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. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Last week I began to look at overcoming socialism with biblical capitalism. We mentioned how the rise of socialism or socialistic thinking not just around the world but in the United States with the election of, different people to office on state, local, level, and how these ideas of socialism don't work and that they will bring ruin, destruction, to whatever people our nation apply them. And so we had an introduction, looked at how socialism is a form of statism, the belief that man is the ultimate authority in the earth and man will decide. Man via the state will decide what's right and wrong, lawful or unlawful, how to use property and everything else. And so we then began to look briefly at democratic socialism, but more importantly began to take a look at some of the fundamental components of biblical capitalism. Now Biblical capitalism, I use the term biblical because there's kind of crony capitalism and capitalism that is presented as capitalism where it's really not that at all, but biblical capitalism. capitalism is really a biblical idea when you understand its basic premises. But I like to add the qualifier biblical capitalism as, to contrast it from crony capitalism. And it's usually those who oppose capitalism that they will present a false image of what capitalism really is, attack that and say we've got to get rid of this and replace it with these great democratic socialist ideas so that everybody will have their needs met and no one will go hungry, especially in such a rich country as the United States of America. Now the problem is they go about it the wrong way. The way that God deals with poverty is to make everybody productive and give everybody the ideas and character and ability to be as productive as possible. The democratic socialist mindset says, well we're going to use the force of government to take from the productive and give to the unproductive. And that will never bring about flourishing within a nation. And so one of the fundamental components of biblical capitalism is private property. We saw that we have a God given right to own private property. The Bible teaches this throughout. In the very beginning when God created man, he gave him a mission. He told him, I want you to steward the earth. And that was given to the family. The family is the primary institution that is to steward the earth, that is be productive, take care of my Property, it's God's, but he gave it to us to rule in his place and to govern and cause it to be productive. Because using the land to be productive is how we meet our basic needs and how that we take God's original creation, mix it with our work, labor, foresight and God given wisdom to create new things and bring about flourishing for mankind. And so private property rights are fundamental. So the family is the primary institution to own and govern, control property. Noah Webster, that founding father of American scholarship and education who wrote on all kinds of subjects, explains the importance of owning private property when he said, let the people have property and they will have power. A power that will forever be exerted to prevent a restriction of the press and abolition of trial by jury or the abridgment of any other privilege. So Webster tells us, if you let the people have property, they will have power. Now we have a lot of God given rights and liberties that are protected by our unique form of government given to us by the founding fathers, that this year we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of our unique nation that was built upon Christian self government. And, and so one of those fundamental principles is the right to own, govern property. but all of the rights and privileges that we have, probably the most important is private property rights. Because as Webster said, if you let the people have property, they will have power. Owning property and being productive with that property gives individuals power, power to protect all of our other God given rights and liberties, to freely worship God, to express ideas, the restriction of the press, trial by jury, as Dole Webster pointed out. So property rights are a fundamental rights and humans have a right to own, property, as I said, a God given right. Property rights are human rights, one of the most fundamental human rights. Now the amount of liberty in a nation is directly proportional to the amount of private property rights. So the more property rights, private property rights a nation, a people possess, the greater freedom and liberty that they have. You can go and google and search for maps of private property rights and if you can look at the maps, those nations that have the greatest degree of property rights, now this is really total property. It's physical property, but also intellectual property. Because our mind and the product of our brain is a form of property as well as land, houses and goods that we may own. And so when you look at the total amount of property rights, physical property, intellectual property, even legal and political property rights that we possess, those nations that have the greatest amount, where the people have the greatest amount of property rights are the most free because freedom is directly related to the ability to own and use property. More property rights, more freedom. The less property rights, the less freedom. And that's certainly true when you look at communist nations. There's no freedom to own property or do anything. states extremely status nations, like where the Muslim nations are top down status nations, your average people have little property rights and little freedom. You know, the founding fathers understood the purpose, the, primary purpose of government is to protect property rights of every sort. Governments are instituted among men. Our Declaration of Independence declares, in order to protect our right to life, our right to liberty, our right to pursue and do the will of God, which is what makes us happy, mankind happy when we do God's will. So, under status forms of government, socialism, communism, Marxism, democratic socialism, civil governments seek to control our own, all the property. But governments exist, according to the founders of America and according to the Bible, in order to protect man and man's property. And so pagan governments, instead of protecting them or status governments, socialist governments will seek to plunder the property rights of its citizens. And as we said last week, it's not just physical property. It's also in what we think our ideas, they want to control socialist status, want to control every form of property, both internal and external. So who owns property? You know, who should own and control the tools of production of our property? Well, basically you're going to either believe in private ownership versus socialistic ownership. In other words, who's going to own it? Individuals, the family, or will society at large, which really means the government. That's society at large when socialists talk about society at large. But the Bible tells us the vast majority of properties to be owned by individuals and the family because having private property rights, encourages people to be more productive. This is a benefit of private property productivity. Why? Because people, if they, benefit from being productive, they'll be motivated to build up their property to enjoy it, to pass more on to their children or others who then will carry on their goals in life or God's goals in life. So a benefit of private property actually leads us to a second foundational principle of biblical economics. And that is the idea of individual enterprise. See, the Bible teaches that we are to benefit from the fruit of our labor. Paul writes in First Corinthians 9, 10 that the Plowman ought to plow in hope of sharing the crops. Because if a plowman's out plowing and he recognizes, the more crops, ah, I plant, the more I'm going to get the more food I'll have, then he's going to work a lot harder. The profit motive encourages more labor and that produces more wealth, more wealth for the individual family, individuals who's laboring hard, but really for the nation at large, because you'll not only be able to produce enough to meet your needs, but extra that you can trade with others for other items, which brings about more and more flourishing. The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 3, 10, that if a man will not work, he shall not eat. That's pretty straightforward and clear. If you don't work, you don't eat. This needs to be a part of any welfare system that if you want it to work. Well, if someone's not going to work, then they don't eat. And hunger is a great motivation to work. but so if a man won't work, he shall not eat. Now, later on in my book Steward in the Earth, I look, look at what the Bible says about how to meet the needs of the poor. God is concerned with the needs of the poor, those oppressed poor, but we have to fulfill, their needs in a biblical manner. And our current welfare system basically doesn't do that. But I'll point you to my book. You can get it at our website, providencefoundation.com if you, want to learn more. And in a future podcast, I'll, I'll look at that in more detail. We don't have time today to do that. But so Paul teaches, if a man won't work, he shall not eat. Well, conversely, the harder you work, the more that you should benefit materially with more to eat and more, flourishing, within for you and your household, because that would encourage you to work even more.

The Bible tells us that labor is the title deed to property

The Bible tells us that labor is the title deed to property. The fourth commandment says six days, you shall labor and do all your work. We normally associate the fourth commandment with remember the Sabbath. And that's part of it. That's the second half. But the first half is six days. You shall work, you shall labor and do all your work. And then the Sabbath is a day of rest. And if you not working six days, a day of rest doesn't mean much at all. And that is primarily what the Sabbath was, a day of rest where we could worship God, get our bodies rejuvenated so that we can be more productive in those other six days. But Proverbs tells us 13:11 to labor to gain wealth. Proverbs 14:23. There's profit in labor. Proverbs 13:4. The diligent will be made rich. So labor is vital in the eyes of God. It's the title deed to property. How is it that we are to acquire property? Well, it's through labor. The property that you possess today, that could be material property or intellectual property, both, that you acquired it through much work, much labor, or others may have labored and acquired some physical property and given it to you through an inheritance. Which is fine. it's a biblical way to acquire wealth and riches is through inheritance as well. But, you know, when there's liberty for men to benefit from the fruit of their labor, then men will invent more, produce more, exchange more, and use new products. This is what individual enterprise is all about. It's being able for man to benefit from the fruit of his labor. Because when men benefit from the fruit of their labor, they're going to work more, they're going to get ideas to create, wealth more, you know.

Early American patenting laws led to avalanche of new inventions that benefited everyone

Liberty in America. One unique thing about the United States of America that we need to remember, especially this year in the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation, with the approval of the Declaration of Independence, our founding covenant is that we were birthed in liberty. A new era of liberty came to mankind, such as the world had not seen. And this liberty in America led to an avalanche of new inventions, discoveries, and advances that benefited everybody. And one aspect, of this protection of liberty and recognition of property and recognition of individual enterprise were through the patenting copyright laws that we had. And, Noah Webster helped secure copyright laws. Early on, we had patent laws and copyright laws, and these helped prepare those new inventions, because these laws were based upon the principle of property, because the product of a man's brain is property as well as the product of his hands. And so if you use your brain to produce, have a new invention, a new idea, a new discovery, that you should benefit from that, because that's going to encourage you and others to invent other new things. But if you invent something and then the government or some big somebody steals, steals that, and you have no benefit from it, then you're certainly not going to be motivated to go invent anything else. But we had patent and copyright laws in early America. We still have them, today as well. Of course, status governments will violate that, like China. They've stolen all kinds of property, intellectual property, from Americans and others, and, use them for their benefit. But, it's limited their benefit because it's not enough just to have these new inventions. You need to have the liberty for man to, to, create new things, new inventions, and know how to run them and have a motivation to run them. But what we see in early America, with great liberty, with patenting copyright laws, we see an, avalanche of new things coming forth. New discoveries, new advances, new inventions from the cotton gin to the steam engine to even ideas like Nathaniel Bowditch published the Navigator, which enabled every sailor to know how to navigate a ship. The invention of the steamboat, building the Erie Canal and railroads to help encourage transportation and trade. The steam locomotive. Cyrus McCormick's Reaper. We talked about McCormick in earlier podcasts. The telegraph. We talked a little bit about Samuel FB Morse and the importance of the telegraph. There's the deer plow, how Goodyear vulcanized, rubber. Matthew Fontaine Maury charts the ocean curve, the safety pins, sewing machines, the transatlantic cable, the transcontinental telegraph line, the transcontinental railroad line, the electric light and telephone and photograph and, many things. In the 1800s, moving into the 1900s, there still began to be great amount of invention and discoveries from automobiles and airplanes and televisions, computers and space flight and other things. But it was liberty and the ability for man to benefit from the fruit of his labor that led to such advances, which brought about flourishing for the nation. It brought about an elevated lifestyle, came about from this. And this is the fruit of biblical economics. This is the fruit of applying biblical principles in the field of economics. So why was there a proliferation of inventions in early America? It's because of the great freedom that we had in early America. It caused the United States of America to be the most inventive, the most progressive, the most prosperous nation ever in history. So you apply God's principles of economics, or government or family life or any other sphere of life, then the fruit of that is going to be blessing and abundance, not just for the individuals who may invent a new machine, but for society at large. Because every, American and beyond that have benefited from some of those inventions and discoveries that I mentioned. And there's a lot more than that. And so again, three foundational principles of biblical economics that we need to understand. And, and if Americans understood these, we wouldn't embrace statist socialism, democratic socialism at all, because we would understand it doesn't work. Some say socialism sounds good, but it doesn't work in practice. But it really doesn't even sound good if you think about it and you understand biblical economics, what they proposed, that doesn't sound good at all to me because it's contrary to the nature of how God made, man. So private property rights, individual enterprise. And then a third, principle of biblical economics or biblical capitalism is the free market. See, the free market is based upon the idea that men are to be free under God to pursue their calling and provide for themselves and their families. Again, we said from the very beginning God created man, his image. He created the family, gave them a mission to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, that they were to take care of their own needs, but they were to bring flourishing, to the earth at large. and so there should be freedom for men to recognize, what is my calling? What does God want me to do? What unique skills has God given me in order to take his original creation and rearrange it to invent new things to be more productive, to bring about flourishing? Because if we're free to pursue our calling, then we will produce goods and services that, we will produce more than that we need. And that we then can go and freely offer it to others in exchange. Or today we would say at a price of our own choosing. So in a free market, I have the ability to use my unique skills, my unique calling in God, and find the area where I can be most productive. My comparative advantage is finding out what can I do better than most anybody else. And then find a way to produce a needed good or service using those skills which have to be developed. We have to work and labor hard in order to increase our capacity to be productive. Whether that, learn the skills to use our hands and mind and create things that way. Or use our intellectual property to create things that way as well. That we need to have freedom to develop those, to get an idea, to create wealth, to provide a needed good or service to our fellow man. And then to bring that to the marketplace and offer it to others at a price that I, need in order to meet the. What it cost me to produce that good or service. And at a price that other people are willing to pay. See, the free market, by its nature, encourages men to serve the wants and the desires of their fellow man voluntarily. You know, if I produced one item, say I raise cows, and I'm good at it, so I have thousands of them. I can't ever use those thousands of, of cows to meet, the needs. I, can't just for food or whatever way I might use the cows. But I'll take those cows down to the marketplace and want to exchange them, for others. And of course, money came into being in order to facilitate trade. So makes it easier to trade the product of my hand and minds with other people's the product of their hand and mind. And that when we go to the free market, we go to a place that I will offer what I believe I feel called and can do. Well, whatever needy, good or service I can produce, I offer it at a price that I need or ask for. And others can come and choose to by that in essence they're exchanging their labor, for the thing that I offer. And it's very important that the market is free and fair. Because when the market is free and fair, then it's going to bring about the greatest amount of goods and services available at the cheapest price. Because competition, the supply and demand will determine how much product is produced and at what price it can, can be offered, at. And so the free market men voluntarily come and exchange the product of their mind in their hand. And at the end of a free market exchange, both parties say thank you. There's a lot of reasons. I know the free market is, is biblical. But one way is that both parties benefit from the exchange. And the end of that exchange is usually ended with both parties saying thank you. Because if I'm the seller of something, I'm happy that someone's willing to pay the price that I set. Thank you is my response to those who purchase my good or service. And those who buy it, they're happy too, because they can get something they need or something they want at a price that they're willing and able to pay. They say thank you too. And so the end of a free market exchange, a voluntary free market exchange is both partners benefit, both partners are happy, both partners say thank you. But what happens is that socialist pagan governments, governments that don't understand the limited function of protecting life, liberty and property, they get involved and they say, well, you can only produce so much to the farmer, you can only charge so much money to many others. And they'll regulate and control and bring burdens or taxes or many ways that they get in to mess the market up. And the, and they do have a civil government does have a limited role in economics in the marketplace by making it free and fair. So they should enforce contracts, they should make sure that people offer products that aren't harmful and destructive to others. So it's a limited role, but they're not to regulate and create control every aspect of the market at all because that just leads to lack and loss. So the private property, individual enterprise and the free market are three foundational components of biblical economics. Our biblical capitalism. So when we understand that and how this works, will always reject socialism, every form of statism, because we recognize it doesn't work, because it's contrary to the principles of God. You know, I traveled a lot to Latin America over the last many years, throughout Latin America, many countries teaching on biblical economics, biblical government, biblical transformation of the nation.

Why is Venezuela starving and the economy in collapse under socialist rule

And I like to ask the question to these and to people is, you know, why is Venezuela starving and the economy in collapse? It's been that way for decades. Perhaps now with, there might be some, some more hope with the removal of that big statist, Maduro, but we'll see. But you know, because Venezuela, since they embraced socialism and they voted it in, but once the socialists get in power, it's very hard to get rid of them. And they've stayed in power when they should have been out. The presidents both Chavez, where he died in office in Maduro, that he stayed way beyond what was constitutionally right for him. but under the rule of, for decades, under the rule of socialists. Venezuela as I mentioned last week, went from the second most wealthy nation in the Western hemisphere to the second poorest nation. Only Haiti is poor that millions have fled the country there. Grocery stores don't have much food in them at all. The people are starving, in many ways average, Venice weight and has lost over 20 pounds of weight. So you have to ask the question, why is Venezuela starving and the economy in collapse? We get asked the same thing about North Korea and Cuba as well. These are three modern grade examples of the fruit of socialism. But the reason that Venezuela is starving and the economy is in collapse is because we live in God's world. See, we do not live in the made up world of Karl Marx, Marxism, socialism. Statism does not work. It's failed everywhere. It's been tried throughout all of history. And it's not a new idea. It's been around for thousands of years of some forms of statism. And God's world works according to God's principles. And if you violate God's principles, you're going to have problems like Venezuela and so many other countries have. In the United States, as we've gradually embraced socialistic ideas, it's led to decline in productivity and many other things. And so it's very important that we reject all forms of statism. Those that obviously promote socialism, like some that have gotten elected to office, like the mayor of NewSong York City. But there's Lots of our leaders that are, that are. They might not speak out and say, we want to control property, own your property. But their policies say the same thing with, graduated income taxes, unjust taxes, and many other things. They in essence agree with the fundamental principles of Marxism. So biblical capitalism works. Why? Because these principles align with God's word. These three. And there's more. These are kind of three fundamental ones. Private property rights, individual enterprise, the free market. There are a number of others. I cover those in my book on steward in the earth, A biblical view of Economics. And so it was biblical capitalism that was laid in the foundation of America when we began. Over the generations, it's produced the highest standard of living in the world. America, throughout our history and still today produced the greatest number of patents. We're an inventive people, invented all kinds of things that have brought flourishing to mankind. Not just Americans, but every nation that has embraced them. biblical capitalism in America has produced great productivity, you know, 5 to 6% of the population of the world. That's what the United States of America has produces over 20% of the output of the world. In 1960, America produced 39% of the world's output with only 6% of the population. and that number has diminished because one many other nations have adopted some of these free enterprise principles, Biblical economic principles. They become more productive as they've applied these principles. that's one reason that they've increased their productivity. And Americans, as we've embraced socialistic ideas, have diminished in our productivity, but we still are by far the most productive people. Gross, domestic product per capita, is way higher than anywhere else. Even our poorest state is as productive as the richest Western European nation. The reason that is, is because biblical capitalism works. And so the way that we're going to overcome socialism and the rise of socialism in America and those individuals who are running for civil government, the way that we're going to overcome that is through biblical capitalism. So we need to teach this to the generations to come. We need to teach these ideas wherever education takes place, in our homes, in our churches, in our schools, in the, marketplace of ideas and the media. We need to teach the truth of the principles of biblical capitalism. But we don't do that anymore. As we know, our government schools have been taken over by secular estate as socialists, and they've been propagating their religious worldview of economics and history and religion and everything else. So it's, it's vital that we assume the responsibility to educate future generations by the way our new film, Educated for Liberty, that gives a vision for the importance of assuming the responsibility of every American to educate their children. And when we educate them, it means in every sphere of life we need to educate, educate them in truth regarding civil government, economics, worship and everything else. And so this.

Biblical capitalism versus socialism will continue to be a topic in coming decades

I just wanted to introduce you in these podcasts to this important and pertinent topic of biblical capitalism versus socialism because it will continue, continue to be a topic in the coming, years, in coming decades. And so we need to, do our part to push back against this false ideology because everyone will be negatively effective if we allow such people to get in positions of government that will keep our foundational principles of private property, individual enterprise, free market, and others, if they keep them from being free for us to practice them. Well, I, would encourage you to Visit our website, providencefoundation.com we have some articles regarding this subject and many others that you can read. We have books on the subject especially. I'd point you to my book Stewarding the A Biblical View of Economics. By the way, you can see our film Educated for Liberty at the website Educated for Liberty dot com. I'd encourage you to take a look at it and share it with others. and part of being educated for liberty means being educated in biblical economic ideas and concepts as well. So take, a look at our website. Both websites provide providencefoundation.com educatedforliberty uh.com and as I said in future podcasts, I'm going to take some time to look in much more detail at A Biblical View of Economics and we'll, we'll dive even deeper into some of these things that I introduced you to into this podcast and last week's podcast. Well, well, hope you can join us, next week as we explore America's providential history and related topics. Hope to have you with us. God bless you.