Posted October 2, 2008
The fundamental cause of the recent economic developments in the United States is not economic but spiritual—human nature.
We have been shocked, sobered and scared by recent economic developments in the United States. The complexities of this crisis were simply overwhelming to the average citizen. But almost everyone was able to grasp very quickly the enormous magnitude of the initially proposed $700 billion dollar "bailout" plan.
Higher taxes, greater federal debt, a larger spending deficit, rising fuel costs, inflation and further devaluation of the dollar will be the likely consequences as investors divert money from the volatile stock market into commodities including crude oil. The alternative, we are told, is economic disaster for the nation on a scale comparable to or in some ways perhaps even worse than the Great Depression in the 1930s.
I am not an economist. But one thing I remember from my economics class in college was the instructor's play-on-words representation of one basic view of economics: God helps those who help themselves, so take plenty.
Actually, this humorous one-liner strikes at the heart of our current economic crisis. The fundamental cause is not economic but spiritual—human nature.
The Bible warns that, "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Timothy 6:10). From Main Street to Wall Street, greed and deceit (including self-deceit) have led us to where we are today. For years, businesses and financial institutions seeking greater revenues have dangled their wares in front of gullible consumers, enticing them with easy credit.
For those people who spent money they didn't have on things they couldn't afford, the so-called American Dream was simply a fantasy that has turned into a nightmare—for them, for the entire nation and for the rest of the world. Another one-liner asserts: "Unless your income exceeds your outgo, your upkeep will be your downfall."
On The Oprah Winfrey Show economic advisor Suze Orman put it this way, "A lot of you have built your personal financial foundation on deceit and lies. You bought a home that you couldn't afford … You spent money like it was going out of style and it wasn't your money to spend … When you borrow money, you leverage yourself. The United States of America leveraged itself so high that when it started to come down, the whole thing now has fallen down" (oprah.com ).
So government officials and their economic advisors began scrambling to take immediate action on an unprecedented scale in hopes of stabilizing the economy by rescuing major investment firms on the verge of bankruptcy. Will their plan really halt the nation's economic decline or even be of any help? Experts are not sure. For certain it will not solve all of our economic problems but possibly it may delay the inevitable consequences of our living beyond our means, which constitutes self deception.
The government's plan has been aptly described as a "bailout." This is very much like an overprotective parent bailing a delinquent child out of jail instead of allowing him or her to suffer the consequences of his or her actions. In psychological terms, it is called being an enabler. We must all learn from the law of cause and effect. Always protecting someone from the consequences of bad decisions allows that person to continue wrong courses of action, leading to greater problems in the future.
A fundamental truth of the Bible is that eventually sin will lead to disaster and righteousness will be rewarded, but those same scriptures also acknowledge that for a time the opposite often may be true in "this present evil age" (Galatians 1:4). Nevertheless, key passages in the book of Psalms address this inequity and point us to the fact that ultimately God will right these wrongs (Psalm 73:3-22, Psalm 37:1-40).
Man has yet to learn the fundamental lesson that there are some problems we cannot solve apart from God. The Bible reveals that God has the ultimate bailout plan to save mankind from self-annihilation—which would happen if our foolish choices were not curtailed (Matthew 24:21-22). God's plan is the only one that will work, because only He can change human nature—which He promises to do (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26).
When the final elements of that plan are put into place then and only then will all of our economic woes and other problems be solved. In the meantime we need to make sure that our own house is in order economically—and especially spiritually.
