John W. Robbins: The Father of the Christian School of Economics
The Bible Alone is the Word Of God
In preparing my outline for Week Four of the Advanced Equity Trading Boot Camp, one of my many teaching tools is The Promise Of Christian Economics by John W. Robbins. Fortunately, my first student also happened to be a Christian, and he was especially impressed by Dr. Robbins's lectures on economics.
My response was, “What lectures?”
I thought I had read everything my mentor John Robbins had written on economics. I have often linked the 2000 article, The Promise Of Christian Economics to my articles about Bitcoin and sound money. Yet I knew something was missing. While this article laid a sure foundation I needed help with how to proceed.
You see John is an old and loyal Christian friend and mentor. He was there with my young son at my sentencing hearing in 1991. When I was finally released from federal prison without any conditions on my release, I was finally free and determined to re-establish myself while at the same time taking down the corrupt prosecutor who used my young children in failed sting operations and retaliated against my son for truthful testimony in federal court.
One of my regrets is that I never reached out to John after my release as I felt unworthy measured in worldly terms. John passed on in 2008.
Little did I know that Dr. Robbins provided this help in a series of 18 lectures entitled “Intermediate Economics” that have never been transcribed in written form.
In these unpublished lectures recorded in 2006, Dr. Robbins developed what was started in 2000 outlining the methodology, the axiom of Scripture, the corollaries of the axiom, opportunity cost, subjective value, marginal utility, the law of supply, the law of demand, the functions of price, moral and economic values, the ethics of self-interest and profit, the ethics of competition, private property, limited government and peace, plus much more.
The last time I was so excited about a project was August 2013 when I first discovered Bitcoin.
I spent the next 20 hours listening to these fascinating lectures which may be found here.
All of John Robbin's sermons can be found here.
The axiom or hypothesis of Christian Economics is Scripture or “The Bible Alone Is the Word of God”, also known as Scripturalism. In theology, it is known as Sola Scriptura.
Most Christians do not believe this. This includes most mainline Protestant Churches, Eastern Orthodox churches, and most evangelical churches. Roman Catholicism considers it heresy.
However, there is a remnant of Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregational, and Anglicans who hold this axiom.
The sufficiency of Scripture is affirmed by Scripture, 2 Timothy 3:14–17:
“But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NKJ)
Christianity is not a religion, but a revealed system of truth.
There have been many attempts at Christian economics but all fall short and none that I am aware of apply the axiom that Scripture has a monopoly on truth.
Christians have been unable to recognize what the great rationalist atheist Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises acknowledged in his book Theory and History:
“Those divines who saw that nothing but revelation and could provide man with perfect certainty were right. Human scientific inquiry can not proceed beyond the limits drawn by the insufficiency of man’s senses and the narrowness of his mind. There is no deductive demonstration possible of the principle of causality and of the inference of imperfect deduction.”
While Mises does not agree with this Christian axiom, he recognizes it provides certainty. Contrast this with an attempt to develop Christian Economics without this axiom a generation ago.
If you are a Bible-believing Christian I hope you can set aside the time to listen to these foundational lectures.
And I also want to invite you to join the Telegram Group School Of Christian Economics.
UGLY OLD GOAT
