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The Weber Thesis
Principles of Biblical free market economic system explained thorughout American history.
The New Biblical Economics Training Center
You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure…
Just balances, just weights, a just ephph, and a just hin, shall ye have; I am the LORD your GOD...Leviticus 19:36
The Balances in the Temple and Tabernacle Represented
“Just Measures”
And the Character of Man with Standards of Conduct, Calling and Trade
““Christians must teach that a new heart from the Gospel requires a new “economic” lifestyle as well as a moral one. It is, therefore, a biblical mandate that such a new life will teach them to ply their own trade and build as good stewards of the resources and callings God gives them. Furthermore…it is a Christian imperative that, while doing so, they keep their hands from pilfering the pockets of others. Most especially, they refuse to morally acquit those who “…frame mischief with a law.” - ICHR
And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary…Leviticus 27:25 |
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Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I [am] the LORD. – Leviticus 19: 35- 37 |
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Pick your Economic Category:
Learning a Biblical ECONOMICS through The History of
the United States
Basic Economic Training Below
What is "Economics”? Ten Keys from Scripture
There are 10 economic keys to understand before
beginning any defense of the free market system. The Scriptures address those issues for us so that we can understand FOUNDATIONALLY, what economic thinking must rest upon
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The need to recast economic thinking
Our generation, following past generations, has lost its economic moorings. Our current state of poor economic understanding, debt ridden economy, no savings, toxic (fiat) money, illegal credit offers, corrupt banking procedures… all testify to our failure to understand biblical economics
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The Shekel in the Temple
The Lord placed Temple balances before the people of Israel. There was, in those balances, a shekel – an honest weight of gold money. Why was it there in the great Temple (and Tabernacle before it)? What was God attempting to show His people about economics … and CHARACTER
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Calling v. “the job”
What is Calling? Who does the calling? How does a person, say, a young person, know what his or her Calling is to be for life? Here are some keys to that crucial area of decision-making.
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Character and productivity
It is certain character traits borne out in Scripture that make a person productive, creating the entrepreneur.
Hint: Mental servitude and lassitude are NOT among them.
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The “Culture Carriers”: Music, Education, et.al.
So what is a culture carrier? These are the transgenerational (across the generations into the future) carriers of the key ideas of a society or culture. Their existence depends upon the success of the business sector and freedom to trade. If the latter two areas of the society are damaged, the culture carriers – music, law, art, education, science, math, religion, family, government, et al – will wither and ultimately, perish.
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How to Build a “Kingdom”
There is a flow of development in every successful culture. If there is productivity, there then will develop savings (investment). From there the rise of more and more discretionary time per individual will also grow. Finally, as a function of all of these operations within the economy, the culture carriers will take on greater and greater maturity.
But, what about the religion? What will happen to all of this development if the religion is idolatrous? Does the religion of the society matter toward productivity and culture carrier success?
(Hint: Does it matter to the economy of, say, India, if idolatry teaches people to worship the cow, disallowing its slaughter? Will such a culture tend toward scarcity of food? If the Gospel is embraced, will that change the economy?) |
Mom and Dad: God Creates “Derived Authority”
“Derived authority.” So few Christians understand this concept. Yet, it first learned in the home and family. God creates “derived authority” in all areas of society – marriage, family, business, civil magistrate, and church – all to REPRESENT HIS WILL in the operation of their areas of authority. This is one of the most important boundaries of societal ethic
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Dangerous Blessings
God gives graces to the soul which are always good for us. Not exceptions to that are given in the Bible. But, blessings also come from God such as food, money, sex, marriage, rest, good looks… and a host of other “good” things. What’s the problem with these? Find out here….
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What the Bible Teaches about Prices
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” That is crucial to the operation of what the Bible calls “Wisdom”. So, why does the Bible insist that NO ONE tamper with the money and other commercial standards of trade? You didn’t know that the Bible emphatically does forbid such tampering? Well… now you do. With sound money and sound commercial standards, pricing allows society to measure…therefore manage resources well. Wisdom can NOW undertake its great labors. |
Blood and Money
Time, blood, money and sweat are all used metaphorically to explain deep economic concepts vital to life. What is the relationship biblically? Why is money likened unto blood – in the sense of life-bearing function – in the Bible?
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The Laws of Human Action: Biblical Laws of Supply and Demand
Yes… man is NOT a neutral slate to be written upon after birth. Man is made in God’s image. As such, he comes with “the works of the law written in his heart”. The laws of economics such as supply and demand, marginal utility, diminishing returns, profitability, commodity money, reciprocity in trade, scale of values, Gresham’s law, the laws of logic… and a host of other sound money matters ALL arise out of the heart of acting man and woman. They are the laws of Human Action
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Socialism: “The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel…”
Ah…charity and gifts to the poor. What is it about the cry of the poor that lends itself to cruelty from the powerful in society?
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Calling and Stewardship
The Church just doesn’t think it necessary to teach good stewardship much less emphasize “calling” by God as an operation of a man or woman’s purpose and prudence in life. The churches seem only to speak in terms of “special Christian calling” as ministry or missionary work.
There is so much more to the concept, that the churches are guilty of tremendous opportunity cost and loss to the society and role each Christian plays in the life of family, society, church, charity and individual fulfillment.
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Charity and Benevolence
There are principles in the Bible that cannot be safely abandoned in dealing with the poor. If they are not used nor addressed by the Church of Christ, havoc will be created in society, either by the poor, by the envious, or by the power-mongers who cater to the poor … cruelly.
Charity and benevolence is one of the great powers of the Christian Church, with even an officer (the deacon) set aside for its special attention.
If the Church refuses to address the poor, the State will do so… disastrously to the society. |
Savings and Investment vs. Slavery
It’s very simple to understand: IF no investment, man and society will turn to SLAVERY. If investment (business creation, investment instruments, commodity trading)… all militate against the temptation to legitimize slavery.
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Oxen and Sheep: Capital Goods and Multiple Streams of Income
“No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge.” – Deuteronomy 24:6
This verse forbids anyone from taking a man’s capital goods away from him through debt collection. It cannot be taken as collateral or repayment. It goes to the life of a man. The ox was the “tractor” of the farming world in ancient Israel. Stealing a man’s ox was to bring five-fold restitution in court of the value of the ox at market price. Machinary (goods that make other goods), tractors, reapers…tools, books of authors and other researchers, computers, are all capital goods. IF capital goods are seized, then slavery becomes the new “capital resource” which is the reason ancient societies even as great as Greece and Rome were limited in their commercial inventions/machine use. They had slaves. That was the “capital good” used in place of machinery, inventions and research resources. |
What you and your church can do now…
There is SO MUCH need for the churches to get to work in the vital field of economics. But, Jesus warned us that we are not so wise as the non-believing world in this respect:
“And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” – Luke 16:8
Why are they wiser than Christians in handling economic and other “practical” issues?
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Tell the churches and the pastors!
We need the churches address and pastors addressing these issues found throughout SolomonsToolbox.com – especially in the economics sections. Here’s what you can do to build up your church and other Christian networks.
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More topics…
More topics will be added regularly. Much more in economics and entrepreneurship are being created daily. Click here to see what’s in store for you, your church, your family … and your Lord.
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Or Begin Here for Starters
What is “Economics”?
Ten Key “Starting Points” from Scripture
 1. The One True God and Sound Knowledge: Where’s the ‘Builder’?
The Bible presents the concept of the Triune God of the Universe. His Word, the Scriptures, lays the foundational truths for life and understanding, including economic understanding. The Bible contains literally thousands of precepts pertaining to economics and presents them as a system, rarely taught today in the churches. As opposed to the Triune God of Scripture, idolatries of all sorts (including the Keynesian economics of today’s idolatry) are ALWAYS “economic” in approach, as well as “religious”.
The Greek philosophers, knowing the “gods” were a fiction, knew economic issues were also being tossed aside as they challenged traditions in Athens and elsewhere. Idolatry, whatever else it may be, always creates its own economic system… and poverty as well. Being misinformation, idolatry misallocates resources. Certainly the modernistic and Keynesian economics systems have terribly misallocated economic resources, en masse…and to our impoverishment, in their attack upon savings, prices, entrepreneurship, and productivity.
2. Glory, the Gospel and the Destruction of Superstition
Man is made for glory. But, he invariably seeks his own glory first. This movement of the soul often involves a fallen economic thought – ambition, money, greed, deceit, and theft. What if the glory of the soul is directed to the Lord… and He directs it toward sound principles of calling, responsible ownership, and economic stewardship?
The Gospel is not just a “way to heaven”. Of course, it is that certainly. But, no culture can survive long unless the Gospel’s truth is brought to bear upon the conscience of a person. With the powerful change wrought by God in the soul comes a new man… which includes a “new economic man” as well. Suddenly, affections and desires (all economic as well as spiritual) are different. Priorities are reordered for life. Economic truths take on spiritual dimension. “Whether you eat or drink, whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
Historically, where the Bible goes, “Calling” becomes understood, with its emphasis on wisdom, and “character”. Such wisdom and character traits replace superstition, mysticism and impoverishment. A justifying faith in Jesus Christ powerfully affects any economy, through the clean and reasonable use of holy precept.
3. Economics in the Garden of Eden
With modern man scoffing at the history of the Garden of Eden, he loses therefore the benefits of understanding vital economic truths so vital to life, and decision-making. In the Garden, the great tenets of economics were begun: Sound Authority and economic subordination, risk and time, the discernment of sound a information system and loss through disinformation, economic needs, economic sanctions and death, allocation of resources, the division of labor, the nature of the Fall, scarcity, inheritance and disinheritance, calling, guilt and envy, glory and commodity, labor and management of resources. Ultimately, the meaning of the Curse and Blessings of God, sin and righteousness (What were Adam and Eve doing in the Garden to begin with?).
4. The Fall, Scarcity and Strife: Handling the “Curse”
Just exactly HOW does an understanding of the Fall of mankind affect your decision-making? Why was the curse instituted by God? Why was economy addressed so heavily in the Fall (thorns and thistles (scarcity), sorrow in conception and population, death and disinheritance, labor and sweat of the brow, disinvestment of labor and capital, the calling of man and woman)?
5. Risk v. Control, Theft, Magic & Slavery: The Power of a Justifying Faith
Everything has risk built into it. But, managing risk is key to understanding and preparing for a future which will arrive and the present which demands your immediate attention. Because of the nature of man, control, theft and slavery take the place of sound economy. Also due to man’s fallen nature, superstition (magic) misallocates management, time and resources. A Justifying faith in Christ is designed to rectify such character traits, resetting man’s handling of the world around him.
In place of …
control, theft, superstition and servitide
...comes...
Responsible Character with....
productivity, self-governance, wisdom and birtue, captital investment and savings.
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The “Second Sword” of the Church of Christ
Sound Economics and Productive Enterprise
“And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
…sword… plowshares…
…spear… pruning hooks…
The nations will learn to “get gain” by moving from weapons to tools (productive stewardship - as opposed to Modernistic and Keynesian economics). |
6. Time, Money and Blood
The Bible shows us that time, money and blood are interrelated. Not only are they related directly in the Bible concerning redemption – “You are bought with a price”; “…redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.”; “the earnest [ed. earnest money] of our expectation”… Scripture teaches us that money is the economic means of saving “life” temporally from the heavy burdens of the curse. Money is temporally redemptive and a means of ‘storing” up the ever fleeting moment. If a man is paid for 50 hours of work by his boss, and a thieve robs him on the way home of that money, the thief has robbed LIFE – 50 hours of it – from the man. If left unrecovered, that man has taken an irrecoverable loss. If it keeps happening, he is losing Life – literally being murdered, on the “installment plan”.
7. Inheritance and Property
God warns that no one take away the boundary stones, marking a person’s property and inheritance. So important is inheritance and property rights with its responsibilities in ownership, that God enjoins severe penalties in His Word for breaching that trust. But, there’s even more involved than simple breach of an inheritance or the theft of property rights.
8. Marriage and the Division of Labor
The essence of an advanced economy is the Division of labor whereby each person contributes talent and resources in areas where he or she is best suited and does so toward economic progress. Sound economy begins in the marriage relationship, sexual satisfaction being addressed in economic terms by the prophets and Paul. Indeed, Paul treats regular refusal to a spouse as “defrauding” that spouse. But, the division of labor, built into marriage, becomes the foundation of a greater degree of such application in advanced economies.
9. Redemption v. Slavery
God used redemption as a model for the destruction of slavery, and the means of “buying back” your Christian brother or your neighbor. Redemption was applied in principle to debt management, the poor laws, gleaning, lending, monogamy, land use, liberty, debt bondage, usury, and the very nature of money, prices, and costs. Slavery is replaced in the Bible with investment, savings, and capital goods. As investment understanding grows, slavery disappears. As savings and investment are eliminated (as in Keynesian economics and the business cycle), slavery returns. Hear why that MUST be so…
10. The Lord's Day, Liberty and Holy Precept
Many Christian people cannot defend from the Bible why they worship on the first day of the week. But, what they don’t suspect, is that the Sabbath is not just a day of worship. It was the symbol of liberty and victory over unrighteousness. It’s tie with economics is crucial: “…Six days shalt thou labor …”. Why was this attached to the command to “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” ? How does worship, liberty, and rest become related Scripturally? Hear how that is the case here..
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Donations are NOT tax deductible.
Return to top for other categories of economic thinking… bringing greater insights for help in this horrid economic climate. The purpose of this survey is to get your input as what YOU believe are the most pressing issues surrounding Christian Business as a subject for Christian study. |
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