George Soros couldn’t be more wrong.  His “wisdom” is out of alignment with history, common sense, and Biblical wisdom.  He recently said in an article

“Otherwise we will repeat the mistakes that plunged America into the Great Depression in 1929. That’s what Angela Merkel doesn’t understand,” he said. US President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the crisis in 1933 with his New Deal, inspired by British economist John Keynes, which combined a reform of the banking system with major infrastructure projects.”

Godonomics offers you, your family, your company, and even a country the chance to experience liberty, prosperity, and generosity. God offers us two slogans to find His path.

We Overspend Our Way To Slavery, Not Prosperity

Our grandparents told us things like, “Don’t spend more than you make.” “Save some money for a rainy day.”  Too often, we ignored them individually and nationally. The result? Pressure. We feel the pressure of financial obligation creeping into the things we love the most. It begins to hurt our families and our health. The ulcers from worry combined with that last fight with our spouse over the pile of bills is eating away the joy of our love. We know how we got here. No one needs to spell it out. We spent too much. We bought a house, a car, and a television that cost more than our paycheck would allow.  Our eyes were bigger than our checkbook. Now we are trying to pay our bills while making paying for the interest on stuff we bought two Christmases ago. We spent our way to slavery, not prosperity.

What is the solution? Pay off the consumer credit, get out of debt, and stop spending so much right?  Not if you are John Keynes.  While the Bible warns that we spend our way to slavery, not prosperity, Keynes tries to flip this around. He tells us that if you are in debt…  If you are in trouble…  Spend and borrow more. He believed you could spend your way to prosperity. Here is another troubling quote from his financial worldview:

“Before his death, Lord Keynes had spoken his mind about those sterling debts: ‘If you owe your bank manager a thousand pounds, you are at his mercy. If you owe him a million pounds, he is at your mercy.’”

You see what he is saying? If you have spent more than you can afford and the bank is breathing down your neck, you need to spend and borrow a lot more. He is saying that if you can borrow millions instead of thousands, the lender will be at your mercy. This is utter nonsense!  You are broke and worse than broke! You are enslaved to debt. Going deeper into debt doesn’t make you more prosperous, it makes you…more broke, more indebted, and more enslaved. Your assets are worthless because you have receipts and bills, but not enough money or any hope of paying it off in your lifetime. This is not the path to prosperity; it’s the path to slavery. God gives us some counter-wisdom.

Romans 13:8  Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

The Bible challenges us to owe no one anything. This is the path to both emotional and financial freedom.  The Bible describes how reality works. It gives us economic laws that function like the law of gravity. Whether we believe these principles or not is actually irrelevant. Many today will say things like, “I don’t believe in absolute truth,” or “I don’t believe in a God who actually appeared in history” or “I don’t think there are economic laws that anyone can really know absolutely.”

Though our culture and modern enlightenment might have bought into the belief that there are no absolute truths, reality teaches us otherwise. I might like to think of myself as 6’6″, 220 pounds, with a face like George Clooney, but reality reveals the truth..,my beliefs do not change reality.  Reality just…  Is.   I may say, “I believe the best way to diet is to eat ice cream and Twinkies and never exercise.” I may firmly and sincerely believe that to be true, but the reality is quite different. So the facts show us that we don’t break God’s laws, we discover them.  This economic principle, “You overspend your way to slavery, not prosperity” is true- whether we believe it or not. God says it this way:

The Borrower is Servant to the Lender

Proverbs 22:7 Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.

The borrower is servant or enslaved to the lender. This is an economic reality that is as true as electromagnetic attraction and nuclear energy.  You can try to break this principle. You can run up the credit cards. You can spend more than you make. You can borrow and live it up… for a while. But eventually reality catches up. The stress. The pressure. The compounded interest slowly chases you down and enslaves you.   All that money that could of been used for generous giving and family vacations has been held hostage by the purchases made in the past.  Many are still paying credit card bills for stuff that broke two years ago or sold at a garage sale six months ago.  This principle is true for nations as well as individuals. God laid out this fact in his handbook on freedom.

Deut 28:12, 43-44 The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow… 43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

God tells the nation of Israel not to borrow from other nations.  He challenges them to trust Him to meet their needs. He admonishes them to depend on His provision rather than the treasure house of other nations.  He teaches them not to spend more than they make. He warns us that borrowing from other nations leads to both pressure and loss of sovereignty. Borrowing from another nation is the global equivalent of you and I taking out another credit card.   God lays out the clear reasons for not borrowing. If one nation borrows from another, that nation will go down “lower and lower.” They will lose their sovereignty.  They will lose their independence. And the lending nation will have power over the borrowing nation.   The phrase, “tail wagging the dog” finds its origin in this warning from God. If you borrow from another nation, they will be the head, and you will be the tail.

At the root of most of these disastrous economic theories is one man: John Maynard Keynes. Maybe you recently saw the magazine.

Throughout my years as a pastor I have seen money causing both powerful and painful lessons in marriages and families because of money. I have seen the pain of divorce caused by excessive debt. I have seen the pressure put on a family due to overspending and worry. I have seen the nasty side of families at a funeral bickering and manipulating to get mom’s stuff. Men have sat in my office terrified that the “secret credit card” their spouse didn’t know about was about to come to light. They knew it would torpedo their marriage.   Despite the constant pain caused by the lack of adhering to God’s wisdom on money, we constantly hear that we shouldn’t talk about religion, politics, or money in polite company, articles highlighting him recently.  Almost everything he taught is the exact opposite of what God taught about economics. Most cable news “experts” are card-carrying elites brainwashed in his inaccurate theories.  These ideas have been practiced by government leaders like Hoover, F.D.R., Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barak Obama, just to name a few. America is needlessly hurting as the result of these bad ideas being played out over time.

Today economics is a topic of discussion at every tennis match, soccer game, Cub Scout get-together, or PTA meeting. People are sharing theories on the economy. They are wondering, “What went wrong? How did we get on the right track? How did our country get into this mess anyway?   The answer can be summed up in two words: John Keynes.

Let me fully introduce you to John Keynes. Even if you haven’t heard of him, I am sure you’ve been deeply and significantly impacted by him and his ideas.  His ideas affect every country, every family, and every household in the world today. He taught a view of economics focusing on Spending, Consuming, Borrowing, and Inflating. He promised that a government could offset the demand of an economic slump by borrowing from the future, devaluing the currency, and taxing the producer just “a-little-bit more.”  This “temporary” government spending and borrowing is like a lot like all those “temporary” taxes politicians are always selling.  John Keynes promised that overspending and inflating were ideas that would lead to economic prosperity.

Consuming and Inflating

John Keynes believed in building an economy on Consuming and Inflating, rather than Producing and Profiting. He essentially said, “Spend your way out of crisis.” “If you are in debt, borrow more,” and “When you get in trouble, print more currency on your printing press.” “Borrow and Spend.” The emphasis of his theory is on borrowing and consuming rather than producing and saving. It creates the illusion of a productive economy without really producing anything.

One day an American tourist stepped out of a taxi and walked into the lobby of a small town hotel in Europe.  He pulled out a hundred dollar bill to pay the hotel owner. He was given a key and headed upstairs to inspect his room. The hotel owner immediately took the hundred dollar bill and ran to pay his debt with the local butcher. The butcher immediately ran out the back door with the hundred dollar bill, and ran to pay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer jumped out of the barn and ran to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier grabbed the hundred dollar bill and ran to pay the hotel owner for the room he used the week before for his anniversary.  Just as the hotel owner received the one hundred dollar bill back into his hands, the tourist came down after inspecting the room.  He was not satisfied with any of the rooms, so he took back his Ben Franklin and left the hotel lobby. Though nothing was produced in this economic exchange, the whole town was now out of debt.

What?!?  What happened there? There were transactions. Money and goods were exchanged. It appeared to be a vital economic cycle, but the citizens just passed around the same hundred dollar bill. They built their town’s economy on borrowing and credit, rather than producing and profit. That story is a comical example of how Keynes’ philosophy can generate economic illusion, but not sustainable growth and prosperity.

Here is a quick summary of Godonomics which stands in contrast to John Keynes.   In Proverbs 31, it outlines how economies work. This business woman begins with PRODUCING, by finding a vineyard. Then she PROFITS -which is a good thing, not a four letter word. And in a free market system, the only way to profit is when someone willingly chooses to buy your product, requiring the producer to put the consumers’ needs first. Our Proverbs 31 woman does just that, as she “affirms that her merchandise is good,” working day and night to make the business successful. From her profits she produces SAVINGS, which allow her to INVEST in another vineyard–blessing others, hiring more workers, and PRODUCING more. From her SAVINGS she extends her hand to the poor and needy. The Scriptures affirm two lynch-pins of capitalism: Property Rights and Incentive, when it says, “Give her the fruit of her hands.” Those profits belong to her because she worked for them. This is called property rights. And they were the incentive of her hard work, her incentive.

For more information, check out the free videos of session 1 and 5 at www.godonomics.com