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iQuestions Faculty, Ron Blue 
 
 
Question: 
 
What are the dangers of debt? 
 
Answer: 
 
What I have experienced is that there are many unknown dangers 
when it comes to borrowing money. So, it’s not wrong to borrow 
money, but there are certain things that you need to know before you 
borrow money.  
 
The first danger, when it comes to borrowing money, is just the 
economic danger. Let me dig down on that one a little bit. 
 
In the financial services world, we know something called “the magic 
of compounding.” If I were to save $83 per month—which is $1,000 
per year—and I was able to invest that at 12%, and I did that every 
year for forty years, I would have invested $40,000, but, through the 
magic of compounding, it would have grown to $1,000,000. So, I was 
able to save or invest $40,000, and it grew to $1,000,000. 
 
Now, just turn that around for a second. Let’s say that I borrow money 
on a car loan, and I pay 12% interest, what does it cost me? It costs 
me what I could have earned, had I been a lender instead of a 
borrower. That’s called the “opportunity cost of consumption,” or, the 
economic consequence of borrowing money over a long term. It’s 
going to cost me a lot of money. 
 
Just take credit cards, for example, where you pay 18-21% interest. 
Think about what you could have done, had you been able to earn 18-
21% over a period of time.  
 
 
 
So, the first danger economically is that I have the magic of 
compounding working against me and for the lender, and I’d rather be 
a lender or a borrower—and that’s called a saver, also, or an investor. 
 
Additionally, when it comes to the economics, if I borrow $1,000 and 
I’m going to repay it, I not only have to repay the interest, but I have 
to earn the taxes, and the tithe, if I’m tithing. So, I have to earn 
$1,500-$1,600 in order to repay $1,000. That’s a real consequence. 
 
And all debt, all principal on debt, is paid back after tax dollars. 
There’s no tax deduction for the principal payment that I make when it 
comes to debt. 
 
And thirdly, when it comes to the economic consequences, is that the 
debt always mortgages the future. Why? Because, you’ve said, “I will 
repay this amount over some timeframe,” and so I have pre-
committed the future, I have mortgaged the future. 
 
So, economically, when I’m going to borrow money, I’ve got to be 
very, very careful, because there are some economic consequences 
that people really don’t always understand. 
 
Secondly are the spiritual consequences. When I borrow money, and I 
presume that I’m going to be able to repay that in the future, then I 
have violated the biblical principle of not presuming upon the future—
which is found in James, where it says, “How do you know what’s 
going to happen tomorrow?” (James 4:13-15) 
 
So, I presume upon the future, but bigger than that is that in a lot of 
cases, I deny God an opportunity to provide, and I put the lender in 
the place of God. I’m saying to God, “I’m not going to wait on You, or 
You can’t provide, therefore I’m going to let the banker, or whoever is 
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going to lend me the money, provide me what I think I need.” That’s a 
huge spiritual consequence, when it comes to borrowing money.  
 
Thirdly, when it comes to borrowing money, is the psychological 
implications of it. Studies have been done for years and years and 
years that show that whenever there is any debt in a household, there 
is a high stress level, especially among the wife. One of the highest 
stress factors of a wife is the fact that there is a home mortgage.  
 
Men do not understand that, in my experience—but if you would ask a 
woman, “Would you rather have your house debt-free, or would you 
be okay with a mortgage on it,” they’ll always choose debt-free. 
Somehow, it threatens their security, and as husbands, we have an 
obligation to provide a secure environment and home for our spouses 
and our family. 
 
Then there is the marital conflict that comes with borrowing money. I 
always say this, “Men, if you can’t explain it well enough to your wife 
to where she accepts and understands it, you don’t understand enough 
to do it. And use her counsel as an admonition to not get into danger.” 
 
So, there’s a marital consequence many, many times when it comes to 
debt. 
 
And then lastly, if you can’t repay the debt, for a Christian, you can 
hurt, damage, ruin your Christian testimony—because what in effect 
you’ve said is, “The God that I serve is not a God that can provide, and 
therefore, I have gone into a bankruptcy situation.” And debt always 
has to be repaid. It’s always repaid after tax dollars, it always 
mortgages the future, and there are some severe consequences to 
borrowing money. 
 
Again, it’s not wrong to borrow money, but there are consequences 
and there are dangers that you should know about. 
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