The Revolutionary Review by Jonas Clark

Proclaiming Liberty From Economic Bondage

Published by Jonas Clark Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 in Economy and the Christian, Recession Freedom Strategies |

Tags: al hiba, albert einstein, babylonian king, babylonian mathematicians, compound interest, compounding interest, cuneiform, debt bondage, financial institution, lagash, liberty, louvre museum, michael hudson, museum in paris, warren buffet

“The rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).

On display in the Louvre museum in Paris is the earliest known legal proclamation in antiquity written in cuneiform on a foundation brick for a local temple. It wasn’t until 1972 that Maurice Lambert was able to translate its inscription. The text says that in 2400 BC Babylonian King Enmetena made a decree. The translation reads, “Enmetena instituted liberty in Lagash. He restored the child to its mother and the mother to her child; he cancelled interest.”

Enemetena was the ruler of the Sumerian territory and resided in the city of Lagash. Lagash is modern al-Hiba, Iraq. I first read of this document after listening to an interview with economist Michael Hudson. As an economist his perspective of biblical antiquity carries a different perspective than many biblical scholars today. What Hudson discovered was that Babylonian mathematicians understood both the positive and negative power of compounding interest. He also discovered the importance of obeying “the Lord’s release.”

THE DARK SIDE OF COMPOUNDING INTEREST

Compound interest is the concept of adding accumulated interest back to the principal so that “interest is earned on interest” from that moment on. You deposit a sum of money, for example, of $1,000 in a bank or other financial institution that earns interest at the rate of 5 percent payable annually. At the end of the first year you have earned $50 and have the right to get your $1,000 back plus interest earned. Now you have the choice of spending the $50 earned or adding it to your new balance equaling $1,050 and compounding interest on the new amount. When you do this then you have “interest earning on interest.”

Warren Buffet, the most successful investor in modern history, said that understanding compound interest was the key to his success. When asked to nominate the most powerful force on earth Albert Einstein is reputed to have answered “compound interest.”

Globally trillions have been made using the power of compounding interest. There is, however, a very real dark side to compounding interest. The dark side is that compounding interest can bankrupt a person, a nation and the world.

In 2008 there were 1.117,771 personal and business bankruptcies. Up 42 percent from 2007 according to Administrative Office of the Courts.

• The average bankruptcy age was 38
• Two out of three lost their jobs
• Tennessee, Utah, Georgia and Alabama had the highest bankruptcy filings
• The typical family filing for bankruptcy in 1997 owed more than one and a half times its annual income (150 percent) in short-term, high-interest debt. A family earning $24,000 had an average of $36,000 in credit card and similar debt.

THE LORD’S RELEASE

According to Hudson, the Babylonian and Judeo mathematicians understood that compounding interest would overcome the ability of any nation to repay its debts. Their solution was debt cancellation. Hudson points out in his book “The Lost Tradition of Biblical Debt Cancellations” that newly crowned kings throughout antiquity would forgive debts and start the production and debt cycle anew.

In biblical history this debt forgiveness was called the year of Jubilee. As radical as it may sound today of cancelling debts and restoring the working man’s ability to produce, thus freeing his “means of production,” it was, in fact, done for thousands of years. Hudson has well documented that in his book. Debt reduction was historically important because the ability to produce is fundamental and determines the level of prosperity for any nation.

Babylonian kings used the term “simdat” meaning “royal decree.” The intent of a royal decree throughout antiquity was to offer a “clean slate” regarding debts. This same royal decree is also found within the biblical laws of God. God told Moses, for example, to teach the people regarding economical slavery. He said, “Land must not be sold in perpetuity (uninterrupted or indefinitely) for the land belongs to me and you are only strangers and guests. You will allow a right of redemption” (Leviticus 25:23-28).

God required this law read publically as a reminder to all.

“And Moses commanded them saying, ‘At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release (shemittah), in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it’” (Deuteronomy 31:10-13).

The Lord’s release was a royal decree for forgiveness of debt.
“At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother because it is called the Lord’s release” (Deuteronomy 15:1-2).

LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES

The English word “liberty” has lots of different meanings. To some it means freedom from rules and to others freedom from sin. According to the Oxford Thesaurus “liberty” means freedom, independence, self-determination and sovereignty. It also means free, uninhibited, unfettered, unconstrained, unrestricted, unrestrained and liberated.

The Liberty Bell is one of the most well known American images. When people look to it they are reminded of those that fought for liberty from unrighteous oppression. Tradition holds that the bell was rung to announce the opening of the First Continental Congress in 1774 and after the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the Liberty Bell has over 2 million tourists come to see it annually. Inscribed on the bell is this text.

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof.” The bell’s inscription is taken from the Word of God. The full biblical text reads, “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you and ye shall return every man unto his possession and ye shall return every man unto his family” (Leviticus 25:10).

Liberty in this scripture is the Hebrew word deror clearly meaning… READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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