What exactly is Economics? Dictionary.com defines it as: "The science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services."
Now that's a good explanation. But how does R. C. Sproul Jr. define it as? "Economics is man making choices as to how to use his limited resources in order to be a good steward before God."
Well, that says a lot doesn't it? Think about each definition for a minute. What does the one from Dictionary.com differ from the one R. C. said? No it's not leight. And it's not that the second one's more ambiguous. It's only a matter of one word... God.
That's to one word that really makes the difference. It's the benevolent landlord that graces us with allowing us to live on what he built Ex Nihilo(Out of Nothing).That means what we do is because he allowed us to live in his perfect creation. Now why is it everything not perfect? Well, it's because we are corrupted because of the first sin. And because of that, we are living in a state of unrest for the rest of our lives. It's no longer a matter of, "Should I eat from this tree or this bush?" It is now a matter of, "Will I be able to eat at all?"
And that's what God meant when he said that the ground was cursed because of their sin. It means that there is going to be less and less of our resources until there are none left. We always have this growing knowledge that our time is running out to the point where we won't have any petroleum, coal, gold, and even salt. We are always constant scramble to conserve the things that we don't have much of left. Think about it, we are starting to explore the formation of stars so we can have our own solar power, we have explored the possibility of using cooking oil from fast food to use as car fuel, we have even even started converting our power system from coal and gas to solar and wind.
We are working harder not only to keep the lifestyle that we already have but also to enhance our lifestyle with new tech. We are in constant struggle with what we have now and what we are going to lose fairly soon. And even the aichents knew that their resoucres are running short. They always tried to presurve food for the winter and also for years to come. The granery became their pantry and everyone in the villiage or town received a certain amount of food to ration out everything. even something as common as grain and apples were rationed out to make sure to save enough for the coming winter.
From just after the fall of man to today in the 21st centery, we always need to be careful of what we do with what we have. That's why we developed the science of economics. Believe it or not, we've been using economic science for since that day when we left the Garden. We have Hammurabi's Law in circa 1770-60. In circa 1200-1100 the Ten Commandments were given. And in the late 1800's Karl Marx formulated his economic policies. Why did I include laws in my exapmles? Because the laws of a nation shapes how economics work in that nation. And in this book we are going to explore that exact thing.
