“4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. God Is Love 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 Jn 4:1–21 ESV)

It’s a very good Dichotomy formed around that sought-out perennial Question of the Christian in the pews, in the prayer circles and networks, in the community: this being the question, when will I be asked to vote with my feet, vote for the gospel, vote for Saving Grace? Our dichotomies are not always so Obvious, but the “Oh, Yeah” factor is Enabled by a sinner acquainted with grief, acquainted with Illegality, acquainted with Hardship: life is Not, all things told, better vis-a-vis Peace and Capitalistic and Entrepreneurial and Free-Associations in our society. Our society rankles and reeks of Horrid Compromises and Blighted Poor or Unfortunate Ones.

Still we are Prepared for that Question as to what transmits the Gospel, and what Transmits lethargy, salaciousness, Lugubrious Indulgence, what, in short, is a seeker never quite Catching Up, never quite Arriving. Because we of all people had so much Right, that what we Lagged In, may this still now be Forgiven? We who had the Gospel as transmitted by Saints and Angels, is this spread thin on the secular World of Judges and Officials and Officers of the Law, of the Community, of the Peaceful Accords? Because we need be accustomed to End Times and strangely attractive, beckoning Tantrum-Inducing Sad False Truths.

Still the Model of Reality is not in itself going to discourage us: we see Sadness as far as Potentialities untapped and Realities, First Impressions, Robbed. But God is not mocked, and does not make no junk. We can have this Ecstatic and Overwhelming, gasp-inducing, Experience of heaven here and now, of Promises that nothing is too difficult for Him. 

The soldier’s framework, then, calls for the gentle and mild Hawkish Vote of the masses. It calls for One Exemplar in the community, perhaps drawn from the soldiering classes if only because these are acquainted with Reboot-Thinking, with needing to Piece it all Back Together, with Homeless and Arms-Bearing even in the simulacrum of Peace Time and Nothing to Fuss About ‘round here. The soldier is always bivvied, always Homeless, until that V-Day arrives.

Therefore put aside all committee-thinking, all sane and blase thinking, all sensible balancing acts, and learn to See one side as Utterly Corrupt, and another side as beggarly but Utterly Sincere. And More, to each in themselves, learn to stay Missional and Focused on the hard truths. Not to go silly mode, or go anxious dialog mode, or Betray the Deep Cognition, Deep Internalization of Truths Sought. We like to put up a sign that is a bit of the scarier variety, but this is only possible if by “Scary” we mean Purposeful unto Christ’s Reign. Who was found in the stead of Sinners. Who was betrayed by any and all to whom He betrayed His Mission. We can be this Personage and Halo and Comet’s Tail because of Him who loved us. Because we bivvy in place and there sing a hymn or say a Thank You lifted heavenward. Because our sins… men and women sharpen each other: our sins, they are the fruit of Dialog most Giving, with a selfless Peer. And we, who have this Uniform and these Arms most Spiritual, do Hope for a distant day when the Potentialities herein mourned, will once more Fly High and Flourish. When the Sinner in us will not preclude the testator in us, the one giving holy Testimony. Because to this we are called, and to this end Equipped. To be for all people the day-by-day Victory over hell and Satan and all the devil’s work.