The Bible's thank-ruptcy system

Some wonderful friends of ours moved to the Ozarks from the far West. You can see their lovely Cape Cod style house from the state highway, perched on a hillside across the Gasconade River. But you can't just go right over there. To visit them, we have to take a dirt road that turns south, cross the low water bridge, preferably when the river is low, and wander through the hills for nearly two miles.

Like us, they bought a small farm, built a house and had a lot of kids. They intended to raise cattle for a living with a new kind of grass brought in from Texas, but instead started a family enterprise in the housing industry. When the financial collapse hit, they lost that business. Both had to get other jobs, away from each other and away from their children. Now, because of the national financial situation, they are under a certain bondage and have lost a measure of the freedom they had before. Yet they are more fortunate than some; they still have their home.

Many have noted the similarities between the Bible Jubilee cycle and the economic boom-bust cycle. The timing is similar. The Jubilee came in the 50th year, and the modern depression cycle, charted as far back as the 1200s in free economies, is close to that half century timing. The Jubilee cycle dealt with economic excesses by helping prevent them. The boom-bust cycle also deals with economic excesses, but with an involuntary debt adjustment – a crash and a depression.

There are also enormous contrasts between these two cycles. One is the difference between jubilation and anguish, joy and sorrow, and freedom and bondage.

The whole Jubilee system, with sabbath years and Jubilee years, forgave debts, released servants and returned property to the original family. Needless to say, all those whose debts were canceled were ecstatic. Instead of being put into bankruptcy, they were thrust into thank-ruptcy. How thankful would you be if you had a $20,000 credit card loan wiped out? That's thank-ruptcy.

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What does God's Word say about economic cycles? Find out in Dan White's new book, "The Jubilee Principle: God's Plan for Your Economic Freedom." The book is also available in e-book form.

A servant was freed after no longer than seven years. In colonial times, indentured servants paid for their passage to America by agreeing to work for seven years. How incredibly happy they must have been exactly seven years and one day later.

In the Jubilee year, property returned to the original family to whom God gave it. Somewhere back in the late 1800s, my ancestor owned a big tract of land in beautiful but rugged Wyoming County, W.Va. Unknown to the locals, coal had been discovered beneath the land, and corporations bought up the land for pennies an acre. After getting billions of dollars of coal out, they still own the land today. How would I feel if suddenly that land came back to my family? That's what the word jubilation means.

How about the other side of the economic equation in the Jubilee system: those who forgave debts, released servants and relinquished property? Did they get ripped off?

No, because they weren't impoverished by that. After the Jubilee year, they were not in debt themselves, were not enslaved themselves and still had their own property. They were fine. They had enough.

You see, the Jubilee brought jubilation. Economic depressions, on the other hand, bring great hardship.

Some people have their debt burden relieved by declaring bankruptcy, but that never causes them to be jubilant. A few people commit suicide; a few go to prison; and many suffer great loss and anguish. They don't just lose excess wealth. They lose jobs and homes and their whole sense of well-being.

Because of our work with Homeschool Helpers, we know many fine conservative Christian homeschool families. They are not big spenders or financial finaglers, yet many of them have also been hurt by this financial collapse. Some have lost their businesses; some have lost their jobs; and some may lose their homes.

People who study the subject often focus on the details, such as time or debt comparisons. But the biggest difference between the Jubilee cycle and the boom-bust cycle, between an economy with God at the center and an economy with greed at the center, is the difference between jubilation and anguish, joy and sorrow, freedom and bondage.

Dan L. White is the author of "The Jubilee Principle: God's Plan for Your Economic Freedom." The book is also available in e-book form.