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A major part of the deprogramming that is needed for Christians in the West has to do with having a critical approach to capitalism.

  The Bible does notpresent us with either communistic or capitalistic options when it comes to theeconomy.  There is a theological reasonas well as a historical one for this. The theory of property in the Bible is that God is the owner of allthings.  Neither the government, nor thepeople, nor private individuals really own anything when it comes to theBible.  Rather, we are all just stewardsof God’s property, and God can do what he likes with it. The question is–Are wein tune with his preferences about such matters? 

One of thequestions the Biblical theology of property raises is what to do with people wedeal with who are not Christians and assume that there really is such a thingas private property.  One approach is tomake a mental distinction on your own between personal property, things God hasbequeathed to you personally, and private property.

If the philosophy ofcapitalism is “what’s mine is mine, and if I choose to share it, I amphilanthropic” and the philosophy of communism is “what’s yours is actuallyours and we must confiscate it or treat it as public property” neither of thesephilosophical approaches to property will do from a Christian point ofview.  Christians need to constantly beassessing what good stewardship of the personal property we have from God lookslike. We need to regularly ask–‘God what would you have me do with this?’  ‘Why have you given it to me?’  Too often the assumption of the Health andWealth preachers is that one is simply in the ‘bless me’ club and that is theend of the discussion.  But in fact, as Paulso aptly reminds us, most of the time we are blessed to be a blessing toothers, which is precisely why we must keep asking why this or that has beengiven to us?  Gratitude is not enough asa response to grace.  Responsibility, andinquiring after the purpose and function of a gift is in order.

We must be honestthat there are some severe problems with capitalism, even free marketcapitalism from a Christian point of view, not the least of which is that itleads to endless focus on ‘making money’ and buying new things to keep the economygoing, and “God bless our standard of living”.  It has led to the lust for ever cheaper goods, even at the expense ofhomegrown mom and pop companies going out of business because most everythingmust be out-sourced so we can still have “those low, low prices.”   I must confess though that I have mixedfeelings about this, because we do now have a global economy, and I have noproblems with other countries improving the lot in life of their people throughmy purchases. That’s fine by me.  But inthe 21rst century we must be global Christians in any case, and that means wemust care about the well being of the world in general, and Christian worldwidein particular.

Having said this,it is clear enough to me that capitalism is probably the lesser of two evils ifthe alternative is communism, especially Marxist communism.  I have spent enough time teaching in formerlycommunistic countries to see how it did not benefit the people in anyappreciable way, indeed it kept most of them in poverty.  And the issue is not just democracy vs.communism.  I am clear that the former asa political system is more Biblical than the latter especially when it comes tothe issue of religious freedom.  The largerissue is the Marxist economic system of absolute state control, vs. othermodels.  I find it difficult tounderstand why so many Biblical scholars think Marxist analysis and process andeconomic theory is more in accord with the NT than other theories.  Indeed, it would seem to me that the John ofPatmos who critiqued Romeand its economic slave based totalitarian economy, would have had about thesame reaction and critique of anti-Christian Marxist governments and theirtotalitarian centrally organized economies as well.

Reflecting a bit more about capitalism, there are several components that require critical scrutiny from a Biblical point of view: 1) the profit at all costs motive; 2) the charging whatever the traffic will bear model (which in some cases means prices 100% over cost, or more); 3) making money off of other peoples misery or making things that are deleterious to a person’s health; 4) making money being seen as the chief end and aim of all work.  I have a lot more to say about this last subject in a forthcoming book with Eerdmans on a Biblical theology of work, but clearly a Biblical theology of money must be seen within the large context of a Biblical theology of the purpose, ends, and aims of work. 5) the whole problem with usury, especially when practiced by Christians on the backs of other Christians.  The Bible has very specific things to say about charging your neighbor obscene rates of interest for something, and it is opposed to it.  Jesus likewise critiques such practices in the the parable of the wicked steward.   My point at this juncture is that when one examines various aspects of the ‘free-market capitalistic system, there are ethical problems with it from a Biblical point of view.  Not all Christian economists will agree about what these problems are or their extent, but here I am simply pointing out that godless and unethical capitalism is no better than godless communism or socialism.   Christians must think through issues of money, work, and economic in a consistently Biblical way.   Most of the time, there is no such reflection going on.  Its time to resolve to repent and do better on all of this.