Banks That Survive

The current bank crisis has left millions of people worrying over their investments, deposits, loans and paychecks. Congress may appropriate billions it doesn’t have to salvage institutions they may not save. If Congress passes a bailout bill, the money will come from more deficit loans and probably place us into greater jeopardy of foreign financiers.

In a dreadful time of moral decline, Isaiah 1:7 declared, "Your land is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire, Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence; It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers."

When I asked my local banker who would be loaning the U.S. the money if there is a government bailout, I was told it would probably be Japan. Someone else has suggested it would be China. A bank in Spain was mentioned as buyer of failed banks. Has Japan, who groveled at our feet as merciful victors in World War II, now become a strange money master? Has China, whose ravaging Communism has murdered millions, become our financial landlord? It sounds like the days of Isaiah when strangers devoured their fields.

One bright shaft of encouraging light shone on my pathway recently. At my bank, which is significantly named Atlantic Stewardship Bank, I asked about their financial stability. "No trouble here," I was told. "In fact of the 537 banks in New Jersey, we are in the top 30 according to Bauer Financial, Inc., an independent bank rating company located in Coral Gables, Florida. We didn’t make risky sub-prime mortgage loans, the original problem which brought this current mess."

Atlantic Stewardship Bank has a fascinating middle name—stewardship! It is organized and operated by those who have a Christian commitment with its sense of biblical stewardship. In stark contrast to the widespread corporate greed troubling the national finances, the bank tithes its profits—that is, it disperses 10% of its profits back to religious and other non-profit charitable local organizations. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have graciously been granted to organizations who do not exist for personal gain but operate for community well-being.

When Eric Liddell, the Scottish Christian Olympic runner, forfeited his Sunday race in Paris in 1924 to preserve his Christian convictions, he was entered in a substitute event and unexpectedly raced to a world record. Earlier that day, an trainer gave him a note that said, "In the old book it says, ‘He that honors me I will honor.’" It is thought to be a paraphrase from I Samuel 2:30, "…now the Lord says, those who honor me will I honor." It could also have been reference to Christ’s promise in John 12:26, "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."

Beyond the conventional analysis of the current financial crisis being due to poor management, there is likely an element of scriptural ignorance or even abandonment where godly principles of honesty, wisdom and thrift were sacrificed on the altars of greed, faulty planning and outright stupidity. The New Testament fool built his financial house on failing mortality. "Fool, this night shall your soul be required of thee" (Luke 12:20). The Old Testament fool linked himself to wretched atheism in Psalm 14:1 and 53:1. "The fool says in his heart, there is no God." Proverbs, the wisdom book, characterizes the fool 37 times—no seeking of God’s will and principles, no prayer, no consultation with the spiritually wise, just blundering on in an air of pride and monetary gain.

Of the many current financial villains, there seems to be no one who is contrite or repentant. The Bible forecasts the coming Tribulation attitude just that way in Revelation 9:20-21, "But the rest of mankind…did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship…idols of gold, silver…. And they did not repent of…their thefts" (emphasis mine). Massive thievery by a number of people accounts for the grief of investors and mortgage recipients, who themselves may have ignored biblical principles of investment.

We commend financial institutions such as Atlantic Stewardship Bank, which has placed God consciousness ahead of mere profit. Psalm 37:25-29 spells out a healthy economic perspective: "I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; and his descendants are blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; And dwell forevermore. For the Lord loves justice, and does not forsake His saints; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell in it forever."

Dave Virkler