Thread temporarily closed to prevent cascading floods of reported posts.
Thread reopened; there should be no further promotion of wickedness.
To the admins: I'm late to the game and because my Greek never did get very good, I wouldn't have jumped into almost any discussion of the LXX.
I will compliment those in charge of the Puritan Board for quickly shutting the door on advocacy of anti-Semitic men and racists who have been formally excommunicated by conservative churches.
I've been dismayed by the number of conservative Reformed people who are tolerating anti-Semitism and "race realism." Good for those in charge here for shutting that down right away.
It's so far a small movement, and mostly online. But it's doing real damage in the real world and I'm having to explain to non-Reformed people that no, that is NOT what Reformed people believe.
Citing Cromwell's fight to allow Jewish people to live openly as Jews in the Puritan Commonwealth, and the widely known Dutch Reformed reputation for providing a place of refuge for persecuted Jewish people in the Netherlands, usually proves that anti-Semitism has no root in conservative Calvinism. The simple fact is that the most conservative Reformed people in the 1600s were helping Jewish people. The Russian Orthodox have a history of pogroms, the Lutherans were known for Luther's horrific writings against the Jewish people, and the Catholics were (often but not always) known for the role of the Inquisition in dealing with Jews. On that latter point, important exceptions exist; the Catholic attitude toward Jewish people different significantly from region to region.
While other denominational traditions have significant problems in their past, antisemitism is not part of our history as Reformed people -- not at all. The most conservative and most confessional of the Reformed churches have historically been the ones most willing to come to the defense of Jewish people, and the exceptions usually happened in places where Reformed churches were in theological decline.
While there are many reasons for that, I've said for decades that one of the biggest is that a high view of the Old Testament, and applying it to family and church and cultural life, will produce a church that places a high value on work ethics, family structure and stability, frugality and thrift, and covenantal faithfulness through the generations. Also, an emphasis on literacy to be able to read the Scriptures will transfer into other areas of life. A church that focuses mostly on claiming Christ without emphasizing the need for Christianity to transform the family, the church, and the culture may take a different attitude toward Jewish people than a church which emphasizes a multigenerational covenant and the need to apply faith to ALL of life.
There might be reasons why many of the ethnic stereotypes of Dutch people and Jewish people are quite similar -- and the same could be said, in an earlier era, about Scotsmen and about Puritan New England.
Read the Old Testament, apply it, and you'll get results. Focus on a one-time "decision for Christ" in an altar call, teaching "once saved, always saved" with no emphasis on discipleship and sanctification, and you'll also get results of that focus on a human decision -- but they're not good ones.
I'll go a step further -- Reformed people too often are embarrassed about our views on the Second Commandment. I've had discussions with observant Jewish people who assume all Christians are image-worshippers, and when I show them Reformed teachings on the Second Commandment, they are sometimes amazed. "We didn't think any Christians actually took G-d's warnings about images seriously!" Well... maybe there are reasons why Reformed people have a long history of trying to proclaim the Messiah to the Jewish people?
Obviously, we need to proclaim Christ as Messiah to Jewish people. Salvation through Christ alone is non-negotiable. But if broadly evangelical churches claim Christ without applying the Scriptures to the lives of the members and their families, they don't give Jewish people good reason to consider the Messiah. Being consistently Reformed is a much better witness.
