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Posts Tagged ‘Bible and Self-Defense’

LGBTQ rights activists rally at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas on March 27, 2023. (Lauren McGaughy / Lauren McGaughy)

Over 2,500 years ago, the prophet Isaiah penned the words, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”  Isaiah was writing about the collapsing theocracy in Judah in the 7th and 8th centuries B.C., but he could just as easily have been commenting on 21st-century America. 

What Isaiah was describing has been termed by some a “satanic inversion.”  That is, what is put forth by the devil’s votaries as good is the mirror opposite of what is commanded by God and vice versa.   God cannot lie.  But when Satan lies, he speaks from his own resources. For lies are his native language.

Lies have become the native language of America’s ruling class.  Their daddy is the devil.  And by ruling class, I mean not just those in positions of political authority – mayors, governors, senators, judges, presidents – but leaders in business, leaders in the schools, leaders in the universities, leaders in publishing companies, leaders in entertainment, leaders in the media, and, yes, leaders in many churches as well.  24/7, Americans are subject to the most extraordinary propaganda, yet many seem blissfully unaware of it.

Last Monday’s horrible shooting at a Nashville church school and the aftermath is an obvious example of a satanic inversion and one that bears closer examination. 

It’s not the Guns 

Predictably, the gun grabbers were fighting over who could get to the microphone the fastest to call for the disarming of the American people.  Oh, they’ll tell you they just want to keep AR-15s out of peoples’ hands.  Why, those are weapons of war! 

But of course, the gun grabbers have no intention of stopping with AR-15s.  If they get their way, their next target likely will be 9mm pistols.  Joe Biden himself signaled this last year when he appeared to call for the banning of 9mm handguns.  Said Biden in his garbled way, “So the idea of these high-caliber weapons (9mm handguns) is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of thinking about self-protection.”   

It’s not surprising that the Roman Catholic, Jesuit-linked Joe Biden would come out against handguns.  His Vatican handlers have been pushing for handgun control since at least 1975

But here’s something to think about.  I graduated high school in the mid-1980s.  And while younger readers may find this hard to believe, no one was worried about school shootings.  The subject just never came up.  There were no metal detectors in my high school.  There were, as far as I’m aware, no armed resource officers in my high school.  The doors were not locked and barred. 

And there were guns around in the 1980s.  Lots of ‘em.  

I don’t say this to suggest everyone at my high school was a perfect angel or that there were no behavior problems.  There was a lot of bad stuff happening in the 1980s, including some school shootings.  It’s just that if you had used the term “school shooter” in 1980s America, no one would have known what you were talking about.  It wasn’t a “thing” at that time. 

And school shootings didn’t become a “thing” until two demon-possessed students at Columbine High School went on a shooting spree in 1999 killing 12 other students and one teacher before they killed themselves. 

So, if there were guns around in the 1980s and school shootings were rare, then how can guns be the cause of the raft of school shootings we’ve seen since the 1990s?   

It’s the people who have changed, not the guns. 

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El Paso

A couple console each other near an El Paso Walmart where a mass shooting occurred Saturday.  Photo: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune

Mass shootings. What are Christians to make of them? But before we answer this question, perhaps we should sharpen the question a bit, asking instead, What are American Christians to make of them?

The obvious motive for my writing on this subject is the report from El Paso, TX, where another mass shooting has left many dead and injured, not to mention many other traumatized by the sinful violence of the event.

If that weren’t enough, I woke up this morning to hear of another mass shooting, this time in nearby Dayton, OH which reportedly has left 9 dead.

Oddly enough, both these shootings in far apart places – Dayton and El Paso are over 1,500 miles apart – both have a personal connection to me. El Paso is the home of several friends of mine from ThornCrown Ministries, while I personally know a man who currently serves as an officer on the Dayton police force. My friends are all safe, but clearly there are many people in both places who have suffered great loss.

The response from the news media and other Second Amendment foes is predictable: Guns are the problem and must be more strictly regulated. The ultimate goal of these people seems to be the complete disarmament of the American people.

As Christians, what are we to say to this? Certainly, in the wake of such tragedies it is tempting to go along with the anti-gun rhetoric. But we must ask, What does the Bible say about the right of private citizens to bear arms? Does Scripture prohibit private citizens from owning weapons, or does it support their doing so?

Another question related to this is what does the Bible say about criminal justice? Does the Bible call for crime punishment or crime prevention? How we answer these questions will serve to guide us as we evaluate the statements we see in the news concerning the El Paso and Dayton shootings.

The short answer to the first question is, yes, the Bible allows for private citizens to own weapons. To the second question, we answer that the Bible calls, not for crime prevention, but for crime punishment.

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