Debtor Support Ministry
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Debtor Support Ministry |
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POSITION PAPER THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE VS THE KONDRATIEFF WAVE AND THE LORD'S PRAYER HAS ANYONE EVER STUDIED "THE YEAR OF JUBILEE" VS "THE KONDRATIEFF WAVE" VS “THE LORDS PRAYER”?The Year of Jubilee, Leviticus 25 vs 8-10, The Living Bible "Every fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, let the trumpets blow loud and long throughout the land. For the fiftieth year shall be holy, a time to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all enslaved debtors, and a time for the canceling of all public and private debts." Why the law "Year of Jubilee"? We know it was never carried out, but why the law? No clergy, and I mean even clergy with DOCTORATES IN THEOLOGY that I've talked to about this, have ever explained about why the law, only that it was never carried out. We do much to interpret scriptures. Why have we done so little with this one? I'll give you my laymen's interpretation of this scripture. God the Almighty, all powerful and wise, knew that man, with his sins of lust and greed for material things and power, would create an inflationary environment along with the creation of huge debts that no society could sustain forever, and therefore must fall thru a depress ional stage. So, therefore, he declared the 50th Year of Jubilee to forgive enslaved debtors, and a time to cancel all public and private debts. He knew it would take a 50 year cycle to destroy any society thru inflation and the creation of debts which would be created by man's lust and greed for material things and power. Yes, the 50 year Jubilee says something to us, but we have never listened or tried to understand it. I certainly don't profess to know the answer to God's 50 year Jubilee and the three actual recorded depressions in the history of our country, but it surely does humble me and brings me to think about the future and how to survive and deal with it thru God's divine guidance. Because life goes on even thru a depression, as a society drops it's demands for material things and turns to spiritual things. I guess that is why people attended and gave more to the church during depressions, only we've never really understood why and God's 50 year cycle. Note: Other verses from Leviticus 25 which are of great interest are:
"THE KONDRATIEFF WAVE" Nikolai D. Kondratieff, a Russian economist, was the first to observe this regular cycle of depression in the United States shortly after World War 1. Nikolai Kondratieff was a professor at the Agriculture Academy and head of the Business Research Institute of Moscow after the Russian Revolution. Between 1922 and 1928 he set forth his long wave theory in a series of books and papers. He said that the Western world had experienced two and a half long waves, or upward and downward price fluctuations since the end of the 18th century. The third wave was in progress when Kondratieff wrote his dissertation. The third wave began in 1890-96, peaking in 1914-20, when he said the decline "probably begins." Kondratieff was right. The 10 year plateau period, before the downward price spiral, was the "Roaring 20's." Orthodox Marxists in Russia were severely critical of Kondratieff. The official Soviet Russian Encyclopedia dismissed Kondratieff's work in one sentence: "This theory is wrong and reactionary." Kondratieff was banished. In 1930, he was arrested by the Russian secret police and shipped to Siberia without a trial. To understand how the Kondratieff Wave works, a simple model can be set up using the Federal Government's wholesale commodity index. Each 50 year cycle includes 20 years of prosperity and rising prices culminating in a war at the peak, a 10 year ephoric plateau period with a downward bias, followed by 20 years of falling prices. The latter event always happens suddenly and devastatingly, when no one expects it. I have extracted the above paragraphs from a 14 page document written by The Wall Street Digest. To me as an uneducated lay person, it was totally mind boggling that a Communist would document a 50-55 year boom to bust cycle just like God had maybe foreseen in the 50 year Jubilee. The issue before our capitalistic industrial high tech society in my humble opinion was the late years of the 1990s, with it's roaring stock market prices the same as the "Roaring 20's." If it is, then we as a capitalistic society are heading downward in all forms of wealth and business activities. One only needs to look at the "MASSIVE DEBT STRUCTURE IN OUR SOCIETY". First and foremost our NATIONAL DEBT in "TRILLIONS". Second STATE and LOCAL DEBT. Third "MASSIVE CORPORATE DEBT". Fourth, and the most important of all, the "MASSIVE CONSUMER DEBT," the engine of "CONSUMPTION" that drives the economy IMHO is out of "CONTROL AND POWER" to drive this economy any further. SPECIAL NOTE --- ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2001 ON CNN AT 1:30 PM show, Andy Gard the White House Chief of Staff to the President stated that "THERE ARE 60,000,000 PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY THAT HAVE CREDIT CARD DEBT IN THE AREA OF $10,000.00, and that they want to cut taxes to help these people take home more cash, so as to help them pay off their credit card balances. BACK TO CREDIT CARD DEBTS AND LEVITICUS 25 VS 17-18, VS 35-37. In our local paper in February 2002 one credit card company raised it's rates from 23.9% to 29.9%, a 6% increase in the interest rate. The credit card company has an ailing loan portfolio of about "$5 BILLION" in outstanding loans nationwide. The company said the 29.9% rate will apply to "3.3 Million" of the 18.5 million account holders on it's books as of Sept. 30, 2002. IMHO no one can survive that kind of interest rate on their credit card debts. IMHO millions of them will be forced into Federal Bankruptcy. THE LORD'S PRAYER As a Lutheran, our LORD'S PRAYER reads as follows: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen We also use the following: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen Many other Christian faiths use the following: The King James Bible (1611) I just corrected the spelling for this presentation. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The King James Bible (1611) see Ecumenical Web Sites Lord's Prayer in English. Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name. In the above Lord's Prayer, they use the words debts and debtors, and I know that the words used here mean "SINS". However, it just makes me wonder if the words "DEBTS and DEBTORS" had meant then what it means today to "US DEBTORS" with all the debts we carry upon our lives and then we look at GOD'S LAW, "THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE," which was never put into usage. It humbles me to think that GOD had it right from the beginning to cancel all DEBTS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ON THE 50TH YEAR and our LORD gave it to us in his prayer also "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors". However the religious meaning of debt is sin. Yes, it just makes a layman like me think about my GOD AND MY LORD and what they had said at the beginning of GOD'S CREATION --- "THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE --- THE 50th YEAR". This is why I have created this Web Site called "DEBTOR SUPPORT MINISTRY". To share with the "PEOPLE OF GOD" that there is life after and during "THE BURDEN OF DEBT" and that God will be with them. And the only place one will find "PEACE" is in their place of worship, The Church, The Mosque, or The Synagogue, or any other worship settings of one's FAITH. SHALOM and thank you for taking the time to review this Web Site. Please share it with others if you think the site is worthwhile. May God be with us all as we travel through life on our bended knees, toward the cross.
WHEN I WROTE THE ABOVE IN SEPTEMBER 2002, THAT IS WHAT I THOUGHT, I just listened to her and Pastor Jeff Otterman going over what she was in search of. Then I brought up my in search of. What I was about to learn blew me away. THE UPSIDE-DOWN KINGDOM By Donald B. Kraybill He is a theological layman whose book was published in 1978. Just as the Hebrew response to God’s liberating exodus had real social consequences, so must ours. It is not enough to sift and ponder the theological beauty of this. We must act. The biblical model means that now we start forgiving, not only interpersonal insults but financial debts as well. We bring release to those who we oppress socially and economically. We lower rents and raise salaries. This unconventional and overwhelming Jubilee response to God’s merciful love is the New Testament expectation. In the Lord/s Prayer “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12), our granting forgiveness and accepting it are tied up in one moment. We become eligible to accept God’s forgiveness only when we repent and are willing to grant it to others. The Greek word “forgive” is the same word used in the Greek version of the Old Testament—the Septuagint—to describe the Jubilee which means liberate, forgive debts”, send away. Andre’ Trocme’ points out that the word “debts” in the Lord’s Prayer refers specifically to a financial debt in the most material sense. (10) So we are to forgive not merely bad feelings but actual financial debts. Here, in the center of the Lord’s Prayer, we find the Jubilee principle couched. The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23-35) also underlines the Jubilee axiom. A king forgives the large debt of one of his servants. The forgiven servant grabs a fellow servant by the throat and demands a small debt which the fellow servant cannot pay. The forgiven servant locks the small debtor in prison. When news of the unforgiving treatment reaches the king’s ears, he angrily throws the forgiven servant in jail until he can pay the original debt. The story concludes tersely with the Jubilee moral: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart (Matthew 18:35). The principle of reciprocal forgiveness which arises from the Jubilee pervades New Testament teaching. The economic instruction of Jesus squarely fits the Jubilee model. In the Jubilee perspective the words of Jesus no longer appear weird or stupid. Now they sound like a reasonable and natural response to God’s liberating forgiveness in our own lives. This is now me, John E. Jacobs, writing again; the above just blew me away. However, after some reflection, I said to myself that this is only one person stating this and he is a lay person, and I cannot swing on one branch. That would be pretty stupid. Late in the fall last year 2003, a former pastor of ours came to visit us for a few hours. He was heading back to his parish and home in Hartford, Wisconsin. I had some tough questions lined up for him when he arrived. The main question was, “Why, why did God create the Year of the Golden Jubilee??” The second question was, “Why did our Lord pray in his Lord’s Prayer, which we as Lutherans do not use, the following: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”.”
We spent several hours, and he agreed to write a book about this above subject and include the Nikolai D. Kondratieff waves. He said he had just purchased and was using a book that was written and covering the above two subjects but not the Kondratieff wave. He said he was going to buy another book and ship it to me, and that it would blow me away. However, he said he would copy Chapter 8 and send that right away. He did all the above, and it did blow me away. THE PRAYER THAT JESUS TAUGHT US By Michael H. Crosby, a Capuchin-Franciscan Priest Published in the year 2002 He gives talks around the world on biblical spirituality and corporate responsibility. Fr. Crosby lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My former pastor has been waiting for me to come over. He is going to arrange for us to both visit this Fr. Crosby. This will be thrilling and should be very soon. Chapter 8 starts at page 139 and goes thru page 159, consisting of 20 pages. FORGIVENESS OF DEBTS IN A CULTURE DEFINED BY PATRON/CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS Unlike Luke, who makes “debts” a matter of our sins (harmartia), the word used for debts in Matthew (opheilema) entails a definite dimension of economics (oikonomia). The word reinforces our approach to the prayer from the notion of patron/client relationships. In 6:12, “debt” is opheilema—the same word used of economic debts later (18:23FF.). Patron/client relationships involving debt not only had a special legal and political character; they carried moral and religious connotations as well. Since first-century Mediterranean people lived in economic systems in which religion was embedded in all relationships, morality undergirded all patron/client relationships. When debts were incurred, their payment was not only an economic and social concern; it was a religious and moral mandate as well. Richard Rohrbaugh and Bruce Malina note: “In the first century, it was interpersonal relations, not ‘a market mechanism,’ that controlled such ‘economic’ interactions as those involved in the notion of being in debt.” (2) COMPASSIONATE RELEASE AND DEBT FORGIVENESS AS THE WAY OF JUBILEE --- Paragraph at top of Page 154 The Lord’s prayer, which summarizes the thought of Jesus concerning prayer, includes the following request: “remit us our debts as we forgive those who have offended us.” Accurately, the word opheilema of the Greek text signifies precisely a monetary debt, in the most material sense of the term. In the “Our Father,” then, Jesus is not simply recommending vaguely that we might pardon those who have bothered us or made us trouble, but tells us purely and simply to erase the debts of those who owe us money; which is to say, practice the jubilee.” We have a new appointed Pastor with a PHD. In Theology and several Sundays ago he also blew me away with the following: from his sermon that Sunday, January 25, 2004. He stated that the first public words that our Lord stated after our Lord was baptized were Debts and the year of the Jubilee. AS MARTIN LUTHER STATED HERE I STAND As to the many, many versions of our LORD’S PRAYER, I stand with Matthew the Tax Collector and not with Luke’s version. Matthews IMHO has it right because it follows God’s law as laid down in the following. The Year of Jubilee, Leviticus 25 vs 8-10, The Living Bible "Every fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, let the trumpets blow loud and long throughout the land. For the fiftieth year shall be holy, a time to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all enslaved debtors, and a time for the canceling of all public and private debts." THE PRAYER THAT JESUS TAUGHT US By Michael H. Crosby, a Capuchin-Franciscan Priest Published in the year 2002 He gives talks around the world on biblical spirituality and corporate responsibility. Fr. Crosby lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. COMPASSIONATE RELEASE AND DEBT FORGIVENESS AS THE WAY OF JUBILEE --- Paragraph at top of Page 154 The Lord’s Prayer, which summarizes the thought of Jesus concerning prayer, includes the following request: “remit us our debts as we forgive those who have offended us.” Accurately, the word opheilema of the Greek text signifies precisely a monetary debt, in the most material sense of the term. In the “Our Father,” then, Jesus is not simply recommending vaguely that we might pardon those who have bothered us or made us trouble, but tells us purely and simply to erase the debts of those who owe us money; which is to say, practice the jubilee.” My Lutheran Church has failed me and millions upon millions of God’s People by not teaching us the Lord’s Prayer in the Matthew’s version, which IMHO is ANTI CAPITALISM. Our Lord was born and baptized in the ROMAN EMPIRE which was loaded with “ENSLAVED DEBTORS”. The ROMAN EMPIRE does not exist today and only time will tell if the United States’ Capitalist Empire will exist 100 or 200 years from now. The Lutheran Church instead taught us the Luke version which panders to “PRO CAPITALISM” and supports the loading of God’s People with Debt. Please, by no means am I anti Luke. It is a true fact of life that none of us, I mean none of us, were there with our Lord when he taught us how to pray his Lord’s Prayer and what the words would have been like had he said them in “PLAIN, SIMPLE ENGLISH” as we understand ENGLISH TODAY. We all are guilty and fall far short of the Glory of the Holy Trinity, God The Father, God The Son and God the Holy Sprit. Oh, what would it have been like to be there in the presence of our Lord to hear him pray to God the Father, and to teach us what he said in the greatest Prayer of all time in the true light of time, and what he was living thru in that society at that time with enslaved debtors. It humbles me to the bottom of my soul, and I can understand the many, many different interpretations of the holy SCRIPTURE. We are all trying to play God, but we are not God; we are just trying to translate another language and that is where we fall between the cracks, all IMHO. As to the many, many versions of our LORD’S PRAYER, I stand with Matthew the Tax Collector and not with Luke’s version. Matthews IMHO has it right because it follows God’s law as it was laid down in the following. The Year of Jubilee, Leviticus 25 vs 8-10, in The Living Bible HERE I STAND Sincerely, John E. Jacobs A Child of God and an ENSLAVED DEBTOR To quote a verse from the 23rd Psalm -- "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.." IMHO may I also suggest: "In my humble opinion" "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of “DEBT”, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me." As you go on your way, may God go with you. I have also now learned the following: Leviticus Chapter 25 It was Moses when he lead his people the Israelis, the enslaved Jewish people, in the Exodus from Egypt. Remember these people of God were ENSLAVED DEBTORS in the Egyptian Empire. This took place around 1500BC. While Moses was on Mount Sinai, God gave him these instructions for the people of Israel. The year of the Golden Jubilee 50 Years. The forgiveness of DEBTS BOTH PUBLIC & PRIVATE. IMHO, I feel this took place very close to 1,500 BC. Divided by 50 year cycles, there would have been 30 GOLDEN JUBILEE CYCLES before Jesus Christ was born. This also means that in the year 2000 AD, divided by 50 year cycles, there would have been 40 GOLDEN JUBLIEE CYCLES after our Lord’s birth up to current economic times, the year 2000. To summarize, since God’s law to Moses 3,500 Years ago, divided by 50 year cycles, mankind would have had 70 GOLDEN JUBLIEE CYCLES. We in America have had 3 BOOM TO BUST CYCLES as stated by Nikolai D. Kondratieff, a Russian economist in his 55 Year Wave theory. Are we now about to enter the BUST CYCLE for the next 20 years, having started in the year 2000. With the help and blessing of Almighty God, I now want to study the ECONOMIC HISTORY OF ISRAEL from 1,500 BC to the year 2,000 AD. And see if there are 70 BOOM TO BUST CYCLES in the life of ISRAEL, God’s chosen people. Shalom to all of God’s people |
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