary systems that we have, this is not the case. There are those who own property through labor and saving and there are those who own property at the expense of others.
The fourth paragraph requires further explanation. What does the thread starter mean by the "Saudi Arabians doing God's work?" Is it really true that the reception of reward a proof that a people is doing God's work? Is it not also possible, again, with the existing economic and monetary systems that we have for crooked individuals to reap economic reward?
Finally, the conclusion is misdirected. The thread starter supports "limited government" and we are happy to know that. However, when he defines what he meant by "limited government", we are shocked: "government that limits the rights of non-Christians." Where did he get that idea of limited government? From the Bible? I doubt. Maybe, simply from his own thoughts.
Classical liberalism champions the concept of limited government. As far as I know, when classical liberals talk about "limited government", they mean either in two ways: the basic purpose of government and the nature of the law. The basic purpose of government is to protect life, liberty and property of individuals. The nature of the law is to serve justice. Both these concepts of limited government remains true whether you are a Christian or not.
This forum link is included in the first top 10 sites through Google search; it is the 9th. It is unfortunate if such kind of thinking represents the majority of Christians. Living in an information age, Christians no longer have an excuse for intellectual sloth. God told us:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30).
