The Bible And Guns

A Biblical Response to

Those Who Say We Should Disarm; to

Those Who Teach Pacifism; to

Those Who Think the Bible Has Nothing to Say About Arms

by Pastor Matt Trewhella

Genesis 4:8-12 In this passage, Scripture records the first murder wherein

Cain killed Abel. That Cain must have used some sort of weapon to kill Abel

is evidenced by the fact that Abel was bleeding (he was not strangled). Notice

how God responded to the killing. He did not institute some sort of weapon-control,

rather, He punished the one who committed the crime.

Exodus 20 and following In His holy Law, which God decreed at Sinai, nowhere do

you see God outlawing weapons in regards to the various crimes which He prohibited

in His legislation. He always punishes the perpetrator. He never disarms the citizenry.

Exodus 22:2 In this verse, God declares that if someone breaks into your house at

night and you kill him, you are not guilty of murder. This verse makes clear that

you have a God-given right to defend yourself and to defend your family.

Deuteronomy 22:23-27 This passage deals with rape. Notice that verse 27 ends with

the words "but there was no one to save her." What is the implication of such a

statement? The implication is that had someone been around to hear her cry out,

they had a moral duty to intervene and protect her from being raped. To stand by

would be immoral. We have a God-given right to defend not only ourselves, but also

others.

Numbers 1 In His economy, God instituted an armed citizenry, not a standing army,

in order to deal with the affairs of war regarding Israel. This is what the Founding

Fathers of America envisioned for our nation. Even in Switzerland today, every home

is furnished with a machine gun (one of the reasons Hitler chose not to invade

Switzerland).

I Samuel 13:19-22 The Philistines disarmed the Israelites. Weapon-control was

instituted. No blacksmiths were allowed lest the Israelites arm themselves. A

disarmed people is the sign of a conquered people. A disarmed people is the sign of

an enslaved people.

Isaiah 2:1-5 Many, including the United Nations, take the latter part of verse 4 in

this passage, which states "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their

spears into pruning hooks," and try to say that God wants us to disarm. The context

makes clear however, that "swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into

pruning hooks" when God Himself rules, not when the United Nations or any other

government of man rules.

Matthew 5:38-39 In this passage, Jesus is not denigrating the Law of God in regards

to one's right to defend himself and others, rather He is repudiating the lex talionis -

the law of retaliation, which said, "if someone messes you up today, you go back and

mess him up five times worse tomorrow." The Pharisees were even using the Law of God

to justify this mindset. Jesus is repudiating this personal vengeance which some sought

to justify and participate in. He is not saying we cannot defend ourselves or others.

Vengeance belongs to God (Romans 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35; Proverbs 20:22). We are not

to avenge ourselves. If we see someone who needs our help during the commission of a

crime, we have a God-given right and duty to intervene. If however, the crime has been

committed (past tense), we have no God-given right or duty to go and execute judgment

upon the perpetrator. God will avenge. God will judge.

God has given the sword (a symbol of judgment) to the civil magistrate (Romans 13:4).

If a crime has been committed, it is to be reported to the civil authorities and they

have a God-given right and duty before God to execute judgment.

Matthew 26:51-52 Some try to say that this passage proves that Jesus was a pacifist and

against guns. Quite the contrary. Where does Jesus tell Peter to put his sword? "In its

place." John makes it clearer, Jesus said to Peter "Put your sword into the sheath"

(John 18:11). Jesus didn't tell him to melt it down into a plowshare, rather he told

him to put it "into the sheath." The sword has its proper place. It's not evil. But

Peter was wanting to use it in an improper situation. Jesus came to earth to die. Peter

would be abrogating the purposes of God if he intervened with the sword. As Jesus goes

on to say in verse 11 of John chapter 18, "Shall I not drink the cup which My Father

has given Me?" Jesus was trying to teach His disciples that His Kingdom is not expanded

in the earth through the use of force, rather it is expanded through the preaching of

the Gospel and the discipling of the nations.

If someone wants to live by the sword, they will die by the sword, as Jesus says. In

other words, he who uses the sword for improper purposes will die by it. It was improper

for Peter to have used it in that situation. A criminal or a tyrant who uses the sword

improperly will rightly die by it. But the use of the sword in a proper fashion, to

defend one's person or one's family or one's country, is not condemned by Scripture,

rather Scripture upholds it.

God is not a pacifist. Jesus is not a pacifist. As Jesus said in the very next verse,

verse 53, "Or do you not think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide

Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" Jesus could have used force. The use of

force; the use of swords were simply improper for the situation in which Christ was

involved. He was suppose to die. He and the Father are not pacifists. He did not use

force because He had to drink the cup of the Father.

Exodus 15:3 This verse of Scripture declares the Lord to be a "man of war." That God

is not a pacifist is evidenced throughout Scripture. Even Jesus Himself, who is the

brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person, and who has declared

all that God is (Hebrews 1:3; John 1:18), drove the moneychangers out of the temple

with a whip and overturned their tables (John 2:15). The book of Revelation defines

Him as a King who does what? "Judges and makes war" (Revelation 19:11). The Scripture

declares that Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

God's character does not change. God is not a pacifist.

Mahatma Ghandi, the father of modern pacifism:

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India,

history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation

of arms, as the blackest."

In closing, there are some who say that "we should not have guns; we should just trust

God." My response to those who say this is - "let me ask you, do you have a lock on

your front door?" They always say "yes." I then ask "Do you lock it when you leave or

go to bed at night?" Those who live in the city always say "yes." I then ask "Why do

you have a lock on your door? Why don't you just trust God?"

Just because we have a lock on our door or a gun in our closet does not mean we are

trusting in them to protect us with the same trust with which we're to trust the Lord.

Rather, we simply see the wisdom and prudence of having such things in order to be good

stewards in protecting our belongings and our families.

The psalmist understood that there was no contradiction. The psalmist (David) who said

in verse one of Psalm 144 "Blessed be the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, and

my fingers for battle" said in verse two of Psalm 144 "My lovingkindness and my fortress,

My high tower and my deliverer, My shield and the one in whom I take refuge."

Ecclesiastes
Chapter 3

1: There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
2: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
3: A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
4: A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
5: A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
6: A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
7: A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
8: A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9: What advantage has the worker from his toil?
10: I have considered the task which God has appointed for men to be busied about.
11: He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.
12: I recognized that there is nothing better than to be glad and to do well during life.
13: For every man, moreover, to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of all his labor is a gift of God.
14: I recognized that whatever God does will endure forever; there is no adding to it, or taking from it. Thus has God done that he may be revered.
15: ¹ What now is has already been; what is to be, already is; and God restores what would otherwise be displaced.
16: And still under the sun in the judgment place I saw wickedness, and in the seat of justice, iniquity.
17: And I said to myself, both the just and the wicked God will judge, since there is a time for every affair and on every work a judgment.
18: I said to myself: As for the children of men, it is God's way of testing them and of showing that they are in themselves like beasts.
19: For the lot of man and of beast is one lot; the one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life-breath, and man has no advantage over the beast; but all is vanity.
20: Both go to the same place; both were made from the dust, and to the dust they both return.
21: Who knows if the life-breath of the children of men goes upward and the life-breath of beasts goes earthward?
22: And I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to rejoice in his work; for this is his lot. Who will let him see what is to come after him?

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