This crisis is real, and the deception is everywhere…
If it is so bad that we need to forgive the loans, why are we continuing to make them?
Dave Ramsey
[The student loan program]’s had an effect on the spiritual economy of this nation.
Dave Ramsey
Universal non-optional, cause-and-effect, relationships… When you violate the principle, you reap the effect of that violation.
Arthur Burk
Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
Proverbs 13:11
Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.
Proverbs 22:16
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Proverbs 22:7
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.
Proverbs 13:22
In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.
Proverbs 21:20
This is a spiritual problem, as much as, if not more than, a financial or emotional problem. There is a reason I posted the picture of Themis as the thumbnail for this. I had a real, personal fight with this program, which is a program that is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is destruction. Destruction of calling, destruction of destiny, and destruction of our own timelines.
Let me make this one really clear, because I am not remotely finished hitting this one, for those of us who are choosing to live paycheck to paycheck, thinking God will finance lifestyle fluff and stupid decision-making.
As an aside, this is not written to condemn the poor for their lack of gain, or for circumstances beyond their control, such as not being able to predict crisis or cancer.
Rather, this is written to correct the mindset that we have to borrow to finance college, and that college is as supposed to be universal, non-optional, or the key to one’s success. Given that the majority of us knew college was coming for us, our refusal to save up for and cashflow it, or our choice to devour what we had in order to finance a more expensive college, as in my case.
I financed $29,875.27 to get an English degree. I devoured my Florida Prepaid College Program, which would have given me full tuition to any public university in the State of Florida, and when that policy was cashed it, it resulted in approximately $800.00 per semester, which covered maybe 5% of my total tuition (translation: barely a drop in the bucket).
And I took on another $30,000.00 to pay for seminary.
And I was so stupid in doing it.
So, About Dave Ramsey and Arthur Burk…
So, who are Dave Ramsey and Arthur Burk, you might ask, and what do they have to do with each other, and more to the point, what do both have to do with this topic of the Student Loan crisis?
That can be answered with one word: principles.
Dave Ramsey is the President of the Lampo Group, a financial consulting firm in Metro Nashville, TN, and host of the #3 nationally-syndicated “Dave Ramsey Show”. He speaks five days weekly, three hours daily, pertaining to basic and biblical financial principles. Remember that last word, “principles”.
Arthur Burk, conversely, is the President of Sapphire Leadership Group, a Christian think-tank, founded in Los Angeles, CA, and presently headquartered in Spartanburg, SC. His driving passion is principles on the whole, and hunting for answers to questions that are not being asked. And he has an undying belief that the principles are there and present, if we will just unpack them. One of those principles deals with the three major spirits that are perversions of the members of the Holy Trinity.
In this case, we are being given counsel that is completely contrary to the counsel that the Holy Spirit would give, and that pertains to the spirit that is the perversion of the Holy Spirit.
We are dealing with a wholesale violation of principles. And we are dealing with a deception that says borrowing for the investment of college is okay.
The Mesmerizing Spirit
The Mesmerizing Spirit, a perversion of the Holy Spirit is best described as a pickpocket, and its job is to divert your attention from the work that Holy Spirit wants to do in you and others around you.
The Mesmerizing Spirit (MS) prevents you from seeing others the way Christ sees them in fullness and accuracy, and he keeps you from seeing the positive in others because he gets you distracted on one negative thing at the expense of recognizing an entire good package, or he will get you focused on the one good thing about someone, and as a result, you will miss the negative aspect you would otherwise recognize, and so you chose to throw caution to the wind.
It is because of the MS that we got Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, because with both men, we as a nation negated the truth that a candidate’s personal life is critical when it comes to the national effect that man would have on the national dialogue while in office.
And it is because of the Mesmerizing Spirit that we have this current crisis. We are deceived nationally into believe debt is okay, provided the ends are good.
And we are failing to ask ourselves why we still have this program if it is creating and adding to the enslavement of both the national populace and their creativity and birthrights.
Those who borrow are slaves to those who lend to them.
A man or a woman who is enslaved like Joseph, does not have a birthright, They are not allowed to execute their passion, the things they love, because their bread and provision goes to their master. The master in this case, is not just Sallie Mae and others. It is wickedness in high places that run these institutions (Ephesians 6:12)
One of those manifestations of the Mesmerizing Spirit is that we have swallowed the camel of the spirit of Themis.
What Does Themis Have to Do With the Crisis?
I used Themis to paint a picture. We have this picture of someone who is providing us with a verdict based on physical evidence weighed in scales.
The counsel of Themis provides you with something that seems right based on the evidence in front of you. As a result of that counsel that seems right, you move into a plan of execution, solely based on how the scales tip, regardless of emotions or gut feeling any other prevailing factors or evidence. The math may or may not justify it, but you are told it is an investment in your future to take out loans.
The problem is, spiritual discernment, gut, and intuition are not even part of the equation with the scales, and, as spiritual beings, we know deep down inside of us, that this is wrong.
The Bible calls “discernment of spirits” a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10) that is given to the body of Christ for our profit (1 Corinthians 12:7). Discernment is for our protection.
And we might not recognize it because we have shut our discernment and gut off and gone with what is only in the scales in the moment, or the emotions of “making an investment in our future”.
When we don’t see those negatives clearly in the light of God’s words or with God’s discernment, or our God-given gut, we settle for lower wisdom, and a lower solution, rather than the best and more disciplined solution.
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:11
Translation: if you live like no one else now, later on you can live like no one else.
We still have to exercise caution because the difference “almost right counsel” and the “right counsel” can get subtle if we are not paying attention.
Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.
Charles Spurgeon
We do not want the justice of that which seems right. We want what IS right.
Student loans only might seem right, but living, working, and educating debt-free IS right.
God did not create us to borrow in order to fulfill our callings, gang.
We were not meant to content ourselves and bind our futures to our capacity to borrow and enslave ourselves as a long-term end of itself.
Accordingly, the SLP program has twisted and dark roots, anchors, weights, and bindings that are federal in nature and designed to rob you at the enrichment of those in Congress and the bureaucracy.
Furthermore there is no mechanism for bankruptcy from these loans because they are federally insured by “a government who is well-known for they ability to spend and steward wisely”. (sarcasm)
Accordingly, The Paraclete’s Hammer wholeheartedly endorses the end of the Federally Insured Student Loan Program. If you are on Spotify, iTunes, or Google Play Music, this podcast from Dave Ramsey is something worth listening to.
https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/borrowed-future
The Student Loan Program, if you let it, is so badly-managed, and so predatory, that it will destroy you, your birthright, your destiny, and your future if you let it.
There are a whole lot of people who view your ability to take on debt as their ability to get rich.
If the borrower is slave to the lender, and slaves do not have a birthright, gang, then the principles that Arthur, Dave, myself, and others have pursued, when put together, would conclude that a borrower’s birthright is submerged while they are in debt, and is made subject to their ability to pay off debt. The enemy therefore has every interest in keeping us enslaved in every way that he can find, even if it means we are deceived into thinking we have to take on debt in order to go into our calling.
That is dancing around the deception instead of attacking it head-on, because the majority of momentum is against those who take on debt, and those who make greater allowances for debt will spend more, buy more, and run up higher bills than they can afford. At some point, the system is on the verge of collapse and is not sustainable.
Can a man scoop fire into his lap and not be burned?
Anthony O’Neal has also written a book on the topic of the alternatives. Please consult it as well.
https://www.daveramsey.com/store/product/debt-free-degree-book?campaign_id=
Be blessed gang. And please understand, come hell or high water, the principles of reality and of Scripture work.