Suppose George makes a $100 loan to Mary and she agrees to pay him back $105 one year later. Is that usury?
Look up the definition, and you usually find something about ‘excessive’ interest. What is excessive interest? 5%? 15%? 70%?
Let’s ask a different question. How much drinking makes you an alcoholic? One beer a day? Five beers per day? Fifteen beers per day?
Wrong question. Why the emphasis on excessive interest? Somehow 15% is evil, but 5% is not?? This makes no sense, and gets us focused on the wrong thing. Could it be that certain people want it this way? To confuse us?
Even in the bible, the word usury is often translated excessive interest. But there is nothing wrong with a voluntary agreement to pay someone $105 one year later on a $100 loan.
We get a hint, in that the bible condemns unjust gain. The word unjust is key. The New International Version does not have the word Usury in it; the King James Version has it 17 times! Why?
Why would anyone ever take a loan? Either they are desperate, in which case earning a profit on their plight is wrong, or they are greedy, in which case they take their chances.
Usury includes interest, but interest isn’t always usury. Confused? Suppose there is a goldsmith that has a vault. He gives people receipts for gold storage. After a while people trade gold receipts and never check on their gold. It dawns on the goldsmith that he can now loan out the gold with the owners none the wiser. As long as no one asks for their gold back, he can make profits on the same gold twice. It’s called fraud! Or lying. Or stealing. This is unjust gain. It’s the origin of our modern leveraged banking system. Leverage is a fancy word for multiple claims on single assets, whether they be gold, treasury bills, collateralized debt obligations, or whatever. When there are runs on banks, governments usually bail out the banks so the fraud can continue.
Usury is merely financial theft! It is the same as printing money. If you or I print money, it’s called counterfeiting, and we go to jail. If the Federal Reserve prints money, it’s called Quantitative Easing, and politicians and media cheer. Think of the power of printing money.
Would you print yourself one dollar or a trillion? Buy a few politicians? Companies? Whole countries? Take the presidential race. Each candidate will spend maybe $100 million+. Could you print some money to favor a particular candidate? Have the media slant their coverage?
Or take Amazon.com. Could banks create a few $billion to float along a new company until it reaches size to challenge Walmart? Since all transactions on Amazon are with credit cards, they create monitorable buying profiles of each customer. Could some power mad people desire this?
Ultimately, usury will combine and coalesce into a world cashless banking monster, described in Revelation as 666. This will be used by Satan to bring war on Israel, but the Lord will rise up to save his people. About 666:
Bible Study Seattle 
Leave a Reply