Forgiveness

Forgiveness

The heart of the Lord’s Prayer is, “Forgive us our debts....”  Forgive us our trespasses blunts the point.  Debt refers to major breaches of the Ten Commandments: murder, adultery, theft, false witness, covetousness and the like.  Debt brings into focus the oppression of others through money.  The word trespasses focuses on minor sins: I stepped on your toes, I hurt your feelings, I insulted you.

 

In Jesus’ explanation[1] of the Lord’s Prayer, He draws a contrast between debt and trespass by using a different word.  In principle this teaches that the command to forgive debt, will be judged at the lowest, most intimate level.  Failure to forgive will certainly result in the withdrawal of God’s forgiveness from us.  This is not accidental.  This is a major theme, perhaps the major theme in Matthew: for he returns to this subject repeatedly, especially in Matthew 18[2] and 25[3], where a great deal of force is applied to how we handle money.

 

We might almost interpret “forgive us our debts…,” as “Neither borrower nor lender be!”

[4]

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[1] Matthew 6:14-15

[2] In Matthew 18, the Unjust Steward oppresses another for half the price of a modern car, while his own debts are on the magnitude of our current national debt.  Such is our debt to God.  Our sins amount to a king’s ransom, while we dare to hold each other hostage over trivia.  Especially grievous is the oppression of the poor by wealth.  If failure to forgive the least of all sins separates us from God out loving Father, how much more the greatest of all sins (debt and usury) will surely cast us into Hell.  If we are aware that our principal enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil; we must surely know that the world’s chiefest weapon is debt, usury, and the lust that these feed.

[3] In Matthew 25, the fiscal focus is on how we invest the wealth with which we’ve been entrusted, especially in out treatment of the poor.

[4] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations, please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish.  No rights are reserved.  They are designed and intended for your free participation.  They were freely received, and are freely given.  No other permission is required for their use.

Debt Slavery 4

Debt Slavery 4

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Here is where we left this topic, just about a year ago:

The bottom line is, we are in trouble as a nation.  This debt-slavery is no joke.  Please take it seriously.  I still trust the solution recommended by Moses and dozens of other prophets, and guaranteed by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus, I trust.  Moses, I trust.  Any other opinions, I don’t trust.  The specifics change day-by-day, but the long-term principles never change.

·       Get out of debt and stay out of debt.

·       Show mercy, hate cruelty, help others in trouble; love your neighbor as yourself.

·       Never forget where all blessings came from, love God with all your heart.  You have a job because He gave it to you.  Become a more thankful person.

·       Enjoy sunrises, sunsets, and the simple pleasures of life and remember that your Creator gave them all to you.

·       Go to Church on Sunday, and remember that the most powerful person in the universe is still in charge of this mess.

Debt Slavery, an Update

I believe that debt slavery is a wicked and cruel social malignancy.

I believe that Moses specifies the only acceptable and possible working model in Exodus, where he requires zero interest,[1] very restricted debt on a 7 year cycle, and total debt absolution on a 7 x 7, 50 year cycle.

Our Prayer

We regularly pray, “forgive us our debts,” where the Greek word, ὀφειλήματα, refers specifically to duties, fiscal debt, and other obligations at law in exact conformity to the law of Moses.  Yet we consistently ignore this requirement.  We are nothing but a bunch of unrighteous hyocrites.

The Law of the Kingdom

Jesus says, I have come to fulfill the law . and the prophets, that is the entire Old Testament.[2]  Hence, this is the unmovable law of God's kingdom.  All Christians are bound to submit to it.

I, as a Christian, have no choice.  My King outranks my earthly nation.  I must hate and war against interest, and long term or predatory debt wherever I find any of them.  I must hate and war against any group that supports them.  Hence, the Federal Government of the United States and The Federal Reserve Banking system are in defiance of God’s unmovable Kingdom Law insofar as they promote and tolerate either any interest or any debt outside of the strict limits imposed by Moses.  Yet, at the same time I must find a place in my heart to love those involved in this sordid work.  Specifically, I must love them enough to tell them the truth about their sin, and faithfully pray for their repentance, so that they may escape the wrath of God brought down upon them for their own cruelty.  No one is allowed by God to be involved in this sordid mess in any way.  It is forbidden.

Nothing short of Moses’ full plan is acceptable to me.  To rub salt in my own wounds, Moses just makes good sense.  All this would fall to the ground had not Christ Himself made such a point of it in the Gospels.

What Matthew Says

For instance, the Gospel of Matthew divides itself into five main Sections.  Two of these Sections end with an exhortation on debt: Matthew 18 and 25.  Elsewhere, I have written extensively on Matthew 18,[3] but have not yet had time to pursue Matthew 25, or all of Matthew in detail.  The evidence is overwhelming.  Jesus is most certainly preaching the fiscal law of Moses.  It is the law of the kingdom.  It is not a suggestion.  Those who persist to live in defiance of it are asking to be thrown into the Lake of Fire.  In Matthew 6:15 a new Greek word, παραπτῶματα, is used.  This word means misstep or stumbling.  It is one thing to stumble at the law as we all must.  It is another thing to openly defy the law: this is not of faith and is unforgivable.

The Result is Freedom

The direct result of the Mosaic code is to obliterate slavery and the cruelty of it.  The only way to truly escape slavery is to enter God's kingdom by faith in Jesus Christ, the King of that Kingdom.  It appears that this Kingdom proclaims the final application of the Mosaic code in an eternal form, because Jesus fulfills it, and His blood is eternal.[4]

What Luke Says

Mary foresees all these things and sings of its future reality.[5]  Finally, Jesus Himself proclaims this teaching openly and clearly in Luke 4:14-21.  His words cannot be misunderstood, but they are certainly denied.

The Impact on our Nation

Shakespeare understood this when he wrote, “Neither borrower nor lender be....” Merchant of Venice.  We know it too, but by our open refusal to obey, we bring down well deserve fire upon our own heads.  Debt and usury are both cruel forms of slavery.  A slavery which God forbids, but we flaunt openly.  If we don't get this right, our nation will surely be destroyed.  At that point, I say, “good riddance.”  “Give me Liberty or give me death.”  We heard the alarm and did nothing about it.  Our house is on fire, and it will surely burn to the ground.  It's just a matter of time.

The Purpose is Love for God

The purpose of this strong law is plainly stated.  God wants people to love Him freely.  To this end, He openly displays His goodness everywhere.  “Everything we are and have, stems from His relationship with us.”  The Federal Government supplies nothing: it is simply a conduit.

As the necessary and obvious byproduct of loving God freely, God wants people to love each other freely.  Why?  Because, all are created in His image, Christ became man to die for all, and all may receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  It’s that simple.  It’s that complicated.  Debt Slavery is simply incompatible with this world and life view.  Debt Slavery is incompatible with God's Kingdom.

Yours in Christ,

Herb Swanson, aka Augie

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[1] The Bible defines usury as any interest rate greater than zero.  Moses only applied this within Nation Israel-Judah.  Christ extends this law to the whole human race without exception.

[2] This figure of speech is a form of hendiadys, where two words, frequently the first and the last, are used to describe the whole: Alpha and Omega, first and last, hot and cold.  The Old Testament is often referred to as the Law and the Prophets, or as the Law, Prophets, and Writings, which are the three common Jewish divisions of the Old Testament, the TANAKH, which is an acronym for Torah (Hebrew for Teaching: namely, the Five Books of Moses; Nevi’im (Hebrew for Prophets) and Ketuvim (Hebrew for Writings).

[3] http://swantec.blogspot.com/2013/10/matthew-18.html

[4] Hebrews 13:20-21

[5] Luke 1:46-55

Fiscal Cliff 1

I’m trying to check out the following as I write.

http://nationalseniorscouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89:obama-begins-push-for-new-national-retirement-system&catid=34:social-security&Itemid=62

So far, I have no confirming or denying information.  The report, as written, contains some errors or misconceptions.

“This scheme mirrors what I expect the President will try to do with Social Security.  He wants to turn that program into a welfare program, too.”  National Seniors Council National Director Robert Crone

Crone’s statement errs in that Social Security is already a welfare program.  As nearly everyone knows, that is its fundamental problem: S/S never was a savings program; it always depended on the donations of dependents to support the aging.  Payouts are only loosely tied to, and never funded by the deposits of the same generation.  However, at its inception S/S was 1% and relatively harmless.[1]  In 1990, that number grew to 6.2% plus an additional 1.45% for health insurance.

Matching numbers were paid by employers from the inception of the program.  However, this is patently deceptive.  OASDI and HI paid by employers are costs of doing business.  No businessperson in his right mind is going to pay these fees without recovering them.  The obvious methods of recovering them are to suppress salaries or to increase cost of sales.  Since increases in cost of sales are limited by the market, and are reflected immediately as cost of living, all of these costs are reflected to the wage earner.  The real cost to the wage earner ranged from 2% in 1937 (still harmless) to 15.3% in 1990.  This is now clearly a toxic load.[2]

According to SSA the rates for 2012 are:[3]

·       S/S 4.2% for employees

·       S/S 6.2% for employers

·       Medicare 1.45% for both employees and employers

This is a net drop of 2% to 13.3% overall which is still a toxic load.  Evidently, the 2% drop took place in 2011.[4]

Individuals making $24,000 a year or less (no wife, no children, no other dependents) cannot afford to forfeit 13.3% of budget, pay taxes, and survive.  Even after mortgage-free home ownership is achieved in retirement, a married couple cannot survive on less than $36,000 a year.[5]

To add insult to injury, Medicare victims are taxed an additional:[6]

·       $1,156 annual hospital deductable

·       $99.90 monthly Part B

·       $145 annual Part B deductable

·       20% Part B coinsurance

·       1990 Medicaid was introduced, which is a purely welfare program[7]

As the NNRS[8] overture is explained, it basically turns extant retirement programs into S/S programs.  That these can be juggled into increased-welfare emphasis is no mystery.  That this proposal is going in the wrong direction is also fairly obvious: it supposes that money grows on trees and that those who refuse to work have a right to eat.  The answer to both of these questions is obviously, NO!

The real question is, "Will it happen?"  Yes, of course it will happen, perhaps not in this form, but it will happen in some form.  It does not make any difference which party is in power, it will still happen.  Here’s the math.  The government, along with nearly everybody else, has overspent its income.  All levels of government, business, and private individuals are seriously in debt.  One way or another, the debt must be served.  The federal government will eventually come after any money or appearance of money that exists anywhere including your savings.  If and when these funds are exhausted, and taxes cannot be increased anymore, more money will be printed (inflation).  In any case it is fairly obvious that the citizenry will be bled to death and the system will collapse.  It’s inevitable.  No one will have a dime left, and we will be in Greece’s shoes, total default.  It’s inevitable.

The illusion is that there is a way out of this box.  People want to believe that some politician or other offers a way out.  There is no way out.  The damage was done years ago.  The only recovery plan that makes any sense is to wipe out the whole system today, start over from scratch, and do it right this time.  Instead, everybody is jockeying for power, and everybody will lose.

There are names for this sort of statistical game.  This is more complicated than 2 x 2 games, but the idea is the same.  In 2 x 2 games, these are called coordination, battle of sexes, chicken, and prisoner’s dilemma.[9]

We are now obviously playing the chicken game; you know how that’s played: the only way to win is to face a head on collision, but winning results in obvious death.  The only way to live is not to play, but that is not a Nash equilibrium,[10] so nobody is willing to do that.  Either side can find a better position by playing the game (more prestige, more power, more money).  As a result, given the present value system, both sides will play, and both sides will die: because, jumping in the ditch represents an enormous loss of prestige, power, money, and face.  Nobody will be willing to go in the ditch and yield victory to the other side.  A Schelling point[11] must be found and/or the game must be changed.

As the level of crime (federal theft) increases this could transition into the prisoner’s dilemma.  Each prisoner improves his position by ratting the other guy out.  Consequently, both prisoners turn rat, and both lose.

As far as I know, there is only one solution, which is Moses' solution.  Kill off all the debt and never let it happen again.  All loans are 0% interest loans and short-term payback (7 years).  A strict division is drawn between lending and business risk investing.  Business risk investing may share its predetermined proportion of profits of any magnitude for any time, but must also accept total loss as a risk (no bailouts under any circumstances).  Job loss is not a real consideration; it is a smokescreen that covers up the problem.  The reality is that all jobs are lost as soon as the business becomes unprofitable; we just want to live in denial of the facts.

The objection is frequently raised that this is nothing more than defaulting on loans, which is a vicious social evil.  I would agree except for the fact the the loans were established under fraudulent conditions to begin with.  This always was a Dutch book.[12]  We have always played with loaded dice.  High risks were always sheltered, but jobs were never ever really sheltered.[13]  The system was dishonest from square one.

To get out of the box we are going to have to obey Moses and Christ, and write off all the debts.  We need to do this in an orderly fashion if at all possible.  Otherwise it will be done to us, as it is being done to Greece right now.  Controlled or uncontrolled, orderly or disorderly, the game always ends the same way.

Is the federal government coming after your savings?  Yer darn tootin, they are.  It’s just a matter of when and how.

Yours in Christ,

Herb aka Augie

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[1] http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/taxRates.html

[2] http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/taxRates.html

[3] http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/240/~/2012-social-security-tax-rate-and-maximum-taxable-earnings

[4] http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/payroll/tax/wagelimits/index.html  See also http://taxes.about.com/od/payroll/qt/payroll_basics.htm.

[5] my estimates of survival living

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid

[8] New National Retirement System

[9] Stevens, Scott P., Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond (The Teaching Company, Chantilly, Virginia, 2008) 219 pages, 2 CDs

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium  John Forbes Nash, Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash,_Jr.)

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory)  It would be folly to believe that anyone is communicating or is even able to communicate in the current game.  The current game tends to render communication impossible.

[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_book

[13] When your boss goes broke, your job is gone, and a bailout doesn’t really solve the problem; it simply redefines who went broke.  In this case instead of mega-companies going broke the debt is transferred to the backs of the populace, and the populace goes broke.  Since the populace is also the workers, jobs no longer exist.

Debt Slavery 3

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I'm republishing this old e-mail because of our current national emergency.  What Moses and Jesus command is not optional.  This is a Christian problem.  I pray that we take it to heart.

Yours in Christ,

Herb Swanson aka Augie

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Dear family,

I’ve been approaching this same problem from the Bible.  This talk approaches the problem from an economist’s opinion.  I stumbled on it by accident.  Very interesting, and informative.  A few observations:

·        These guys are selling something, it’s not free, get the book from your local library.

·        Take the information seriously, but keep your hand in your wallet and don’t let go.

·        What they say about real-estate investment is true enough; but your house changes value because it’s getting older, not because the amount you can sell it for changes.  Baring natural disaster, your house will be worth tomorrow, what it is worth today, minus one day’s worth of wear and tear.  It is a roof over your head, it keeps the vermin out, and it keeps you from freezing and heatstroke.  Keep it up as best you can.  It’s not changing value very rapidly.

·        Kill off debt, before it kills you first: by all means, credit cards first, cars next, house last.  Get used to paying cash.

·        Yes, I agree, almost all investments are worthless; but a roof over your head, a car that moves, a shirt on your back, and food in your belly are tangible investments with obvious worth.  The Bible says, “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.”  I think that includes basic healthcare, car, and house, and some other stuff.  You’re able to figure it out.

·        Fine, if you’ve got too much house, trade down to a cheaper house; but be careful, when we looked at this we ended up with a smaller house alright, with the same payments.  If you can’t pocket cash out of the deal, it’s a looser.

·        Investments: A few years ago, the joke was going around, “I being of sound mind, spent it all.”  You can’t eat paper money, bonds, gold, etc.  A little common sense will help you figure out where to invest, for example:

·        If your old washing machine is on its last legs, study Consumer Reports and find a good replacement.  When you can afford to pay cash, get it.  If we still have electricity 20 years from now, it should still be working, and you’ll still have clean clothes.  Very practical.

·        Buy a bicycle.  You’ll have exercise and transportation, and maybe even entertainment in one bundle and no gas.  I’m assuming you have strength to peddle.  Very practical.

·        Remember those food hoarding programs?  Don’t go there.  But if you like, start a garden, learn to can, raise rabbits or chickens, etc.  Live a more simple life.  These are investments you can eat, and even wear.

·        Of course, there are still risks.  The raccoons killed our son’s chickens and destroyed his budding egg business.  Oh well, he still has a roof over his head.  Still very practical.  Just build a better chicken coop next time.

·        Help your kids, your neighbors, your friends, or anyone else you love get out of debt.  Very practical.

·        What else is left in life?  Sex with the man or woman you love?  I’m too old for that.

The bottom line is, we are in trouble as a nation.  This debt-slavery is no joke.  Please take it seriously.  I still trust the solution recommended by Moses and dozens of other prophets, and guaranteed by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Jesus, I trust.  This investment scenario or any other, I don’t trust.  But I think the info is right on target.  The specifics change day-by-day, but the long-term principles never change.

·        Get out of debt and stay out of debt.

·        Show mercy, hate cruelty, help others in trouble; love your neighbor as yourself.

·        Never forget where all blessings came from, love God with all your heart.  You have a job because He gave it to you.  Become a more thankful person.

·        Enjoy sunrises, sunsets, and the simple pleasures of life and remember that your Creator gave them all to you.

·        Go to Church on Sunday, and remember that the most powerful person in the universe is still in charge of this mess.

http://w3.newsmax.com/a/aftershockb/video47.cfm?PROMO_CODE=E821-1

Don’t lose sight of the fact that the guys in this video are selling something.

Yours in Christ,

Herb Swanson, aka Augie

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