ECONOMY

 The economy in the Garden of Eden was robust. Adam and Eve had perfect health and wealth, that is, until they rebelled against the establishment. The opening chapter of the Bible starts from an outer-space perspective and then focuses on the planet earth. Details of how and with what the Creator populated it are given in general terms. The second chapter zooms-in on the planet earth, then on Eden, and then onto the Garden in Eden. Certain specifics are given about where to find gold, ‘Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there’ Genesis 2:11b-12. The clear intention is that Adam and Eve and their offspring are to utilise these and other resources for the creation of wealth to the glory of God. However, Adam and Eve became involved in the revolution that attempted to overthrow the established order with the result that any wealth would be gained only by ‘the sweat of your face’ Genesis 3:19. One gets the impression that before the Fall there was easy access to raw materials and precious commodities (e.g., Ezekiel 28:13), perhaps as in the words from the old Bob Dylan song, ‘I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it…’ However, since the Fall, and particularly since the global Flood, we have had to dig and drill to build our economies. Even in the ‘Promised Land’ the nation’s wealth would only come through effort,  ‘For the LORD is bringing you to a good land … a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper’ Deuteronomy 8:9b.

Western economies tend to be based on gold held in reserve. However, the general trend is toward wealth through borrowing and by fiat – if your nation needs money simply print more! Most Middle Eastern economies tend to be built on oil (which Western economies cannot do without.) There was perhaps some oil around before the Deluge produced coal and oil in great abundance and buried underground the precious stones. E.g., Noah was to cover the ark ‘inside and out with pitch’ Genesis 6:14. It is possible that this ‘pitch’ was manufactured from tree resin. However, we do know that there were tar pits not long after the flood into which some of the enemies of the wealthy Abraham fell, ‘Now the valley of Siddim was full of asphalt pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled; some fell there…’ Genesis 14:10a. Many Western nations are rich in oil resources. However, rather than make it easier for companies to drill for more oil, they choose instead to buy from the Middle Eastern nations at inflated prices. This causes a great drain and strain on Western economies –especially during cold months. However, Norway is a good exception. Its economy, based on its own oil, is flourishing!

The Bible has had a major influence on Western economies through men such as John Calvin (1509-64), whose Biblical teachings on economics greatly influenced Adam Smith. Adam Smith (1723-90) is often regarded as the founder of modern economics. He established ‘theories of labour, distribution, wages, prices, and money, and advocat[ed] free trade and minimal state interference in economic matters’ (Oxford English Reference Dictionary). In the 1930s John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) helped move Western nations away from the Calvinistic approach of keeping a balanced budget to the more Socialistic idea of borrowing capital simply to sustain employment.

The wealth of the nations’ belongs to Christ! His City is adorned with all kinds of precious stones: jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass ... And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it … And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it’ Revelation 21:18-21; 26-27. Entrance is gained by repenting and believing in the Gospel!

IMAGINATION

                                                                        Imagination

Imagination

Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God from 1078 runs something like, ‘God is a being than which none greater can be imagined.’ However, before our imagination starts working overtime, God Himself tells us not to have any gods before Him and not to make any images of Him ((Exo. 20:3-6). These are, of course, the first two of God’s Ten Commandments. Among the sins forbidden in the 2^nd Commandment are ‘the making any representation of God, of all or any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly…’ Westminster Larger Catechism 109. So, ‘the flying spaghetti monster’ and all other such unimaginative monstrosities blaspheming God, along with ‘Atheism, in denying or not having a God’ are barred by God. But back to Anselm. He was arguing that if the greatest possible being can exist in your mind, then it can and must therefore exist in reality. I find these kinds of arguments for God’s existence a little hard to follow. Maybe I just don’t have a good enough imagination!

God simplifies the argument for His existence by telling us that we already know that He exists. ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse’ (Rom. 1:18-20). Thus, according to God’s Word, the truth of His existence is both subjective and objective. We innately know of God in our own minds, and what we know about Him in our own minds is confirmed by the things He has made, including us. The bad news is that all of us tamp down this knowledge. We try our hardest to keep a lid on it. We do this through letting our imagination run riot either by ignoring and denying God’s existence or forging gods of our own imagination. We do this because our human nature is fallen. ‘Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols’ (Calvin).

King Nebuchadnezzar had a 27.5 metre (90 ft) tall golden idol made and commanded that everyone bow down and worship it (Dan. 3:1-12). The text doesn’t say, but some suggest that it was an image of himself. This, of course, would fit well with the Latin verb imaginari (‘to picture oneself’), from which we get the word imagination. We use our imagination to form gods in our own image and likeness. In both Old and New Testaments, the word ‘imagination’ is used to translate Hebrew and Greek words having to do with forming, moulding, weaving, framing, as in picturing thoughts.

Sometimes it is asked if God broke His own Commandments by forming humanity in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:27). Well, first off, the 2^nd Commandment begins, ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them’ (Exo. 20:4-5a). Thus, neither God nor us (nor Nebuchadnezzar!) are to make for ourselves images to bow down and to and serve. We are to bow down to (i.e., worship) and serve only God (Matt. 4:10).

All images begin in the imagination. For the mind is where they are first made. And because God is that being than which none greater can be imagined, therefore, ‘Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves’ (Psa. 100:3a).