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[Tomato]

What do you think of those who use Exodus 22:25 and Exodus 23 as a way to prove that the Bible isn't about capitalism?

And would bankers or just people who borrow money in general be what those two verses was talking about?

[jimwalton]

In the Bible God does not dictate the shape of society. He does not seek to form a “perfect” society, because no society is perfect (since it is a society of fallen humans). He rather speaks into the shape of society as it exists in those times and encourages his people to live holy lives in that society. He does not dictate an ideal kind of government (monarchy vs. democracy); he does not dictate a system of marriage (arranged vs. love) or even polygamy vs. monogamy; he does not dictate the way that a society is stratified (slaves and free); he does not dictate a certain sort of economy (market economy vs. barter, capitalism vs. socialism). Every social structure is flawed.

The Bible contains three basic principles that are fundamental to forming a Christian approach to economics: ownership (the legitimacy of private property, implied in the Eighth Commandment among other places), stewardship (ownership is not ultimate; everything ultimately comes from God, belongs to Him. and is to be used for His glory rather than personal gratification). and charity (one way to glorify God with wealth is to help the poor). Capitalism and socialism both fail in two out of three. Furthermore, both in one way or another ignore the reality of human depravity. Capitalism, with its teaching that the pursuit of "enlightened self-interest" will result in benefits for all, ignores the fact that most self-interest is anything but enlightened and encourages greed. Socialism, on the other hand, with redistribution of wealth and control of the economy by the state, assumes that while individuals cannot be trusted to handle wealth ethically, the government can be. How can a state composed of sinful individuals be expected to act righteously? The history of socialism shows that this is an unrealistic expectation.

As far as Ex. 22.25 in particular, John Davis writes, "Charging interest is not wrong or immoral. Jesus approved of the principle of profit, which includes interest on loans under normal conditions (Mt. 25.27; Lk. 19.23). The laws are designed to prevent the poor from being taken into perpetual slavery."

John Walton writes, "In some periods of history, Christians understood this verse to mean that they had to refrain from charging interest to other Christians, which in turn made banking unprofitable and therefore not an allowable profession for Christians living in Christian communities. In such a setting, the Jews living among them were left to conduct the business of banking. That most of us today no longer consider banking to fall under the category of usury makes it easy to see how difficult it is to derive workable principles from such statements in the Torah. How it applies to one situation or another would always be subject to differences of opinion."