Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has
understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man,
and his number is 666.
This calls for a mind with wisdom: the
seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman [Babylon] is seated…
Revelation 1:3, 13:18 & 17:9
We live
in societies that believe that an economic system must charge interest, or
usury in its original meaning, to be
viable. Today's global financial markets have developed ways of trading in money
far more sophisticated and much harder to understand than simply renting it.
Many
critics of Islamic finance say that it gets its interest under another name,
though complex financial transactions. I do not think this is correct, although
I can see that the way Islamic banks often benchmark their financial products
against ‘Western’ alternatives may help create this impression. But this need
only serves to undermine the prevailing worldview.
But
what does the absence of usury in the Babylon described in Revelation 17-18
mean? If anything!
We
might conclude that the Islamic financial system comes to dominance, replacing
what in most parts of the world today are considered to be mainstream financial
products and services. But this is by no means the only or, in my view, most
likely scenario. During the 45 years I have been a Christian, I have heard the
Beast in Revelation likened to contemporary personalities (among them, the
Pope, President Kennedy and the European Common Market) that it is plainly unwise
to try to do this for Babylon or any other nations or institutions symbolised
in Revelation.
I realise that it is often unwise to draw conclusions from silence. But I think
that if the absence of trading in money is significant, it is a development we should watch out for. To do that successfully, we need to exercise the quality of wisdom encouraged
in the extracts from Revelation at the start of today's Reflection.
Babylon
facilitates sustainable trade in real goods, not ‘wealth’ that exists only in
sophisticated computer systems or economic growth through the negative of debt.
(For more reflection on debt economies and the nature of modern money, see the
second week of the Advent Reflections last year, beginning on Day 8.) Moreover, it seems to generate 'honest' gain, not interest, although people are exploited in more subtle ways. The
change could come from something as simple as crisis in the global debt economy,
the realisation that trading with immaterial wealth is ultimately barren, and a return
to more traditional economic structures.
If this
weekend you think there has not been much to reflect on about the future, I
hope that I have at least offered some food for thought about the present.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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