EPISODE 9A ECONOMICS and THE JUBILEE YEARS

EPISODE 9A ECONOMICS and THE JUBILEE YEARS

Moses gave them the Creator’s unique economic system. It was private ownership based on the years of Jubilee.

When Israel was following God’s laws, they followed the Jubilee principle; what Is lost will be restored.

Every 50 years, land was returned to the original owners, all debts were cancelled, all slaves were set free. The values placed on land, debts and slaves decreased as the Jubilee year was approached. Original ownership would be restored. See Leviticus chapters 25 to 27.

There were many advantages:

1. It limits the accumulation of land and wealth by the few

2. No one will be born in absolute poverty, ownership will be returned.    

3. It prevents permanent extremes of riches and poverty.

4. It abolishes slavery.

5. It was a fresh opportunity to those facing adverse circumstances.

6. It would preserve equality of opportunity.

7. Periodically, what is lost is restored. …

When Israel was following God’s laws, every 50 years, what was lost was restored. The Jubilee system in Israel was a source of economic equality.

            But at the beginning of Israel’s history, Moses had predicted a time when they would turn away from their Creator. They would lose their land and be scattered worldwide. They would be persecuted, filled with dread and in fear for their lives. Deuteronomy 28:64-66   Years later, their Creator would bring them back.

            The Jews lost their homeland in 70 A.D. when they revolted against Roman rule. The Jubilee years seemed to end. Their Creator had not forgotten. He had promised through Moses that He would bring them back from exile. Their ownership would be restored. The steps to restoring their land have been executed on Jubilee and fifty year cycles. The scientific demonstrations of that restoration are made on a 50th year schedule. 

1867 was a jubilee year. It had been 1795 years since they were scattered. Jews could not return to their land. It had been controlled by the Islamic Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years.

In the Jubilee year of 1867, the first steps of returning the Jews to their homeland were taken.

Moses had described what would happen to the land while the people were scattered. He warned, “The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it.” Deuteronomy 29:23

In 1867 an American author took the first world cruise on a steamship. While in the Middle East he recorded what the land was like around Jerusalem.  He described it as a land of salt and sulfur, not a blade of grass, dry and scorching hot, incapable of supporting even a few people. Two years later the author published a book that vaulted him to international fame.  The title of the book was Innocents Abroad. The author was Samuel Clemens. Mark Twain was his professional name. In 1867 he had confirmed what Moses had predicted about the land.

In 1867, at the same time as Mark Twain, a British engineer was in Jerusalem. The entire Middle East was the possession of the Ottoman Empire. A British citizen, Charles Warren, was secretly searching out and mapping Old Jerusalem. He was a Christian and Bible scholar. He would write a book on Moses’ prophecy. God would bring back the Jews. The land would blossom and support millions. He was measuring the land for a time when it might be purchased.

Nine years earlier, the Ottoman Empire had fallen into deep debt. It had borrowed large amounts of money during the Crimean War. To pay it back, they were forced to offer parcels of land for sale. They limited sales to citizens of the Empire, and excluded all Jews.

In 1867, still needing money, the Islamic Empire opened sales to foreigners, but not Jews. Third parties purchased property in the desolate Holy Land, then resold it to Jews. Small numbers of Jewish farmers moved there and started a school to experiment with dry farming.

In the Jubilee year of 1867 Mark Twain verified the desolate condition of the land. In 1867, for the first time in 400 years the Empire offered land for sale to foreigners. Jewish farmers began preparing the wasteland to support a large Jewish population.

How is this scientific evidence?

First, it is a principle that produced economic opportunity and reduced poverty. As a science of economics, its greatest test is in the future.

Second, in solar eclipses, there is an extended period of time between each eclipse. Only during the brief period of the eclipse is the sun’s light blocked. Scientists can observe the chromosome of gasses burning at the rim of the sun. In those moments much is learned about star formation.

            In the same way there are 50 year economic cycles in the Creator’s economic system. The 50th year begins facing what seems impossible. Then the miraculous occurs. It takes another step toward completion. The barriers are an amazing series of impossibilities that have been programmed into world history.

The positions, sizes and distances of the earth, moon and sun were established by the same Creator who, in the same way, schedules and times his purposes in human events. The science of Jubilee years parallels the science of astronomy.

            We will review the American economy in Part 3.