A Gossamer Distinction

In Radix Fidem, we make much of the Old Testament as the foundation for what Jesus taught.

If you were to step back and examine the Old Testament, you would see that, while some rituals were carefully structured and regulated, actual theology was very thin. There are obvious doctrinal statements here and there, but precious little of any systematic belief. The cultural and intellectual background was the real controlling factor in that sense.

The teaching of Jesus only reinforced this. There is really very little theology, but a lot of moral structure. The emphasis was always on feudal commitment to God and a powerful sense of conviction.

This is what we strive for in Radix Fidem. It’s not something that makes for a strong movement in our Western society. This makes it painfully difficult to create a distinct identity. Once inside this covenant, most of us have no trouble recognizing each other, but people on the outside would struggle to point to any identifying elements. That’s just the way it is for us.

All the more so with all the Old Testament rituals removed. They make no sense in our world, for the most part. They belonged to a different time, place and people. So we are left with something that the people around us are unlikely to even notice. That is, they won’t notice until we put it into practice. And while they still won’t see much that registers as a common moral thread, they will certainly notice our faith individually once we all feel the effects of tribulation.

There will be others out there who handle things with a similar faith. Who can say what will motivate them? We applaud anyone who manages to persevere in moral purity in the midst of trials, but it also tends to wipe away our gossamer distinction. It requires a measure of heart-led perception to see clearly any part of our shared faith. That is, unless folks notice that we don’t criticize the strength of outsiders. One of the few distinctions we have on that level is our lack of cheerleading our own identity. What we have is beautiful beyond words, but that doesn’t mean others don’t have something, too.

People who notice our lack of exclusivity will likely mistake us for belonging to something else they do know about. We must be ready to tell them when we sense that it makes a difference in our testimony. We allow the Holy Spirit to guide how much we invest in someone else, and what we should expect to harvest from their lives. We certainly don’t try to package it as a sales kit.

In terms of how our society measures such things, our religion will fail. It doesn’t even qualify as a movement. And yet it remains the most profound change in all of us who have crossed over into the moral realm of awareness.

This is what we think about when we use the word “evangelism.”