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THE SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL
"Jezebel!" the name conjures up in the mind the picture of a "painted" and immoral woman. The name "Jezebel," however, simply means "unmarried," and the "spirit of Jezebel" is the spirit of unfaithfulness. In this sense, a man or a woman may be a "Jezebel."
The Toleration Of Seduction
The church and the state reek with the stench of unfaithfulness because the spirit of Jezebel is allowed in our homes. This wicked spirit is allowed to tempt and to seduce our families through the television, the radio, the stereo and the reading material that enters the home.
The entertainment of this wicked spirit has made unfaithfulness
increasingly common between husbands and wives. In many homes it must be sadly said,
The cock is silent
And the hen doth crow.
Fathers and mothers are unfaithful to their children by failing to nurture them in the fear and love and holiness of God. Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto ME and forbid them not;" and when parents allow the theater, the dance and the drug culture to scandalize their children, they are unfaithful to them and forbid their coming to Christ.
In a pamphlet entitled "How To Understand Humanism" Bill Gerhard quotes a professor of Educational Psychology at Harvard who addressing a Childhood Education seminar said,
"Every child in America entering school at the age of 5 is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, toward elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural Being, toward the sovereignty of his nation as a separate entity.
"It is up to you teachers to make all of these sick children well by creating the international children of the future."
Mr. John Dunphy, a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Illinois, said in a publication entitled "The Capital Voice"
"I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers; for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the education level --pre-school, day care or large state university.
"The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new --the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent in its promise of a world in which the former-realized ideal of ‘love thy neighbor’ will finally be achieved.
"Then, perhaps, we will be able to say with Tom Paine that ‘the world is my country, all (hu)mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.’ It will undoubtedly be a long, arduous, painful struggle replete with much sorrow and many tears; but humanism will emerge triumphant! It must if the family of humankind is to survive."
Although the national educators openly boast that their intention is to spoil our children through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ yet Christian parents continue to tolerate the seduction of their children by sending them to public schools. They have a mistaken sense of value who prefer their home, their automobiles, or their boat at the expense of the moral and spiritual welfare of their children.
When such a spirit of unfaithfulness pervades the home can it be expected that faithfulness will be found in the church or in the state? And society will never be altered until the spirit of the wicked temptress is driven from our homes.
The Addling Affect Of Unfaithfulness
The spirit of Jezebel pervades the church when pastors hold the Bible in their hands but are uncertain whether or not they have the Word of God. The spirit of unfaithfulness addles the mind until a person can no longer believe anything or anyone is faithful.
It is the spirit of Jezebel that has seduced the church by teaching a preaching a helpless and effeminate Savior who commands no reverence and who deserves no respect. This is another Jesus because the Jesus of the Bible is Lord of Heaven and earth.
It is the spirit of Jezebel that has seduced Christian men and women to leave the service of Christ to labor where the material gain is greater. "Jesus warned, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
The home and the church are in a time of trouble, and "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint." (Proverbs 25:19)
"Be Thou Faithful"
Jesus said, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." (Revelations 2:10) The people of God are exhorted by their Lord to be faithful—faithful in life, faithful unto death, faithful in spite of any hazard. God is faithful and the people of God are expected to faithful in all things, faithful at all times.
Christians should be faithful in assembling for public worship, and faithful in giving. They should be faithful in time of temptation, and faithful when the persecutor blasphemes that worthy name by which they are called.
They should be faithful in praying one for another, faithful in visiting the sick and imprisoned, and faithful in spreading the Gospel.
They should be faithful in little things; faithful during times of weakness, and in seasons of discouragements --but "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint;" and there can he no faithfulness so long as the spirit of Jezebel is entertained.
Unfaithful people are vain people. They cannot be upon. They are prosperity seekers, and as such they counted on in time of trouble. They are all talk, and because they have no real concern, they are not dedicated. Consequently they are a source of pain.
In such an hour as this is when the home, the church and the state is in a time of trouble, of what use are they who are possessed by the spirit of Jezebel --the spirit of unfaithfulness? Such people are married to themselves and not to the Lord Jesus Christ; and "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint."
"Usury" is a term often used for an excessively large amount of interest made on a loan. 1 It is a rate so disproportionate to the value to be earned by a loan as to be considered morally wrong. 2
It is also a terra used for unwarranted price increases such as those manufactured by the utility companies, and the recent pretended shortages of gasoline, sugar, and canning lids. "He that withholdeth corn (i.e. to create a shortage in order to increase the price), the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it." (Proverbs 11:26)
Biblically, the term "usury" refers to "any increase taken from the poor in return for having made a loan." 3
To speak of "usury", therefore, is to speak of "interest."
God forbade the Israelites to exact interest from loans made to fellow Israelites because it is an act of love to help our brother.
"Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother, usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury: unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it." (Deuteronomy 23: 19,20)
"The prohibition of usury is simultaneously coupled with
requirement that Godly men lend to all brethren in truly dire circumstances.4
"Thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: but thou shall open thine hand wide unto him, and shall surely lend him sufficiently for his need in that which he wanteth.... Thou shalt surely give him and thine hand shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee saying, ‘Thou shall open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land." (Deuteronomy 18:7b, 8, 10-11)
Lending to the poor is therefore an act of love to help a brother. While interest was allowed from loans to Gentiles (Deuteronomy 23:19,20) as from "one who may also be slain in battle 5 the Talmud declares the ideal set forth is to take no interest. 6
Our Lord declared,
"If ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again. But love your enemy and do good and lend hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." (Luke 6:34-36)
In early Roman history, only the principal on loans was collectable, interest was not introduced into Egypt until the 24th Dynasty (718-712 B.C.) when Bocchoris instituted 30 percent interest on loans of money, and 33 1/3 percent on loans of grain. But as early as 2000 B.C., Babylon loaned money at 20 percent interest and grain at 25 or 33 1/3 percent interest. This should be no surprise since Babylon was the seat of tyranny, both political and religious. 7
In Israel, however, God had given the blessing of Law.
"NO man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
" ...When thou dost lend thy brother anything, thou shall not go into his house to fetch his pledge. Thou shall stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee. And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge: in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God." (Deuteronomy 24:6,10-13)
Again,
"If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shall not he to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. If thou at all take thy neighbor’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: for that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his
skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious." (Exodus 22:25-27)
And again,
"He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor." (Proverbs 28:8)
In Psalm 15, David asks, "Lord, who shall abide in Thy Tabernacle? who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?" And the answer given includes, "He that putteth not out his money to usury." (Psalm 15:1-5)
The indictment God made against Israel might be made against
America today:
" ...thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God." (Ezekiel 22:12)
For centuries, the Christian community recognized the evil of extorting usury. At the Synod of Elvira in 310 A.D., Christians were forbidden to practice it. The Synod of Arles in 314 and the Council of Nicea in 325 prohibited pastors from extorting usury upon threat of dismissal from the ministry, while laymen were threatened with excommunication. Usury was labeled "avarice and wickedness." 8
At the Council of Lyons in 1274, Gregory X prohibited the harboring of usurers and of renting them homes, and expelled them from France within 3 months. Even their wills were invalidated. 9
Clement V declared if any continued to affirm there is no sin in charging usury he should be punished as a heretic. 10
Florentine moneylenders in 15th century Italy were extorting 32 1/2 percent interest on small loans. One evidence of true revival occurred under the preaching of Jerome Savonarola when bankers repented of their unjust gain and began repaying the exorbitant interest they had charged. 11
In the 1400’s, the Roman Catholic Church accepted the validity of a new kind of business loan. It was called the "Contractus Trinus", and entailed a partnership in which one person bear all risk of failure, while the other party received a fixed rate of interest whether the business was a success or a failure. This was the birth of the modern banking contract, and as Mr. Rushdoony points out, "It is impossible to guarantee such returns over long periods of time, since profits are not guaranteed in this world, and therefore, such an insured rate of return is fraudulent." 12
Luther and Melancthon inveighed against it as being "contradictory to love." 13
Edward VI prohibited interest on English loans, and when Henry VIII permitted 10 percent interest, he was withstood by Bishop John Hooper. 14
Usury is evil because: 1.) It takes advantage of people in distressing circumstances. 2.) It takes advantage of people’s carelessness. 3.) It takes advantage of people’s inexperience. To extort profit under such circumstances is incomparable with "love thy neighbor", and "he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (I John 4:20)
"Whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." (I John 3:17,18)
Footnotes
1 The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia Of Religious Knowledge. Edited by Samuel McCauley Jackson. Vol. XII of 12 vols. Reprinted 1977. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, p. 116.
2Ibid. p. 117.
3 Rushdoony, Rousas. The Institutes Of Biblical Law. Copyright 1973. Craig Press, p. 800.
4 Ibid. p. 801.
5 Schaff-Herzog, p. 117.
6 Tract entitled "Makhoth 20", 24a.
7 Schaff-Herzog, p. 117. 12 Rushdoony, pp. 8OO-801, note.
8 Ibid. 13 Schaff-Herzog, p. 118.
9 Ibid. p. 118. 14 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Smiles, Samuel. Duty. Copyright 1888. Chicago: Belford, Clarke and Company, p. 136.