God, Guns, and Biblical Manhood
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, is it necessary for a Christian man
00:00:08.300 | in his divine calling to protect his wife and children
00:00:11.120 | to own and be willing to use a gun?
00:00:14.480 | Yes or no?
00:00:15.740 | - Yes or no?
00:00:16.940 | That would be a short.
00:00:18.040 | (both laughing)
00:00:20.700 | No.
00:00:23.900 | Are we done?
00:00:24.740 | - Oh no, you're not done.
00:00:25.800 | - No, we're not done.
00:00:26.920 | I've got a lot, I've got thoughts about this.
00:00:29.280 | There are at least four reasons
00:00:34.040 | I would discourage people from owning firearms
00:00:39.040 | for the purpose of self-defense.
00:00:42.240 | I'm not talking about hunters here, okay?
00:00:44.120 | Leave that for another issue.
00:00:46.380 | The conclusion I come to here,
00:00:50.840 | I don't put on everyone else.
00:00:52.480 | I'm bearing testimony here, not prescribing, okay?
00:00:57.320 | I'm telling people why I do what I do
00:01:01.080 | and see whether it commends itself to them.
00:01:04.000 | Here are the reasons.
00:01:05.620 | My human heart, or I could say the human heart,
00:01:10.320 | is vengeful and quick to anger.
00:01:13.560 | James 4 tells me this is really bad.
00:01:18.440 | Be slow to anger, quick to listen.
00:01:20.940 | I don't think I'm holy enough to own a gun
00:01:25.560 | and use it in a Christ-honoring way.
00:01:27.560 | I am really quick to think payback,
00:01:32.680 | and that's unbiblical and unchristian,
00:01:35.540 | and I have to subdue it,
00:01:37.080 | and I don't want a gun in my hand
00:01:38.720 | while I'm making that battle.
00:01:40.880 | Number two, the culture around me
00:01:44.720 | with movies and TV shows and humorists and literature
00:01:49.360 | is shot through with the glorification
00:01:53.320 | of cool, hard, tough-talking, tough-acting women and men
00:01:58.320 | who have a kind of unflappable, cocky swagger
00:02:03.080 | that gets the last word and has the last shot.
00:02:06.240 | It is ubiquitous.
00:02:07.480 | This is a ubiquitous hero in our culture
00:02:12.480 | and is anything but childlike,
00:02:14.920 | anything but humbly reliant on the grace of God
00:02:19.560 | and the rescue of a Savior.
00:02:21.200 | That's the air we breathe in the media,
00:02:24.960 | and it's not the Spirit of Christ.
00:02:27.660 | When that is the attitude breaking in on my soul every day,
00:02:34.480 | the last thing I need is a gun in my hand.
00:02:37.760 | That's number two.
00:02:38.720 | Number three, Jesus and the apostles discourage us
00:02:44.540 | from preparing ourselves to return evil for evil.
00:02:49.040 | Instead, they push us toward being wronged
00:02:53.280 | rather than being violent.
00:02:55.160 | Matthew 5:39, "Do not resist the one who is evil,
00:03:00.440 | "but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek,
00:03:02.560 | "turn to him the other also.
00:03:04.000 | "If anyone would sue you and take your tunic,
00:03:06.840 | "let him have your cloak as well.
00:03:08.640 | "If anyone forces you to go one mile,
00:03:10.840 | "go with him two miles."
00:03:12.980 | Matthew 10, "Behold, I send you out as sheep
00:03:15.860 | "in the midst of wolves,
00:03:18.280 | "not packing sheep.
00:03:20.420 | "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves."
00:03:25.420 | Romans 12, "Repay no one evil for evil."
00:03:28.800 | First Thessalonians, "No one evil for evil."
00:03:31.120 | First Peter, "No one evil for evil."
00:03:33.240 | Now, I know, Tony, that these same texts
00:03:38.240 | would be used to say you shouldn't use your fists either,
00:03:45.160 | as just the same as applying them to guns.
00:03:50.160 | So the person would ask me,
00:03:52.960 | "So, are you saying don't do anything
00:03:55.620 | "to protect yourself or your family?"
00:03:58.280 | And my answer is, these texts describe a real way
00:04:03.280 | of loving people and glorifying
00:04:07.160 | the all-satisfying, all-sufficient Christ.
00:04:10.120 | They are one form that love takes,
00:04:14.060 | a very powerful form,
00:04:16.160 | a form that Jesus chose almost all the time,
00:04:19.520 | a form of love that we don't have enough of.
00:04:22.240 | I don't have enough of in my heart,
00:04:24.480 | and we don't have enough of in the world.
00:04:27.120 | Our flesh is all wired and hair-triggered
00:04:30.960 | to go the other direction than these texts.
00:04:34.160 | But these texts are not the only form of love.
00:04:37.400 | Love may protect a child,
00:04:39.280 | may protect a wife with a physical struggle.
00:04:42.320 | Here's what I'm saying.
00:04:44.040 | I'm saying, in quoting those texts,
00:04:46.720 | it's the spirit of those texts
00:04:49.480 | that disinclines me from arming myself
00:04:53.420 | so that I can do the quickest
00:04:55.180 | and most deadly harm in self-defense.
00:04:58.120 | These passages don't sound like an arming spirit.
00:05:02.840 | So that's number three.
00:05:04.040 | And here's the last one, number four.
00:05:06.200 | When Peter pulled his gun on the high priest
00:05:11.300 | in the Garden of Gethsemane,
00:05:13.700 | and shot off the high priest's servant's ear,
00:05:18.700 | and Jesus picked up the ear and put it back on,
00:05:23.260 | what did Jesus say at that point?
00:05:26.380 | 'Cause I think what he says really matters.
00:05:29.180 | He didn't say, "Hey, Peter, we've been through this before.
00:05:33.100 | "I am here to die, and you are missing the whole point.
00:05:36.780 | "Get behind me, Satan."
00:05:37.920 | He didn't say that.
00:05:38.760 | He said that earlier.
00:05:40.960 | What he said was a proverb, a maxim,
00:05:44.740 | that he applies in this situation.
00:05:47.320 | He said, "Put your sword back in its place,
00:05:51.040 | "for all who take the sword will perish by the sword."
00:05:55.620 | That's a little proverb,
00:05:56.800 | and proverbs have a general truth.
00:05:59.880 | They're not absolute, not everybody to the last man,
00:06:03.760 | but it's a general truth.
00:06:06.120 | All who take the sword will perish by the sword.
00:06:08.720 | So what does he mean?
00:06:10.000 | I think he means something like,
00:06:11.440 | "The mindset that plans to save its life by killing
00:06:15.720 | "is not inviting the protection of God,
00:06:19.780 | "but the violence of man."
00:06:22.040 | I think that's what Jesus means when he says,
00:06:24.680 | "All who take the sword will perish by the sword."
00:06:27.080 | The mindset that plans to save its life by killing
00:06:31.120 | is not inviting the protection of God,
00:06:34.080 | but the violence of man.
00:06:35.520 | So, Tony, my response to, for what it's worth,
00:06:39.760 | and this is testimony, not prescription,
00:06:42.520 | has been to live in the inner city of Minneapolis
00:06:44.720 | for 33 years, raise five children there,
00:06:48.800 | surrounded by petty crimes and some gunshots
00:06:51.960 | and a little bit of a break-in,
00:06:54.580 | and never to possess a firearm, nor do I ever intend to.
00:06:59.580 | God has protected us, and I believe he will,
00:07:04.000 | but as I see it now, I would rather be killed
00:07:09.240 | than to kill.
00:07:10.800 | For me, that would mean instant joy,
00:07:14.560 | but if I killed him, it might be instant hell.
00:07:19.560 | I'm ready, and he may not be.
00:07:22.100 | - That is a very sobering perspective on it all.
00:07:25.840 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:07:27.360 | And I can imagine we will be getting some follow-up questions
00:07:29.420 | about nonlethal force, and so if you wanna ask Pastor John
00:07:32.040 | questions about rubber bullets or tasers,
00:07:33.880 | please email those questions or any questions to us
00:07:36.680 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:07:39.240 | We'll be back tomorrow to ask whether or not
00:07:41.040 | there's such thing as free will.
00:07:43.960 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, we'll see you tomorrow.
00:07:46.160 | (upbeat music)
00:07:48.740 | (upbeat music)
00:07:51.320 | [BLANK_AUDIO]