Are there Biblical Money Principles?

From Larry Burkett to Dave Ramsey, Christian financial experts have gained quite a following. A while ago I got ahold of a copy of one of Dave Ramsey’s books just to see for myself why he is so popular. While some of his ideas are very good, I found myself disagreeing with significant parts of his advice. One of the primary problems is that he has a single plan for all people in all varieties of situations, while in reality, every financial plan must be unique. Since this is a blog about Christianity and not personal finance, I don’t intend to discuss the details or merits of his or anyone else’s particular financial advice. However, reading his book illustrated the importance, for those who follow Dave Ramsey or any other Christian financial expert, to think critically about their advice and not assume it always is applicable to our particular situation. My fear is we may conclude automatically that any advice “based on biblical money principles” is trustworthy, that is it sufficient on its own to prepare us for making financial decisions, or perhaps even that it will guarantee God’s blessing on our finances.

The first question we must consider is whether there are, in fact, biblical money principles. The answer depends on what we mean by “money principles.” If we mean that the Bible provides general wisdom that can be applied to personal financial management, particularly regarding avoidance of imprudent types or amounts of debt, wise stewardship, generosity, and refraining from valuing money too much, then principles such as these certainly can be found in the Bible.

However, if we mean anything beyond this, such as that the Bible contains investment advice, likely we are reading something into the Bible that never was intended. We need to be cautious about how we read and understand the Bible. We certainly shouldn’t minimize or reduce what it says, but at the same time, we should avoid trying to make it say more than it does. Unfortunately, this may happen frequently when it comes to money management.

The idea that the Bible contains investment advice or similar information may sound odd to some. However, I have heard multiple Christian authors and speakers make this claim. Some have proclaimed that following these principles guarantee wealth, an idea that, hopefully, raises a red flag to all of us. Others have avoided making this claim but still argue that there are principles found in the Bible that, if followed, are guaranteed will improve our financial situations and be more pleasing to God than the “worldly” way of managing money.

I’ve heard that there are 2,500 Bible verses that talk about money. If we read some of these verses, we’ll find that they do provide good general wisdom. However, the problem is that we may come to believe that the Bible is entirely sufficient for developing financial competence, and furthermore, we may become afraid of trusting any source of financial advice unless it claims to derive its principles from the Bible.

            But does such a distinction even exist between “secular” and “Godly” money management principles? The Bible contains general admonitions to use our money wisely as well as ethically, but much of money management has to do with neutral facts and concepts that have nothing to do with wisdom or morality, such as math and knowledge of various financial products. Therefore, relying entirely on the Bible would exclude many important concepts from our financial knowledge. For example, there is nothing in the Bible that can help us decide how best to allocate the investments in our 401(k).

This may seem obvious. But some Christian money experts, aware of this fact, include general concepts in their advice while claiming to derive them directly from the Bible, when in fact they did not. At one time I heard someone on a Christian radio station who was answering money questions from callers. He suggested that a caller should diversify his/her investments, because it says in Ecclesiastes 11:2 that we should “Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.” The implication was that he read the verse in Ecclesiastes and from it determined that it’s wise to diversify our investments. But this simply is not the case. Anyone with even minimal financial knowledge knows that diversification is imperative for achieving an optimal balance between risk and return, so this is not a special biblical revelation that is absent from “secular” money management. Rather, this advisor already had the principle in mind, then searched the Bible for a verse that could be interpreted to corroborate what he knew already to be true. This is reading into the BIble, and is dangerous as a general method because of the risk of interpreting the Bible to say precisely what we want it to say.

My main concern is that the presentation of general principles as if they are special divine revelation may establish a distrust in any source that is not based on the Bible, which, as I stated earlier, may result in a deficiency in our financial literacy. Further, some people, believing the ideas of a particular money expert were derived from the Bible, may be afraid to question or not follow that advice. But since all specific financial advice ultimately comes human minds, there is always a chance that it is not good advice.

Therefore, we should not avoid financial advice from outside the Bible, and we should not blindly accept advice simply because it comes from a Christian and claims to be derived from the Bible. It is important to educate ourselves from multiple sources and use our own judgement when making financial decisions. There is no problem with incorporating what the Bible says regarding money as long as we supplement it with current and more detailed information on all subjects that help us manage our money well.

And, of course, we need to avoid having the impression that there are any biblical principles that, if followed, will guarantee any level of financial success. If we are careful to understand the Bible, we will realize that achieving wealth, or even mere material comfort, is beside the point entirely. It would be contradictory (among other things) to believe that the Bible contains principles to guarantee such a thing. Whether we have wealth is based on how wise we are with our money, and some external factors outside of our control. Certainly we should be responsible and good stewards of our money, and take proper care of our families and others under our care. But our focus should not be on having wealth as an end in itself, but as a means to ends that are aligned with God’s will for our lives. We can (and should) make ourselves available to God and bring glory to Him no matter what level of wealth we have.

Prayer: How Does It Really Work?

James 5:16 promises that “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” There are numerous other verses that declare the effectiveness of prayer. But if you have put any thought into prayer, likely you’ve wondered, as I have, how it actually works. You may even have wondered whether it works at all.

There are some indirect ways in which we could say truthfully that prayer is effective. For example, it draws us closer to God and helps us to align our will with His. However, while true, this is not generally what we mean when we wonder whether prayer is effective. Usually we are wondering whether our requests will be granted.

But the idea of God answering our prayers raises some puzzling questions. If God knows everything, then He already is aware of whatever He plans to do in the future. If prayer is a request that God perform a particular action, if the prayer works, wouldn’t it entail influencing what God will choose to do? If so, wouldn’t this mean that God would choose a different action from what He intended originally? In that case, it would be impossible for God to know His own future actions. Either His foreknowledge was correct, in which case He could not alter His intent in response to prayer, or else He didn’t know the future (because the future turned out to be different from what He “knew”).

While these may seem to be strong challenges, they are illusory, not actual, problems. Close inspection reveals an erroneous assumption. Though it’s difficult to comprehend, God does not experience time in the same way we do.

The difficulty only arises if at one moment, God is planning a particular action, but then at the next moment He decides to do something different. However, it is only within the universe that the passage of time is experienced. Without getting into too much detail, according to physics, time began at the origin of the universe in the same way that matter did. As a result, it is only within the universe that the passage of time is experienced. Further, the concept of time cannot be separated from physical matter. Outside of the universe (whatever that may mean), time has no meaning. Therefore, to God (an immaterial Being), every moment is the present. Because He does not experience the passage of time, there isn’t one moment in which He’s planning to do one thing, and another in which He decides to do something else.

But if God cannot change His intent, how can prayer (a request intended to influence God’s intent) be effective? I don’t claim to have figured this out completely, but my best guess is that God simply incorporates our prayer into His original choice. Although from our perspective each of our prayers occurs at a particular point in time, God “hears” all prayers simultaneously. It’s hard to visualize, but in that single “moment”, from God’s perspective, He performs every action He ever has or will do. Therefore, at that “moment”, it’s entirely possible for Him to do something in response to a particular prayer, regardless of when the prayer occurs. He didn’t have one intent, hear a prayer, and then have a different intent as a result of the prayer. Rather, He always is aware of the prayer and (at least in some cases) performs the requested action in response. The prayer does not change His mind from one plan to another; it is part of the reason for the original action.

This solution preserves the idea that prayer is important, because it means it’s entirely possible that if we don’t pray for a particular thing, that thing may not happen. The prayer has had a direct impact on the outcome even though God does not change His intent.

This idea also implies a possibility that I would like to mention briefly simply because of how intriguing it is. Because God is not limited by time, it seems to follow that it might be effective to pray for past events, as long as we don’t yet know the outcome. If God hears all prayers simultaneously, in a single “moment”, that would mean the timing of our prayers have no impact on their effectiveness (since the “moment” at which God hears them is not before, after, or during the prayer no matter when it takes place). Therefore, there seems to be no reason that a prayer offered after an event couldn’t impact that event. For example, suppose you know a friend who is taking a difficult test from 12:00 to 1:00, and it’s now 1:05. If you have not yet heard whether the friend passed the test, a prayer for them at this time still may be effective. However, it seems to me (though only intuitively) that once you’ve heard whether your friend passed, further prayer would not be necessary.* This is not a well-developed idea, and it has no impact on the general subject of the effectiveness of prayer, but I thought I would mention it briefly because of how interesting it is.

Ultimately, we should not expect to understand prayer completely. There have been several attempts to study prayer scientifically, with varying results, but it is difficult to study as a result of its nature. Nevertheless, there is solid anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness, as well as the unambiguous promise of God. And, fortunately, it is not necessary to understand prayer in order to do it!

*Science nerds: doesn’t this remind you of quantum mechanics?