Foundations of the Free Market

There are those who claim that the Bible does not teach a particular system of economics. There are others who claim that, since the Bible teaches that we should love and help our neighbors, that socialism is the most Biblical system.

I would like to make the case -- in a series of posts -- that a society which follows the specific teachings of Scripture will inevitably adopt a free market system.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen 1:1)

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Heb 11:3)

Precept #1 is that God is the Creator of all things. He is thus the model of all productive labor:

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exo 20:9-11)

One corollary of this precept is God's ownership of all that He has made:

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. (Psa 50:10-12)

Another corollary of this precept is that the Owner of all things has rightful authority to determine the disposition of all He has made:

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Rom 9:20-21)

This precept and its corollaries (I do not pretend to have listed them all here) are the starting place for all economic theory and practice. That is because, since all things begin with God, our thought about all things must also begin with Him.

Continued in "Foundations of the Free Market, 2"