Kinists and Ruth

Introduction

This post is something of a sequel to my two-part series Kinists and Rahab (First part; second part), only the focus here will be the Kinist opinion regarding Ruth. The article we'll be using as the basis of our discussion is from the Faith and Heritage website, and is entitled Kinist Orthodoxy: A Response to Brian Schwertley, Part 5. It's written by Davis Carlton, who wrote one of the aforementioned Rahab articles, and who wrote a response to my aforementioned posts, which I wrote a counter-response to. As one can tell from the title of the article up for review in this post, the article is written in response to someone else, so I won't be responding to the article in full, but rather focusing on the more general statements or contentions made.

Ruth is an interesting point of discussion, as, unlike Rahab, the Kinist contention is not that she was a Gentile. Indeed, Kinists argue (rightfully) that Moabites are close kin to Hebrews, as they are descended from the same extended family which Abraham belonged to (Gen 19:36-37). Rather, Kinists appeal to the ban on Moabites entering the assembly of God (Deu 23:3), and hence they perceive a Moabite believer becoming a believer and marrying an Israelite as a problem. Likewise, they would argue such a ban would extend into the realm of genetics and lineage, and therefore Christ's claim as the Messiah would be tainted by Moabite blood.

Most of these discussions we will cover here, in this post, focusing on the identity of Ruth and whether or not we should consider her an ethnic Moabite, or a Moabite by some other identity. As I often do, quotes from the original article will be in purple.

Who were the Moabites?

In the proper part of the article dealing with Ruth, Mr. Carlton presents the case that the Moabites spoken of in Ruth were not "ethnic Moabites," but "descendents of Israelite settlers." That is not to say ethnic Moabites no longer existed, but that, by the time of Ruth, they had been replaced in the region of Moab with ethnic Hebrews.

Schwertley’s awful argumentation all presupposes that Ruth was an ethnic Moabite. Schwertley is correct that Moabites were the ethnic kin of Israelites, as Moab was the son of Lot (Gen. 19:36-37), Abraham’s nephew (Gen. 14:12), making Jacob/Israel and Moab to be second cousins. Thus, even if Ruth were an ethnic Moabite, this would provide no problems to Kinism. In this regard, the passage is frankly irrelevant. It would still be helpful, however, to better understand the details of this narrative, for as we will see, we have reasons to believe that Ruth was not an ethnic Moabite.

Mr. Carlton proceeds to go into detail:

First, we need to establish the identity of the inhabitants of the country of Moab (Ruth 1:1). It might seem obvious that the inhabitants of the country of Moab must have been ethnic Moabites, but there is a significant history regarding the ethnic Moabites’ displacement before the lifetime of Ruth. The Amorites under Sihon, King of Heshbon, decimated the Moabites and occupied their land, driving away most of the people and taking some of them captive (Num. 21:26-30). Israel then conquered the Amorites and occupied this territory (Num. 21:33-35; Deut. 2:30-34) prior to crossing the Jordan; and even though the ethnic Moabites had been expelled, it continued to be called the country or plains of Moab. This land was then given as an inheritance to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (Deut. 3:12-16; 29:7-8; Josh. 13:32), according to the tribes’ own request to remain east of the Jordan (Num. 32). There still seem to be Moabites after this time, since they are listed among David’s servants (2 Sam. 8:2), as well as among the foreigners with whom Solomon intermarried (1 Kings 11:1). Still, the preponderance of evidence strongly suggests that the inhabitants of the country of Moab during the time of Ruth were actually the descendants of Israelite settlers. Israelite tribes are said to have inhabited the area, and Scripture is silent on whatever other minority populations may have resided there with them.

One must ponder why, if the Moabites during Ruth's time are the descendents of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, they are not referred to as such in the overall biblical narrative? Why is such a lineage never mentioned? Some might contend this is an arguing from silence fallacy, yet even when we look at the time period after Joshua, we still find mention of the tribes of Reuben (cf. Jdg 5:15-16), Gad (cf. 2 Sam 23:36), and Manasseh (cf. Jdg 6:35), and each time they are separate from Moab. (See also 2 Kings 10:32-33.) No connection is ever made between the two, and in fact the Bible's timeline contradicts the notion that one stemmed from the other.

In fact, history attests to the continued distinction between those three tribes and the nation of Moab: in the famous Moabite Stone, which reveals much regarding the history of Moab, King Mesha (who lived around the 800's BC) claims to have dealt harshly with the Gadites around Ataroth (Oxford, 238). Here is the relevant section from the actual stone:

And the men of Gad lived in the land of Atarot from ancient times; and the king of Israel built Atarot for himself, and I fought against the city and captured it. And I killed all the people of the city as a sacrifice for Kemosh and for Moab. [source]

In addition to all this, we might add the witness of Josephus, who records from the first century AD on the history of the Jewish people. While speaking on the episode of Lot and his daughters, he writes the following words:

But his daughters, thinking that all mankind were destroyed, approached to their father, though taking care not to be perceived. This they did, that human kind might not utterly fail: and they bare sons; the son of the elder was named Moab, Which denotes one derived from his father; the younger bare Ammon, which name denotes one derived from a kinsman. The former of whom was the father of the Moabites, which is even still a great nation; the latter was the father of the Ammonites; and both of them are inhabitants of Celesyria. And such was the departure of Lot from among the Sodomites. [Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, 11:5; source; emphases mine]

Josephus records Moab not only as a "great nation" in his own time period, but likewise that the ethnic Moabites (the descendants of Lot, as he specifies here) still resided in "Celesyria" (an archaic way of referring to the Palestinian region). Hence Josephus further attests that, not only did the Moabites still exist collectively as a significant people, but they still dwelt in the land collectively. This is all in contrast with seeing them as a diaspora, as presumed by Kinists.

Turning again to scripture, we must remember the account of Moab's rule over Israel, when King Eglon ruled over the Jews until their deliverance by Ehud (Jdg 4:11-12). Following the timeline of Judges, Eglon's invasion happens roughly 48 years after the start of the book of Judges (cf., Jdg 3:8; 3:11). The book of Ruth takes place during the time period of Judges (Ruth 1:1). The Archaeological Study Bible estimates that the Israelites entered Canaan in 1406 BC, with the time period of Judges beginning around 1375 BC (Archaeological, 386). Another scholarly work places the entry into Canaan around 1230 BC, while the period of Ehud happens around 1170 BC (Cundall, 32).

The point is, the time frame between the settlement of the Jews in Canaan, and the possible time of Ruth, is most likely in decades, rather than centuries. Within that same time period, we see a Moab independent of the three tribes Mr. Carlton references. To presume that such a span of time has passed that the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh would not only have fallen into idolatry, but would have been so disconnected from the people of Israel that they would be identified as another people altogether, is a tremendous jump in logic. (Though Mr. Carlton will make that argument later on.)

We must likewise remember that, shortly after the passage appealed to by Mr. Carlton, we run into the section dealing with Balaam and Balak, the king of Moab (Num 22-24). A little while later, the people are said to "play the harlot" with "the daughters of Moab," sacrificing to the Moabite gods (Num 25:1-2). It is due to all this that the laws regarding the Moabites were put in place, with the episode of Balaam specifically mentioned (Deu 23:3-4). Hence, a kingdom, realm, and people of Moab are identified after the supposed destruction of Moab, and before the settlements of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. In other words, shortly after Mr. Carlton would have us believe the Kingdom of Moab was destroyed... we see the Israelites interacting with the Kingdom of Moab. In fact, it's precisely because of this interaction that the laws against the Moabites are passed!

More than likely, the settlements of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh didn't involve the nation of Moab at all. God actually instructs the Israelites heading into Canaan not to take the land of the Moabites, because God had granted that to them after they moved there.

"So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road, away from Elath and from Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ (The Emim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.)" [Deuteronomy 2:8-11]

From this passage we can immediately infer two things:

First, God told the Jews not to take land from the Moabites, therefore we cannot presume that Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh took anything from them. God outright says in verse 9: "I will not give you any of their land as a possession." How, then, could Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh have taken anything pertaining to Moab as their possession? As Kinists are fond of sticking to the letter of the Law (pun intended), we would have to presume that Kinists recognize that these three tribes were violating God's command in taking the land from the Moabites.

Second, it is clear from this that there are still ethnic Moabites in the region, given God justifies His ban on harassing the Moabites with a promise made in giving Ar to "the sons of Lot." Hence, the sons of Lot - that is, the ethnic Moabites - are still in possession of the land by the time the invasion of Canaan has begun.

What, then, are we to make of the argument that actual, ethnic Moab were for the most part destroyed (or at least, scattered from the Moab region) by the Amorites in Numbers 21:26-30? It might help to first point out that the victories described in the passages were regarding a "former king of Moab" (Num 21:26), hence referencing the one before Balak, the contemporary king during the episode with Balaam. This would again imply that there was a continuation of the Moabite people within a land, rather than a scattering of them across the land, similar to the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Some have suggested that the land referenced in Numbers 21 is actually northern Moab, meaning north of the River Arnon (Oxford, 522). Indeed, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are said to have possessed the land taken by Sihon (Num 32:33), which would leave southern Moab, south of the River Arnon, to the Moabites themselves. That the Emim formerly lived there implies the Moabites moved in there either during or immediately after the time of the Emim. This may have happened after the campaign of King Sihon, after which the Israelites took the northern region. The Moabite Stone, mentioned before, makes mention of King Mesha conquering northern Moab, taking it from Israelites (Oxford, 522), which would further strengthen this hypothesis of the Moabites dwelling largely in the southern part of the region.

It is therefore erroneous for Mr. Carlton to argue that "the preponderance of evidence strongly suggests" his conclusion, when he has presented very little evidence to "strongly suggest" for such a case. His presentation ignores the entirety of scripture, as well as what archaeological and historical evidence says regarding the state of Moab.

Why Ruth is called a "Moabitess"

Mr. Carlton brings up another issue he sees in the narrative of Ruth, which is the role of religion in her life, which is linked to her identity as "Moabitess." After discussing Naomi's language in Ruth 1:15, and whether or not he was telling them to go and return to their old faiths, Mr. Carlton writes:

At any rate, these details of the passage can be important to the Alienist who wishes to leverage the girls’ likelihood of apostasy into an argument that Ruth and Naomi’s people were ethnic foreigners. The Alienist could argue (though Schwertley does not) that we cannot expect Ruth and Orpah to have been ethnic Israelites, for the inevitability of their apostasy in returning to their own people indicates that they were not of the covenant people, and thus not Israelites. He might similarly appeal to Ruth’s identification as a “stranger” in 2:10. The evident flaw in this argument is that the Israelites throughout Scripture are remarkably prone to idolatry and apostasy, in which case even a pattern of corporate apostasy among some long-separated Israelite group is not any reliable indicator of foreign ancestry. It is not a stretch to consider the Israelite contingent in the plains of Moab, whose forefathers desired not to enter the Promised Land west of the Jordan, as a sort of separate people, especially if they had been seduced to some sort of indigenous idolatry. We therefore have good overall reasons to consider Ruth as being descended from these original Israelite inhabitants, termed a “Moabitess” to refer to the geography and/or society (and perhaps the religion) of the Israelite contingent residing in the plains of Moab.

Hence, when Ruth is called "Ruth the Moabitess," Kinists argue that it does not mean she is an ethnic Moabite. Instead, Kinists propose that "Moabitess" has three other potential meanings:

• Locality - She's from the region of Moab.
• Nationality - She's from a nation called Moab.
• Religion - She follows the religion of Moab.

Let's respond to these one at a time, and see if they hold any validity:

The Locality Qualifier: We must look to the language used in regards to Orpah and Ruth, both from Naomi and from themselves. Naomi tells Ruth, shortly after Orpah leaves, that she "has gone back to her people and her gods" (Ruth 1:15). Ruth refuses to leave Naomi, stating that she will stay with her mother-in-law, adding: "Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God" (Ruth 1:16b). Here we see that Ruth is disconnecting not only her faith, but her people as well. On this basis alone, we can throw out the idea that Ruth was speaking on the basis of locality of origin, as it appears to go much deeper than what region of the world she was born in. We would certainly never see a Galilean Jew would never be told by an Alexandrian Jew, "Go back to your people and your gods."

The Nationality Qualifier: We established earlier, the events of Joshua and the events in Judges are closely related, so presuming that Ruth was part of a "long-separated Israelite group" is nonsensical. Even with differing estimations of when the Israelites entered Canaan and when the narrative in Judges begins, it's clear that barely a generation has passed between the time period of Joshua and Judges. Likewise, we earlier saw evidence, both from scripture and from historical sources, that the Kingdom of Moab was separate from the three tribes who settled beyond the Jordan. We can therefore reject the nationality qualifier, as there is no evidence that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh lost their identity as such during the course of their stay in the Trans-Jordan area.

The Religious Qualifier: Mr. Carlton argues that "the Israelites throughout Scripture are remarkably prone to idolatry and apostasy," hence it is reasonable to presume that a 'long-separated Israelite group" may have fallen into "indigenous idolatry." However, whenever the Israelites fell into idolatry and apostasy, they incurred condemnation and wrath from God - no such episode is recorded on the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh during this period in history. Joshua 22 recounts an episode where it was almost presumed they had, but they defended it as legitimate worship. 1 Chronicles 5:25-26 does recount the tribes falling away into idolatry, but they don't become Moabites - rather, they are handed over to the King of Assyria. Hence, the only record of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh falling away into idolatry and paganism is much later in history, and has nothing to do with Moab. We can therefore reject the religious qualifier.

In light of all this, and in light of what we saw before, let's ask this question: why is Ruth called a Moabitess? Quite simply, it's because she was indeed an ethnic Moabite. The Kinists may rant and rave and say that this causes problems for the lineage of Christ. Whether it does or not, the one simple fact which cannot ignore from the plain teaching of scripture, backed up by historical facts, is that we can only be led to believe that Ruth was an ethnic Moabite.

The Anti-Moabite Laws

Mr. Carlton now turns from the meaning of "Moabitess" towards favorite prooftexts for Kinists.

In addition to the above argumentation, we can add further evidence to suppose that Ruth was not an ethnic Moabite. Just as the application of Deuteronomy 23 by Ezra and Nehemiah forbade Rahab from being an ethnic Canaanite and Uriah from being an ethnic Hittite, the exact same consideration applies to Moabites. The exclusion of Moabites (Deut. 23:3) is specifically cited and applied in Nehemiah 13:1-3, when Nehemiah commands Israel to separate themselves from their foreign wives and children. Hence if Ruth were an ethnic Moabite, even though her ethnic distance would of itself be no issue for Kinism, we would have quite a large issue: not only Ruth, but Jesus Himself, would be barred from the congregation of the Lord by this legislation.

In the Rahab posts (specifically, the first post), we covered why the appeals to Deuteronomy 23, Ezra, and Nehemiah are problematic when the context for each passage is reviewed. For the sake of discussion, we are going to discuss each passage briefly here, but I encourage readers to go to the post linked for a more in depth discussion.

Deuteronomy 23's ban against the Moabites is a ban of judgment for their treatment of the Hebrews (see verses 4-6), not a fear of them intermixing genetically with the Israelites. As discussed in one of the Rahab articles, the Kinist argument that this becomes racialist by implication demonstrates the superficial appeal by them to this scripture.

The banning of foreign wives (including Moabites) in Nehemiah was influenced by the fact those same women were causing the men to seek after idols and sin. (See Nehemiah 13:25-26, which brings this up.) As for the expulsion of Moabites from the congregation of Israel, we go into further detail in the Rahab posts on how Jewish tradition has often understood that passage, which would grant Ruth further leeway. Kinists attack this and claim it muddles the text... even though they will, in the same presentation, appeal to first century Jewish tradition which they think supports their interpretation of scripture. (For example, see their erroneous use of the Pharisees' "Samaritan" charge against Christ, which we discuss in the first Rahab article.)

One thing I will add here is a reference to the Targum rendition of Ruth. The targumim were a series of Aramaic paraphrase translations of the Old Testament in the first century, and were written to assist Jews of that time (who mostly spoke Aramaic) of what the original Hebrew said. In the process, Jewish traditions or interpretations were used at various points. In the Targum for Ruth, it reads at one point:

Then she fell on her face and bowed to the ground, saying to him: "Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should befriend me, seeing that I am of a strange people, of the daughters of Moab; of a people which has not the merit to intermarry with the congregation of the Lord?" Boaz replied thus: "It has been told to me on the authority of the sages, that when the Lord decreed [against intermarriage with Moab], He did not decree against the women, but against the men..." [Ruth 3:10-11; source]

This clues us in not only to a Jewish understanding at the time of Christ's ministry that Ruth was understood as an ethnic Moabite (and hence would indeed have been under the ban), but a Jewish understanding at the time of Christ that the ban against the Moabites only referred to the men, and not necessarily the women.

Continuing on to the passage from Ezra, we find similarly religious themes, for the foreign women were causing the Jewish men to commit abominations, and hence the call to separate from them (See Ezra 9:1-2, 10-14, which clarifies this.) Therefore, the marriage of these foreign women was fulfilling the warning presented by God in the original passage from Deuteronomy.

Mr. Carlton, of course, is aware of the religious angle for these verses, and mocks such an idea in a section responding to his original author:

[...] After rejecting the Talmudic thesis that Deuteronomy 23 only forbade intermarriage with foreign males so that foreign women were fair game, Schwertley mentions, as a possible interpretation, that Ruth could have been a divinely-granted exception to the law because of her remarkable faith. Presumably, though he doesn’t explicitly say so, he would reject the absurd interpretation that none of the generational prohibitions in Deuteronomy 23 mattered so long as the subject is a believer, i.e. that all believing Ammonites, Moabites, and members of other forbidden nations could be integrated into Israel without hindrance. Such a confounding of national and religious categories makes God’s law to be foolish, elaborating upon forbidden nationalities and descendants only to provide an enormous, unstated loophole. [...]

I find it very humorous that Mr. Carlton dismisses the notion that Deuteronomy 23 was exempt if the individual was a believer, saying that such an interpretation is a "confounding of national and religious categories." I say humorous because this is precisely what Kinists do. Remember that just a moment ago, Mr. Carlton was arguing that "Moabitess" referred to her regional, national, or religious identity, separate of each other, even though nothing within the text itself would cause us to presume this was a normative mindset during that time period. Remember also that when Kinists attempt to handle Rahab's use of "us" and "you" in regards to the Canaanites and Israelites, they try to argue that she is using those pronouns in a religious, not ethnic, sense (again, despite the fact that there's little evidence people spoke in such a manner back then).

Furthermore, to call this realization "an enormous, unstated loophole," simply displays a warped understanding of God's grace. It was such a mindset that caused Jonah to grow upset with God for refusing to destroy Ninevah. It demonstrates that the mindset and focus of Kinism is not upon the grace of God, but upon ethnonationalism and race. Kinists might here accuse us of redefining the Law, yet when we permit the Law to speak for itself, we find it does not have a fear of racial intermixing at its heart, but sin and idolatry.

The problem with this, of course, is that Scripture says nothing of the sort. The text speaks of nations, as nations, being forbidden from entrance into Israel, and of foreign women and foreign children being separated from Israel. When Boaz considers marrying Ruth, he does not fear for the sanctions of the law which explicitly forbids intermarriage with Moabite women, nor does he have his fear forestalled by a divine revelation communicating the temporary inapplicability of the law for his circumstance. The law simply does not provide the exception which Schwertley supposes; it would be the worst of eisegesis to add in a separate, unstated loophole just to maintain that Ruth was an ethnic foreigner, especially when we already have positive evidence of Israelites residing in the land of Moab. The superior harmonization is to deny that Ruth was an ethnic Moabite.

As we saw earlier, that supposed "positive evidence" for Israelites dwelling in the land of Moab as brand new "Moabites" was shaky at best.

In like manner, Carlton's denial of the context seen in Deuteronomy 23, as well as in the relevant passages from Ezra and Nehemiah, shows that it is actually he that is missing what scripture says. Scripture clearly qualifies the ban on intermarrying due to the potentiality of idolatry. The Canaanite and Moabite women in Ezra and Nehemiah were guilty of causing the Jewish men to sin. These are all things plainly seen in scripture, but are also all things completely ignored by most Kinists. If there is to be a "superior harmonization" of scripture and what it says, it will not be found within Kinism.

It would be fitting here to call attention to the structure of our various responses to Schwertley’s examples. Schwertley would have us believe that Kinists’ only motivation for interpreting Rahab to be a non-Canaanite, Uriah to be a non-Hittite, and Ruth to be a non-Moabite (ethnically speaking) is that our preselected principles demand such interpretations. But our arguments have predominantly been appeals to the plain statements of Scripture explicitly forbidding those exact nations from intermarriage and integration with Israel. Our concern has been to harmonize the various relevant biblical texts with each other; harmonizing the biblical examples with our own view of nationhood has been secondary. Yet he accuses us of twisting and perverting the words of Scripture to accommodate a racist paradigm, even as he mangles the Word to buttress his Alienism.

Here Mr. Carlton accuses his opponent of mangling the word of God, and assures us that Kinist arguments have "predominantly been appeals to the plain statements of Scripture." However, the only "twisting and perverting" of scripture that we have seen in this post, and in previous articles, has been on the part of Kinists. I invite the read to review this post again, if they wish to deny that Davis Carlton has done this.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Mr. Carlton proceeds to give some final thoughts regarding Ruth's ancestry.

Whatever we conclude of Ruth’s ancestry, even if we hold that she had Moabite blood – or Amorite blood, which would be Canaanite (Gen. 10:15-16) and hence equally repugnant to the Deuteronomic assimilation laws – we can also see that her marriage to Boaz is not necessarily normative; it cannot prove Schwertley’s point that race or nationality is irrelevant to marriage. This is illustrated by the blessing at the end of the book of Ruth (4:11-12). The people gathered at the gate praise Boaz and Ruth and pray God’s blessing upon them, that they would be fruitful like Leah and Rachel, who built the house of Israel, and like the house of Pharez (Perez), the son of Judah and Tamar. The first marriage is a bigamous one in which Jacob married two sisters, and the second was an incestuous relationship between Judah and his daughter-in-law. Even if we had reason to believe that Ruth and Boaz’s marriage was interracial or otherwise neglectful of the established bounds of nationhood, we would have equal grounds to exalt bigamy and incest as morally normative, that is to say, none at all. We should consider the wise counsel of our friend Tim: "It is a common mistake to assume that the biblical narrative always can be taken as presenting normative patterns of behavior, unless contradicted by a law of God. But this is a shaky foundation; the biblical narrative evidently is not given with that purpose." The point of the story, which the Alienist should not overshadow with race-denying propaganda, is that God provided seed to Boaz the kinsman-redeemer through Christ’s virtuous foremother Ruth; thus Boaz serves as a type of Christ, the Kinsman-Redeemer of all the faithful.

Hence, at the end of his article, Mr. Carlton argues that, even if Ruth was a Moabite, this should not promote intermixing marriage anymore than events of sodomy or bigamy should normalize those actions, since Ruth's marriage was "not necessarily normative." Those who want to bicker and argue over Ruth as proof for intermixed marriages should, instead, just focus on the fact that God providentially provided Boaz with a wife, so that the line which would end in Christ could be continued.

This contention was made in Mr. Carlton's own response to me, and as I wrote in my counter-response, this is an inconsistent contention, as it contradicts the Kinist position towards Christ and the importance they place on His genetic lineage. This is seen in statements made by Kinists on Faith and Heritage and in other articles. Let us remind our reader what Ehud Would said from his article on Rahab:

...if the genealogies didn’t prove His lawful descent from Jacob and claim to the heritage of David, their inclusion to that end in the text would be a work of sublime futility – undermining the whole of the gospel and, thereby, revelation in general. [source]

And likewise, from another Kinist article:

It is impossible to deny the purity of Christ’s pedigree and yet retain any Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. Christ, quite simply, had to be the pure-blood heir apparent in order to be the prophesied Messiah without spot or blemish. [source]

In the mind of a Kinist, Ruth couldn't possibly be a Moabite, for if Christ had even as little as 1% Moabite DNA in His incarnate flesh, not only would the historical Christian doctrine of the incarnation completely unravel, but so would the very Gospel itself. To Kinists, Christ had to as free from forbidden DNA as He did any stain of sin. Nowhere is this taught in scripture, of course - in no passages regarding the Gospel, nor the incarnation, do we find genetic purity an important talking point. Kinists have to create this doctrine by pulling verses out of context from the Law and, like many theonomists, applying them as a continual command, with no historical or scriptural basis to back such claims up. (Again, we go over this in greater detail in previous posts.) Therefore, for a Kinist to have an attitude of, "Hey, even if it it was an intermixed marriage, let's just forget that and focus more on the fact that Ruth points us to Christ!" is completely nonsensical from a Kinist perspective. For Kinists, if Ruth was a Moabite, then the New Testament becomes a work of revelation we can simply toss out and reject.

Everything within scripture is meant to point us towards Christ and the Gospel. Kinism makes the focus instead on racial purity, to the point that even the Gospel becomes subjugated to it. It forces one to read scripture not through the lens of Christ, but the lens of ethnonationalism. It forces one to ignore chunks of history, even as it is recorded in scripture, to explain away problems that your own theology creates. This is why we see Kinism lead into another Gospel entirely, and hence Kinism must be avoided for the false teaching that it is.

***

Work Cited

Archaeological Study Bible: New International Version. Zondervan, 2006.

Cundall, Arthur E. and Leon Morris. The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Judges and Ruth. Intervarsity Press, 1968

Metzger, Bruce M. and Michael D. Coogan. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York, 1993.