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Claude
D. Powell
Mr. Powell was Vice-President of our Association in the
forties and played an important role in the spreading of
the message, particularly in radio broadcasts hosted by
him. He was born in Iowa to a pioneer family who emigrated
there in the early seventeen hundreds. With his staunch
Methodist background, he was well acquainted with Scripture,
yet, under the tutelage of men like Professor Edward Odlum,
Dr. Pascoe Goard and other such scholars, he soon realized
that the Israel Truth was indeed the sure truth of God.
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Over
the years, he made a study of the application of Christian
principles to national economic life and as a broadcaster,
endeavoured to encourage his listeners to live up to the
Laws of God and to practice what we preach in everyday life.
He
actively supported the former Canadian “Social Credit”
party, which, at one time, was the theoretically closest
approach to practical Christianity of any party in Canadian
politics. Mr. Powell wrote a number of articles on economic,
like this one that appeared in our magazine in 1966.
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THE LAW OF LIFE IN
ECONOMICS
Where
economics is mentioned, most people think the subject
is about money. That is because money, in terms of currency
or bank credit, is both a controlling and limiting factor
in modern life.
Money is not a commodity. Proof of that is the fact that
it has no value, until you part with it. Money is anything
which someone will accept in payment for anything else.
Its proper use is simply as a medium of exchange.
Our Heavenly Father provides us with the basic essentials
of life. So well has God kept His covenant with the fathers
of the Anglo Saxon race that as a people we have never
lacked for these essentials. The task of distribution
has been allotted to man, There in the exchange and distribution
of goods and services is the place where money serves
a useful purpose.
Economics simply explained is the management of our household
affairs. The scope of our household may be a family, a
city, a Province or State, a Nation or a Commonwealth
of Nations. The term "Economics" includes what
we term in politics, trade and commerce, production, distribution
and consumption.
In the plan of God for the well being of his creation
man, He not only provided for the sustenance of man, but
He also gave to us in our own language a complete set
of laws to govern our worship of God, and human relationships
and economic laws to govern the production and distribution
of all our physical requirements.
The requirements of the Ecclesiastical law pertaining
to the worship of God as given to ancient Israel were
fulfilled by the atonement of Jesus Christ on Calvary
which fulfilled the law of sacrifice for sin. We may now
receive the gift of eternal life by accepting Christ as
our atonement and being born again a new creature.
I do not find any Scripture that would release us from
the observance of the moral and economic laws given to
us in the Old Testament. They are fundamental Commandments,
Statutes and Judgments, which were given to us for our
wellbeing. The penalty for replacing a part of them by
man made statutes should be apparent as we examine the
conditions that prevail all about us in our own country.
I ask you to read the statement of Jesus as recorded in
Matthew 5:17 19.
The Law of the Lord is based on the Ten Commandments.
The first four of these define man's duty and relationship
to God. The remaining six define man's duty and relation
to his fellowmen.
Perhaps the greatest economic commandment is found in
Deut. 25:13 16:"Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers
weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine
house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt
have a perfect and. a just weight, a perfect and just
measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened
in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. For all
that do such things and all that do unrighteously are
an abomination unto the LORD thy God."
We are all familiar with our law of weights and measures,
of the pound, the foot and the yard, etc. These are strictly
obeyed by all civilized nations, with severe penalties
for those who fail to observe them.
Modern usage of the dollar (or its equivalent) as a measure
of value is so far reaching that it is certainly the greatest
measure used by mankind.
The fact that the relationship of this measure of value
to essential goods and services is permitted to fluctuate
widely has been a basic cause of human suffering, poverty
and want that is beyond description.
We, who have lived during this generation of the past
forty years, have experienced a generation of war, depressions,
increased debt and taxation that seems to recognize no
bounds.
Anyone who lives in the U.S.A. or in Canada, is all too
well aware that the dollars that they had in 1939 are
in relation to goods and services not worth even 50 cents
today by comparison. Most of you will admit that you have
not benefited from the depreciated value or measure of
the dollar. If so then why have you permitted this depreciation
to take place without registering your objection to your
representative legislators? They are the only people who
have the power and authority to do something to correct
this situation.
The New Testament command of our Lord is: "Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you." Matt. 6:33.
Is it possible or logical that a Christian can "Seek
first the kingdom of God" and at the same time ignore
the laws which God has given for the well being and government
of that Kingdom?
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