The Source of the Right to Bear Arms

With the latest news on proposed gun control sanctions, people have made several posts regarding the right to bear arms. The second amendment gives us that right. However, I think most people miss the real reason that Christians should be up in arms about legislation that takes away this right. The discussion takes place in the same manner that the evidential vs presuppositional debate does. Do we fight for a right to bear arms because of evidence, or because of presupposition?

The evidence is clear; gun control does not work. Demonstrating that gun control fails is much different than giving an account for why it fails. Any gun control outside of private property is infringement. This also brings up another good topic, that is recognizing where God given rights sit within the covenant. My neighbor can say he doesn’t want my guns on his property, but he cannot take away my life. Private property is not the trump card that overrules all other cards. Yet, private property, or individual government, does have more say than the civil government. Thus a great argument for a small civil government.

It is a great discussion, probing for the source of our second amendment right. Christians support it, claiming it’s God given, but why do we believe that. Is it the evidence? As I said, the evidence is clear, but how do we give an account of that evidence? We really must examine the purpose of having firearms (a property and stewardship issue) and we examine what gun control is also.

People will give several reason as to why they want to, or believe they should own a firearm.

1) To protect other, my family, and myself from criminals.

2) To protect myself from a tyrannical government.

Owning a firearm levels the playing field against those who possess great strength. Women are able to take down 210 lb men with a firearm. I believe this is one of the many gifts from God, brought about through a Christian work ethic to create and innovate. No longer do we depend on a sword, something that requires much more strength and proficiency than a firearm, instead protecting yourself only requires a finger.

The argument for protecting oneself from government (whether foreign or domestic) is also viable. Out of all individuals combined, civil government sheds the most innocent blood with firearms, yet it is the government’s hand that the liberals trust in. Guns are very powerful weapons, easily carried, and if put into the right hands can fight off a gang of thugs. Yet, the government is well known for using them against innocent people. The role of government is to protect the innocent and punish the wicked. It does this through the power of the sword. In Romans 13 Paul establishes the role of civil government. What he states is a throwback to what the law of God has always said.

“”If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” Deuteronomy 17:2-7

There is the role of government; to punish evil doers. However, what Paul recognized as civil government is completely different than what we imagine. Civil government is simply an entity that performs it’s role. Biblically speaking, the people were the government, since they were told to carry out the covenant sanctions against covenant breakers, and since government is made up of people. Paul says that the government (entity) was the one to carry out justice, yet Deuteronomy says it was the witness (individual) who was to throw the first stone. Civil government is so large in our time that it’s hard for us to even imagine civil government being the local community. Israel, in their wickedness, sought out a totalitarian ruler; a king. They desired to be like the other nations who trusted not in God and His commandments. Gary North, who has written extensively on this topic, states,

Stoning was a communal activity, an aspect of the civil covenant: sanctions. It took place outside the town (Lev. 24:14; Num. 15:35-36; I Ki. 21:13).” – North, Victim’s Rights, pg.273

North explains the significance of communal participation, as it relates to covenant continuity.

“Stoning is usually understood to represent the judgment of God, since the Christ is “the rock” and the “stone” which threatens to fall upon men and destroy them (Matt. 21:44). In line with this, the community of believers is often likened to stones, used for building God’s Spiritual Temple, and so forth. In stoning, each member of the community hurls a rock representing himself and his affirmation of God’s judgment. The principle of stoning, then, affirms that the judgment is God’s; the application of stoning affirms the community’s assent and participation in that judgment.” pg. 142

Douglas Wilson stated (pg.8),

Grace and law are not antithetical in the mind and heart of God. The Bible should not therefore be divided up into “law”portions and“grace”portions. The Word of God is not divided. The human race, however, is divided. That is why the unregenerate heart sees all of Scripture as condemnation, both law and gospel (2 Cor. 2:16). And that is why the obedient, regenerate heart sees Christ in the law, Christ in the gospel, and Christ throughout all Scripture (Rom. 10:4).”

All of God’s law is for good, and it all reflects Him. God is law, and He is grace. The dichotomy created by American Christianity today is the reason abortion clinics are tolerated. The Two-Kingdom Theology worldview is guilty of perpetuating wickedness and discouraging any action in that area of life.

All of this said, to argue that the Bible does not give individuals the right to own firearms, instead only the government can, is a failure to recognize the role of government and the people that it includes. Of course, the account of stoning only specifically describe that men could own rocks, however the principle that government can take away guns from the individual under threat of the sword, is to disarm itself. However, this does not negate a trial that includes two or three witnesses. The Biblical society includes judges (see Exodus 18), yet the judge is not the one that carries out execution.

In the meantime, do Christians submit to gun control laws? I’m not sure really, but proclaiming the standard that control is wrong is the first step. It is not just the skeptic, atheist, and pagan that hate communal participation in capital punishment, rather it is the Christian.

“What we find in our day is that Christians despise biblical law almost as much as secular humanists do. They attack the very thought that the stoning of drunken, gluttonous sons – not young children, but adult sons who are living at home with their parents, debauching themselves – as some sort of “crime against humanity,” when stoning them is specifically a civil sanction required by God (Deut. 21:18-21).30 The very idea of execution by public stoning embarrasses Christians, despite the fact that public stoning is by far the most covenantally valid form of execution, for God’s law requires the witnesses to cast the first stones, and it also requires representatives of the entire covenantal community to. participate directly, rather than hiding the act in a sanitary room in some distant prison. The Bible is clear: “The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you” (Deut. 17:7).” – Gary North, Victim’s Rights, pg. 273

One comment

  • The framers of the Costitution would be doing a palm face if they read your post. Good article, but you started out totally wrong. The second ammendment doesn’t give us a right to bear arms. The Constitution is specific that rights are given by God, and the rest of your article well supports this. If rights were given by the Constitution, the Constitution would be above God.

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