1. God helps those who help themselves,
2. God expects Christians to use common sense,
3. “God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal” or Trust God and obtain a concealed carry license,
4. Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

Boot-strap theology tends to add at least one extraneous element to faith; an element that doesn’t devolve from scripture and typically is antithetical to Jesus’ example and teaching.

In other words, it is usually heretical.

It took some time, prayer and serious bible study to internalize what I now believe. Incidentally, what I now believe is not “non-violence/anti-war.”

That is also the point, that is difficult to really communicate well, because I believe in a nuance theology, which most believers don’t accept, or furthermore, they don’t even understand the concept that I’m advocating through my writings, at least not until they read them a half-dozen times, and even then I may appear insane.

Matt, my fellow brother in Christ, who has been writing me about my blog essays, probably has an understanding of this difficult principle of “nuance” in God, but I should let him comment to that point for himself.

However, I would confidently say, that most, maybe (90.9%), of Jesus followers have not grappled with Christ’s seeming paradoxical positions on the Law.

We may be afraid to question God’s apparent paradox, because when we question God, then we feel that we are “testing” Him.

• Matthew 5
  17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them.
• 18 I assure you, until heaven and earth disappear, even the smallest detail of God’s law will remain until its purpose is achieved.
• 19 So if you break the smallest commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
• 20 “But I warn you—unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees do, you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all!

We maintain that the Law has been left in the Old Testament.

We state that Jesus fulfilled the Law for us, and thus we are not bound by the Law.

Yet, how do we ignore verse nineteen? Because, the “Kingdom of Heaven” of which Jesus speaks, is a New Covenant Kingdom, not the Old Covenant system. Jesus clearly places His comments under the purview of the New Testament. Here is an apparent paradox.

My answer to this problematic passage is not, ultimately, going to be answered in this post. (If someone writes me or comments to it, I may pick it up in more detail.)

Nevertheless, my point of God being a God of nuance, should make people stop and think for a moment.

There are no easy “How To” books to answer the questions of faith and doubt. All of the books that are on Mardel’s and Wal-Mart’s shelves, which purport to have the answers are just “selling something”, and, truth be told, there-in lies a big component of the problem for “American Faith”.

Just like the boot-strap theology mentioned earlier, American faith tends to add at least one extraneous element to faith that truly corrupts faith at its core, unless properly handled in our heart and mind.

Satan uses subtle distortions of God’s words to warp us in our hearts/minds. He did this in the confrontation of Eve and Adam in the Garden. He also attempted the same with Jesus Christ, in the desert temptation.

Satan knows scripture. Satan doesn’t just reject God’s words, he adds an angle to them. He slips in extraneous elements, “just to make God’s will more clear.”

I see “Theology of Nuance” being a Spiritual element to all that is good and all that is bad in our fallen world.

Nuance can be used to hide and deceive in the demon’s mission.

And Nuance can be graciously accepted for freedom from Jesus’ mission. Jesus noted this gracious nuance in Matthew 12:1-14. Look at just a small snigglet of Jesus encounter with the Religious Pharisees.

• 3 But Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what King David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God, and they ate the special bread reserved for the priests alone. That was breaking the law, too. 5 And haven’t you ever read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath? 6 I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple! 7 But you would not have condemned those who aren’t guilty if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices.’* 8 For I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath.”
  *
  Matthew 12:7
  Hos 6:6.
  Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 1997 . Tyndale House: Wheaton, Ill.

Jesus admits that King David broke the law of Moses, yet was innocent. So, by God’s own mouth King David is a law breaker and yet, still he remains innocent. There is the graciousness of God’s nuance.

But, we must accept that grace. The Religious people of Jesus day, e.g. Pharisees, Sadducees & Scribes, would not accept the gracious nuance of God’s extravagant offer of freedom from guilt.

And unfortunately, the Religious people of Jesus day (today) in His Kingdom of Heaven, still are reluctant to accept God’s nuance theology of grace.

Who are these “Religious People” today? They often times are us, i.e. me (D.S. Martin), you, our grandmas and grandpas. They are our deacons, ministers, elders, they are humans who look for easy self-help books to tell us the one, two and three steps to heaven, or the “5 steps to salvation.”

Therefore, these questions, of God’s seeming contradictions, will remain in the back of our minds & hearts, until they become a rusty cattle prod for satan.

He stabs us in our backs, or backsides, where we become infected with rules, self-made lists, unholy laws, and finally, all of these produce festering doubts that should never have been left unattended.

So then…, here is the question that continues to revolve around whether the commands of Jesus, to Love God and neighbor are an advocacy to be anti-violent & particularly anti-war.

I think I’ve addressed this before, I have heard the comment about ‘Love thine enemy doesn’t include killing them.’

Yet, this simply brings “Love” to a mathematical formula of ‘Agapē=non-violence’, albeit at the very extremely “low end” of agape.

I am not inclined to allow the assertion that Love(Agapē) equates to non-violence. The commands of the Lord are “Love God and Love neighbor as thyself.” That command could have been more detailed, but then we would get back to the circumstance of the old law.

• How far should pacifism be taken?

I don’t believe that pacifism is a requirement, pacifism is another extraneous element added to Love (Agapē) that will corrupt it, just as surely as those concepts stated above, which are at the extreme other end of the spectrum. I have heard one of my formerly favorite political commentators state that ‘people who are moderates or who are middle of the road, often get run over.’ I really like this quote, because it underscores the biblical truth of nuance theology.

And to this above quote, I would like to add; People who are moderate, are also they who will end up on a cross for their neighbor’s salvation.

• Agapē needs no qualifiers.
• Agapē stands alone.
• Agapē doesn’t require added elements.
• Agapē is not pacifism.
• Agapē always allows for God’s Holy Spirit to answer questions of faith, in the time of need.

Luke 11

• 11 “And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don’t worry about what to say in your defense,
• 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you what needs to be said even as you are standing there.”

People demand an answer of when disciples should be “peaceful” or when Christians should take up arms.

We want a “rule” to follow, but the only rule given is “Love.”

Although it is not an example from scripture, I believe that Sgt. Alvin York had the Spirit of God in him and showed it, in the way he responded to this very question.

I won’t give all of the details you can study his example for yourself, or just pick-up the movie at Block Buster. Gary Cooper portrays Mr. York in the true story of how Sgt. York became the greatest hero of WWI. To my knowledge Mr. York did not select the label “Pacifist” for himself. That label was applied by the world. Mr. York simply and unpreteniously lived Agapē as he witnessed it in Jesus.

God bless you and may His Agapē motivate you to a cross, for your neighbor,

DSM

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