What are we actually doing with Radix Fidem?
We could characterize it in many ways, but one thing we cannot say is that we are “trying to get folks saved.” I’ve tried to explain in the past how we as humans have nothing to do with that. Scripture makes clear that spiritual birth is entirely in the hands of God, and the fancy theological term for this doctrine is “mongergism.” There is no synergism between us and God when it comes to spiritual birth until after the fact. Scripture says we are chosen before we are ever born.
Yet this business of trying to get folks born-again has been the primary objective of evangelical religion in the US since the beginning. This is chasing the wrong objective according to Scripture. The Bible makes a big deal of that feudal covenant nation business. Since Israel refused to be that, Christ opened it up to all humanity. And instead of a political nation, we are meant to be a virtual nation. It was always the Covenant, not DNA, that made Israel what God said she should be. And in Christ, it is still the Covenant in His Blood that makes His heavenly Kingdom what it should be.
So whatever it is we might do toward spiritual birth has to come through this matter of joining the Covenant of Christ. But it’s still a feudal covenant that binds together a nation. It’s still a matter of obeying the Law of Christ. All the complaints about how “the Law” has failed in the New Testament were complaints about the fake law, the Talmud, the so-called Jewish oral law based on human reason. The real Law of God from the beginning was a covenant feudal relationship, a mystical thing, and that has not changed.
Thus, we say that Christ is the Living Law of God, the revelation as a Person, the sum total of all Biblical Law. It’s alive, it is Christ, it is the gospel message.
Yet, it is hardly a mere matter of binding believers under Biblical Law as Western thinking might have it. A critical element in understanding what Biblical Law means is the blessing of shalom that is an integral part of it. Thus, it’s just as accurate to say that we are setting people free from the clutches of Satan so that they can enjoy their divine privileges.
Once again, Satan is not God’s enemy; he is our enemy. He is also an obedient servant of God, the jailer and lictor of our Heavenly Father. Lucifer is the left hand of God, His agent of wrath. It has nothing to do with whether you are spiritually born; it’s a matter of how you live in this world. If you walk in the Father’s ways, you have the blessings of shalom. If you fall short of that blessing, then Satan is consuming your share of shalom. The issue for us is seeking to increase the share of shalom God’s people can win back from Satan.
Thus, we seek to restore the inheritance of God’s children. We are trying to get folks through the Flaming Sword and back into Eden. We present the truth of that Flaming Sword of divine revelation — Biblical Law, Christ, the gospel — so that folks can gain entrance to their heritage of faith.
If it should be that someone we work with isn’t spirit-born, that’s not our problem. They can’t inherit something that isn’t theirs. We can do nothing about that either way, but what little we can do is get people lined up with Biblical Law just in case they belong inside Eden. The actual requirements of all this will naturally exclude someone who doesn’t belong. There’s no way to fake it when you confront that Flaming Sword. So whether or not they genuinely belong isn’t a matter for us to consider; God will separate out His own and doesn’t want us messing with that.
Thus, we are quite fundamentally different from all other American Christian religions. Yes, Catholic and Orthodox are also different, but they aren’t American; they are simply in America doing their thing. We have no part in their thing, either. But the bulk of Christian religion as it developed here is fundamentally bogus for us. We aren’t trying to “get people saved.”
What we do is restore the heritage of the Children of Light.
