Jumpstarter 7 of 10

Direct Answer Dean frames two “escape hatches”: using politics to force peace (mixing kingdoms) or using theology to postpone Jesus’ commands; he pushes believers to face the costly obedience of enemy-love and non-retaliation now.

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• Dean says liberal pacifists were “mixing up the two kingdoms just like the conservative evangelicals did,” especially by pushing “voting in a pacifist president or some other political agenda,” which he calls “nonsense.”
• He also says many liberal writers were “ignoring the Old Testament,” trying to turn Scripture into “some sort of universalism,” which confused him.
• On the conservative side, he found they were “just about ignoring the teachings of Jesus,” putting them off into “some millennium… or in heaven,” making Jesus’ teaching “nonsense.”
• He gives a concrete illustration: build a church that does “everything Jesus said… just the opposite”—and says “you kind of end up with the modern American church,” including “Christians armies.”
• He repeatedly centers the costly commands: “Repay no one evil for evil,” “do not avenge,” and “feed” and “care” for “enemies of our own nations.”