By Lee Van Ham, Jubilee Economics Ministries
As more eyes open to how the current empire is incapable of sustaining life on our planet, people are re-discovering that the collection of writings in the bible consistently speak against empire. The Torah, the prophets, Jesus, and the subsequent messianic communities or churches all concur in their opposition to the empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Hellenism, and Rome. Each of these empires in its own way created a minority who had privileges and affluence; a majority without.
By contrast, sabbath-jubilee frames life-sustaining practices for all with an economics radically committed to community and the common good. It calls us out of empire. The Greek word we translate as church, ecclesia, means ?to call out.? So we are invited out of empire with its economics of privilege for some, while the natural world and the majority of people inhabiting it experience exploitation and exclusion...
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