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Question 1

Dean says he wants to “clear the smokescreen” modern Protestant/evangelical churches have over the Old Testament when they justify “unbiblical behavior” from it—what specific “smokescreens” have you personally absorbed, and how have they shaped the way you interpret Jesus’ commands about enemies and retaliation?

Another way to ask: What “smokescreens” have you picked up that use the Old Testament to excuse wrong behavior? How have they shaped how you hear Jesus’ teachings about enemies and getting back at people?

Direct Answer Based on Dean Taylor’s teaching, the “smokescreen” is using the Old Testament as cover to keep living like the nations—especially to defend retaliation and war—so that Jesus’ commands feel optional, postponed, or unrealistic.

Support from Transcript:

Dean says modern churches justify “a lot of unbiblical behavior… using the Old Testament,” especially advocates of “just war theory.”
He frames believers as “soldiers and pilgrims… in the world but not of the world,” warning against being “connected to the nations we live.”
He highlights Romans 12 as a “summary of the Sermon on the Mount”: “Repay no one evil for evil… live peaceably… do not avenge yourselves.”
He warns, “Do not be conformed to this world,” explaining “conformed” as being “pressed on by outward things,” i.e., shaped by the nation’s way of thinking.
He criticizes conservative approaches that “were just about ignoring the teachings of Jesus,” pushing them off into “some millennium… or in heaven,” making Jesus’ teaching “nonsense.”

Discussion Follow-ups Dean’s framework pushes a personal inventory: where have you used Old Testament war stories to soften Jesus’ enemy-love, and where have you let “the world” set the temperature instead of Christ?

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