Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, how can we believe that the right to bear arms is an unalienable right endowed by God, as the Declaration of Independence so confidently asserts? Is there really a biblical defense for the average citizen to own and use a firearm? This question has grown in urgency over the years and is reaching a crescendo with the proliferation of mass shootings in the last year.

Whatever their genesis, these shootings are being used by progressives to hysterically call for greater gun control and even the elimination of the Second Amendment altogether. However, there are many practical and constitutional reasons why we need an armed populace to defend us against an ever-burgeoning criminal class and a tyrannical central government. I will leave these reasons to others who have more experience with them, but what I would like to do is bring forward some arguments from the Bible as to why every Christian is not only permitted to bear arms but required to do so.

Instead of throwing up our hands in the air in exasperation or copping out by using the cheeky cheek argument that is turning the other cheek, we as a church need to take responsibility for defending our lives, homes, and communities. With the increasing breakdown of law and order in our cities and counties across the country, it is the individual citizen and local neighborhoods that must organize and defend themselves with arms. And we have biblical and historical precedent to follow.

First, though, we must give a brief response to the pacifist who may object that we must follow the example of Jesus and turn the other cheek when someone strikes us or not to resist one who is evil. All of these things were promulgated in the Sermon on the Mount, of course. Now, this is a true principle when we as believers are presenting the gospel and being persecuted for it. Jesus declared such in the context of the Sermon on the Mount when he was describing the new community of believers as it propagated the gospel. So, it must be kept in this context.

As with so much of Scripture, it was not meant to be an infinite rubber band, that is, this text wrapped around every possible circumstance of life. This text, that is, turn the other cheek and do not resist those who are evil. These are not proof texts for pacifism. No, a text without a context is just a pretext for a proof text, dear listener. We, as those same believers, we also exist in families and in communities, one with another.

And as such, we must think of the larger good of those families and communities, which includes their safety and well-being. Paul tells Timothy, if anyone does not provide for and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever, unquote. So, an argument can be made that part of that provision for families and relatives is protecting them from harm. And that entails self-defense with a weapon. It was true in the Old Testament, and it's equally pertinent in the New Testament.

And the Bible is not shy about personal self-defense. Every Israelite was expected to be armed and know how to use that weapon. In 1 Samuel chapter 25, we find this, David said to his men, every man strap on his sword, and every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about 400 men went up after David, while 200 remained with the baggage, unquote.

From 1 Samuel 25, verse 13, Israel practiced the militia principle, the militia principle, that is, that the defense of the tribe and people was the responsibility of the men of that tribe and people. And in order to do this, those men had to be armed and trained to use those weapons. The more training and skills that were developed, the better the defense of the people. Nehemiah understood this when rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem under threat of a conspiracy by local enemies on the settlers, right?

And Nehemiah says, and I quote, from that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other. And each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked, unquote. Oh, no arms, no defense, no defense, no wall, and no resistance against an enemy, no resistance against tyranny, and there is no life and liberty and property.

So it would have been with Israel under Nehemiah if they had surrendered their arms. And so it will be with us if we surrender our arms. Human nature has not changed over the millennia, dear listener. If you think your government is a benign parent who only has your best interest at heart and only wants to disarm you to keep you safe, then you are exhibit A of a naive, brainwashed Pollyanna. The militia principle.

The militia principle has worked very well throughout history, dear listener. Always remember, the militia principle is a people's principle. That is, it is a perpetually armed citizenry that is free. Yes, this is so true. It is a perpetually armed citizenry that is free.

It is not, as the tyrants of today try to characterize it, that is the militia. And they say things like, well, the militia is the equivalent of the contemporary National Guard, with arms conveniently stowed in armories safely out of the hands of the people, only accessed when government feels threatened. Yes, your deep state managers have turned the militia principle on its head by taking arms from the people and sequestering them for access only when that deep state feels threatened by the people. Then they will call on some of the people, that is the National Guard, to shoot others of the people.

Oh, this promulgated by the deep state is not the true militia principle. History does provide us some good examples, however. For example, during one period of the Dark Ages, when the Roman Empire was collapsing, as America is collapsing today, by the way, well, in those days, Rome was a very dangerous place to live. Law and order had broken down. The Roman legions were scattered throughout the empire without a leader, but they were not in Rome.

And much like our chaotic major cities, no one wanted to be a cop in Rome, because there was no support and the criminal gangs ran the city of Rome. No one was safe and no one was stepping forward to bring law and order. People were fleeing Rome to other places, and the ones who stayed lived in constant fear. But there was one man who did do something, and that was Pope Gregory the Great, who was pope from the late 6th to the early 7th century, when Rome had effectively collapsed. Gregory organized local militias to police the streets of Rome, and they were composed primarily of monks from the local monasteries.

Yes, and so it was that the church brought law and order back to Rome, because in those days, no one knew how to organize better than a monk. Law and order was brought back to Rome via the militia principle. That is, it is a perpetually armed citizenry that is free. Another good example is contemporary one of the Swiss army. The Swiss have long practiced the militia principle.

In that, every fit male is required to serve a term in the army, and then after this, he stands in reserve as a militia man, and he is required to own and operate and train with a weapon in his constant possession. He keeps it in his closet or on his mantle, always at the ready. The Swiss male is always ready to fight, and there are no mass shootings in Switzerland either, or rampant crime, or Chicago-style body counts every weekend of the people murdered in the streets. And it's not because there are no guns in Switzerland. In fact, almost every household has one.

No, Switzerland is largely free of gun crime because her citizens are civilized and patriotic and cultured and disciplined, unlike most Americans. And the Swiss have a government which largely has the best interest of her citizens at heart, unlike the deep state in America. The Swiss practice the militia principle, that is, it is a perpetually armed citizenry that is free. So, while the weapons may change over time, human nature does not. Free men strive to remain armed throughout history, and their oppressors strive to see them disarmed.

And make no mistake, dear listener, gun control was prevalent in biblical times too. Tyranny always seizes a free people's weapons, seeing it as integral to stripping the people of their ability to defend themselves. In Israel's early days, the Philistines made sure to remove or eliminate all of the skilled weapons makers from the land of Israel. I quote now from 1 Samuel chapter 13, verse 19. Now, there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel.

For the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears. Unquote. Yes, the Hebrews, if they had a blacksmith, would make swords and spears. And so, the Philistines made sure that they had no means for arming themselves. And your tyrannical deep state could care less about your safety, dear listener.

Like the Philistines of old, they merely want a disarmed and docile flock of sheep over which they may tyrannize at will. That is your modern deep state America. And they will use fear. Fear of random gunfire seemingly out of nowhere. Fear of a mysterious and unfamiliar instrument like a gun.

Or fear of an evil and dictatorial state that searches relentlessly for your guns. And they will use fear to disarm you. And once they have done this, well, then, the chains of your tyranny will tighten as never before. And what remains of the slipping sheep's clothing will fall. And the ravenous wolf of tyranny will be revealed for who he truly is.

The citizen in the Bible, the true citizen in the Bible, at least, was expected to defend his home and family. In fact, no punishment was meted out if an intruder was killed in the process of defending a citizen's home. Exodus chapter 22, verse 2 says this, if a thief is caught in the act of breaking into a house and is struck and killed in the process, the person who killed the thief is not guilty of murder, unquote, from Exodus 22. This is, in brief, a castle doctrine. That is, a man's home is his castle, and he has every right to defend it against intruders.

This is a principle, the castle doctrine, taken directly from the Bible and applied in modern circumstances. We are expected to be protectors of the innocent and the vulnerable as well. And it takes weapons to do this. Proverbs 24, 11 says this, rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

We are expected to be protectors of the innocent and the vulnerable. And that takes weapons. By the time you make your 911 call and the police get there, that is so many minutes off the clock when an evildoer can do his evil. It takes someone right there on the spot with a weapon to stop another intruder, to stop another bad deed doer. It takes a good man with a gun to stop a bad man with a gun.

And even our Lord himself, too, had something to say about self-defense in the days before his crucifixion. There's a cryptic saying in the Gospel of Luke that speaks obliquely to self-defense, but we must not make too much of it as some have tried to do. That saying comes when Jesus is describing to his disciples how the circumstances of their preaching of the Gospel will change after his passion, resurrection, and ascension.

Before, that is during his earthly ministry, Jesus told them not to take a purse or a cloak or sandals, that all would be provided them in their journey as they went about Judea and Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. And that's precisely what happened. But in the near future, all that will change. And Jesus' charge to them changes too. He says, and I quote from Luke 22, 35 to 38.

And he said to them, when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything? They said, nothing. He said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me.

And he was numbered with the transgressors. For what is written about me has its fulfillment. And they said, look, Lord, here are two swords. And he said to them, it is enough. Well, once more, we must keep this text in its context.

Context determines meaning, dear listener. Jesus is telling his disciples that the circumstances of their ministry have changed. They are no longer bearing the Gospel locally with Jesus' very person present with them. But now they are to bear the Gospel to the larger world with Jesus present with them in the power of the Holy Spirit, not there with them bodily. And they will be traveling the highways and byways of the entire Roman Empire, preaching the good news.

And it will be a long-term ministry too, not the brief preaching tour on which Jesus sent the disciples while he was with them. And so, consequently, they will need a purse and extra sandals and a cloak. And importantly, they will need a sword. Jesus even tells them, if you have a cloak but no sword, sell the cloak and get a sword. That's how necessary it will be.

That is, they will face robbers and brigands on the roads. And these gains of robbers and brigands were notorious in the ancient world. They preyed on caravans and likely subjects to beat and rob along the highway. The parable of the Good Samaritan is premised on one of these incidents of robbers descending upon a traveler. And that's precisely why one needed a sword in those days.

That is, for self-defense. And they would face other enemies as well that would presumably kill them. And for these circumstances, they'd need a sword for self-defense. Jesus, by referring to a sword, is really highlighting the drastic change in circumstances that the disciples face. Well then, does this mean that turning the other cheek or not resisting an evil person is no longer valid?

And I would say hardly. Both of these texts still retain their full force depending upon the context in which they are seen and the context in which you live. There will be times. There were times when the apostles faced them. And there are times when we will face circumstances in which we turn the other cheek.

When struck by a person in a fit of anger, perhaps someone hostile to the gospel. There will be times when a disciple does not resist a person intent on doing him evil, as when a boss fires you because he hates Christians, for example. Or when someone smashes something you value in anger because you're a Christian. The context of the situation will determine when one responds like this. And conversely, there will also be times when the disciple employs his sword or gun to defend himself or his family or friends or community.

A sword or a gun might be necessary to ward off thieves on the road or a group intent on harming your family or a mass shooter who comes into your church or school or local mall. The context of the situation will determine when one responds like this. Do you see what I'm driving at? It is biblical wisdom at the end of the day that will dictate the response in each circumstance. And this is admittedly far more difficult to sort out, but it is necessary to do.

True biblical wisdom is required in our day and age, dear listener. It may be easier, right? It may be easier to make one or the other of these texts absolute. That is, either no weapons ever and no self-defense ever or using guns always and all the time to defend oneself no matter what the context. That would be simpler to make these rubber bands stretch over every circumstance.

But no, we must use biblical wisdom always to determine the use of arms in one context and the submission to evil for the sake of the gospel in another context. Wisdom first, second, and always. It is with this understanding that our founding fathers could list the right to bear arms as a God-given right. The Declaration famously tells us we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

And consequently, when it came time to ratify the Constitution, they developed a list of particular rights with which God Himself has endowed us. That is the Bill of Rights, ten of them, though by no means exhaustive of all the rights which God has endowed us. Famously, the second of those God-given rights is the right to bear arms. The founding fathers did not just pick a bunch of things they liked from thin air to be unalienable rights. No, they were students of Scripture and history and of the science of government, as they called it.

They saw that in order to keep tyranny at bay and ensure liberty for the people, that things like the freedom to speak and practice one's religion in accord with his conscience, and to bear arms to fight tyrants and have a speedy trial by a jury of one's peers, and all the other rights guaranteed by the Constitution were of absolute necessity, and time, experience, and biblical text guaranteed them all. The inescapable conclusion of the Founders' logic is that if these rights are given by God and not by man, then no government can take them away, even if they try.

Like the windbag fools in Washington, D.C., that district of criminals, like those windbag fools, they may bluster and threaten and try to pass common-sense gun laws. Oh, my goodness. If you had any common-sense, oh, politician, you wouldn't be trying to pass these stupid gun laws. And even some of them trying to abolish the Second Amendment altogether. But, like the windbag fools in D.C., they cannot frustrate the will of God himself.

When he endows his creatures with unalienable rights. Do you believe this, dear listener? Do you believe this to your toenails? If so, then no man can take away our guns. The will of man will eventually yield to the will of God.

We have a right to resist the tyranny of man when he attempts to take away our God-given rights. And this includes the right to bear arms. The way to solve gun crime is to deal effectively with the criminal, not the instrument he uses to commit his crime. A gun is only a tool. It is not evil in and of itself.

When used by an evil person, it is destructive. But it is the operator that determines the good or evil of the deed performed. Your deep state tyrants know this, but they wish to disarm you. And so they focus on banning the tool as evil in order to distract you from their true intentions. What is required is a wholesome return to a just and moral society under God and the Bible for gun violence to cease.

It is the wicked operator of the instrument, which must be removed from the equation, not the instrument. The operator must be removed either by reforming his character so that he does not misuse the tool, or else he must be removed by execution or incarceration if he does not willingly reform his behavior. Remember the example of Switzerland. A land can be overflowing with guns, and yet there will be no gun violence because the people are just and moral. And that justice and morality is derived from the scriptures and a living relationship with Christ.

John Adams says, our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other, unquote. And that includes the bearing of arms. They must be wielded by a moral and religious people. If the people are wicked and irreligious, then they will bear arms wickedly and without regard to God and his judgment upon them.

That's the situation in America today. We must preach reform and reformation of the inner man through conversion to Jesus Christ in order for us to become moral and religious again. Pray for this, dear listener, because it will be then and only then that you will see gun violence decrease and a sense of civility return to our land. Peace and law and order will return when the hearts of the people are turned back to the living God of the Bible. Pray for this, dear listener.

This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for Holy Worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. I invite you to come and join us for worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. You'll find a welcome, a warm welcome, and an opportunity to worship in spirit and in truth. Join us for worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or feedback and comment at 208-523-0196. That's 208-523-0196.