Happy Reformation Day!

                          

There is a season for everything under heaven

                                                               

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

  a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
    a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
   a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
   a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
  a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
   a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

 

    Ecc. 3:1-8

 

 

 

Disillusioned with Evangelicalism

As many of you know, I have had a very difficult time in conservative Evangelicalism. I need to take a break from everything. I need to  seek God in the darkness.

We must speak out for truth even if others don't want us to

Troublemakers Often Change the World

                                                    Think and Dare to be Different


                                                                                   

                                                                                     
                                      


Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

                                                                                                "Think Different"
                                                    
                                                                                                  Apple Computers

 

 

"You say you want a revolution

well, we all want to change the world."

 

The Beatles

"Revolution"

 

 

 "Those who know their God will be strong and carry out great exploits."

 

                                                      Daniel 11:32

 

 

If you have been reading this blog lately, you may be asking yourself, who is Theologian X and why is he posting all these angry and controversial blog posts all the time?

 

Some have questioned my motives and say that bitterness alone drives me in writing. To this, I respond by saying that much, much more than bitterness drives and fuels my life and ministry. I am only scratching the surface of unlimited potential that this blog and my nascent media ministry could generate. I am constantly posting these blogs and am studying at one of the best graduate schools in America under the singular assumption that I believe I can change the world.

 

I have an unquenchable fire that burns within me! I have the fire of a thousand men burning like a white hot sun within me because I am angry. I am angry at the state of the American church that I have been in for close to thirty years. I have a passion to effect real change in the world I live in. This blog is only the beginning for my ministry of being an agent of reformation and change in this dying world.

 

I am 3,000 miles away from my beloved Southern California studying in Princeton, New Jersey because I believe that one singular dedicated life can change the world. Many have called me a bitter little man and a trouble maker. Others have said that I am a loser and will never amount to anything, to this I say, that there was a time that many people thought Steve Jobs was a loser, hippie and a freak. Little did they know that long haired "trouble maker" tinkering around in his parent's small garage, would change the world.

 

Yes, I believe I can change the world. I want to effect massive, cataclysmic change in the Evangelical Christian world I live in. From there, I want to see this powerful change spill out into the broader Christian church and then the entire world. I want to ignite a spark that will fan into a flame that will burn bright around the world. I want to help reform American Evangelicalism like Martin Luther helped reform the church in his day. I want to change the world.

 

I have spent almost the entirety of my life in American Evangelicalism and within the American conservative movement. I presently see grave issues within American Evangelicalism and Conservatism that greatly hinder our effectiveness. I want to help reform American Evangelicalism.

 

Some of the biggest issues facing American Evangelicalism concern the absorption of consumerism and celebrity driven values. Much of Evangelicalism today is driven by media driven Christian celebrities who maintain massive power and influence due to their media generated fame. Many Evangelicals contribute to and perpetuate cults of personality based around individuals who became powerful and successful predicated upon their media empire and celebrity status.

 

This blog and my coming website, podcasts and videos will shed light on major issues facing Evangelicalism in America.

 

I want to see authentic Christianity flourish in America.

 

I write and act to change my world. The reign of Evangelical celebrities must end. Here I stand, so help me God.

 

 



Pistol Whipped at Southwestern Seminary

How SWBTS’ Campus Security Ruined my Graduation

Now that I am long gone from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I have something I need to get off my chest. I wrote Dr. Paige Patterson and two SWBTS dean’s about this, but not one person got back to me. I did not want to display any bitterness and waited and waited before I went public with this, but today is the day I will mention how the campus security of SWBTS ruined my graduation.

Graduating from the College at Southwestern was a major achievement in my life. I worked hard to land on the dean’s academic list, earn academic scholarships and graduate with a grade point average close to 4.0. I also worked hard as the President of the Southwestern Apologetics Group (SWAG) and was a teaching assistant my last full year at SWBTS.

Despite earning a few merit based scholarships, I had to work many part time jobs to get myself through school, often working full time at nights to go to school full time during the day. I scrimped, saved, sacrificed and did everything humanly possible to do my best at the College of Southwestern. It took me six years to graduate, but I finally did.

Another thing that made my time at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was the insufferable and culturally backward fundamentalism on full display at the school. I also was greatly appalled at Dr. Patterson’s constant negative comments against Calvinists and Calvinism. Being from a Calvinist Baptist background, I felt my faith was under siege at SWBTS. I was personally offended by the constant anti-Calvinist rhetoric generated by Dr. Patterson and some of the faculty at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Despite my many misgivings about the culture and strange southern style fundamentalism at SWBTS, I tried to keep my head down and get the heck out of there. I was set to graduate on May 9^th of this year.

I was so excited when that day finally came. I was on the verge of finally being set free from the minimum security like fundamentalist prison I had been in for six years. My plan was to get my diploma and never ever look back.

However, something tragic happened while I was graduating from SWBTS. Two of my invited guests were escorted outside of the auditorium and roughed up pretty bad by campus security. I was stunned and fuming when I heard about it and here is the letter I sent to Dr. Patterson later that evening:

Dear Dr. Patterson,

I am writing you today in order to express my deep concern over what happened to two
of my friends during the graduation service this past Friday.

Two of my invited guests feel they were roughed up pretty bad by campus security during the service and are very upset about how they were treated. Evidently they were asked out of the service for some reason, by a couple campus security officers and subjected to an aggressive line of questioning that my friends feel was both intense and inappropriate.

I have know these two guys for many years and are kind of like the working men you minister to at the sports outreaches every year. Both of these men are solid Christians with large families. One of these guys is even a Southern Baptist minister in a local SBC association.  They feel they were wrongly targeted because of their "duck dynasty" type appearance.  I was wondering if you could look into this for me and give us an explanation of why they were pulled out of the service? I was also wondering if it is standard procedure to rough up invited guests?

As a recent graduate of SWBTS, I am very disappointed that this happened to my long time friends. Instead of my graduation and my upcoming enrollment at grad school this fall being the main topic, the topic of conversation at my graduation party was how two of my buddies were roughed up by SWBTS security.

Can you please look into this for me?

Sincerely in Christ,

Lee Edward Enochs

I am Theologian X

Evolution, a Bag of Doritos and the Existence of God

 

 

 

A Study in Christian Epistemology and Verification of the Christian Worldview and Philosophy of Life (German: Die Weltanschauung).

By Lee Edward Enochs

 

A Study in Christian Epistemology and Verification of the Christian Worldview and Philosophy of Life (German: Die Weltanschauung).

"Without the God of the Bible, the God of authority,the God who is self-contained and therefore incomprehensible to men, there would be no reason in anything. No human being can explain in the sense of seeing through all things, but only he who believes in God has the right to hold that there is an explanation at all."

Dr. Cornelius Van Til, "Why I Believe in God."

"God exists and is not silent"
Francis A. Schaeffer

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."(Romans 1:20)

I grew up in a university town where the the theory of evolution was the religion of the land and where Charles Darwin was the patron Saint of science and human progress.

I was always taught that all biological life forms were on a journey and a process in which everything that lives gradually changes into a more complex and better form.

I was taught that a change in the genetic composition of a biological species produces a higher and more complex life form though an infinite succession of generations via evolutionary natural selection. I always believed that until I went on this journey. On the road to Utah, I inevitably had to pass through Vegas. Despite my certain predilection for losing money via the one armed bandit, I was in search for pristine shrimp tails and superior prime rib from Sin City's
multiplicity of all night buffets.

However, to my eternal chagrin, my car conked out square dab in the desert, several miles outside of Barstow near the base of the Soda Mountains.

Then, wiping some frenzied gnats from my face, out of the corner of my left eye I saw a rather decrepit and haggard looking coyote scurrying about and I kicked the dirt in disgruntled disdain as I contemplated making the heat drenched trek to the next semblance of civilization.

However, while standing around languishing in the arid desert, I had a momentary insight on the nature of reality and the existence of Almighty God.

A crumpled and rather empty old bag of Doritos blew past my feet in the swirling desert wind, and beads of perspiration dotted my forehead as I introspectively looked past the cactus laden horizon, towards the formulation of the cosmos.

As I stood in the desert for once, without the creature comforts of the technological media and consumer orientated American digital empire to drown out my cognitive thinking processes, my rationale for believing in the existence of God followed this line of thinking:I believe that the existence of God is self evident to all and not illusions, since the Almighty has affixed via creation the nature of humanity and the Word of God, tangible and objectively verifiable evidences to substantiate the viability of faith in God in counter distinction to other epistemological and ideological options."For in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).


Take the crumpled bag of Doritos, (a product of the multi- nationalist Frito-Lay corporation by the way) I believe that discarded item of trash can demonstrate the existence of the God of historic Christianity.If a man finds himself alone in the desert with only the hollowing wilderness to his left and to his right and a crumpled bag of Doritos at his feet, the question must be asked; "How did that bag get here?"One may postulate the existence of the bag of Doritos on exclusively naturalistic grounds, that the discarded bag of chips (if you call Doritos real food) was once petroleum that was extracted in liquid form the bowels of the earth, then manufactured into a disposable bag, in turn was filled with Doritos, then sealed, gathered and shipped off to a sore by a massive network of machinery.

Then the Doritos were purchased by a person who ate the chips and tossed the bag to the ground.

The bag of Doritos in turn, blew in the wind, tumbled on the desert ground and ultimately arrived at his feet.

All these basic facts are true enough, but they do not answer the essential epistemological and metaphysical questions surrounding the ultimate origin of the earth and it's reality that gave birth to the petroleum that was extracted to form the bag of Doritos. that blew in the wind and ultimately landed at his feet.

Some Observations Regarding the Bag of Doritos:"It is the function of the wise man to know order."-Aristotle

The existence of the bag of Doritos demonstrates as well, the existence of an objective reality guided by the universal and transcendent laws of logic.

The existence of the bag of Doritos demonstrates that reality has a definite form and order since one can identify that there is an actual bag of Doritos at his feet and not something else.The logical law of identity demonstrates Everything that exists has a specific nature. Each entity exists as something in particular and it has characteristics that are a part of what it is.

The fact that we can identify that there is a bag of Doritos at his feet and not something else demonstrates self evidently that:We find ourselves in a physical world with an objective reality.

The fact that the bag of Doritos exists demonstrates that human beings exist and can differentiate its form from other objects.

The bag of Doritos in turn demonstrates humanities existence, the existence of an external world and the existence of an objective reality that is guided by transcendent laws of logic.

There is a causal, complementary, parallel, or reciprocal relationship or correspondence between the bag of Doritos and the existence of a external and objective world and reality it finds itself in:

1) T he bag of Doritos exists.

2) I can recognize the Doritos.

3) Therefore I and the objective world exist.

4) I can distinguish the Doritos from other things.

5) Therefore laws of logic exist.The existence of the bag of Doritos demonstrates the epistemological certitude of:

1) My existence

2) The existence of an objective world that is real and not illusions and:

3) The existence of tangible and objective laws of logic from which I can differentiate the bag of Doritos from other things.

A skeptic may posit that that the bag of Doritos, the objective world and the laws of logic are illusions but will instantaneously contradict himself when he acknowledges the existence of the Doritos and in turn acknowledges his or her own existence and the existence of the external world wherein the Doritos finds it's existence in.

When the person distinguishes the Doritos from other things he will acknowledge a transcendent logical law demonstrating that such a body of laws exists as well.

Thus skepticism, agnosticism and atheistic denial of the existence of objective reality and logic will only lead to self contradiction. For one cannot deny his or her own existence and the ability to distinguish themselves from it without at once acknowledging his existence thus leading to an contradictory infinite regress or absurd denials (Ad Infinitum) or Solipsism (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that exists". Solipsism is an epistemological or metaphysical position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. The external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist

The crumpled bag of Doritos leads to the existence of God and the truthfulness of the historic Christian faith in the following manner.

The bag of Doritos conclusively demonstrates The existence of the objective world and objective reality governed by three objective laws of logic:

1. The Law of Identity : If any statement is true, then it is true.

2. The Law of Contradiction : No statement can be both true and false.

3. The Law of Excluded Middle : Every statement is either true or false.However, the mere acknowledgment of objective reality and logic does not answer the question of how these things got here.Mere observation of the workings of the universe does not answer the question of origins and why all things grow old and die.

It is obvious to all that everything that lives shall eventually die.The Second Law of Thermodynamics shows us that all things in nature will deteriorate and a natural process always takes place in such a direction as to cause an increase in the entropy of the universe.Yet nothing within nature tells us "why" things grow old and die. The question of "why" is a metaphysical philosophical question that I believe can only be really answered by turning our attention to the teachings of the only authority on the matter; the Bible, the Word of Almighty God, the creator of all things.

I will postulate here that without the existence and sustaining power of the God of historic Christianity then we are led to an infinite regress of questioning of our origins. The existence of Almighty God is of an epistemological necessity and can be argued for transcendentally.The transcendental argument for the existence of God , takes the position that it is impossible for any authoritative rationality (including an atheist's) to emerge from matter.Thus, the existence of God must be assumed in order to deny God's existence, which means that the atheist's position is self-contradictory.

The transcendental argument argument for God's existence shows the necessary preconditions for the possibility of rational thought or meaningful discourse, for God is the author of all rational intelligibility. For God is the one who created the world and the reality that governs it.For without the God of historic Christianity humanity would be trapped in an infinite regress of questions regarding the origin and meaning of our existence.

But God has spoken from the whirlwind of contradictory opinions and has demonstrated His existence due to the impossibility of the contrary.For without God we cannot know how we got here, what our purpose is and where we are going. Fortunately God has revealed the knowledge of Himself and the meaning of human existence in His absolutely inerrant, inspired, authoritative, self-attesting and self authenticating Word, the Holy Bible.God has revealed the knowledge of himself in His Word and differentiated Himself from all the false gods and ideas about truth held by unbelievers by giving evidences of the Bible's truthfulness such as the miracle of fulfilled prophecy and the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe in the existence of Almighty God because God's inspired and perfect Word declares so it is impossible for anything to be contrary to the truth of God's existence and He has differentiated Himself from all other religious and ideological options by raising His Son from the dead, declaring to the world that Jesus Christ is Lord.Two thousand years ago, a unique man named Jesus Christ of Nazareth emerged from the chaos of human existence with a profound message of hope and human redemption.

Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God, lived a perfect life, performed incredible miracles, proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God and ultimately died on the Cross for the sins of humanity and rose again from the dead to give anyone who would admit that they have transgressed the moral law of God as revealed in the Ten Commandments, sincerely turn from their sins and place their faith in Him eternal life.

Hence, I believe in the existence of God and the truthfulness of the Christian faith because God's exclusive authority: the inspired, inerrant, infallible, self-attesting and self authenticating Word of Almighty God declares so and because of the impossibility of the possible. Without the God of the Bible and the objective existence of His time-space reality itself, ethics, the laws of logic and all other criteria of truth and logical coherency would be instantaneously rendered nonsensical and completely arbitary since there would be no objective criterion to establish the inherent veracity of anything at all.

Notre Dame Philosopher Alvin Plantinga (whom I spoke with briefly back in 2001) has demonstrated conclusively in His well respected philosophical treatises "Warrant and Proper Function", and "Warrant and Christian Belief" that faith in the God of historic Christianity is a properly basic belief as is the knowledge of one's own existence or the epistemological certitude that the external world about us, does in fact exist. Hence, to deny God's existence is to leap into the existential abyss and void of the unknow which in the end, will result in the judgment of God, when we meet Him face to face at the judgment seat of God.

That is how a crumpled old bag of Doritos declares to me the glory and grandeur of Almighty God.

This is why everyone needs to repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, who died and rose again from the dead, to give all, both small and great through faith in His name.
"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31).

The Myth of the Conservative Resurgence

 

Why I am Protesting the Fundamentalist

Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention

by Lee Edward Enochs 

“But examine everything carefully, hold fast to the truth”

1 Thessalonians 5:21

 

Very quickly after enrolling as a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I learned about this legendary, so- called, “Conservative Resurgence” that transpired in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). It was launched by an ambitious disciple of the famous Baptist Pastor W.A Criswell named Paige Patterson and a Princeton grad (cum laude, class of 1952) turned Houston Judge Paul Pressler. During the 1970’s. Patterson and Pressler led the fundamentalist charge with the goal of taking control of the SBC’s denominational resources under the premise that the SBC Seminaries and denominational agencies had increasingly been taken over by theologians and administrators from a “liberal” perspective.

Patterson and Pressler galvanized a massive movement in the SBC to move the entire denomination away from this perceived liberalism. One of the rallying points that Patterson and Pressler used with great effectiveness was over the issue of Biblical inerrancy. Patterson and Pressler claimed that many of the perceived “liberals” in the SBC seminaries and denominational agencies denied that the Bible was the inerrant Word of God.

 The movement’s main objective was to remove these perceived liberals from their positions of authority in the SBC and it was achieved by the systematic election, beginning in 1979, of conservative individuals to positions of leadership. Perceived liberal and moderate SBC leaders were voted out of office and replaced by men approved by Patterson, Pressler and the other leaders of this fundamentalist takeover of the SBC.

The perceived liberal and moderate leaders in the SBC were systematically voted out of office and many seminary professors and other employees were systematically and often ruthlessly fired and replaced with conservatives that were approved by Patterson and the other architects of this fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

As the months and years went by while I was attempting to earn my degree at Southwestern, I gradually began to see that Paige Patterson, though years away from leading the charge in this systematic takeover of the SBC, still retains a position of almost absolute autocratic control and power in the convention. I began to see that it is Paige Patterson who actually calls many of the shots throughout the convention. I began to see first-hand, the enormous political authority that Patterson retains in the SBC and how he attempts to hire and fire theologians and other SBC administrators according to his personal whims.

Recently Patterson has been involved in a movement within the SBC that greatly disapproves of Calvinism and has systematically removed most of the Calvinist professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I have witnessed things first hand as a student at SWBTS that have caused me to have grave concerns about how Dr. Patterson controls things. I have seen professors fired for very minor things and it greatly sickens me.

Over the process of several years I have come to have grave reservations about the enormous power that Paige Patterson yields in the Southern Baptist Convention and do not approve of many of his methods of hiring and firing SBC employees. I do not approve of his autocratic power in the SBC and I am now an opponent of much of what this hostile takeover the SBC stands for. While I am personally generally conservative in my theological and political views, I do not agree with the ruthlessness of how much of this hostile takeover of the SBC has taken place.

It is time for new leadership to arise in the SBC. After my very bad experiences at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I have begun to rethink my entire methodology of how I interact with those who I happen to disagree with. I am definitely not a fundamentalist and do not approve of much of what Paige Patterson and his good old boy network stands for. If that makes me a “liberal,” then so be it.

I want to go down on record as a conservative opponent of the hostile takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. I am a conservative who does not approve of how this was done, nor do I see authentic Christianity in much of what this fundamentalist power grab in the SBC is all about. It appears to be a shameful power grab and I do not care for it one bit.

I am starting a movement in the Southern Baptist Convention, away from fundamentalism and ruthless power ploys. I and many other younger Baptists are personally burned out and turned off by this fundamentalist nonsense that is ruining the SBC.

I am taking a stand and will use this blog and other means to begin to speak out against this bizarre fundamentalism I have observed first hand at SWBTS and other SBC schools and agencies.

Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. 

Lee Edward Enochs

B.A. (Humanities), the College at Southwestern

Class of 2014

 

 

 

 

 

On Reforming the Southern Baptist Convention

       "Until the time of reformation"

 

       Hebrews 9:10

 

 

 

 

Over the last month or so, over two-thousand people have read this blog and close to four-thousand people have checked my profile on google since I relaunched my "Theologian X Blog." I know this because my blog has tracking technology that I use to to see who is checking this blog out.     

 

As I move forward with this blog, it is important to let my new readers know that I often use humor, cultural references and hyperbole to make my points. This not your run of the mill evangelical blog. I use a lot of images and references from popular music and cinema to illustrate certain concepts. I grew up listening to popular music and watching multitudes of popular films. This is the reason why I often place the lyrics to songs and photos of different movie posters and images on this blog on a pretty constant basis.

 

Because so many new people are reading this blog, I think it is important that I introduce myself in some capacity to my reading audience. My name is Lee Edward Enochs. I grew up in a non-Christian family in Southeastern Michigan and came of age in the 1980's and 1990's. I am not going to lie to you, I love alternative rock bands like, "The Smiths," "Nirvana" and "U2." I will constantly make references to 1980's and 1990's music and films.

 

While I was exposed to the gospel at a very young age, I do not think I became a Christian until I was a teenager. At some point a year or two after high school, I came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and repented of my sins.

 

After becoming a Christian, I moved to Southern California where I lived for over twenty years. There in my beloved Golden State, I became heavily involved in evangelism and apologetics and was the founder and director of the Evangelical Debate Society, a Christian ministry dedicated to the promotion of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the promotion of Christian Apologetics. I was involved in several high level academic debates with atheists, agnostics and other non-Christian groups.

 

Because I believed that higher education was necessary to go farther in my apologetics ministry, I decided to go back to school and I attended Southwestern Baptist Thological Seminary down in Fort Worth, Texas. I am now a graduate student in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

While at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I became greatly alarmed at the anti-Calvinist rhetoric of Paige Patterson and his followers and was very disappointed with much of what I heard him say in chapel and around campus about Calvinism and the Reformed Faith.

 

Before coming to Southwestern, I spent most of my life in Southern California so I was not familar with the ways of fundamentalist Southern Baptist culture. I was greatly appalled at much of what I saw at Southwestern and the Southern Baptist Convention down South, and believe the SBC needs major reform in the way it articulates Christianity to the secular world.

 

While I am generally very conservative in my theological outlook, I am not a fan of the "Conservative Resurgence" led by Paige Patters and his followers.

 

In the days ahead, I plan to say a lot about my time at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and about the Southern Baptist Convention.

 

This blog will be hard hitting, edgy, relevant and will pull no punches in getting to the truth. I will not stop blogging to appease those who don't like this sort of thing and want me to conform to the Southern Baptist leadership.

 

I am an Evangelical Christian and believe in the authority, inspiration and inerrance of the Bible with all my heart and believe in all the essential doctrinal truths of the historic Christian faith.

 

This blog will be dedicated to reforming the SBC and American evangelicalism in general.

Here I stand, so help me God. I can do no other.

                                    You can contact me by posting a comment at the end of these blog posts
                                      or email me at:

                                         lenochs66@gmail.com

                                               Sincerely in Christ,

                                                     Lee Edward Enochs
                                                     (Theologian X)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Thoughts on SWBTS and the Board's Decision

                                                                 Here I Stand

This blog is about truth.


"If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point."

“Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear and distinct grounds and reasoning—and my conscience is captive to the Word of. God—then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God."

                                                Martin Luther

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

―Alfred Pennyworth

"The Dark Night"

 

 

 

This blog is about the recent decision of the board of trustees at SWBTS. You can read about this decision here:

http://swbts.edu/campus-news/news-releases/statement-from-southwesterns-board-of-trustee-meeting-oct-22/


As a recent alumnus of SWBTS, I am greatly discouraged by the board of trustees decison to rubber stamp Paige Patterson's controversial actions. However, this does not surprise me, for the board always goes along with Patterson's decisions. I am personally glad to have graduated and moved on from the perpetual insanity that occurs at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I attended SWBTS from 2008 to 2014 and graduated from the College at Southwestern with a B.A in Humanities. I graduated from SWBTS with close to a 4.0 G.P.A., made the dean's list several times and was a founding leader and eventual president of the Southwestern Apologetics Group (SWAG) and gave my all to the student body at SWBTS.

 

Anyone who wants to know what it was like being a student and living on the campus of SWBTS needs to watch the movie "Fletch Lives" starring Chevy Chase. If you have seen the movie, you know exactly what I mean...

 My overall experience at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was a very, very bad one. I was treated horribly by the administration of SWBTS and have nothing good to say about my time there other than the fact my professors were excellent. I learrned a lot at the College but cannot sugar coat my experience there.

My time at SWBTS reminded me of Jack Nicholson in the movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," it was like living in a fundamentalist insane asylum. It was stange, it was weird, it was surreal, but it was never a dull moment!

I do not write as an outsider to the situation at SWBTS but write as one with first hand knowledge of the things I comment on. I have taken a class with Paige Patterson and have had many conversations with him over the years.

As a recent alumnus of SWBTS (B.A. Humanities, 2014) with first hand knowledge of the ad hoc and fiat decision driven madness that goes on there on a regular basis, this does not shock me in the least. The board of trustees has a track record of rubber stamping whatever whim Paige Patterson decides on. SWBTS is the personal playground and kingdom of Paige Patterson. He arbitrarily controls and micro manages everything and makes the most outrageous decisions and statements without real accountability. I am saddened by the board's decision but not surprised. Paige Patterson has been shooting at the hip and doing this stuff for decades and no one in the SBC does anything about it because all the good old boys of the hostile takeover of the convention owe their current jobs to him. All they can do now is kiss Patterson's papal ring and bow their knees to the pope of the Southern Baptist Convention.


In all actuality, my time at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was a nightmare and living hell. I wanted to leave the school every day I was enrolled there and view my time at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as the worst days of my life.

My experiences at SWBTS were the determining factor on why I first contacted Pastor Wade Burelson of Enid, OK and broke the news to him.


I especially take great umbrage with the militant attack against Calvinism that goes on at SWBTS all the time. I was especially offended by this statement put in book of records at the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore:

In the official 'Book of Reports' of the Southern Baptist Convention, Baltimore, SWBTS said this about it's mission and beliefs:

"Southern Baptists have a seminary in Fort Worth, Texas that is determined to recover the Anabaptist and New Testament vision. While appreciating the compromised theology of the Reformers, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary refuses to truncate the everlasting gospel. Confident with the Anabaptists that we can say to every man, "God loves you individually and died for your sins," Southwestern presses on in the intensity of a campaign to get the good news of salvation in Christ to all seven billion on this globe. While allowing no discrimination against our Reformed cousins who come to us, we continue to sound the trumpet of leading people to Christ, baptizing them by immersion in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and gathering them into free churches with congregational governments. To that end, this year Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary hosted a Homemaking Conference that drew more than a thousand women. This continues our accentuation on biblical gender roles and on the critical importance of the home in the plan and purpose of God. Our biblical homemaking degree is growing and exercising increasing influence."

My time at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was a very bad one to say the least, but somehow by God's grace I survived. I still believe in Christ and I am still a Baptist! I can still affirm the Apostle's Creed with all my heart, soul and mind:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen

A BIBLICAL DEFENSE OF CAPITALISM

by Lee Edward Enochs


Senior Thesis (2013).
College at Southwestern,
B.A. Humanities
Fort Worth, Texas

During this time period of western civilization, the United States of America faces a very uncertain future due to catastrophic and systemic fiscal problems. At the time of this writing, America’s national debt has mushroomed to over sixteen trillion dollars and economists estimate that forty-three cents of every dollar earned in this country is borrowed, which is about four times the rate of deficit spending America incurred in 1980. Due to this massive national debt and deficit spending, many people around the country are arguing that the current financial model operating in the United States is unsustainable and some other are even arguing that free market capitalism should not be the foundational economic system of this nation. In the face of these persistent calls of overhauling America’s economic system, this current author would like to argue that free market capitalism is the economic model most compatible with the economic principles delineated by the authors of sacred Scripture and, that free market capitalism should be maintained as the fiscal model for America’s economy.

The Importance of Economics

The subject of economics has taken center stage in recent political discussions in the United States and it is of paramount importance that American Evangelicals be knowledgeable of the fiscal problems that currently plague this country in order to be effective ambassadors of life to the culture in which God has called Christians to minister. The recent “Occupy Wall Street Movement” and cultural ascendancy and trenchant left-leaning policy implementation of President Barack Obama has made the subject of economics pertinent to every concerned American. President Obama, by his own admission is a progressive and left leaning politician who has decried the alleged economic injustices fiscal abuses of recent Republican administrations and the free market system and has attempted to level the playing field between rich and poor in American society through economic policy change and a more activist role of the federal government.

Since the election and mercurial cultural ascendancy of President of Obama in November 2008, the economic terms known as capitalism and socialism have been well discussed and used indiscriminately by both his supporters and opponents, and clarification is needed in order to understand precisely what these concepts really mean. An objective and careful analysis of these critical economic concepts is necessary in order to see what fiscal principles are necessary in order to help America out of its current economic calamity. As America faces a catastrophic debt crisis of unparalleled proportions, the subject of economics has become of paramount importance to every American irrespective of political party and demographic status.

The subject of economics is equally important to Evangelical Christians currently residing and ministering in the United States and this paper attempts to establish the meaning of the before mentioned rival economic systems and seeks to set forth a Biblical defense of the basic capitalist system as the most exegetically and theologically compatible economic system in the world today. The important subjects of money, gainful employment, commerce and government are important to every American citizen, and it is crucial that faithful and concerned American Evangelicals be familiarized with the basic economic issues facing the society God has placed Christians in that they might be the “salt and light” of the earth and become faithful and wise stewards of the resources God has endowed us with in order to impact our lost and dying world with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

With the above crisis in mind, it is imperative to understand that as Evangelical and Bible believing Christians, we are implored by the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ to “give every man an answer for the hope that lies within us” (1 Peter 3:15) and to earnestly contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Thus, it is of paramount importance that Evangelical Christians have an answer to the economic issues facing the countries they reside in. As the late Dutch Reformed theologian, educator and statesman Abraham Kuyper once argued, no realm of human endeavor is outside the bounds of Christian engagement and that should not be subjected to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Christians should not abandon the realms of politics and economics but should encourage fellow believers to follow Abraham Kuyper’s example and seek to influence culture through the adoption of a Christian worldview. The subject of money and how we are to spend our economic resources is an issue that faces every citizen in every country. The subject of how much government interference and regulation of our private economic lives in an issue that should concern everyone since we need money to survive and yet the government needs to level some measure of taxation upon its citizenry in order to keep running. Since the fall of Adam, men and women are implored by God to work with their own hands and by the “sweat of their brows” (Genesis 3:19) in order to provide for their daily sustenance. It is also a component of the Decalogue that every person should be employed six days out of seven in order to provide for their basic needs (Exodus 20). The Bible is clear that if a man does not eat neither shall he eat (2 Thessalonians 3:8-10), and if one does not provide for his own he is worse than an unbeliever and has denied the faith (1 Timothy 5:8). Thus, from the Biblical record, it is clear that God has mandated every person to work if he or she has the physical and mental ability to do so.
In a similar vein, the Bible stresses the importance of economics and gainful employment in the context of society.

According to the Bible, the civil government has been ordained by God to regulate and rule over the affairs of men and we are commanded by God via the Holy Scriptures to obey the governing authorities as though we were obeying God Himself (Acts 4:19, 5:29, 16:36-39, 22:25, Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13). It is of paramount importance that each of us attempt to provide for our own needs. Since the day Adam was first cast out of the Garden of Eden, men and women have been mandated by God to work for their own bread and keep. However, in our current welfare state, many Americans have become tragically dependent upon the state to meet all their fiscal needs. It is important that Evangelicals not fall into the trap of being dependent upon the state. It is the firm belief of this author that one of the major tragedies of today is the level of dependence many American citizens have on the secular government to provide for their basic needs of money, food and housing. In the lives of many America’s the federal and centralized government has become the source and focal point of all their basic needs and from the cradle to the grave many American citizens have relinquished their independence and have become subservient to the state.

The fiscal discipline known as economics is one the social sciences that attempts to study the manufacture, allocation, and expenditure of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οκονομία which means to manage a household or administration. Historically, at least since the time of the Scottish economist Adam Smith, author of the famous book, The Wealth of Nations, economics has become its own independent field of study and has been analyzed by students of government in order to manage the fiscal affairs of local national governments.

In 1776 Adam Smith defined economics as an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations and a branch of the science that attempts to understand how the commonwealth is supplied and how public works are funded. Thus, economics can be understood as the means of how revenue and capital are generated in a given society and on an individual basis and how this revenue and capital is used personally and collectively in a given culture. Meno Lowenstein, former professor of economics at Ohio State University defined economics as “the study of how man uses scarce resources to satisfy his wants or needs.” The importance of understanding the meaning and nature of economics cannot be underestimated. Economist Henry Hazlitt argues that most of the economic fallacies that are causing dreadful harm in the world today are the resultant effect of not learning the lesson of sound economic principles. The contemporary crisis regarding the national debt and massive deficit spending is largely predicated upon the adherence and implementation of unsound economic principles such as printing and spending money the government in fact does not have.


Varieties of Capitalism Systems

In western society, economics has been studied by a wide range of ideological perspectives ranging from the Puritans and Dutch Calvinists who believed in free enterprise and limited government regulation and argued that financial prosperity was a sign of God’s election to the atheistic communists who believed that all the means of producing revenue in given society were to be rigidly controlled by the state. As Evangelical Christians we are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” and to pay our taxes irrespective if we agree with the governing officials set over us (Matthew 22:17-22, Mark 12:14-17 and Luke 22:22-25). Thus, it is clear from the explicit teaching of sacred scripture that God has ordained and sanctified gainful and legitimate employment and has commanded us to be obedient to the civil government He has ordained over us by paying taxes.

Throughout the history of western civilization, a wide variety of theologians, philosophers and astute thinkers of economic matters have attempted to establish why and how people are to utilize the economic resources available to them. Some of these individuals known as free market capitalists have argued that men and women are essentially free to earn and utilize their economic resources as they see fit without the interference of the secular government. Others, arguing from a more socialistic and collectivist set of principles, believe that the means of production of a given society have a measure of personal freedom but should be heavily regulated and controlled by the civil government. However, there are some proponents of the theories of Karl Marx (communists) who believe that every aspect of a person’s means of production should be controlled by the state and ague against the capitalistic notions of free enterprise and personal property rights.
However, capitalism is a system of economics predicated upon the notion of individual and personal property rights and postulates the thesis that private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit is the only basis of a free democracy. Key components that are essential to capitalism include unregulated and competitive markets and the necessity of wage labor. There is a wide variety of capitalist systems including laissez-faire, state capitalism and Keynesian capitalism that argue for differing views concerning the role of government in the free enterprise system.

Laissez-faire capitalists believe in the absolute independence of the free enterprise system from the civil government and decry interference of any kind into the private economic affairs of privately owned companies. Welfare capitalism and Keynesian capitalism argue that the basic principles of capitalism are sound but believe the government should regulate certain aspects of commerce. With these various capitalist systems in mind, this present author would like to argue for an economic model he has coined for the purposes of this paper; “basic capitalism,” a rudimentary and nascent form of the principles of free market capitalism. Basic capitalism is a series of economic principles deduced from the Bible as a foundation for labor, profit, wage earning and other aspects of commerce. The present author believes the Bible should be used as the authority in all matters of life, including how we spend our money. The Bible explicitly says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17) and “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

As stated earlier, the worldview of the late Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper comes to mind here in that every area of human endeavor is to be brought under the Lordship of Christ including the field of economics. A cursory study of the entirety of the Bible, will conclusively demonstrate that the Holy Scriptures have a lot to say about employment and money. The Bible is clear that because of the curse of the fall, men and women have been mandated to work by the “sweat of their brow.” The Bible says, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

Thus it is safe to say that God has instituted and ordained a transcendent and universally obligatory “employment mandate” for every able bodied adult. Free enterprise capitalism attempts to facilitate this “employment mandate via an economic way of life that seeks to eliminate restrictions on business and commerce and unburden these venues of earning money from unnecessary government interference and regulation. The free enterprise system was initiated in the eighteenth century as a response to what many people during that day felt was undue government involvement in the economic affairs of its citizens. Free enterprise proponents argue that private citizens and companies have the fundamental right to do business or trade with whom they want and when they want and it is not the job or function of the civil government to try to regulate whom we do business or trade with.

As stated above and to further expound on, the form of free enterprise capitalism is known as the laissez-faire model; which is an economic way of life that seeks to be free from all government interference, tariffs, subsidies and coerced monopolies and seeks help only from the government in cases of alleged graft, corruption, theft and coerced business practices between alleged business partners. Laissez-faire is an economic concept taken from the French language and culture that means essentially, “let it be” or “let them do it.” It ultimately argues that people and companies should be able to do as they please in commerce as long as it does not violate or infringe upon the rights of others. However, as this present author stated earlier, there are economists that take great issue with the laissez-faire model such as the fiscal ideology known as “Keynesian economics” that was first developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) and his thought has radically and profoundly changed the way western countries spend their money. Keynes believed in a “mixed” economy wherein there is government stimulus, regulation and control within a basic capitalist framework. Keynes believed in the predominance of the private sector but also believed in government control and debt spending during recessionary cycles. The current Obama administration following the lead of Keynesian economist Timothy Geithner, has heavily borrowed from the traditional Keynesian economic model and has caused America to accumulate a massive national debt in the hopes of getting America out a major economic recession that began in 2008 with the failure of many banks.

Yet, the Keynesian model of economics that places a tremendous emphasis on deficit spending and government intervention in the free market economy has been decried as the polar opposite economic model as historic capitalism. The Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) is a very important figure in the history of capitalism and his famous book entitled, The Wealth of Nations has been very influential in the last two centuries in defending the role of the private sector in the area of economics. Many scholars believe that Adam Smith was the father and founder of the modern capitalist system and the central thesis of The Wealth of Nations is that wealth is produced through commerce when industry is undeterred by government interference and regulation. Smith believed in free market economics and that the government should not attempt to regulate commerce and the generation of capital outside a minimum involvement.

It was Adam Smith that first coined the metaphorical term “the invisible hand of the market” and said that the economies of the world buy sell and are involved in commerce by an “invisible hand” that is driven by supply and demand. When there is a need for a particular good or product industry will produce it and those who want the item or good will buy it without the false stimulus of the economy that many secular governments fall into. Max Weber (1864-1920) was a German sociologist and scholar who wrote the classic book entitled, The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, argued that Western Europe developed rapidly and flourished economically after the protestant work ethic began to take root and influence an enormous amount of people into working in the secular realm, producing their own companies and engaging in trade and the acquiring of wealth for further investments. Many of the heirs of the Protestant Reformation believed that personal wealth was a sign that they were part of God’s elect and that financial wealth was a sign of divine blessing. Essentially, capitalism is a term used to describe an economic system wherein private individuals and companies develop, own and control the vast majority of a country’s capital or personal wealth. “Capital” is an economic term used to describe a personal wealth. A person’s investments are capital since it is supposed to produce more wealth through the accumulation of interest or the economic dividends.

Under the capitalist economic model the means of production and implementation of commerce is generally controlled by private individuals and companies. This is greatly contested by socialists and communists who believe the secular state should control and regulate all avenues of commerce in a respective society. Basic capitalism argues for the freedom of the individual to generate revenue for him or herself without unnecessary government regulation and interference. An essential ingredient of basic capitalism is economic liberty where the power of commerce is placed in the hands of the people. In the basic capitalism fiscal scenario, the government is seen as a friend of commerce and serves the people to ensure that all those involved engaged in private industry play by the same rules and guards against fraudulent business practices. Under the basic capitalist framework the state serves the people in order that they may be the best economic earners possible rather than the people serving the state. The role of the secular government which Thomas Hobbes called “Leviathan” in the realm of commerce and industry is to safeguard that people play by the rules and that ethical business practices are being implemented. An essential component of the capitalist model is the necessity of hard work and gainful employment that is honest and should be able to meet ones basic needs. The apostle Paul argued for the need for honest labor to meet ones own needs when he wrote, “Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need” (Ephesians 4:28).

A careful reading of Proverbs 12:11 shows that hard and diligent work will be rewarded, but laziness will incur the wrath of God. The text says, “He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who pursues vain things lacks sense.” Similarly, Deuteronomy 24:14 argues for the need of paying workers with an equitable wage, “Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.” In a similar vein Psalm 128:2 argues that we will be rewarded by our own labor, “You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.” Proverbs 14:23 says, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” And finally, Proverbs 18:9 says, “One who is slack in his work is a brother to one who destroys.” Work is mandated by God and is part of the Decalogue that God gave Moses. God commanded Moses “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Exodus 20:7). Another factor germane to the issue of the Decalogue and capitalism is the subject of personal property rights that seem to be inherent within the Mosaic Law. In Exodus 20:15 God says, “You shall not steal” and Exodus 20:17 God says, “You shall not covet your neighbors house, you shall not covet your neighbors wife or his male servant, or his female servant or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

The verses mentioned above provide foundational scriptural support for the essential capitalist understanding of individual and private property rights. These verses demonstrate that God’s law commands that a person not steal or covert another individuals resources. Individual and personal property rights seemingly are inherent in these texts. If these items were ultimately the property of the state as collectivism suggests, then God’s law would not say “you shall not covet your neighbors house” but rather the text would imply that all the items at our disposal for living are ultimately the property of the state and not our own. However, on the contrary, the Decalogue itself argues that in order for a person to steal or covet another person’s items that in fact must be the possession of another , thus demonstrating that personal property rights or inherent and meant for all of us to enjoy for the glory of God. In the same way that within “common grace” God sends the rain and provides daily sustenance for the “just and the unjust” (Mathew 5:45), He has allowed all people to own their own property.

Introduction to Communism

Communism is a political and economic revolutionary movement that seeks to establish socialism as the way of life in a given society or country. Communism seeks to create a completely equal utopian society devoid of economic or social status and seeks to establish a society rid of private ownership of the means of production and where all commerce is under common ownership. Communists seek to implement the socialist economic model by the means of revolution and believe with little exception that in order to create a classless society wherein the means of production are controlled by the collective society, various stages of government must be set in place in order to implement their agenda and the first stage of government is often a totalitarian dictatorship wherein all dissent is suppressed by the state under the banner of the communist cause. Communists seek to create a utopian society free of class, race, money and geographical boundaries. The founder of the modern communist movement was the radical dialectical and socialist philosopher Karl Marx (1813-1883) who sought to see the entire world under Communist control.

In Karl Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels’ seminal and world famous work entitled, The Communist Manifesto, which was commissioned and published by the communist league in 1848 it attempts to delineate a solution to the class struggle throughout world history to the present day (1840’s) and makes the prognostication that communism world eventually rule the world. Marx and Engels argue that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Here Marx and Engels argue that the capitalist society of Western Europe and the United States of America would eventually be supplanted first by socialism and then by communism and that this radical economic and social change would be done through revolutionary force.
The Communist Manifesto has an introduction and three different parts followed by a conclusion and argues that despite the European fear of “worldwide” communism, there was nothing they could essentially do about it except the inevitable conclusion that communism would one day rule the day and that a classless utopian society would one day dominate the world. Marx and Engels argue that society is essentially composed of the “bourgeois and the proletarians” or the working and ruling class and that these two classes of people are essentially and fundamentally at odds with each other. According to this book, the bourgeois are essentially an evil class of people who subjugate the masses of the world to their own ends and it is the job of the proletarian class to see that they are being exploited and need to overthrow their bourgeois oppressors through a communist revolution.

Here Marx and Engels argue that the bourgeois incessantly exploits the working class through constant innovation of technology that produces goods for commerce and the bourgeois is constantly upsetting the social conditions of the working class laborers. Communism argues for the abolishment of all ownership of private property and seeks to see the communist state confiscate all private lands. This foundational work of communist theory also argues for a heavy progressive or graduated income tax upon all citizens, the abolition of all rights of inheritance, the confiscation of all the property of emigrants and rebels against the state. Communists also seek to centralize and place the means of receiving credit in the hands of the state via a centralized national bank that exclusively has the right to issue credit, loans and other banking concerns for the people of the state. This book also argues for the centralization the means of communication and transportation into the hands of the state and seeks to see all factories and all other instruments of production into the hands of the state exclusively. Communists also argue that the job of raising and educating children is exclusively the right of the state. Furthermore, The Communist Manifesto argues that all means of education should be done by the state exclusively.

Socialism is very similar to communism as an ideology and is at once an economic system, political movement and ideology that postulate that national and local governments rather than the individuals of a society should own the nations resources, means of commerce and other means of production and calls for the collectivization and public ownership of land, factories and all other means of production. In the socialist economic system there is no private ownership of land or commerce but the state owns all the territory under its dominion and entirely controls the means of production. Socialism developed in the early 1800’s in Europe when a series of writers began to critique and complain against the suffering and hardship of many of the working people under industrialism. European socialist writers such as Comte de Saint-Simon, Francois Fourier and Robert Owen of Great Britain greatly decried the abject poverty and working conditions of the common people working in the factories and industrial centers of their respective countries and called for major socialist reforms wherein the means of production of a given country were owned collectively and not privately and called for other reforms such as a minimum wage, ten hour work day and the legitimization of trade unions. Some of these socialist formed societal collectives and short lived cooperative settlements where everything was owned collectively. They called these living arrangements “utopias” based on a term from Thomas Mores’ famous Utopia written in 1516.

Communism and socialism's emphasis on the collective control of commerce and the elimination of personal property rights appears to be counter productive and obliterates the incentive towards excellence in employment. Communism and socialism are very similar ideological systems and both are essential “collectivist” in orientation but differ on the means and methods on how to implement the socialist agenda on a given society. Karl Marx believed that the socialist agenda should be forced upon a given country or society by the means of total political and military revolution. Marx and his communist followers believed that a given society would reach a socialist utopian state gradually but at first had to be ruled by a dictatorship the suppressed and repressed any form of dissent against the communist regime. The resultant effect of communist ideology and revolution within many countries has been disastrous as hundreds of millions of people have been forced into slavery and submission under the so called banner of freedom. In countries like China, North Korea, Cuba and the former Soviet Union, freedom and liberty have been suppressed under the guise of a utopian economic state. Communism has been used as an excuse for totalitarianism where people are placed under total servitude to the socialist state.

However, in radical counter distinction to the communist and socialist economic models enumerated above, the essence of capitalism is economic liberty in that the capitalist fiscal system essentially postulates that the people of a given society have certain unalienable rights such as the right to own property, freedom of mobility and the right to work wherever one can find employment. Another principle of this liberty under the capitalist economic system is the concept of economic and fiscal independence from the state. Classical capitalist fiscal ideology postulates that the means of production, commerce and generating revenue should be privately owned and free from government interference and interdependence. Via the principle of “supply and demand” the economy of a given society will grow, stimulate and function independently of government interference, regulation and false stimulus. In economics the principle of supply and demand is a standard of price determination in an economy.

The cost of a specific good will is at variance until it is settled by the consumers demand for such a good. In the supply and demand economic scenario the quantity of production of a specific item or good will be determined by the actual consumer demand for such a good or item and is not dependent upon government stimulus or purchase of the item. However, in the socialist and communist economic system, the State controls everything and redistributes wealth as it sees fit and the means of production of said item or good are entirely controlled by the state and thus the demand for a given consumer item is not fixed or determined by actual potential consumers but by the state itself, thus creating a false demand and false stimulus to a respective economy. Under the socialist and communist economic system the liberty to buy and consume is infringed. In these systems of economics wealth is redistributed as the state feels necessary.

A decidedly negative thing about the socialist and communist ideology is its disapproval of religion and suppression of religious liberty. Karl Marx, the ideological mentor of both the communist and socialist economic and political movements was a militant atheist who believed “religion is the opiate of the masses” and argued that religion was merely a psychological projection of one’s felt needs and had no objective basis in reality. Karl Marx believed that mankind created the concept of the Judeo-Christian God and that this God does not in fact exist, Marx wrote, “Man makes religion, religion does not make man.” Karl Marx and the communist movement believed that all organized religion should be eliminated from society and the followers of Karl Marx and his communist compatriots have systematically implemented a radical anti-Christian and anti-religious policy whenever they have come to power. Religious freedom is suppressed in every communist country on earth and the resultant effect of this policy of irreligion has been the merciless slaughter and millions of Christians and other people of faith around the world. Socialism and communism fails as an economic and political system because it attempts to control the economic decisions of people who were created in the image of God to honor Him in all things. Socialism and communism attempt to be the “god” of the people and these economic systems attempt to control where they work live and how they buy and spend. Socialism and communism is diametrically opposed to a Christian view of economics and liberty since it attempts to replace God with the state and attempts to subjugate the people against their will and individual conscience. In defending capitalism from the Bible one only needs to review what socialism and communism have done to people of faith to see that it is counter productive to society and to the historic Christian faith.

While the Bible is not a text book on Economics and while Christians are commanded to obey the governing authorities irrespective of whether or not it adheres to Christian values or not (Romans 13:1-7) there are basic biblical principles that would tend to demonstrate that the communist and socialist collectivist economic worldview that advocates state control over production and distribution seems to be an impediment to hard work and ingenuity. The great difficulty of the communist and socialist economics systems is that everyone is paid the same amount of money irrespective of the rigor, effort and skill involved in the work. In the communist and socialist economic scenario there is no incentive to go above and beyond in their particular employment task since everyone is compensated at the same level. While the Bible does not endorse any particular political party affiliation it is can be safely argued that the communist and socialist emphasis on state control over all commerce and personal property is directly opposed to the biblical principles mentioned above about personal property rights. It is the firm conviction of this present author that communism and socialism have certain admirable points especially in attempting to level the economic disparity between rich and poor and alleviate the suffering of the economic down cast, these economic systems do not reward hard work, ingenuity and skill in its promise to pay each worker at the same pay rate.

Economics and the Secular State

It may be asked by the astute reader why a secular government should consider what the Bible says regarding economics since most governments of the world espouse the separation of church and state and secularism as fundamental ideological tenets of their respective governing charters and constitutions. To this question this current author would like to respond by stating that it is this secularization of the respective governments of the world that has caused many of the catastrophic problems we encounter in the world today and just because a nation defines itself as “secular” does not mean the timeless and non-negotiable truths of the Bible are not in force of those nations and individuals that choose not to obey the explicit teachings of Holy Scripture. In the same way a person and nation of people are accountable to obey the transcendent moral teachings of the Bible irrespective if he or she chooses to believe or submit themselves to, there are inalterable and transcendent economic principles that God has inscribed in the very fabric of human existence they every person is accountable to. God’s word is our norm, not the fleeting dictates and fancies of a dying culture.

In the very same manner that the moral imperatives of the Decalogue are binding on all humanity, the other unchanging and non-arbitrary principles of Scripture are still transcendent and obligatory to every person irrespective if they are Christians are not. Case in point, if a married man consummates a physical relationship with a woman other than his lawful wife, he has committed adultery irrespective if he is a Christian or chooses to submit to God’s Word in the area of human relationships. It the very same sense there are inalterable economic principles God has inscribed in the fabric of human existence that are binding on every person and every nation in the history of the World. When the Decalogue commands us not to steal or covet this applies to every human being irrespective of their particular religious or cultural demographic. God’s inspired and inerrant Word and the moral commands contained therein are authoritative over every person and nation of the world irrespective if they choose to submit to their truth or not and those who choose to rebel against God’s truth and law will suffer the consequences in this life and the life to come, “For it is appointed for men to die once and after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). However, while it may be true that God’s law is authoritative and binding on every person and nation of the world, it is also demonstrable that most people and nations on earth choose not to believe and submit to God’s law and the consequences of this rebellion against God has been catastrophic on an individual and collective societal basis.

In the same manner that adultery and fornication has wrecked havoc upon individuals and families throughout the nations of the world resulting in widespread divorce rates and the contraction of innumerable venereal diseases, the pervasive tendency of many people to violate God’s law in the sphere of economics has led to the almost complete breakdown of society through theft, graft and fraud. God’s Law is clear we are not to steal or covet our neighbor’s property (Exodus 20:15-17), yet we as a collective nation and people of the world have violated these non-negotiable and inalterable truths with wanton disregard of God.

The Bible is also clear that God intents for us to be honest in all our business dealings. The Bible says, “A just balance and scales are the Lord’s; all weights in the bag are His work” (Proverbs 16:11) and “Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good” (Proverbs 20:23). As Bible believing Christians who want to see righteousness, honesty and integrity prevail in society, we must not fall into the trap of believing that God’s Law is not applicable to everyone and we must not allow ourselves to allow to believe in the compartmentalization of the Christian faith wherein we believe that the Christian faith is true in the spiritual and doctrinal spheres of human existence but not in areas that touch on secular society. The Christian faith and the moral teachings contained in God’s Word transcend all cultures and inhabitants of the world irrespective if we are faithful to obey God’s Word or not. In the same way there are inexorable, transcendent laws that govern the physical world, such as the second law of thermodynamics , there are moral principles contained in the Word of God that transcend culture and this includes economic principles.

Augustine and Political and Economic Engagement

Throughout church history theologians of varying theological orientations have attempted to address the subject of how Christians are supposed to interact with and engage the culture around them. Some Christians have argued that Christians should not be in the business of affecting the political and economic affairs of a give culture. Others have offered a different perspective regarding the role of Christians in society. One such theologian who postulated a significant theory regarding Christian engagement with culture was the important Christian leader Augustine of Hippo, the North African bishop and theologian’s astute and insightful writings have impacted Christendom and the broader world for many years Augustine’s theory of cultural engagement is known as the doctrine of the “two kingdoms” in which he argues that there exists two cities, the city of God (civitas dei) and the city of Earth (civitas terrena) that are in diametrical opposition to one another. Augustine wrote, “The one city consists of those who wish to live after the flesh, the other those who wish to live after the spirit, and when they severally achieve what they wish, they live in peace, each after their kind.”

However, in counter distinction to this view, not every Christian theologian has agreed with Augustine’s view of the two kingdoms and some have even postulated that Augustine’s view argues for unbiblical form of dualism. Augustine’s theory of the two kingdoms is clearly articulated in his classic book, The City of God (De Civitate Dei) that he wrote after the “eternal city” of Rome was sacked and to discuss why Rome’s apostasy from their ancient pagan gods and adoption of Christianity as a religious faith was not the determining factor for Rome’s cataclysmic downfall. In The City of God Augustine argues that despite the fact Christianity since Constantine I (272-337 AD) issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD had become the official religion of the Roman Empire was not political but rather spiritual. Augustine elucidated his view that the city of God and the city of man are entirely antithetical to one another and that eventually the city of God will prevail at the end of the age. In The City of God Augustine contrasts the citizens of the city of man with the citizens of the city of God. Those who inhabit the city of Man are marked by worldliness and a love for the passing pleasures of sin that are for a season (Hebrews 11:25). Ultimately in Augustine’s antithesis between the city of God and the City of Man, Rome is not the “eternal city” but rather that designation is the spiritual kingdom of God where God dwells forever and ever. Augustine postulated the view that two cities, the civitas dei and civitas terrena, are diametrically opposed to one another. Augustine wrote, “The one city consists of those who wish to live after the flesh and those who wish to live after the spirit; when they severally achieve what they wish, they live in peace, each after their own kind.”

Reformed theologian David VanDrunen argues that Augustine’s “two cities stand in perpetual and eschatological tension” and are “divided as to their respective ends and thus there is no overlapping or dual membership.” In Augustine’s view one cannot be a citizen of both kingdoms simultaneously since one cannot be a Christian and a non-Christian at the same time, it naturally follows one cannot be a member of the city of man and the city of God concurrently. Because of the antithetical relationship between the city of man and the city of God in Augustine’s thought, some have charged him with unbiblical forms of dualism and cultural defeatism. Some have said that Augustine’s view essentially argues that since a citizen of one country cannot be involved in the political affairs of the another country, Christians who are citizens of the “city of God” should not be involved in the political affairs of secular government which is the “city of man.” Karl Barth for example, argued that Augustine’s “two kingdoms” view had a direct impact on the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi’s in Germany during the 1920’s and 1930’s since German Lutherans during this time were heavily influenced by Martin Luther who in turn had adopted Augustine’s understanding of the diametrically opposed kingdoms. Some have argued that Augustine’s view of the two cities postulates that Christians should have no involvement within the civic duties of society since politics are worldly pursuits that have no relationship with the city of God.

However, this seems to be a misreading of Augustine and the City of God and a misinterpretation of the explicit teaching of the Holy Scriptures that teach the sanctity and sacredness of all professions irrespective if they are secular or ecclesiastically related. In fact, there are several Scriptural passages that demonstrate that Christians can and should be involved in politics and the civic affairs of secular society. For example, Jesus Christ did not tell Zacchaeus the tax collector from refraining from collecting taxes from secular Roman government (Luke 19:1-10), nor did Jesus tell the Centurion whose daughter he had healed to refrain from being in “authority” over men in the Roman government (Matthew 8:1-13 and Luke 7:1-6). The Bible even indicates that it is a good thing godly people to be involved in government, Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice but when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” Augustine of Hippo’s view of the “two cities” is an accurate depiction of the relationship between the kingdom of God and the world of unbelief. A person becomes a citizen of the kingdom of God by faith in the person and redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Augustine’s conception of the “two cities” does not address the question of whether or not a Christian should be involved in the political affairs of a secular government, rather Augustine was employing in an allegorical sense, was employing a metaphor on the relationship between the spiritual world that can only be appropriated through faith and the physical world of which we initially all belong as sons of Adam.

It is the firm belief of this present author that Augustine was not attempting to argue that Christians should not be involved in politics or influencing public policies of a respective nation but in appropriating the “city of God” and “city of man” terminology, Augustine was ultimately using metaphorical terminology to refer to the fact that according to the Bible, men and women are either part of the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of this earth. Thus, this present author would like to argue that it is a perfectly acceptable role of engagement for Christians to attempt to be involved in the economic affairs of a respective nation. It is the firm belief of this present author that God calls each Christian to various vocations and these vocations include jobs within the political and economic realms.

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that out of the multiplicity of rival economic systems vying for the monetary allegiance of the respective nations of the world, Capitalism is the economic system most compatible with the historic Christian worldview and Biblical revelation. Other important ideological and economic tenets of the Capitalist worldview is the legitimacy of earning wealth of making a profit on one’s hard work and investments. Capitalism is the best economic system today because it argues for the maximum freedom of the individual in his or her means of employment and earning wealth. Capitalism argues that the private individual not the state is best able to govern themselves. Capitalism is diametrically contrary to collectivist economic theories such as communism and socialism which argue that the entire means of production and commerce should be governed and regulated exclusively by the state.

At issue here is a fundamentally and entirely antithetical outlook on human life. On one hand there is the collectivist mentality that says every aspect of a human beings life should be controlled by an elite group of socialist and communists. In the socialist and communist mentality individual freedom and liberty are obliterated and are at the disposal of the State. Then on the other hand, there is the capitalist line of thinking that argues that the individuals of a given society are what give validity and power to the State not the other way around. Capitalists eschew this collectivist and totalitarian mentality that seeks to subjugate the masses to the hand of an elite few. The quintessential ideological motif of capitalism is fiscal freedom and the ability to make one’s own economic choices. It argues we are free to buy and sell and work as we see fit and that the means of commerce and production should be in the hands of the people and not in the hands of the state.

The Bible is replete with examples and instruction on the ethical legitimacy of acquiring wealth (Psalm 94:12-14, Proverbs 10:4, 10:19, 11:4, 14:31, 22:1-7, 30:8-9, Malachi 3:9-10, Mark 8:36, 10:25, Luke 16:13, 2 Corinthians 9:11, Ephesians 4:28, 1 Timothy 5:19, 6:17-18, James 2:5-6 and 1 John 3:17). The Bible does not condemn the earning and acquiring of wealth it just instructs those who possess wealth to help those in need. The Bible is also clear that earning a profit for one’s hard work is a legitimate endeavor (Genesis 13:2, Psalm 62:10, Proverbs 10:2-5, 22, 11:4-7, 13:1, 23:4-5, 27: 23-27, 28:19, Ecclesiastes 5:10, 19, 10:19, Jeremiah 17:11 and Matthew 25: 14-30). The Bible is full of examples of men whom God blessed with financial prosperity in abundance (Genesis 24:35, 26:12-15, 36:6-7, 37:29, 1 Samuel 25, 1 Kings 10:23, I Chronicles 29:28, 2 Chronicles 9:22, 17:5, 32:26-28, Job 1 and Matthew 27:59). If America is to solve its main fiscal problems, it would do well to implement sound economic principles deduced from the Bible.

Many people today are calling for free market capitalism to be abolished in America but this present author would like to argue that free market capitalism is the economic model most compatible with the economic principles delineated by the authors of sacred Scripture and that free market capitalism should be maintained as the fiscal model for America’s economy. Despite the vehement criticism of contemporary anti-capitalists, this present author believes that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God and its economic principles should be studied and applied to the fiscal crisis currently transpiring in America for the glory of God and betterment of the American people. This present author also believes that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is ultimately the only hope for the salvation of America, but by implementing sound Biblical principles of economics, this nation can stem the tide of financial chaos that is presently ravishing our great land.

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