God is a Capitalist: Markets from Moses to Marx

What is capitalism? Where did it come from? Is capitalism moral? Isn't socialism Christian economics? Most people have learned the socialist answers well in school and the media. God is a Capitalist brings together the best economic history, theology and sociology from scholars such as Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, William Baumol, Adam Smith, Helmut Schoeck, Larry Siedentop, Rodney Stark, John Walton, Lawrence Harrison, Samuel Huntington and many more to give you the accurate history.

God created for Israel the first capitalist nation in history with the Mosaic law contained in the first five books of the Bible. Though Moses had been raised and educated by Egyptian royalty, he formed a unique government and an economic system that was the opposite of all he had learned from Egypt. Israel had no human executive, standing army, legislature, or police force. God gave them just 613 laws to guide courts in settling civil disputes.

God's law sanctified private property through the commandments to not steal. By “thou shalt not covet,” God told people to not even think about theft. Property requires control and only free markets provides the control necessary to make property a reality.

Israel would have prospered as no other nation had it remained faithful because it possessed the principles that made the West rich millennia later. But Israel wanted a king and that ended Israel's freedom and free markets. The world suffered in poverty and starvation for 2,500 years until theologians at the University of Salamanca, Spain, rediscovered the economic principles of Moses in the Bible.

The Dutch Republic of the 16th century implemented those principles and created the first capitalist nation. It quickly became the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the West with standards of living rising steadily for the first time. England, then the United States, and other Western nations followed the Dutch system. As a result, standards of living in the West have exploded as much as 30 times the levels of the 16th century.

Capitalism is the only moral economic system because it is based on Biblical principles. No one invented capitalism; they merely discovered God's principles. Atheists and deists created modern socialism in the early 19th century France as they fabricated a new religion to save mankind through redistribution of wealth and state regulation of business.

God is a Capitalist answers criticisms of capitalism from socialists, conservatives and many Christians using the best scholarship available. It shows how Biblical economic principles answer the most vexing problems the world faces today, such as poverty, inequality and pollution.