The one principle that caught my attention most vividly was that God’s people should be debt-free. Unfortunately most Christians weren’t and they didn’t want to be. As one Christian friend who owned a car dealership told me, “Debt-free living makes no sense. Listen, I can finance my cars for 6 percent a year and turn around and make 12 percent profit when I sell them.”

My friend made a common error many Christian make. When the logic of what we’re doing doesn’t match God’s Word, we assume it’s a misinterpretation of the Word. A few years later, when interest rates climbed to nearly 22 percent, he began to see that God meant us to take Scripture literally. Too much debt makes the business vulnerable to the interest rate swings.

Between 1970 and 1990, the average cost of labor rose by 50 percent and government overhead increased to nearly 40 percent. This opened the way for major foreign competition as prices soared. Starting a new business and making it profitable became harder because of capital, the key factor in business start-up, became the most costly overhead item. The combined cost of labor, government overhead, and credit sounded the death knell for many previously all-U.S. industries. Without government support, many of those that remained could not compete and make profit.

During the next 10 years of the cost of labor and government grew another 10 percent. Government became, quite literally, a partner in business. Though countless regulations, government made decisions for business and shared in its profits without doing any work. Government told farmers what they could grow, advertisers what they could sell, and schools what they could teach. To oversee this regulations, a massive government structure grew up, with nearly 20 percent of the American people on government’s payroll. Unwittingly, we had allowed a fascist form of government to develop – in the sense that fascism means privately owned by centrally controlled.

By the early 2000, with interest rates climbing, the burden of debt made many industries structurally unprofitable. The trend has accelerated to the point that, according to one statistics, 60 percent of all American businesses are potentially unprofitable once the interest rates reach 15 percent. Our lack of fiscal discipline and our obsession with quick profits make U. S. industry vulnerable.

For nearly two decades we allowed countries like Japan and Germany to develop unrestrained while increasing the regulatory burden on our own businesses. As a result, we have lost major industries to our foreign competitors.

Japan is an interesting study in business development. At the conclusion of World War II, President Truman appointed General Douglas MacArhur to be the military governor of Japan. Capitalizing on the Japanese respect of authority, General Mac Arthur was to establish many basic biblical doctrines as part of their business ethics. This highly efficient system of labor management cooperation, combined with a fierce national loyalty, propelled the Japanese beyond their teacher.

Unfortunately, General Mac Arthur established the correct principles but failed to share their source: the Lord. It remains to be seen whether unrestrained capitalism without balancing influence of Christianity will succeed long term. Eventually, I fear, human nature will prevail.

It’s a shame that, instead of taking the relative prosperity of the nineties as an opportunity to pay down debt, American businesses consumers, and their government have actually increased the borrowing. Once the economy cycles down again, as it inevitably always does, bankruptcies will set new records.

It’s an interesting paradox that we taught the Japanese in the forties and fifties. They taught us in the eighties, and neither of us learned the real secret of success: biblical truth.

But God’s principles of business are not offered “cafeteria style.” In other words, you can’t simply pick and choose those you like and ignore those you don’t. God’s word set up a whole structure by which a business is to operate: a foundation. You can build business (or house) without a sound foundation. But when the wind blows and the waves come, it will collapse. God’s Word is the Rock upon which a business must be built.

Do the biblical principles of business work? Without question they do – over the long run. If you’re looking just for quick profits, don’t choose God’s way; but, if you desire a long-term growth and stability. God’s way is the only way.