| ASH Economics - Socialism: caution required |
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| Written by Mr. Trev McCallum | |
| Monday, 02 March 2009 | |
 Next time you are tempted to think; "the government must do something about that" - don't! Rather take action yourself, through your family and church. God will not be mocked. Departing His Word, in the field of politics or economics or anything else, will bring judgment ( Deut. 28). We are experiencing God's covenantal national judgment now. It is time for the church to repent and preach against this issue. Not only that. The Biblical principles regarding economics must be exposited, as Spurgeon did so long ago. You cannot replace something with nothing. There are no voids in life or society. When Christians refuse to apply the Bible to areas of life, the vacuum will never remain. It will be filled by humanistic philosophy.
The core of today's ASH Economics was delivered as a short talk to a small gathering on 20/03/2009. It briefly considers socialism.
The global financial crisis has turned into the largest economic collapse since the Great Depression of 1929. Most western governments are now social democrats and are looking to blame free-market economics for the collapse. This is a false assertion. Why? To wedge open the door for increased governmental intervention in the affairs of men. Listen to what Kevin Rudd states: "I believe that social democrats can chart an effective course that will see us through this crisis, and one that is also capable of building a fairer and more resilient order for the long term. This can only be achieved through the creative agency of government and through governments acting together."[1] This is classic socialism, salvation through government intervention. Our father who art in Canberra must save us and provide for us.
Caution is required when governments seek greater centralised power. The Bible, taken from Genesis through Revelation, does not support the ideology of a large centralised government that saves man by law. In fact, one of the first national judgements on mankind occurred at the time of the Tower of Babel ( Gen. 11). The tower illustrates the attempt at unbridled governmental power. This power was to transform society and save it through acting in God�s place. The tower represented autonomous man�s attempt to create central government and religious sovereignty outside the authority of the Scriptures. Under God's decree all governments are to be limited in the scope of their power (Ex. 18 & Matt. 18). They are to protect individuals' private property through purging the land of evil.
"1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children�s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production..."[9]
In other words they seek to reconstruct the Tower of Babel in the form of the sovereign State. But we know the Bible teaches a limited State, who is to purge the land of evil (Ro. 11), to provide societal peace for the church to freely preach the Word. The State must provide its citizens with private property protection. The eighth commandment; "thou shalt not steal" must be enforced by the government in all instances. Government is not exempt from this. Stealing is stealing! Whether it be an individual shoplifter or government inflation, taxation or wealth redistribution. Dr Herbert Schlossberg warns; "[w]e do not find individual liberties respected when the state controls the economy because in that situation politics replaces economics."[10] We must remember that it was Biblical Christianity that brought liberty, justice, equity and prosperity to the western world. Famous economist Ludwig von Mises tells us that historically Christian peoples have "never tired of their struggle for liberty"[11] from the tyranny of the state. The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, warned over and over against the dangers of socialism and its attempt to provide salvation through government. In his sermon "One Lost Sheep" ( Matthew 18) he makes this statement: "I fear lest in any of you there should be even the least measure of despising the one lost sheep, because of the large and philosophical methods which are now so loudly cried up. I would not have you exchange the gold of individual Christianity for the base metal of Christian Socialism. If the wanderers are to be brought in, in vast numbers, as I pray they may be, yet must it be accomplished by the bringing of them in one by one. To attempt national regeneration without personal regeneration is to dream of erecting a house without separate bricks. In the vain attempt to work in the gross, we may miss the practical result which would have followed working in detail. Let us settle it in our minds that we cannot do better than obey the example of our Lord Jesus, given us in the text, and go after the one sheep which has gone astray."[12] So, next time you are tempted to think; "the government must do something about it" - don't! Rather take action yourself, through your family and church. God will not be mocked. Departing His Word, in the field of politics or economics or anything else, will bring judgment ( Deut. 28). We are experiencing God's covenantal (national) judgment now. It is time for the church to repent and preach against the issue of socialism. Not only that. The Biblical principles regarding economics must be exposited, as Spurgeon did so long ago. You cannot replace something with nothing. There are no voids in life or society. When Christians refuse to apply the Bible to areas of life, the vacuum will never remain. It will be filled by humanistic philosophy.
[1] Rudd, K, 2009, The Global Financial Crisis, in The Monthly - Australian Politics, Society & Culture, Feb 2009, p. 29.
[2] McLean, I & McMillan, A, 2003, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press Inc., New York, pp. 496-497.
[3] North, G, 1987, Inherit the Earth: Biblical Principles for Economics, Dominion Press, Fort Worth, p. 41.
[4] Mclean, I & McMillan, A, 2003, p. 477.
[6] Mclean, I & McMillan, A, 2003, p. 477.
[7] Ibid., p. 497.
[8] Ibid., p. 497.
[9] Engels, F & Marx, K, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx/Engels Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.
[10] Schlossberg, H, 1990, Idols for Destruction, Crossway Books, Wheaton, p. 120.
[11] Von Mises, L, 1990, Economic Freedom and Interventionism: An Anthology of Articles and Essays, Liberty Fund Inc., Indianapolis.
[12] Spurgeon, C, 1889, One Lost Sheep, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, p. 310, as cited at: http://www.americanvision.org/article/spurgeon-on-socialism/.
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