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Monday, October 27, 2008
Chance? or Decree
The Bet That Blew Up Wall Street, Steve Kroft On Credit Default Swaps And Their Central Role In The Unfolding Economic Crisis - CBS News: "'We could call that a derivative. It's a side bet. We don't own the teams. But we have a bet based on the outcome. And a lot of derivatives are bets based on the outcome of games of a sort. Not football games, but games in the markets,' Partnoy explains.
Partnoy says the bet was whether interest rates were going to go up or down. 'And the new bet that arose over the last several years is a bet based on whether people will default on their mortgages.'"
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This is an excellent article, if you want to learn more about what has happened to the world's financial markets over the past weeks.
There are two very different world-views that are clashing; on the one hand is the Christian world-view that does not believe that stones can be turned into bread, and modern irrationalism that believes that things morph into other things [evolution] on the basis of chance.
The first view is work-oriented, savings oriented which results in the creation of wealth by work and investment in work. The other view depends upon luck and gambling. Anytime a culture turns from the Creator of the Bible and turns to a luck-oriented, gambling-oriented culture disaster looms.
The idolator simply cannot accept the idea that the nature of things are fixed by the Creator. Stones are stone. The Creator certainly CAN turn stones into bread, but He must have a very good reason for doing so. A miracle of this sort must be included in the eternal decree of God for a well-defined purpose. It was in the decree of God for Jesus to turn the water into wine, but he had no instructions concerning stones, and was content to live as other men, "by every word [decree] that proceedeth from the mouth of God." [Matt. 4:4.]
Man cannot even change his own nature, which is under a curse because of Adam's sin. The elect of God cannot transform themselves into children of light, but are made alive by grace through faith "it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:8-10)
When men build upon faith in chance and good luck, they are building on shifting sand. Their house will come tumbling down--it not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow. The storms will come, for it is God's will to shake all things, that that which cannot be shaken may remain. [Heb. 12:27]
The righteous man is "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." (Ps 1:3-4 AV)
Those who live by faith cannot be shaken. Although they do look ahead and plan for the future, yet their faith is in God alone. They remember the words of their Heavenly Father:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mt 6:24-33 AV)
The Bet That Blew Up Wall Street, Steve Kroft On Credit Default Swaps And Their Central Role In The Unfolding Economic Crisis - CBS News: "'We could call that a derivative. It's a side bet. We don't own the teams. But we have a bet based on the outcome. And a lot of derivatives are bets based on the outcome of games of a sort. Not football games, but games in the markets,' Partnoy explains.
Partnoy says the bet was whether interest rates were going to go up or down. 'And the new bet that arose over the last several years is a bet based on whether people will default on their mortgages.'"
===========
This is an excellent article, if you want to learn more about what has happened to the world's financial markets over the past weeks.
There are two very different world-views that are clashing; on the one hand is the Christian world-view that does not believe that stones can be turned into bread, and modern irrationalism that believes that things morph into other things [evolution] on the basis of chance.
The first view is work-oriented, savings oriented which results in the creation of wealth by work and investment in work. The other view depends upon luck and gambling. Anytime a culture turns from the Creator of the Bible and turns to a luck-oriented, gambling-oriented culture disaster looms.
The idolator simply cannot accept the idea that the nature of things are fixed by the Creator. Stones are stone. The Creator certainly CAN turn stones into bread, but He must have a very good reason for doing so. A miracle of this sort must be included in the eternal decree of God for a well-defined purpose. It was in the decree of God for Jesus to turn the water into wine, but he had no instructions concerning stones, and was content to live as other men, "by every word [decree] that proceedeth from the mouth of God." [Matt. 4:4.]
Man cannot even change his own nature, which is under a curse because of Adam's sin. The elect of God cannot transform themselves into children of light, but are made alive by grace through faith "it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:8-10)
When men build upon faith in chance and good luck, they are building on shifting sand. Their house will come tumbling down--it not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow. The storms will come, for it is God's will to shake all things, that that which cannot be shaken may remain. [Heb. 12:27]
The righteous man is "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." (Ps 1:3-4 AV)
Those who live by faith cannot be shaken. Although they do look ahead and plan for the future, yet their faith is in God alone. They remember the words of their Heavenly Father:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mt 6:24-33 AV)
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