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Speaking Out

God Is In Control During the Financial Crisis

God often uses adversity for his greatest blessings and the markets are his.

Charles Colson | posted 10/02/2008 02:33PM

Most of us have been badly shaken by the tumultuous events on Wall Street in recent weeks. If you have an IRA or some kind of retirement plan, no doubt you are licking your wounds. You may even be fearful. ...

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Frances

Posted: October 13, 2008 2:16 PM

Chuck-We often talk about the strong influence of media and advertising, but yet some seem to want to lay the mortgage problems primarily at the feet of those folk who were told over and over--and we continue to hear it---about the "American Dream". "We should all be able to have a house, and it's the best way to economic freedom and one of the ways out of poverty". And predatory lenders used this mantra to convince folk that they could afford a house. Certainly, not in all cases, but I think that most people were not being greedy. They simply thought they had a way to realize that "dream". I hope this will teach us all to read the fine print and to be cautious if something seems too good to be true. Secondly, this Commission you speak of, if it comes about, I hope they won't decide we can't AFFORD, to help the working and non-working poor, the undereducated, the homeless and those who can not get access to good healthcare.

JF	Posted: October 08, 2008 5:26 PM

What twaddle and stupidity. Surely God must be a terrible financial planner and accountant if he’s in charge. So people lose their money for God’s blessings? People lose their jobs and medical insurance for God’s blessings? Houses are repossessed so God can get his message or love care and concern across? The logic can not stop there…, God’s blessings are surely being served when people get cancer or die in accidents have autistic children or strokes, no??? . Belief in god and the complete irrational absurdity of Christian theology and doctrine a sure sign of irrational and pathological thinking.

Matt W.

Posted: October 07, 2008 10:35 AM

Totally disingenuous, Mr. Colson. "But we need to remember that fear is always the enemy of faith.The financial markets are his. The world is his. Here is something else to remember: God often uses adversity for his greatest blessings — in several ways in this case. Christians are called to do the best things in the worst of times." Where was your speech after September 11th? Now that capitalism/Americanism is at stake you take the Christian moral high ground? Please.

John M

Posted: October 03, 2008 8:37 PM


Here's a good call to action from Chuck Colson. It IS time to (try to) get a bipartisan commission to give good budgetary advice. It may be the only way to prevent all the add-ons and givebacks in the present "bailout" bill, and to create a mindset which will prevent the unrealistic greed-driven speculation which has brought the whole world, once again, to the edge of economic disaster.

Edith

Posted: October 03, 2008 12:38 PM

While it is true that sub prime loans are a problem, the banks should also be held accountable. They allowed people to refinance homes worth $300-$400 in the nineties up to over a million; then when the people couldn't pay the new mortgage they foreclosed. Granted, anyone who refinances continually just for "goodies" is asking for trouble; but why aren't the greedy banks also accountable? All they had to do was say "no." Of course, that would have cut into someone's commission and we wouldn't want to do that. And for those of you who have bailed out teenagers, we know that if they are bailed out with some tight new rules, most of them will just return to what they were doing that got them in trouble. Like everyone else, I am also experiencing financial difficulties with an unemployed spouse but fortunately I know the Lord is in charge and that control by us is just an illusion. We have never had control, only God has control.

Jim	Posted: October 03, 2008 12:18 PM

The blind will not see the truth of which Chuck speaks. I too applaud Sarah Palin for her comments, not only during the debate but in an interview earlier this week. Unlike others on both sides of the isle, who in the face of official congressional records and in some cases video of themselves saying everything is fine and are acting like they had nothing to do with this situation, she's speakign the truth. Remember, it was a bunch of lies (or at least incompetence) that got us into thsi mess. I also applaud the president for not particpating in the political spat and trying to do a hard thing for the country. I have mixed feelings about the bailout. I think it should be structured more in the form of loans rather than equity. The government doesn't need to own our businesses, but they do need to oversee them to avoid this type of thing again. Citizens who bit off more than they could chew are also to blame as are the bankers and lenders. Let's quit the blame game and fix it.

terry

Posted: October 03, 2008 9:24 AM

At first, I didn't support the bailout. Not because I was looking for something in it for me, but I think that there should be accountability. Some people took out mortgages that they could not afford because they were mislead by predatory lenders. Offers of refinancing consumer debt abounded, some were lured in to thinking that refinancing was a way of debt consolidation. Yes, I believe that on a personal level, we need to rethink our finances. Giants such as Lehman Brothers etc. who were in some way affected by all of this also need to be accountable for policies that allow for this type of fragile investment strategies that allow so many to lose their lifetime investments. Especially the homeowners who unawares were preyed on by mortgage companies. I support a bailout because our financial markets must survive, but how much must the taxpayer invest in order to make this happen? My heart goes out to the vacant homes, the for sale signs, the broken dreams of my neighbors.

ArtVesterdal

Posted: October 03, 2008 9:10 AM

Chuck makes some good points but the title of this article is not biblically correct. Friends - God is NOT in control unless we continue to exert his control through prayer and our socio-political actvities. 1 John 5.19 notes that "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one." Like soldiers landed on an enemy's beach, we are to establish the control of our Lord in a land controlled by the enemy. We cannot idly sit back and hope for the best. Up to this point, sitting back has gotten us in a whole bunch of trouble.

David

Posted: October 03, 2008 8:53 AM


Jesus is coming to judge, not bless the Earth. The believers will be removed before that happens. The Antichrist will bring false peace and financial security to the world, untilhe is revealed 3 1/2 years later. Look to Heaven people... time is very short. Stay in the word and out of the worldly.

Patricia Hickman

Posted: October 03, 2008 8:35 AM


This is a "Daniel" opportunity for the Church to model biblical ethics, to cast a sane light into the insane darkness. A nation in crisis is looking for answers. We've been steeped in biblical study and grace. We can take what God's equipped us to know and deliver the goods. www.wordsunwired.blogspot.com

Louise

Posted: October 03, 2008 8:14 AM


I noticed that Sarah Palin, in the debate with Biden, was the only candidate I have heard suggesting that we live within our means - both as a country and individually. Thank you, Sarah. This is NOT a popular concept in the U.S.

Pete Benson, editor UNITYINCHRIST.COM

Posted: October 03, 2008 6:39 AM

Chuck, you said it all, and then some. God, Yahweh-shua, has been working inside history and outside of it, to bring his plan of salvation about, from Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua (who was that man with a sword that stood in front of Joshua in Joshua 6?). God is in no less a manner in everything that happens on this earth right now, and it all is to teach not only believers, but mankind important lessons. Some will learn now, some later. Yes, the economy will recover, God has a Work to finish (cf. Mt 24:14; Mt 28:18-20). As many of you know, especially those who run major international evangelistic organizations (Franklin Graham, Samaritans Purse, the head of the JESUS Film Project, Gospel for Asia, Mission Aviation Fellowship, Jews for Jesus), it takes money to support and run these evangelistic organizations. If God were to let the markets go into a complete 1929 style meltdown, he would be allowing the support of evangelism to be crippled. Not time yet.

Manfred

Posted: October 02, 2008 11:56 PM

What about printing money to subsidise education and a health-care system and the development of clean energy? Poor people don't have to worry about inflation. Wouldn't that be a way of getting even with those managers of financial markets and industry? It might make them think again before they introduce policies that serve to line their own pockets at the expense of workers and small investors. But then again who would pay for those hilarious election campaigns? I guess no amount of laws will ever plug the loopholes, we must learn to love one another. I was going to give it four stars, I just clicked at the wrong star.

John	Posted: October 02, 2008 9:32 PM

For those of us that CLAIM to be believers, I ask just one question. Where is the LOVE thy neighbor as thyself, being shown in this situation? If we would remove the beam from our eyes, and strip away the self interest most of us seem to have, we would understand that crises like these are made to show our willingnesss to follow in the path that Jesus The Messiah taught. God is TESTING us on a daily basis, and given the present day's attitude, MANY of us will be found lacking, thereby FAILING the daily tests, trials, and tribulations we encounter. Remember, God WILL NOT be mocked!!

Wendell Franklin Wentz

Posted: October 02, 2008 7:52 PM

What kind of people does Colson think will believe his stupid remarks? God of the Scriptures opposes GREED, and Colson is a practitioner of GREED, by god, he is a lawyer! The good old boys in the Deep South told their slaves that it was worth suffering stocks and bonds, because they would be rewarded in heaven. They used God to placate the innocent and unlearned slaves. Now Colson takes on their mantle and tells folks the God will send good out of the mess that GREED of Wall Street has caused. The $700 Billion bailout is the biggest welfare gimmick big business has ever used. Corporate welfare is far greater than the welfare to the poor and needy. I believe God is sick of the far right religionists using His name to cover their sins. Tom DeLay is telling people now that he is suffering for Jesus, because the Liberals want to hurt him. God have mercy on the victims of this mess, and the victims are not the businessmen -- they are the villains. -Wendell Franklin Wentz

Matt	Posted: October 02, 2008 6:35 PM

What kind of bogus article is this? 'Buck up chum, we've all been a little shaken but God surprises us from time to time with a little encouragement' Hog wash! We don't even know what kind of ruin the Lord will bring this country into yet! He's going to take away all our RRSP's, all our junk, until we're left with nothing - then we will know that the Lord is God. None of this, 'God just uses a little shake up from time to time, to encourage us a little'.

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