tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post27175750607368839..comments2024-03-28T18:55:21.534-07:00Comments on Through These Woods: The Bible and EconomicsDan Trabuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14303597141397042669noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-3840457778025526182012-05-08T04:02:14.953-07:002012-05-08T04:02:14.953-07:00Thanks for the thoughts, Nate.I guess I'd say ...Thanks for the thoughts, Nate.<br><br>I guess I'd say that when the Bible speaks of wealth, it speaks of it in at least two ways.<br><br>There is the wealth that is the "abundance of God," or the "abundance of good things" sort of idea. Being wealthy in friends and family and contentedness, having enough and being joyful about it. That is the good wealth and the sort we can celebrate.<br><br>Then there is "mammon," or monetary wealth (gold, money, monetary riches) and that is not an evil in the Bible, but it is very consistently warned about, as a good way to get entrapped and lead to a negative sort of wealth. A wealth that is never content but always wanting more, that might even drive you to cut corners or not be giving at the expense of other people in order to increase your own wealth. That is a bad wealth.<br><br>A barter system might help us with the negative attributes of wealth, I don't know. It also might just lead to a "building of more and more barns" to store more and more stuff - as Jesus warns about in places in the Bible.<br><br>I think the concern with the wealth of money is that it does tend to be a trap, leading one to want more and more, leading to a greedy spirit. It doesn't have to, but it often does, or at least that seems to be the Bible's take on it, given the many many warnings about monetary wealth.Dan Trabuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14303597141397042669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-28410980210051235692012-05-06T21:34:56.863-07:002012-05-06T21:34:56.863-07:00I'll make a comment I hope will be at least in...I'll make a comment I hope will be at least interesting.<br><br>What I find fascinating, and it's not just in the bible, is that when wealth is talked about in almost every culture on earth, that wealth is synonymous with gold, not value.<br><br>Strictly speaking, gold has little value. The only reason it is deemed to have value is because of it's relative rarity and the fact that others will accept it for other things.<br><br>I wonder, if gold, and fiat currency, were removed from the economies of the world, and a strictly barter, that is the use of true commodity currency, how would the definition of wealth and rhetorical treatment of persons who are known to be wealthy, change?<br><br>Why is wealth in money always condemned? Is wealth of spirit, or wealth of friends really any different? Isn't the issue supposedly about having plenty while others do not? So why the focus on money?Natehttp://congressshallmakenolaw.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com