This letter to member churches from the executive committee laid the foundation for the Alliance study on Reformed faith and economic justice (1992-1997).

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Grace, mercy and peace be to you as you seek to experience the power of the Gospel and to spread the liberating message of life in your situation.

The Alliance commissioned a small group of people from among our member churches to meet in June 1992 to consider the urgent issue of the relation between our Christian faith and economics. In their presentations, the participants, coming from situations such as the Philippines, Thailand, India, the Caribbean, South Africa, North America and Europe, reflected on the nature of the crises with which various peoples are struggling. The reports made abundantly clear the fact that the worsening economic situation in the world affects every other dimension of human life with grave consequences for the future of the creation.

The entire creation is groaning

We hear from the churches of the effects of the debt crisis in a growing number of nations. The debt crisis has plunged poor nations into an inescapable cycle of dependence, but is a reality also to be encountered in the economics of affluent nations. The structural adjustment programmes which are proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, as for instance in the Caribbean, promise recovery and reorganization of the economy but have resulted in more impoverishment of the people.

New democratic dispensations for South Africa and central and eastern European countries do not automatically hold the promise of economic justice. As our churches have expressed already at the 22nd general council (Seoul 1989), economic processes and policies in both rich and poor countries impact directly on the degradation of the environment and the depletion of natural resources such as water, land and non-renewable sources of energy. This hits the poor, and first among them women, the hardest. As churches we are equally compelled to see how patriarchal structures of exploitation reinforce the same processes at the cost of women. This scandalous phenomenon expresses itself, for example, in child prostitution in Thailand and underpaid labour and unemployment of women all around the globe.

Listening to the voices of those who protest against the effects of the economic crisis, against ecological degradation and against the inequality of women, we sense that in all of these crises we are up against a common organizing principle of never-ending accumulation as the overriding purpose of the present world economy. We note that economists are increasingly questioning this economic system and its sustainability. The churches are compelled to condemn the absolutist claims of economic systems and examine their devastating effects upon all of God's creation.

God's word challenges us to care

Thus we want to listen to the laments, the prophetic critique, the commandments and the visionary expressions of hope for the hopeless in the Bible. Together with all the churches in the Alliance, we want to turn to the sources of our faith in order to resist the temptation to accept a status quo which is unbearable for many and unsustainable for all In the long run. Together we want to rediscover how the Bible helps us understand in depth the crisis humankind is facing, to turn back in repentance from sinful ways which lead to death and to take steps in faith and by God's grace to prepare the way of God's reign in a world which is in danger of turning more and more into a desert.

We cannot summarize in this letter all that the Bible has to say in this respect. As the book of God's involvement with people in history in all aspects of life the Bible relates to economic questions throughout. It begins with God the creator who entrusts humans, male and female equally, with responsibility to care for the earth and for each other. It speaks of justice as central to God's will and spells out in concrete details in various contexts how God's people have tried to translate that into laws and institutions regulating economic life. In the Bible we discover that our God is interventionist. God's will and prophets call the people not to adjust to sinful structures, not to allow inequality and slavery to grow, not to accumulate wealth at the expense of others, but to repent and create institutions which protect the rights of the poor.

Jesus himself, in his life and teachings, fulfilled the prophetic message of liberation in the Old Testament as he expressed it clearly in the "manifesto of Nazareth" and the "good news" (the gospel) and in his solidarity with the poor. Likewise the church is demanded to preach this message of liberation to the present poor and marginalized, denouncing the "structures of oppression" which generate them and collaborating to find alternatives which promote life. The church as the "body of Christ" cannot work for unity as long as there are such terrible barriers between rich and poor, men and women, races, castes, cultures and nations.

Our belief in the Holy Spirit that renews creation, empowers us to keep being ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda (a church reformed and always in need of reform) and sustains us in the hope that history has not ended, that the world does not end in a huge catastrophe, but that Christ is the "alpha and omega" and the one who "makes all things new" (Rev 21.5), who promises a "new heaven and a new earth " (Rev 21.1). These biblical perspectives make it impossible for us to accept the separation of economics and faith. A world economy which declares its own laws and organizing principles as absolute falls under the biblical critique of idolatry. Accordingly we need to explore what the choice between God and mammon implies today. ("You cannot serve God and mammon" Lk 16.13). We don't have ready-made answers as to what a just and sustainable alternative economic system may be. But we pray that the Holy Spirit may give us new dreams and actions which indicate the direction for our search.

Faithfulness to the Reformed heritage

We are encouraged further in our search for a way forward by our Reformed heritage. As Reformed churches we confess and proclaim the sovereignty of God over all realms of life. Yet in society we encounter claims of an autonomy of the economic realm.

As Reformed churches we hold on to the teachings that scripture should guide us (sola scriptura) in all of life. Yet in the present world economy we are confronted with an all-important area of life which claims to operate without an accountability to the will of God as revealed in the law, the prophets and the gospel! God's intervention against unjust economic practices and on behalf of those who are exploited is clearly expressed in the commandments, the teachings of the prophets and the concern of Christ.

As Reformed churches we proclaim the grace of God (sola gratia) as an undeserved gift of God's selfless love, yet in the modern world economy we are confronted with disgraceful powers which threaten to enslave all of life.

As Reformed churches we hold tenaciously on to the truth that salvation and life are experiences of faith (sola fide). Yet in the modern world economy we are confronted with the claim that the end of history has arrived. Such a claim kills the hope of the poor for liberation and secularizes the reign of God.

Such claims constitute a direct challenge to the Reformed heritage and cannot be left unchallenged. As Reformed churches we are mindful of the historical tragedies which have resulted from the wrong and sometimes heretical understanding of our tradition. The misuse of biblical teachings to support policies of economic exploitation and domination humble us and call us to repentance. Yet we are spurred on all the more to reexamine and express clearly the life-affirming biblical truths on which our Reformed faith is based.

The task ahead of us

The emergence of a world order which holds the promise of life for so few and the certainty of death for so many awakens and challenges us to the enormity of the task lying ahead of the churches. We are entering a qualitatively new time into which the kairos of God must be proclaimed. The redemption of our age lies not in the insane accumulation of money for its own sake but in living under the rule of Christ and spreading the fruits of Christ's reign in all of creation.