Piketty (22) Christian Wealth

An even more interesting question is why so few Christian families have any wealth.

1. We have a faith for the future, so we should be accumulating capital to make it better.

2. God promised that those who obey his word would be blessed with wealth.

3. Christians should be creating a legacy for their children. Most of this will be a spiritual inheritance, but is should be supported by a material inheritance.

4. Abraham was the father of many nations. Jacob created twelve great tribes.

5. Sin creates a barrier between generations. This explains why the world cannot create family wealth. The gospel has restored the link between generations
   

   He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents (Mal 4:6).

   We should see this working out in Christian families over several generations.

6. I once read about the achievements of the descendants of George Whitfield the great evangelist. They had a huge impact on America. He left an amazing inheritance. Yet very few Christians think about leaving a spiritual and material inheritance for the future.

7. Christians should not seek wealth for wealth sake, but they should have sufficient wealth to support their families in their calling.

Given all this, it is odd that so few Christians have any wealth or own any productive capital. We are mostly living hand to mouth like the people of the world.

There are several reasons why Christians lack capital.

1. We consume most of what we earn. We have been sucked into the materialism of the world and are trapped in consumerism.

2. Bad eschatology has destroyed faith and hope. Many Christians assume that Jesus will return at any minute. Until he comes, things will get worse, so there is no sense in accumulating capital, if it will be left behind or stolen by the antichrist. Loss of a kingdom vision has destroyed hope for the future.

3. Surplus income has been sucked up by churches to support expensive ministries and pay for ministries. Investment in costly but ineffective approaches to evangelism and church growth have destroyed capital.

4. Christians seem to have taken on a distaste for capital that they have picked up from the socialist world we have lived in.