Should Christians Comply With Gun Confiscation?
by Doug Newman
dougnewman@juno.com

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

Jim Z. writes:

"If the government put down a law tomorrow that said we had to turn in all privately owned fire arms, as Christians, should we obey that law? I am a Christian and I believe that we should obey that government edict because they are NOT asking me to disobey God's word. . . what is your opinion on this?"

I answered:

I don't know where you are in your knowledge of the Bible. However, if you rely on most churches anymore for your Bible education, I see how you would think this. However, the idea that Christians should comply with gun confiscation is not biblical.

Gun control in any form is not biblical. The Bible tells us that Cain killed Abel—Genesis 4:8—but it does not tell us how he did it or with what tool. Evil lies with people and their deeds, not the tools they use. The idea that depriving people of inanimate objects will stop them from doing evil has no basis in Scripture.

Jesus twice instructs His followers to be armed. Consider Luke 11:21-22:

"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils."

Christians are to be better armed than their enemies, even when those enemies are government-sponsored. (1)

Now consider Luke 22:36:

"He said to them, 'But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.'"

Christians are to be armed. Period. There is no indication anywhere in Scripture that we should ever relinquish our arms. And if anyone tells you to surrender your arms ask him where he gets the idea that a Christian should do this.

Let us look now at the Old Testament.

When you surrender your arms, you give way to the wicked. Proverbs 25:26 likens people like this to "a muddied spring or a polluted well."

I Samuel 13 tells how the Philistines defeated the Jews and put them into bondage. Consider verses 19-22:

"Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, 'Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!' So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plowshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads. So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them."

The Philistine monopoly on the technology of metals placed the Jews at a huge disadvantage both agriculturally and militarily. The sword and the spear were in biblical times what the handgun, rifle and shotgun are today. Control of weaponry, then and now, means control of people. Disarm people and you can control and enslave them. This is a biblical principle.

Time and again, we hear that "America was founded on Christian values." (2) One of those values is spelled out in the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The Second Amendment exists to ensure not just any old willy-nilly state, but a FREE STATE. The wording indicates that the right of the people to keep and bear arms pre-exists the Constitution, and that it shall not be infringed. Period. This right applies in good times and bad times, wartime and peacetime, and in times of serenity and times of crisis. The militia of which the Founders spoke was not today's National Guard, but all able bodied citizens. Why? So that—consistent with Luke 11:21-22—the people may outgun their government. A disarmed people cannot resist a tyrannical government.

But doesn't the National Guard do today what this militia did in 1791? Let's see. Did the Texas National Guard come to the aid of the Branch Davidians? Did the Idaho National Guard come to the aid of the Weaver family? Did the Florida National Guard defend Elian Gonzales and his relatives? Is the New Hampshire National Guard currently defending Ed and Elaine Brown? After Katrina, did the Louisiana National Guard defend against all infringements the right of the people of New Orleans to keep and bear arms?

But doesn't Romans 13 tell us always to obey our government? Romans 13 is the favorite Scripture of control freaks everywhere. Millions of American Christians are so totally dumbed down that they actually believe Romans 13 tells us to submit unconditionally to earthly authorities at all times. (Indeed, the Department of Homeland Security is forming "clergy response teams" (3) of pathetic pulpit pansies whose job it is to lie shamelessly and tell people just this. There is little difference between these eunuchs and the German pastors who kissed up to Hitler in the 1930s.)

It depends on who your government is. In America, the "supreme law of the land" is the Constitution. When soulless government flunkies come to take away the citizens' guns, it is they who are in rebellion, not the citizens who so courageously resist.

If you are a Christian, your King has a Kingdom that is not of this world. (John 18:36) and your ultimate citizenship is not on this earth. (Philippians 3:20) You must answer to a Higher Authority than tax-subsidized petty functionaries who want to restrict his God-given, constitutionally guaranteed rights.

Christ instructs His followers to be light in a world of darkness and salt in a world of decay. (Matthew 5:13-16) Hence, Christians are to stand vigilant against tyranny. There are no nice, polite or benevolent tyrannies. The Bible is full of brave men who defied and resisted earthly rulers. Indeed, Paul, who wrote Romans 13, was a big time jailbird.

If tyrannizing people is not evil, what is it? If telling Christians that they have a duty to cave in to tyrants is not lying, what is it? Any pastor who instructs his flock to cave into tyrants is going to have some serious splainin' to do someday.

Notes

(1) Gun control is thus Darwinist. It renders some people more "fit" than others. All the most prolific mass murderers of history have been Darwinists as well as gun grabbers. A disarmed populace is a less "fit" populace.

(2) The Founders were, among other things, tax resisters, smugglers and militiamen who engaged in armed shootouts with troops from their earthly government.

(3) Read this column by Pastor Chuck Baldwin and watch this video from KSLA-TV in Shreveport.

First published at www.geocities.com/fountoftruth/comply.html.

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