While the Bible is not intended to be a book on economic theory, there are many principles and concepts, and even direct laws, which should be used to inform how Christians understand economics. Today the economic debate often primarily focuses on differences between capitalism and socialism. The theories of Marx are seeing a comeback in our day, but what does the Bible teach us about this theory? While the Bible never uses the terms capitalism or socialism, concepts like the private ownership of property, laws against stealing, and warnings against coercive taxation build a biblical case against socialism.

Well, not only is the sexual revolution transforming our society and we're inventing new things, things that we've never considered before, think about what's happening economically. I was thinking last night about the 58 million babies that have been sacrificed. What would the impact of those 58 million lives be on our economy? Do you realize that it's increasing but there's over 17 trillion dollars in negative interest bonds that have been sold? That's never happened ever in history that we've had negative interest bonds because there's no growth economically, because there's no growth in population.

51% of those that are 18 to 29 years old in a recent survey, and there's many surveys like this, have a favorable view of socialism. And since our children are being affected by this ideology, and maybe some of you, And I want to help to equip you that we take this argument back to Scripture. We don't just tell our older children, well, socialism is just bad. We need to tell them why it's bad and what Scripture has to say about this. You know we see within the polls, we see within in the candidates running for president, they're all socialists.

They're purporting universal basic income, Medicare, health care for all, free education. Everything's free. We're just going to give everything away. We'll take from those that have and we'll give it to those that don't have. Forty years ago, almost 40 years ago, I was a student in a public university, I was an economics major.

And the first law, even at a secular college that they were still teaching, was the first law of economics. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. How do you even define socialism? Nobody agrees even on the definition. Here's a good attempt.

It's government ownership and control of the means of production with administration by coercion. It's been around a long time. You know when the Pilgrims first came to Jamestown, they tried collective ownership and that first year they nearly starved to death. And then they went back, they gave private property away. They did it differently in Plymouth.

They gave them private property. Think about Venezuela. A hundred years ago, Venezuela was the most prosperous country in South America. Today, four million people have fled what Hugo Chavez envisioned as utopia. They can't even get toilet paper.

The inflation rate as of April was over 200, 000 percent and increasing. It doesn't work. Somebody said that they had fled, they wanted to go to North Korea because they had heard it was Utopia. And they realized as they approached the shore on the boat that they were on, that they had made a grievous error, because as they came close to the shore, they realized there were no leaves on the trees, because the people had eaten everything, because there was no food. Capitalism, on the other hand, is private ownership of the means of production with free and open markets, some certainly more than others.

In some nations like the Philippines or some African nations you can there's capitalism but it may take you 15 or 25 years to open a business. I read one account where you have to jump through 53 different government agencies to open a business. Well the Bible doesn't speak of capitalism, it speaks of private property. And it's codified in the Ten Commandments where we see do not steal, Do not covet in another commandment. We see it in case law, speaking about not moving boundaries or landmarks.

Calvin said that moving boundaries was theft and it was a false witness. And think about when the children of Israel came into Canaan, God gave them an inheritance. He gave tribes land. We see Ahab and Jezebel where they took Naboth's vineyard. And we see in the year of Jubilee that every 50 years that they were to rent their lands, they could rent their lands out but it would return to the owner at the end of 50 years.

They owned property. Marx in his doctrine of socialism, Das Kapitäl, It was supposedly for the worker, returning to the worker the fruit of his labor. But that's not in reality what happens. It concentrates power and resources in the hands of officials. It does not return it to the worker, the fruit of his labor, but rather returns it to the collective.

It's a very inefficient system because it removes motivation, not of greed. The seed of capitalism is not greed, it's self-interest. Self-interest. See, self-interest is why we work hard to get a promotion. Self-interest is why we take good care of a customer to earn a commission or to grow a business.

Self-interest is why we honor our father and mother because it goes well with us. Self-interest is why we delight ourself in the Lord, that he would give us the desires of our heart. It's self-interest. See, in the collective, in the community, when the community owns the cow, nobody stays up with the sick cow. And the cow dies and people starve.

When it's your cow, you make sure the cow lives because your family is dependent upon it. It's very inefficient system. Well, what about Acts chapter two? Isn't that communal living? They all shared a common purse.

Acts chapter two through chapter four. Very difficult times had fallen in Jerusalem. For the saints, they were being persecuted, they were starving and hungry. It says in Acts 2.44, not all who believed that were together had all things in common. And they sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone who had need.

And in Acts 4, we see the same thing. No one lacked, they sold assets as needed. We see Barnabas selling land and giving it away. The tense of these verbs indicates a continuous giving. Again and again and again, it wasn't a one-time giving everything away.

But as needs arose, the Greek brings us out that they were so in love with one another that they hilariously gave and gave and gave because they loved each other. This is if they had two souls in one body. It was a generosity that they were of one accord and living and caring for one another. Art Linsley says, in order to show that Acts chapter 2 through 5 teaches socialism you would have to prove four things. First of all that all believers sold all of their possessions and put them in a common pot controlled by the state.

Number two that private property rights upheld by scripture would be abolished. Number three, that voluntary giving allows the state the right to coerce people to give up their property. And number four, the clear teaching that shows government ownership of production, coercive taxation, and redistribution. What we see here though is that We see a generous church in transition, giving to those who had need. By the way, not to those who had less.

I don't imagine that they, you know, the lazy, the slothful, sleeping on the couch, that they fed them. I don't think so. You know Samuel warned about government ownership. He said if you want a king, get a king, but He's gonna take your children, he's gonna take your animals. You'll be their servants.

So the Bible doesn't teach socialism. Solomon warned against having a common purse, but rather it teaches market-based principles. The Bible upholds private property and limitations of government, which means socialism and big government are excluded. Marx and Rousseau argued that capitalism was exploitative. That's not true.

Think about socialism, it makes everybody poor. And it wastes resources. Who takes better care of land or timber? Commonly held property or private landowner that is gonna manage a forest or manage the land or resources? See, they manage the fish, everybody overfishes everything.

You see, socialists falsely teach that one person's gain is another person's loss. It's a zero-sum game. Instead of thinking that, no, we grow the size of the pie. And really it's only market economies that have generated sufficient wealth to meet the basic human needs of entire populations. Do you realize that capitalism has raised over two billion people out of extreme poverty in the last 40 years?

But for capitalism to work it has to have a robust, just think of three, think of a triangle, and you have capitalism, we have open markets, free markets, but it also we have to have a robust legal system that protects private property. And on the other side we have to have a moral, virtuous culture. And when you combine a political class that feels that they're above the law and is godless and a fatherless culture, without Christianity culture or envy sets in. And James said, when you have bitter envy, you have every evil thing. And that's what we're seeing.

You know, even the unbelievers, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin concluded as they studied great nations that had fallen. They were all fell, they concluded, because of class envy. We see recently Pope Francis said, inequality is the root of all evil. That's not true. Barack Obama, income inequality is our defining challenge.

No, it's not. It's sin. If you hadn't heard Bill Barr's, our Attorney General's, speech a few weeks ago at Notre Dame, powerful. He said, our culture is secular. That's our problem.

Sin is our problem. Inequality is a fact of life, as we all have different gifts and talents, education, experience. Look at the parable of the talents. We can look at the parable of talents or the parable of Mena. In Matthew 25 and verse 20, Jesus said, so he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents saying, Lord, you have delivered to me five talents.

Look, I have gained five more talents beside them. His Lord said to him, Well done good and faithful servant. You are faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things enter into the joy of your Lord he also who had received two talents came and said Lord you delivered to me two talents look I have gained two more talents beside them his Lord said to him well done good and faithful servant You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things.

Enter into the joy of your Lord. You see here the reward for productivity, not for unproductivity, the one who didn't risk, and he takes the one talent and he buries it. The Lord calls him a wicked servant. And think about this, how were they rewarded? In the parable of the mina, They're rewarded with authority.

See, here's the principle, faithful a little, faithful and much, and he takes the one from the one who has only one and he gives it to him with five. And in the parable of the mina he gives it to the one with ten in the parable of the talents they're given different levels of gifts five two one in the parable of the minas are all given one same principle And here we take from he who has little, give to him who has much. Because as the owner, the Lord, this is where he is going to get his greatest return on the productive. This is the exact opposite of Marxism, the exact opposite of socialism. Well, Bill Gates doesn't need all of that money.

No, he doesn't. He needs to give back. I hate that word because it assumes you took something that didn't belong to you. How many jobs did Bill Gates create? How many, how much did he pay in taxes?

I understand there's loopholes and I but they paid plenty. Have you benefited from Microsoft Windows or Excel or Outlook or Word? I have. Our business runs on some of their software. But we say it's not fair.

This is the class warfare mantra of our day. Some have inherited wealth, some have inherited the best land, some countries have more fertile land. But we're all given different levels. We have different ideas, different ambitions, different drive, different creativity, different intellectualism. Some have hand-to-eye coordination.

I could not perform surgery on you and you live. There are doctors in the midst of us today that have great skills. God gave those to them. So here's the thing I want us to take away. Think about this.

With capitalism, with open markets, we have two parameters. We have on one side greed, envy, covetousness. In Scripture, warns us against these, and by the grace of God we can overcome these things. We can become generous. And on the other side, we have slothfulness, laziness.

See, as we look at open markets and we look at capitalism, we must keep looking at our transcendent King Jesus. We must be looking at his coming judgment that we're going to give an account. We must have a heavenly gaze. Think about Ephesians 6 as masters. Here's how you're to treat your employees.

And employees, here's how you're to serve God through, serve your employer, looking unto God, looking through them, doing it for his glory. And we have, we're hemmed in by scripture. Luke says, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses. And don't think that this only applies to the wealthy. You can have very little and beat your heart be so filled with covetousness and envy.

Or think about James 5 where he's James continually is rebuking the wealthy saying that your life is like grass like the grass of the field that's gonna burn up. You're gonna give an account. And he says to them, he warns them about indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud. They cry out, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. Here's what Paul tells Timothy, by the way, for the wealthy.

Pastors, tell those that are wealthy in your congregation. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty. Hey, remind them that all of it came from God. Every idea they ever had, every skill that you were given, Every blessing came from God. Deuteronomy chapter 8.

Nor to trust in uncertain riches because they grow wings and they fly away but in the living God who gave us richly all things to enjoy. Joel Beekie pointed that out so well this morning. Let them do good that they may be rich in good deeds, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Notice Paul didn't tell them, sell everything that they have, give it to the poor. The rich young ruler, Jesus was pointing out, if you're gonna keep the law you're gonna have to keep it perfectly.

And you can't have covetousness because you're breaking the law of God. It was showing the need for another, so righteousness in there in his place. And then on the other side we have slothfulness. The Proverbs have much to say. Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor.

Proverbs 28 19, he who tills his land will have plenty of bread, and one of my favorites, and I want to end here with a couple of verses, in all labor there is profit. Young people listen to me, in all labor there is profit. You may not have anything to start with, but if you have the grace of God and the character of Christ working in your heart, you can take your labor as your capital and you could take from nothing, from something actually, and begin to build a life. You know what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4 28? To those who are stealing, and socialism is stealing, to those who steal, Let them steal no longer, but let them labor working with their hands what is good that he may have something to give.

Labor so that you can have something to give. And by the grace of God, you can become a giver and not a taker. Let the gospel of Jesus Christ transform, renew your mind and your thinking. Diligently apply the gifts that God gave you. Increase what you have.

Become a master. Seek first the kingdom of God. Listen, as we live in exile in this world like the children of Israel and in Babylon, plant gardens, build Babylon. Plant gardens, build houses, get married, give your children away in marriage, and add value and have something to give. Amen.