My Spiritual Debt to the Austrian Economists

When I think about the ways of faith, I used to believe that I have to see something come about before it happens.

The Austrian economists, including their forerunner Adam Smith and their chief spokesman and philosopher Friedrich Hayek, taught me the importance of valuing what is invisible. Market forces are invisible, unavailable to the senses and the mind of man. What we live by is not a product of our reason, but forces and traditions which we did not create nor plan nor modify except at great peril.

The Bible teaches us to depend on the Holy Spirit, a True Being, God Himself living and dwelling every believer, making known to us every believer who he is in Christ Jesus.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (John 3: 6-8)

Hayek references the Bible frequently in his seminal work "The Fatal Conceit", dismissing the campy humanistic traditions of the Catholic Church and the rationalist intellects of the Ancient Greeks. He solidifies support for the realm of the spiritual, foreshadowed in the writings of Adam Smith, who wrote of the "Invisible Hand" that drives commerce.

Biblical faith is akin to the awareness of true yet invisible forces, much like market and cultural forces as indicated by the Austrian economists:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11: 1)

The definition here mentions nothing about time or space, or a period of waiting, at least in the sense of something being true.

The manifestation of what we believe, that indeed requires time. For this reason, the faithful witnesses wrote about patience:

"By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

"And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

"And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.  (Romans 5: 2-5)

and

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

"But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (James 1: 2-4)

We are called to wait on the Lord, not try to force His hand:

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD."  (Psalm 27: 14)

"That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Hebrews 6: 12)

The real source of laziness is refusing to trust in God, but instead out of fleshly impatient we take charge in our might, with the result being both weak and beggarly.

I both know and believe that that Invisible Hand detailed by Adam Smith is God Almighty:

"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 8: 18)

and

"Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee." (Matthew 17: 27)

and

"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matthew 19: 29)

It is evident even from a cursory reading of Scripture, both from the Old and New Testaments, that God is vitally interested in every one of His children prospering.

Through the insights of the Austrians, who placed greater respect on the tradition, culture, and religious fervor instead of the empty rhetoric of intellectuals, second-hand dealers in ideas, and arrogant elitists of all stripes who insists on relying on their "educated idiots boxes" instead of submitting to the unseen forces of commerce and culture which drive us, turn the world, and move the earth, my faith grew, or rather I learned to know and believe who I am in Christ.

Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and their economist mentors instructed me forcefully in the ways of walking by faith,  not by sight. For their contribution to the full workings of the business cycle, including their forceful and accurate predictions about boom and bust, I am grateful. Not just for their persuasive and accurate refutations of socialism and the theocracy of the State, but also assisting my understanding of Scripture, and the ever-present Love of God the Father, my faith exploded. Through His Son Jesus Christ dying for my sins, God provided  way for man to break away from his infinite debt to God. The infinite storehouse of wealth which now resides in me through the Holy Spirit, would rival the immense potentials predicted by the Austrian economists themselves.

Wealth, money, trade -- these are all matters of faith, matters of tradition, matters of custom. More than any other school of thought, the Austrians solidified the credible boundary of how markets work.