Murray Rothbard and the 8th Commandment

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

What God Would Have Us Not Do With Our Money

Good Morning,

As we get into the sins of the eighth commandment there can be a sense where what we think and read in the statute only really applies to people with a lot of money. Turn on a TV and all you see is reports of Billionaire x and/or company y defrauding millions of people out of their retirement. Events like that only reconfirm our preconceptions. You need not be surprised at such, a tale as old as time, however, greed and avarice are not sins of wealth, like all other transgressions of the law they begin in the heart. And like all other decisions to break the rules and regulations of the Bible their genesis is found in a lack of trust in the living God. Has He provided sufficiently for your needs? We confess yes, but do we act with such thanksgiving and love? That’s the question the eighth commandment has for us today. Will we trust in His means in the gathering together of necessary temporal things or seek to circumvent the natural processes? God has called us to work, and to work hard, and to steward our resources well.

Here are the Q/A’s for today:

Q. 142: What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment?

A. The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, manstealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing landmarks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust enclosures and depopulations; ingrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbour what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God has given us.

Continue here.