THE NATIONAL HOLY SPIRIT CONFERENCE.
Commonwealth Hall, University of Ghana, Legon
Theme: JESUS CHRIST: LORD OF THE NATIONS
THE CHRISTIAN IN THE MARKET PLACE
(By Bro. Isaac Danso) – 1991

SYNOPSIS: Christians must abandon
secular profit motives, use their
economic power, and fight spiritual
battles to reclaim the market for God.

Before I go on to the topic there are some
things I have observed, and I believe the
Lord would like me to make these things
very clear.
In those days, we thought it was only the
rank and file in society who had to be
Christian or ministers, particularly,
those who have failed in their
endeavours or wanted to attend the
university, has to find some alternatives;
they may be pastors, etc. But in recent
times several theologians are coming
up. There are Christians in any field you
can think of, and they preach the gospel
alike. This is one reason why there has been a
lot of conversion to Christianity.
Christians are in all fields. We are
thinking about the secular world and the
Christian world. Apart from the fact that
we are endued with all these qualities,
we also have the blood of Jesus covering
us. This issue of Christian in the
marketplace can be approached from
two angles; First, is to deal with this
issue as a Political Economist, and if we
are to approach this problem as a
Political Economist, we deal with the
issue of Political System. Normally, a
capitalist system which is mostly
defined as a situation where ownership
of resources in the nation is in the hands
of private individuals called private
property. Another system is Socialism,
where assets or resources are by the
state in the form of nationalized
industries. Then we may have to discuss
another system which is Communism.
As for Communism, the state even
believes they own the people
themselves. It is a very extreme form of
ownership. Under these various systems a market
can actually operate. The difference in
the market system and the Capital
System is that the people are free to
choose what to produce and what they
want to consume. In the case of the
Socialist System, it is a centrally planned
economy in the sense that the state has
some people, maybe a committee of
experts who plan various industries
determining production and
consumption. And the consumer has no
choice. He just has to buy what is
available. We can approach this issue of the
Christian in the marketplace by looking
at the behavior of a Christian under
these various market systems. We might
decide to consider the behavior of a
Christian in a Capitalist Market System
or Socialist System; and the difference is
that the market is regulated by the goods
or Communist System. I am going to look
at this problem purely as an Economist
on one hand and as a Christian on the
other. I am going to divide my lecture into
two parts. The first thing is I will begin by
defining what a Market Place is. “What is
really a Market Place?” I will define it
simply as “a place where producers or
sellers meet consumers or buyers to
exchange goods and services.

As an Economist, we can divide this
market into four categories:
1. The Perfect Competitive Market is
a situation where there are a lot of
buyers and a lot of sellers in the
market, such that the price is
determined by an indivisible
hand, as they call it. Each
producer and seller responds to
these price signals for instance, if
the price goes up there is an
incentive for the seller to produce
and to sell more because he
wants to make more profits.
However, if the price is too
expensive for the consumer and
the chances are that he is going to
reduce his consumption of other
particular goods or services.
Others are that the commodities
are homogenous.
2. Another market is Monopoly. It is
a situation where there is single
producer or seller in the market
against a large number of buyers
or consumers. In this case, the
producer has the right to decide
how much he can produce at a
time, but he cannot force the
consumer to pay a particular
price. He has the choice of fixing
the price in which case the quantity to be bought is to be decided by the consumers or he can decide to produce this quantity to supply to the market.
In this case, the consumer will have to decide how much to buy and at what particular price.
The Monopolist cannot decide both the
quantity and price at the same time. In
between these two extremes there are
two other markets. First is the
Monopolistic Competitive Market. In this
market there are a large number of
producers and sellers and a large
number of consumers or buyers. But the
difference here is that each producer
produces a slightly different product. So,
there is some kind of competition in the
product itself. The Oligopoly Market refers to a market
situation where there are few products in
the market against a whole range of
consumers in the market. In such
situations, there is the tendency for the
suppliers to agree to decide or co’operate to fix the particular price. These are the four markets that we may identify under Oligopoly.
When an Economist speaks in this form,
he is talking as a Micro-economist, i.e.
looking at specific industries in an
economy considering the manufacturing
sector, trading sector, banking sector,
etc. That is Micro-economist approach.
Now the Economist begins to look at the
economy as a whole, he can then divide
it again into four categories.
In this form, the whole economy can be
divided into the goods and Product
market, a Money Market, a Capital
Market, and a Labour Market. So, you
can actually look at this problem either
from the Micro-economist’s point of
view or an Industrialist’s point of view.
Whichever way one look at it, the basic
features here is that producers and
sellers meet to transact business.
We are now going to look at how a
producer will behave. Before that, there
is a problem when on begins to look at
this as a Christian. One of the
contentions which is widely held until
recently is that “keep Religion out of
Politics, keep Religion out of Economics,
keep Religion separately from Social
Sciences.”
Politics is as old as Religion; therefore,
we cannot separate them. There are
some Social Scientist who believe that
Economics as a Social Sciences must be
treated separately from Religion.
Religion here is referring to the Christian
Faith. One Professor Ronald H. Preston
has claimed that “the decline of religion
and the growth of the Scientific
worldview here meant that “both the
Natural Science and the Social Sciences
have succeeded in gaining a proper
autonomy from ecclesiastical Control.”
What he is saying is that because of this
research and development and
capitalisation and expansion of
knowledge, all these things having that
religion has no relevance to Economic
Science. But these were in fact at the
root of creation, the expansion of
knowledge and development and
research, etc. God actually, gave us the
mandate to do that, so that all they are
doing is nothing different.
The capitalisation, research and
expansion of knowledge are all within
the realm of God’s mandate for man.
There are other Social Scientists whose
views are different from Preston’s. These
are challenging the views of Preston’s.
They point out the relevance of
Christianity to Social Sciences. Yet these
are no Christians. So, if non-Christians
are pointing out the significance of the
Christian faith how about the
Christians? E.g. The late Fred Hirsch, in
the Book “social limits to Growth wrote:
Truth, Acceptance, Retrain, Obligation –
are among the social virtues grounded in
religious belief which re also now seen to
play a central role in the functioning of an
individualistic, contractual economy.”
In other words, all that we are talking
about; truth, righteousness are all
relevant if an economic system is to
function properly. Similarly, Irving Kristol
in his book “The Disaffection from
Capitalism and Socialism has argued
that Capitalism cannot continue to
survive without the bedrock provided by
the Judeo-Christian tradition that
ordinary women and men need. He
argues that (Judeo-Christian Tradition)
gives certain answers to ultimate
question that modern philosophy or
modern thought of whatever kind cannot
provide to the degree that attachment to
the Judeo-Christian Tradition has
become weaker, to that degree,
capitalism has become uglier and less
justifiable.”
What he is saying is that without
Christianity, there is no justification in
the existence of capitalism. These two
social scientists are claiming that
Christianity is the bases of all
knowledge. It is against this background
that I wish to consider the contemporary
issue of “A CHRISTIAN IN THE MARKET
PLACE.”
Who is a Christian in this sense? In any
opinion it is the one who has received the
spirit of Christ. The person may not be
baptized in the Holy Spirit. I want to talk
on the Christian who has entered the
market. How is he going to behave? The
first thing is, what should be the
objective of the Christian in the
marketplace? I am going to discuss this
of the Christian both a product and a
consumer.
The lifetime that exists in economics as
a subject state that the aim of the
producer is to maximize profit. If there is
no profit, there is no need to produce at
all. Another school of thought stated that
the objective of the producer is not
necessarily profit maximizing but to
increase sales.
Another economic policy is that the
profit maximizing firm will produce a
lower level of output at a much higher
price than one maximizing sales. This is
the secular theory that is the economic
theory of the producer in the market.
From the biblical point of view, it is the
Christian entering the market who has
been given the mandate by God to create
wealth. (Gen. 1: 28). A Christian has
been given a positive mandate by God to
CREATE WEALTH for the benefit of
Society. The physical world is neither
sacred nor magic. We are to cultivate it,
improve it and harness its resources for
our own use. Prosperity and not Poverty
is God’s intention for this world, though
we must be careful not to be
materialistic. The assets do not belong
to him. They belong to God; He is a
trustee of economic power. The
resources available that is money,
houses, labour, all these came from
God. The ultimate shareholder is God
Himself. Because God created the
physical world.
This contrasts sharply with secular objective of Seller (or Firm of Business
Enterprise) as propounded by economic
theory. According to this theory, the
objective of the Seller or firm is to
maximizing profit or sales or growth etc.
to satisfy its shareholders or managers.
The second is labour divisions or
industrial relations. The way in which
Christians must conduct themselves as
Employers and Employees is also laid
down firmly in the scriptures. There
should be no exploitation of workers or
threats. (James 5: 1-4; Eph. 6: 9) so that
the name of God and His doctrine be not
blasphemed.
A third issue is the businessman who is a
Christian in the market field as a
manager. How is he supposed to
behave? One thing among managers is
decision making. Now, wisdom is
required in this particular case. Wisdom
which is not obtained from training as
economist but wisdom from God.
Christians must also accept that Satan
is in control of this world’s resources and
kingdoms (Matt. 4: 8-10). Christians are
operating in a physical world whether we
like it or not. So, one of the missions of
the Christian businessman or producer
is to engage in spiritual battle to remove
unrighteousness from the market,
injustice, evils and rescue resources
from the hand of the ungodly and use
that for the expansion for the Kingdom of
God Christians have to form institutions
to pool resources together.
Finally, I want to turn my attention to
Christian as consumers. A Christian,
who is a consumer, has a social
obligation. Imagine that Christians
decide to boycott one particular product
on the television. When they begin to
boycott, the producers will begin to
withdraw. The same will happen if there
are certain items on the market which is
anti-Christ and Christians decided to
boycott it. It will have an effect on the
market the anti-Christians has power on
the economic world.
I will suggest that the society that is
Ghana Evangelical Society inaugurated
an institution for public affairs to
research into these areas of public
concern. That is the relationship
between the Christian faith and the
Political World, the relationship between
The Christian faith and the Economic
world and Social Politics. So that when a
paper appears for example The Graphic
which is not according to the will of God,
we will challenge it not as theologians
but as economists who have the
knowledge of the systems and how it
works as well as challenging as BornAgain Christians.