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A Change of Allegiance  /  Chapter 13, The Theology of Martyrdom  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 8
Taylor frames modern “what-if” questions (Hitler, Islam, job loss, family attacks, even “someone kicks your dog”) as attempts to “skirt around the cross,” and calls embracing the cross the “Christian nuclear weapon”—which “what-if” scenarios most powerfully control you, and how would Romans 8:35–39 answer them without promising earthly protection?
Another way to ask: Taylor says “what-if” fears are a way to avoid the cross. Which “what-if” situations control you most, and how would Romans 8:35–39 answer those fears without promising you’ll be safe on earth?

Direct Answer The chapter suggests “what-if” questions control us when they are driven by protecting our present life and happiness; Taylor argues the cross removes the world’s leverage because we accept suffering and even death as part of following Christ. Romans 8:35–39 answers fear not by promising safety, but by promising nothing—“tribulation…peril…sword…death”—can separate us from Christ’s love, and in that we are “more than conquerors.”

Support from Transcript:

  • Taylor lists escalating “what-ifs” (Hitler, Islam, family attacks, job loss, getting killed, “a snake bites you,” “someone kicks your dog”) and asks, “Where do these questions lead?”
  • He concludes their goal is “preservation of this current life…and…the attempted safeguard of our happiness,” and says they “skirt around the cross.”
  • He states the result of embracing the cross: “suddenly the world has nothing with which to assail us. It is the Christian nuclear weapon.”
  • He anchors this in Romans 8: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, and being “killed all day long…sheep for the slaughter.”
  • Yet Paul’s conclusion is victory without earthly escape: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors…neither death nor life…shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”
Discussion Follow-ups Which “what-if” do you use to justify control or compromise? What would it mean for you to define “conqueror” the way Romans 8 does—faithful and loved, even if not protected?

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