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Imagination? OK. Sorry. My bad. Usury is a blessing, and not an abomination.
(If he beget a son that) Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.
Ezekiel 18:13 (KJV)
From this excerpt, we see that usury and increase (interest) is an abomination, and the usurer shall surely die and blood be on his hands.
Outrage over any condemnation of usury shouldn't affect victims of usurers.
And let's see what you claim the Bible defines as "usury" - - -
"The Bible defines usury in Exodus 22:24 and Leviticus 25:36.
Money changing DOES NOT equate [to] usury."
Leviticus 25: 36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
Take no usury (increase).
Exodus 22:24 King James Version (KJV)
24 And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Oh, you must have meant 22:25
25 If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.
"Thou shalt not lend money...at ... usury (interest/gain/increase)"
Matthew 25:24 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 has 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 sow 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.
"Usurers = money exchangers"
John 2:14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
"Usurers = money exchangers = changers of money"
In essence, using the temple as a bank... sure made Jesus open a can of whoop ass.
[Note: This parable in Matt 25 is routinely misinterpreted, and devoid of reference to the evils of usury. However, based on Ezekiel's condemnation [18:13], it would be absurd for God to condemn usury and promote it. Ergo, the "hard man" (Lord) cannot be a reference to God. Also note that this "hard man" reaps and gathers other people's property (thief). The third servant was afraid to engage in usury, a capital offense. IMHO, those who are in the employ of evil doers will get kicked in the teeth for being righteous.]
I hope that helps clarify things.
And may explain why after 3500 years of condemnation, the usurers / bankers rule the world.
Usury, Scriptural Economics and Eschatological Time
" St. Antoninus, the Archbishop of Florence (at his time — 1440 — the banking capital of Europe) remarks how usury was a mortal sin of an especially odious kind.
"...usury ever breaks and consumes the bones of the poor, day and night, on feasts and feriae, sleeping or waking it works and never ceases."
"the Tabula exemplorum, a thirteenth-century manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale of Paris, attests: "Every man stops working on holidays, but the oxen of usury (boves usurarii) work unceasingly and thus offend God and all the saints; and since usury is an endless sin, it should in like manner be endlessly punished."
"...the vice of usury, unlike many other sins, tends to last into old age and entangles the sinner up to the hour of his death principally because usury is a peculiarly difficult sin to repent; for its forgiveness demands restitution of the profits, an act which seems too hard to a prosperous usurer."
[NOTE: Repentance requires restitution. OUCH]
Anyone who engages in usury (interest) cannot be a member in good standing in any religion that condemns it as a mortal sin. Self righteousness notwithstanding, usurers are working for the "other team."
If you had taken the time to read the context of each of those passages you quoted, you would have seen that I was correct up in post #102
"... Usury is allowed in the Bible, the only time it is not allowed is when the loans are done within the tribe. And all debts must be forgiven every 25 years."
The Bible defines usury and regulates it. Just like everything else if you do it wrong, then it would become a sin.
I've read a lot of books on the Great Depression. In one of them, an immigrant couple lost her dowry when the Chicago bank closed. (Officers of the bank were playing stock market games with the bank's money.) The President of the bank made the losses good but somehow, this couple never got their money back.
Also, some forms of government assistance want to know what sort of financial resources you have. If you have savings, you might not qualify but would if you just had food storage. And, your comment seems to indicate people buying food as a store of money. People that do food storage buy the food they regularly use and then use those products as part of their normal groceries. I know that artwork holds its value, but you have to have the basics in place before you can invest in things like that.
And the other issue is that you are not counting for inflation. I have some figures for bulk purchases of wheat and such back in the 70s. There's a lot of difference, of course, but there's even a difference over the last five years. I was not stockpiling this, just like to buy 25 pound bags of bulk grains and beans for use.
There is a blogger around that used to joke about investing in toilet paper and tracked the inflation rate of that item. I am not sure I'd invest in that, but it is handy to have and is a good trading item
You are so right about the stores. After Hurricane Katrina, the stores that were not stripped of food stocks before the hurricane and were after the hurricane! It was several days in our area, several weeks in others, before the stores began to open. Streets had to be cleared, electricity restored, and the stores cleaned, sterilized and inspected before they could reopen. Unfortunately, some of the inspectors had evacuated so there was a wait to get the store inspected. A couple of stores wanted to reopen as soon as the store was cleaned, with plastic taped over the counters that had to be sterilized. This was allowed in smaller towns, but not in the city.
Some of the stores complained that they could get fresh produce, milk and meat after the storm but couldn't sell it. One store in my area planned on selling out of a refrigerated truck, but weren't allowed to.
Many stores only took cash. The computers had to be restarted - so, no registers! Groceries were sold using calculators. People who could pay exact change went to the front of the line.
You would not believe how many people got angry when they were told that checks and credit cards could not be used to pay for groceries.
You would not believe how many people got angry when they were told that checks and credit cards could not be used to pay for groceries.
Cash, in small bills, belongs in every BOB, and is one of the most important prices of prep you can have.
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