Planting Roots in the Cold
Separation, Zion, and the Power That Follows Obedience
Renaissance Ministries | March 29, 2026
A Fellowship Discussion Essay
“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
— Isaiah 59:2
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
— Matthew 5:8
Participants
- Thomas Abshier, ND — Founder, Renaissance Ministries
- Susan Gutierrez — Theological essays, Romans 13 research
- Charlie Gutierrez — Apologetics, Scripture research
- Leonard Hofheins — LDS background, historical parallels
- Armond Boulware — Personal testimony, practical application
Introduction: Three Essays and a Question
This week’s fellowship began with Thomas introducing three essays that had been distributed:
- “When God Gives Nations What They Deserve” — On Romans 13, righteous rebellion, and the Holocaust question (based on the previous week’s conversation with Charlie)
- “Tending the Garden” — Robert Malone’s metaphor for regenerative agriculture as applied to medicine, faith, and society
- “The Mind That Sustains the Lattice” — A reflection on AI as analogy for God’s personal relationship with humanity
But the real topic of the meeting emerged from a single question that had been hovering over the fellowship for weeks:
“Where do we go from here?”
What are the next steps? How do we reach beyond our small group? How do we build something that will actually change hearts — not just in our circle, but in the nation?
The answers that emerged wove together threads from all three essays and produced a new insight: the Paw Paw Principle.
Part I: The Holocaust Question Revisited
Susan’s Scripture
Susan opened with Isaiah 59:2:
“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
This became the frame for the ongoing discussion of the Holocaust and theodicy. Susan’s insight was sharp:
“I think the people who have been taught the gospel and reject it are the most hard-hearted people. And so that is an element here of the Jews’ condition before the Holocaust — and now, actually, too. They have this hard-heartedness. You hear the stories of Jews who have come to Christ, and they say, ‘I didn’t know much about what I did believe, but I knew I didn’t believe in Jesus.'”
She added a point rarely acknowledged:
“The Jewish leaders and the people, if we take the exact words in the Bible, when they were before Pilate — they created a curse against themselves. ‘His blood be upon us and our children.’ And curses in the Bible? They have a big effect. They’re not something to just dismiss.”
The Esther Counter-Example
Charlie offered a powerful counter-example:
“There was a Holocaust planned for the Jews in the time of Esther, and that Holocaust was avoided — by righteousness, by fasting and prayer, and the people arming up and having the support of the king to defend themselves. How different it would have been in the 30s and 40s in Germany if there was the same kind of humbling.”
Susan built on this:
“Them giving up their guns is simply an indication that they were putting their trust in man, not God. They didn’t respond like Esther did — turning in fasting to God to find a way.”
The Seismometer Principle
Thomas articulated what he called the “seismometer principle”:
“If you don’t have a really fine sense of morality, whenever you start to see things move in the wrong direction toward tyranny, and you don’t stand up — you’re not willing to be a martyr, not willing to light yourself on fire for the Lord in terms of action and saying no — that is the society that is going to be susceptible to being taken over by the left.”
The key insight:
“The level of righteousness that a society has to have is so great that it is microscopically perceptive of wrongness in the society, and it’s willing to stand up at personal cost. Unless we have that perfect seismometer — that sensitive instrument that moves at any motion toward evil — we immediately go into activation mode, because we have detected it. We know where it goes, and we won’t allow it.”
The martyrdom begins small. The sneers. The disbelief. The social cost. That is the first level of martyrdom. If you won’t endure that, you will eventually face the real thing — head chopped off with thousands of others.
Part II: The Legalization Question
Charlie’s Research
Charlie had asked AI to research three scenarios:
- The specific requirements in Nazi Germany
- The requirements during the Iranian Islamic Revolution
- The consequences to Christianity when it was made legal in Rome
The third question produced a startling insight.
Armond read the AI’s analysis:
“The legalization of Christianity in Rome was a huge turning point. It ended official persecution, let Christians worship openly, and eventually allowed the church to grow from a hunted minority into a powerful public institution. My view is that it helped Christianity spread, organize, and define doctrine more effectively — but it also changed the religion by tying it more closely to imperial power.”
And the crucial assessment:
“The legalization did not just free Christianity — it transformed it. It became more institutional, more hierarchical, and more entangled with government, which brought both positive outcomes like charity and organization, and negative ones like coercion and doctrinal enforcement.”
The Uncomfortable Question
Charlie asked the question that disturbed everyone:
“This is the first time I thought of this question, and I’m wondering now if the legalization of Christianity was really a big favor to Christianity, to Christ, or not. Did we convert the government — or have they converted us?”
Susan’s response: “A little of both. But if it’s both, then what we have is very diluted. And what’s the good of that?”
The Need for Opposition
Thomas articulated a universal principle:
“If you don’t have something to push against, you get weak. If you don’t have anything to push against, there’s no drama. What we basically said was, ‘We just took the guy in the wrong color jersey off the court, so we have no enemy.’ We’re now just supposed to be good with nobody pursuing us? We’re supposed to stay fit and vigilant and righteous and hone our weapons and sword and knowledge — but for what?”
This is the pattern throughout Scripture:
- Bad kings → persecution → repentance → good kings → prosperity → apostasy → bad kings again
The cycle requires opposition. Without persecution, the church gets lazy, gets apostate, loses its fire.
Mark 16 and the Missing Signs
Charlie read from the end of Mark’s Gospel:
“These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
Then the uncomfortable observation:
“I find the book of Acts and this set of verses really disturbing — because they don’t describe the modern church. Maybe this is why. Because we’re actually in the low, decline, weak period of that cycle. And if that’s the case, and it looks like it is — we’re actually in a lot of trouble.”
Part III: Susan’s Thesis — Separation and Power
The Call to Come Out
Susan has been developing an essay arguing for a different approach than political activism:
“Instead of trying to reform government — which is where most people are thinking, ‘We need to get the right people in government, combat these false elections’ — instead of that, I think what the Bible is actually teaching us is we come out of government. We come out of the secular governments and let Christ be our King.”
She continued:
“I believe that if we separate, Christ will then bless us with these signs. He will bless us with His Spirit in more abundance. And the people around us will see — just like in Acts — ‘Oh, there’s something different here.’ Because right now, people look at Christians and they don’t see a big difference.”
The Abraham Precedent
Susan drew on Abraham’s story:
“In Abraham’s life, it was after he separated from Lot that God then began to talk to him more. He had done what God commanded — except that he had brought Lot with him. So after he separated himself from Lot, then God began talking to him more. Things changed for Abraham after that.”
The principle: Separation precedes power. Obedience unlocks blessing. Half-obedience produces half-results.
Thomas’s Response — The Holism
Thomas pushed back, but not to disagree entirely:
“I don’t think our solution is in solving the government. I don’t think our salvation lies there. But I see the entire thing as a holism. We have the righteousness of the people. We have the righteousness of the government. And if either one of them is going toward unrighteousness, the righteous will suffer.”
He continued:
“You can’t just heal the government and have it work. If you still have the Soprano-type people running around raising mayhem, that’s going to be a bad situation. And if you’ve got the government wanting to be Ayatollahs, you’re going to have a bad situation. So it’s a holism. It’s not separable. It’s not one or the other. It has to be both.”
The Resolution — Armond’s Insight
Later in the conversation, Armond synthesized the positions:
“We do have to separate ourselves — but we’re doing it just by following Christ. We’ve already separated ourselves.”
Thomas affirmed this:
“That was the point I was trying to emphasize, and I didn’t do it adequately. But what you just said hits the nail on the head. She said we need to separate. But the separation isn’t going to Zion-all-a-matrix, or the North Idaho separatists. It’s separating yourselves out internally, personally. You’re changing your heart.”
The separation is internal. You don’t leave the geography. You leave the orientation. You reorient toward God — and that reorientation is itself the separation.
Part IV: The Zion Question
Leonard’s Provocation
Leonard asked: “What is the Christian concept of Zion?”
The group discovered that the word “Zion” appears 153 times in the King James Bible — yet none of them could articulate what it meant for Christians today.
Thomas pulled up a comprehensive definition:
“Originally it was the Jebusite fortress that David captured in 2 Samuel 5:7. It became the City of David, later associated with the Temple Mount. It’s a symbol of God’s presence — Zion becomes the place where God dwells among His people. In the prophets, Zion is the place of judgment for unfaithfulness, place of restoration for repentance. In Christian theology, it becomes a symbol of the church — the people of God, the body of Christ, the spiritual temple where God dwells.”
“Zion Is the Pure in Heart”
Charlie offered a quote from Mormon scripture: “Zion is the pure in heart.”
Leonard connected it to the Sermon on the Mount: “What did Christ say about the pure in heart? ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'”
Susan grounded it in New Covenant theology:
“In the New Covenant, we understand that we are supposed to be the temple of God. He is supposed to inhabit us. The true believers of Christ are supposed to be where God dwells. It’s not in a building anymore. It’s not a physical building. We are the building.”
The Co-opted Term
Leonard noted the sad irony:
“They’ve co-opted the whole concept of Zion to be a kind of play to capture and control. Whereas Christians should consider Zion a true goal — to establish it and to be pure in heart.”
Susan agreed that while the term “Zionist” has become negative, the underlying concept is thoroughly biblical — and needs to be reclaimed, or at least understood through New Testament equivalents.
Part V: The Paw Paw Principle
Armond’s Story
The most striking image of the meeting came from Armond, who had recently been researching a native Midwestern tree:
“There’s a native tree in the Midwest called the paw paw tree. It tastes like a tropical fruit — like a cross between a mango and a kiwi. You would never believe it grows here in the Midwest.”
He had been talking to the owner of a health food store who had tried to plant paw paw saplings in the spring — and they didn’t take.
“Through my research, I found out you have to plant them in the cold so that they grow down first and establish strong roots. And then within two years, they’ll actually fruit.”
Leonard caught the imagery immediately: “There’s something there. Plant your roots in the cold.”
The Theological Application
Armond made the connection explicit:
“That’s what we’re doing here. We’re planting our roots in the cold. And it won’t even fruit for two years. What we’re doing now is growing downward into darkness. To change hearts — and to change my heart — it required entering into darkness before my heart was changed. And then I can grow towards the light.”
The Paw Paw Principle:
- You have to plant in the cold — in difficulty, in opposition, in darkness
- The first growth is downward — roots, not fruit
- Only after the roots are established does the fruit come
- The fruit takes time — two years for paw paws, perhaps a generation for cultural change
Gravitropic vs. Phototropic Growth
Armond introduced botanical terminology that captured the dynamic perfectly:
“I think it’s not an uphill struggle. It’s actually a downhill struggle. We’re talking about establishing gravitropic growth in Christ. What we’re doing now is setting roots. Eventually, we’ll have the phototropic growth we’re looking for — where others grow to the light.”
Gravitropic growth — growing downward, toward the pull of gravity, establishing roots in the darkness of the soil.
Phototropic growth — growing upward, toward the light, producing leaves and fruit visible to the world.
You can’t have the second without the first. The roots must come before the fruit.
Part VI: Winning in Your Own Kingdom
The Strategy of Encounter
Armond articulated a strategy that emerged from his own experience of transformation:
“As a believer and as someone that has seen all of the ways that are ungodly — all the ways that are just so commonplace as being the norm — in my heart I don’t want those ways. I don’t want to be doing those things or being in those places. Do you separate yourself? Yes, you separate yourself. But when you get a chance — because you’ll always cross paths with these different people — that’s when they get to see the light in you.”
The key insight:
“In short-lived, controlled environments — you’re not trying to win them over in their kingdom. You’re not trying to win them over in the places where they thrive. You win them over in all the places that you thrive.”
Don’t fight on their turf. Don’t try to argue in their frame. Instead, live so compellingly in your own frame that when they encounter you, they see something different.
The Gospel Incarnate
Thomas extended the insight:
“The tools that we give are implicit in our way of being — our way of speaking, our way of analogizing, sharing by story, by example, by theory. There really isn’t even any pedagogy going on. We’re not actually teaching anything. But we’re doing it silently. It’s when we live. It’s who we are. As we speak, as we live — we’re not in any kind of a formal analysis of life. We’re actually picking up groceries and doing childcare and running errands and working at our job. And the way that we do it is the way lived out. If we do that, we are the gospel incarnate. We are living it and enrolling others in being it.”
Conflict as Root-Spreading
Armond added a crucial observation:
“In the moments where we actually come in direct opposition to the darkness — that’s us spreading our roots. When we are at those crossroads, in strife with others or internally, where we get to show the light in those places — that’s us spreading our roots. They get to see us in conflict, in relationship to others, and how we respond in those conflicts. That gives someone else an opportunity to say, ‘Wow. I didn’t expect that. I probably expected the norm. But to see that — that’s pregnant. That’s pregnant gospel.'”
Part VII: The Christos Vision — Next Steps
Charlie’s Question
Charlie asked the question that had been hovering over the fellowship:
“What are the next steps in this church? What do you see?”
Thomas’s Honest Assessment
Thomas was candid:
“At some point we have to be able to reach out. I’ve sent out notes to probably 10 people. Nobody shows up. That was surprising. Are we actually dealing with the fact that people, even those who have good intentions and are on fire, actually won’t participate? And this forum is actually ineffective, and it really won’t make any difference at all, because people won’t actually do it?”
But he also saw the path forward:
“I’m documenting it. I’m trying to create an AI that will be able to embody it — and anybody can download it and put it on their computer, and it can be the thing that they use as a seed to guide their field. I’ve got 12 different modules of how they could use this. Take it however you want to use it. Use it. Implement it. Strategize. Do it for guerrilla warfare. Do it for community meetings. Organize your business around it. Have it as a family philosophy of how you live and discipline and relate to each other.”
The GitHub Vision
Thomas described the technical implementation:
“Anybody can load this body of knowledge. It’s loaded on GitHub — the storage repository for files. They download that onto their computer. They then have cloned the Renaissance Ministry vision — the way of teaching the theory, the concepts of Christ and God and world and physics. And then they can use that as their own personal group leader, as their counselor, as whatever they need.”
Armond added: “It’s got to have an app.”
The vision: a central database on GitHub, freely accessible, that allows anyone to clone the Renaissance Ministry approach and implement it in their own context — family, business, small group, community.
The Fruit Trees Conspiracy
Armond shared a disturbing discovery from his research on fruit trees:
“My idea is there were food trees all over this country at one point. Why are there so few of them? And so then I read that most municipalities’ legalized list of trees — none of them are fruit-producing trees. And this started to be put into law to combat migration of free men.”
Leonard: “Interesting.”
Armond: “Because if you can’t eat, then you’re tied. And that’s kind of what we deal with today in society. If you’re not part of society, and you don’t have cash — you can’t go to the store and buy anything.”
His response has been to start giving fruit trees as gifts:
“I gave one of my clients a dwarf peach tree when I sold a house for them. I want to start giving gifts like that — whenever somebody buys a house, I want to give them a tree that’ll start to bear fruit eventually. It’ll be the gift that never stops giving.”
Part VIII: Integrity as Foundation
The Hypocrisy Problem
Armond shared a conversation with his brother about integrity:
“The premise was, ‘Men are flawed.’ He brought up Martin Luther King — ‘Oh, people wanted to vilify him because they say he was a womanizer. But they should have been listening to his message.’ And I’m like, ‘No. That’s not right. You cannot be in opposition to the principles that you promote and think that someone’s supposed to find any credibility in it.’ That’s the whole point.”
His brother responded: “But men are flawed.”
Armond’s answer:
“Yeah, that’s the point. That’s the point of having principles and having integrity and overcoming them. We’ve got free will. That’s why we have to be the examples for our children. Otherwise, they’re not going to take it seriously. They’re going to look at you like, ‘How can you tell me this and you’re not doing it?'”
No Apologies for Righteousness
Thomas affirmed:
“You don’t ever have to apologize if you’ve simply been righteous. You never apologize.”
Armond extended the principle:
“That requires a huge amount of integrity and intention. You can only have shame in being a hypocrite. I don’t think you can be shameful if you’re not being hypocritical.”
The foundation of witness is integrity. Without it, the message has no power. With it, the message needs no defense.
Part IX: The Closing Prayer — AI-Generated
Thomas introduced something new: a closing prayer generated by AI based on the themes of the fellowship discussions:
Lord God, we confess that we live in a nation that has turned from You. We have tolerated what You hate. We have called evil good and good evil. We have trusted in government more than in You.
Forgive us. Awaken us. Give us courage to stand up against unrighteousness, even when it costs us.
We pray for those who suffered in the Holocaust — for the victims, for the survivors, for their descendants who still ask, “Where were You?” Help us give answers that are honest, humble, and hopeful.
We pray for our nation — that the independent center would be grounded in Your truth, that the idol of tolerance would be cast down, that righteousness would exalt us again.
We pray for ourselves — that we would be Daniels in the lion’s den, willing to disobey human commands that violate Your law, willing to suffer for righteousness.
And we pray for the day when every government will reflect Your justice, when rulers will truly reward good and punish evil, when Your kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.
Until that day — give us fire, give us courage, give us wisdom.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Leonard’s response: “Not bad for an AI prayer. That’s pretty good.”
Part X: Discussion Questions for the Fellowship
On the Holocaust and Theodicy
- Susan cited Isaiah 59:2 — “Your iniquities have separated you from your God.” How does this apply to the Holocaust question? Is it “blaming the victim” or identifying a causal pattern?
- Charlie drew the parallel to Esther — where a planned Holocaust was averted through fasting, prayer, and arming up. What made the difference between Esther’s generation and the European Jews of the 1930s?
- Thomas described the “seismometer principle” — that a society must be microscopically sensitive to movements toward tyranny. How sensitive is your seismometer? What would activate it?
On the Legalization of Christianity
- The AI analysis suggested that Constantine’s legalization transformed Christianity — making it more institutional, more hierarchical, more entangled with government. Did we convert the government, or did they convert us?
- Thomas argued that without something to push against, we get weak. Is persecution necessary for spiritual vitality? What are the implications for Western Christianity today?
- Charlie noted that the signs of Mark 16 — casting out devils, healing the sick — don’t describe the modern church. Why not? What would have to change?
On Separation and Power
- Susan argues that the biblical call is to “come out” of secular government and let Christ be our King — and that this separation will unlock the power of Acts. Thomas argues for a holism where both government and people must be righteous. How do you reconcile these positions?
- Armond synthesized: “We do have to separate ourselves — but we’re doing it just by following Christ. We’ve already separated ourselves.” What does internal separation look like practically?
- Leonard described Zion as “the pure in heart.” How does this connect to the Beatitudes? What would a Zion community look like today?
On the Paw Paw Principle
- Armond’s image: plant in the cold, grow roots downward into darkness, then fruit in two years. What does this mean for our fellowship? For the broader Christos vision?
- Armond distinguished gravitropic growth (roots, downward) from phototropic growth (leaves and fruit, upward). Which phase are we in? What does that mean for our expectations?
- Armond said, “You win them over in all the places that you thrive — not in their kingdom.” What are the places where you thrive? How do you create encounters there?
On Integrity and Witness
- Armond argued that you cannot be hypocritical and expect credibility. His brother argued that “men are flawed.” How do you hold the tension between high standards and human weakness?
- Thomas said, “You don’t ever have to apologize if you’ve simply been righteous.” What does this mean for how we respond to criticism?
- What would it look like for our fellowship to be “above reproach” — living with such integrity that our witness needs no defense?
Key Quotes from This Meeting
On the Holocaust:
“I think the people who have been taught the gospel and reject it are the most hard-hearted people.” — Susan
“There was a Holocaust planned for the Jews in the time of Esther, and that Holocaust was avoided — by righteousness, by fasting and prayer, and the people arming up.” — Charlie
On vigilance:
“The level of righteousness that a society has to have is so great that it is microscopically perceptive of wrongness in the society, and it’s willing to stand up at personal cost.” — Thomas
On legalization:
“Did we convert the government — or have they converted us?” — Charlie
On separation:
“We do have to separate ourselves — but we’re doing it just by following Christ. We’ve already separated ourselves.” — Armond
On Zion:
“Zion is the pure in heart.” — Charlie (quoting Mormon scripture)
On the Paw Paw Principle:
“You have to plant them in the cold so that they grow down first and establish strong roots. And then within two years, they’ll actually fruit.” — Armond
“We’re planting our roots in the cold. What we’re doing now is growing downward into darkness. To change my heart, it required entering into darkness before my heart was changed. And then I can grow towards the light.” — Armond
On witness:
“You win them over in all the places that you thrive — not in their kingdom.” — Armond
“We are the gospel incarnate. We are living it and enrolling others in being it.” — Thomas
On integrity:
“You can only have shame in being a hypocrite. I don’t think you can be shameful if you’re not being hypocritical.” — Armond
A Closing Reflection
This meeting was about roots.
The roots of the Holocaust — in apostasy, in trusting government, in failing to stand up at the first signs of tyranny.
The roots of Christianity — transformed when it was legalized, entangled with empire, weakened by acceptance.
The roots of Zion — not a physical place but a condition of heart, the pure in heart who see God.
The roots of witness — integrity that requires no defense, lives that embody the gospel before they speak it.
And the roots of the paw paw tree — planted in the cold, growing downward into darkness before they can bear fruit.
This is where we are. Planting in the cold. Growing downward. Establishing roots in the darkness.
The fruit will come. But first, the roots.
“Way down yonder, in the Paw Paw patch…”
— Traditional American folk song
Source Material: Renaissance Ministries Fellowship Meeting, March 30, 2026. Participants: Thomas Abshier, Susan Gutierrez, Charlie Gutierrez, Leonard Hofheins, Armond Boulware.
Related Christos Content: “When God Gives Nations What They Deserve” (Romans 13 essay); “Tending the Garden” (Malone essay); “The Mind That Sustains the Lattice” (CPP-theology essay); Christos AI Theological Grammar.