Usury and Interest
I received a good question about my response to Simon Dixon on usury/interest.
Question: usury is not the same as charging reasonable interest (costs) I have heard this stated by other Christians but I cannot see how this is justified from what the bible says. Since everything under the Mosaic system was valued in relation to the year of Jubilee then as far as I can see no interest was charged. Have you got a biblical explanation as to why usury is different to any form of charging interest?
There are a number of very important points in this question and it is complex. Firstly, other peoples like the Hittites and Sumerians etc had “contracts” and money and banking that charged interest. They developed sophisticated systems of contracts, commodity-based money, and interest-bearing loans as early as 3000–2000 BC. Ancient states actively regulated interest rates and enacted debt relief to prevent “oppression”—specifically to stop the collapse of the free citizenry into debt slavery and they even had “debt forgiveness” (personal not commercial) so the Torah prohibition did not occur in a vacuum.
The Hebrews were not allowed to charge any interest to a fellow Hebrew because a “loan” was seen as a form of charity or philanthropy. So, this was not a normal “loan” for commercial purposes but to help the impoverished and they were allowed to ask for collateral as long as it was not confiscation of their only (sleeping) garment or their millstone (the tools for earning a living). In other words this was a form of charity and when dealing with such poverty it would have been easier to just give the money and say “pay it back when you can afford it” and write it off as a loss. This was not someone coming to you and asking for a 1,000 shekels for a business deal, or buying a vineyard. The Jews were however allowed to charge foreigners (even the poor) interest because in that case (someone outside the covenant) it was treated more like a loan rather than a form of philanthropy (Exodus 22:24, Leviticus 25:36–37, Deuteronomy 23:20–21) and therefore a loan to a foreigner carried more risk. But even then they were instructed not to oppress the alien living in the land and to remember that they were also strangers and slaves in Egypt. The idea was not to allow their fellow brethren to fall into debt slavery and not to act in an oppressive manner toward anyone, especially the fatherless and the widow. They broke this command in the time of Jeremiah and therefore they were taken into captivity.
Jesus knew about banks and interest and even refers to it in his parable of the talents:
But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. (Matt 25:26-27).
Of course, the parable is a spiritual metaphor and not financial advice (lolz), but Jesus recognizes that the man was too lazy to even leave his money in a deposit account where it could have been “put to work” by the bank. However, nowadays banks practice reserve fractional banking and print money and do not need your deposit as money is “created”(ex-nihilo) when they issue debt.
As to the Jubilee, this was put in place to make sure no one lost their family inheritance which was their land. You were allowed to sell your land, but it was actually a “rental agreement” because the price was determined from how near the Jubilee year was. Let us say that I sold my land to you and we were five years away from the Jubilee year (every 50th year) that land would be cheap because you would only get five crops and then the land would revert back to my ownership. The money that I made from my five year sale could be “invested” in trading by ship or camel caravan and I might make a profit or a loss.
So a “loan” to a fellow Hebrew was a form of charity to help them get back on their feet. We cannot compare this to someone taking out a car loan, home loan etc. Even so, our current system is debt based and financialized and oppressive. They charge usury (not interest) on credit cards and long term loans. In the Greco-Roman world charging interest was commonplace and governed by civil law. Usury is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others’ misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in excess of the maximum rate that is allowed by law. As I have said before, money itself has a cost and an associated risk and that must be taken into account (in a fair manner) when making loans. For every ten loans you make you might only get nine back. If you invest in a risky operation it might go bankrupt. It is only fair that a reasonable profit is made but that is different to applying usury to enslave the poor. That is why all civilizations regulated the amount of lawful interest.
We are now in the “Great Taking” and the Great Reset” where the debt-usury system will be inflated to the maximum. You will own nothing and become a debt slave. They are stealing all the wealth and not just causing inflation but stagflation (and worse). It has started. This is what happens when the money-lenders are allowed a free-rein. They think that they can game-play God and use the Apocalypse as a script to crash the system and start again (rising like a Phoenix out the ashes).
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. (Revelation 18:11-13)
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σωμάτων καὶ ψυχὰς ἀνθρώπων
“somaton kai psychas anthropon “
literally, the bodies and souls of men
std Gematria 6013 Palindrome 9119 (our own personal 911 lolz).
They want it all. Nine is the end of the cycle in relation to man and the standard Greek Gematria for man [anthropon: ἀνθρώπων] is 1890 giving a palindrome of alternating sixes and nines; 69696 with the ordinal value (116) giving the palindrome of 727 (72 nations in Genesis 10) and the reduction is 45 which is the value of Adam in Hebrew and which reduces further to give us the digital root of 9.
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They will replace the beast with the image of the beast (that speaks) but they will not triumph against God.