Does God approve usury (interest).

The question I want to answer today is, Did our founding fathers make a mistake concerning usury (interest) that put our nation under a curse?

Let’s begin by looking at the Word of God.

Jesus is the Word of God. See John 1:1-3; 18
“ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” The only begotten Son is literally only begotten God. So God literally appeared to us in a form we could see and live.

Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

Jesus said in Luke 16:17, “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”

These verses plainly say Jesus is God, the Word, He created everything and He doesn’t change.

Did Jesus approve of charging usury?
I have heard many teach that Jesus approved of charging interest or usury based on the parable of the ten talents. See Matthew twenty-five, verses fourteen to thirty. In the parable of the ten talents, slaves were each given charge of talents according to their abilities and invested them and gained as much more as they had been given except the servant who only received one talent. Here is what happened to him.

“Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In Israel a talent of gold weighed two hundred pounds or 6,420.95 troy ounces. In today’s money 6,420.95 troy ounces of gold is worth (with gold priced at $2,343 per Troy ounce) is ($15,044,403) Fifteen million forty-four thousand four hundred and three dollars. So having only one talent was a considerable value.

The master is Jesus; Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is a “soft” forgiving Man who sowed Himself on the cross to redeem us. He paid the price for all our sins once for all and He saves us by grace outside the law of sin and death. The law of God equals the law of sin and death; it says you reap what you sow with no provision of grace. He sowed everything so He never gathers where He didn’t sow. That slave lied about Jesus therefore Jesus said, “Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.”

Jesus said to the servant, “You are lying about My nature so you should also have lent my talent at usury (interest) and also called me an unrighteousness usurer.”

Old Testament teachings about usury - interest under the law.
Proverbs 28:8
“He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance,
he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.” KJV

“He who increases his wealth by interest and usury
Gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.” NASB

In Strong’s Concordance usury is defined: h8636. תַּרְבִּית ṯarḇiyṯ; from 7235; multiplication, i.e. percentage or bonus in addition to principal: — increase, unjust gain.
AV (6) - increase 5, unjust gain 1; increment, usury, interest, bonus

Isaiah 24:1-6
“Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste,
and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the servant, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled:
for the LORD hath spoken this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away,
the world languisheth and fadeth away,
the haughty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof;
because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance,
broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth,
and they that dwell therein are desolate:
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
and few men left.“

We see by Jesus’ words and Old Testament scriptures that taking usury, charging interest, puts you under a curse.

Our founding fathers based our nation’s money on specie coins of gold and silver and Congress had the power to create money. This money had constant value. Some banks issued demand notes that the bank would redeem for specie coins but, if the bank failed, the notes couldn’t be redeemed because the notes were not lawful US currency. United States Notes were debt free legal tender fiat paper money issued from 1862 to 1971.

Privately owned banks were allowed to charge usury/interest and also practice fractional reserve banking. Fractional reserve banking is the practice of loaning out money the bank doesn’t have, effectively creating money out of thin air based on the money they hold in reserve. The reserve is their capital investment and the deposits of customers who put it in safekeeping with them. Having a 10% reserve is considered safe, conservative banking and means that if a bank has a million dollar reserve rate it can lend 10 million dollars. If the borrower repays the loan that money disappears from circulation but, if a borrower defaults, doesn’t pay his obligation and the bank forecloses, then the bank must make up the difference from its reserves. Recent bank failures occurred when the borrower’s defaulted, the foreclosed assets lacked sufficient value to clear the loan debt and the bank’s reserves were insufficient to replace that money. The privately owned Federal Reserve Bank system practices fractional reserve banking.

Privately owned banks consolidated their control of our national economy by getting the Federal Reserve Act passed in 1913. This act was intended to give the privately owned banks the appearance of being a government function and had a monopoly of the creation, the issuance, of fiat money and the ability to regulate interest rates and the volume of money issued. Fiat money issued by the Federal Reserve is treated as lawful US currency. Since 1971 the only debt free money is US Treasury coinage manufactured by the US Treasury; every other dollar represents a debt instrument borrowed from the Federal Reserve system on which it collects interest. Every dollar in your possession represents a portion of the national debt, not a stable store of value. Under this system money disappears when the debt is paid off. More money must be borrowed into existence to pay off the debt. The money to pay the interest must be borrowed into existence. If the budget is balanced the money supply will shrink to zero as outstanding debt is repaid. That’s why a balanced budget amendment will not work under our present system.

Any money financial system based on interest or usury will result in all the borrowers becoming slaves to the lender charging interest or usury. The creators of money finally devalue all savings and reduce the people to slavery. Here is an actual eleven year example of inflation “tax” confiscating an $100,000 investment to zero value.

Rhodesia won independence from Britain in 1980 and renamed itself Zimbabwe. It’s new currency, the Zimbabwe Dollar was of equal value to the United States dollar. It was fiat currency meaning the money had no gold or silver to guarantee or back up it’s value. Zimbabwe experienced severe monetary inflation. The chart below shows what would happen to a $100,000 investment made in 1980 as inflation destroyed its value.

The Muslim religion uses much of the Old Testament and forbids charging usury. Under their law, a borrower forms a joint venture with the lender. If borrower is beginning a business, the lender forms a joint venture business with him and the borrower becomes the business manager. They divide the profits according to their relative investments and they negotiate the managers pay, bonuses, etc. The manager increases his investment by buying up the lenders share until he becomes the sole owner. If the business fails, the assets are liquidated and the investors share according to their equity. The borrower has no lingering debt.

Our debt usury based financial system has put the USA under a curse and is headed toward financial collapse failure like Zimbabwe experienced. Let us repent, pray and ask God to help us put our nation on Godly, prosperous and usury free footing.