Should Christians Insure?

The question for this issue: "Should Christians insure?  If so, is all insurance right, or just third party, or should Christians only insure what they have a legal duty to?"

This is a question that we have dealt with personally.  We know fellow believers who insist that insurance is wrong, either in all forms or some.  And, we ourselves have come to different convictions on this matter, having once believed that some forms of insurance at least were wrong for a Christian.

We would not now condemn insurance for several reasons.  First, it is not something that the Word of God explicitly condemns.  Second, it is difficult to see how one can condemn insurance without falling into a kind of fatalism that rejects God's sovereign use of means in all areas of our lives.

Fatalism is a wrong emphasis on God's sovereignty that leads to passivity and indifference and a refusal to recognize our responsibility.  Believing that God controls everything, the fatalist then makes no effort to preserve his own health and safety, to labor diligently in the calling God has given him, or to use the means God provides for the preservation of life and health.  He takes the attitude, "what happens, happens."

We know the arguments against insurance.  Its opponents say that it is a denial of God's providence (i.e., that He controls and governs all things), and that it destroys our trust in God by directing our trust elsewhere.  With these arguments we do not agree.

We would add, however, that we do not condemn those who refuse to purchase insurance where the law does not require it.  There certainly is nothing in Scripture requiring us to have it.  Nevertheless the arguments against third-party insurance or legally required automobile insurance are the same as for any other kind.

If it is wrong to make provision for various emergencies by way of purchasing insurance, certainly, then, it is also wrong to make provision for one's health by being inoculated and by making use of doctors and medicine, or to make provision for the future by saving one's money, something Scripture recommends (Prov. 6:6-8, 10:5, etc.).

In fact, many of the Christians we know who oppose insurance also oppose inoculations, and some will not make use of doctors or medicines.  This, we believe, is  fatalism in that it denies God's use of means in our daily life, and our responsibility to make use of available means for the preservation of life, health and prosperity.

Even in salvation God makes use of means, especially the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 1:16, 10:17, I Cor. 1:21).  The sovereignty of God in salvation does not destroy our responsibility to use the gospel or allow us to despise it as the means of salvation.  Indeed, it is God's sovereignty that establishes the use of means, both in salvation and in daily life.

Thus, as long as Scripture does not explicitly forbid insurance, we too, refuse to condemn it.  We would only warn, as with so many other things, that we must not put our trust in insurance policies (or in anything else), but in the living God Himself who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.  And if we are inclined to trust in things, whether insurance policies or otherwise, then we must understand that the evil is not in the thing, but in our own hearts, and needs to be dealt with there, through prayer and repentance before God.