Uncommon Wisdom

Selections from Proverbs 1:19, 3:30, 10:4, 11:1, 15 & 26, 12:27, 13:4, 20:4, 21:6, 17 & 20, 23:5, 24:33-34, 27:23-24, 28:19, 29:24

The Reformer's Fire
/\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Exposition by Max A Forsythe

Question 75:
What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?
Answer 75:
The eighth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own or our neighbor's wealth or outward estate.

One of the most intriguing things about Solomon's collection of middle eastern proverbs is that through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was able to collect the very best proverbial common sense of his time and place and then in his recording those sayings, so bless them with the acknowledgement that our Lord God approved them as being in the image of His own wisdom. In our own country wise old Benjamin Franklin collected the very best wit and wisdom of the English speaking language and preserved those proverbial sayings over the early colonial years in his annual Almanacs. In so far as his proverbial insights reflected the common sense revealed in Solomon, there you have as well the mind of God revealed for common imitation. Now, let me be careful here. Ben Franklin on a good day did nothing more than what ministers of the Gospel have always done.

He and they have taken the revealed word of God and made the most common understanding of it that the language will allow. Solomon however, reversed the process so to speak and by the inclusion of "his" wisdom in the Old Covenant, the common wisdom was affirmed to be of the mind and heart of our God and King. Our studies in our catechism thus far have only been a common sense deduction of the revealed will of God in many and diverse passages from both Covenantal revelations. So when we consider the long lists of sins forbidden in the commandments, those lists are derived lists from the scriptural proofs studied and recorded by the Westminster Committee. Scripture must always remain the supreme source for any and all of our teachings. It so happens that in our consideration of those material, sins which please us most, are discussed and observed upon quite regularly in the book of Proverbs.

Well did John Bunyon describe the seductions and temptations at Vanity Faire in his great work on the Pilgrim's Progress. Obviously in our time, I can no longer use Bunyon's work for the instruction of young people in public school. However, like the school district that found presidential quotations about the ten commandments to post upon their bulletin board, I can certainly use Ben Franklin's teachings which mirror the biblical teachings from which the puritan colonial experience was well founded. However, there is a certain sense lost in the "translation" into the secular vernacular. I have quoted Harry Truman quite a lot in the last six years. "If a man's wife can't trust him, neither should anyone else!" Unfortunately, what Harry Truman does say honestly just quite doesn't have the force of beginning with the words: "Thus saith the Lord God of heaven and earth: you shall not commit adultery!" Ah, but that is an earlier commandment, and today we need to finish our study of the eighth commandment. As I have alluded all along, there is nothing here in the exposition of the commandments that is foreign to common sense!

Yes, of course, there may be long ingrained cultural habits and a common bias that needs to be challenged with a godly admonition. An example would be the decades long struggle to put an end to slavery. Another example is the almost complete failure of Christ's Church to stand against the growth and influence of Corporate Socialism which only began a hundred years ago as an outgrowth of the humanistic application of evolutionary thought to the economic process.

With few exceptions today, the corporate success comes at the complete overturning of biblical and common sense wisdom in the field of economics. You do not have to travel very far off the four lane highways to realize that there are not nearly as many gas stations as there used to be! In our corner of the county, there are only two remaining gas stations in a four township region. In that same area there is a bank and a half, two groceries and maybe two and a half dozen businesses with any kind of income. The outward estate of my home area has been prejudiced as has very many areas of our fair land. Vanity Malls have sprung up far and wide to gather in the trade once meant for local prosperity. Automotive products that require specialized repair have all but finished the ordinary handyman. But prosperity increases and unemployment is only a distant decadal memory.

Am I being guilty of transgressing our own catechism when I nay say the most prosperous decade in living memory? Am I an unenlightened Calvinist, as one media commentator described it - who lies awake at night castigating the luxurious wealth because of how it was attained? Yes our larger catechism warns us against covetousness and inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods as well as distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping and using worldly goods.

But it also warns us against prodigality, wasteful gaming and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us. In those last three warnings, I believe we see the wholesale abandonment of any biblical principles in the organization of our corporate economy where socialist principles limit and confiscate the rightful wealth of individuals.

While pensions of every type are prized for the social security they "give" us. The very nature of the system robs those who might have left a larger estate to their heirs, and instead passes the bulk of the wealth on to those who simply outlive others. Little did the common man comprehend what the corporate promises of the thirties would do one's ability to acquire a fair outward estate to pass on to family and institutions of their own choice. Even the fortunes of the past that were let out at interest so as to provide scholarships into the future are being co-opted to politically correct formulations and limitations. I know personally of one such foundation that has had to come under specific regulation to limit the amount of scholarships so as to increase the number of grants across a wider variety of means testing.

If I have lost you in the gobbliegook of governmentese, please understand that the tax code is the driving force of the economy and very many farmers, shopkeepers and businessmen do things that economically do not make sense except to the bureaucrats and accountants who must follow the formulas of regulated financial behavior. Fully one third, by the best estimates of governmental spending is stolen by fraud, misuse or misappropriation. The taxes levied on the corporate system are equaled by the amount spent to figure the tax itself. Add to the system the estimate that almost 18% of the consumer economy is stolen in one way or another and you have a system that must be living on borrowed time.

Years ago, when I was given several hundred mixed tulip bulbs if I would only clean off the shelves at at local hardware, one set of bulbs produced flowers that looked like they were dipped in multicolored paint. I later learned that they were called Rembrants and when that particular cultivar of bulb appeared great fortunes were made and eventually lost. Within the last thirty years, ponies, then draft teams, ostriches and llamas went through a similar cycle before the market crashed. Until recently you could have flown to South America, purchased a llama put him in three first class seats next to you and still made a tidy profit once your animal cleared quarantine!

As Sir Isaac Newton learned the scientific application of the proverb, "What goes up must come down!" So must the economic system of every nation be judged not only by the common sense of the ages, but the timeless wisdom of God's revelation in Holy Scripture. Here in this country we may certainly say as Calvinists that we in America have unduly prejudiced our own outward estate; and defrauded ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God had given to us. And just as certainly, when the ancient Israelite generations were enjoined the to celebrate a year of jubilee every fifty years, so have some economists noted that that is about the ordinary cycle for Gods redistribution of worldly wealth in the natural course of His wiser economy.

Please be advised that the study of scripture for economic wisdom is not a fruitless vanity faire, but a foundation for family wealth and and well being in an age where such wisdom is ignored. Yes, your collection of beanie babies may reach astronomical levels, but don't bank on them for the future! Instead put your spiritual hope in Christ and apply the biblical wisdom to your investments, your spending and your whole economy. Then, within the gracious providence of our God and King, your worldly estate may comfort you in you and yours within His sovereign will.

Return to
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America)
Westminster Shorter Catechism Series