Fritz Springmeier

een playing church, or have they been learning to walk in God's spirit, and not after the lust ofthe flesh? (cf. Gal 5:16)AREA TWO1. Is there a difference between usury and interest?Today, the words have different meanings, however originally usury meant all interest.Generally, usury is used today to mean an exorbant or illegal rate of interest. When the shift inpublic attitude came toward interest, the word usury which was used to mean any interestchanged to its new meaning of an exorbant rate.However, in scripture, and also in the nation of Israel there was no distinction betweenacceptable and unacceptable rates of interest, it was all considered to be extortion (Ps 109), andthe extortioner was considered to be a robber. 1 Cor 6:102. What does the world say in favor of interest?First, as Christians let us remember, "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent towholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which isaccording to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes andarguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglingsof men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means ofgain. From such withdraw yourself." (emphasis added) 1 Tim 6:3-5.When worldly Christians or people in the world begin defending interest they often try tomuddle the issues. They like to make the issues seem complicated. They also to try to show thatinterest taking has benefits.Let's take a glance at this last item, that interest taking has benefits. They say the lender takesrisks, so interest encourages loans. All ventures have risks, who can ascertain the future even onthe safety of crossing the street? Does this mean I deserve to be paid for crossing? The riskstaken by a usurer loaning to a company are far different than the company's and its pardners'risks who must take their lumps on whether the business prospers or fails. And the loss of theirproperty, or goods remains ever present. That the usurer is in a way risking his money is true,but it is a totally different risk than the company and its pardners are experiencing. Further, ifrisk is a criteria for receiving extra money, every person even remotely connected to the businessventure can claim some compensation. The families of the company, the janitors, and theneighbors all have a risk of some kind. That is the crux of the matter. The usurer supposes hedeserves to be congratulated and honored for his risk taking. But the honest farmer, or the honestcarpenter take risks everyday without compensation not supposing that their risks are specialabove everyone else's. No one pays the farmer for taking a risk when he plants his seeds, so thatwe can eat. No one pays the carpenter for taking a risk when he begins a house not knowingabsolutely if a fire or strong wind might not damage it during construction. The carpenter takesthis risk that we might have shelter. Risk entitles us to nothing. If it did we should all have aclaim on riches.But the world will shudder, "Loans are necessary and who wants to loan if they are giveninterest?" In a sense, our sinful economy does need sinful interest taking to function. ThePornography market needs more lewd photographs to continue selling books. However, manyeconomies including the modern Moslem economy are (or have) functioning fine without interesttaking. It is only to be expected that the world will shudder, but then they shudder to think of