![]() ![]() How do we know this? Scripture speaks explicitly to the fact: "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it” (Deut. This might sound like an odd question, but it’s important for us to understand whether God has capital, and the implications that this has for a Christian’s approach to finance. Successful Christian finance does not simply generate capital, but generates it ethically, on God’s terms, recognizing that all assets and liabilities play out on a stage that God has scripted, and in which he is an active, powerful, and wealthy player. This brings us full circle, back to the definition of finances-to close debt. In other words, until you own your vehicle outright, it is a liability, since it is at risk of being repossessed if you fail to meet the terms of the financing arrangement made at the car dealership. So, if all your liabilities and assets were given a monetary valuation, your “capital” would be the total amount after all those valuations were added together.įor example, if you only had $20,000 in the bank account and a $25,000 payoff amount on a vehicle, you technically would not have any capital, since your total capital would be -$5,000. ![]() ![]() Gifts generate capital through inheritance, personal gifts, and non-profit donations. The primary means of acquiring capital legally are through free trade and gifts.įree trade generates capital at many points-in the product it produces and the value it retains for the consumer, as a percentage for distributors, as a wage for laborers, and as profit for business owners. ![]() However, you can (and should) acquire capital through legal means. If you coerce someone to give you money under threat to their physical well-being, this is a criminal act. Nearly all illegal methods of generating capital can be summarized in one word: coercion. In other words, capital is what profit becomes after it is earned from a product and enters the private holdings of a business owner, employee, or recipient.Ĭapital can be generated through legal and illegal methods. What is capital?Ĭapital, simply put, refers to the net value of private property. Christian finance is the biblical approach to carrying out this management of liabilities and assets through accumulation, wealth generation, and charitable giving. So, again-finance is the discipline of managing liabilities and assets measured in terms of their monetary value. If you owe debt on an object, then the more it depreciates, and the higher the interest rate on the debt, the worse of a liability it is, and the higher you are at risk for bankruptcy. The more valuable it is, and the more it retains its value-especially if it generating value through appreciation or some other mechanism-the higher functioning is the asset. Assets are valuable objects that you own. In order for your house to become an “asset” in your portfolio, you need to pay it off. You couldn’t trade your house for something or put it up as collateral, because you don’t strictly “own” it. If you own a house, but pay a mortgage, the bank could still foreclose on the house if you are delinquent-this makes your house a “liability,” or a risk. The primary means of closing out debt is by generating wealth and using that wealth to close debts-mortgages, school loans, credit cards, etc. The word “finance” comes from the French finer, which means “make an end” or “settle a debt.” In other words, if you’re bad at finance, you’ll never see the “end” to your debt, and if you’re good at finance, you’re good at putting the “end” of debt behind you as far and as quickly as possible. What are finances?įinance is the discipline of managing liabilities and assets measured in terms of their monetary value. Here are 12 crucial pieces of information you can use as a Christian financial resource to get a biblical perspective on Christian finances. There is such a system in Bible verses about money, but it requires that we be humble enough to ask basic questions to understand it rightly. Is there any big system regarding wealth-building, generosity, and wise spending taught uniformly in the Bible that Christians can put in place? The Bible teaches at length about how to avoid the physical dangers of poverty, and how to do battle with the spiritual temptations that often accompany wealth.Īfter all the spiritualization, is there anything real, rational, and practical that the Bible teaches about finances? Finances are a crucial part of the Christian life.Ĭhristian finances-a Christian approach to wealth building and management-are made clear in the story of Scripture. ![]()
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