Food For Thought

This is a mix of the Book, related references and attempted interpretation. The context fits this web log (regards: sub prime and credit/housing crisis) so I thought it would be interesting to present it here and have it get you to thinking. Especially so, as I have witnessed first hand, the manipulation of credit banking against the consumer.

..."it will be argued that trade is encouraged by interest. That interest helps trade does not add merit to interest, for most trade today is conducted un-Christ-like. Does our trade glorify God or man? Trade can go on without interest. The old Hebrew nation and many others have managed without.

If we get sucked into the complicated theories about interest a person can get really confused.
The world has their financial gurus that are arguing, studying and contradicting each other as to how interest functions upon an economy. We are not to let ourselves be spoiled by philosophy (Col. 2:8). They would have us believe the economy regulates interest rates and borrowing, and they see all kinds of "benefits" of interest. In simple terms, interest allows people to spend more than their limits, and brings many to ruin.

Sometimes, as Christians we give the thief our coat and our hat besides our wallet to show him that God loves him. Interest is robbery and perhaps we may need to experience it for God's glory, but that does not mean robbery is O.K.
What would you replace lending on interest with? Won't people who will be ruined by borrowing, be ruined whether they took interest or not? Couldn't hard feeling arise if a man lending freely is injured for the need of money that was promised to be repaid, but wasn't? Isn't money lent longer when interest is charged and wouldn't the shorter period of freely loaned money be a hardship?

People can injure themselves with about anything. The Christian applies God's principles and the dynamics of those principles work toward success. First, we are commanded to lend where we do not expect to receive again—Lk 6:35. The borrower is instructed to be "Not slothful in business"—Rm 12:11 and 2 Thes 3. The borrower is plainly instructed not to live off of others unnecessarily. We are all commanded to honestly work with our hands. If we suffer for having righteously loaned money for a need, the Scripture's value system esteems such suffering. If that seems cruel to the world—they should recall all the suffering they have encouraged people to go through, it is an honor in the world to suffer through the Iron Man Triathlon (talk about pain), it was the in thing for worldly women to wear painful corsets and whale-bone girdles to force their bodies into painful unnatural shapes, unless one gets wasted with alcohol and suffers a hangover he is not cool at parties,... the list could go on of the many ways the world expects their people to suffer. So understand that for us to suffer for our God is our glory.

If we give money so that a person can be slothful and waste it, we show poor stewardship, because we do not want to encourage that person's sin of slothfulness. (Some misunderstand and think that not charging interest is carelessness. Satan would have us overly careful lest we lose some of our abundance—yet that abundance was given us so that we could share.) The question
is not whether we might suffer without charging interest, but what is the morally correct thing to do. That is the question. That money freely lent has its faults is no secret. The underlying principle is to do what is most loving toward God, and one's fellow man. The focus of interest is self.

How would the world today survive without interest?— How would it survive without soldiers to fight wars? What if this? What if that? Let us not worry about something the Scripture says will not happen. We know that evil along with its "bloodsucking usurers" are not going to all stop their bloodsucking just because you and I do, nor will the world self-destruct from lack of interest taking. But so what if it did? Why should the Christians be disturbed if the One-World-Order feel apart? These "if" questions are vain— but perhaps it may console the sincere seeker to know that the modern Moslem world has done very well without interest taking. Medieval Europe was often without interest and did fine. The natives of the Americas and Australia did fine without interest. And it is conceivable that the New Heavens and New Earth will be able to do just fine without interest.

As it stands today, interest takers have a vested interest in people being in need. If interest were not allowed the interest takers would develop more concern to see others sufficiently prosper.

Doesn't Mt 25:14-24 teach interest is right? We can use the Master's money to get worldly or heavenly treasure, it's your decision. You can use it selfishly or give it to Christ, it's your decision. God provides us with a surplus, so that we can use it to glorify Him, and so we might enjoy the blessings from giving.

Isn't a man worth $1,500 who loans $100 to a neighbor worth $1,500 losing more than the one borrowing gains? No. It is true though that the value of money can fluctuate—there is nothing wrong with repaying according to the real value of the paper one has borrowed. To say "you loaned me x amount of purchasing power and I will pay back x amount of purchasing power," is not interest. This is due to the fact that the paper we call money is not real money, but the alchemy of the Satanic financial Power. Yes, the occult does create gold out of paper and lends it out to nations and individuals on interest. (See chap. 3.3 to learn how the international bankers are a Satan worshiping clique.)

And then to avoid the effect of the Satanic alchemists and their inflation people try to use the interest-rates (extortion-rates) to profit from inflation. They justify their interest in extortion by claiming they are merely "protecting" themselves from inflation. If they simply want to protect themselves they should buy real money, i.e. gold, silver and real wealth i.e. land, houses, and tools; rather than stealing from someone through interest.

Aren't you trying to turn the world upside down? True Christians, like Paul was (Acts 17:6), will be accused of this, because they are trying to turn it right side up. When the Power makes Christianity illegal, will we have enough Christianity to be convicted? I hope so.

What have Christians done in the past (before the Media was controlled by the wrong people)
concerning interest? We should not rest our faith on the actions of men, but rather "let God be true, but every man a liar." Rm 3:4
Still, many will be interested in the past.

EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Barnabas, known from many scriptures concerning him in Acts, Corinthians and Galatians, wrote against interest (usury). He also wrote "Thou shalt labor with thy hands to give to the poor that thy sins may be forgiven."1

Clement, who also worked with Paul (see Phil.) wrote in praise of the Old Testament for its humanity in forbidding interest. He said, "indeed the man who is generous to the poor receives sufficient usury in gratitude, praise and honor of his fellowman."2

Barnabas' writings were considered scripture in Alexandria for about a century, and Clements' writings were considered scripture for two centuries by the early Christians. The Christian Hermes also wrote against interest. An early writing which some say Hermas wrote says, "They that receive without a real need, shall give an account for it: but he that gives shall be innocent; for he has fulfilled his duty as he received it from God."3

Tertullian (c.155-220 A.D.) wrote against Interest. He wrote that Lk 6:35 means the same as Ez. 18:8. Remember that Ez. 18:8 refers to interest as evil and Lk. 6:35 refers to lending without hoping for anything in return. For Tertullian's references to the evil of interest see this footnote.4

St. Cyprian (205-258 A.D.) and St. Apolonius of Hierapolis (who wrote in 175-176 A.D.) also wrote against interest.
Cyprian wrote in 248 or 249 A.D. "Non faenerabis fratri tuo usurum pecuniae et usuram ciborum"—"We must not practice interest."5


In the 5th and 6th centuries we have the writings of many religious leaders who completely condemn the taking of any kind of interest.6

The Catholic church banned interest until 1830. Augustine in his City of God, Bk. III, chapt. 17 related how the worst measure of oppression in the Roman Empire during the Punic wars of all the many oppressive measures was "The people overwhelmed...most of all by usury..." The Anabaptist churches although they disagreed with the Catholic church over many issues, saw eye to eye with the Catholics concerning interest taking. Only in recent times have many of them lost the teaching that interest is evil.

One of the first important assemblies of Christians after the Apostles was the Council of Nicene. This Council forbid usury (interest) to the clergy with these words, "Whoever of the clergy, for filty Lucres sake, exerciseth Usury, let him be Disposed."7

The 44th of the Apostolic Canons and the 1st Council of Aries (314 A.D.) prohibited it in the same way. The reformers Menno Simons, Martin Luther and Zwingli were agreed on one thing. They all condemned interest.

Martin Luther-"When money is lent and a charge made or more taken back than was originally made over, that is usury, and as such is condemned by every law...nor can they (interest takers) be saved unless they do penance"8 "the devil invented it," and anyone who charges interest is "a thief, robber and murderer."9 "Rents are but the 'fig leaves' behind which usury hides its shame".10 "Money is an unfruitful commodity which I cannot sell in such a way as to entitle me to a profit."11 "Will not interest soon be the ruin of the world?"12 Luther felt Luke 6:34 commands us to follow the Old Testament teachings against usury.13 He also felt that the trading companies, and bankers, and merchants revealed such a "bottomless pit of avarive and wrong-doing that there is nothing that can be discussed with a good conscience."14 "How can there be anything good in trade?" 15

Menno Simons-"But in all things, one toward another, long-suffering, friendly, peaceable, ever ready in true Christian love to serve one's neighbor in all things possible: by exhortation, by reproof, by comforting, by assisting, by counseling, with deed and with possessions."16 "We beg of you from the bottom of our hearts, for Jesus' sake, to reflect a moment whether your spirit is one with the Lord's Spirit, and your conviction agrees with His holy Word; whether it is the Spirit of the Lord and the love for your neighbor or the thirst for gain and the thought of temporal support that send and drive you into your profession. Do you preach God's Word out of a pure heart without falsification; administer His sacrements correctly, and lead a pious and irreproachable life as the Scriptures teach; and do you verily shun and expel from the fellowship of the Lord, public transgressors, primpers, drunkards, LOVERS OF GAIN, USURERS, liars, swindlers, contentious persons, brawlers, adulterers, such as follow after prostitutes, blasphemers, those who take oaths, unrighteous people, etc.?"17 (Emphasis added)

Even the Catholic and Church of England preachers at this time warned of the evils of the merchants and their commercial schemes.18

For more, read or download The Magical Watchtowers, The Masonic Tower of Babel, Christianity's Systematic Destruction.