God and Guns
I was, for a short time during college, a volunteer fireman, and my responsibility was to operate the equipment while more experienced firemen entered the burning building. Following a fire at one house, another student who had gone inside told me how he stood in the smoke-filled kitchen spraying water at the flames to no avail. It wasn’t until he realized that he was facing a mirrored wall and that the flames were actually behind him that he turned and was able to extinguish the fire. As long as he was sending water in the wrong direction the fire continued unabated.
With every mass shooting in America there is a repetition of the same demands from the Left to take “substantive” action against guns and gun owners to stop such tragedies. These demands go nowhere because sensible people understand that, like spraying water at a mirror instead of the fire, such actions will not and cannot make a difference.
You will never solve a problem so long as you are aiming at the wrong target. We are not dealing with people who are under the control of God or law. In other words, good people do not kill each other and do not need gun control! As Paul wrote in I Timothy 1:9, the law is made “for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners. . . for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers. . . . “
Tragically, murder has been with us from the very beginning of human history. I expect we are all familiar with Cain’s killing of Abel. And in the approximately six thousand years since, things have not improved. Cain did not need a firearm to kill his brother, and the absence of such weapons has never been an obstacle to those who are bent on killing someone.
So, is there a “Christian” view of guns? Does the Bible give us any indication of what God might say about such things? A former president mocked traditional Americans for relying on their “God and guns.” Clearly, Leftists delight in throwing Scripture texts or generalities into our faces thinking they can embarrass us into yielding to their demands.
But their efforts are based upon twisted understandings of the Bible, passages taken out of context, or simply ignoring important relevant texts. Superficially, one might think that God would frown on the existence and use of guns in general, but to conclude this would be to overlook a large body of Scripture. And it is clear that the only people who would benefit from taking firearms from law abiding Americans would be criminals and tyrants.
A thorough examination of the subject would require writing a book, so the best we can do here is to hit a few high points. God’s heart can be seen in the fact that the first environment He created for us was that of a garden, symbolizing both beauty and serenity. It was mankind who introduced discord and violence to creation, and we learned immediately that God disapproved of that violence.
While allowing Cain to live following his killing of his brother, God, shortly thereafter (Gen. 9:6) instituted the death penalty for murder, declaring that murderers were to be executed. Thus, God’s justice requires that violence be met with violence.
Interestingly, there is no evidence in Scripture for a wholesale surrender of peaceful people to violent people. “Turning the other cheek,” which we read of in Matthew five applies in the context of Christ’s Kingdom (which was rejected then but will be established in the future) where God will take revenge for His people. Therefore, if God approves of meeting violence with lethal force, if necessary, it only makes sense that guns are not forbidden by Him.
It is certainly applicable to the topic to consider that David, a “man after God’s own heart” used a high-velocity projectile (slingshot) to take out the giant, Goliath. Modern studies suggest that a stone released from an ancient sling would have the approximate killing power of a 44 magnum! David became the progenitor of the Davidic dynasty, from which Christ, the world’s future Ruler has come, and it was he who noted that God taught his “hands to make war.”
God is not anti-war when there is an evil, mortal enemy to fight.
Third, the Apostle Paul addressed the responsibility of a man to his family. In I Timothy 5:8 he wrote that if a man does not provide the essentials for his family, “especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” The idea that providing for one’s family includes food and a roof over their heads but not their protection against intruders is ludicrous.
Virtually whatever a man needs to keep his family safe is legitimate, and with the weapons available to criminals, one has no alternative but to be able to meet force with force, if need be. This would include firearms.
Finally, the US Constitution provides in its Second Amendment a protection of the individual’s God given right to own firearms for the express purpose of protecting “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” and only the naïve would say that this amendment provides merely for hunting. Rather, its intention was for the citizen to protect himself and his family from a tyrannical government, which the colonists had just defeated in a bloody war.
It is precisely for this reason that Leftists beat the drum for more gun control. The most significant obstacle to their achieving a strangle hold on the American public is the citizens’ right to “keep and bear arms.”
Therefore, all who love liberty and life and understand that these are God given rights, will not yield an inch in the battle for the Second Amendment. What we must understand is the Left’s willingness to allow and even create suffering for the nation’s citizens in their quest for power. They cynically believe that if enough innocent people die, eventually tender-hearted citizens will change their minds and allow the government to disarm the public. Once the public is sufficiently disarmed, our chains will be forged and we will be subjugated, just as they are in China, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, and other socialist countries.
Do we understand that the Left has no interest in stopping these killings? There are substantial things that could be done to reduce the killings without violating the Constitution, but the Left fabricates reasons to oppose them all. We who are truly concerned about the deaths of innocent people struggle to accept the fact that Leftists, whether politicians or academics, don’t care! Every week in cities like Chicago there are killings equivalent to a mass shooting, yet those in charge do nothing.
There are also over one hundred thousand drug related deaths annually in America, and the Left’s response is to make those drugs more available and curtail efforts to interdict the narcotics crossing the southern border. Their utter lack of concern for these tragedies underscores the fact that Leftists, regardless of their rhetoric, do not care for America’s citizens, even the children.
What can be done? The evidence is that training and arming teachers and other staff at every school would be one quick and effective improvement. But you will get no encouragement from the Left in this. And there are other available options we won’t get into here because I would like to go to the two most important and effective tools in the tool chest, both of which are hated by the Left.
First, reintroduce students to God and the Bible. “We can’t have a state church,” you say. Well, we already do, it’s called Humanism, its priests are teachers, and its cathedrals are the public schools. But, even at that, the expression “separation of church and state” is seriously misunderstood. Few Christians want a state church, but all desire to see the principles of righteousness that are sourced in Christianity taught to the Nation’s children.
There is a great difference between a “state church” and teaching morality and goodness to children. Under the guise of “protecting” children from a state church Leftists have thrown out the principles that are essential to a healthy culture, good citizenry, and safe neighborhoods.
Leftists hate Christianity so virulently that they would rather have the chaos and death across the culture than to hear someone proclaim, “Thus saith the Lord!” They deeply resent being told that lying, cheating, stealing, and adultery are sinful, but they have no problem declaring that traditional values are evil!
They claim that children are “damaged” by being told about God and their accountability to Him. Apparently, having a sense of guilt (for which Christianity also provides relief) is worse to Leftists than dying of violence or a drug overdose! Regardless, the issue is not whether somethings are good and some evil, but rather, who decides what is good and what is evil!
The Left went public with its war on God and the Bible in the 1960s, and that war has only escalated over time. The horrific violence witnessed daily across America is just one consequence. One could ask, “America, how is this war on God working out for you?” The best thing America could do to encourage a God-consciousness in young people.
The second thing we must do, which is related to the creation of a cultural God-consciousness, is to reinvigorate the traditional family. The chaotic culture we now have is clearly the opposite of a safe, stable culture that would not produce these mass shootings. The single most important factor in a safe, stable culture is intact, traditional families. This is indisputable. Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, chaos cannot exist in a stable society! Duh! Only a brainwashed Leftist would seek to dispute this. But it is in fact the very reason for the Leftists’ war against the family.
They understand that the public would never yield to their tyranny if we were experiencing a safe, stable, and prosperous culture. Understand this: the violence, unrest, and destruction we have witnessed over the last several years are not the natural manifestations of a normal culture. It has all been orchestrated to achieve a simple objective: the subjugation of the American people.
Opponents of liberty seek to shame those of us who love America’s freedoms with false narratives regarding love. No, love is not tolerant toward those who would destroy that which is good and right. A good man does not sit idly watching intruders victimize his family. As long as predators exist, good men will protect those they love!
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,” is not merely a pleasant platitude. It is the one most essential element for a peaceful, prosperous nation. I again call on all Americans to repent and submit to the Holy, yet gracious Lord and God, Jesus Christ!
Sadly, so long as fallen mankind and tyrants run things here, weapons will be necessary to protect one’s life and liberties. When Christ, the Prince of peace reigns, however, we will see such things come to an end and weapons will be repurposed into plows and pruning hooks! Eden will be restored!
Will you be there?
