1 00:00:07,629 --> 00:00:13,150 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:13,150 --> 00:00:17,949 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. 3 00:00:17,949 --> 00:00:24,170 Today, what relationship does Christ have to our traditional economic system, 4 00:00:24,949 --> 00:00:33,490 that of capitalism? I'm in the midst of unpacking for you a comparison that I'd like because it's 5 00:00:33,490 --> 00:00:39,850 very simple for me. Three C's compared with three S's. What America needs is Christ, Constitution, 6 00:00:39,850 --> 00:00:48,729 and Capitalism. What we have is Secularism, Statism, and Socialism. We need Christ in our 7 00:00:48,729 --> 00:00:54,109 spiritual lives as opposed to Secularism, which is really another God altogether. There is no such 8 00:00:54,109 --> 00:01:03,469 thing as Atheism or No-God-ism or Secularism. Every nation, every culture has a God. We need 9 00:01:03,469 --> 00:01:10,189 Christ instead of Secularism. We also need the Constitution for our political life, not Statism 10 00:01:10,189 --> 00:01:16,310 as we have it presently. We have Statism for our political life, and it's stifling us. It's 11 00:01:16,310 --> 00:01:22,549 strangling the American people and her freedoms. And then for our economic life, we need Capitalism 12 00:01:22,549 --> 00:01:28,170 rather than Socialism, which is what we have presently. What I want to unpack for you today 13 00:01:28,170 --> 00:01:34,609 is the relationship between religion and economics, the relationship between Christ and capitalism, 14 00:01:34,609 --> 00:01:41,569 because there is such a relationship. Many people never even consider that there might be a connection 15 00:01:41,569 --> 00:01:48,890 between an economy and religious faith, but there is. There always has been. And what I'd like to put 16 00:01:48,890 --> 00:01:56,650 before you to begin today are the questions that every religion must answer about economics. And believe 17 00:01:56,650 --> 00:02:02,390 me, every religion answers these questions about economics in one way, shape, or form. Number 18 00:02:02,390 --> 00:02:09,409 one, who creates wealth? Every religion on the face of the earth has to answer this question. Who is it 19 00:02:09,409 --> 00:02:15,289 in that culture that creates wealth? Who is it in that religion that creates wealth? Throughout the 20 00:02:15,289 --> 00:02:25,930 centuries, pagan systems, for example, say that wealth, and I define wealth as value defined by others. 21 00:02:25,930 --> 00:02:31,669 Money is not wealth per se. It is only a means for keeping score, money. No, wealth is something other 22 00:02:31,669 --> 00:02:39,530 altogether. And pagan cultures say that wealth is a gift of the gods bestowed on men and then 23 00:02:39,530 --> 00:02:48,729 distributed to the people by beings such as pharaohs or kings and emperors. We see this in the ancient 24 00:02:48,729 --> 00:02:57,310 nations of Assyria and Babylon and Egypt and Rome. Godless atheistic socialism, which we see around the 25 00:02:57,310 --> 00:03:04,030 world today, says that wealth is created by the community. That is by the people, unless we have 26 00:03:04,030 --> 00:03:11,509 communism, since wealth is created by the community. But this wealth of the community is then distributed by 27 00:03:11,509 --> 00:03:17,789 the state, if you will. Capitalism, on the other hand, developed in the Christian West. Indeed, 28 00:03:17,990 --> 00:03:25,169 capitalism is not religion-less. It is developed in the Christian West. Capitalism says that wealth is 29 00:03:25,169 --> 00:03:31,810 created by individuals, by the grace and providence of God, and then distributed through the free market. 30 00:03:31,810 --> 00:03:39,169 This is capitalism. The second question that every religion must answer is, who owns and dispenses 31 00:03:39,169 --> 00:03:44,129 wealth as well? Every religion answers this in one way, shape, or form. And throughout the centuries, 32 00:03:44,650 --> 00:03:50,550 pagan systems say that wealth, and wealth is things like lands and precious metals and food and 33 00:03:50,550 --> 00:03:57,169 manufactured goods. Wealth is automatically the property of kings and demigods, like the pharaohs, 34 00:03:57,169 --> 00:04:04,849 who then decide what everyone else gets. Atheistic socialism, on the other hand, says that wealth 35 00:04:04,849 --> 00:04:10,409 belongs to all the people collectively, and then the state decides who gets what. But capitalism 36 00:04:10,409 --> 00:04:18,970 says that wealth belongs to free individuals, and that those individuals in a free market economy decide 37 00:04:18,970 --> 00:04:25,189 who gets what, based upon free individuals determining the value of that wealth themselves. 38 00:04:25,189 --> 00:04:32,550 Not the gods, not an atheistic state, but rather free individuals determine the wealth 39 00:04:32,550 --> 00:04:39,170 of a culture. Well, the third thing that every religion must answer in terms of an economy is the 40 00:04:39,170 --> 00:04:46,310 role of government in an economy. Oh, very crucial here. Classic paganism, of course, presumes that wealth 41 00:04:46,310 --> 00:04:52,110 and property belongs to the king tyrant demigod, and that he determines what the average person can get 42 00:04:52,110 --> 00:04:58,410 or keep and what can be taxed or taken. And under atheistic socialism, the presumption is that all 43 00:04:58,410 --> 00:05:05,750 wealth, all property belong to the state, and then it decides what we get and what we keep and what can be 44 00:05:05,750 --> 00:05:12,250 taxed and taken. But under capitalism, it is the people through their representatives who decide what can be 45 00:05:12,250 --> 00:05:21,509 taxed and taken. And also, what we get to keep and get is not the government's. It is ours. Nothing can be taxed 46 00:05:21,509 --> 00:05:29,209 or taken without our consent under capitalism. Well, we're now ready then, examining these three things 47 00:05:29,209 --> 00:05:36,029 about religion. We're looking at Christ's constitution and capitalism today, and today we're looking at 48 00:05:36,029 --> 00:05:41,589 capitalism in particular. We're now ready to offer just a brief definition of capitalism. It is the 49 00:05:41,589 --> 00:05:47,970 indeed the conviction that the individual's labor and its fruits, that is property, is his to do with 50 00:05:47,970 --> 00:05:56,850 as he pleases in a free market. Now, as John Locke so famously noted, that which a man transforms from 51 00:05:56,850 --> 00:06:04,290 the state of nature and makes useful and productive for himself and others is by definition his property, 52 00:06:04,290 --> 00:06:13,110 that is the fruit or the product of his labor. For example, and Locke uses this example as well, 53 00:06:13,569 --> 00:06:19,329 harvesting trees from a forest, turning those trees into logs and planks for construction, 54 00:06:19,769 --> 00:06:25,930 makes those his property to do with as he pleases because he has contributed his labor to the formation 55 00:06:25,930 --> 00:06:32,889 of those things. He can use this wood, these planks, these logs to build a house for himself or sell 56 00:06:32,889 --> 00:06:39,329 or trade them with another or give them to charity or burn them for fuel if he wants. The principle is 57 00:06:39,329 --> 00:06:46,589 that the lumber is that worker's property to do with as he sees fit. The investment of his labor 58 00:06:46,589 --> 00:06:53,750 has made it so, and our government was originally founded in America to protect this principle and not 59 00:06:53,750 --> 00:07:01,790 violate it by seizing it at its will. Now, while this might make common sense to most of us since we have 60 00:07:01,790 --> 00:07:07,149 been raised with this from our mother's milk, if you will, it's not so throughout history. 61 00:07:08,230 --> 00:07:12,949 We've just reviewed other systems with you, and dear listener, we see the results of those systems 62 00:07:12,949 --> 00:07:20,910 all over the world. Islam, for example, is a destitute, poverty-ridden world wherever you go, 63 00:07:21,050 --> 00:07:27,209 wherever Islam predominates. It is a poverty-ridden world where all wealth belongs to Allah 64 00:07:27,209 --> 00:07:33,310 and then given through his capricious will. In old Hindu India, for example, too, the people lived in 65 00:07:33,310 --> 00:07:39,730 abject poverty while a precious few in the Brahmin and priestly classes lived in luxury, all because 66 00:07:39,730 --> 00:07:45,750 of the Hindu idea of caste and reincarnation. And then in old China and the Soviet Union where 67 00:07:45,750 --> 00:07:51,850 atheistic socialism prevailed, people lived in backward systematic privation, all because godless 68 00:07:51,850 --> 00:07:57,709 atheistic socialism bled individual initiative from the people by asserting that wealth is the 69 00:07:57,709 --> 00:08:03,670 property of the state. If it belongs to every one property, then it belongs to no one. And then in 70 00:08:03,670 --> 00:08:08,709 Buddhist countries like Tibet, wealth and property are an illusion, according to their philosophy, 71 00:08:08,910 --> 00:08:14,170 according to their religion, and every religion has its impact on economy. And of course, in Buddhist 72 00:08:14,170 --> 00:08:19,990 countries, wealth and property are an illusion, which are but a part of a universe of suffering. 73 00:08:19,990 --> 00:08:25,790 Only in the Christian West have we observed over the centuries the gradual greater and greater 74 00:08:25,790 --> 00:08:32,429 accumulation of wealth and prosperity by the average man. It's part of why the 20th century is 75 00:08:32,429 --> 00:08:40,750 called the American century. In America, property belonged to individuals in families. In biblical 76 00:08:40,750 --> 00:08:46,529 principles, too, this was the case. In old Israel, property belonged to individuals in families. 77 00:08:46,529 --> 00:08:54,070 It was the Old Testament notion of Jubilee, for example, where tribal property was returned every 78 00:08:54,070 --> 00:09:01,029 49 years to the original family given it by God. And then in the New Testament, we have principles like 79 00:09:01,029 --> 00:09:08,570 this. He who does not work does not eat. The necessity of labor. Also, Paul also said, let the thief no 80 00:09:08,570 --> 00:09:15,529 longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have 81 00:09:15,529 --> 00:09:22,809 something to share with anyone in need. Unquote. All of these principles and many, many more contribute to the 82 00:09:22,809 --> 00:09:30,549 assumption that God has given wealth and property to individual families and men as a trust from God to 83 00:09:30,549 --> 00:09:37,590 husband and to nurture for their own prosperity and the glory of God. Wealth is not the property of kings and 84 00:09:37,590 --> 00:09:44,309 emperors, but rather individual men and families. The original command to Adam and Eve, which we know as the 85 00:09:44,309 --> 00:09:52,690 dominion principle from Genesis chapter 1 verse 28, the dominion principle says that we are to expand and 86 00:09:52,690 --> 00:10:00,169 to fill the earth and be fruitful and multiply and take dominion over all the earth. Individual men and 87 00:10:00,169 --> 00:10:08,029 families are to get and accumulate wealth as they labor over and acquire property in an ever-increasing 88 00:10:08,029 --> 00:10:14,809 radius over the entire earth. This is the dominion principle from Genesis chapter 1 verse 28. But 89 00:10:14,809 --> 00:10:21,610 unfortunately, the self-loathing progressives in the West have come to a strange pass, dear listener. 90 00:10:22,070 --> 00:10:29,210 They blame our success, unprecedented wealth, and our prosperity for all men, and they blame it on a 91 00:10:29,210 --> 00:10:35,269 supposed greed and repracious plundering of the rest of the world and the poverty and the failure of 92 00:10:35,269 --> 00:10:40,129 cultures that I have mentioned due to their own fault. Rather, progressives say, blame it on us 93 00:10:40,129 --> 00:10:49,070 and on our being a plunderers and taking advantage of the world. In fact, one author in the publication 94 00:10:49,070 --> 00:10:57,370 Poverty and Power, a classic progressive liberal treatise, says what is typical of many who think this 95 00:10:57,370 --> 00:11:04,210 way. And he says, and I quote, we see poverty in the third world as a result of colonial looting in the 96 00:11:04,210 --> 00:11:11,509 past and neo-colonial exploitation in the present, unquote. Classic. And the term third world, of 97 00:11:11,509 --> 00:11:16,289 course, derives from the classification of relative wealth and development. There's the first world, 98 00:11:16,769 --> 00:11:22,409 that is the developed, highly industrialized world, places like the United States or Japan, 99 00:11:22,649 --> 00:11:27,929 most of Europe. And then there is the second world, that is those nations experiencing an emerging 100 00:11:27,929 --> 00:11:33,750 middle class and some modernization and some industrialization, places like the old Soviet 101 00:11:33,750 --> 00:11:39,070 Union or China or Brazil. And then there's the third world, that is those nations and peoples 102 00:11:39,070 --> 00:11:45,850 who still live largely in a subsistence economy, devoid of a middle class, even a nominally developed 103 00:11:45,850 --> 00:11:51,769 industry and technology. And we see here most of the Muslim world, and it's because of their religion. 104 00:11:51,769 --> 00:11:56,830 We see the continent of Africa, and it's because of their religion. And we see this in much of Asia 105 00:11:56,830 --> 00:12:01,850 as well. And much of it is because of their religion, dear listener. The condition of these 106 00:12:01,850 --> 00:12:10,370 places is blamed directly on capitalism, however, wrongly so. I quote now Dr. Paul Baran, who's 107 00:12:10,370 --> 00:12:16,870 professor of economics at Stanford University, and he puts the blame on capitalism in this way, 108 00:12:16,870 --> 00:12:22,070 and I quote him, to the dead weight of stagnation characteristic of pre-industrial society. 109 00:12:22,509 --> 00:12:27,110 And here he's talking about the third world. And he goes on to say, was added the entire 110 00:12:27,110 --> 00:12:35,250 restrictive impact of monopoly capitalism. Oh, that devil capitalism. He blames 111 00:12:35,250 --> 00:12:41,909 poverty in the third world on capitalism. It's those greedy, conniving capitalists in the West who 112 00:12:41,909 --> 00:12:46,289 are responsible for the abject poverty of the rest of the world, according to him. After all, 113 00:12:46,289 --> 00:12:50,529 knowing as we do from the principles of tolerance, diversity, and egalitarianism, 114 00:12:50,649 --> 00:12:56,110 it cannot possibly be anything that they do in the third world that could be responsible for their 115 00:12:56,110 --> 00:13:02,509 condition. No, no, no, no. We can't judge another society as better or worse based simply upon its 116 00:13:02,509 --> 00:13:09,090 culture, its religion, its practices of those religious principles, their theology. No, we can't 117 00:13:09,090 --> 00:13:16,070 blame that. Oh, we can't blame Islam, for example. We can't blame Islam for Muslim poverty. 118 00:13:16,070 --> 00:13:22,129 Just because the Muslim believes wealth comes to him either through finding hidden treasure, 119 00:13:22,350 --> 00:13:27,509 and these are the three places where wealth is found. I encourage you to read the book, 120 00:13:27,629 --> 00:13:34,950 The Arab Mind, The Arab Mind. And he outlines there the three places where Muslims classically 121 00:13:34,950 --> 00:13:40,870 think that you find wealth. It's from treasure, finding hidden treasure, or getting an inheritance, 122 00:13:40,870 --> 00:13:47,870 or maybe having it given to you by a genie. And you see these things culturally expressed in works 123 00:13:47,870 --> 00:13:54,529 like the Arabian Nights, or Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. You get your wealth from these sources, 124 00:13:54,529 --> 00:14:01,309 not from hard work, not from accumulating savings, not from investing those savings wisely. No. 125 00:14:01,309 --> 00:14:08,789 Well, we also can't blame a Hindu in India for his brief, blighted, and miserable life just because 126 00:14:08,789 --> 00:14:15,350 he accepts his fate as an untouchable in his caste system, where additionally, and this always just 127 00:14:15,350 --> 00:14:22,389 bothers me terribly, that steak and hamburger on the hoof in the form of a cow, it can't be slaughtered 128 00:14:22,389 --> 00:14:26,909 and eaten because of their religion, because animal life is just as sacred as human life. This is so, 129 00:14:26,909 --> 00:14:34,309 so wrong. And we also can't blame, excuse me, the primitive tribal family in the Australian outback 130 00:14:34,309 --> 00:14:39,769 for their backwardness either, simply because they see their ancestors as inhabiting the very land, 131 00:14:39,889 --> 00:14:44,769 trees, and animals they would otherwise chop down for wood products, or cultivate for crops, 132 00:14:44,809 --> 00:14:50,769 or domesticate for consumption. Oh, the basic religious impulse in paganism is animism, 133 00:14:51,210 --> 00:14:55,610 the belief that the universe, that is, animals, and rocks, and trees, and hills, and rivers are filled 134 00:14:55,610 --> 00:15:00,090 with and animated, if you will, by spiritual entities. That's where we get the word animism. 135 00:15:00,669 --> 00:15:08,129 That is, nature is filled or animated by spiritual entities. Wow, dear listener, we are covering 136 00:15:08,129 --> 00:15:14,970 what capitalism is and what it means theologically, what it means religiously. Every religion answers 137 00:15:14,970 --> 00:15:22,230 questions about economies, and we're talking about Christ, constitution, and capitalism, Christ for the 138 00:15:22,230 --> 00:15:28,990 political life, Christ for our spiritual life, the constitution for our political life, and capitalism 139 00:15:28,990 --> 00:15:40,090 for our economic life. It is not easy, is it? And I do not intend for you to easily accept the claptrap 140 00:15:40,090 --> 00:15:46,289 of the progressive left. Ideas and theology do have consequences, dear listener. It's been true 141 00:15:46,289 --> 00:15:52,330 throughout history, and it's true today. We have been asserting that all economies are directly 142 00:15:52,330 --> 00:16:01,190 rated to theologies, and so is ours. Capitalism did not begin and flourish and mature in a vacuum, 143 00:16:01,330 --> 00:16:07,590 did it? Capitalism. Only gradually and incrementally did we come to what we now know 144 00:16:07,590 --> 00:16:13,370 as our economy. There are several stages through which capitalism grew. Let me just outline some of 145 00:16:13,370 --> 00:16:20,250 these very briefly with you. Number one, Israel stood alone in the ancient world for private property. 146 00:16:20,690 --> 00:16:26,210 Israel stood alone in the ancient world for private property. As we have described for you, 147 00:16:26,789 --> 00:16:34,009 the pagan nations surrounding Israel, nations like Egypt and Canaan, Assyria, Babylon, all of them 148 00:16:34,009 --> 00:16:40,210 understood property as belonging to the state who represented the particular gods of that state. 149 00:16:40,210 --> 00:16:47,090 The labor of the lowly individual belonged to that god as service to that god. There were no individual 150 00:16:47,090 --> 00:16:52,470 property rights. The state could tax, take, or tote away anything they wished, anytime they wished. 151 00:16:52,830 --> 00:16:58,389 Whatever was given to him or left over to the individual after the state had taken what they 152 00:16:58,389 --> 00:17:03,169 wanted, well, then maybe he could use. But the principle of the sovereignty of private property was 153 00:17:03,169 --> 00:17:10,049 unknown in the ancient world. And then we see that this could not happen in Israel, however. God saw 154 00:17:10,049 --> 00:17:17,170 to it in the Torah, for example, that all land belonged in families, not to kings. It was the 155 00:17:17,170 --> 00:17:23,309 family's private property. It was divided this way at the conquest. And then in the years hence, it 156 00:17:23,309 --> 00:17:30,930 belonged to a family, a private family. It was their property to do with as they saw fit. And at the 157 00:17:30,930 --> 00:17:36,049 end of every 50 years, even the year of Jubilee, there was an automatic reset where all of the land 158 00:17:36,049 --> 00:17:43,589 returned to its former original owners in families. In Israel, then, unlike the other nations, the 159 00:17:43,589 --> 00:17:49,569 principle of private property was sacrosanct, promulgated by God in the law and then practiced 160 00:17:49,569 --> 00:17:57,269 by Israel in the land. Secondly, we also see that the early church established private property, 161 00:17:57,369 --> 00:18:02,369 not only Israel, but also the early church in the New Testament. In addition to the previous verses, 162 00:18:02,369 --> 00:18:08,809 look what Peter observes about private property to Ananias and Sapphira, who he rebukes in the book 163 00:18:08,809 --> 00:18:13,670 of Acts. Peter said, and I quote from the New Testament, Ananias, why has Satan filled your 164 00:18:13,670 --> 00:18:19,190 heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 165 00:18:19,809 --> 00:18:25,269 While the land remained unsold, did it not remain your own, i.e. it was his own private property? 166 00:18:25,730 --> 00:18:31,049 And after it was sold, Peter goes on to say, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have 167 00:18:31,049 --> 00:18:37,369 contrived this deed in your heart? Oh, dear listener, this is a perfect example of capitalism 168 00:18:37,369 --> 00:18:43,710 combined with Christian morality. While the land they so pretentiously sold and donated, that is, 169 00:18:43,750 --> 00:18:50,289 in part, and then lied about the rest which they held back, it was theirs to do with as they saw fit. 170 00:18:50,869 --> 00:18:55,589 That is, it was private property to be employed for use in investment or charity, 171 00:18:55,589 --> 00:19:02,210 and to do so dishonestly and deceptively was immoral. God rewards diligent stewardship, 172 00:19:02,369 --> 00:19:08,890 dear listener, and he punishes the abuse of private property. Thirdly, the third growth point 173 00:19:08,890 --> 00:19:15,289 in capitalism, we see, number three, the Church of the Middle Ages. The Church of the Middle Ages 174 00:19:15,289 --> 00:19:22,869 practiced feudalism that grew into a kind of proto-capitalism. So, after the collapse of the 175 00:19:22,869 --> 00:19:28,670 Roman Empire, with the onset of the Dark Ages, all of Europe saw the gravitation of property into the 176 00:19:28,670 --> 00:19:34,329 hands of a few strong princes and lords, while the rest of mankind lived the life of a peasant or a 177 00:19:34,329 --> 00:19:40,910 serf. This was based in part upon the biblical model of covenant. The medieval lord acted the part of 178 00:19:40,910 --> 00:19:46,549 the Old Testament king, protecting with his knights the property and persons of his domain. The part that 179 00:19:46,549 --> 00:19:51,549 was left out, however, with these medieval kings and feudal lords was the part about individual 180 00:19:51,549 --> 00:19:58,990 and familial property. Only gradually, with incremental steps, did the serf or the present come to hold 181 00:19:58,990 --> 00:20:05,430 property himself. Oh, it culminated, of course, in England in the Magna Carta, for example, and the 182 00:20:05,430 --> 00:20:11,809 English Bill of Rights, all of which our system is built upon, later served as a model for our own 183 00:20:11,809 --> 00:20:17,750 constitution and Bill of Rights. Fourthly, the fourth development came during the Reformation and 184 00:20:17,750 --> 00:20:24,529 Enlightenment, which gave birth to the individual. History acknowledges, for example, that Martin Luther's 185 00:20:24,529 --> 00:20:30,250 brave individual stance against the Roman Catholic Church ushered in the age of the individual. 186 00:20:31,369 --> 00:20:37,670 With a Protestant Reformation, the age of the individual conscience, guided by Scripture and plain 187 00:20:37,670 --> 00:20:46,549 reason, as Luther put it. So, a perfect example of this is the tiny nation of Holland on the sea. I have 188 00:20:46,549 --> 00:20:55,009 Dutch heritage, so I embrace this. Holland, which soon set out enterprising ships on the sea to far from 189 00:20:55,009 --> 00:21:00,450 places on the globe to get and trade goods from Africa and India and the New World and bring them 190 00:21:00,450 --> 00:21:06,970 back to sell all over Europe. Individuals formed corporations in Holland that pooled resources to put up 191 00:21:06,970 --> 00:21:13,069 these ventures. We get much of our venture capitalism, for example, from the idea of the Dutch. The risks 192 00:21:13,069 --> 00:21:17,990 were high for the Dutch. The ships were occasionally wrecked at sea or they were robbed by pirates, and 193 00:21:17,990 --> 00:21:23,470 sometimes a poor trade was made and losses could not be made up, and sometimes speculators feverishly 194 00:21:23,470 --> 00:21:30,809 threw money at a venture, like the notorious tulip bulb speculation in 1637, where one bulb, one tulip bulb 195 00:21:30,809 --> 00:21:36,630 at the time, would sell for as many as thousands of today's dollars. Hundreds of Dutch merchants lost 196 00:21:36,630 --> 00:21:44,230 everything in this period by risking what they had, but the rewards were also very high. Tremendous fortunes 197 00:21:44,230 --> 00:21:50,950 were made in Holland by smart and enterprising men when things fell right. When exotic cottons from 198 00:21:50,950 --> 00:21:57,789 India or potatoes from America or mosaics from Africa were found and purchased and then brought safely 199 00:21:57,789 --> 00:22:03,910 back to Holland on these merchant ships, they could be marketed all over Europe for tremendous sums. 200 00:22:03,910 --> 00:22:10,630 During the early period of the 17th century, Holland then became the pioneer of venture capitalism. 201 00:22:11,190 --> 00:22:18,029 They became the models of what today we call the entrepreneur. Yes, as we are looking at Christ's 202 00:22:18,029 --> 00:22:24,269 constitution and capitalism today, especially capitalism. The Dutch were reformed Christians 203 00:22:24,269 --> 00:22:30,670 as well, and they applied their Christian principles to capitalism. This new class of merchant and his wealth 204 00:22:30,670 --> 00:22:36,789 soon became targets of government for taxation. I'm shocked. Isn't that a surprise? Not really. 205 00:22:37,390 --> 00:22:42,869 Princes and kings had no scruples about taxing away or outright seizing the fortunes of these men. 206 00:22:43,130 --> 00:22:49,450 Even the church in places like Spain and France viewed with suspicion this new movement, and they called it 207 00:22:49,450 --> 00:22:56,670 immoral and novel. The Roman Catholic bishops and popes, for example, had come to rely comfortably upon wealth 208 00:22:56,670 --> 00:23:05,029 that was concentrated in the hands of kings and princes and royal families, not common individuals 209 00:23:05,029 --> 00:23:11,890 that they could not control. Oh, dear listener. Suddenly, they found a whole new class of persons began to appear 210 00:23:11,890 --> 00:23:18,349 that history had never seen before. Not a royal class, not a peasant class, not a priestly class, 211 00:23:18,349 --> 00:23:24,589 but something in between, a middle class. You and I, brothers and sisters, these individuals were 212 00:23:24,589 --> 00:23:30,150 independent of the treasure chest of princes and popes. They had their own money, and they didn't 213 00:23:30,150 --> 00:23:35,329 need the pittance doled out by the church or the king, and consequently, they began to think for 214 00:23:35,329 --> 00:23:41,170 themselves and to act for themselves. Our principles of liberty and free thinking are based upon capitalism, 215 00:23:41,430 --> 00:23:46,490 brothers and sisters. In Holland, they formed trade guilds to protect their interests from predatory 216 00:23:46,490 --> 00:23:52,349 government and unscrupulous businessmen and the church. They spent money on homes for their families, 217 00:23:52,509 --> 00:23:57,529 food for their tables, education for their children, and additionally, they found they had enough money 218 00:23:57,529 --> 00:24:02,410 left over for little things like some lace for the wife or buckles for one's shoes or a toy soldier 219 00:24:02,410 --> 00:24:07,990 at Christmas for the boy, or maybe even a gift for the church. And what do you think was the net effect 220 00:24:07,990 --> 00:24:13,509 on the rest of Holland's economy by these merchants? Oh, not only did the individual entrepreneur 221 00:24:13,509 --> 00:24:19,710 profit and prosper, but down the line, the lace maker across town who made the collar for his wife 222 00:24:19,710 --> 00:24:24,490 benefited, and the cobbler in the neighboring village who fashioned his shoe buckle benefited, 223 00:24:24,730 --> 00:24:29,990 and the toy maker down the lane who carved the wooden soldier at Christmas benefited. In other words, 224 00:24:30,309 --> 00:24:37,109 wealth began wealth, and the entire nation of Holland began to prosper. Religion and theology, 225 00:24:37,109 --> 00:24:45,230 my dear friend, has an impact upon economies. Capitalism has been impacted by Christianity, 226 00:24:45,549 --> 00:24:51,869 by biblical Christianity. This is how real wealth is created. This is how genuine prosperity comes about. 227 00:24:52,289 --> 00:24:57,930 It is not government that creates and dispenses wealth. Government has never created a nickel's worth 228 00:24:57,930 --> 00:25:03,289 of wealth ever in its history. It can help create favorable circumstances to create wealth, 229 00:25:03,289 --> 00:25:09,430 but government always depends for its very existence upon the wealth created by the private 230 00:25:09,430 --> 00:25:17,190 sector. The only way that government gets wealth is by taking it from you and from me. In order to 231 00:25:17,190 --> 00:25:22,890 guard and protect one's property, various thinkers begin to ponder the true biblical nature of 232 00:25:22,890 --> 00:25:28,150 government, and what did they come up with? On the North American continent, fifthly, the final 233 00:25:28,150 --> 00:25:35,329 development, the North American continent, economic revolution gave sanctuary to capitalism. Yes, 234 00:25:35,430 --> 00:25:42,849 our revolution was in part an economic revolution, giving sanctuary to biblical capitalism. Dear listener, 235 00:25:43,809 --> 00:25:50,910 entirely lost in the socialist tyranny of today is the principle articulated by Madison that government 236 00:25:50,910 --> 00:25:57,990 is instituted to protect, to protect property of every sort, this being the end of government. 237 00:25:58,150 --> 00:26:04,210 Dear listener, instead, as we see with our Marxist socialist president, the basic assumption is that 238 00:26:04,210 --> 00:26:09,690 your property is not yours, but his. If they decide they need more, all they have to do is take it. And 239 00:26:09,690 --> 00:26:14,650 thus today, our federal government does not exist to protect your property, but to appropriate your 240 00:26:14,650 --> 00:26:20,970 property in increasing measure. This violates every principle of scripture, reason, and the constitution. 241 00:26:21,430 --> 00:26:27,289 We live in a constitutional republic where capitalism reigns. Oh, brothers and sisters, 242 00:26:27,289 --> 00:26:32,950 may you work and act to preserve and protect not only your own property and rights, but also the 243 00:26:32,950 --> 00:26:39,029 property and rights of your fellow citizens. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox 244 00:26:39,029 --> 00:26:45,690 Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 245 00:26:45,690 --> 00:26:49,750 4th and Boulevard. Call us at 523-0196.