Loading...

Advanced Worldview Analysis - Lesson 14

Money and Wealth

We are responsible to be a good steward of the wealth God gives us to manage.

Ronald Nash
Advanced Worldview Analysis
Lesson 14
Watching Now
Money and Wealth

The Christian Worldview and Economics
Part 8
 

I.  Christian Attitude Toward Money and Wealth

A.  Money obliges us to earn it and use it to meet our needs.

B.  Trouble reconciling passages about the evil influence of money.

C.  Options to solving the dilemma

1.  Voluntary means

a.  Christians can give their money away.

b.  Invest money to help others help themselves.

2.  Coercive means

a.  Insist that the state use its coercive power to redistribute wealth.

b.  Evangelical representatives

 

II.  What is Money?

A.  Medium of exchange

B.  Important social institution

 

III.  The Distinction Between Money and Mammon

A.  When money assumes a sinister power in our lives, it become mammon.

B.  Jesus taught that money could become an idol.

C.  Concern should not be about money but an improper attitude toward money.

 

IV.  The Bible and Wealth

A.  The Teaching and Example of Jesus

B.  Every Christian needs to recognize that whatever he or she possesses is theirs temporarily as a steward under God.

 

V.  Money and One's Relationship with God


All Lessons
About
Class Resources
  • Discussion of the content of a worldview and the criteria used to evaluate worldviews.

  • Discussion of liberalism and conservatism, and statism and anti-statism.

  • Political systems fall along a continuum between the extremes of anarchism and totalitarianism.

  • People favoring statism support extensive government involvement in education and social programs.

  • From a biblical point of view, statism is evil.

  • Discussion of justice on an individual and corporate level.

  • An economy based on capitalism has much less government involvement than an economy based on socialism.

  • Interventionism is a capitalistic economic system in which government gets involved to allow free exchange within a framework of laws.

  • Discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism.

  • Two basic concepts of economics are limited resources and the choices we make that reflect our values.

  • Marxism is an economic system based on the idea of a class struggle with the goal of a classless society.

  • Article from The Free Market

  • The Bible and Socialism, Moral Defense of Capitalism

  • We are responsible to be a good steward of the wealth God gives us to manage.

  • Some of the root causes of poverty are government, social and religious systems.

  • Liberation theology is an ideology promoted by people trained in Marxism. True liberation theology delivers people from tyranny, poverty and sin.

  • Christians ought to care about poverty and oppression. People who hold differing economic and social theories propose very different approaches and solutions to these problems.

  • Discussion of the differences between evangelical liberals and conservatives.

  • Guest Lecturer, Alejandro Moreno-Morrison discussing the inflation of rights.

  • Guest Lecturer, Alejandro Moreno-Morrison discusses legal positivism.

  • A balanced approach toward environmentalism is needed because it can be a serious threat to individual liberty.

  • Discussion of how people work in a capitalistic system to address environmental concerns.

  • The public school system in the United States has fostered functional illiteracy, cultural illiteracy, and moral/spiritual illiteracy.

  • Discussion of the pros and cons of setting up a voucher system to fund the education system.

These lectures were given at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida during the spring of 2002.