QUESTIONS/ANSWERS ABOUT MONEY
QUESTION #236 -- I am a
Christian and have talked and
voted dry for years. I am now a
widow of sixty years and live in
Colorado. Am entitled to a
pension, but part of the revenue
to provide the pensions comes
from the sale of liquor. I do
not know whether to accept it or
not.
ANSWER #236 -- I think you
should accept the pension and
use it for your living and for
the glory of God, and keep on
talking and voting dry. In a
complicated civilization like
ours you cannot escape some
connection with the results of
unrighteousness in government,
when such exists, but I believe
you can keep your own record
clear by putting in every lick
you can for God and civic
righteousness. If the principle
you suggest were carried out,
then all who work for the
federal government and all who
receive pensions from the
federal government would be
involved, for the federal
government receives income from
the liquor business and then
pays out to its workers and
wards. If we are to merit the
exaltation that righteousness
brings to a nation, we must rid
our states and our country of
the legalized traffic in
alcohol. We must come up again
by way of education, local
option, and statewide
prohibition. But your refusal to
take your pension on the ground
that liquor is involved in the
fund would be a fruitless way to
fight the giant rum. The fact is
that politicians inject this
liquor business into old age
pensions and other such laudable
affairs to give a sort of
decency to the liquor business.
But the truth is that liquor
income is involved in all the
functions of the state which
follows the license plan, and
everyone who receives pay from
the state or accepts any favor
from government is getting some
part of the liquor income. We
deplore the situation and will
do all in our power to change
it, but while it remains, take
your pay or your pension and
live right, serve God and talk
and vote dry.
* * *
QUESTION #237 -- Please explain
Luke 16:9, "And I say unto you,
Make to yourselves friends of
the mammon of unrighteousness;
that, when ye fail, they may
receive you into everlasting
habitations."
ANSWER #237 -- It means, "Use
your money and your goods to
spread the gospel and save
souls, that, when you die, those
whom your efforts and gifts have
saved (they having died and gone
on before) shall welcome you to
heaven."
* * *
QUESTION #238 -- Is it right for
us who preach against the
wearing of jewelry to sell it
for others to wear?
ANSWER #238 -- Most of the
jewelry given in the missionary
collections is sold simply as
old gold. Precious stones have
use as mere items for
investment, as well as for
decorative purposes, and I
believe it is right to dispose
of them and use the money for
the spread of God's kingdom.
* * *
QUESTION #239 -- A man owes my
husband a debt for work. The man
could pay if he
would, but he says he will just
take his own good time about the
matter. We have been advised to
turn the debt over to a
collector. But we keep thinking
of the passage in the Scriptures
which forbids going to law. What
do you think we should do?
ANSWER #239 -- I think you
should keep on thinking about
that passage that advises
against going to law. Think of
that scripture and obey it, and
God will see you through some
way and in the end and along the
way you will be happier.
* * *
QUESTION #240 -- Please explain
the meaning of, "The love of
money is the root of all evil"
(1 Timothy 6:10). Should we
assume that Adam and Eve had
been using money in the Garden
of Eden and that the love of it
led to their partaking of the
forbidden fruit?
ANSWER #240 -- There is nothing
in this text to even suggest
that evil may not spring from
many other roots besides the
love of money. Rather the idea
is that all kinds of evil may
spring from the love of money
(although of course it may
spring from other things also).
And the Revised Version reads,
"For the love of money is a root
of all kinds of evil." No, I do
not think the love of money was
the cause or root of our first
parents' sin.
* * *
QUESTION #241 -- The merchants
of our town are giving away an
automobile. Each fifty cent
purchase entitles one to a
ticket, and a ticket will be
drawn from a barrel at Christmas
time and the holder of that
number will get the car. Also a
leading merchant has a jar full
of nuts. You sign your name, and
make a guess on the number of
nuts in the jar. The one
guessing the closest will
receive a turkey. Do you think
Christian people should have
anything to do with such
methods?
ANSWER #241 -- No, I think these
and kindred methods are appeals
to the "gambling instinct," and
that Christian people should
avoid them. If anyone imagines
they are not forms of lottery,
let him ask the merchants to
send notices of the plan through
the United States mail. And it
really seems we should not want
to define lottery any more
liberally than the United States
government defines it.
* * *
QUESTION #242 -- A friend here
says buying "stock" is gambling,
just the same as betting on
dice, etc. Is he correct in this
proposition?
ANSWER #242 -- Every man who
undertakes any kind of business
proposition must contend with
some element of chance. The
farmer does it when he plants
his crop, the merchant does it
when he buys goods, hoping to
sell for a profit, the banker
does it when he accepts deposits
or makes loans, even the
preacher does it when he buys
his railroad ticket to a certain
point where he is to preach and
where someone is supposed to
take up a collection to cover
his expenses. But we are
accustomed to call that gambling
in which the margin of chance is
unreasonably wide. For instance,
when the farmer mortgages his
home place to get money for the
down payment on "the eighty just
north of him," he is gambling.
When the merchant buys an
unusually large stock of goods
to supply an uncertain market,
he is gambling. When the banker
speculates in unauthorized
investments or makes large,
unsecured loans, he is gambling.
Stocks are issued as evidence of
ownership, and someone must
furnish the money to own and
operate all legitimate business.
Therefore stocks are just as
good as the properties and
business that back them, and
stocks are just as "righteous"
as deeds, mortgages, bonds or
titles of any kind. But when
investors take "long chances" of
losing their capital on the
slender hope that they will make
a large profit, they have
widened the chance margin to the
extent that makes their dealings
gambling. When investors are
urged to buy certain stock on
the plea that they will make a
very large percentage of profit,
they should know that they are
also being asked to take a good
chance of losing what they put
into such stocks, and if they
are wise, they will reject such
offers as being "nothing short
of gambling." But it would be
just as foolish to regard all
stock buying as gambling as it
would to dub buying real estate
as gambling.
|