The Economics of the Eighth Commandment
April 1998
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The term "modernism" as applied to church history is relatively new, being used to describe the application of higher criticism, scientific discovery, and contemporary culture to the Bible, and the consequent alterations of Christian faith and doctrine in terms of this.
Christians have not always spoken with a unanimous voice on the issue of what we today term economics. The Bible expressly defends the notion of private property and requires the civil magistrate to protect it (Ex. 20:15; 22:1).
Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
We are proudly ready to reconstruct the entire world according to God's Law-word, yet are often unable to reconstruct our own bank accounts!
When I was a freshman in high school, my Presbyterian pastor invited me to accompany him to a Presbyterian college, where he planned to visit two of his sons who were both on the faculty. I knew that he wanted to persuade me to join the ministry in the future, and I was flattered.
Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it. (Dt. 19:14)
Christian philosophers and theologians have never quite been able to respond to the pithiness of the French philosopher Descartes' implied solipsism, Cogito ergo sum: "I think, therefore, I am."
Marriage is a perfect institution comprised of imperfect people. Failure to put our whole effort into glorifying God through our marriages leaves us open for most of the ills our society inflicts. Marriage and the family are the basis of society; if we want to build a culture, we must start with ourselves. Both wives and husbands need regularly to evaluate their faithfulness to the high calling given them by God.
Does the Christian have the right to hate? Is it ever righteous to hate? To go one step further: is it sinful to love what God hates?
While I am quite critical of the "no-lordship" or "easy-believist" view of salvation that is associated with L. S. Chafer, C. C. Ryrie, Zane Hodges, Robert Lightner, and Hal Lindsey, I must confess that I can nevertheless understand and appreciate certain concerns expressed by its proponents that might seem to make their understanding of sola gratia and sola fide ("only by grace" and "only by faith") appealing.
Some policymakers in Washington want to make it easier for the federal government to prosecute people for what's in their minds.
Years ago, when I was still a religious agnostic, I was opposed to Christianity because most of the Christians with whom I was acquainted adhered to a socialist/statist ideology. Some of the strongest expounders of this left-leaning statism were pastors of Christian churches.
E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. A motto of the United States, we see it on our coins. Egalitarianism and multiculturalism are working hard to insure that this is the only place we'll see it, as America becomes a mere collection of warring factions.
The goal of man in his sin was and is autonomy, to be his own ultimate, his own god. This meant determining, or knowing for himself, what is good and evil in terms of purely personal criteria.
Covenant consciousness. Its importance is incalculable. The Bible, after all, is a covenantal revelation of the covenant God to his covenanted people.