The Theology of GWB

Many of us are familiar with Bush Doctrine, namely, that a country is within it's rights to take preemptive military action in the event of intelligence against another country indicating a serious, immanent threat. Now of course there are critics of this thinking who would say that such action is the cause of conflict, not the interruption of conflict. But my agenda here is to neither defend, nor critique such a policy (we'll do that some other day...), rather to use this idea of 'preemption' as a jumping off point to discuss something more significant than global warfare and massive socio-political upheaval.

Agape is one of the 1st Century Greek words translated into English as the word 'love.'

It is distinct from other Greek words also translated into English as 'love.' Loosely translated:

Phileo - the love expressed in the bond of friendship
Storge - the love expressed in kind affection
Eros - the love expressed in romance

Agape is expressed in a number of significant ways:

1) Creation - as parents choose to bring a child into existence out of love (the love coming before the child and bringing it into existence), not out of any sense of what the child can do for them, but out of a desire to provide something for the child. In fact the mother's love causes her to provide for the child, and to bring the child itself into existence in order to provide for it, just so God's love has burst forth into words of creative power, bringing into existence all that we see.

2) Election - God chose Abram. The calling and the naming of Abram (Abraham) are significant in that Abraham had done nothing to earn this blessing, in point of fact, God chose Abraham in order to bless him. God called him 'Father of Nations' when he and his wife were extremely old, and were childless. Through God's calling, naming, blessing, and choosing Abram, he became Abraham, Father of Nations, elect of God.

3) Incarnation - God personally and intimately involved Himself in the human condition. He shared in our humanity, frailty, and vulnerability. He invited broken people to share in His fellowship, not requiring purity and righteousness as a prerequisite for that fellowship, but rather creating purity and righteousness out of fellowship with Him! He did this not out of any sense of what we could do for Him, but out of a desire to do something for us.

4) Atonement - ultimately agape is expressed in a human being hanging from a cross. This man, who was more than a man, was the precise way in which God took all of human suffering, evil, chaos, and death upon Himself. Again, God did this not because we were somehow deserving of it, but precisely in order to make us into a people who were no longer warped and broken by suffering, evil, chaos and death.

Agape is preemptive love! It is love that strikes first; not because that love is deserved, but rather because in giving love to what is undeserving of love, agape can make what is unlovely and unlovable into something lovely and lovable!