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BMAL 530 Faith Essay
Faith Essay
BMAL: 530
December 18, 2020
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BMAL 530 Faith Essay
Faith Essay
Bible Concepts and Accounting and Finance
Accounting and finance is a field where financial transactions that have taken place
between all the parties involved in them are recorded. Financial transactions usually refer to the
allocation of resources, lending, borrowing, and investing There is no doubt that accounting and
finance plays a very important role in all commercial transactions, as well as in our personal
lives. However, finance has a greater purpose in our lives than merely keeping a record of every
transaction. The field of accounting and finance are also a contribution in achieving the three
main motives that God has for humanity. These three motives are - to tell about the glory and
powers of God, involve in stewardship and spread justice and love.
Various studies and researches in the past have highlighted that finance has a connection
with purpose of God. It has been narrated in the Bible that everything that has been created by
the God has been done for his honor (Biblia, n.d.a). All the creations in finance indicate about
creativity of the almighty. All the human beings have been created by God so that we can live
together as a community which involved sharing resources between each other, social
interactions and relationships. When the humans share the resources with others in the society,
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BMAL 530 Faith Essay
this is according to the intention of God. The concepts of accounting and finance too are
indication of the creativity of God. The concepts involved in accounting and finance promote the
second main purpose of God, which is stewardship (Buys & Cronje, 2013). The concepts of
finance encourage humans to save money, raise capital for acquiring equipments which can be
used to produce income in future years, borrowing funds to purchase a house and donations
raised by a charity for constructing a school etc. Thus, finance encourages humans to allocate
their resources for a future growth. Finance makes it possible for people to access funds from
others which can be invested into productive purposes and then those resources can be shared
with those people who lent their funds, this sharing is in the form of interest or dividends in the
world of finance (Buys & Cronje,2013). It is clear that without finance, there would not have
been any economic growth because there would not have been any exchange of resources in the
form of borrowing and lending.
As per the Walterstorff’s theory, every person is to be treated with love and respect. As
per this theory, if a human being does something wrong to another human being, he does wrong
to God. This relationship between God and the human beings exists in today’s world in the form
of human rights which act as the foundation of justice for the human beings. God wants human
beings to treat each other with justice and care. Every human being should be righteous when
dealing with other human being (Gallhofer & Haslam, 2004). It has been told in one of the Bible
teachings that most significant learning that a human must take is to love God and to show the
same love to our neighbors as we do to ourselves (Biblia, n.d.b). The concepts of accounting and
finance have a great deal of connection with the biblical concept of justice and love. Finance
facilitates one person to access surplus funds of another person in the form of borrowing and
lending and the resources generated out of those funds are to be allocated which again helps
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BMAL 530 Faith Essay
others to prosper. By sharing the resources, human beings display a mindset of justice,
righteousness, and love for another individual. Apart from this, the financial arrangements enable
two unrelated people to borrow and lend with faith on each other so in this way; the financial
arrangements encourage love and justice to prevail in the society (Moerman, 2008).
Generally accepted accounting principles provide a framework for accountability in
economic transactions which have been created on the basis of some specific ideologies. the
study of accounting in religious organizations and there have been many researchers such as
Boyce, Laughlin, Booth, Kluvers etc. who studied accounting as a social science and gathered
their accounting knowledge in a cultural set-up (Moerman, 2008). The main goal of the churches
is to spread and protect their sacred faith and belief systems, and accounting supports this goal.
It would be right to conclude that the concepts of accounting and finance have enabled
the setting up of financial institutions, currencies, and financial instruments. These financial
institutions enable finance to act as the foundation based upon God’s purposes of stewardship,
justice, and love can be achieved.
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BMAL 530 Faith Essay
References
Biblia. (n.d.a). Revelation 4:11. Retrieved from https://biblia.com/bible/nrsv/revelation/4/11
Biblia. (n.d.b). Matthew 22:1–46. Retrieved from https://biblia.com/bible/nrsv/matthew/22/1-46
Buys, P., & Cronje, C. (2013). A reflection on historical biblical principles in support of ethical
stewardship.
Gallhofer, S., & Haslam, J. (2004). Accounting and liberation theology. Accounting, Auditing &
Accountability Journal.
Moerman, L. (2008). The biblical jubilee: old wineskin for a new wine? Accounting History,
13(2), 207–226.
