Sorry About That
As you can see from the title, I had a boatload of letters, but when I clicked publish, the computer spazzed and ate most of my answers. I conclude from this the Lord did not have as high a view of my answers as I did. Oh, well. And I need to go to work. And quit fooling around. These are the letters that made the providential cut.
Back to Rittenhouse
One quick questions going way back, on Rittenhouse:
I teach civics and OT, and confirm that vigilantism is sinfully acting outside our authority. But that authority is arresting suspects, holding trial carrying out penalties. I taught my students last semester that it is not only optional but a moral imperative to protect anyone (including ourselves) who is being harmed if we are aware of it. If I am aware of my neighbor’s person or property being damaged (whether that awareness comes from being there or hearing about it) I should defend him and his property and use force if needed; that is not vigilantism. While the police should also be called, the responsibility to prevent harm is not a role solely given to the state. I do not see Kyle as stepping in because the state was not doing their job (though the latter fact is true) He did not go there to hunt criminals, but to stand guard and use force to stop people in the act of harming innocent people and property. Nor when he preserved his own life with force (also a moral imperative) he had not been hunting them down in an investigation (the state’s job) but the attack was initiated by the group threatening people’s persons and property. I think it is dangerous to call doing what IS the moral role of all people Vigilantism. Rittenhouse no more “broke the social compact” than a man who sees a woman being raped, calls the police, and realizes he should not just wait and watch until they get there.
Any correction of my own position or clarity on yours would improve my teaching of Civics and Ethics
Luke
Luke, I agree completely.
Augustine and Calvin
Where would you point to in the Institutes to show how Calvin actually sorted out the problems that Augustine was trying to sort out in his work “Rebuke and Grace” and other places on the gift of perseverance? This question came up from you telling James White in the “Federal Vision” sweater vest dialogue that the “Dark Stout” FV guys are more Augustinian/Lutheran and you being an “Amber Ale” FV guy are more Calvinistic.
Jonty
Jonty, I don’t have time to look up any sources, but I can tell you what I was referring to. I was talking about the necessity of the new birth, and the fact that regeneration is not reversible. For Augustine, regeneration could be undone, while election obviously could not be. So both Augustine and Calvin held to the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation, but Calvin was an evangelical, using that term in its modern sense.
Believers and Health Care
In covenant theology the family is responsible for education, healthcare and welfare. As reformed Christians we have done a great job of pulling our kids out of government schools and taking responsibility for their education. It has gotten to the point (because of preaching and teaching) that a family might feel an uncomfortable stigma if they keep their kids in the government schools. As a result of the shift to home and private schools many new options have began to spring up.
With regard to welfare many families have taken it upon themselves to learn to grow a little food at home and maybe to shop farmers markets instead of just going to the grocery store. Some places have started forming co-ops where community members can help to support each other in the event of a shortage or “supply chain” issues. More teaching and encouragement is still needed to weather the next wave of mandates and or restrictions.
We however rarely consider that the doctor that is seeing our child sat right next to the public school teacher through elementary, jr. high, high school, and probably even the first four years of college. After college they most likely spent the next 6-8 years in a couple of God hating universities learning how to treat a body that evolved from primordial ooze. You now stand before this state trained doctor with your son who broke his arm falling out of a tree and you want him to respect you religious objection to the covid “vaccine” and to not call CPS because you refuse to vaccinate him? We have all been trained to “ ask our doctor” if we think something might be wrong with us. If that logic follows then the gold standard for a question on what to teach our children should be “ask your public school teacher”. If we want to know what to eat then “ask the USDA”. The medical system is godless and we have been paying them to rule over us. We pay though tax dollars, insurance premiums, deductibles, and finally copays. We pay all of this money into a system that kills 250, 000 people every year just in medical mistakes. Is there another industry that could survive killing that many people every year?
In years past people took much more of an interest in their own healthcare and that of their families because doctors were reserved for the emergencies and when all other options had been exhausted. It is going to be a steep and uncomfortable climb for many of us to regain our God-given healthcare independence from the government system. The first step is to learn as much as you can about the basics of family healthcare. Find people in your community who have a knowledge base and are willing to bring you along. Start acquiring supplies to take care of little injuries and illnesses. Support those who decide to birth at home. Start a deathbed hospitality ministry. The more we take back of our healthcare, the less we will be forced to bow to all their wishes in order to get the help we need.
It would be good and right to admonish a father who gave his children over to Caesar to be educated or to McDonalds to be fed. Why should we not hold each to the same standard with regard to the healthcare of our families?
Joshua
Joshua, there is much value in what you say. The medical system has been co-opted by secularists and statists, and has almost entirely discredited itself. So our health care system needs to be overhauled, and Christians need to detach any form of implicit trust from it. That said, I don’t want to be a perfectionist, and I want to make distinctions. If a kid falls out of a tree and breaks a leg, it would likely be a better idea to go to the ER for the medical treatment. You would have to make a judgment call on how likely it would be for them to call CPS.
Ah, Aquinas
Would you please interact with this article? It has to do with Aquinas and Natural Theology. I know James White and Owen Strachan are active in the canceling of Aquinas. Joe Rigney just tweeted about this topic the other day defending Aquinas. What say you??
Thankful for your ministry,
Silas
Silas, James White and I were just talking about this issue over lunch last week. I will give you the short form now, and I think it is perhaps likely that I am going to delve into this building controversy more thoroughly later. I am slowly working through the Summa now, and there are many places where I think Aquinas is invaluable, and other places where I think he is wide of the mark. The central thing is this. All Thomists are classical theists. Not all classical theists are Thomists. Thomas is within the bounds of orthodoxy, but he is not the definition of orthodoxy. And given the tenor of our times, I would want to use our language more carefully. Disagreeing with Thomas is not “cancelling” him. It is simply disagreeing with him, and that is something that fellow classical theists have every right to do.
Strachan said Aquinas denied the gospel, putting outside orthodoxy.
Doug responded saying that not all classical theists are Thomists, which is true enough. But it’s also true that Owen Strachan not a classical theist at all. His theology around the trinity has serious fundamental problems. People in our circles take him seriously because he is on our side in the culture war, but he needs far more direct pushback on his doctrine of God.
Such as?
This is a decent overview: https://theparticularbaptist.net/2021/11/15/toying-with-god-owen-strachen-and-the-submission-of-christ-in-the-trinity/
You can also read his substacks on eternal submission (or really anything on the trinity) which I think are badly in error. Most of the worst stuff has been ok Twitter which is difficult to search. But he has talked about the most important parts of the trinity and a hierarchy of energies in the trinity and things of that sort. He clearly doesn’t hold to, or doesn’t understand, the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity.
Seems to me that Strachan’s critics are simply denaturing sonship. Remove the relationship, keep the name.
All of Aquinas’ most famous work, Summa Theologica, is on-line. The most cited section is his five proofs for the existence of God:
Does God exist?
There’s also a brief video explanation of how sections within the book are organized:
How do you read an article of the Summa?
From the linked article: We would argue that theology proper, doctrines like simplicity, immutability, and impassibility, have undergone radical revisions and/or rejections. The same is true for metaphysical realism in the doctrine of creation, eternal modes of subsistence and inseparable operations and virtually the entire historical western framework in trinitarianism, and a consistently Chalcedonian understanding of the hypostatic union in Christology. Theistic personalism, social trinitarianism, metaphysical univocism and nominalism, kenotic Christology—all of these are commonplace in Christianity today, particularly among evangelicals. Considering what is going on in the world today and the mess the church in the West is in… Read more »
Ken, the contemplation and knowledge of God are of great use in our times. It is good to contend for a correct view of God. Also, I’m sure you would agree, it’s important to train our minds during our mess in the West. You should appreciate the theologian arguing for the doctrines of God as you appreciate your car mechanic working on your engine, for all space is sacred space, and God can be served in both areas. Not everyone is called to be on the frontlines of our culture war. But we are to lead and contend in the… Read more »
Silas – I am not remotely saying that doctrine isn’t important. It is vital to the health of the church. Yet God is a person to be known (experienced even) and not a doctrine. What I am getting at is an intellectualism that may attain rarified philosophical heights, but that is of little value in a local church made up of ordinary people facing more mundane problems. Theological discussions that are academic in both senses of the word – intellectual and the more popular definition of academic as ‘irrelevant’. Douglas Murray give a good quotation of this kind of thing… Read more »
“What I am getting at is an intellectualism that may attain rarified philosophical heights, but that is of little value in a local church made up of ordinary people facing more mundane problems.“ Ken, to this quote and what you’re putting forth, Samuel Parkison is a professor and not a pastor. He is responding as an academic in a scholarly issue. Not many laypeople are picking up Aquinas’s Summa. Also, he’s responding to another professor’s critique of Aquinas. Parkison is engaging Strachan in an academic debate. These are academics speaking confidently in their fields of expertise. We shouldn’t expect these… Read more »
Fair comment. This sort of thing is normal amongst academics, and I am not so much of a Philistine to say it should never happen in the world of ideas.
I would still maintain that it has little relevance to the local church, where biblical doctrine at least ought to have a more practical value.
Fun bit of trivia: until you posted your reply, the term “metaphysical univocism” was a
Googlewhack
It possible that Samuel Parkison may have been the first person in history to pair those two words together.
I don’t know, but that article completely missed Strachan central claim concerning Aquinas, which is that he is a false teacher and antiChrist.
Doug didn’t seem aware of that claim either, which is why I commented.
Nathan, this first paragraph isn’t necessarily directed at you, but I’m wondering: Is there a reason no one is quoting whatever it is they find problematic? I couldn’t care less whether anyone is a “classical theist” or what they supposedly think about “divine simplicity”, “eternal submission”, or other nebulous, non-salvific concepts on which practically no one has a handle. I find ad-hominem and argument-by-assertion to be particularly annoying forms of fallacy. So then, let’s start with Strachan’s claim, since the Gospel is an essential doctrine of orthodox Christianity and it would seem not many people listen to Strachan’s podcast. What… Read more »
Going from memory here… rejecting salvation by faith alone, imputed righteousness. Holding that penance removes sin and is necessary, the cross not being sufficient. And asserting the pope is head of the church.
Well then, assuming this is the essence of Strachan’s claim, and assuming the claim is true, then that would put Aquinas squarely outside of orthodoxy.
You’d think anyone familiar with Aquinas’ works would be able to make short work of demolishing such a claim — simply cite Aquinas’ own words to the contrary.
Yet here we are, two linked articles and Demo’s ad-hominem later, and still no one has addressed Strachan’s claim. If Strachan’s critics — who certainly don’t lack for words — can’t assemble a coherent response to a simple claim, then it would seem the claim has merit.
Isn’t it rather anachronistic to expect Aquinas to have weighed in on theological disputes that did not erupt until 250 years after he died?
In any case, he does have some passages in his Summa that could be applied to those disputes.
On justification, Part 2.1, Question 113, Article 2, Objection 2 raises the imputation only idea.
On the sacrament of penance, Part 3, Question 84, Article 3, Objection 3 anticipates a Protestant objection.
His answers are in the corresponding “Reply to Objection” paragraphs in each article.
Being totally unaware of this dispute, I looked it up. From what I gather, a small number of Reformed Baptist theologians are claiming that Aquinas’s classical theology was proto-Reformed or at least that The Summa is not incompatible with the views of the Reformers. There has been push back from other Reformed scholars who say that Aquinas taught damnable error and should be regarded as a false teacher. It seems to me that, rather than explore The Summa for points of disagreement, it would save time to simply acknowledge that Aquinas taught what Catholics universally believed and that on any… Read more »
There are subjects where Catholics and Protestants do still substantially differ, but there are also points on which the difference is semantic rather than substantive.
Those are the points where Reformed recommendations such as this may do the most good:
Why Protestants should read Thomas Aquinas
John, Scripture is the yardstick by which we measure doctrine and theology, not the church, not tradition, nor anyone or anything else.
Salvation by grace is an essential doctrine of Christianity (Eph. 2:8-9, Gal. 5:4). Essential doctrines are not up for debate. Anyone who disputes salvation by grace alone is outside of orthodox Christian teaching.
So then, based on Summa Theologiae Part 2.1, Question 114, Article 3, Aquinas falls short, as it would appear he is trying to backdoor works into grace for salvation.
Looks like Strachan’s claim is solid.
Happily, Aquinas certainly did teach that salvation is by grace alone. Question 114 comes at the end of a series of questions addressing grace, starting with question 109 and should be understood within that context. Salvation by grace alone is clear from many of the articles in those questions, including: Question 109, article 5 – “And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life” and Question 114, article 2 – [N]o one existing in a state of mortal sin can merit eternal life unless first he be reconciled to God, through his sin being forgiven, which is brought about by… Read more »
“ aren’t there slightly more serious issues to be discussing than this mish-mash of jargon” Sure. Its just that there isn’t a hierarchy of allowable conversation topics based on present global importance. You’re implying that talking about Thing A at all means ignoring Thing B all the time. Why? Almost everything is more important than what you’re having for dinner next Saturday. That doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to talk about what you’re having for dinner next Saturday. “This is almost the evangelical equivalent of being woke, isn’t it?” How so? The only thing you’ve said about it is that it… Read more »
Justin – I’m not talking about what is allowed to be discussed, but rather how relevant it is to the modern church. See my reply to Silas above. When there is abuse going on amongst Christian believers, compromise over quite basic issues (LGBT, divorce and remarriage or things like woke inroads) I don’t think reliving the past is profitable. Interesting yes, but a distraction from what is really important. Last week I didn’t say evangelicals were authoritarian, rather calvinism is. This is based on their concept of God as all controlling, and I am mulling over whether this finds an… Read more »
“This is based on their concept of God as all controlling, and I am mulling over whether this finds an outlet in reformed churches being authoritarian, controlling, the emphasis on submission to leaders or wives to husbands.” Once again, Ken, this “outlet” is practically non-existent in Reformed churches. While most PCA and OPC churches give lip service to male headship (some are now too “woke” to do this), in practice you’ll find more women unofficially ruling churches and their husbands/families than vice versa. Yes, you can find a bad example here and there (and a lot of fake news on… Read more »
I might have been clearer to say the over-emphasis on submission. It is the other side of the coin to pastors and elders who want to be controlling. In a way you have made my point for me. You have homed in on the word submission, and at the same time denied large-scale abuse is going on. I think the latter is untenable across the church spectrum. I am mulling over whether any particular theological stream is enabling such abuse – complementarianism taken to an extreme, and submission to church leaders reminiscent of the old shepherding error (‘delegated authority’, human… Read more »
“You have homed in on the word submission, and at the same time denied large-scale abuse is going on”
Yes, and am doing so because large-scale abuse isn’t going on and I care about the truth, as any Christian should. I’ll go back to my “get on your knees and see why you have a problem with God’s Word” (and been so influenced by the culture, false discernment blogs, feminism, etc.).
“Yes, and am doing so because large-scale abuse isn’t going on” There’s just no having this discussion with this person. When objective measurement is not on the table, when you treat your personal impressions from your limited personal experience as authoritative, there is no reality anymore. How can you possibly hope to come to an accurate conclusion when you don’t measure your ideas against anything? The man literally, a couple paragraphs above you, argued that you can’t hold the world to a particular interpretation of the Bible. Lets all just ruminate for two seconds on the implications of that coming… Read more »
What an extraordinary response. Why haven’t you asked Cherrara where he gets his this a tiny, tiny issue–maybe 0.001% of churches go extreme in this area from? In terms of the Catholics, there have been hundreds of thousands of cases in various countries. The big question is are so-called Protestant churches any better? I was asked about this before and requested to be more specific, so I listed a number of men who headed up large “ministries” who had been found to be abusers both spiritual and sexual, but this was dismissed. If the leaders are like this, how widespread… Read more »
“When More Letters Were Needed, More Came“
Comes the hour, comes the missive…
I guess…
Joshua, the biggest problem in any medical overhaul is the near absolute, enforced control of the access to medicine and the access of medical equipment that is held by the FDA and the states’ boards of pharmacy. The most Christian of medical practices has to send samples out for testing. How expensive is an MRI machine? Other than an over the counter medicine or an herbal remedy, every drug is regulated. Anyone who touches the drugs behind the counter has a state license. The DEA is the enforcement agency. A pharmacy has to fill out DEA forms to get drugs… Read more »
All excellent examples of our government punishing those who do good.
Christians need to be very sober when considering such tyranny.
Zeph, The task of taking back our healthcare is daunting for sure but congressional approval is not needed. To start you need people in your community to see the need for a parallel system and to identify resources that are willing to teach you as parents how to take care of basic healthcare problems. Just a a food co-op is founded so a medical co-op can begin it starts small and there are hiccups but over time it builds momentum. Many medications and medical equipment are available on the internet if you are wanting to go in that direction. Youtube… Read more »
What about turn to herbal and natural remedies? Of course if many trauma type accidents or injuries you have to go to the doctors and hospitals. But what about we start adjusting our diet and start eating healthy and use herbal and natural remedies to address many chronic illnesses that we experience?
Churches can start educating believers in this area and begin to help Christians wean off drugs and medicines. That would be a great start and it would starve the “beast” of this giant pharmaseutical industry complex.
Herbal remedies are impure drugs, and in the United States at least they’re sold without anyone being required to check that what’s in the package is what’s on the label. The U.S. population has a lot of health problems related to obesity and inactivity, but elderberry tea isn’t going to help those.
It does take a complete change of our current diet to really deal with many of the chronic issues such as obesity. However, it is going to be a start. And using natural herb and other natural food/remedies should not be worse than man-made chemically produced drugs. The natural food/herb are what God created in the first place (of course we are after the fall, so not of all them are perfect). But still, look at the strength of Chinese medicines, there’s definitely a reason why they use herbs and other natural foods as the primary source of medicine.
If you mean the Chinese and other East Asians, they use western medicine as readily as they do traditional Chinese medicine. There is a reason they adopted Western medicine once they were introduced to it.
Before anyone buys too far into traditional Chinese medicine they should understand that it is rooted in Taoism, and that it traditionally use some ingredients that are not herbs but animal parts. I guess if it comes from nature you can call it natural, but I prefer a narrower definition of “food”.
“..it it traditionally use some ingredients that are not herbs but animal parts.”
Sheesh, next thing you’re going to say some was developed from fetal cell lines.
If you look up some of the ingredients (which you eat or drink), you’ll see what most westerners would find objectionable. The reason isn’t the same kind of reason you have for objecting to vaccines. In any case, traditional Chinese medicine isn’t all herbs and natural foods.
Yes, of course Western medicine is the dominant medical system right now all over the world. However, there are certain advantages of understanding coming from the Eastern and alternative medicine point of view. One of the main difference is that current Western medicine tends to treat symptoms with chemical drugs that targets only that particular symptom and makes it go away. While in Chinese medicine, the theory is to treat the root causes that usually takes a longer time to address. I am not saying Chinese medicine is definitely better than Western medicine. However, 2000 years of human experiences are… Read more »
“The U.S. population has a lot of health problems related to obesity and inactivity, but elderberry tea isn’t going to help those.”
Neither is the food pyramid or the garbage they serve in hospitals…it’s a steady diet of that food that put many of them there in the first place.
Or, the obscenely enormous amounts of fast food, comfort food, and every other kind of food some people consume, coupled with the aforementioned inactivity. We are on the right track here, food has a lot to do with health.
Right, but rejecting the known bad stuff doesn’t automatically qualify any given outside-the-box alternatives as being genuinely good, let alone a panacea for everything that’s already damaged. To say the latest alternative fad isn’t the answer isn’t to say that unreflectively continuing in mainstream practices is the answer, it’s just to say that it’s harder work to solve the effects of bad health practices than simply to latch onto some currently fashionable alternative. The currently fashionable alternative (whatever that might be) could be helpful, it could be useless, it could be harmful, but what it isn’t, is a cure.
“The currently fashionable alternative (whatever that might be) could be helpful, it could be useless, it could be harmful, but what it isn’t, is a cure.”
Usually not, but there are a few things like this have cured multiple health issues (not just the guy in the video, but thousands of others on various sites/forums). They did something simple…and completely contrary to the diet advice we’ve gotten for the last 60 years.
Inspiring Carnivore Success Story and Interview with Special Guest Brett Lloyd! – YouTube
I don’t think OP meant buying herbal remedies in stores or online. It seems they meant growing herbs oneself.
Harvard School of Medicine ran a survey to determine how many people do just this. They were truly shocked to learn that ten percent of Americans engage in alternative medicine.
I wonder how “alternative medicine” is defined in that study. I take a couple of vitamin/mineral supplements without ever having consulted a doctor about it. Is that alternative medicine? I have family members who are entirely comfortable with conventional medicine for most routine matters, but use a chiropractor. Is that alternative medicine?
That is a very good question. I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that Harvard School of Medicine has a fairly broad definition of alternative medicine, one that includes anything that did not involve consulting an MD.
For, the record, I think taking supplements is fine – I do it – but we should remember there is a reason they are called *supplements*.
Definitely.
“ And given the tenor of our times, I would want to use our language more carefully. Disagreeing with Thomas is not “cancelling” him.” I was recently accused at a dinner party of participating in “cancel culture” for saying that I find Jordan Peele insufferable as a person. I didn’t say that he shouldn’t be allowed to make his movies, or that anyone should be less able to conveniently watch them. Merely disliking qualified me for the accusation. Its a major sign of a term of the counter-culture being successful when its coopted by the those who three seconds ago were… Read more »
Similarly, I’ve heard conservative Christians being accused of “cancel culture” because they refuse to financially support Disney (Disney Channel, Disney World, Disneyland, etc.). This was simply known as a “boycott” for many decades, or “hitting them in the wallet.” I’ve yet to see anyone call for Disney’s removal from social media platforms, stock exchanges, banks, online software or web hosting–you know the stuff that’s happened to conservatives to ruin their livelihood and “cancel” any chance of them making a living.
Or simply, “not wanting to spend my money there because I don’t like where it goes” without even trying to make any statement by so doing.
Joshua, Many things are happening in the medical realm. You can become part of a cost share program in lieu of traditional insurance (Samaritan Ministries for example). There are also many primary care physicians who are leaving or have left the CMS/insurance system. There is a new independent medical system in northern Idaho (Heart of Hope Health). There is an independent surgery center in Oklahoma City (Surgery Center of OK). My husband has just started a direct pay mobile podiatry practice (www.drafoot.com) in Seattle WA. It is happening. Many Christian providers are trying to get out of the system and… Read more »
Yep! Good stuff.
“Thomas is within the bounds of orthodoxy, but he is not the definition of orthodoxy.”
I think this is where the many scholastic talking heads speak right past each other. Most reformed Thomists are not advocating Aquinas as “the definition of orthodoxy.” I may be wrong and am open to correction. So, if you know any reformed Thomists advocating for a full-on embrace (his soteriology, ecclesiology, etc.) of Aquinas, who are they? Who are the reformed guys advocating for Aquinas as THE definition of orthodoxy?
A helpful response to Strachan: https://www.thelondonlyceum.com/disputatio-a-response-to-owen-strachan/
Speaking of medical system, the word translated to “witchcraft” in the New Testament from Greek was pharmakia, which gives us the modern word pharmacy and pharmaceutical. And knowing the history of medicine, it is quite clear that there’s a very strong connection between the alchemist, witches, wizards and today’s pharmaceutical industry. It is very interesting to consider that the things that God created, such as food, herbs, and other natural items all have healing properties due to the various vitamins, chemical compounds contained within. However, when men extract and purify those compounds from the natural food, things start to get… Read more »
The “witchcraft” = “pharmakia” takes on a special significance when you consider the Great Reset crowd and their very open transhumanist, depop and other agendas (Yuval Noah Harari for example). Or when you consider “Christian” sellout leaders who willingly went along with them on all things COVID, literally obeying their orders and conspiring.
EXCLUSIVE: In Leaked Audio Former NIH Director/New Biden Science Adviser Laughs Over Threatening Unemployment to Force Vaccines, Blames Trump For Covid Deaths | The Daily Wire
Didn’t Ruth propose to Boaz?
Decades ago an email went around on Biblical ways to get married (14 for men, 7 for women, as I recall).
The story of Ruth and Boaz is a type of the Church and the Christ. Ruth is a type of the Church, the Gentile Bride of Christ, and Boaz is the Kinsman Redeemer who redeems the lost land of Elimilech and Naomi and marries the Gentile Bride in the process. So the case of Ruth and Boaz is not a typical marriage situation in ancient Israel setting. It is a special case where the dead man’s wife asks her husbands’ brother (or closest kinsman) to carry out his duty and obligation as a kinsman redeemer. It is not a regular… Read more »
I guess I have to correct and add to my own comments, as I felt that I did not present the ideas well. Indeed, the marriage of Boaz and Ruth, representing the marriage of Christ and His Bride is a mystery. It was not at the forefront in terms of the Law. However, God, in His infinite wisdom gave the Law with such provision to make the marriage between Boaz and Ruth lawful. Otherwise, how could Boaz marry a Gentile Moabitess without breaking the law? Considering that God commended that Moabites can never enter into the congregation of the Lord.… Read more »