David Lane

Almost every single person born in America has, at some point, had the desire to strike it big, whether through winning the lottery, working their way up the corporate ladder or simply finding a job that provides material comfort and support for their family.  I know this desire from experience.  Growing up, I always imagined making the big bucks, whether through athletics or business, I was going to be living the good life.  It was not until I ventured to other parts of the world that this concept changed.  Upon traveling to Japan on a missions trip with my church, I did not expect my perspective on life to be altered.  I was already a Christian and knew all the basics of living a Christian life, but something happened in me on that trip that changed my entire worldview.  My perspective on success was radically transformed.  All the stuff I wanted before leaving for Japan, the cool car, the new phone, the best snowboard, all of it became insignificant.  The missionary I worked with there showed me through his character and life-style success is not dependent upon money.  Joy and contentment are not fueled by materials but by the thirst for knowing and understanding the love of our gracious God more and more.  After experiencing this time in Japan and settling back down in America, I realized that the “American Dream” was the basis of this distorted idea of success.  What is it that drives the heart and soul of American society?  This force pushing America, this ideology that has created a lust for the things of this world, in a very real and frightening way is destroying the values and Biblical precepts of the Christian faith.  The American Dream is killing Christianity.

I would like to proceed by defining some key terms in my thesis.  The modern day American dream as defined by an online dictionary is “a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.”  Christianity is defined as a life-long pursuit of Christ likeness in sanctification, abiding in Christ, and aligning our perspectives, perceptions and values with God’s.  I will define killing as replacing genuine nature and identity with a pale, materialistic, diabolical substitute.  In my thesis I will use the phrases “glorify God” and “bring God glory” very often, so I would like to define what that means right now.  To glorify God means to bring God’s innate glory to light, to reflect it and manifest it.  “In Scripture, glory means possession of the character, beauty and majesty that belong to the Lord.  It means an exact representation of His being.  It means reflecting His presence, His essence, His Life and His Name.  Thus, to glorify God is to manifest all that God is” (Missler).

In arguing the American Dream is killing Christianity, it is imperative we take a look at where the American Dream started and where it is now.  In fact, the original American dream, as established by our forefathers, is a dream that promotes Christianity.  But as we know from anything that starts out good, sin will eventually take root among it and begin to destroy its core values.  America’s forefathers wanted America to be a place where all people had equal opportunities to become wealthy and successful.  They did not, however, want this wealth to be the driving force of our culture.  This is made clear in the Declaration where it says very specifically that it is not this country that has given people these rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but these rights have been bestowed upon us by a Creator.  This is the original American Dream.  It was a dream based on humility and the desire for everyone, regardless of their race or their heritage, to have the opportunity to experience life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Our forefathers built this country on biblical principles.  John Adams, a key figure in the founding and establishing of America, said:

Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited!  Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God … What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be (Fairchild).

Our forefathers had a desire to see a country born where men would be driven toward success through Christian principles, not the motivation of wealth.  Unfortunately, materialism has taken over and covetousness has become an integral part of the American Dream.  Dave Harvey, a member of the leadership team of Sovereign Grace Ministries, the Senior Pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church and the author of Rescuing Ambition, writes:

Locating materialism and consumerism in the coveting heart is important.  It offers a biblical diagnosis for a common social malady.  Consumer ailments don’t begin with shopping addictions or “an offer I couldn’t refuse.”  The real problem is sin.  Austerity and indulgence won’t cure the bankruptcy of soul and emptiness of life that commonly result when our covetous desires are allowed free reign.  Just as Jesus stood before the man in Luke 12, God’s remedy for sin stands in the person of Jesus Christ.  This Jesus was and is poised to liberate, seeking to unshackle the covetous heart with a vision of freedom secured at the cross.  Covetousness may be powerful, but it’s no match for a benevolent Savior (97).

This means in the modern-day American Dream there exists a deceptive masquerade that displays the need for materials as the cure for the heart.  In reality only a benevolent Savior can satisfy the hearts of the people.  The original American Dream’s precepts were parallel with Christian principles but have, over time, been distorted into a completely separate ideology based on the lust for wealth.  The reason for this is sin.  The American Dream is the manifestation of this sin.  It has distorted what started as an idea to promote the joy and well-being of a community to an idea that promotes selfishness and material gain.

As a citizen of America since birth, the American dream has been a very prevalent ideology in my life.  I, like most of my classmates and friends, have been immersed in a culture that depends on the values held by the American Dream to determine happiness and security.  Everywhere I look, I see people who live for the sole purpose of gaining material possessions in order to achieve their distorted perception of success.  Merely living in this culture has given me enough credibility to analyze effectively the problems so engrained in our thinking and our overall reality.  Being raised in a Christian home and as part of a Christian school that seeks to argue against and analyze the status quo, I have had the advantage of learning how to take a step back and logically investigate and scrutinize, from a biblical perspective, the roots of and problems with our culture.  This culture I am talking about has completely twisted many Biblical principles foundational to the Christian faith.

My thesis topic is relevant to all Americans because we are members of this culture and we are constantly feeding on the ideas of the American Dream, whether we like to think so or not.  We are immersed in a culture that has created a hole in what it truly means to live as a Christian.  As Christians, it is our obligation to abide in Christ and stand firm in the faith which often necessitates challenging the status quo and checking to see if our thoughts and actions align with God’s will for us.

To prove this thesis, I will argue that the American Dream is destroying the true meaning of success.  Secondly, I will prove that the American Dream has mangled our perception of the purpose of our God-given wealth.  Thirdly, I will prove that it has created in all of us, an inclination to make our identity dependent upon the things that we own.  I will then refute two specific counterarguments: first, it is okay to find security in material possessions; second, God requires everyone to drop everything they own and be a poor missionary in order to live as a Christian.  I will now proceed to my first argument.

My first argument is the American Dream is killing the very definition of success.  I believe that, Biblically speaking, success is the effectiveness of displaying and revealing God’s glory and love through our lives, actions, language, etc.  Although this is not a specific definition but rather a general synthesis from my research, I believe it to be true.  The modern American Dream has either made glorifying God an afterthought of financial success or even worse has completely disconnected God from success.  In the case of Christians, it has created a mindset that we are to work in order to live comfortably, and then after this is accomplished we can pursue a relationship with Christ.  With non-Christians, the American Dream has made financial success the only thing worth living for.  Both of these inverted ideologies are frighteningly dangerous and contrary to the biblical principles of our purpose as Christians.  Christ should be our motivation for working and living.  This means knowing that God wants us to work hard, be responsible, and always do our very best should be the reason we work.  King David gives a good summary of what it means to be successful upon his death bed when charging Solomon with the responsibility of his Kingdom.  He says, “So be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go” (1 Kings 2:2-3).  Notice King David does not tell Solomon to pursue financial prosperity and growth for his Kingdom, but rather he tells Solomon to put God as his primary goal in all things.  When we follow God’s commands, those actions and the heart behind those actions reveal God’s glory and love.  To reveal God’s glory and love means to outwardly magnify God’s character to those around you and inwardly worship Him.  It is important to note God does not look down upon those who are rich but rather He looks down upon those who are rich who have credited their riches to their own personal efforts.  This is exemplified by the rest of Solomon’s story.  Because Solomon listened to his father and asked for wisdom from God rather than material possessions, God blessed him with wisdom and material possessions.  This does not necessarily mean God will bless you with financial prosperity if you obey his commands.  God is not about making your life easier.  As it says In James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”  God tells us directly we will face trials and living a life pleasing to him is not going to be easy, but we will receive a reward in eternity.  As for Solomon, his story shows us it is the process in which we attain the wealth that makes it right or wrong.  God does not see wealth as a sin.  In fact, it can actually be a wonderful tool to further the kingdom of God and bring glory to Him.  Dave Harvey writes:

In itself, stuff isn’t bad.  In fact, if received with gratitude, used in moderation, and stewarded in faith, stuff can be a tremendous resource of God’s purposes.  In eighteenth-century England, the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the richest women in the British empire, used her wealth and properties to further evangelical revival of that day.  Her homes became strategic meeting places for men like George Whitefield.  Her possessions were constantly at the disposal of her Lord.  Her vision of God moved her sight beyond stuff (95).

It is in no way a sin to be rich.  But having wealth has the potential to increase the opportunity to sin and decrease the necessity of dependence upon God rather than upon our material possessions.  Dave Harvey writes again, “Yes, affluence can be a spiritual disability that dulls people to their need for God.  Jesus was quite serious in saying, ‘How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God’ (Luke 18:24).  But this doesn’t mean God is biased against the rich; it means the rich are often biased against God.  Their affluence feels like it meets needs, but it really diverts attention from the Savior to their stuff” (Harvey 97).  The American Dream drills the ideology that we can achieve success through material possessions into our head the minute we are brought into this world.  One of the most noticeable and prevalent examples of this in America is found in television.  Although game shows and reality television are not necessarily directly against God, they do promote the American Dream’s distorted definition of success.  Who Wants to be a Millionaire? shows the lives of ordinary people trying to strike it big and finally be able to get the things that they want and achieve ultimate happiness through the answering of trivial questions.  Fear Factor brings contestants in to do things that are dangerous, nauseating, and simply disgusting all for money which will truly satisfy them and make everything they did worth it.  An extremely frightening example of the American Dream distorting what it means to be successful is found in modern churches trying to captivate members through new technology and better building facilities.  Churches base how good a church they are on how much they are financially growing.  Even churches are drawn into this materialistic American Dream. The American Dream sucks us into the idea that money is the pinnacle of contentment and happiness, and it destroys what it truly means to be successful.

My second argument in proving that the American Dream is killing Christianity is the American Dream has mangled our perception of the purpose of our God-given wealth.  Financial prosperity is in no way a right.  We are not entitled to wealth, but rather we are entrusted with it.  This is made apparent when looking at the words of Moses before entering the promised land in Deuteronomy.  He clearly points out God is the source of wealth, and it is by His power we are entrusted with any possessions.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.  Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. … Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions.  He brought you water out of hard rock.  He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known. … You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”  But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth (Deuteronomy 8:10-18).

It is very clear we do not deserve the material goods we possess.  God has entrusted to us all our possessions, but because of the values found in the American Dream we have claimed our possessions as our own.  God gives us the ability to produce wealth, and we are to use what He gives us to glorify Him in all that we do (Stearns 204-205).  As previously stated, God entrusts to us wealth, and we are to redeem what God has given us by using it to glorify him and not emotionally attaching ourselves to the actual wealth but rather to the Creator and giver of the wealth.  We should view them as what they are, which are blessings, not things we earned by actions we made.  By acknowledging that God has blessed us, we are giving the credit to him, thus praising his name rather than our own.  We should also strive to physically use these blessings in a manner that exalts God.  This is exemplified in 1 Chronicles when David uses the wealth God gave him to build a temple for the Lord.  David sought to use the riches he knew God bestowed upon him to more effectively demonstrate God’s goodness and to glorify Him.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.  Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.  Wealth and honor come from you; you are ruler of all things.  In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.  Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.  But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.  We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers.  Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.  O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you (1 Chronicles 29:11-16).

This passage is supporting the fact that God owns everything, and it all belongs to Him.  King David is acknowledging that everything God gave him deserves to go back to the sole purpose of lifting high His Holy Name.  The American Dream makes the purpose of our wealth to bring ourselves happiness.  It promotes selfishness and neglects God’s purpose for our wealth.  So this idea of God owning everything and expecting us to give it back to him begs the question, why would he give us anything in the first place?  This can be answered in the parable of the talents.  Jesus explains that the Kingdom of heaven “will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.  To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability” (Matthew 25:14-15).  In this parable the traveler symbolizes God entrusting us with money and expecting us to invest this money in order to receive an investment upon his return.  The two servants who made an investment were esteemed and given more responsibility, while the servant who hoarded his one talent was chastised.  God gives us responsibility of material items because it presents us with more opportunities to personally decide to give back to him.  To personally decide to invest our God-given materials shows that we are more reliant on Him and are more concerned with exalting his name than our own.  The American dream promotes a mindset that we are to get money and things so we can enjoy them and so we can be satisfied.  On the contrary, God wants us to view our wealth with the purpose of glorifying Him and personally deciding to give back what He has so graciously given (Stearns 205-207).

My third argument is the American Dream has created an inclination to make our identity depend upon the things we own.  Identity is defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary as “the characteristics and qualities of a person, considered collectively and regarded as essential to that person’s self.”  In America, the characteristics and qualities of a person are largely based upon what we own or what we have achieved.  Celebrities are examples of this.  Their identity rests in what they have done, whether that means starring in a hit blockbuster or marrying a professional basketball player.  Paris Hilton, for example, is known to be the rich, pretentious, lascivious daughter of a billionaire.  That is who she is.  Her identity is based upon her wealth and what she has done with it.  This idea of the source of our identity being based upon things we own is completely separate from who we are in Christ.  1 John 3:1 says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!”  Our identity should be solely based upon what we are in Christ, not upon what we own.  When we base our identity on materials, we begin to worship those materials as the source for who we are.  The apostle Paul asserts that our desire for materials is actually idolatry.  “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).  Our hearts must be fixed on being children of God rather than children of materialism.  This means that we are to relate the very nature of our existence and everything that we are and do upon the fact that God is our father, and we are to serve Him.  Jesus says in Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.”  As Christians, it is imperative that we place our identity in Christ rather than in earthly possessions (Harvey 94-96).

I will now move on to my refutation.  In my first counterargument I will refute the idea that security can be found in worldly possessions.  Security is defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary as “something that gives or assures safety, tranquility, or certainty.”  God desires and commands that our security or assurance of safety should be placed in Him.  Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:6-10:

But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

This passage shows that if our security is placed in what worldly possessions we have, then our lives will turn towards ruin and grief.  This verse means that when we begin to love money, it gives root to more evil such as greed, lust, and pride.  For when will enough be enough — the highest value of materialistic western culture is not merely possessing.  It is actually acquiring, always seeking, and lusting to obtain just a bit more.  Being content in God brings great gain, not finding contentment in the world.  1 John 2:15-17 says: “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”  This passage points out that loving the world not only is sinful, but it is stupid since you are willfully placing your security and contentment in something that will undoubtedly end.  Instead, we are to love the everlasting Lord and find joy in Him.  John Piper supports this truth that money cannot bring us ultimate joy.  He writes, “All the evils in the world come not because our desires for happiness are too strong, but because they are so weak that we settle for fleeting, money-bought pleasures that do not satisfy our deepest longings, but in the end destroy our souls.  The root of all evil is that we are the kind of people who settle for the love of money instead of the love of God” (66).  Piper is saying as Christians living in America, we have become content with perishables.  We try to find security and joy in possessions that will not last a second in comparison to eternity with God.  When we search for these things that bring momentary pleasure and seek them out as a means for joy, we are truly settling for a fleeting and temporary contentment.  Many people try to find security in their love of and devotion to what they own when in reality, only God can offer true and eternal security.  It is important to note it is the love of earthly possessions that destroys.  Many people misinterpret this love as merely owning or taking pride in your material possessions.  It is the love of worldly things that hurts us not the possession of earthly things.  This leads to my next counterargument.

Some Christians believe if we are not giving all of our possessions up for Christ, if we are not living as the apostles lived then we are not doing all we can do to live a Christian life.  I believe this to be a faulty argument.  As previously stated in my confirmation, God wants us to enjoy the things he has given to us but with an eternal perspective of these things.  He does not frown upon the rich but rather upon those who have made wealth their god and seek after it, desire it, center their life on it above and before God.  After all, everything in the earth is God’s, and it is only by his grace that we have anything at all.  In Haggai 2:8 the Lord says, “The silver is mine and the gold is mine.”  In Psalm 50:12 God says, “the world is mine and all that is in it.”  So saying it is wrong to be rich is accusing God of faulty distribution of wealth.  Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:17, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”  Notice that Paul does not say that the rich are to give up their riches.  He is actually asserting that the rich can be successful Christians by incorporating them into this letter at all, but he adds a warning to the rich, saying that they should not be arrogant or find their hope in wealth but in Christ.  To find hope in Christ means to confidently expect what God has promised to be true is true.  It means to have certainty in Christ’s truth and love.  Also notice God wants us to enjoy the things He has given us.  We should not feel guilty for having nice things, but rather we should feel grateful and we should turn our gratefulness into thanksgiving and the willingness to share.  Paul continues in verses 18-19, “Command them (the rich) to do good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.  In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”  These verses affirm wealth is not wrong but we are commanded to use the possessions God has given us to bring Him glory.  The rich are not to hoard their wealth, but they are to be generous and in doing so they will be rewarded in Heaven.

The modern-day American Dream is a dream that ends with death.  You grow up, go to school, get a degree, marry a beautiful wife, have a great family with a big house and nice car, retire with money and the overall goal of pursuing personal pleasure, and then you die.  This hopeless ideology offers nothing except momentary pleasure.  It cannot bring everlasting joy.  As Christians we grow up as children of God, we go to school in order to understand more the character of Christ, we engage in marriage so as to understand more perfectly God’s merciful relationship with the church, we work in order to reveal God’s glory, and we accept death as a transition into a new life that will bring us ultimate pleasure and joy for all of eternity.  Everything we do in this life is for a God who has created us out of love.  We should delight in the opportunity to live a life that reflects that love.  So re-evaluate your definition of success.  Re-consider the purpose and overall goal of your God-given blessings.  Venture to the core of the Christian faith, and place your identity in Christ rather than in your material possessions.  Take back the American Dream to what our forefathers desired it to be.  Attack this culture that says success can be determined by your possessions and social standing.  Live freely in the truth of Christ, not of men.

Works Cited

“American Dream Quotes.” American Dream Quotes. Web. 18 Feb. 2012.

Fairchild, Mary. “Founding Fathers Quotes — Christian Quotes of the Founding Fathers.” Christianity — About Christianity and Living the Christian Life. 18 Feb. 2012.

Harvey, Dave. “God, My Heart, and Stuff.” Eds. C.J. Mahaney and Craig Cabaniss. Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008.

Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Missler, Nancy. “What Does It Mean to Glorify God?” Reflections of His Image.

Piper, John. The Dangerous Duty of Delight. Sisters: Multnomah, 2001.

Stearns, Richard. The Hole in Our Gospel. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009.