Documenti di Didattica
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copyright 1996
by
Malcolm B. Mathieson, Jr.
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Where does the gun-owning Christian stand in God’s eyes? If you are a militia
member or citizen preparing to resist an oppressive post-American
dictatorship, the New World Order, or UN troops on American soil, what can
you expect from God? Approval? Miraculous assistance? Condemnation?
What? The purpose of this article is to challenge the Christian gun owner to
read the Bible to discover what God has to say about resisting an evil
government, instead of just accepting the beliefs of any person or group. In the
name of religion, Jim Jones and David Koresh together led about one
thousand people to a pointless death. Christians have been warned not to
accept anything or anyone without testing them:
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of
God, because many false prophets are in the world.” (1st John 4:1)
“These [Jews in Berea] were more noble than the Thessalonians, in that
they received the word with readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures
daily to see if what they were told was so.” (Acts 17:11)
As a gun owner and former gun salesman, I have frequently heard religious
people claiming that God will approve of gun owners resisting government
confiscation of firearms, even to the point of armed rebellion against the
government. These people point out, correctly, that the U.S. Constitution does
not grant rights, rather it recognizes rights already given us by our Creator.
They conclude that if God gave us rights, He surely would approve of us
fighting for them. This is a very serious question. The Old Testament provides
us with examples of what happens to God’s people when they attempt
something without God’s approval: they lose. In fact, they get stomped flat.
(Numbers 14:39-45, Deuteronomy 28:15-68) Romans 11:17-22 and 1st
Corinthians 10:11 tell us that what happened to the Israelites can happen to
us.
(By the way, I am talking about one specific God - Jehovah, the God of
Christians and Jews - and one specific view of that God - the orthodox view.
If you are a Muslim, a Buddhist, a New Ager, or a follower of any other religion,
there is no common ground for this discussion.)
The problem with this question of fighting for rights (any rights) is that
beginning at this point keeps us from asking other questions that help us see
the big picture. We need to back off for a minute and ask some basic questions
about the whole spiritual war. This is simply strategic thinking. The more you
know of your team’s strategies and entire war plan, the more intelligently you
can fight in your arena. Remember, “Flawless execution cannot compensate
for implementing the wrong solution.” (Daryl Connor, president of ODR, quoted
in The Performance Edge, by Robert K. Cooper.)
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What was Jesus’ response to His similar situation? Did He organize a militia to
fight the Romans? Did He stockpile weapons? Did He make speeches about
the Jews’ special rights as the only people on earth chosen by God Himself to
be His representatives to the whole world? Sorry, no. He said, “Love your
ENEMIES. Do good to THOSE WHO PERSECUTE YOU…so that you may be
the children of your Heavenly Father…be perfect.” About that “second mile”
saying: Jesus was the one who said it first. In Matthew 5:41, Jesus told His
disciples that if they were required to carry a soldier’s pack the legal mile, they
should voluntarily carry it a second mile!
Jesus said that “…God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:17)
Jesus’ mission was to provide a way of salvation for everyone who would
accept it, not to put tyrants in their places. Remember “the Great
Commission”? Jesus told His disciples to “go into the entire world and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to do all the things I commanded you to
do.” (Matthew 10:16) This is not the job description of a resister, a patriot, a
militia member, or a revolutionary.
No revolutionary could have hoped for a more favorable political climate than
Jesus had. The attitude of the general population was so enthusiastic that the
political and religious rulers were actually afraid of Jesus’ influence. On at least
two occasions the rulers would have arrested, maybe executed, Jesus, but
were prevented by their fear of the people’s reaction: Matthew 21:45-46 and
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Luke 22:2. As the authorities themselves expressed it, “We do not prevail
against Him. The whole world follows Him! ” (John 12:19) Matthew recorded
that “His fame went throughout all Syria…great multitudes of people followed
Him from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond Jordan.” (Matthew
4:24-25) So great was Jesus’ notoriety that, years later, when the apostle Paul
was on trial before King Agrippa for his faith in Jesus, Paul said to his
interrogators, “…the king knows these things…none of these things are hidden
from him, for this thing was not done in a corner.” (Acts 26:26)
With all this popularity, Jesus did not attempt an overthrow of the government.
In fact, when He was arrested and Peter started lopping off ears, Jesus said to
him, “Put your sword back in its sheath, for all those who take the sword shall
die by the sword. Don’t you realize that I could pray to My Father, and He
would give Me more than twelve thousand angels to stand with Me? But then
how would the Scriptures be fulfilled, that say that these things must be?”
Matthew 26:52-54)
Think of what Jesus endured rather than fight: He went through four
interrogations lasting all night and at least several hours of the next day, with
no rest or sleep. During those interrogations He was beaten, spat on, stripped,
mocked, had a crown of thorns jammed down on His head and had His beard
torn out. After all that He was whipped with a multi-lash whip, each lash having
a piece of bone or metal tied to the end to increase the mutilation. Then they
made Him carry His cross until He fell down. Then they executed Him in a
manner designed to inflict maximum suffering. In fact He was not executed, He
was tortured to death. But He refused even to hate His murderers and
torturers: as He was dying, He prayed, “Father, forgive them. They don’t
understand what they’re doing.” His reputation was such that as He was dying,
a thief dying beside Him said. “This man has done nothing wrong.” And that is
the man Christians are supposed to become like.
11:13-16) And they endured property confiscation and all kinds of suffering
for the sake of their faith: read Hebrews 10:32-37, 11:24-27, and 11:35-40.
Paul taught that we should not take revenge, and that we should go so far as
to give food or water to a hungry or thirsty enemy (Romans 12:17-20).
The disciples understood that they were not to resist the civil authorities:
Romans 13:1-2, 1st Peter 2:11-20. The apostle Paul listed in 2nd Corinthians
11:23-26 a frightening amount of violent physical abuse he had taken from
various authorities. He expected that this would be the experience of all
Christians, and he warned that it would get worse: 2nd Timothy 3:10-14. So did
Jesus: Luke 23:28-31. Paul gave what may be the best description in the Bible
of what a Christian’s attitude should be:
“I beg you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. Don’t
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may demonstrate [to other people] the good and acceptable and
perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
Why should we do this? We’re talking about giving up rights here, not
fighting for them. We should do this because we have the most important
message this world has ever heard:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only uniquely-born Son, so
that whoever believes in Him will not die, but have everlasting life…He
who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the
only uniquely-born Son of God.” (John 3:16 and 18)
Do you believe in Jesus? Fine - PROVE IT! Prove it to those who don’t
believe, and are on their way to hell - remember that place? The Lake of
Fire? Are you really going to tell Jesus on the Judgement Day that your gun
rights were more important than delivering a clear message that would have
kept people from an eternity in the Lake of Fire? After what He went through
to keep them out? You not too smart, fella.
There is a lot more that you can expect from Him, but you need to discover it
for yourself. Besides, it wouldn’t all fit into this article. If you are a believer in
Jesus, start reading your Bible. If you’re not a believer, it’s even more
important that you read the Bible.
Just remember what’s most important and what’s only temporary. If you love
guns, as I do, that’s not always easy. It is, however, necessary.
“Your attitude should be the same that Messiah Jesus had. Though He was
God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself
nothing, He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.
And in human form He obediently humbled Himself even further by dying a
criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)