Stephen McDowell looks at overcoming socialism with biblical capitalism
Stephen McDowell Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Steven McDowell. Hello. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today I want to begin to look at overcoming socialism with biblical capitalism. I'm sure, as most of you are aware, there's been a great amount of, activity and, action of the Democratic Socialists of America. Number of candidates that have aligned themselves with this group have been elected to public office. Many more have run for office. Of course, the most famous Democratic socialist is the mayor of NewSong York City, who was elected earlier and has begun to implement some of his socialistic policies, which I can tell you are going to not bear good fruit, at all. But, I want to just take in this and the next podcast, take a brief overview, a brief look, a brief introduction into socialism, and contrast it with biblical capitalism. Now, in future podcast, I'm going to look in much more detail on the whole subject of biblical capitalism. I wrote a book some years ago called Steward in the A Biblical View of Economics. And I have a lot to say about principles of biblical economics. I don't have time to examine all those in these next podcasts, but in the future I may do so because it's very important that Americans, and not just Americans, everybody in the world. I've taught these principles a lot in Latin America over the last number of years. But we need to understand, what is socialism and how it is contrary to what the Bible teaches about economics. And remember, the premise that I've taken to this podcast and all my podcasts and writings is that what God says is truth. And if we obey God's truth, then we'll be blessed. We'll flourish as an individual, as a family, as a business, as a nation. But if we reject the eternal precepts of God as revealed in the Bible as they speak to any area of life, then we're going to have troubles. We're going to go backwards, we're going to see bad fruit come forth. Certainly, history and events in the world today affirm that God's economic principles work. So what is socialism now? You know, the Democratic Socialists of America, they say they believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically, you know, to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. So their goal, they think, well, we're going to get government and use the power of government, in essence, to take from the productive and give to the unproductive, which is contrary directly to what the scripture, says. As we will see now, socialism is a form of statism. Statism is a general term that includes socialism, democratic socialism, communism, Marxism, and various, man centered isms. Statism is the belief that man via the state is the ultimate authority in the earth. That man via really those who have the power through civil government, they are the source of law, the source of morality, the source of what's right. They are the ones who know how to handle matters in the economy and know how to make sure that everybody gets, equal things. And so statism is really, it's a religious belief. It's a belief that's centered in the concept that man is his own God. I will determine for myself, just like Adam and Eve said they would when they ate of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil. I will decide for myself. Status man declares what's right and wrong, what's moral or immoral, what's good or evil. And so socialism is one form of statism. As I say, there's other names we could use. Communism, Marxism. Democratic socialism is of course what the democratic socialist of America, they use that terminology, as well. But all of these isms center around the concept that civil government, man via civil government is the ultimate authority. And that those men in positions of power, they know what's best and they're going to use that power to implement their view of utopia in the earth. And so civil government under status ideology seeks to control our own property. Karl Marx put it very clearly when he said the theory of the communist. Of course, communism is just one form of statism. The theory of the communists may be summed up in the single sentence, abolition of private property. And so communists, not this communist, but all forms of status want to get rid of private property. Now, under democratic socialist governments, they may allow people to rent property. And that's the really the idea behind property taxes. When you have property taxes, it's really the government saying we have claim ultimate authority over this property because we don't pay our property taxes. Just see what happens. At some point governments will come in and confiscate your property to take what they believe is their share and if there's any left, give it back to you. But the statist communists, socialists, democratic socialists want to control our own property. The communists say we want to own it all. The democratic socialists, they say, well you can own it, but we just want to control or control the means of production of goods and services, or control you know, what you can charge or for goods coming out of your store, or, all kinds of different things. But ultimately it's man wanting to make the decision regarding property rights. Now in 1998, there is a Venezuelan, Hugo Chavez, who was running for office and he was a democratic socialist, just like these people in America who are part of the DSA or people who embrace that ideology. And you know, he got elected to office by promising the people, hey, you vote for me and I'll give you free stuff. They're like the mayor of NewSong York says, you know, you vote for me and we'll make groceries affordable. We'll build government grocery stores and sell goods to you 30% less or whatever the promise is. This is what these kind of people always do, make promises. And then once they get elected, they may initially take from the productive and use that to try to fulfill some of their promises. But they quickly learned that we've run out of other people's money really quick. And that's what happened with Chavez after he was elected to office, because he realized, we've taxed the people too much, we've nationalized, a lot of the businesses and other things. We've got to come up with other ways to fulfill these promises. 2001, he appeared on television in Venezuela and gave a speech in which he said to the people, said, this land is not yours. The land is not private, but the property of the nation. And that's when he began to nationalize various businesses, the oil businesses and others, to confiscate control, to own, govern property, so that he might try to carry on some of these promises that he made to different people. Now, of course, after he died, his replacement, Chavera, carried on his status socialist policies and they have nearly destroyed the country. Venezuela used to be the second most prosperous nation in the Western Hemisphere next to the United States. Now they're next to last. under these socialist policies, ah, millions have fled the country. The average Venezuelan has lost 5, 10 kg of weight because they can't get enough food. But, Venezuela is a great demonstration of what happens to a nation that implements economic and governmental policies contrary to what the Bible teaches. And so status governments, pagan civil governments, want to control or own all property. And it's not just true of, physical property, but they also seek to control or own your internal property. That is, they want to own your thoughts, your ideas. You can't worship like you want to. You can't think what you want to think. You have to believe this about the family. The family's not just one man and one woman are united for life. It can be whatever we say it is. And so they will always seek to control all types of property, both internal and external, and they use the force of civil government to try to implement that. Certainly that was true in America during the COVID crisis when some of these socialist thinking statist people came up with, idea not based in science at all and said, you are going to do what say you're going to do. You're going to get this experimental shot and all these other things, and if not, you're going to be punished for it. This is typical of all statist governments. Now socialism, as I said, it's really a religion. It's a religion that assumes certain things. One, it assumes that all property belongs to the society, to society, really to the state and really to those in charge of the state is what that means. That doesn't really mean society at large. so that's a religious belief. We're in charge here. And then, following along that is that there should be no private property. So all property belongs to the state. There should be no private property, including. You shouldn't be able to think like you want to think, but you should think like we want to think. Of course they think that's right.
Socialism assumes that men will work as hard for society in general
They would declare, well, this is the right way to think and you're going to follow how we think or you'll be punished, for us. So socialism also assumes that men will work as hard for society in general as they would for themselves and their family. So they think, oh yeah, man's basically good and that he can see the great need everybody needs to have their needs met. And we're going to redistribute the wealth and everyone's going to labor just as hard. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. And so if you can be more productive, work harder, then you're not going to get any more than your neighbor who can't work as hard as you but has the same needs. And so, you know, they're embracing ideas, like this. And so socialism, it's a religion, it's a man centered religion where the power is centered in the state. As I said, socialists usually get elected by making promises. Vote for me and I will provide for you. Now to fallen, sinful man. This is a nice promise. Well sure, I'd love to have a lot of stuff and get it free. That's what's promised. But of course Nothing is ever free. when you remove the incentive for others to be productive and labor hard, then you're going to all share in the same amount of misery. You're not going to share in the same amount of abundance because if you remove the things that bring about productivity, free market principles as we will explore, then you're taking away the incentive to work. And people will not work. So don't fall for the promises of socialists. Vote for me and I will provide for you, no matter how good they may sound. You don't have to think too deeply to discover. Well, that does it. I can see that's not going to work at all. Now, socialist governments seek to control men and property by many, many means. Now, in communist states or like North Korea, they just use force to come in and take over your farm and tell you what to do or take over your business. But in democratic socialist nations like most of Western Europe and America's been becoming a democratic socialist, government too, in many ways. But that control comes more subtly. It's primarily, through taxation. And so when you have graduated income taxes, for example, and the most productive pay more, you're redistributing the wealth and you're removing the incentive for those to be productive. This is what, for example, many European nations have. Some Scandinavian nations, generation ago, increased taxes on the most productive, where they were up to 90%. We actually had that kind of tax structure too when Ronald Reagan became president. Very high tax rate for the most productive. But these democratic socialist nations in Europe discovered that we're going bankrupt, we can't survive. And so they were forced to drastically cut the taxes in order to survive as a nation. And they're certainly not to the rates that they got up to back in the 70s at 90%, but they're still, way too high. But that's a primary way that socialist governments will try to control property, the means of production through, various taxes, graduated income taxes, unjust taxes, and regulations too. Government regulations. There's many other ways as well. But I'm just, giving you a brief introduction. In future podcasts can explore much more detail. Precepts of statism, precepts of socialism.
One of the fundamental components of biblical economics is private property
But, what I want to take the most time on is to say, okay, well, what does the Bible say about, biblical, about economics, about socialism, about the role of government in the production of goods and services. So the Bible, what it teaches actually is in, in direct contrast to the principles of socialism, where socialism says all property belongs to the state. There should be no private property. One of the fundamental components of biblical economics is private property. The Bible teaches the concept of private property. Now, as we read scripture, we see and understand that God created all things. That is, God created all property. And since he created it all, he owns it all. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. But Psalm, 24 tells us, but the earth he's given to the sons of men. And so God gave to man the stewardship of his property. Psalm 115, 16M, he owns it all. But when he created man, the very beginning, Genesis chapter one, he said, okay, I'm giving this to you. Be fruitful, multiply, take dominion over the earth, fill the earth, subdue the earth, rule the earth, Said, it's mine, but I'm making you my vice regent for you to steward creation. And so owning property gives us power to fulfill the mission that God had gave to man in the very beginning, and the m mission that still is ours. To take dominion over the earth, to extend the kingdom of God in the earth, to extend his righteous rule over all things, in all the earth, because the earth is his. He's given us the mission to govern the earth, to steward the earth. And owning private property is essential for us to fulfill the mission of one providing for ourselves and our family, of, taking God's original creation, rearranging it and bringing forth fruit, being productive, being fruitful, to elevate mankind, to be a blessing to mankind, to bring flourishing, to the earth. And so private property enables us to accomplish the mission while God created us in the first place. And when God gave to man, it wasn't to government, wasn't to a select few people who govern, but it's to all men created in the image of God. He wants all men to own property and to be productive. Now, two of the ten commandments affirm m the principle of private property. The eighth commandment says, you shall not steal. That implies private property rights, because if you don't own any property, how can anybody steal it from you? 10th Commandment says, you shall not covet your neighbor's property. Of course, that implies ownership of property by your neighbor. So we shouldn't steal the property and we shouldn't covet. And of course, socialism and other forms of statism do that very thing. They steal property from the government, steals property from the productive, gives to the unproductive. And by the way, usually a lot of that property they steal goes into their own pockets. as is evidence in history, in so many people Today and even in the United States, some of these so called socialists who came into office with hardly any network are now worth millions and millions of dollars. And that's come from basically stealing by using the place of their power and seats of government. So to the Ten Commandments, affirm that the Bible teaches we have a God given right to own property. It's a fundamental right that we own to accomplish the mission. Now we see in the scripture, we can read Joshua 12:31 that families in Israel were given land that they own. When God led the children of Israel into the promised land, he divided among all the families, he gave them private property so that they could be productive on that property. So that affirms m the ownership of private property as well. Another thing we see in the scripture is that the penalty for anyone who stole property was restitution. See, restitution is to be made by the thief for any property that may, they may have stolen. And the Bible tells us if you steal a sheep, anyone steals a sheep, they have to pay back fourfold for the sheep. They steal a cow, they got to pay back five cows for the one cow. Why is that? Because God's law takes into consideration the potential productivity of that item that was stolen. Because a sheep is worth more than just the value of its, meat and skin. But it continually bears wool and so it grows wool. You can shear the wool and make clothing from that for years and years. Same with a cow. Cow is worth far more than just the stakes you could get from it or make a football out of its height or something. But it cows were used to plow the fields. And so that was vital for the productivity of individuals. They could plow field and produce abundant wealth. And the cows were vital. And so restitution in the Bible took into consideration the potential productivity of what was stole. But the very fact that there is restitution implies private property rights. Property is to be protected because it's valuable. Each individual's property was to be protected. Now we also see in Jeremiah 32 that even during exile, the time of when the tribe Israel was Judah, it was carried into exile into Babylon. We see where Jeremiah the prophet bought a field from his cousin. He signed a deed with witnesses after paying money for it. Jeremiah 32, 1:16. You can go and read this account. So here in this incident we see private ownership of property. So Jeremiah bought a field, he bought it from his cousin. And not only private ownership, we see the free market. Here's a transaction between individuals who transferred property because if you own private property and belongs to you, you can do with it whatever you wish. And so you can sell property, use the property to be, productive because it's yours. And so, there's private ownership. We also see they signed a deed. And so when you have transfer of property, it's very important to have a recorded record. It's easy to understand who owns the property, keep, at any particular time. And of course Jeremiah paid money. There was an agreement made on how much it would cost to transfer the ownership of that property from his cousin to Jeremiah. So here's an example of private ownership of property, the free market. We also see that Jesus taught in the parable of the laborers and the vineyard. It teaches that the landowner could do what he wished with his own things. Parable Matthew 20:15 asks, Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? And so Jesus affirmed in this parable the concept of private ownership of property and the right of owners of property to use the property in whatever way that they wanted to. Of course, today in America, as our government is becoming more of a democratic socialist government, in recent generations, really, we see more and more control of private property. And so, you know, you can't do what you want to with your own property because there's a, you know, some bug that lives on your property or frog, it's endangered. And so we've got to protect that. There might be a swamp on your land if you have a puddle of water on your land. So the government has come in, this is literally the case many times, and told landowners, you can't do what you want to with your own things. But Jesus taught it's lawful for us to do, what we wish with, our property, with the things that we, we own. Now some people would say, well, but didn't the early church live in socialism? Didn't they have all things in common? Don't we read that in the Book of Acts? And isn't this a basic tenet of socialist ideology that we all help one another and live together, we all meet one another's needs so that no one is, lacking anything or with having their basic needs met. And boy, doesn't this sound great? Isn't this how Jesus wanted us to live? Well, you don't have to read the Book of Acts in this incident in Acts, chapter five too closely to recognize Jesus in the Bible doesn't teach this at all, doesn't teach living in socialism as the plan he has for man. Because from the Very beginning. The whole concept of productivity and benefiting from the fruit of your labor has been a, part of what God intended man who's created in his image, to do. In the early church, what we see is that these Christians in Jerusalem voluntarily sold their property or some of their property. We can know from Scripture they didn't sell all their property because later on in Acts 12, we see that the church was meeting in the house of Mary. So she evidently still owned some property and she lived in Jerusalem. So it was a voluntary choice in this specific time in history where, individuals, recognize we want to help meet the needs that others may have.
One of the most important concepts of biblical economics is private property rights
In fact, in this story of Ananias and Sapphire, in Acts 4, we see Peter, affirmed the ownership and individual control of the property of Ananias and Sapphira when he said, while it remained, was it not your own, and after it was sold, was it not in your own accord? So it wasn't that the judgment of God came upon them because they didn't live in socialism. Quite the contrary. The judgment of God came upon them because they lied to the Holy Spirit. Instead, they were doing one thing, when they did another. And Peter affirmed, look, it's your property. While it was yours, it was your own. After it was sold, it's in your control, control even, they acted in a way that wasn't true. That's why the judgment of God came upon them for lying to the Holy Spirit, not for failure to live under socialistic policies. And so we see in the Scripture that the family is the primary institution to take dominion over the earth. Because God created man, male and female, in his image. That was the original creation, institution, the family. And since they were given the mission to take dominion over the earth, it's primarily the family. That's to own and control land and property. private property rights are fundamental to enable us to accomplish the mission that God has, given us. Now this is, just, the first, a first principle of foundational idea of biblical economics. In my book Steward in the Earth, I list about a dozen different biblical principles of economics, and there are certainly many others that you could find. But one of the fundamental, most important concepts of biblical economics is private property rights. The Bible teaches this. History has affirmed the wisdom of God in teaching this. And I, want to, in the next podcast next week, I want to say a few more words about private property and how important it is. And then I want to give you two other kind of fundamental foundational principles of biblical economics and understanding. These three things will help us to overcome socialism, to combat the rise of socialism in America. Many of our youth embrace socialism, primarily because they're taught this false ideology in our government schools. Once they begin to live in the real world, they understand that these ideas they were taught, they don't work. They've never worked anywhere. They've been tried throughout history. They don't work anywhere in the world today where they're being implemented as well. And they will not work in the United States of America. So we need to, do everything that we can to push back against these democratic socialists of America, see that we keep any of them from serving in civil government. And to, push back, we need to educate Americans into biblical economic principles that work and God's principles work. And so again, private property rights are a fundamental biblical right. That we have a God given right. That's the number one thing. And so, I invite you to come back next week because I want to say a few more words about the importance of private property and then give you two other fundamental principles that are essential for us to understand if we want to keep our nation a flourishing nation, a productive nation unlike any the world has seen. We've been the most productive nation in history. We still are today. even though we've rejected a lot of our founding principles, governmental principles, economic principles, we still, embrace these founding principles, these Christian ideas in a very, very significant way. And that still impacts the great productivity of the American people today. Well, I, invite you to Visit our website, providencefoundation.com you can see my book Steward in the the Biblical View of Economics. And we have a number of articles on that as well. You can just search economics and some articles will come up and you can read those. But I, hope you'll come back next week as we continue to take a look at how we're going to overcome socialism with biblical capitalism. God bless you. It.
Stephen McDowell looks at overcoming socialism with biblical capitalism
Stephen McDowell Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Steven McDowell. Hello. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today I want to begin to look at overcoming socialism with biblical capitalism. I'm sure, as most of you are aware, there's been a great amount of, activity and, action of the Democratic Socialists of America. Number of candidates that have aligned themselves with this group have been elected to public office. Many more have run for office. Of course, the most famous Democratic socialist is the mayor of NewSong York City, who was elected earlier and has begun to implement some of his socialistic policies, which I can tell you are going to not bear good fruit, at all. But, I want to just take in this and the next podcast, take a brief overview, a brief look, a brief introduction into socialism, and contrast it with biblical capitalism. Now, in future podcast, I'm going to look in much more detail on the whole subject of biblical capitalism. I wrote a book some years ago called Steward in the A Biblical View of Economics. And I have a lot to say about principles of biblical economics. I don't have time to examine all those in these next podcasts, but in the future I may do so because it's very important that Americans, and not just Americans, everybody in the world. I've taught these principles a lot in Latin America over the last number of years. But we need to understand, what is socialism and how it is contrary to what the Bible teaches about economics. And remember, the premise that I've taken to this podcast and all my podcasts and writings is that what God says is truth. And if we obey God's truth, then we'll be blessed. We'll flourish as an individual, as a family, as a business, as a nation. But if we reject the eternal precepts of God as revealed in the Bible as they speak to any area of life, then we're going to have troubles. We're going to go backwards, we're going to see bad fruit come forth. Certainly, history and events in the world today affirm that God's economic principles work. So what is socialism now? You know, the Democratic Socialists of America, they say they believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically, you know, to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. So their goal, they think, well, we're going to get government and use the power of government, in essence, to take from the productive and give to the unproductive, which is contrary directly to what the scripture, says. As we will see now, socialism is a form of statism. Statism is a general term that includes socialism, democratic socialism, communism, Marxism, and various, man centered isms. Statism is the belief that man via the state is the ultimate authority in the earth. That man via really those who have the power through civil government, they are the source of law, the source of morality, the source of what's right. They are the ones who know how to handle matters in the economy and know how to make sure that everybody gets, equal things. And so statism is really, it's a religious belief. It's a belief that's centered in the concept that man is his own God. I will determine for myself, just like Adam and Eve said they would when they ate of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil. I will decide for myself. Status man declares what's right and wrong, what's moral or immoral, what's good or evil. And so socialism is one form of statism. As I say, there's other names we could use. Communism, Marxism. Democratic socialism is of course what the democratic socialist of America, they use that terminology, as well. But all of these isms center around the concept that civil government, man via civil government is the ultimate authority. And that those men in positions of power, they know what's best and they're going to use that power to implement their view of utopia in the earth. And so civil government under status ideology seeks to control our own property. Karl Marx put it very clearly when he said the theory of the communist. Of course, communism is just one form of statism. The theory of the communists may be summed up in the single sentence, abolition of private property. And so communists, not this communist, but all forms of status want to get rid of private property. Now, under democratic socialist governments, they may allow people to rent property. And that's the really the idea behind property taxes. When you have property taxes, it's really the government saying we have claim ultimate authority over this property because we don't pay our property taxes. Just see what happens. At some point governments will come in and confiscate your property to take what they believe is their share and if there's any left, give it back to you. But the statist communists, socialists, democratic socialists want to control our own property. The communists say we want to own it all. The democratic socialists, they say, well you can own it, but we just want to control or control the means of production of goods and services, or control you know, what you can charge or for goods coming out of your store, or, all kinds of different things. But ultimately it's man wanting to make the decision regarding property rights. Now in 1998, there is a Venezuelan, Hugo Chavez, who was running for office and he was a democratic socialist, just like these people in America who are part of the DSA or people who embrace that ideology. And you know, he got elected to office by promising the people, hey, you vote for me and I'll give you free stuff. They're like the mayor of NewSong York says, you know, you vote for me and we'll make groceries affordable. We'll build government grocery stores and sell goods to you 30% less or whatever the promise is. This is what these kind of people always do, make promises. And then once they get elected, they may initially take from the productive and use that to try to fulfill some of their promises. But they quickly learned that we've run out of other people's money really quick. And that's what happened with Chavez after he was elected to office, because he realized, we've taxed the people too much, we've nationalized, a lot of the businesses and other things. We've got to come up with other ways to fulfill these promises. 2001, he appeared on television in Venezuela and gave a speech in which he said to the people, said, this land is not yours. The land is not private, but the property of the nation. And that's when he began to nationalize various businesses, the oil businesses and others, to confiscate control, to own, govern property, so that he might try to carry on some of these promises that he made to different people. Now, of course, after he died, his replacement, Chavera, carried on his status socialist policies and they have nearly destroyed the country. Venezuela used to be the second most prosperous nation in the Western Hemisphere next to the United States. Now they're next to last. under these socialist policies, ah, millions have fled the country. The average Venezuelan has lost 5, 10 kg of weight because they can't get enough food. But, Venezuela is a great demonstration of what happens to a nation that implements economic and governmental policies contrary to what the Bible teaches. And so status governments, pagan civil governments, want to control or own all property. And it's not just true of, physical property, but they also seek to control or own your internal property. That is, they want to own your thoughts, your ideas. You can't worship like you want to. You can't think what you want to think. You have to believe this about the family. The family's not just one man and one woman are united for life. It can be whatever we say it is. And so they will always seek to control all types of property, both internal and external, and they use the force of civil government to try to implement that. Certainly that was true in America during the COVID crisis when some of these socialist thinking statist people came up with, idea not based in science at all and said, you are going to do what say you're going to do. You're going to get this experimental shot and all these other things, and if not, you're going to be punished for it. This is typical of all statist governments. Now socialism, as I said, it's really a religion. It's a religion that assumes certain things. One, it assumes that all property belongs to the society, to society, really to the state and really to those in charge of the state is what that means. That doesn't really mean society at large. so that's a religious belief. We're in charge here. And then, following along that is that there should be no private property. So all property belongs to the state. There should be no private property, including. You shouldn't be able to think like you want to think, but you should think like we want to think. Of course they think that's right.
Socialism assumes that men will work as hard for society in general
They would declare, well, this is the right way to think and you're going to follow how we think or you'll be punished, for us. So socialism also assumes that men will work as hard for society in general as they would for themselves and their family. So they think, oh yeah, man's basically good and that he can see the great need everybody needs to have their needs met. And we're going to redistribute the wealth and everyone's going to labor just as hard. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. And so if you can be more productive, work harder, then you're not going to get any more than your neighbor who can't work as hard as you but has the same needs. And so, you know, they're embracing ideas, like this. And so socialism, it's a religion, it's a man centered religion where the power is centered in the state. As I said, socialists usually get elected by making promises. Vote for me and I will provide for you. Now to fallen, sinful man. This is a nice promise. Well sure, I'd love to have a lot of stuff and get it free. That's what's promised. But of course Nothing is ever free. when you remove the incentive for others to be productive and labor hard, then you're going to all share in the same amount of misery. You're not going to share in the same amount of abundance because if you remove the things that bring about productivity, free market principles as we will explore, then you're taking away the incentive to work. And people will not work. So don't fall for the promises of socialists. Vote for me and I will provide for you, no matter how good they may sound. You don't have to think too deeply to discover. Well, that does it. I can see that's not going to work at all. Now, socialist governments seek to control men and property by many, many means. Now, in communist states or like North Korea, they just use force to come in and take over your farm and tell you what to do or take over your business. But in democratic socialist nations like most of Western Europe and America's been becoming a democratic socialist, government too, in many ways. But that control comes more subtly. It's primarily, through taxation. And so when you have graduated income taxes, for example, and the most productive pay more, you're redistributing the wealth and you're removing the incentive for those to be productive. This is what, for example, many European nations have. Some Scandinavian nations, generation ago, increased taxes on the most productive, where they were up to 90%. We actually had that kind of tax structure too when Ronald Reagan became president. Very high tax rate for the most productive. But these democratic socialist nations in Europe discovered that we're going bankrupt, we can't survive. And so they were forced to drastically cut the taxes in order to survive as a nation. And they're certainly not to the rates that they got up to back in the 70s at 90%, but they're still, way too high. But that's a primary way that socialist governments will try to control property, the means of production through, various taxes, graduated income taxes, unjust taxes, and regulations too. Government regulations. There's many other ways as well. But I'm just, giving you a brief introduction. In future podcasts can explore much more detail. Precepts of statism, precepts of socialism.
One of the fundamental components of biblical economics is private property
But, what I want to take the most time on is to say, okay, well, what does the Bible say about, biblical, about economics, about socialism, about the role of government in the production of goods and services. So the Bible, what it teaches actually is in, in direct contrast to the principles of socialism, where socialism says all property belongs to the state. There should be no private property. One of the fundamental components of biblical economics is private property. The Bible teaches the concept of private property. Now, as we read scripture, we see and understand that God created all things. That is, God created all property. And since he created it all, he owns it all. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. But Psalm, 24 tells us, but the earth he's given to the sons of men. And so God gave to man the stewardship of his property. Psalm 115, 16M, he owns it all. But when he created man, the very beginning, Genesis chapter one, he said, okay, I'm giving this to you. Be fruitful, multiply, take dominion over the earth, fill the earth, subdue the earth, rule the earth, Said, it's mine, but I'm making you my vice regent for you to steward creation. And so owning property gives us power to fulfill the mission that God had gave to man in the very beginning, and the m mission that still is ours. To take dominion over the earth, to extend the kingdom of God in the earth, to extend his righteous rule over all things, in all the earth, because the earth is his. He's given us the mission to govern the earth, to steward the earth. And owning private property is essential for us to fulfill the mission of one providing for ourselves and our family, of, taking God's original creation, rearranging it and bringing forth fruit, being productive, being fruitful, to elevate mankind, to be a blessing to mankind, to bring flourishing, to the earth. And so private property enables us to accomplish the mission while God created us in the first place. And when God gave to man, it wasn't to government, wasn't to a select few people who govern, but it's to all men created in the image of God. He wants all men to own property and to be productive. Now, two of the ten commandments affirm m the principle of private property. The eighth commandment says, you shall not steal. That implies private property rights, because if you don't own any property, how can anybody steal it from you? 10th Commandment says, you shall not covet your neighbor's property. Of course, that implies ownership of property by your neighbor. So we shouldn't steal the property and we shouldn't covet. And of course, socialism and other forms of statism do that very thing. They steal property from the government, steals property from the productive, gives to the unproductive. And by the way, usually a lot of that property they steal goes into their own pockets. as is evidence in history, in so many people Today and even in the United States, some of these so called socialists who came into office with hardly any network are now worth millions and millions of dollars. And that's come from basically stealing by using the place of their power and seats of government. So to the Ten Commandments, affirm that the Bible teaches we have a God given right to own property. It's a fundamental right that we own to accomplish the mission. Now we see in the scripture, we can read Joshua 12:31 that families in Israel were given land that they own. When God led the children of Israel into the promised land, he divided among all the families, he gave them private property so that they could be productive on that property. So that affirms m the ownership of private property as well. Another thing we see in the scripture is that the penalty for anyone who stole property was restitution. See, restitution is to be made by the thief for any property that may, they may have stolen. And the Bible tells us if you steal a sheep, anyone steals a sheep, they have to pay back fourfold for the sheep. They steal a cow, they got to pay back five cows for the one cow. Why is that? Because God's law takes into consideration the potential productivity of that item that was stolen. Because a sheep is worth more than just the value of its, meat and skin. But it continually bears wool and so it grows wool. You can shear the wool and make clothing from that for years and years. Same with a cow. Cow is worth far more than just the stakes you could get from it or make a football out of its height or something. But it cows were used to plow the fields. And so that was vital for the productivity of individuals. They could plow field and produce abundant wealth. And the cows were vital. And so restitution in the Bible took into consideration the potential productivity of what was stole. But the very fact that there is restitution implies private property rights. Property is to be protected because it's valuable. Each individual's property was to be protected. Now we also see in Jeremiah 32 that even during exile, the time of when the tribe Israel was Judah, it was carried into exile into Babylon. We see where Jeremiah the prophet bought a field from his cousin. He signed a deed with witnesses after paying money for it. Jeremiah 32, 1:16. You can go and read this account. So here in this incident we see private ownership of property. So Jeremiah bought a field, he bought it from his cousin. And not only private ownership, we see the free market. Here's a transaction between individuals who transferred property because if you own private property and belongs to you, you can do with it whatever you wish. And so you can sell property, use the property to be, productive because it's yours. And so, there's private ownership. We also see they signed a deed. And so when you have transfer of property, it's very important to have a recorded record. It's easy to understand who owns the property, keep, at any particular time. And of course Jeremiah paid money. There was an agreement made on how much it would cost to transfer the ownership of that property from his cousin to Jeremiah. So here's an example of private ownership of property, the free market. We also see that Jesus taught in the parable of the laborers and the vineyard. It teaches that the landowner could do what he wished with his own things. Parable Matthew 20:15 asks, Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? And so Jesus affirmed in this parable the concept of private ownership of property and the right of owners of property to use the property in whatever way that they wanted to. Of course, today in America, as our government is becoming more of a democratic socialist government, in recent generations, really, we see more and more control of private property. And so, you know, you can't do what you want to with your own property because there's a, you know, some bug that lives on your property or frog, it's endangered. And so we've got to protect that. There might be a swamp on your land if you have a puddle of water on your land. So the government has come in, this is literally the case many times, and told landowners, you can't do what you want to with your own things. But Jesus taught it's lawful for us to do, what we wish with, our property, with the things that we, we own. Now some people would say, well, but didn't the early church live in socialism? Didn't they have all things in common? Don't we read that in the Book of Acts? And isn't this a basic tenet of socialist ideology that we all help one another and live together, we all meet one another's needs so that no one is, lacking anything or with having their basic needs met. And boy, doesn't this sound great? Isn't this how Jesus wanted us to live? Well, you don't have to read the Book of Acts in this incident in Acts, chapter five too closely to recognize Jesus in the Bible doesn't teach this at all, doesn't teach living in socialism as the plan he has for man. Because from the Very beginning. The whole concept of productivity and benefiting from the fruit of your labor has been a, part of what God intended man who's created in his image, to do. In the early church, what we see is that these Christians in Jerusalem voluntarily sold their property or some of their property. We can know from Scripture they didn't sell all their property because later on in Acts 12, we see that the church was meeting in the house of Mary. So she evidently still owned some property and she lived in Jerusalem. So it was a voluntary choice in this specific time in history where, individuals, recognize we want to help meet the needs that others may have.
One of the most important concepts of biblical economics is private property rights
In fact, in this story of Ananias and Sapphire, in Acts 4, we see Peter, affirmed the ownership and individual control of the property of Ananias and Sapphira when he said, while it remained, was it not your own, and after it was sold, was it not in your own accord? So it wasn't that the judgment of God came upon them because they didn't live in socialism. Quite the contrary. The judgment of God came upon them because they lied to the Holy Spirit. Instead, they were doing one thing, when they did another. And Peter affirmed, look, it's your property. While it was yours, it was your own. After it was sold, it's in your control, control even, they acted in a way that wasn't true. That's why the judgment of God came upon them for lying to the Holy Spirit, not for failure to live under socialistic policies. And so we see in the Scripture that the family is the primary institution to take dominion over the earth. Because God created man, male and female, in his image. That was the original creation, institution, the family. And since they were given the mission to take dominion over the earth, it's primarily the family. That's to own and control land and property. private property rights are fundamental to enable us to accomplish the mission that God has, given us. Now this is, just, the first, a first principle of foundational idea of biblical economics. In my book Steward in the Earth, I list about a dozen different biblical principles of economics, and there are certainly many others that you could find. But one of the fundamental, most important concepts of biblical economics is private property rights. The Bible teaches this. History has affirmed the wisdom of God in teaching this. And I, want to, in the next podcast next week, I want to say a few more words about private property and how important it is. And then I want to give you two other kind of fundamental foundational principles of biblical economics and understanding. These three things will help us to overcome socialism, to combat the rise of socialism in America. Many of our youth embrace socialism, primarily because they're taught this false ideology in our government schools. Once they begin to live in the real world, they understand that these ideas they were taught, they don't work. They've never worked anywhere. They've been tried throughout history. They don't work anywhere in the world today where they're being implemented as well. And they will not work in the United States of America. So we need to, do everything that we can to push back against these democratic socialists of America, see that we keep any of them from serving in civil government. And to, push back, we need to educate Americans into biblical economic principles that work and God's principles work. And so again, private property rights are a fundamental biblical right. That we have a God given right. That's the number one thing. And so, I invite you to come back next week because I want to say a few more words about the importance of private property and then give you two other fundamental principles that are essential for us to understand if we want to keep our nation a flourishing nation, a productive nation unlike any the world has seen. We've been the most productive nation in history. We still are today. even though we've rejected a lot of our founding principles, governmental principles, economic principles, we still, embrace these founding principles, these Christian ideas in a very, very significant way. And that still impacts the great productivity of the American people today. Well, I, invite you to Visit our website, providencefoundation.com you can see my book Steward in the the Biblical View of Economics. And we have a number of articles on that as well. You can just search economics and some articles will come up and you can read those. But I, hope you'll come back next week as we continue to take a look at how we're going to overcome socialism with biblical capitalism. God bless you. It.
Overcoming Socialism with Biblical Capitalism, Part 1
Chapters:
(00:00) Stephen McDowell looks at overcoming socialism with biblical capitalism
(12:04) Socialism assumes that men will work as hard for society in general
(16:30) One of the fundamental components of biblical economics is private property
(28:14) One of the most important concepts of biblical economics is private property rights
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