03 (The Doctrine of Nonaccumulation) WHAT IS THE DOCTRINE OF NONACCUMULATION?

A teacher at a Bible school for young people stands up and announces, “In our class on Christian Stewardship today we are going to look specifically at the subject of financial management and some Biblical principles about how we are to handle money.” He then goes on to teach about long-range planning, especially emphasizing the benefits of disciplining ourselves to put at least a small amount of money each month into savings. He demonstrates mathematically the tremendous power of compound interest, especially for someone who starts saving at a young age. “If at age 20 you would put $10,000 in an investment that earns an average annual interest rate of 8%, by the age of 65 this investment will have grown to about $320,000. And this is true even if you don’t add anything more to it! “What about those of you who don’t have $10,000 to invest at age 20? Well, you could instead decide to set aside just $60 per month—$2 per day—and if put into this same investment, it too will have grown to about $320,000 by the time you reach age 65.” Next, the teacher gives the illustration of two families: the “Bigs” and the “Smalls.” Both couples start out with similar incomes and similar personal needs. Both couples have $1,000 to spend on housing each month. The Bigs’ first house is an expensive one with a mortgage payment of $1,000 per month for 30 years. The Smalls decide to start out smaller, with lower monthly payments, and to put the difference into savings. Several years later they trade up to a house equal in size to that of the Bigs, and continue to make payments at $1,000 per month. The end result is that by the time the Bigs get their house paid for, the Smalls have not only paid for their house, but also have built up a savings account worth several hundred thousand dollars. The students, noticeably impressed, take part in the ensuing class discussion about how a person can, by a little hard work and consistent self-discipline, build up for himself a nice nest egg for the future. This money then will be available to care for his personal needs, to give to his church, or to pass on to his children. _______________________ Another teacher at a different Bible school makes this statement: “When Jesus gave the command ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth’, He literally meant that as His followers, we are not to accumulate unused wealth on this earth.” This teacher then goes on to bring other Scriptures into the discussion, including the reasons Christ has forbidden us to accumulate wealth and the consequences we’ll face if we do it anyway. _______________________ What is the reason for such a stark contradiction between these two messages, coming from two men who would agree with each other on so many other Bible principles? The answer lies in the difference between their views on one particular Bible doctrine: the doctrine of nonaccumulation. The second teacher accepts this doctrine as a true doctrine. The first teacher does not. So what is the doctrine of nonaccumulation? Quite simply, it is the doctrine stating that Jesus forbids His people to accumulate wealth on this earth, but rather commands them to distribute those possessions they do not currently need for the needs of others and for spreading the gospel. Or to condense it into a few words, this doctrine says that Jesus commands us to distribute rather than accumulate earthly wealth. That, in a nutshell, is the definition for the doctrine of nonaccumulation. This definition, by itself, does not address any of the questions about how or to what extent we are to put this doctrine into practice. All such questions (“May we do this?” or “Must we do that?” or “What about this situation?”) must, for now, simply be left hanging. The primary question we address at this point, rather, is simply this: Is this doctrine, as stated, a true doctrine or a false doctrine? It has to be one or the other. It cannot be both. This book’s purpose is to help you, the reader, find the answer to this question.