I’m working with the Radix Fidem community on a new project. Before the window of opportunity closes on Internet publishing, we want offer our message to a wider audience. This won’t be just me writing stuff for a blog; there will be some input from others before publication. We hope to have an account on some of the popular social media services calling attention to the articles.
Given what we believe about the Covenant and its boundaries, we won’t distinguish between evangelism and outreach to churches. The message will be the same, since the vast majority of the human race lives outside the safe haven of the Covenant of Christ. We don’t accept the current usage of terms like “saved” and “lost” and the various definitions offered by mainstream churches.
The gospel message says life sucks, and it’s supposed to suck. This mortal human existence is not what God intended for us, but we have to live with it. We hope to share with people what God says about living in His Creation and how to cope. We promote the idea that humans have limited agency in this life. We didn’t choose to be born in this fallen existence, but we do have some choices about what to do now that we are here.
We recognize that, for reasons we’ll never understand in this life, the majority of the human race will never embrace the gospel message. But we cannot possibly know whom God has chosen to touch and hear the message. We can only know whether we ourselves as individuals are eternal. So the approach we use is to assume everyone we encounter could be someone chosen for Eternity, and we need to set them free to find their divine heritage.
The gospel message is summed up as everything Jesus taught. We hope to do a better job of putting His teaching within the proper context so that people can embrace it more honestly. That message includes drawing boundaries that would serve to minimize and mitigate our temptations and maximize obedience to what Jesus taught.
The best way to spread the gospel is to live it in such a way that others notice the difference. It’s not inherently confrontational, but sometimes that’s a tactic we need to use. Mostly it’s just a matter of letting the differences call attention to themselves. Generally, that’s provocative enough. Our Lord has promised that people with an eternal calling will be drawn to that kind of living. They are the only ones we can help.
It’s not a question whether everyone drawn for any reason has the eternal gift. Nor is it that everyone eternal should be drawn. We embrace those who seek to share in our blessing for whatever reason. The expectations of the Covenant don’t waver. We presume to work with God to awaken convictions and guide the flesh to obedience.
This is what Jesus taught, and what He referred to in the Great Commission. When He mentioned “baptism” it wasn’t so much the ritual He meant, but what it symbolizes: Embracing the revelation to clean up your life. It was Hebrew parallelism with the phrase “teaching them to observe everything that I taught you.” The gospel message includes the orientation and assumptions about reality that arise from the Hebrew culture that Jesus tried to resurrect for His nation. It’s all one package.
