I came across a fascinating posting on X (or tweet, as I still call them):

• Job didn’t deny his losses. He acknowledged them openly: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.” (Job 1:21) IFRS 5 agrees Take the loss as soon as it’s clear, Don’t pretend everything is fine because the asset still “works”
• Faith is not denial. Accounting isn’t either.

That’s from an individual in Nigeria posting as “Elijah” (@EJAkerele), whose timeline suggests an interest in extracting life lessons from financial and related matters (as well as in soccer and other sundry matters). I’ll lay on the table that I’m not religious, and have little more Biblical knowledge than you glean from moving through the world in a moderately engaged but secular manner. I’m aware there’s hardly a verse in there that isn’t subject to scholarly debate of various kinds – on how much an aspect can be taken literally rather than allegorically, on what it tells us on how to live now, and so on. But with all that stipulated, I thought it might be enjoyable (as always, that would be to me, if no one else), especially on this Easter weekend, to extend Elijah’s project, and to see whether other Biblical verses seem to find agreement in IFRS. That’s if we can get past the likes of this:

• For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (1 Timothy 6:10)

That needn’t be fatal to the practice of IFRS though as long as it’s carried out with appropriate objectivity: a compliant set of financial statements, including the information in the notes, may be the best possible way of demonstrating how an entity has, indeed, pierced itself with many griefs (the goodwill arising from your ill-considered acquisition is categorically impaired!). Let’s see what else we have:

• Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11.24)

That’s apparently endorsing a forward-looking approach to accounting, to the extent that it supports taking the likely outcome of one’s prayers/plans/strategies etc. into account in assessing carrying amounts, fair values and other measurement matters. Applied too rashly though, the passage might lead to such practices as recognizing revenue not yet earned, or assets not received, on the basis that as they’re being sought in the company’s prayers, the company believes they’ve already been effectively received. In such cases, the company’s belief in the outcome of its prayers is appropriately tempered by more objective, non-prayer-driven criteria.

• Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope (Romans 5:3-5)

Fairly clearly an admonition there to disclose bad news just as clearly as good news and to provide a balanced and non-biased presentation, just as IFRS requires. Further, to glory in the suffering suggests that the ideal disclosure might make bad news more prominent than the good, all the better to hone character and hope (the hope, perhaps, that the stock market will reward the company for its transparency). Too few companies, I imagine, have adequately drawn on this teaching.

• Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

One of many scriptural teachings that may apply more directly to the MD&A than the financial statements, as the document which describes the key corporate relationships which are clearly being referenced here.

• For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-15)

Seemingly a tip-off that any company disclosing itself as the instigator of legal action against others, however well-founded it may superficially seem, is a poor prospect for investment.

Well, it seems to me on the basis of the above small sample that IFRS is adequately aligned with Biblical teachings. Could I have provided an alternate selection of quotations to support the opposite view? What do you think? But there’s no ambiguity about this one:

• Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19.24)

Is there a more widely ignored passage, or at best one that’s more willfully self-servingly interpreted, in the whole book? The message, plainly enough, is that while IFRS-compliant financial statements are certainly important inputs into decision-making, a lot of people have the appropriate nature of that decision-making in reverse: when those statements indicate an opportunity to make a stack of money, stay away! And when they indicate a likelihood of losing your shirt, embrace it!

The opinions expressed are solely (perhaps in this case, quite literally solely) those of the author.