God Doesn't Shrug

Well I did it. It wasn’t easy, but I finally did it. I finished reading “Atlas Shrugged.” All 1,084 pages of it. My copy of the “Holy Bible” has 1,048 pages. This book is long.

A colleague of mine loaned me his copy (the original Signet paperback, in case you’re interested in that kind of thing) of “Atlas Shrugged” after hearing me give my two cents about the current economic turmoil. He said I would find the book relevant.

Relevant? Could a book written over 50 years ago (1957) by a woman who died more than 25 years ago (Ayn Rand) have anything relevant to say about today’s economic and political environment? I was amazed. It turns out I’m not the only one. “Atlas Shrugged” is #78 on Amazon’s current best seller list and has been one of their top 100 sellers for 101 days straight. Did I mention this book was written over 50 years ago?

“Atlas Shrugged” tells the story of a U.S. economy that is collapsing under the weight of government regulation and taxation. Those in power blame the wealthy capitalists for all of the nation’s ills and try to level the playing field by redistributing their wealth through taxation and finally nationalizing their businesses (sound familiar?). Finally, the capitalists, who are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders for little reward or appreciation, decide to quit and go on strike (Atlas shrugs). Without the capitalists around to produce goods and create wealth, there is nothing left to fund the largesse of the welfare state and it collapses upon itself.

As I read the first three quarters of the book, I kept finding myself agreeing with Rand out loud. Our government continues to confiscate more and more of the money belonging to its most productive citizens and redistributing it to those who are less productive. Even now, as it struggles to find more money to confiscate, our government has borrowed over $11 trillion (much of it from other countries) to pay for Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs. Who will be left standing when the music stops? It’s not going to be pretty.

As much as I agreed with the first three quarters of the book, I disagreed all the more with the rest of it. Near the end of the book, the hero of the story, John Galt, gives an impassioned speech that literally goes on for more than 90 pages. The speech makes an intellectual case for Ayn Rand’s philosophy – the philosophy of Objectivism. Rand describes her philosophy as:

“the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

According to Rand, the chief end of man is his own happiness. Man’s glory is his ability to think and produce. Charity and altruism are incompatible with his nature.

The whole time I was reading Galt’s speech, I kept thinking of Solomon’s writings in Ecclesiates:

“I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned. And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless! So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world. Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. So what do people get
in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless (Ecclesiates 2:18-23, New Living Translation).”

Rand says productive achievement is man’s noblest activity. Solomon says that without God, productive achievement is meaningless, filled with pain and grief.

Although Rand’s philosophy of rational self-interest may have merits as an economic or political system, it is incompatible with a Christian worldview. God is not welcome in Rand’s philosophy. To Rand, a sovereign God is an obstacle to man’s pursuit of his own interests. If you want to read a great essay by John Piper that both extols and critiques Rand’s philosophy, click here.

If anyone has a reason to shrug, it’s God. He created man in His own image so man can love and enjoy Him forever. He placed him in an idyllic garden and gave him everything his heart could desire. All God asked for in return was man’s love and obedience. But man decided to go his own way. He turned his back on God and disobeyed Him. When man learned the consequences of his sin, he blamed God. We do the same today. After all He’s done for us, who would blame God if He shrugged and went on strike? God has every right to quit on us, leave us to our own devices, and let the world collapse upon itself.

But what has God done instead? He became a man Himself. He went around healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and teaching about God’s kingdom. What was man’s response? We nailed Him to a cross.

Surely after this injustice God would have every reason to shrug and leave the scene. But, no. He raised Jesus from the dead and brought Him back to heaven. What’s more – whoever believes in Jesus – whoever, receives Him as their Savior – will live forever with God as one of His children.

What a great God! To Him be glory and honor forever.