-Caveat Lector-
A re-post but pertinent to what's goning on in America today.
What Does the Bible Say About Gun Control?
by Larry Pratt
The underlying argument for gun control seems to be that the availability
of guns causes crime. By extension, the availability of any weapon would
have to be viewed as a cause of crime. What does the Bible say about such a
view?
Perhaps we should start at the beginning, or at least very close to the
beginning -- in Genesis 4. In this chapter we read about the first murder.
Cain had offered an unacceptable sacrifice, and Cain was upset that God
insisted that he do the right thing. In other words, Cain was peeved that
he could not do his own thing.
Cain decided to kill his brother rather than get right with God. There were
no guns available, although there may well have been a knife. Whether it
was a knife or a rock, the Bible does not say. The point is, the evil in
Cain's heart was the cause of the murder, not the availability of the
murder weapon.
God's response was not to ban rocks or knives, or whatever, but to banish
the murderer. Later (see Genesis 9:5-6) God instituted capital punishment,
but said not a word about banning weapons.
Did Christ Teach Pacifism?
Many people, Christians included, assume that Christ taught pacifism. They
cite Matthew 5:38-39 for their proof. In this verse Christ said: "You have
heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I
tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right
cheek, turn the other to him also."
The Sermon on the Mount from which this passage is taken deals with
righteous personal conduct. In our passage, Christ is clearing up a
confusion that had led people to think that conduct proper for the civil
government -- that is, taking vengeance -- was also proper for an
individual.
Even the choice of words used by Christ indicates that He was addressing a
confusion, or a distortion, that was commonplace. Several times in the rest
of the Sermon on the Mount Christ used this same "you have heard it said"
figure of speech to straighten out misunderstandings or falsehoods being
taught by the religious leaders of the times.
Contrast this to Christ's use of the phrase "it is written" when He was
appealing to the Scriptures for authority (for example, see Matthew 4 where
on three occasions during His temptation by the devil. Christ answered each
one of the devil's lies or misquotes from Scripture with the words: "it is
written").
To further underscore the point that Christ was correcting the religious
leaders on their teaching that "an eye for an eye" applies to private
revenge, consider that in the same Sermon. Christ strongly condemned false
teaching: "Whoever therefore breaks one of the commandments, and teaches
men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven..." (Matthew 5:19).
Clearly, then, Christ was not teaching something different about self
defense than is taught elsewhere in the Bible. Otherwise, He would be
contradicting Himself for He would now be teaching men to break one of the
commandments.
The Bible distinguishes clearly between the duties of the civil magistrate
(the government) and the duties of an individual. Namely, God has delegated
to the civil magistrate the administration of justice. Individuals have the
responsibility of protecting their lives from attackers. Christ was
referring to this distinction in the Matthew 5 passage. Let us now examine
in some detail what the Scriptures say about the roles of government and of
individuals.
Both the Old and New Testaments teach individual self defense, even if it
means taking the assailant's life in certain circumstances.
Self Defense in the Old Testament
Exodus 22:2-3 tells us "If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck
so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. If the sun has
risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed. He should make full
restitution if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft."
One conclusion which can be drawn from this is that a threat to our life is
to be met with lethal force. During the day, presumably because we can
recognize and later apprehend the thief if he escapes, we are not to kill
him in non life-threatening circumstances.
In Proverbs 25:26 we read that "A righteous man who falters before the
wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well." Certainly, we would be
faltering before the wicked if we chose to be unarmed and unable to resist
an assailant who might be threatening our life.
Trusting God
Another question asked by Christians is "Doesn't having a gun imply a lack
of trust that God will take care of us?"
Indeed, God will take care of us. He has also told us that if we love Him,
we will keep His commandments. (John 14:15)
Those who trust God work for a living, knowing that 1 Timothy 5:8 tells us
"But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of
his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
For a man not to work, yet expect to eat because he was "trusting God"
would actually be to defy God.
King David wrote in Psalm 46:1 that God is our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble. This did not conflict with praising the God "Who
trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle" (Psalm 144:1).
The doctrine of Scripture is that we prepare and work, but we trust the
outcome to God.
Those who trust God should also make adequate provision for their own
defense even as we are instructed in the passages cited above. For a man to
refuse to provide adequately for his and his family's defense would be to
defy God.
Role of Government
Resisting an attack is not to be confused with taking vengeance which is
the exclusive domain of God (Romans 12:19). This has been delegated to the
civil magistrate, who, as we read in Romans 13:4, "is God's minister to you
for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in
vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who
practices evil."
Private vengeance means one would stalk down a criminal after one's life is
no longer in danger as opposed to defending oneself during an attack. It is
this very point that has been confused by Christian pacifists who would
take the passage in the Sermon on the Mount about turning the other cheek
(which prohibits private vengeance) into a command to falter before the
wicked.
Let us consider also that the Sixth Commandment tells us "Thou shall not
murder." In the chapters following, God gave to Moses many of the
situations which require a death penalty. God clearly has not told us never
to kill. He has told us not to murder, which means we are not to take an
innocent life.
Consider also that the civil magistrate is to be a terror to those who
practice evil. This passage does not in any way imply that the role of law
enforcement is to prevent crimes or to protect individuals from criminals.
The magistrate is a minister to serve as "an avenger to execute wrath on
him who practices evil." (Romans 13:4)
This point is reflected in the legal document of the United States.
Repeatedly, courts have held that the government has no responsibility to
provide individual security. One case (Bowers v. DeVito) put it this way:
"there is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against
being murdered."
Self Defense in the New Testament
The Christian pacifist may try to argue that God has changed His mind from
the time that He gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Perhaps
they would want us to think that Christ canceled out the Ten Commandments
in Exodus 20 or the provision for justifiably killing a thief in Exodus 22.
But the writer of Hebrews makes it clear that this cannot be, because
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). In
the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi records God's words this way: "For I
am the Lord, I do not change" (Malachi 3:6).
Paul was referring to the unchangeability of God's Word when he wrote to
Timothy that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Clearly, Paul viewed all Scripture
including the Old Testament, as useful for training Christians in every
area of life.
We must also consider what Christ told his disciples in his last hours with
them: ".. But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a
sack and he who has no sword let him sell his garment and buy one" (Luke
22:36, emphasis added). Keep in mind that the sword was the finest
offensive weapon available to an individual soldier -- the equivalent then
of a military rifle today.
The Christian pacifist will likely object at this point that only a few
hours later, Christ rebuked Peter who used a sword to cut off the ear of
Malchus, a servant of the high Priest in the company of a detachment of
troops. Let us read what Christ said to Peter in Matthew 26:52-54:
Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the
sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will
provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the
Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?
It was not the first time that Christ had to explain to the disciples why
He had come to earth. To fulfill the Scriptures, the Son of God had to die
for the sin of man since man was incapable of paying for his own sin apart
from going to hell. Christ could have saved His life, but then believers
would have lost their lives forever in hell. These things only became clear
to the disciples after Christ had died and been raised from the dead and
the Spirit had come into the world at Pentecost (see John 14:26).
While Christ told Peter to "put your sword in its place" He clearly did not
say get rid of it forever. That would have contradicted what he had told
the disciples only hours before. Peter's sword was to protect his own
mortal life from danger. His sword was not needed to protect the Creator of
the universe and the King of kings.
Years after Pentecost, Paul wrote in a letter to Timothy "But if anyone
does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he
has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tim. 5:8). This
passage applies to our subject because it would be absurd to buy a house,
furnish it with food and facilities for one's family, and then refuse to
install locks and provide the means to protect the family and the property.
Likewise it would be absurd not to take, if necessary, the life of a
night-time thief to protect the members of the family (Exodus 22:2-3).
A related, and even broader concept, is found in the parable of the Good
Samaritan. Christ had referred to the Old Testament summary of all the laws
of the Bible into two great commandments: " 'You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and
with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself' " (Luke 10:27). When
asked who was a neighbor, Christ related the parable of the Good Samaritan
(Luke 10:30-37). It was the Good Samaritan who took care of the mugging
victim who was a neighbor to the victim. The others who walked by and
ignored the victim's plight were not acting as neighbors to him.
In the light of all we have seen the Scriptures teach to this point, can we
argue that if we were able to save another's life from an attacker by
shooting the attacker with our gun that we should "turn the other cheek
instead?" The Bible speaks of no such right. It only speaks of our
responsibilities in the face of an attack -- as individual creatures made
by God, as householders or as neighbors.
National Blessings and Cursings
The Old Testament also tells us a great deal about the positive
relationship between righteousness, which exalts a nation, and self
defense. (See footnote a.)
It makes clear that in times of national rebellion against the Lord God,
the rulers of the nation will reflect the spiritual degradation of the
people and the result is a denial of God's commandments, an arrogance of
officialdom, disarmament and oppression.
For example, the people of Israel were oppressed during the time of the
rule of the Judges. This occurred every time the people apostatized. Judges
5:8 tells us that, "They chose new gods then there was war in the gates not
a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel."
Consider Israel under Saul: The first book of Samuel tells of the turning
away of Israel from God. The people did not want to be governed by God they
wanted to be ruled by a king like the pagan, God-hating nations around
them. Samuel warned the people what they were getting into -- the curses
that would be upon them -- if they persisted in raising up a king over
themselves and their families. Included in those curses was the raising up
of a standing, professional army which would take their sons and their
daughters for aggressive wars (I Samuel 8:11).
This curse is not unknown in the United States. Saul carried out all the
judgments that Samuel had warned the people about. His build up of a
standing army has been repeated in the U.S., and not just in terms of the
military, but also the 650,000 full-time police officers from all levels of
government.
Saul was the king the Israelites wanted and got. He was beautiful in the
eyes of the world but a disaster in the eyes of the Lord. Saul did not
trust God. He rebelled against His form of sacrifice unto the Lord. Saul
put himself above God. He was impatient. He refused to wait for Samuel
because God's way was taking too long. Saul went ahead and performed the
sacrifice himself, thus violating God's commandment (and, incidentally,
also violating the God-ordained separation of duties of church and state!)
Thus was the kingdom lost to Saul. And, it was under him that the
Philistines were able to defeat the Jews and put them into bondage. So
great was the bondage exerted by the Philistines that "Now there was no
blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel for the
Philistines said, 'Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.' But all
the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen each man's
plowshare, his mattock, his ax, and his sickle ...So it came about, on the
day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of
any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan..." (1 Samuel 13:19-20
22-23).
Today, the same goals of the Philistines would be carried out by an
oppressor who would ban gun smiths from the land. The sword of today is the
handgun, rifle or shotgun. The sword control of the Philistines is today's
gun control of those governments that do not trust their people with guns.
It is important to understand that what happened to the Jews at the time of
Saul was not unexpected according to the sanctions spelled out by God in
Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. In the first verses of those chapters,
blessings are promised to a nation that keeps God's laws. In the long
second parts of those chapters, the curses are spelled out for a nation
that comes under judgment for its rebellion against God. Deuteronomy
28:47-48 helps us understand the reason for Israel's oppression by the
Philistines during Saul's reign:
Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart,
for the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies,
whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness,
and in need of all things; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck
until He has destroyed you.
The Bible provides examples of God's blessing upon Israel for its
faithfulness. These blessings included a strong national defense coupled
with peace. A clear example occurred during the reign of Jehoshaphat. 2
Chronicles 17 tells of how Jehoshaphat led Israel back to faithfulness to
God which included a strong national defense. The result: "And the fear of
the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, so
that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat" (2 Chronicles 17:10).
The Israelite army was a militia army which came to battle with each man
bearing his own weapons -- from the time of Moses, through the Judges, and
beyond. When threatened by the Midianites, for example, "So Moses spoke to
the people, saying, 'Arm some of yourselves for the war, and let them go
against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Lord on Midian' " (Numbers
31:3). Again, to demonstrate the Biblical heritage of individuals bearing
and keeping arms, during David's time in the wilderness avoiding capture by
Saul, "David said to his men, 'Every man gird on his sword.' So every man
girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword" (1 Samuel 25:13).
Finally, consider Nehemiah and those who rebuilt the gates and walls of
Jerusalem. They were both builders and defenders, each man -- each servant
-- armed with his own weapon:
Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens loaded
themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the
other held a weapon. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his
side as he built (Nehemiah 4:17-18).
Conclusion
The wisdom of the framers of the Constitution is consistent with the
lessons of the Bible. Instruments of defense should be dispersed throughout
the nation, not concentrated in the hands of the central government. In a
godly country, righteousness governs each man through the Holy Spirit
working within. The government has no cause to want a monopoly of force;
the government that desires such a monopoly is a threat to the lives,
liberty and property of its citizens.
The assumption that only danger can result from people carrying guns is
used to justify government monopoly of force. The notion that the people
cannot be trusted to keep and bear their own arms informs us that ours,
like the time of Solomon, may be one of great riches but is also a time of
peril to free people. if Christ is not our King, we shall have a dictator
to rule over us, just as Samuel warned.
For those who think that God treated Israel differently from the way He
will treat us today, please consider what God told the prophet Malachi:
"For I am the Lord, I do not change..." (Malachi 3:6).
----------------------------------------------
[a] "When our forefathers wrote the constitution of the United States,
consciously or unconsciously they followed the Israel system of the right
of every man to keep and bear arms. [The Second Amendment] was patterned
after the Israel method: when every able bodied man capable of bearing arms
and who might be called upon by the nation for military duties to defend
his country, his life, liberty and freedom was thus able and prepared to
take his place in the ranks of the army.
"Tyranny, as a rule, arises from within a nation when the government has
been captured by men who would use their acquired power to oppress the
people. These facts were known to the framers of the constitution, hence
they recognized the need and right of citizens to keep and bear arms in
order to insure real liberty. God in His wisdom...made it a fundamental law
in the land that every man should be a part of the military forces of the
nation -- keeping his arms and equipment in his own possession.
"Now the right of citizens to keep and bear arms is fundamental in
preserving true freedom, so much so that subversive forces in sundry and
subtle ways first move to disarm the citizens of a nation which they later
plan to dominate. We have witnessed such moves in the past while states
which have already passed laws violating Article II of our constitution did
so under the pretext: of disarming the criminal. The states which have
violated this fundamental principle of the protection of its citizens
against armed violence have not only failed to reduce come but have
contributed to the increase in violence and come. The criminal, who never
disarms, knows he is dealing with law-abiding unarmed citizens. Honest men
and leaders never fear an armed, law-abiding civilian population."
Howard B. Rand, LL.B., _Digest of the Divine Law_. (Destiny Publishers,
Merrimac, MA 1943) pp.163-164.
Editor's note: Parts of this article first appeared in Plymouth Rock
Foundation's FAC-SHEET #62. The Right To Bear Arms. Plymouth Rock
Foundation can be contacted by writing to them at P.O. Box 577,
Marlborough, NH 03455.
----------------------------------
[Reprinted with permission. Larry Pratt is Executive Director of Gun Owners
of America and a ruling elder in a Presbyterian Church in America
congregation in Virginia. For more information write to Gun Owners of
America, 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151.]
---------------
When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses,
and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the
LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest
shall approach and speak unto the people,
And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto
battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do
not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;
For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you
against your enemies, to save you.
-Deuteronomy 20:1-4
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