This book will provide the attentive reader with answers to some of the most puzzling questions that we face today about money and interest or usury. This book was written because there is nothing else available today which thoroughly covers this important topic from a foundation of God’s Word. How many investors today can remember their Pastor teaching on the Biblical foundation for making interest-producing loans to individuals, banks and other businesses? Is the Bible silent? No.
Is the subject of money and interest so far removed from the pressures and concerns of everyday life in modern America that it would be considered a distraction from “real life” to provide instruction in these areas? No. Traditionally, Pastors have lacked important economic related instruction. One example of this lack is found in the otherwise comprehensive Lectures on Calvinism, by the esteemed Abraham Kuyper. This work was designed as a survey of the impact of the Christian faith in all areas of life. The fields covered include theology, government, art, and science. It is instructive to note that there is no section covering Biblical faith as it relates to economic activity. In a similar vein, Gary North laments that in all the centuries since the founding of the Church, there has never been a economic commentary written on the books of the Bible.
This neglect leaves Christians to borrow from the unbelieving world those ideas which will be applied to the economic aspects of everyday life.
The lust for gain without pain is very powerful. Too often the Church has no one to turn to when economic temptation presents itself. The truth is that the vast majority of Pastors 1) have never been asked to study these subjects in college or seminary and therefore 2) do not always recognize the important need to understand them. We believe that everyone who uses money, or acquires it through interest bearing investments, should both understand the origin of money and be able to give an account regarding righteousness of his actions. How can a man provide a godly witness before an unbelieving world if his personal finances are not handled in a
distinctly, self-consciously Christian way?
Love characterizes God’s covenant people; love must characterize any truly Christian concept of economics. The sin which this book addresses would not exist if we truly loved one another from the heart. As it is, we have an economic system where profit for some depends on the continual need of their brethren to borrow that which they lack. This is the effect of usury on any and every sort of loan. Christians need to see that living this way is not demonstrating God’s truth to the world. What is more, the prevalent notion is that usury is a normal aspect of an economy. However, historically the church has long been opposed to usury by the conviction that it is contrary to God’s law. That is, the position taken here is not a
new one, but a call to return to what the church had believed for over a thousand years.
It is no wonder when professing Christians ignore God’s instructions about loans, that instead of more affluence and freedom they receive higher taxes, oppressive government, and more per capita indebtedness. The United States is thought to be the world’s wealthiest nation, while in reality it is the world’s greatest debtor. If the average citizen were proportionally as far in the “red” as we are as a nation, every creditor who knew of his plight would foreclose on all loans as fast as the paperwork could be completed.
The United States is a nation under God’s judgment and discipline. Usury always leads to slavery. This time, because we have ignored God’s commands, we will end up the slaves. Every year a larger portion of Christians’ disposable income goes to support domestic and foreign debts.
Increasingly, the Internal Revenue Service relates more like the Pharaoh’s taskmasters toward citizens, churches, and Christian schools.
My hope is that righteousness might come to characterize our economics as a Christian people. It is time that the Church teaches the nations “to observe all that Christ has commanded”. Let us no longer borrow our economics from the world. Rather let them come to us for the righteous economics of godly peace and prosperity. This is a goal to which anyone involved in “Christian economics” would subscribe, however, this goal cannot be realized as long as the sin of usury besets us. This book is directed to the end that we would repent of usury as a people, and achieve an economy in which all men love their neighbor as themselves and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
David B. Wiley
Director, Theopolis